Last post for this year - Greetings

Today is 'Christmas Eve'. Therefore...

Thanks for all your help and support.
And I wish you a Merry Christmas.

and a Happy New Year.

Actually, from tomorrow onwards, I will be travelling overseas.
Therefore, I wouldn't be updating the blog(s) for a very long time.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused. Well then, I would see you next year.

Simplicity...

After spending some time trying a few types of dishes, I decided to take a rest by giving some of the simple stuff a try. For example...

A bowl of 'Sliced Fish Century Egg Congee'
Well, if you are not feeling well and yet you know that you need to have
some food to gain back some energy to move on forward, the congee over
here would be the thing for you. The congee over here are pretty smooth
and the fragrance of the congee are pretty nice. In fact, the grains
were so fine that it makes it pretty easy to digest the food over here.
The taste of the ingredients are pretty normal though. On top of that,
the 'Youtiao', also known as crispy fried fritter, is a big disappointment
too. Though the ends of the 'Youtiao' are pretty crispy, but the body of
the 'Youtiao' isn't crispy enough.

So where can you give the congee a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Xin Mei Congee'(欣美粥品).
It's located inside 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  7am - 11:30pm Daily
• By the way, besides for the common type of congee, they also serve a few types of special congee. For example: 'Sliced Fish & Cuttlefish Congee', 'Prawn Ball Congee', etc...

* Click here for the list of delicacies that you can get in 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.
^ Click here for the location of "Old Airport Road Food Centre" on Google Maps.

Nostalgic Digital Queue Meter

Numerous posts earlier, I have mentioned about the method of using/installing a Digital Queue Meter at a stall to reduce the amount of time needed to queue up for the food. Therefore...

'Wanton Noodles'
After placing your order, you will be getting a queue number. And as
far as I could remember, this was one of the earliest stall that have
implement the idea of installing a Digital Queue Meter System.

After spending 15 minutes of waiting time, I finally got my food.

Let's just set aside the boring bowl of soup and focus more on the bowl
of noodles. The taste of the few slices of 'Char Siew'(Roasted Pork) are
simply too marvellous. The texture are pretty good and it's delicious.
As for the noodles, it's pretty chewy, springy and it's pretty easy to
break them into smaller pieces. However, the 'Wanton' over here are
pretty normal. I can't decide whether it's the skin of the 'Wanton' that's
a little bit too thick or it's the proportion of ingredients used in the
'Wanton' that doesn't seems right. Either ways, judging based on the
noodles and the 'Char Siew' alone, the food over here are pretty good,
but once you add the 'Wanton' in, the food have ended up to be good only.

So where can you give the noodles a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Cho Kee Noodles'(曹记云吞面).
It's located inside 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  11:30am - 11:30pm Daily

* Click here for the list of delicacies that you can get in 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.
^ Click here for the location of "Old Airport Road Food Centre" on Google Maps.

Not so comical Old Master Q (老夫子)

If you are into comics or to be more precise, Hong Kong comics, you must be pretty familiar with the term 'Old Master Q'(老夫子). And the main topic of this post have something to do with it...

'Char Kway Teow'(炒粿条)
While queueing up for a plate of 'Char Kway Teow', I realised that if you
are not dining at the food centre, you can get a packet of 'Char Kway Teow'
that is wrap up using the 'Opeh Leaf'. Pretty much similar to the 'Banana
Leaf', it was believed that by using 'Opeh Leaf' to wrap up the food, the
leaf will help to keep the food warmer for a longer period of time and it
could increase the aroma of the food too. :D Seriously, I prefer this
method of wrapping all the food as compared to all the plastic containers
or styrofoam box that are't Eco-friendly at all.

