Bua Siam Thai Seafood @ Pasir Panjang Food Centre

One of our colleague, 'owet' was suggesting that we try this Thai Food at Pasir Panjang Food Centre and ask if we are interested. We are always eager on trying new stuff so we said yes! So we all hopped into another colleague's 'picnic' and off we went to Pasir Panjang FC.

When we got there, the shutters on the stall was still down. One colleague happily went to order her CKT (yesterday's post), but another hungry colleague said we are not coming all the way here and not trying the food. So he knock on 3/4 down shutters and ask if their stall will be opening soon.

The guy said sure, and the shutters went up immediately! LOL...



So we looked at the menu in front of this stall and ordered the following:

The Tom Yam Soup. We had two bowls of it. One bowl has more balls and the other more seafood. Hmm.. But we did like the taste. It was flavourful and spicy, but not the overwhelming kind. Just look at the aromatics they have for the soup, all those ingredients will make the soup tasty.



We also had the green curry. The chicken's all part of the wings that is cut into bite size pieces. The curry was quite decent and kinda addictive after a while.



The above were all came with rice.

The next thing we had was the Chicken and Basil Stir Fry with rice. For this dish, the rice came beside it.
It was not too bad. Quite fragrant, and enough basil inside to please me. haha....



We also had a Phad Thai. Somehow we thought it was not as tasty and was lacking something. We wonder if it's because the rest above was too flavourful or it's the style of Phad Thai from whatever region the chef is from. (Ya, we always give them the benefit of doubt! haha)

This might sound wrong to some of you, but we solve it by eating it with the Green Curry. Some curry over it and we have a brand new dish that was nice!



Not too bad a lunch. The total bill was $19. Each dish is around $3-5.
Cooked by a Thai person, so we thought it was quite authentic.


Bua Siam Thai Seafood
Pasir Panjang Food Centre
Stall 36
121 Pasir Panjang Road
Singapore 118543

Heng Huat Fried Kway Teow @ Pasir Panjang Food Centre

This could probably be the 'healthiest' Char Kway Teow you can find. But finding this food centre might be difficult. Construction of the Circle Line has blocked most of the view you have of this food centre from Pasir Panjang Road.

But people who work or live nearby knows where it is ;-)



This was colleague's lunch. She's the healthy kind and she opted for the healthy CKT. Look at the greens they have on top of the CKT.
(I was too late, after I ordered by food and came back to our table, her CKT is already partially eaten haha)




But if you are one of those who dont' eat your greens as a good boy or girl should, then say this passcode to the CKT man. Says you want the 'XO' version. By saying that, he will give you a huge amount of cockles ('hum' in the local dialect) on your delicious CKT.

Oh yes, when they give you extra cockles you got to pay for it lah. ;-p

Heng Huat Fried Kway Teow
Pasir Panjang Food Centre
Stall 36
121 Pasir Panjang Road
Singapore 118543

Putien @ Kitchener Road (Eating Hairy Crabs)

I told you all yesterday that it was our first time trying Hairy Crabs. So how was the experience? It's great! I have never been so pampered eating crabs before!

No, there was no bowl of tea or water with lemons on the table. We don't need that! Our fingers were kept so so clean. Why? Because there was someone doing everything for us, except the eating it of course.

When we were ordering the food, it never cross our minds to try the crabs. We were thinking of other Heng Hwa delicacies to try. But when presented with the idea of ordering and the convincing sales pitch of the lady taking order, we were tempted! So so tempted that we ordered it!

The crabs arrived on our table. Hey Mr Hairy Crab, giving us a pitiful face won't work. *evil laughter*. We paid good money for you and we are eating you up!

Each crabs came in its own bamboo container.



Just like a convict on TV shows, we got to take the front and side profile of the crab. From this angle, you know why they are called Hairy Crabs. They are hairy! It's not spiky by the way, it's soft!



If you had the impression that Hairy Crabs are served cold, it is not. It arrived steaming hot!
Since it's our first time eating crabs, we did not know what to do! But our worries were unfounded.

Shortly after the lady served us the crabs on the bamboo container, she put on plastic gloves and proceeded  to serve us. She began to pry open the shell and served it to us. It was steaming hot and yet the lady's nimble fingers could quickly pry it open and with so little effort!



The top shell with the egg roe below it. This is the reason for eating hairy crabs. The precious golden roe that's full of flavour. We were told to eat it with the specially formulated vinegar that the chef had prepared. The vinegar enhances the taste of the crabs by leaps and bounds! It really does!



After the shell's off, this is the naked crab. All exposed. We could see more roe on it! The lady then snipped off the 8 legs and the pincers.



