A Good Biryani doesn't need Curry

I'm not sure for the whole lot of you people out there, but usually I will eat my Biryani Rice with Fish Curry. By adding Fish Curry to the Biryani, it will also add more taste and a spicy touch to the Biryani Rice. But after making a visit to the following place, I was wrong. A very good Biryani doesn't requires the step of pouring Curry on top of Biryani Rice.

As usual, photo comes first

This is it... A Chicken Dum Biryani...
If you love Biryani's, it's a must for you to try a Dum Biryani.
What makes a Dum Biryani so special was the way they made it.
A real Dum Biryani usually requires the step of cooking the Chicken
and the Biryani rice together. It's very difficult to find places that
sell genuine Dum Biryani in Singapore nowadays, except for places like Little India.

Yes, I do know that this picture looks similar to the previous one.
I wanted to show you ingredients inside the Dum Biryani but I failed miserably.
As for the Chicken Dum Biryani that I have ordered, I was given a lot of Biryani Rice
and a Chicken Drumstick and a boiled egg. And trust me, the amount of rice that was
given was very generous. In fact, the waiter was trying to suggest to me some other
dishes that I should try, as he thinks that the Chicken given in the Dum Biryani was
not sufficient. Luckily, I didn't make an extra order, as I'm pretty full after
eating 1 Chicken Dum Biryani, without any curry. In fact, I was quite amazed with it.
This was probably the first time, I have finish 1 big potion of Chicken Dum Biryani
without the use of any Curry. Whao....

Video of the Chicken Dum Biryani and you probably have to watch the video in full screen mode in order to see the hot steam coming out of the Biryani.

This is the store behind this delicious Chicken Dum Biryani, Thalappakkathu Biryani.
According to my friends and through the Internet, the name 'Thalappakkathu Biryani'
seems to be pretty famous in various parts of India. Whaoo... Since the branch in
Singapore already tastes so good, I wonder how will it taste like in India? :D

Note:

• They only offers some dishes during the weekends and public holidays. For example: Turkey Dum Biryani.... (looks interesting..:D)
• This place was in front of the new extension of Mustafa Centre. It's not that difficult to find it.

* Click here to view the location of 'Thalappakkathu Biryani' restaurant.

I am neither Liu Bei(劉備) nor Zhang Liang(張良) but...

Why did I wrote such a strange title for this post? This is because Liu Bei(劉備), a warlord, military general and later the founding emperor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, had made 3 visits to the place where Zhu Ge Liang(諸葛亮) was staying before he had an audience with him. Same goes for Zhang Liang(張良), a strategist and statesman of the early Han Dynasty, it took him 3 visits to the same bridge before he was given the book 'The Art of War by Taigong'. Similar to Liu Bei and Zhang Liang, I had made 3 trips to this market, and I finally get the chance to taste this delicious food.:D

As usual... photos comes first.

Woo... the shape looks nice and it looks like a cake. So what is this dish?

This is the one. This is known as a 'Yam Cake'. Although, this is pretty
common dish that you can find in most of the markets in Singapore,
it isn't that easy to find a store that makes it into a heavenly dish.
The 'Yam Cake' of this store was neither too soft or too hard and the
taste of the yam comes with every single bite from the 'Yam Cake'.
And the chilli that comes with the 'Yam Cake' was a +++.

This is the store behind this heavenly dish, besides selling 'Yam Cakes', various
kinds of kuehs that are meant for Breakfast. So where was this store located?
This store is located on the 2nd floor of Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre.

This was indeed a challenge to me, as travelling to and fro the market takes a bit of time.
Especially, when it was a disappointed trip, that makes it even harder for me to continue.
But the achievement was a memorable one. :D

Some notes to remember:

• The store closes at/before 12 noon.
• Try to be there before 11 as the store owner had mentioned that they will close for the day, once all the food had been sold out.

* Click here for the location of Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre.
^ Click here to find out more about Liu Bei(劉備)
# Click here to find out more about Zhang Liang(張良)

A 'Chicken Rice' that is slightly different

Before moving any further, I would want to clarify something first. Although, I prefer to eat noodles much more than rice, it doesn't mean that I don't like to eat rice at all. I also like to eat rice dishes. For example: Tonkatsu, Biryani, Fried Rice, etc. As for myself, it doesn't mean that only expensive food can be good food. Somtimes, a good meal can be things like...

A simple plate of 'White Chicken Rice'. But, this plate of 'White Chicken Rice' is slightly a bit different as compared to the normal 'Chicken Rice'.