Anyway food wise, quite a few different ingredients were added in order to
perfect the taste of this dish. Besides for the small portion of Noodles
and 'Kway Teow', there's ingredients like cockles, scrambled egg, a bit of
'Chinese Sausages'(腊肠), bean sprouts, a bit of green vegetables and most
importantly, a bit of chilli. Taste wise, I think that the 'Char Kway Teow'
here is pretty acceptable. Firstly, the cockles were fried properly and
it's pretty fresh. Secondly, the dark sauce and the chilli were evenly
spread. On top of that, you will be getting a nice aroma as you started
putting the food into your mouth. Best of all, the 'Char Kway Teow' didn't
ended up to be too wet or too dry, which makes it a pleasant eating
experience for everyone. :D

So where's the link between the food and 'Old Master Q'(老夫子)?

The name of this stall would be 'Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow'(老夫子炒粿條).
It's located inside 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Weekdays: 11am - 11:30pm
  Weekends: 10am - 11:30pm
• Though the queue isn't crazily long, but if you are dining there in a big group, I would highly suggest that one of you would go and queue up for the food at this stall first.

* Click here for the list of delicacies that you can get in 'Old Airport Road Food Centre'.
^ Click here for the location of "Old Airport Road Food Centre" on Google Maps.

Path to become Ironman

I went to one of the local Blood Bank to donate my blood yesterday. However to my dismay, I think I haven't been taking a lot of food that are rich in Iron, therefore I cannot make a blood donation due to the lack of iron in my blood. Therefore...

Here's a list of Iron Rich Food, that I have taken from the local Blood Bank. I hope that you would find this useful. :D

Foods	Serving	Weight (g)	Iron Content (mg)
Rice and Altematives
Rice, brown	1 bowl	200	1.0
Pasta, wholemeal	1 portion	100	1.8
Bread, wholemeal	1 slice	30	1.0
Wheatgerm	1 teaspoon	15	1.1
Wheatbran	1 tablespoon	15	1.8
Branflakes	3/4 cup	30	5.0
Cornflakes	1 cup	30	3.6
Fruits
Apricot, semi-dried	10 halves	35	1.2
Dates, black, dried	10	90	3.3
Dates, red, dried	10	90	3.0
Raisins	1 packet	42	1.5
Longan, dried	1/2 cup	65	3.5
Fig, dried	10	85	3.6
Prunes, semi-dried	10	85	2.2
Peach, fresh	one	155	1.6
Vegetables
Kale, chinese (Kai Lan)	1 cup	65	1.3
Spinach (Bayam Pasir)	1 cup	30	1.5
Kang Kong	1 cup	30	1.6
Chinese Cabbage (Bok Choy)	1/2 cup	85	0.8
Mustard Leaves, Chye Sim	1 cup	55	0.7
Seaweed, dried (Hai Tai)	1 sheet	15	3.3
Sea Moss (Fa Chai)	1 pinch	10	9.9
Meat and Alternatives
Beef, lean	1 palm sized piece	90	2.8
Pork, lean	1 palm sized piece	90	1.2
Mutton, lean	1 palm sized piece	90	2.1
Chicken, skinless	1 palm sized piece	90	0.8
Fish	1 fillet	90	1.2
Pork Liver	2 slice	30	3.1
Chicken Liver	one	50	5.1
Pig Kidney	one	230	13.8
Egg Yolk, hard boiled	one	17	0.8
Egg, whole, hard boiled	one	50	0.9
Ikan Bilis	2 toblespoon	15	0.6
Prawns, dried	1 teaspoon	5	0.7
Oyster, fresh	12	60	3.7
Sardine, canned in tomato	one fish	40	1.8
Soya beancurd, Tauhu	1 small square	85	1.9
Cashew Nut	1/2 cup	65	5.0
Pistachio	1/2 cup	65	2.5
Walnut	1/2 cup	50	1.5
Lotus Seed	1/2 cup	15	0.6
Almond	2 tablespoon	30	1.2
Sunflower Seed	1/2 cup	70	3.2
Watermelon Seed	1/2 cup	50	3.1
Soya bean, White	1/2 cup	50	3.0
Lentil	1 cup	180	14.4
Gram, Green	1 cup	250	13.8
Gram, Red	1 cup	250	10.5

The King of Osaka

Recently, there seems to be a great increase in the number of Japanese restaurants. There are new Japanese cafeteria's, all sorts of Japanese restaurants, etc... and some of them looks pretty interesting.

