Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square: SPRING JuChunYuan

This post is part of the Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square organised by Omy.Sg that quite a few bloggers and I indulged in a food marathon on 9 July 2011.

You can read more about Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square at http://blog.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin  Visit the site too if you want to win youself a $50 voucher.

Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square Stop 2: 
SPRING JuChunYuan



You might not have not heard of SPRING JuChunYuan, but I am sure you have heard of the dish "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall" / "Fo Tiao Qiang" 佛跳墙.

The folks at JuChunYuan at Fuzhou, China were the ones who created this dish. If you have ever wondered how it got that name, it's the words from a poem composed on the fly by a top scholar when he had a whiff of the dish long ago!

SPRING JuChunYuan is located at the former Chui Eng Free School that was established in 1854. It's one of the first Chinese free schools that provided free education to the poor.




I like the deco of this restaurant. Fine dining for exquisite Chinese food.
Hint: If your bosses at work wants to treat you and your team, suggest this place! (Especially if your project has helped the company earned quite a bit!)




We were served floral tea that comprised of Chrysanthemum, Rose and Lavender.
It smelled really good! But when I drank it, I thought the lavender was probably a bit overpowering. But it was good.




Tada! The 'Fo Tiao Qiang' from the restaurant that invented it!

If you are wondering, it costs $1288 and if you want to order this for a special occasion here, remember to order it 1 day in advance.




I know many people in Singapore are lone-diners. If you want to try it and you are alone, no worries! Order the individual portion. It costs $98 a pop, and you do not need to pre-order it.

Of course, people who come in groups can order the individual portions to share. It's gentler on your pockets!



Want to know how may portions have been consumed since it was opened?
This was taken last Saturday, 9 July 2011. 13,288 portions!




No, the whole group of bloggers did not get an individual portion each.
It's very rich and filling and we had 8 places to eat. So the kind folks at SPRING JuChunYuan offered us a sampling size that was still quite generous!



Fo Tiao Qiang consists of 8 main ingredients that we can clearly see in the soup and other ingredients that are 'trade secrets' that's part of the broth.

The 8 main ingredients are Shark's Fin, Abalone, Scallop, Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw, Cuttlefish, Pork Tendon and Flower Mushroom.



We got to chat with the chef and he told us, they steam the soup in both Hwa Tiao and Shao Xing wines.  I can't remember which one, but one of the wine that they used were 8 years old.

The soup was thick and we were told you will get a sticky feeling in your mouth after having it. It's sticky, but quite pleasant. Nice aftertaste too! (I am not sure about you!)

You get quite filled up! Chunks of good stuff in the soup, decadence! Yes, truly decadence!




We also got to taste their Xing Hwa Bee Hoon.

I am half Heng Hwa, so I adore this Xing Hwa (Heng Hwa) Bee Hoon! A look at it and I 'am chio' (smiled to myself secretly). It's the same super fine bee hoon that mum and my aunt use to fry the Bee Hoon!

A chat with some fellow bloggers, some love it and carbo avoiders don't like it.
I guess you must be either Heng Hwa, partially Heng Hwa or a bee hoon lover to enjoy this!



A chat with the manager and he told us, the chef use chopsticks to fry these delicate and fine bee hoon!
Quick, swift and strong hands were needed to fry this dish. It does not taste oily at all, and it's because of their cooking style.





It taste rather good on itself! But, if you want to add a twist to the bee hoon, add some of their red vinegar, garlic concoction to it. (The chef won't reveal what other things inside, except there's some sugar added as well haha.) It makes the noodles even tastier and you would want to have more.
Note: Taste a bit of it first to see if you like it before mixing all in! Everyone has different taste buds! ;-)



SPRING JuChunYuan
130 Amoy Street
#01-01 Far East Square
Singapore 049959

Tel: 6536 2655


Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square: Stop 1, Stop 2, Stop 3, Stop 4, Stop 5, Stop 6, Stop 7, Stop 8

Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square: Zhou's Kitchen

This post is part of the Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square organised by Omy.Sg that quite a few bloggers and I indulged in a food marathon on 9 July 2011.

You can read more about Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square at http://blog.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin  Visit the site too if you want to win youself a $50 voucher.

Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square Stop 1: 
Zhou's Kitchen



Many of you I am sure are no stranger to Zhou's Kitchen. It's Tung Lok Group's casual chinese dining outlets.

I have visited their branch at Anchorpoint, Square 2 and Jurong Point. This was my first visit to their Far East Square branch. I just found out that this branch has been around since December 2007! With this visit, it seems I have visited all their branches in Singapore.

For the gastromania feast, we will try a dish or two from each restaurant. For this stop at Zhou's Kitchen, we are trying one of their signature dish - Zhou's Kitchen Braised Pork Shank (周庄元蹄) $24.



I have tried this dish a few times, but have not blogged about it. (Getting lazy over the years!)
I thought the Pork Shank here looked bigger than the ones I had in other branches. Maybe I should visit the other branches again.



Note: The dish is definitely not for everyone.

Order this only if you love some fats in your meat and you love soft and gelatinous texture of pork skin. It's what this dish is about.  Bone-in to me also means flavour in!

The braised meat was certainly flavourful. I am glad it was not too soft, so there's some texture in the meat. It might also mean the animal we ate was not a lazy one, but have exercised that's why the meat has texture.

The pickled radish pieces were a little spicy and it complimented the meat. (and the skin and fats if you eat them. yumz!)




We were served two kinds of man tou to eat with the Pork Shanks.
These steamed ones are for the health conscious.



For those who love crispy skin on their man tous, go ahead, have the fried ones.




