The Orange Thimble @ Tiong Bahru

We have been to the Orange Thimble a few times and we like this place. I just realised we only go there on Saturdays because it's not really near where we live. It's also not that difficult to get a place, just wait a while and people will leave after their coffee or food. [So in return, when you see people come and you have finished your food, leave..... ;-) ]

It's a little artsy place, where you see pieces of art that's used as deco, but it has a price tag on it, so you can buy it if you want. It's an art gallery and cafe in one. It looks more like a cafe to me. Not sure if there's an art gallery upstairs.

When you get in here, it's casual, look for your own place to sit. There's a 'backyard' behind where it is not air-conditioned, and a few 'corners' that you can 'hide' away for a while. We seem to always sit on the long table in front where there is 'air-con' and it's near the food.


Their tea range is from Naturalis range. After a while, you know the various brands that most people source from.  Plus a cute lil sugar biscuit on the sides.


KopiKosongGirl is a coffee person, she says it's ordinary, she likes the atmosphere here. The crowd that comes is the quiet kind. You do not need to speak loudly.


(The nicer coffee KKG says is a few street away, but that place is more noisy)

In our previous visits, we had their big breakfast. It's probably one of the cheaper one around, but we think it's so so especially the sausages. We think because of the price, it's a good deal though.


This more recent visit, we saw the quiche and it tempted us. This was the spinach and tomato quiche. It was quite packed with spinach and somehow it was just tasty.


This was the Raspberry Pie. It was freshly baked so we thought we would try it upon the recommendation from the service staff. We would expect it to be a little sour, a little tart and yet sweet, but it was really really sweet! We find it a bit too sweet for our tastebuds, but for those who like sweet stuff, it's probably your kind of fruit pie.


The Shepherd's Pie. It will take some time to prepare, but it will be worth the wait.

We liked this. The mince below was not too wet, not heavily salted, it had enough spices added that took away the gamey smell of meat. The potato on top was the smooth type. Worth the calories.


This was simply awesome. It seems this has become our personal favourite, we will have it whenever we visit this place. It's the Hazelnut Dacquoise (Rich Valrhona Chocolate & Hazelnut Meringue). It's like having a huge slab or frozen cold nutella with nice rich chocolate added to it. It's very sweet, but because it has chocolate and hazelnut, we like this kind of sweetness. We came once with a friend's little kid and the little girl liked it!

It's a cosy and laid back place. The few times we were there, fellow diners are the more toned down crowd, enjoying their time reading books or swiping their fingers on their gadgets. Despite the so so coffee, KKG says we will be back again for another quiet weekend.

The Orange Thimble 56 Eng Hoon Street #01-68 Singapore 160056 Tel: 6223 8068 Hours: Sun, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 9am - 9.30pm / Fri, Sat: 9am- 11pm / Mon: Closed

Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun - Part II - Lao Beijing

Here is Part II of the Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun.

The bus brought us rather quickly to Tiong Bahru Plaza. We went to the Lao Beijing branch located at Tiong Bahru Plaza.

Part II - Lao Beijing

The first thing we saw when we sat down was the menu!

There were so many dishes! We just had a 6 course lunch and here's another 7 courses on the menu.
That's not counting another surprise dish that might also be served here!




Here's Chef Ma Wei Qi from Lao Beijing. He's renowned for his execution of Northern Chinese dishes! Some of you who have "certain credit cards" might have attended his master class too :-)




Here's the crowd again. We were all seated according to the table number on the sticker tag that we had to wear. Some people had to shift around because of the table number on the tags. It's a good place to meet other people interested in food! The people on my table changed. That means I got to make new friends again!

Double boiled Chicken Soup

The soup was very flavourful and tasty. I found it a bit too generous with salt. :-)



They say chicken soup soothes the soul. It might be true after all. After having it, I felt better after the rush from one place to another. Just that I still find it a bit salty.  :-)

Steamed Fish Head with Pickled Chilli

This dish might look really really spicy, but looks can be deceiving. As it's pickled chilli, it's not that spicy. It was a really fragrant dish. The pickled chilli mixture plus other fragrant oil (probably onion and bit of sesame) that they pour over it makes it smells really good. Fresh fish was coated with the pickled chilli paste and steamed. It sounds so simple right?