'Gyoza set meal'
The rice is too sticky. ==""
And unlike the normal Japanese set meal that comes with a bowl of
'Miso' soup, the set meal that they are serving over here, comes
with something different. It comes with a bowl of soup that is
pretty much similar to the Chinese soup, 'Egg drop soup'(蛋花湯).
Though this isn't 'miso soup', but it's still pretty delicious.

This would be our main focus of this post, which is the delicious
'Pan-Fried Dumplings'(Japanese Gyoza). One thing to note, would be
the fact that the 'Pan-Fried Dumplings' over here aren't too greasy.
However, probably due to the amount of ingredients that they have
stuffed into the dumplings, some of the dumplings have break open
automatically, which make the appearance of the dumplings to become
slightly much more uglier. :(

According to varies resources on the Internet, this dish was founded
in Japan. Basically the 'Ten-Shin Han' are made up of the following
steps. Taking a bowl of rice and cover it with a fluffy egg and pour
a special sauce over it. The appearance of this dish reminds me of a
omelette rice, which reminds me of the sun, which is beautiful. And
as you started mixing all the ingredients together and pop a mouthful
of ingredients into your mouth, the taste is pretty nice and the egg
is big enough to accompany you to the very last bite. :P
(Ever since I'm a kid, I have the habit of pouring a bowl of soup into
a bowl of rice before finishing everything. Therefore, I don't see a
reason why I shouldn't be giving this dish a try.)

The name of the restaurant would be 'Osaka Ohsho' and it's located on basement 1 of 'Raffles City Shopping Mall'. Besides for the 'Pan-Fried Dumplings', they also serve a large variety of Japanese food/set meals.

Operating Hours:

• 11:30am - 10:00pm

* Click here to find out more about 'Osaka Ohsho'.
^ Click here to find out more about 'Osaka Ohsho' in Japan. (Japanese website)
~ Click here to find out more about 'Raffles City Shopping Mall'.

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).

Wrapping all the ingredients like a Present

I was walking around this new shopping mall, hoping that I could find something new and interesting. I happen to walk past this shop and I decided to give it a try. :)

Here's a 10" Big Ocean Wrap With Special Burnt.
It looks like a Candy Bar and the skin of the
wrap reminds me of a 'Naan', in fact it is a 'Naan'.

The concept behind the wrap reminds me of a 'Shawarma'. However,
the vegetables used in the wrap are pretty much similar to a bowl
of cold salad and the the meaty stuff are served warm. If I'm not
mistaken, by default most of the wraps come with vegetables like
lettuce, shredded white and red carrot and cucumber. On top of the
nice vegetables that you are getting, depending on the type of wrap
that you have selected, the ingredients can varies. As for the 'Big
Ocean Wrap', it comes with 'Juicy Fish Tikka' and 'Healthy Fresh
Greens with Mint Yoghurt'. Once you started taking a bite from the
wrap, the mixture of warm and cold fresh and crunchy ingredients
are pretty neat. Since this is much more smaller than a 'Shawarma',
it makes it much more convenient for the busy people working around
that area to have a healthy and delicious meal on the go. :P

So where can you give the interesting wraps a try?

The name of this place would be 'Simply Wrapps'.
It's located on level 3 of '100AM', or previously known as
'Amara Hotel Shopping Mall'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  10am - 10pm Daily

* Click here to find out more about 'Simply Wrapps'.
^ Click here for the Facebook Page of 'Simply Wrapps'.
~ Click here to find out more about '100AM'.
! Click here for the Facebook Page of '100AM'.
# Click here for the location of '100AM' on 'Google Maps'.

A whole year of surprises...

Which can give you a whole year of surprises? And my take to the question would be 'Food' and I'm not referring to the topic 'Food', but a type of 'Happy Food' and that would be...