This is the body. When broken into half, you can see that it's filled with the golden roe that makes people pay money for it!



For a moment, we thought if that was it. Do we eat the crabs for the golden liquid only? We were too shy to ask. Again, we did not have to embarrass ourselves by asking. But while we were devouring the crabs, the lady was preparing the next part of the crabs for us.

She snipped off the pincers and served it to us. They had this special scissors for cutting crabs. They removed part of the shell, so we could just pick up the claws and eat! So easy right?!

The black part is the hair of the crab. It's a lump of hair. It's not dirt or mud. :-)
You know after showering, you hair clump up and stick to your head? Well, it's the same thing for these crabs! haha... That's the hair.



We wonder what was next. The lady then snipped the other parts of the crab legs into parts. Both ends were snipped off nicely, the lady pushed the crab meat partially out of the shell. What we needed to do was just to pick them up and suck it into our mouth. How easy is that?

Eating crabs have never been easier right? The crabs were just steamed and then we eat the meat with vinegar. It's so simple and yet so delicious and sweet.

Ah.... if only there's someone to prepare crabs this way for me next time. LOL...




We asked the lady if everyone gets such treatment. She said when it's not so busy in the restaurant, they do it for their customers. If there's not enough people, they teach customers how to handle it.

We think it must be because there are 3 Heng Hwa ladies that we have such wonderful service today. It can't be because I am keropokman, because no one knows how he looks like. LOL..

Are you tempted to try the crabs now?
Go before 31 Oct if you want to enjoy the 100% rebate. That's why we came here. :-p
I got rebate vouchers to come back for more food.


Putien @Kitchener Road (Flagship)
127 Kitchener Road
Singapore 208514
Tel: (65) 6295 6358
Fax: (65) 6295 6458

Putien @ Kitchener Road

I took half day leave on Tuesday to treat mum and 2 aunts for lunch. There's this promotion at Putien that's giving 100% rebate back in vouchers for dining at their restaurant. (until 31 Oct if you are interested).

We came here because we think it's a really good promotion and also because it's a Heng Hwa restaurant. If you have read this food diary long enough, you would know that mum's Heng Hwa and these are her 'hometown' dishes. Mum's 2nd generation Heng Hwa and not born in PRC, so her memories of Heng Hwa food's through my maternal grandma's cooking. We are here to try the ones cooked by Heng Hwa chefs all 'imported' from Putien.

We were chatting the night before about the food that my maternal grandma cooked for mum last time. There many dishes but some are just too tedious so mum and my aunts don't cook them or have forgotten about it! Maybe one future project is to document grandma's recipe down. (those that mum and my aunts can remember.)

Anyway, here's the food we had at Putien.

One of the Heng Hwa delicacy is braised pig's intestines. If you notice, there's multiple layers unlike the normal ones you see. They literally stuff intestines inside intestines to have multiple layers of it! Think of the work!

I don't eat intestines at all, but since the 3 of them said I got to try it, I did. Hey, intestines are not bad! It doesn't smell awful like the ones you eat at Kuay Chap stall. These are tasty! Now, how can I describe the texture? It's like overnight braised egg (lor neng) that's been cooked twice. It has the firm and yet soft texture. Oh yes, dip it into their chilli sauce and it's yummy!



The Steamed Cold Pork Belly with Garlic. One of my favorite dishes. I just like the garlic taste of the sauce. The pungent and spicy taste will just jump start your taste senses!



While eating, we realize that Mum and both Aunt's vocab of Heng Hwa words fail big time! They can't speak anymore and have to think hard to remember the words to use. Totally utterly rusty!

So in order to help them remember, we asked the lady serving us (who is Heng Hwa by the way) to tell us the name of the dish in Heng Hwa. OK, so they could still understand but not me. You can't fault me, I am not HH. (or half only) LOL.. (But I did catch that she was saying for the next dish: Pig's Hand)

This is the Deep Fried Pig's Trotter with Pepper.  This is yummy! I think pig trotters deep fried always taste good. I like the salty pepper seasoning on top of it. A bite into the crispy skin and the soft meat inside is just delightful.



The Mix Vegetables stir fry. Those things that look like onions are actually lily bulbs.
The bottom white pieces are fresh Huai San (Chinese Burdock) which is really nice. Huai San has this very nice texture to it. Maybe I should find this at the supermarket next time.



Another of my favorite dish is the Heng Hwa Bee Hoon. I remember mum cooking this when we were young. I like the very very fine bee hoon and lots of veggies and ingredients they put inside.



This is the Heng Hwa Lor Mee. Ya, the Lor Mee that's white and not dark in colour. You don't seem to see any 'dark' dishes in Heng Hwa cuisine. I wonder why?