Besides for the chicken meat, cucumber and the great chilli, it also
comes with preserved vegetables. I love the taste of the preserved vegetables.
Especially when you eat it with the rice and the chicken meat. On top of that,
I think that the price was quite reasonable also, especially when the potion
of food that was given was considerably acceptable and delicious. XD

So what's the store behind this delicacy?

This is the store behind the plate of 'Chicken Rice' that I had mention in this post. The name of the store would be 'Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice'. Over the past few years, if I'm not mistaken, I have seen numerous store branded with the same name as this store but somehow I just keep on going back to the store located at 'Tiong Bahru Market' only. >.< V

* Click here for the map of Tiong Bahru Market.

New Ramen store in Singapore 'Keisuke Tonkotsu King'

As I was free last weekend and I have not eaten a bowl of Ramen for the month of September, I decided to have Ramen for my dinner.

Tada~~~~ This is the Ramen shop 'Keisuke Tonkotsu King' Ramen store.
By looking from the outside, there isn't anything special about the store.

They have provided both a English Menu and a Japanese Menu. However, the shop doesn't sell anything else besides for the 'Tonkotsu' ramen and a few kinds of beverages. This can be quite a hassle.

The shop has given you the option to mix and match a bowl of
Ramen to fit your requirements.
For example:
Type of Ramen - Normal, Black(Maybe its Shoyu), Red(Spicy)
Taste of the Soup - Thin, Normal, Thick
Noodle texture - Soft, Normal, Hard
Amount of Chicken Oil to be added - A little, Normal, A lot
This is pretty interesting, you can actually mix and match
up to 80 different bowls of Ramen.

Boiled eggs, Beansprout and Bonito Flakes are given for free. This reminds me of 'Tokushima Ramen Todai' of Kyoto Station. But, 'Tokushima Ramen Todai' only provide uncooked eggs for free.

While waiting for your bowl of Ramen, you will be given a bowl of Sesame
and you are suppose to grind it... What this is so similar to a 'Tonkatsu'...

This would be the Red Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen Special with all the toppings.

The Ajitsuke Tamago of this shop were as good as the Ajitsuke Tamago
that I had eaten at 'Marutama Ramen'. It's super delicious.

After adding a round of noodles, a boiled egg and some Beansprouts.

The Red Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen Special that they had prepared was neither
very salty nor spicy. However the potion of the Ramen that they had
prepared was targeted more towards ladies. As for myself, I was not even
half full after adding Noodles twice and I think I have enough space in my
stomach for another 2 rounds of Noodles. :D

They have hang posters of old Japanese movies on the wall. Which makes
it feel as if you were eating Ramen in a nineteen century Japanese Cinema. :P

Luckily, I went to the shop early. I definitely cannot
stand queueing up outside a restaurant for a long time.

Note:

• Payment by Cash only
• Lunch: 11.30am ~ 3pm
• Dinner: 6pm ~ 10pm

* Click here for the map of 'Keisuke Tonkotsu King' restaurant.
^ Click here to find out more about 'Tonkatsu'.
# Click here to find out more about 'Marutama Ramen'.

Halal food doesn't mean you cannot

try food like Dim Sum and delicacies like Hong Kong Fried Noodles, Wanton Noodles or Soup, etc... I'm pretty sure that living in Singapore have always been a big challenge when it comes to eating. It must be an unbearable experience if you were limited to Halal food for your meals and you were surrounded with people that doesn't have much limitations in eating good-looking and delicious food.

Here comes the best part, interesting photo time.

Super Cooler
Coconut mixed with Wheat Grass
This is indeed a Super Cooler.

Dry instant Noodle with Chicken Ham & Egg
Usually, Ham were made using pork but how common do you get to eat Chicken Ham?

Soya Milk with Rice Ball Sesame

This restaurant have offered a large variety of Dim Sum.
As for what you have seen in the above, they have Shanghai Steamed Chicken
Dumpling, Pan Fried Chicken Dumpling, Har Kow, Pau, etc... Most of these
delicacies could only be found in a Chinese restaurant that prepares non-Halal
food, yet one could try these delicacies at this restaurant.

Curry Chicken Noodles and Curry Chicken with Bread The Curry Chicken with noodles looks appealing, especially when you were given a choice to choose either to have the Curry Chicken with either Instant Noodles, Yellow Mee Noodles, Rice or even Bread. This makes it interesting. :D Imagine how long it will take you to try all the items on the menu if you can choose to mixed and match the ingredients for some of the items on the menu.

So what sort of restaurant have been preparing all these Halal delicacies?

This is the restaurant behind all the Halal delicacies - 'Tang Tea House Hong Kong Cafe'. Although, the location of the place is slightly a bit too inconvenient but I don't mind travelling for a longer distance to taste and try good food. :D

Note:

• Operating hours are 10.30am - 4am daily
• Do visit their website to see what's on their menu and trust me the website doesn't show all the items that they are serving in-store.

