Scotts Beef Noodles @ ION Orchard

It's the Great Singapore Sale time. When you are shopping for bargains, you just want to grab a quick lunch and continue shopping. ;-P

The food courts at the various malls is the best choice.
I was at Food Opera at ION Orchard and wanted to get the Scotts Beef Noodles. There was a queue at the stall. Because I had to queue and wait, I saw other things in the menu.

I got tempted by the the Pan Fried Beef Noodles (Hor Fun).
I ordered it and think it's actually not bad at all.

It is a tad oily, but all fried hor fun's oily anyway.
The beef was stir fried quickly so it was tender.




I remember some reader saying that if you want the calamansi, ask for it. It's a little hidden.
A little squeeze of the calamansi juice on the Beef Hor Fun tasted nice!

You get the usual beef soup too.





Enjoy the GSS. Buying things at discounted prices always feel good eh?

Momo's really happy about the Nespresso machine she got. (Suddenly she has so many additional BFF LOL!)

Most people buy the Nespresso machines in UK because it's the cheapest. There are also those who buy via the HardwareZone Community. But the deal last weekend at Takashimaya was not bad, comparable to bringing it in from overseas but without all the hassle.

The Citiz Red Standalone Momo got had $50 off. During the 5 day sale, Takashimaya card members got an additional 10% off the price at the till. In addition to that, you get another 6% rebate in vouchers for Platinum card holders. So in total it's around $130 off. You could see so many people buying it! If you missed it, wait for the next sale ;-)




Scotts Beef Noodles
Food Opera (Basement 4 Food Court)
ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Singapore 238801

Pretty Fruit Tarts. Looks Pretty Only. Tasting it you feel cheated

A busy week, so here's a short filler.

These two slices of fruit tarts looks really good doesn't it?
It's not cheap too! Each slices costs around $8.

But when you eat it, it does not taste good at all.
The fruits does not taste fresh or sweet, only the glace is sweet.




It's not only me, the 5 of us at the table all took a little and 'bleh' it.

I remember this same shop has good cakes. They used to have long queues too!
I wonder what happened?




Not putting up the name here hoping they will improve.

Come to think of it,  I think I probably would not go back there again.

Awfully Chocolate @ VivoCity (again!)

It's another post on Awfully Chocolate. :-p

After buying our chocolate cake and chocolate truffles, we walked out of the shop. We ate the truffles immediately and after tasting their chocolate, we thought we just had to try their 'hei' premium dark chocolate ice cream before we leave the mall!

So we walked in and bought their a single scoop of their 'hei' ice cream. $3.80.
It comes in an American Style Chinese Takeaway box!




It's nice. It's really nice! Try it and you will know!
(I might be bias because I am a sucker of all things chocolate and ice cream haha)




If you want to take a look at the cake we had, here it is. Slightly dark/romantic at the Italian Restaurant we were in. :-)


The Chocolate Banana cake ($28.20) that we bought and brought to the restaurant for dinner.
The two ladies shared a birthday cake. They only had 2 candles because they say the are forever 20! (ya right... you can easily double it. LOL)




Do you feel like licking the cake?
The cake is rich, yet does not very heavy when you eat it.
It's sweet enough but not overpowering.




The cake has two layers of fresh mash bananas in between.

I realise not everyone goes banana over bananas. If you don't like bananas try their chocolate only cake. Their banana is the slightly 'overripe' kind.

(I am one weirdo who likes to eat slightly unripe bananas! But the cake is still very good and I still ate 2 slices of it. )




Awfully Chocolate
1 HarbourFront Walk
01-156 VivoCity
Singapore 098585

Tel: 6410 9725

Awfully Chocolate @ VivoCity

We were at VivoCity because Aunt wanted to get a birthday cake for her sister and herself. (both sister's birthday are close to each other). She said she has been ruminating of Awfully Chocolate cake for the last few days! Boy that must be awfully torturous!

When we got there, I thought I was in the wrong shop! The Awfully Chocolate outlets that I have been to are totally bare. It was always only 1 person attending the shop and they have nothing on display. Just a blank white shop!  You tell them what cake you want and they will get the cake for you from their storage area. You pay then leave.




So I got a little surprised because this outlet at VivoCity had a seating area! (it's just a really small sitting place with only I think  just 2 tables).

They were also selling other mouthwatering treats for chocolate lovers!

Our cousin saw the Dark Chocolate Truffles and asked her mum if she could have some. The mum was in a really happy mood, so she obliged her daughter.




Our cousin proudly displaying her truffles.
Oh, the sticker on top says: "born in Singapore, made by hand".  How cute!




The hand cut truffles were sold by weight. It's SGD13 per 100g.