It's very nice and the sweetness of the dish is from the seafood inside. The clams, prawns etc.These are hand made noodles too.



Guess what else we had? Hairy Crabs! It's the season for this delicacy. It was also our first time having Hairy Crabs! I will reserve that post for tomorrow. :-)

After we finished everything, we were presented the menu to choose desserts. We were told there's a promotion and for each order or crabs, we can choose a dessert. Asked what's the most popular desserts, it's Pumpkin paste and ice cream and also their 'Or Nee' (Yam Paste).

The next photo is my experiment with over exposure. haha.. Too bright eh! Never mind, you can see how the Or Ni looks like.



The next dessert is quite unique! Pumpkin with ice cream. It taste nice though.



We have tried the food at the different Putien but it seems that this one at the main branch taste the best.
Heng Hwa folks should eat this especially since they are having the promotion. hehe...


Putien @Kitchener Road (Flagship)
127 Kitchener Road
Singapore 208514
Tel: (65) 6295 6358
Fax: (65) 6295 6458

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Holland Village

This was last Sunday's a little late lunch. It was lunch with our extended family. This place on a Sunday looks like a family gathering place! You can see many family with young kids here as well. They are also spending Sunday afternoon chatting and eating like us!

After we were seated, a lady who was walking around with a bowl of glutinous rice came to our table asking if we want to try what she was holding. We were not really interested, but when she said it's today's special and this is not the usual steamed version of glutinous rice but a fried version and convinced us that it's really good, we succumb to her persuasion. She went back to the kitchen to get a nice hot plate out for us. Hey, it's much more fragrant then the usual stuff and we liked it!



The usual stuff that almost everyone in the restaurant were eating. CJ's Roast pork.
I think I can never refuse roast pork! Crispy skin stuff with salty meat always taste good. :-p




We had 3 kinds of porridge to share. The porridge all look the same! So just two photos that has a bit of difference. :-)

I can never get the name of this porridge. It's sounds like 'peng zai zhou'? It's one of the porridge that has peanuts on it.



The Minced Pork Century Egg Porridge that I like.Warm porridge warms your heart, soul and tummy!



The following are the multiple plates of the following dishes so that each one can take a piece of everything.

This is the Leong Fun. (BBQ Pork version). Lovely.



Tofu skin with fish (or was it prawn) paste crispies.



I like this. Steamed Pork Ribs. I think I like this because of the 'juice'. haha... Ya, I know it's full of calories and stuff, but I just like it!



Phoenix Claws, another dish that most of us in the family like.



The last two photos, the usual must haves for Dim Sum. Hargow and Siew Mai.





Dim Sum or Dian Xin means 'touching the heart'. Always the case when you eat it with your love ones. Don't you think so? :-)


Crystal Jade Kitchen
2 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Singapore 277671

Tel: 6469 0300
Hours: Mon - Thurs: 7am - 3am, Fri - Sun & PH: 7am - 4am

Eng Seng Restaurant @ Joo Chiat

What was that scent? It smells like lemongrass! 3 person walked past us and there was suddenly there A Whiff of Lemongrass scent. Lo and behold! Suddenly the lady whose blog is called "A Whiff of Lemongrass" appears!

This was dinner with Camemberu, Lyrical Lemongraass, Nic & XLB and Momo. We had planned to go somewhere else, but a twist of events, we came to Eng Seng Restaurant to have their famous crabs instead.

We had 6 medium crabs for 6 persons! Woo Hoo!

This is the famous Black Pepper Crabs! All of us loved it. It was really hot and spicy! Imagine sweet black sauce with fine black pepper infused with butter. This black gold coats the crabs all over. If you think KFC is finger licking good, this will make you suck your fingers with ecstasy! ;-p



We had 3 of the crabs cooked Black Pepper Style, the other 3 was cooked Chilli Crab style. If you like your tongue and lips to slowly 'burn' in the heat of chilli, you should try this. Some of us found it very spicy, the ones with numb tongues did not find it spicy. LOL.

But if you ask which is nicer? Go for the Black Pepper Crabs.
Guess what I did? I took the crabs from the Chilli plate and added the 'black gold' over the chilli ones.Tasty!



This is the tender black pepper venison stir fry. Tasty stuff here.



We had the mee goreng. It was so so to me. I was thinking of the Punggol Mee Goreng instead. I think that's nicer. But you might like it. Everyone has different taste remember? ;-p



Eating vegetables for the sake of ordering one vegetable to make the meal look more 'complete'. LOL



It was great food and greater company. It's always enjoyable to meet up with the other food lovers to eat. This time we had the company from KL. Lyrical Lemongrass it was nice meeting you!