I am a fish eater, so I was happily eating it. After everyone took a small piece of it, I realised most people on the table did not take the second serving. Oh... they don't like fish with bones! I like picking fish from the bones, so I ate more of it.

Beijing-style Fried Shredded Pork and Leek with Chef's special sauce

This we were told is a very Beijing dish. They use tofu skin to wrap the stir fried shredded pork and leek. It's different from the usual wraps made from flour or wheat. It has a very nice mouth-feel to it.



I like this dish because of the sauce that was used to cook the pork strips. It was so tender that I initially thought it tasted like beef. Probably also because of the colour :-)



Our table got a bit lazy so someone asked the service staff if they could wrap for us. They did and below is what they did! It was quite a pleasure eating this, especially when we did not have to do anything but move our jaws.

Games time!

Another round of competition! We were such a naughty crowd. The whole time at Lao Beijing, Xiao Peng was teasing the boy in the middle. Those who went knows the reason, but it's for people there only. Not nice to disclose it here :-)

I wonder if it's because he is wearing a shirt that's the same colour as Wanbao's logo?

Country-style Braised Dried Beancurd in Claypot

A very country dish. Dried beancurd that's I think has been pan fried and then braised with lots of leek and chilli. It's for tofu lovers. It's been some time since I had dried beancurd. We have been eating soft tofu too much! Eating this version of tofu is a nice change.

My partner in crime for the food tour.

Together with me was Aussie Pete another blogger that attended the Food Trail. He was being interviewed by the co-host Xiao Peng. He also had to make popiah! I am so glad I did not have to do anything. ;-)

Birthday surprise!

Surprise surprise! There was participants who came because it was their birthday!



These 3 guys celebrated their birthdays. It was the actual birthday day for the boy in the Lianhe Wanbao colour. :-)

Chinese Opera!

Chef Ma was in a very joyous mood last Saturday!
He decided to sing some opera for us too! I hope the omy folks recorded it! If they did you can probably watch it at the omy.sg site :-)

Fried Assorted Mushrooms with Spinach

This dish has been created for mushroom lovers. Oh... how I love the mushrooms!
The greens was a bit bitter, but the mushrooms was absolutely gorgeous!

How many kinds of mushrooms can you spot?

Demo time!

Demo time and the surprise dish!  Popiah making time! Chef Ma demonstrated how to make popiah!

DIY Popiah Session

We got to do it ourselves too on our table. The condiments for popiah.



The soft skin for us to roll our popiah.



The most important ingredients for popiah, and everyone though this was really well executed here. It was the right consistency and we ate it on its own too when the skins ran out!


Ah Lun after the demonstration told us more about Singapore style popiah. He said that there are very few people in Singapore who knows how to wrap popiah properly. He has done his research and gone around all these years finding out.

I did not know the proper way to fold popiah, do you? Well, here's how to do it.



The sweet sauce is not to be spread in the middle of the skin. (That's a sign that the person who makes that popiah don't know about popiah!) The proper traditional way is to put it on top. The purpose of the sauce other than giving the popiah a slightly sweet taste is to act as 'glue'. So you spread it on the top.

The vegetable are usually dry, and you use it as a base to fill up other things.




You can either put the condiments first below or put the condiments on top. I chose to put it below because it is easier for me. :-)



Next I top up with the braised radish and tofu mix. You got to give the radish and tofu mixture a slight squeeze to get rid of the excess liquid. You don't want a soggy limp popiah.

We were told the traditional way is to boil pork bones and cook the radish etc in it. Nowadays many hawkers 'cheat' by using ikan bilis stock or worst still use ikan bilis cubes! If you have eaten the real stuff, you can taste the difference.




You then roll it up! Look, my first try and it comes out kind of nice right?



I took a bit and see how nice it looks inside?

We were told traditionally, a spoonful or so of the excess sauce will be poured into the popiah as you eat it. It's for those who loves it wet. Ah Lun really knows a lot about food. There were lots of stories that he told us. Attend his food trails if you want to know more! :-)

I stare, you stare!

Another game, this time a staring game. Two strangers were picked to stare at each other. The person who burst out laughing first loses. These two can really stare without laughing. The man's wife seated down was laughing non stop though!

They were so good that both were declared winners after even an extension of time! LOL.

Pan fried Shrimp, Pork, Cabbage Guotie

The Guotie at Lao Beijing. Some say it's a must try here.
I am not a fan of guotie, so I can't really appreciate it.