Here's a peep into the bag for you!




After looking at it, we ate it immediately!

But our cousin thought of jie jie at home. She said, leave two of them for jie jie!
So I brought it back for sis who was happy to see chocolates!

This was the same dark chocolate truffle, photographed at home with nice lighting.
The cocoa powder is a little bitter when you put it in your mouth. (Which is the nice part!)
After that, let it slowly deliquesce on your warm tongue. Aaahh.....

 


Awfully Chocolate
1 HarbourFront Walk
01-156 VivoCity
Singapore 098585

Tel: 6410 9725

DuluKala The Peranakan Home @ Beauty World Centre

Dulukala.... We have been eating here since the longest time. It was a pop and mom shop which was totally no frills and slow moving. We used to remember coming here with the elder couple doing everything. The aunty and uncle will take orders, then move to the kitchen to whip up your order. You can hear the clanging on their wok. The food was always good!

This recent visit here, it seems to have kept up with the times.  We think their kids or grandkids have taken over the operation. Oh why? You might ask. There is a new menu! A nice little book with peranakan motifs on it. Guess what is on the first page? They printed their Vision and Mission Statements! Someone taking over must have attended some business management course and spruce everything up!

We notice, their super old air-con has been replaced too! Look a new sign board too!

Oh, we spotted the elderly aunty on the night we ate here. Looks like she has surrendered her kitchen to the new kitchen hands.





This was the Assam Fish Head we had. (market prices, between $22 - $24)
If you like assam based sauces like our family does, you will like this dish. Pouring the assam sauce over your rice, it's utterly wicked! It has the right amount of sourness from the assam that really perks you up!





This was another of our favourite. If you don't eat ladies fingers because you hate the sliminess, then you should try their version here. No viscous liquid that oozes out of your veg! The ones here were "Wok Hei flavoured" too!





The Peranakan Meatball soup. The Bakwan Kepeting. $7. (Comes in a little claypot with 4 meatballs).
The meatball was good! Lots of ingredients have gone into making the balls! Whenever we have the soup here, the soup base reminds me of a particular brand of instant noodles! I want to find back that instant noodles that has this taste!




The Babi Pongteh. $6.50
If you are like my sister who has in recent months swore off fat meats, you will notice, they serve pieces of lean meat in their Babi Pongteh along with the triple layer fat version ;-)


My only complain is the portion is a bit small, and the version we had that night had a more porky smell. Other than that, we find it was lovely.





We are fans of chincalok and we love eggs. Here's the Omelette with Chincalok! $5




For desserts, we had the following to share amongst the 5 of us.

Two of them were free because we saw this huge banner outside that says free dessert with every $20 spent using DBS cards. We asked them how it works, and we were told you get a free dessert for every $20 spent. But we can only choose Bubur Chacha or Pulut Hitam from the menu as the free dessert. (why??)


The Pulut Hitam was quite nice. The warm mucilaginous texture with santan brings a smile to my sister's face.





I had to 'push' the ingredients a bit to the side to take a photo. The Bubur Chacha was nice and colourful! The yam, sweet potato etc was all soft and nice.
(But we think their supplier have been giving them discounts for sugar? hehe)





I realize something. We might find something really sweet (like the Bubur Chacha above). But something that is equally sweet, we find it enjoyable! OK, I admit I am bias to Gula Melaka!

I find the Chendol with lots of gula melaka acceptable! In fact, I love it!




Dulukala The Peranakan Home
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#04-04 Beauty World Centre
Singapore 588177

Tel: 6465 2036
Hours: 11.30am-3pm, 6-9pm

Overflowing...

Arrghh...

Work in the office is overflowing.....




If only it was cool vanilla cream over warm chocolate brownie like this photo!

Joo Mak Korean Restaurant @ Beauty World Centre

Note (May 2012):
We recently bought Groupons and when you tell them you are using them, they display an attitude. Come on, we pre-paid the money to you!

Not sure if they have been overwhelmed by Groupon deals, but the food's not the same. We ordered a seafood pancake and there was no seafood in it. They later waived off the charges for that dish which they took away anyway, and we ate only a bit of it.

Also the day we went, they said they had no supply of chicken for the fried chicken. I wonder if it's only for that day. We were not very happy customers.
______________

Momo, sis and I were craving KFC, the Korean variety i.e., "Korean Fried Chicken".
So we decided we will go to our latest discovery of divine, mouth-watering Korean Fried Chicken.

When we got there, we realized the shop had a name change! It's now called Joo Mak Korean Restaurant. It was previously called Korean Restaurant Cliff if you look at this previous post.

We have no idea why they changed the name, but the folks managing the shop are still the same folks.