Eng Seng Restaurant
247-249 Joo Chiat Place
Singapore 427935
Tel: 6440 5560
Open daily except Wednesdays, 5pm - 9.30pm

Gusttimo di Roma @ ION Orchard

Earlier this evening, Momo and I met up with Camemberu, BlackTieWhiteLie and XLB and A Whiff of Lemongrass from KL to have dinner. Dinner was delicious crabs at Eng Seng. Oo.. the black pepper crabs were delicious indeed!

The story another, but after the crabs, we wanted something cold like Ice Cream!

So we headed to ION Orchard to have ice cream! A few of us had wanted to try Gusttimo and in the GUST of a MOment, we were there!

Oh, don't you think the pink beret on the lady at the counter looks so cute! ;-p



Ice cream on the cup with 3 flavours. (oh, you have to choose 3 flavours minimum by the way).
This is A Whiff of Lemongrass' ice cream. Err, I can't remember what flavours she had, I only remembered one of her flavours which was yogurty. It wakes people up with the sourness!



Momo and I shared the 4 flavours version. If it's ice cream, I love it.
The four flavours we had were Rice (yes, rice / nasi / mi fan), Almond, Dark Chocolate and Melone (melon).

I think they were all quite nice. I particularly like the rice and melon.



It was nice to meet up and eat with the rest of them again.
Hope our KL friend visits again soon!
We miss a few other food bloggers who was too busy to make it. Hope to see them next time!

Gusttimo di Roma
ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Level 1, #01-17
Singapore 238801

Tel: 6509 9380

Li Xiang Curry @ Dover Food Centre

This could be one of the most unpretentious stall around at Dover Food Centre. We know this place will soon be gone. The SERS thingy is almost done, so we know very soon, they will all move to a new place.  That might be the reason why no stalls here looks pretty at all.

But somehow old school people like my colleagues and I like their curry. We like their variety of curries. Each curry taste different and it sure is tasty! We don't have stomachs of steel, and we know our stomach can't take it, yet the brains dictate what we went to eat, not the stomach.

This is our lunch today.



Two other colleagues shared with me curries from this stall. This is the curry vegetables. We had one colleague who does not eat vegetables and he did not touch this at all. Why do some people hate vegetables so much?

Curry vegetable is the 'healthiest' of all the curries we are having. It's lighter and the gravy is not so thick. I like cabbage!



As you can see from the first photo, the curries here are not expensive, so for $3 you don't expect a full bowl of meat. So to show you the meat, I have to use my spoon to help me today. This is the chicken curry.

If you notice at their stall, their chicken is cooked with curry and then taken out from the curry so stop it from cooking further before it turns mushy. It's only when you order it they put the chicken back in the curry.



The pork curry. I am a very porky person, so I like this curry. I dont remember the pork curry having huge bones like this. It used to be cubes. But Mr or Ms Piggy's flesh comes out from the bones easily, so it was easy to eat it anyway. You can imagine it right from looking at the photo.



The 4th curry we had. The mutton curry. The mutton curry has the thickest or creamiest curry. It's my favourite curry today. The mutton was tender and had no hints of gamey smell at all. I know some people like the smell of it, but not me. (my brother is one who likes the smell! haha)



The plate of rice that goes with the 4 curries above. Every grain of rice was drenched in curry. Not a single grain was wasted. Ah... I mixed all 4 curries in. What an explosion of taste!



Think it's $13.50 for the 4 curries above with 3 plates of rice. Quite ok right?
After lunch, our tummies were really really warm! Such a nice feeling. ;-)

Li Xiang Curry Fish
Dover Market and Food Centre
Stall 01-89
33 Dover Road
Singapore 130033

Noodles Stall @ Science Canteen

It has been a really busy busy month. Our lunch time has been really boring. We have been eating the same old thing. Noodles or mix rice. If you noticed, the nicer places I posts are mostly dinner and eaten during the weekend or when we are away on course. :-)

Today's post entry is what people who are in a rush eat. Go to the canteen and grab some canteen food. We got to go early too, to avoid the queues and also to ensure we have seats.


Colleagues and I ate this at the NUS Science Canteen noodle stall today. It's one stall that you can go to satisfy your meat cravings very very cheaply! Order a large pork rib noodle, and you get around 5 or sometimes 6 (depending if you smile or not haha) of pork ribs.

This plate is colleague's lunch. He had the springy yellow noodle with pork ribs and extra vegetables. His version is usually 'no chilli', 'no tomato sauce', only soy sauce version.  He will then mix it with the fresh chop garlic. Give it a good stir with the hot noodles and the whole plate of $2.40 noodles transform into something really heavenly.