* Click here for the website of 'Tang Tea House Hong Kong Cafe'.
^ Click here for the location of 'Tang Tea House Hong Kong Cafe'.
# Click here for the menu of 'Tang Tea House Hong Kong Cafe'

Tonkichi - Jumbo Katsu for limited time only

A few days ago, according to the website of &aposTonkichi', they are having a limited time promotion for the &aposJumbo Tonkatsu'. After I found out about the promotion, I suddenly have the urge to eat 'Tonkatsu'. Therefore, as I had some spare time during last weekend, I decided to have my dinner at 'Tonkichi' branch located inside 'Takashimaya', which was the first 'Tonkichi' store located in Singapore also.. Yummy Yummy.

The following pictures were taken at the 'Tonkichi' store.

The exterior of the Takashimaya branch

Interior of the shop

Introduction to the food items in the store #1
Infamous dessert of the store - 'Coffee Jelly'
The sales of the dessert were as competitive as the sales of the 'Tonkatsu'

Introduction to the food items in the store #2 - 4
Left: Miso soup made with various kinds of vegetables and meat
Middle: Cabbage that were thinly sliced and Warm rice that can be topped up for free
Right: Homemade Curry that goes well with the 'Tonkatsu' and Warm rice

Table decoration

'Jumbo Katsu' Set Meal Comparing to the normal 'Tonkatsu', this is really a 'Jumbo Tonkatsu'. And it taste heavenly when you dipped slices of 'Tonkatsu' with the various kinds of sauces that was given with the set meal. The soup that comes with the set meal was so delicious that 3 bowls of rice was not enough for me to finish all the dishes given in this set meal. In the end I had 4 bowls of rice and despite eating too much food for a dinner, the food were delicious and satisfying. XD

The above image shows the promotion on the 'Jumbo Katsu'.

Note:
The 'Jumbo Katsu' Set Meal is only available at the Takashimaya 'Tonkichi' branch.

*Click here for my older post on 'Tonkatsu'

A Kueh or two...

The word 'Kueh' or 'Kue' isn't a word that can be found in a normal English Dictionary because it was't a English word in the first place. The meaning of the word 'Kue' in Bahasa Indonesia means cake. But what is so special about these cakes? Though I don't have a sweet tooth, these 'Kueh' were simply irresistible. :P

Us usual let us start with the photos of the good stuff first.

These are some of the stuff that the shop is selling and let us take a closer look.

They were pretty generous with the ingredients used in these coconut and egg tarts.
I took a bite on a coconut tart and it was so good and sweet. Yummy Yummy.

Tapioca 'Kueh' something that you cannot find in normal pastry store. :D

If you have Google the names shown in the photo itself, you probably would have
realise that most of these 'Kueh' had coconut in it. That was used to
add a sweet taste to the 'Kueh' and at the same time made them irresistible.

Left: Binka Ubi - Baked Tapioca cake
Right: Lemper Udang - Sambal Prawn Wrap with Rice and Banana leaves

This is one of my favourites. It's known as 'Kueh Dar Dar'. But I had to
control myself and limit myself with 1 piece per day due to the amount of
coconut that was stuffed inside it.

This shop also sell pastries like Cream Puffs and Donuts.

They also sell 'Kueh' that comes in a box for a group of people to share.

Just look at the color of the Kaya, doesn't it look appealing to you?

They also sell cookies like, Pineapple tart, Almond Green Tea Cookies,
Cherry Cookies, Chocolate Almond Cookies, Cornflake Raisins Cookies, etc...
Some of the combinations looks interesing, don't you think so?

They had set-up a corner for some other pastries. But do not expect too much
from this corner as I personally feel that most of their hard work goes into
the 'Kueh' than the pastries.

Although they sell cakes also, but these cakes were uniquely different from the
common Pasty store in Singapore

Some other 'Kuehs' that they are selling in the store. But mark my words,
some of the items were already sold out by Lunch hour.

The name of the store would be 'Galicier'. It was located near the main
branch of Tiong Bahru Bao and Tiong Bahru Market.
Click on the links below to find the exact location of the store. :D

Even though in Singapore we had shops like Bengawan Solo that specializing in selling various kinds of 'Kueh', cookies, etc. But, in comparison, I personally still prefer the 'Kuehs' at Galicier as it is much cheaper, much tastier and much bigger in size. Probably this is due to the fact that I used to work around that area and I will pop by the shop whenever I have the time during Lunch hours or on my way walking back home. :P

* Click here for the exact location of 'Galicier'.
^ Click here to find out more about Bengawan Solo.