It does look very good right? Crispy on the bottom and smooth and silky on the top.

Steamed Juicy Meat Buns - Xiao Long Bao

Fans of XLB, their version here is not bad too!

Empress Dowager's Dessert - Soybean Cake

The name of this dessert it Empress Dowager's Dessert. How interesting eh?
It's glutinous rice cake and red bean paste layered and rolled up. The final layer is then rolled with soybean powder. It's quite unique and taste rather good too.

By the time we finish this, we were all totally stuffed! In 6 hours, we were entertained and we were eating and eating. If you would like to find out more or register for one of these sessions, click here to find out more.

It was a really enjoyable time to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon. If I can find time, I would want to sign up for the later sessions, not only because of the food, but to hear stories from Ah Lun himself! There's a reason he is called 'the legend'!


Lao Beijing 老北京食堂
Tiong Bahru Plaza #02-12
302 Tiong Bahru Road
Singapore 168732

Tel : +65 6376 4466

600 calories or less meal: O'Briens at SGH

This was an invited food tasting session courtesy of the Singapore Health Promotion Board. 

Here's Destination No. 4:
O'Briens at Singapore General Hospital




We were quite surprised that we were brought to the hospital for food tasting! Are we going to get so clinical about counting calories? ( I sound lame?)

It was not hospital food that we were tasting. It was O'Briens Lower Calorie Specials.

The healthier options were either the wholemeal sandwich or the wholemeal pasta salad with a box of fruits.




The wholemeal pasta salad served was huge! That's a normal size fork. (Take a fork out to compare if you want to know the size) If you are a small eater, I would recommend that you share it with another person.

I am not an 'olive eating' person, so I did not eat any olives. Although it was wholemeal pasta, it did taste quite pleasant. If you are not used to wholemeal food, try eating a few mouths first, your taste-buds would get to like it. After that, you can probably wallop it all. The dressing is a bit too oily for me. (Probably because I usually have my salads naked! i.e. no dressing)




If you are more of a bread person, this cranberry sauce with turkey breast ham is nice.
After eating at 3 places before coming here, I was full and did not want to have anymore food. But after tasting 1 triangle of the sandwich, I took another one! I like the mixture of savoury and sweetness is rather pleasant.




The big box of cold cut fruits was an absolute delight. We asked the HPB folks: "There's so much fruits, won't it exceed the 600 calories limit?" No, they replied. But to keep to the 600 calories, no coffee or tea.

The 4 bloggers were busy eating the fruits and taking photos but we noticed something. (Since the last stop,) the nutritionists stopped touching their food. Have they been counting calories and stop eating when their quota was reached? Or they are shocked at how we can eat so much?



O'Briens (SGH Outlet)
1 Hospital Drive
Singapore 169608

600 calories or less meal: Cafe Pralet

This was an invited food tasting session courtesy of the Singapore Health Promotion Board. 

Here's Destination No. 3:
Cafe Pralet at Eng Hoon Mansions



Our third destination was to Cafe Pralet by Creative Culinaire at Tiong Bahru.
The cafe's opened by Chef Judy Koh who also has a baking school next to it.

Chef Judy Koh's personal assistant welcomed and was our hostess for the leg of the makan tour. I remembered her proudly telling us, whatever they teach to their students next door, they sell it here at the cafe. It's a testimony to the students that whatever they learn, the recipes are all products that can be sold and it's popular by the cafe's customers.

Oh, for those who follow this blog, do you remember I decorated a cake here before?



We were there to try the Lower Calorie Meals served. We are not suppose to be tempted by the other gorgeous cake and desserts they sell!

No GST and service charge here folks!



We had the Fresh Vegetables Sauteed Mushroom with Crisp Wholemeal Panini.
This was a meatless dish, so it's suitable for vegetarians.

The wholemeal panini was really crispy, I was hallucinating that I am eating keropok! You know the crunchy noise you hear when you eat keropok? If it is really keropok, it would be probably the healthiest and nutritious wholemeal keropok ever! The vegetables between the panini had a nice crunchy texture too. It's a nice mix of veggies and sauteed mushrooms.



What was particularly nice (and I want to eat some now as I type) was the wholemeal olive oil cake!
Made from organic wholemeal flour, fresh unsweetened orange juice and olive oil, it was really light and fluffy. It's like chiffon cake and cotton candy combined.