I had something similar. I had meat cravings so I ordered what I call the 'chicken pox' version. I had pork ribs and had extra braised chicken wing to go with it. It was a hot day and I did not want more heat, so I opted for no chilli. I only wanted soy sauce and tomato sauce. (I think tomato sauce makes it a little tangy which I think is nice! It's not only the two sauces, they mix it with a few other mix of sauces.)

I added some garlic too and lots of pickled green chillis. Give it a good stir before eating and oh.. you get steaming hot noodles that's really fragrant you literally salivate before eating it! The pork ribs are nice, but not the nicest you can get, but we like the quantity of it. The chicken wings are 'sliding off the bones' kind. It's only $2.80. The extra chicken wings that cost 80 cents.:-)




There you go, a quick simple and cheap lunch but very satisfying.
Oh, if you are coming, go there early, during peak hours, you can see a snaking long queue of students and staff from university and the hospital queuing!


Noodles Stall
NUS Science Canteen.

Golden Spoon @ 62 Seng Poh Lane

I better post this up before October is over! Time passes so quickly when you are so busy right? Work load at my day job has been mad this month!

Momo and I joined the Makansutra Forumers for dinner earlier this month. October's restaurant pick was Golden Spoon at Tiong Bahru. We are so glad we could make it this month. It's not about food at the Makansutra Forumers Monthly makan, but about meeting other foodie folks and chatting and learning new things from each other. We were glad that we were seated with Camemberu, someone whom we are familiar with.

This month we were seated with wine connoisseurs. For the previous makan sessions we noticed that the bottles of wine had aluminum foils covering it. The naive us thought it was to keep the wine cool. We found out that yes, it does keep the wine cool, but the real purpose is for the wine guessing game they have! They pour wine on each other's glasses and they start guessing. They start by guessing if it's Old World or New World. Next whether it's a blend or it's straight. They can even guess the vineyard and the year!

The three of us, Camemberu, Momo and I are not drinkers, but it was really fun and educational! For each dish that came out, they paired them with the wines! Somehow, they people who brought the different wines knew when to bring out their wines when they see the dish that was served.

(Hmmm I am thinking what if I was a sommelier. haha)




The dishes looks very wedding dinner like. But you get to taste great food without needing to give a $100 ang pow! Everyone pays $40 nett for the food. (The organisers do it for fun and don't make a profit out of this. So we really respect them!)

The first dish. The Cold Platter with 5 varieties. They are delicious. The Pig Trotter Aspic was something you don't usually get.



Next was the Sharksfin Soup with Scallop & Crab Meat. Sorry shark lovers, we wont purposely order sharksfin, but when it's served, we eat them.

The chef might be a little heavy handed on the salt. It was salty. (or maybe we have sensitive tongues).





Then came the Eight Treasures Vegetarian Dish. Treasures are outside and also hidden inside the beancurd skin. I like it. I think it's because the veggies I like are served here. ;-)



The next dish served was the Steamed Live Patin Fish. I saw the Chye Por and there was a smile on my face. Anything with Chye Por equates to delicious food to me! haha. The Patin fish we heard was kept alive in clear water to clear them of muddy taste normally tasted in fresh water fish. No wonder if was nice.



Roast Chicken Cantonese Style was next. It looks so so simple. Plain old roast chicken, but when it's not overcooked and done just nice, it's still juicy. With the sauce they poured over the chicken, it was so good. I think it was red fermented beancurd sauce which I think was mixed with some hoisin sauce. Nice!



Braised Pork Ribs Traditional Style. No need to say much. Tender, fragrant and delicious. It was gone in a blink of the eye! 



Panfried Black Pepper Beef.
The beef was so tender. Quick high heat searing with nicely marinated tender beef. I am sure you will like it too. The red stuff you see are not capsicum but cut large chillies without the seeds. (I like that! haha)



Glutinous Rice with Ham in Lotus Leaf.
The carbo dish. You know some dishes are really fragrant, looks pretty but when you eat it, your expectations are not met. They could have run out of sodium after using so much of it for the above dishes?


(But when you eat it with the Ham it was ok lah...)




The last and final dish was the Double-boiled Hashima with Pear & Red Dates. Expensive stuff here! It was a nice sweet ending to the night.




If you would like to join the rest of us for our monthly dinners, hop on to the Makansutra Forums and register for dinner. November's menu is out and you can check your diary to see if you can make it.


Golden Spoon
62 Seng Poh Lane
Singapore 160062
Tel: 6536-2218
Hours: Daily 11.30am - 2.30pm; 6.30pm - 11pm