Delicacy that is dying out...

I was thinking of going to Beach Road the other day to spend a bit of money and give the delicious 'Herbal Bak Kut Teh' a try. However, it seems that they have wind up their shop and I have to look for a new alternative again... =.=

After you have gotten yourself a table & seat and once you have placed your orders, the workers over here will be placing 2 baskets of chilli on your table. Basically there's the bigger sliced chillies and the smaller ones, or more commonly known as 'Chilli Padi'. Well, you can go ahead and do a bit of D.I.Y too. Since there's both the light and dark 'Soy Sauce' too, hence you can mix and match your favorite plate of chilli.

On my 1st visit, I have gone ahead placing an order for this and a bowl of white rice. I will skip the bowl of white rice and move on to the main dish, which is...

'Special Claypot Bak Kut Teh'(狀元瓦煲肉骨茶) This is indeed pretty special. For a start ingredients like 'Black Fungus', 'Mushrooms', 'Baby Corn', 'Fried Beancurd Skin', 'Pork Ribs', 'Pork Liver', 'Pork Stomach' and also a bit of 'greens'. Just the variety of ingredients that was given, it's already worth a big (+). Not only it's served warm, the nutritious and tasty soup is worth another (+). Best of all, the taste of the soup have blend into all the ingredients nicely, which enhances the overall taste of each and every ingredient. And here comes another good reason for big eaters to patron this place. You can top up the pot of soup endless time. And in fact, the taste for the top ups are as good as the initial serving, which comes with a nice herbal taste, which is a (+). In fact the taste of the 'Bak Kut Teh' is so good that...

I went back to the same place the following week after the 1st visit. But rather than going for the same stuff again, I decided to place an order for a bowl of 'Yam Rice' instead.

'Yam Rice'(芋頭飯) The 'Yam Rice' over here are pretty good too. It comes with chunks of 'Yam' and 'dried shrimps' were also thrown in throughout the process of making a big pot of 'Yam Rice', in order to enhance the overall taste of the 'Yam Rice' even further. When I was digging into this bowl of 'Yam Rice', the fragrance that comes with it is a (+) too. In fact when they open up the rice cooker that contains the 'Yam Rice', there's this tempting smell floating in the air... Yummy. With this delicious option around, I don't think I will be touching a bowl of white rice again.

Here's a copy of the bill. It can give you a better idea of the food/dishes that they are making and preparing over here. By the way, they also have the 'Cze Char' dishes on the menu too. So in case you are having dinner in a big group, you can always order a few dishes and share them among yourself.

The name of this place would be 'Sin Heng Claypot Bak Koot Teh'(新興瓦煲肉骨茶). It's located along 'Joo Chiat Road', the part that is located near '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Tuesdays - Saturdays: 07:30 - 04:00
  Sundays: 07:30 - 01:00
  (Closed on Mondays)

* Click here for the location of 'Sin Heng Claypot Bak Koot Teh'(新興瓦煲肉骨茶) on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get near the 'Joo Chiat' district.

Eating black colour balls?

We were looking for a good place to sit down and do a bit of catching up. Well, after spending a bit of time walking around, we ended up sitting inside a dessert place.

Left: "'Jiu Fen' Taro Ball Crushed Ice"(九份芋圓冰) Right: "Honey Yam Crushed Ice with Milk"(蜜芋頭牛奶冰) As for the dessert "'Jiu Fen' Taro Ball Crushed Ice", a lot of ingredients were included inside it. However, the ice that they were using isn't the fine type of ice, or more commonly known as snow ice. I think that it will taste much better if they are using snow ice rather than the smaller chips of ice. With the ice that they are using, I think the excitement has already dropped 50%. As for the ingredients, they are pretty ordinary. As for the dessert "Honey Yam Crushed Ice with Milk", is a little bit too plain as compared to the previous dessert. It's mainly a mountain of ice + a few cubes of Honey Yam. Even though the Yam comes with a nice fragrance and it's pretty sweet and delicious, but this dessert is slightly a bit too plain. I think that it would taste better if they have added a few more types of ingredients into this dessert. I would highly recommend this if you are a big fan of good tasty 'Yam'.