We had only fried chicken in our minds and not really interested in anything else.
But we know the chicken's going to take a very long time to be ready, so we ordered a soup and a bowl of rice to ease the hunger first.


Here's the banchan. (Korean side dishes).
In this restaurants, they use trolley to push out their food! They pushed out the trolley and unloaded these 11 small little side dishes on our table.

They were generally quite ok, except the kimchi served that night seemed a bit over fermented. Wonder if it's their specialty or  are we picky. ;-p





The soy bean soup that we had. It's like a spicy vegetarian soup.

There were like 4 or 5 kinds of root vegetables inside. It's also probably an acquired taste.
I thought it tasted a bit 'off' for my first mouth. As you drink the second mouth, it actually tasted rather nice and gets better.





After waiting for around 20 minutes, our chicken finally arrived!
We had the 'half-half mix' this time. The 'original recipe' and the 'spicy sauce' version.

The spicy version tasted very much of korean chilli powder mixed with some sweet chilli / tomato based kind of sauce.





When it's freshly fried and served, the original version tasted better.
We only managed to eat slightly more than half and packed the rest home.

Guess what? I stored them in a vacuum container (I have this set of container that you can a special tool to suck out all the air inside) and after 2 days, we heated the chicken and ate it for supper. The spicy chicken tasted so different! It was so so so delicious compared to the original version. The spicy sauce has totally been absorbed into the chicken!




We paid $40 for the above. Sorry I can't remember the breakdown.


I took their business card and realized they do delivery! But there was an asterisk beside the phone number that says, please order 2 hours before hand!!


Korean Restaurant Joo Mak
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#04-01 Beauty World Centre
Singapore 588177

Tel: 6466 7871 / 8229 4055
Hours: 11:30 AM - 3:00 PM / 5:00 PM - 2:00 AM

For delivery, remember to order 2 hours before. They deliver to West of Singapore. (Holland, Bukit Timah, Clementi, Dover, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong as printed on their card)
Delivery charge: Orders below $60, there's a $4 delivery charge. Above $60, free delivery.

Din Tai Fung at 313@Somerset

This post was an invited session by Din Tai Fung Singapore through Sixth Sense Communications & PR Consultancy for Food Bloggers.



After the hands-on session making the Xiao Long Bao, we were treated to a big lunch. A few of us did not expect a lunch and had planned to go for lunch elsewhere before we arrived.
Lunch was a sumptuous treat though! It was an 8 course lunch!





For the appetizers, we were served the 'Vegetarian Delight in Special Vinegar Dressing'. $2.80
This has always been many people's favourite. (and especially mine!)
It's the kind of dish that you can eat non stop because the taste is so enticing!





The next appetizer is a new addition to their menu. 'Fragrant Pork with Crushed Garlic'. $6.80
If you like 'white pork' or poached pork and you love garlic, this will definitely but a smile on your face and if your tummy can smile, it will too!

Thin layers of pork belly wrapped around a slices of crunchy cucumber. The tangy and a little tongue biting garlic based sauce goes so well with it. (I love garlic!)





The star of the day!
The Steamed Pork Dumpling / Xiao Long Bao ($10.80 for 10 pcs / $6.50 for 6 pcs).
After a hands-on session, you really appreciate the effort that goes into making these little treasures!





How do you eat XLB? For me, I bite off the 'head' first. (sadist streak in me?)

I always remember "Off with their heads" the phrase that the Queen of Hearts shouts in Alice in Wonderland, when I bite off the 'head' of the Xiao Long Bao.

You can suck off the delicious broth inside the XLB. ;-)





The next dish is something we usually order at DTF. The "Fried Rice with Shrimps and Eggs". $10

Hmm... I wonder why that serving here tasted better here than other branches. The 3 of us on the table wondered if it's because they got their best chefs to work in this new branch? Or we are special people and they 'specially' prepared it with extra 'love' for us. ;-)





This was the "Stir-Fried Nai Bai with Garlic". $12
For those who like very light tasting vegetables.





This was the "Steamed Chilli Crab and Pork Bun". $3.80 for 3 pieces.
It reminded me of the Chilli Crab Xiao Long Bao they had for a limited time last year which I had. This time they are putting it in a bun and not in the XLB.




If you are bored of Char Siu Bao, Dou Sar Bao, try the Chilli Crab and Pork Bao!
It is probably the easiest way to have Chilli Crabs! A fusion of fresh crab meat with pork.
You always ask for buns when you eat chilli crabs right? A superb combination!

This dainty little thing tasted quite exquisite!





For desserts, we were served 2 of different kinds of desserts. A steamed dessert and a cold dessert.