Chef Judy said they don't add any preservative or additives to their food. They are a baking school, so they use the various baking techniques to make it possible.



For our sampling size, we got the mini panini and mini wholemeal orange olive oil cake. How 'romantic' to be served a heart shaped panini!

With the nutritionists beside us, we only touched the mini portions. 



Coffee for those who need their caffeine boost. A few folks with us just had to have their coffee break.
If you are wondering, a cup of coffee with sugar has around 85 calories. :-)

The set meal costs $12.80



Cafe Pralet
Eng Hoon Mansion #01-03/04
17 Eng Hoon Street
Singapore 169767

Tel: 6324 1663

Lao Beijing @ Tiong Bahru Plaza

We were suppose to have a Care Group meeting, but at the last minute, (1.5 hours before our usual meeting time,) we realise so many people could not make it. Since only 4 could make it, and we end up meeting for dinner instead. We treated it as a belated birthday treat for sis.

We found ourselves walking into Lao Beijing at Tiong Bahru. Somehow we ended up here, we have not been to Tiong Bahru Plaza for the longest time.

We were promptly seated and this little plate of pickled cucumber was served. Pickled cucumber always taste nice isn't it? The water content extracted by salt and it becomes crunchy and appetizing.



Yes, we know LBJ's  famous dishes includes many deep fried stuff and also Peking Duck, we did not have those. We tried to pick the healthier options. You think it's possible? Probably. ;-p

Sliced Pork with garlic sauce.
We all liked this appetizer dish. Their garlic sauce is nice and this is mostly lean pork, so it's healthier right?



We had a soup too. Healthy Soup too.
Some of you might have seen the Sakura Chicken with Cordyceps being sold in some fairprice outlets. We decided to try the prepared version here instead.

Oooo. The soup's nice. Double boiled soup is usually nice right? You should try it if you visit them. There was also some jellied stuff inside the soup. Might be fish maw. We did not ask ;-)



Sis wanted the Xiao Long Bao, so had one steamer of it.
The XLB here is ok lah. It was nice but there was not much 'liquid' inside, so there's no 'fun' of breaking it and seeing the liquid flow out. :-)



We were tempted by the server asking us if we wanted their signature Peking Duck (no, it's eating skin), their Beijing Style Sweet and Sour Fish (no, it's deep fried), etc... (we had self control eh?)

So we settled for a chicken dish instead. We tried the spiciest of all the chicken dishes. Can't remember the name, but this dish has lots of red and green chillies with diced chicken. Chilli is suppose to help you loose weight right? It was fiery but nice though.



We had also their home made signature braised bean curd dish.
Not too bad too. I think also everyone's tofu dishes taste almost similar, and can't get any more special. (Do you think so too?)



This is something funny. We know this is a Beijing style restaurant and when we tried to order a veg dish, we asked for something totally un-Beijing. We asked if they had Fan Su Ye. They must have been trained well. They politely replied that Fan Su Ye's more of a local vegetable dish and it's not on the menu and quickly offered to ask us to try some of the Beijing style vegetable dishes without making you feel 'silly'.

So we had the black fungus with lily bulbs with seasonal veg dish.
Black Fungus lowers cholesterol, lily bulbs supposedly good for the lungs, esp if you are coughing.



That's our healthier selection of food. Was it healthy? Comparably healthier than if we ordered other dishes.

But we were surprised when we paid the bill though. We paid with the Standard Chartered card and got 15% off for spending a certain amount. We also got vouchers that's equivalent to our spending amount! Many places are doing this right? Enticing you to come back again.

(Haha if this sounds as if it's paid advertorial, no, it's not, we paid for the meal ourselves. The bill was around $120, but ended up paying around $100 and we got $100 vouchers!)

We paid using a Standard Chartered Card, so at the end of the month, we are expecting to get a 15% rebate in our bill! You must seen the Big Fish and Small Fish advert on TV right? So we thought it was a rather nice discount. 15% + 15% off, plus equivalent dining vouchers. The first meal will be 'technically' free if we come back and use the vouchers.


Lao Beijing @ Tiong Bahru
302 Tiong Bahru Road
#02-12 Tiong Bahru Plaza
Singapore 168732

Tel: 6376 4466