So where can you give all these desserts a try?

The name of this place would be Black Ball(黑丸嫩仙草). It's originated from Taiwan and it currently have a few outlets island-wide. Anyway, the photo shows the '112 Katong Shopping Mall' outlet.

* Click here to find out more about 'Black Ball'(黑丸嫩仙草) in Singapore.
^ Click here for the Facebook Page of 'Black Ball'(黑丸嫩仙草).
# Click here to find out more about 'Black Ball'(黑丸嫩仙草) in Taiwan.

Thai Style Steamboat

Steamboat, one of the best food choices if you are looking at a large group of people. However, probably most of us have eaten a Chinese Style Steamboat countless times, but have you given a Thai Style Steamboat a tried before?

'Thai Style Steamboat Dome Shaped Metal Pan' The 'pan' itself looks pretty unique. There's holes all over the 'hill' in the middle of the 'pan'. Beneath it are a hill of burnt charcoal. Around the 'pan' would be a river of 'Tom Yum Soup'. And I personally find the 'Tom Yum Soup' pretty tasty. It's sour and yet a little bit spicy. In fact the taste of it is so good that I think the both of us almost finish a whole kettle of it.

'The Ingredients' This would be the set for 2 that they are offering over here. Being a big eater, I don't think that these ingredients are sufficient to feed the 2 of us. Anyway, some of the meat slices are pretty satisfying and the variety of ingredients were pretty great too. (However, portion wise it's... =.=""") So what's the next step?

So how to appreciate it. Firstly, add a piece of pig lard to the middle of the 'hill' of the 'pan'. Let the oil of the pig lard cover the 'hill'. Next, you can add pieces of meat slices to cover the 'hill' of the 'pan'. (Basically, this is pretty much similar to the mixture of 2 cooking styles, which is barbecuing and pan-fried. But do be careful. The meat slices could ended up pretty ugly if it goes unnoticed.) Oh, by the way you can also throw the ingredients into the river of 'Tom Yum Soup' too. Anyway, once you done with all the cooking, please do give the 'Tom Yom Soup' a try again. The taste of it have become much more richer and better, especially when all the oil of the meat slices have also flow into the soup itself, which is an innovative idea of appreciating good food/soup. :D

So where can you give this 'Thai Style Steamboat' a try?

The name of this restaurant would be 'mookata'. It's located along 'East Coast Road' and at the same time located near '112 Katong Shopping Mall' and 'Roxy Square'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  Mondays to Fridays (Excluding Tuesdays)
  Lunch : 12noon - 3pm
  Dinner: 5pm - 10:30pm
  
  Tuesdays
  Dinner: 5pm - 10:30pm
  
  Weekends
  12noon - 11pm
• If you really want to give this 'Thai Style Steamboat' a try, go for the buffet on Mondays - Thursdays, where you can eat to the fullest.

* Click here to find out more about 'mookata'.
^ Click here for the location of 'mookata' on Google Maps.

Time for Honeymoon~~~

After getting married, the newly-wed couple will go for a honeymoon trip and that's that exact same moment where things are at their sweetest. However, the term 'Honeymoon' can also be used to point out...

A Chinese Dessert restaurant known as 'Honeymoon Dessert'(满记甜品).
But what's so special about their dessert?

'Sesame Soup'(生磨芝麻糊)
Though it looks kinda ugly and dull, but the taste of it is pretty
impressive. The strong aroma of sesame are circulating around me
as soon as this bowl of warm 'Sesame Soup' landed on the table in
front of me. The texture of the 'Sesame Soup' are pretty thick and
it's so thick that it makes me ponder what's the proportion of the
amount of water used in the preparation of this dessert. Either ways
the strong aroma and the deliciously good taste of 'Sesame Soup'
have given me sufficient reasons to return again. :)

By the way, if I'm not mistaken, they have listed up to a 100 items
on their menu, which makes it kinda difficult to try all the items
within a year. However, since the serving portion over here are
stomach friendly, hence a glutton like me can easily finish 4 or 5
bowls of desserts for dinner. (I think. :P) But, you can always
gather a group of friends at this place and place an order for a
few types of desserts and share them among yourself. :)

Anyway, they current have a few outlets island-wide/worldwide. Do visit their website for more details. (By the way, the photos shown in this post are taken at the outlet located at '100AM'.)

