Thursday 27 February 2014

My way of having a good appetite...?

So what is my favourite way of having a good appetite? I guess that would be feasting on a big variety of dishes at one go. :D And it can be kinda boring if you are feasting on the same type of food at one go(imagine feasting on 5 or 6 plates of barbecue meat at one go), therefore it must be a variety of different types of dishes. And on top of that, things would get better and better if it ended up to be a big selection of small dishes. Therefore, I couldn't resist...

'Dim Sum Buffet'
I'm always keeping a lookout for good 'Dim Sum Buffet' to try. With a good pot of Tea
and a big variety of dishes, I seriously wouldn't mind giving the 'Dim Sum Buffet'
of different Chinese restaurants a try on every weekend. :D As mentioned on my blog
over and over again, 'Dim Sum' are pretty much similar to 'Sushi'. These dishes are
pretty small in portion and they could easily burn a hole in your wallet. Anyway let's
move on to some of the dishes that they are offering over here.

'Poached Pork Wanton in Spicy & Chilli Oil'(紅油炒手)
Although the 'Wanton' are pretty tasty and meaty, but the sauce isn't fantastic enough.
Basically the sauce isn't spicy enough and it would taste much better if they prepare
it differently. Without the correct sauce, these 'Wanton' can never reach the top.

'Pan Fried Dumpling'(鍋貼)
Not too greasy and parts of the skin are nice and crispy. And all the 'Pan Fried
Dumplings' over here are bite sized. Best of all, there's a good mix of vegetables and
minced meat, which makes it pretty good.

How can we leave the table empty? Since it's a 'Dim Sum Buffet', we should continue
to cover the table with 'Dim Sum' dishes.... Whahahaha~~~~

'Four Seasons Pork Dumpling'(四方餃)
Not all the 'Dim Sum' restaurants have this. This is a normal dumpling with 4 openings
on top and each of the opening will be populated with a different type of ingredient.
The base is pretty much similar to those of a juicy 'Xiao Long Bao'. Therefore, for
this 'Dumpling', there's a mix of crunchy & juicy ingredients, which makes this a (+).

Top Left: Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumpling(蝦籽燒賣)
Middle: Steamed Shrimp Dumpling(水晶鮮蝦餃)
Bottom Right: Salted Egg Custard Bun(流沙包)
Hmm... The 'Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumpling' & the 'Steamed Shrimp Dumpling' are
pretty normal, not something that is deliciously exciting. But the 'Salted Egg
Custard Bun' is pretty good. The thick filling is a (+). Not only it tastes good,
when you have it with the 'Pandan Bun', you ended up getting something that not
only tastes good, it smells good too. However, do be careful, the fiery filling
can burn your tongue easily..

'Sliced Chicken in Spicy Sauce'(口水雞)
Besides for 'Dim Sum', they also have included sides dishes like these. The
slices of chilling tender chicken are pretty nice. However, the supposed-to-be
spicy sauce, isn't exciting enough for me. Would be perfect if they can spice
it up a bit more.

'Deep Fried Pork Rib with Spicy Mango Sauce'(香芒排骨)
We have placed 2 separate orders for this dish. The first plate ended up to
be heavenly. But the second one turns out to be pretty bad. When it's good,
not only it's coated with a layer of mango, while chewing on the pork ribs,
the nice concentrate fragrance of mangoes are bursting inside my mouth which
makes it an enjoyable dining experience. :)

Left: Chilled Durian & Fresh Cream in Pan Cake(榴蓮糕)
Right: Warm Fuzhou Yam Pudding(香麻芋泥)
We have given all the desserts over here a try too. And this is the best.
The appearance of it reminds me of the super oldie 'Golden Pillow'... =.=""
Either ways, each spoonful of this dessert comes with a strong aroma of
'Durian' and cream. And the chefs over here might have added too much filling
into the pan cake, such that the filling were flowing out of the pan cake
once you cut a small opening off it. This has pretty much explains why this
is the first item that is strike off the menu for the day.

Here's a copy of the menu of this 'Dim Sum' menu. They have also listed down
stuff like deep fried 'Dim Sum', 'Baked Dim Sum', 'Noodles', 'Congee', etc...

The name of this restaurant would be 'Ju Chun Yuan'(聚春園).
It's located in a corner of 'Far East Square'.

Notes:
  • Daily Opening Hours:
    Lunch: 11:30 - 15:30
    Dinner: 18:00 - 22:30
  • Dim Sum Lunch Buffet: 11:30 - 15:30
  • Do take note, depending on the demand, most of the popular items might be sold out before 1 or 2pm in the afternoon.
  • Do try and make your reservations as early as possible, as the empty seats are getting filled up pretty early...

* Click here to find out more about 'Ju Chun Yuan'(聚春園).
^ Click here for the Facebook page of 'Ju Chun Yuan'(聚春園).

Monday 17 February 2014

Love 4 Taiwanese Chick?

Since I have been hanging out the Bugis area quite often, the small alleys of 'Bugis Village' are pretty interesting. There are numerous shops selling all the different types of small bites and the post today has something to do with it...