'Large Scoop', which is a combination of 2 scoops of 4oz ice cream

Choice of flavours would be:

'Banana Yoghurt' (Top)
Except for the interesting taste of Banana, I have absolutely no idea
why they have given this ice cream flavour a 'Yoghurt' name.

'Pistachio Almonds' (Bottom)
As for this it's pretty interesting. Besides for the nice 'Pistachio'
taste that reminds me of 'Chinese New Year', the ice cream also comes
with roasted Almonds, which kinda acts like a topping to me. While
one is busy licking the ice cream away, the idea of biting on the
roasted almonds and getting attacked by the nice aroma of almonds
just simple turns my appetite on.

By the way, the texture of the ice cream over here seems to be pretty
sticky/hard. I have a hard time trying to scrub off a small bit of the
ice cream using the plastic spoon. I wonder how will it ended up if I
have gone with the ice cream cone idea...

So where can you try the nice ice cream?

The name of this ice cream place would be 'Baskin Robbins'.
They have a few outlets island-wide and what I have shown in this
post would be the outlet located on level 1 of 'Tiong Bahru Plaza'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  10am - 10pm
• They seems to have numerous ongoing promotions happening every single day. Do visit their website to find out more. :D

* Click here to find out more about 'Baskin Robbins Singapore'.
^ Click here for the Facebook Page of 'Baskin Robbins Singapore.'

The milky way of Laksa

Usually when I think of a bowl of 'Laksa', it should be a bowl of noodles and a strong orange colour bowl of soup. However, it seems that there are exceptions...

'Laksa'
Pretty much the same as how a Singaporean would describe a bowl of
'Laksa', you will be using a spoon to finish up the whole bowl of
'Laksa' over here. All the ingredients used in the preparing this
small little bowl of 'Laksa' are in bite size. After taking a few
bites from this bowl of 'Laksa', I come to recognise the fact that
the 'Laksa' soup was very milky. Though it's still a 'Laksa' soup,
however the sweet taste is much more stronger than the spicy taste.
And as and when you put a spoonful of ingredients and 'Laksa' soup
into your mouth, the taste of the 'Laksa' is remarkably good~~~

So where can you give this milky 'Laksa' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Marine Parade Laksa - The Original
Katong Laksa'(正宗加东叻沙). It's located on level 1 of 'Roxy Square'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  9am - 9pm

* Click here for the location of 'Roxy Square' on Google Maps.

Time for some Xlb...?

And by the way 'Xlb' isn't a facial expression. 'Xlb' means...

'Xiao Long Bao'(小笼包)
The skin is neither too thick nor too thin, but one think that I'm
pretty certain would be the taste of it. It's amazingly delicious.
Once you started popping one of them into your mouth and as you
started biting the 'Xiao Long Bao', the juicy soup and the ingredients
will burst inside your mouth and beware, these small little things
can be pretty hot. Besides for the taste, the other thing that I like
about the 'Xiao Long Bao' over here would be the skin. With the skin
that they have used in the 'Xiao Long Bao', the skin wrapping up all
the ingredients together doesn't break so easily. On top of that,
the skin, the soup and the ingredients has formed a beautiful triangle
of great taste. And if any one of them have been changed, I think that
the 'Xiao Long Bao' would not taste as great as what they have now.

Before I jump to the name and the location of this restaurant, let me start off by explaining a bit on how I knew about this place. I was working near that area close to 10 years ago and I'm getting a lot of positive feedbacks about the food of the restaurant from my ex-colleagues back then. But, the drawback would be the crowd that appear during lunch and dinner hours, which increases the amount of waiting time. In fact, this restaurant was so famous that the Japanese are common customers of this place. (:P)

The name of this restaurant would be 'Jing Hua Eating House'(京华小吃),
which is previously known as 'Qun Zhong'(群众). It's located along
'Neil Road', which is pretty near 'Maxwell Food Centre' too.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  Lunch: 11:30am - 3:00pm
  Dinner: 5:30pm - 9:30pm
  (Closed on Wednesdays)

* Click here for the location of 'Jing Hua Eating House'(京华小吃) on Google Maps.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies along 'Neil Road'.