* Click here to find more about 'Honeymoon Dessert'(满记甜品).

Small Chilli... but not Chilli Padi...

After spending half of the day cycling a relatively long distance, since I haven't been eating spicy stuff for a pretty long period, I decided to treat myself to something spicy. Therefore...

'Long Jing Tea'(龙井茶)
Since the charges for all the different types of Chinese Tea over here
are the same, I decided to go for some Chinese Green Tea. Probably I
have been drinking too much 'Black Tea' or 'Pu-Er Tea', therefore I find
the taste of this tea slightly a bit too light. :|

'Si Chuan Style Spicy Chicken'(口水鸡)
In short, this is a plate of white cold tender chicken covered with spicy
sauce. In fact, the white chicken is pretty much similar to the Hainanese
chicken that you can get from a chicken rice stall. However, probably they
have reduce the amount of chillies or spices into the dish, therefore I
personally find the dish a bit too boring or perhaps it's my tolerance
for spicy stuff have gone up again?

'Si Chuan Zha Jiang Noodles'(川味炸酱面)
Pretty much similar to the previous dish, though the noodles are pretty
good, but the amount of spicy sauce isn't sufficient enough. Most
importantly, this dish isn't spicy enough. Though the balance between
the ingredients were maintained properly, but like what I said, by adding
a bit more sauce and a bit more spicy touch to this dish will definitely
make it much more interesting.

'Si Chuan Style Boiled Fish'(水煮鱼片)
Though most of the dish over here isn't spicy enough, but they have
managed to present the good old 'Si Chuan' style dishes over here. As for
'Si Chuan' dishes, besides for being spicy, you should be also be getting
a certain degree of numbness on your tongue, as you eat 'Si Chuan' dishes.
Well, though the spicy taste haven't really blend into the slice fishes,
but it's pretty satisfying already. If they have boiled it a bit more
longer, the fishes would have tasted even much more heavenly. By the way,
vegetables and the taste of the soup is something that one can really
look forward to. :P

'Spicy Dumplings'(红汤抄手)
Though this and the upcoming dish are 'dumplings', but this comes with
a bowl of spicy soup. However, it's not spicy enough and I think that
too much soup was given, therefore the dumplings are a bit too soggy.:(

'Rainbow Dumplings'(彩虹特色蒸饺)
Yellow - 'Crabmeat Steamed Dumplings'(蟹肉南瓜蒸饺)
Orange - 'Shrimp Steamed Dumplings'(虾肉胡萝卜蒸饺)
White - 'Tofu Steamed Dumplings'(白菜豆腐蒸饺)
Brown - 'Mixed flavour Steamed Dumplings'(三鲜蒸饺)
Purple - 'Pork Steamed Dumplings'(猪肉四季豆蒸饺)
Green - 'Chives Steamed Dumplings'(韭菜鸡蛋蒸饺)
How should I put it, I think that out of all the 6 different flavours,
I personally find the seafood dumplings to be much more delicious.
As most of the dumplings out there are stuffed with pork meat, but
dumplings stuffed with seafood are pretty rare. The strong taste and
fragrance that comes from the seafood are delicious reasons for you
to scream out loudly, Delicious~~~~~

'Mango Pomelo Sago Sweet Soup'(杨枝甘露)
Probably the chefs are much more skilful in the preparation of 'Si Chuan'
style dishes. Therefore the dessert isn't exciting enough or perhaps it's
due to the fact that the earlier dishes are much more stronger in taste?

So where can you try all these dishes?