'Extra Crispy Chicken'(香炸雞排) a.k.a 'Ella'
The first interesting point about the 'main dishes' over here are the names.
All the 'main dishes' were named after a well-known Taiwanese artiste. For example,
'Ella' is the name of one out of the three artistes of the female group 'S.H.E'
in Taiwan. And though in terms of the size the Crispy Chicken over here isn't the
biggest in Singapore but the taste is pretty good. The crispy texture and the
tender, juicy meat combination is pretty good. However even though this is the
main dish I think that in terms of the taste that I'm getting from this 'main
dish', it's not as fantastic as the...
'Sweet Potato'(甘梅地瓜)
Since I'm not into 'French Fries', I decided to go ahead with this side dish.
This ended up to be much much better than normal 'French Fries'. Firstly, the
nice crunchy texture of the 'Sweet Potato' is already a big (+). Secondly, the
deep fried 'Sweet Potato' has this bright orangey color that not only looks
good, it also tastes pretty good too. Third but not least, the nice sweet taste
of the 'Sweet Potato'. Though it's coated with 'Plum Powder' but I'm not really
getting the taste of the 'Plum Powder'. Either it's the sweet taste of the 'Sweet
Potato' that is far too overpowering or the 'Plum Powder' isn't strong enough.
'Caramel Milk Tea with Grass Jelly'(仙草焦糖奶茶)
Even though the sweet taste of the 'Milk Tea' isn't that bad, but it's not special
enough too. Though with the extra portion of 'Grass Jelly', it have added the
chewy sensation to the drink itself but it's a bit too normal as compared to the
'Main' and the 'Side Dish'. :|
The name of this shop would be 'I Love Taimei'(我愛台妹).
All the outlets are located inside 'Bugis' area.
Notes:
  • Operating Hours:
    12:00 - 20:00 Daily
* Click here to find out more about 'I love Taimei'(我愛台妹).
^ Click here for the Facebook page of 'I love Taimei'(我愛台妹).
~ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find in 'Bugis' area.

Monday 10 February 2014

No interest in the genuinity...

Frankly speaking, regardless of the genuinity of this stall, whether it has a long history or not, the most important thing about an ordinary food stall and/or a classy restaurant would be the food that they are serving over there.

'Char Siew and Roasted Meat Rice'
Initially I have placed an order for a plate of roasted meat rice, but I ended
up going for an extra portion of 'Char Siew'(barbecued pork meat) too. And...

Just by taking a good look at the texture of the slices of 'Char Siew', you can
identify how reflective they were. I believe that the more reflective they were,
the more juicier the slices of 'Char Siew' were. Hence reflective means juicer
meat but too reflective means too raw... But the 'Char Siew' over here were
amazingly good. Not only they were juicy, they were both chewy and tasty too.

As for the roasted meat, the crispy skin is a big (+) but I don't really like the
stiff meaty part of the roasted meat. Though it's not as stiff as similar stalls
out there but I'm just not into this type of roasted meat. Too bad they didn't
sell the skin part separately else I would like to go for the skin only.

Anyway, don't forget about the different types of sauces that they are offering
over here. The sweet and dark sauce blends with the meat slices pretty well but
I would strongly encourage you to go for the nice combination of the dark sauce
and the not too watery chilli sauce. In fact the sauce combination is so good
that I could easily finish the whole plate of rice with it. :D

So where can you give this sinful plate of rice a good try?
The name of this stall would be
'Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted'(正宗中峇鲁金豬燒腊).
It's located inside 'Tiong Bahru Market'.

Notes:
  • Operating Hours:
    07:00 - 20:00 Daily
  • On a separate note, if you have been staying in the 'Tiong Bahru' area for a long period of time, you would know that 'Tiong Bahru Market' is infamous for the Chinese roasted golden pig, which is a must have for a Chinese celebration. ;P Therefore after the major makeover of 'Tiong Bahru Market', it seems that there are more and more stalls specializing in preparing and selling roasted meat. So which stall is the trend setter? I don't really care.
* Click here for the location of 'Tiong Bahru Market' on Google Maps.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find & get near 'Tiong Bahru Market'.

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Plate of ingredients...

This reminds me of the good old days where I used to have my lunch at the market behind my Primary School. (Since there's a long break between the classes, I have to do that especially when the school canteen doesn't have any food left after the lunch hours.) Even though the place doesn't have a air conditional environment but it does have...

'Kway Chap'
With a plate of interesting ingredients and a bowl of 'Kway'(Rice Noodles),
it can satisfy your taste bud easily. :D

For a start, the bowl of silky 'Kway' is pretty smooth and the flavour
soup is pretty good. It gets better and better since they have sprinkle
fried spring onions all over the bowl of 'Kway' it.

As for the plate of ingredients, it's kinda a bit too small for me.
But there's a wide range of ingredients inside. There's the usual porky
stuff like intestines, braised meat, stomach and not forgetting ingredients
like braised egg, fish cake, fried beancurd and also salted vegetables.
But I do like the chewy intestines and stomach, the tender braised meat
and the salty yet crunchy vegetables. Best of all, most of the ingredients
have absorbed the nice taste of the braised sauce and it doesn't end up to
be super salty. However, as mentioned earlier it would be great if they
can increase the portion a bit more O.O... :P

So where can you give the 'Kway Chap' a good try?
The name of this stall would be 'Tong Luck Restaurant'(忠乐餐室).
It's located inside 'Boon Lay Place Food Village'.

Notes:
  • Operating Hours:
    05:00 - 12:00 Daily
    (Closed on Mondays - Wednesdays)
* Click here for the location of 'Boon Lay Place Food Village' on 'Google Maps'.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in 'Boon Lay Place Food
  Village'.