This was the "Fragrant Peanut Dumplings". $6.80

When it was served, we could smell the fragrance of coconut lingering in the air. How shall I describe it? It's like chopped peanut and sesame paste in a mochi that's coated with dessicated coconut and steamed. Absolutely alluring!





The next dessert is their adaptation of a local peranakan dessert.
"Sago served with Ice and Sweet Coconut Sauce". $3.50





Chewy sago drizzled with luscious coconut cream and gula melaka.
You can see they are generous with the coconut cream and palm sugar.
Instant gratification!




A big thanks to the folks at Sixth Sense Communications for organizing this event.

I was given two $10 vouchers that was given to the food bloggers as a token of appreciation.
I liked what I ate, and I would like 2 readers to try the food here too!

Here's what you can do to get the vouchers.
Name any 3 branches of Din Tai Fung in Singapore.
They have a few branches here in Singapore. All you need is name 3.

Momo will randomly pick 2 lucky diners on 20 May.
If you have gotten vouchers here before, let others have a chance. ;-)


Update: 
Momo has randomly picked two winners.
Congratulations Picture Perfect Memories & Indra, you got yourself a $10 DTF voucher each.
Can you drop me an email at keropokman@gmail.com so that I can 'snail mail' the vouchers to you?


Din Tai Fung - 313@Somerset
313 Orchard Road 
#B2-01
Singapore 238895

Tel: 6509 6696

Hours: Weekdays - 11AM  - 10PM  / Weekends and Public Holidays - 10AM - 10 PM

The Making of the Din Tai Fung Xiao Long Bao

This post was an invited session by Din Tai Fung Singapore through Sixth Sense Communications & PR Consultancy for Food Bloggers.


When I got an email a few weeks ago from Sixth Sense asking if I would like to attend a Din Tai Fung culinary workshop on the art of making their famous Steamed Pork Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao), I wondered if I should go.

Guess what? For the next few days, I was thinking of XLB all the time! Images of XLB appear all the time! It was torturous! I remembered that their branch in Hong Kong has recently been award 1 Michelin Star. So to stop torturing myself, I thought I should just go! I was glad I did!

The workshop was held at the new Din Tai Fung branch at 313@Somerset.

The demonstration was by their master chef. He hails from Taiwan and he's the No. 1 expert here.





If you are wondering what goes into dough for the XLB skin, it's just flour and water. But the flour they used are all flown in from Taiwan!





I noticed that the chef is extremely gentle with the dough! You can see he is exerting pressure on the dough, but when you look at him, he treats the dough so gently. I wonder if that's the secret into making delicious XLB! As they say, you can present the same ingredients to different people and yet they can't produce the same results.

It was actually enjoyable watching him knead the dough. The kneaded dough has to be given time to rest.





Just like in cooking shows, to save time, in a blink of the eye, a new piece of dough appears!
You can see how smooth and shiny the rested dough looks!





The Chef then portioned the dough into 3 pieces.




Each piece is then rolled into a long and thin rods.





He then further portions them into little 5 grams sizes.
He can pinch each piece and they all almost weight the same!





Each piece of 5 gram dough is then rolled using a rolling pin into 6.5 cm in diameter skin.





This was how the skin looks ready to be made into XLBs.
The skin in the middle was thicker than the sides. The sides were thinner so you can fold the 18 pleats.





Is this some kungfu move? Kind of. You need real kungfu to hold your fingers at this position all the time!
It's the finger position for holding and folding the XLB.





With the position, you hold skin and put in the filling and at the same time have support for the XLB.

You might ask why is the filling red bean paste? It is because the demo is for food bloggers. They know we can't handle the real stuff! (They are right!) To be able to handle the real thing, we need 2.5 years of hard training!





Watch the following short video I took on:
1. How the chef rolls the XLB skin.
2. How the chef fold the 18 pleats XLB.






If you missed it in the video, this is how it looks. How neat!




While the chef was doing the demonstration, the group of food blogger were busy snapping and videoing away!

I can't help not showing this.





This was the XLB with the real meat that has been steamed.





For XLBs that has been made properly, you can lift it up with your chopsticks without breaking the skin although the skin's so thin.





Oh, looking at this photo makes me want to have some now.
See how well the skin holds the meat and the soup inside the XLB.




After the chef showed us how to do it, it was our turn.
All I can say that it was NOT EASY! Even after 10 tries, my XLB still looked absolutely ugly.

Have you seen the chefs at the see-thru kitchen at work? They can do it so well because they have all gone though 2.5 years of training!


After our hands-on session, the folks at Din Tai Fung gave us a surprise by serving us lunch!
Check out the next post to see what we ate.