Don't worry if you think it's scary to be served a chunk of meat. There's always someone to help portion it out. I guess they picked a guy's who is more photogenic and skillful to portion the meat for us! I remember it's usually 'aunties' who do it for us at the Anchorpoint branch where we usually visit.




If you are eating with your family, go ahead, pick up the femur bone and lick it!

Zhou's Kitchen @ Far East Square
9-13 Amoy Street
#01-01
Singapore 049949

Tel: 6877 1123
Web: www.zhouskitchen.com


Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square: Stop 1, Stop 2, Stop 3, Stop 4, Stop 5, Stop 6, Stop 7, Stop 8

Penang Place Restaurant @ Connexis, Fusionopolis

Colleagues and I were discussing about what to have for lunch and someone mentioned Penang Place. A colleague who passed Fusionopolis on the way home daily said it has opened. I also remember seeing a flyer at my in laws place a few days before saying it has moved there.

We all decided to go and hop into colleague's MPV. We went on a Tuesday and realise it's their 2nd day of operations at Fusionopolis! There was so many people there! I guess it's because there's an opening special at $20.90++



First glance when we walked down Basement 1. It looked like their former branch at International Business Park! The familiar green neon lights!




Get to Connexis and head down to the basement 1 beside the Food Court. That's where it's now located.

We were particularly hungry that day and the food here looked so good. So here's a bombardment of photos for today's post!




The dish that they are famous for! No pork or lard in their Penang CKT, but it still taste fabulous!
They cook in moderate portions / batches and load it on the buffet serving tray. It keeps running out. You know how typical Singapore eaters are. They replenish it quite quickly though. When folks see the person carrying the fresh CKT out, they all make their way to the buffet table!

I love it because there's so much cockles! Everyone on our table of 6 enjoyed it!  All of us took more than 1 serving I think! I had 3! It had the wonderful wok hei smell and it's still hot! A must try here!





Their beef rendang is also a must try. The piece that I took thankfully was not hard, but rather tender. A tad salty though, but it tasted wonderful. I would have taken more pieces but I know there's so much things to eat, so I better save my stomach to try other stuff!




Their curry chicken here is another favourite. Another item that seems to run out very fast at the buffet table! (But quickly replenished) Dip the thick curry in the sliced baguette and it's heavenly!




I think this was sweet and sour prawns. Nice unique sweetish and a tad sour taste and it's quite appetizing. It's with black sauce, so it's a bit more on the sweet side.




The fried spring rolls were only so so, but we later found out why everyone of us took it! It's because there's a scissors by the side!

Why? When we were queuing up, we noticed the person in front of us cutting the spring roles with the scissors. All of us wanted to play 'masak masak'. We all wanted to act like hawkers selling the fried popiah! We all wanted to cut the popiah with the scissors! We all had a good laugh talking about it. That's one fun part of buffet lines right? We can role play!




The Hokkien noodles! The taste was OK to most of us. Again, on the sweetish side. I guess it's the Penang style.



I don't really like yellow noodles, so I requested for only bee hoon.  We did notice, we thought it was only OK, but after a few mouths, our tongue seem to like it and most of us finished up the soup although we said it was sweet!




The fruit rojak is still there. It has been a popular DIY at Penang Place since their International Business Park days!

Another dish that we can all pretend to play 'masak masak'. If you are observant, you notice people actually enjoy mixing things up! Some look so 'pro', while others looked really silly!




The crispy fried chicken was another hot item! Another item that disappears rather quickly!
So keep a look out if you are a fried chicken fan. For the fried chicken I think previously when it was at International Business Park, it was nicer.




Fried Ngo Hiong. Since they don't serve pork here, these are made from chicken meat chunks.
Quite nice!




One colleague's plate. Looks like he is going the healthy path!




This is a must try when you are here. The Penang Laksa!

I realise many people skip the 'hae kor' when they ask for Penang Laksa at the manned noodles counter. The hae kor is what makes it Penang Laksa!

There's not as much shredded mackerel, but the gravy was great! I wonder if it was because when I queued for it, the gravy container was running out and about to be replenished.




The soup really has a good 'kick'! It was sourish and yet spicy and sweet. I literally felt light headed after drinking the laksa gravy! It's very addictive. I almost finish up all the gravy! I love the smell of bunga kantan (torch ginger bud / ginger flower) that's inside. It made the dish so fragrant!

But it's not for everyone, one colleague saw some of us take it and we were saying it was so spicy etc. She got scared! Another colleague had a wet dripping sweaty head right after the first mouth! It's one of those who take spicy food and break into sweat!

One really shiok food here!




The bubor chacha here's colourful!
The perfect dessert to cool down after a fiery penang laksa dish!




Here's something that caught our eyes! No, they are not chicken nuggets!



It's Cempedak Goreng! Fried Cempedak. For those who can take the smell, eat it, it's so yummy!
After deep frying, the flesh was so soft and smooth inside. The outer crust was so crunchy and crispy. It was delicious! I have not had this for ages!

Don't eat too much of it! It's supposedly very heaty!



I always like their 'kuih muih' here. It's so colourful and taste great! I got this habit of eating everything with the delicious kaya that they have!




We realise now at Fusionopolis, their desserts selection seems to have expanded!
They have a fridge that you can self service and it's full of cut fruits, Guilin Gao and Mango Pudding!




One of my favourite and I always make myself a bowl when I am here. Chendol!

It was such a full meal. Most of us did not managed to try every item. Eg, the 'Kiam Hoo" soup. We were hungry, but our stomach can't fill everything in! We were bursting! Sigh age has caught up, we used to be able to eat much more and still feel hungry!



Penang Place Restaurant
1 Fusionopolis Way,
Connexis #B1-20/24
Singapore 138632

Tel: 6467 7003 / 6467 7008
Web: www.penangplace.com