Eating a Dinosaur...

Not referring to the drink 'Milo Dinosaur' over here. What I'm going to write about today would be a kind of food that I love pretty much and that would be...

'Dinosaur Prawn Noodles'(Dry)(恐龙大虾面)
Just by taking a look at this, my jaws are dropping already. I haven't
seen prawns that are so big since the early 90s. Anyway let's set the
humongous prawns aside first. Besides for the prawns, what makes this
bowl of noodles interesting are the special paste and the other
ingredients(Pork Ribs, Vegetables, Fried Onions, Noodles) that they have
added into the bowl of noodles. Once you started stirring all the
ingredients thoroughly and started savouring the noodles, the taste is
pretty interesting. The overall taste are pretty sweet and the noodles
are pretty chewy and springy, which is pretty nice. :D On top of that,
the vegetables and the meaty stuff blend in together pretty good too.
Next, let's move forward to the bowl of soup.

Just by looking at the bowl of soup alone, simply explains a lot of stuff.
Though the colour of the soup looks pretty dull, but just by looking at
the small little bits floating on the soup means that they have added
quite a variety of ingredients in the preparation of the soup. And the
taste of it is pretty sweet and fantastic nice. The mixture of pork ribs
and prawns give the soup the wonderful great taste. Yummy. (Come to think
of it, why didn't I tried asking for another round of soup?)

Time to move back to the main attraction of the dish, which is the 'prawns'.
Though all the prawns are pretty fresh and even the prawn head are given,
but I decided to have a little bit of fun, therefore I have set aside one
of the prawns into the bowl of soup before digging into the noodles. When
I was comparing the prawns from both bowls, it seems that the 'dry' version
of the prawn seems to be much more boring while the taste of the 'soup'
version seems to be much more richer in taste. Probably I should try the
soupy version of the 'Dinosaur Prawn Noodles' the next time round. (... But
wait, which means I wouldn't be getting the nice noodles... ==""")

So where can you give the 'Dinosaur' a try?

The name of this restaurant would be 'Old House'(老屋).
It's located along 'Neil Road', which is pretty near
'Maxwell Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  10am - 4am Daily
• By the way, some of the specialities over there includes stuff like 'Heng Hua Lor Mee'(兴化卤面), 'Home Made Ngoh Hiong'(自制五香), etc... (Just by taking a look at all the food photos make me hungry again. :P)

* Click here to find out more about 'Old House'(老屋).
^ Click here for the location of 'Old House'(老屋) on Google Maps.

Is this the real Katong Laksa...?

'Katong Laksa', one of the infamous local delights in Singapore. However, as time passes and things tend to change, you dont't really get to see so many 'Laksa' stalls located near 'Katong' area. Therefore, here's the main question, is this the real thing?

'Laksa'
This particular variant of 'Laksa' is pretty simple. The ingredients
used are bean sprouts, prawns, slices of fish cakes, the thicker type
of rice noodles and most importantly the 'Laksa' soup. Setting the
delicious ingredients aside, the 'Laksa' soup is pretty interesting.
The 'Laksa' soup have a pretty strong coconut taste and at the same
time it's pretty spicy. This can be pretty rare since most of the
'Laksa' soup out there are either too milky or too spicy and it's
pretty rare to come across such a good blend of sweet and spicy taste. :D

So where can you try this interesting bowl of 'Laksa'?

The name of this stall would be 'Roxy Laksa & Prawn Noodles'.
It's located inside 'East Coast Lagoon Food Village'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  10:30am - 9pm(Weekdays)
  8:30am - 9pm(Weekends)
  Closed on Wednesday
• By the way, the stall owner seems to be "The only 3rd generation from the original 'Roxy Theatre'" Laksa stall back in the 60s. Well, basically I'm not that old, therefore it's impossible for me to tell you how good or how bad it tasted as compared to back then. However, based on what I have tasted a few days ago, I think that the 'Laksa' over here is pretty worth trying. :P

* Click here for the location of 'East Coast Lagoon Food Village' on Google Maps.