The name of this restaurant would be 'Xiao La Jiao'(小辣椒) and if you are doing a direct translation of the words (小辣椒), it literally means small chilli. Anyway this restaurant is located inside '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  12pm - 9:30pm daily

* Click here to find out more about 'Xiao La Jiao'(小辣椒).
^ Click here for the Facebook page of 'Xiao La Jiao'(小辣椒).
~ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can get at '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

T.G.I.F... :D

Thank God Its Friday and since this is going to be a long weekend in Singapore and today is a Friday, I decided to go all out travelling from the west to the east to give a restaurant a try...

'Ultimate Electric Lemonade'
While waiting for my main course, the waitress have delivered the drinks
to my table. Not sure is it me or probably I haven't been touching blends
like this for a very long time, therefore when I'm drinking it, the
shiokness of the lemonade is there and everything seems to be perfectly
fine. But the moment I hopped onto a bus, it felt as if I'm burning from
the inside. >.<"" Perhaps I really have no luck in drinking such blends...:P

'Full Rack Jack Daniel's Ribs' Here comes the main course of the day. On the menu, it have stated that the ribs will be served with crispy fries and the fries are indeed crispy Besides having a portion of crispy fries, by looking at the texture, I realised that they are serving fresh cut fries, which is great. I highly preferred fresh cut fries than the normal fries, especially when the tase the taste and the fragrance of the potatoes are much more nicer and better. As for the ribs, although it might seems to be much more smaller than what you are getting elsewhere, but it have it's good points too. For example, the chef didn't over cooked the ribs, which at the same time makes it much more easier to separate the meat and the bones and makes it much more easier for you to chew and savour the meat. :P (Yes, I have to agree that I'm just been lazy, but after a long day at work, who doesn't?) Taste wise, the ribs itself comes with a pretty sweet taste and to some extent, I don't even feel like dipping the meat into the barbecue sauce at all. Thinking about it, this is probably my first time, not getting so sick with the taste of the full rack ribs. Probably it's the taste and probably it's the way they are preparing it, but either ways seriously I don't mind having the same dish for dinner for the next few days. By the way, Although you will only be given a small tub of barbecue sauce, but I think that the amount given is more than enough to go with the fries and the ribs. :D

So where can you try the ribs?

Similar to the title of this post, the name of this restaurant would be 'T.G.I.Friday'. Currently they only have a branch in Singapore and it's located on level 1 of '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
• Weekdays: 11am - 12am
• Weekends: 9am - 12am
• By the way, the location of '112 Katong Shopping Mall' might appear to be pretty inconvenient, but with the free shuttle bus service to and from 'Paya Lebar MRT Station', things might ended up to be much more easier than you think. (Please take a look at the '112 Katong Shopping Mall' website below for the most updated time table of the free shuttle bus.)

* Click here to find out more about 'T.G.I.Friday'.
^ Click here to find out more about '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

An infamous Laksa...

No matter where you go, where you have been to and where you are staying, one will never fail to learn about the infamous 'Katong Laksa'. I have tried 'Katong Laksa' around 10 years ago in a different area, but seriously, what's so special about it?

'Katong Laksa' Just by looking at the colour of the soup, I think that most of you might have guessed it and I'm pretty sure that you are correct. The soup base has been loaded with a lot of coconut milk, which makes it to be pretty sweet. :P Similar to all the 'Laksa' out there, the ingredients that they are using are pretty much similar. There's cockles, prawns, bean sprout, slices of fish cakes, thick 'Bee Hoon' and sprinkle of 'Laksa leaves'. But there are some differences too. All the ingredients were prepared in a manner so that only a spoon is needed in finishing a big bowl of 'Laksa'. (Probably this is one of the main reasons why this little bowl of 'Laksa' is so famous?) Taste wise, besides for the sweet 'Laksa' soup, the fresh ingredients would be something that one will be looking forward to. Though I still think that this isn't spicy enough but despite the lack of spiciness, I can guaranteed that this is still a pretty tasty bowl of 'Laksa'.

So where can you try this 'Laksa'?

The name of this stall would be '328 Katong Laksa'. It's located near '112 Katong Shopping Mall'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours: 8am - 10pm Daily

* Click here for the location of '328 Katong Laksa' on Google Maps.