Astons - Good and Delicious Western food @ affordable rates

This is one of the places that I have been visiting for the past few years for delicious and affordable western food. Best of all, they won't charge you the ridiculous 10% service charge at some of the branches, unlike some other restaurants that will charge you a 10% service charge when they have absolutely no services at all. I still remember that they only used to have a branch at Katong only, but over the past few years, they have been opening a branch after another and now I could say that they were widely spread around Singapore.

Here are some of the dishes that you can find at Astons:

Chargrill Chicken Set with 2 Side-dish (House Salad)

Double Up Chicken Set(Chargrill Chicken and Lemon Lime Chicken)
with 2 Side-dish(House Salad and Onion Rings)

Chargrill Chicken Chicken Set with 2 Side-dish(French Fries and Baked Potatoes)

Black Pepper Steak with 2 Side-dish(Baked Beans and House Salad)

Crispy Fried Chicken with 2 Side-dish(Potato Salad and Mashed Potato)

Teriyaki Chicken with 2 Side-dish(Tasty Rice and Onion Rings)

After looking at the photos, you could easily identify that all the set meals comes with 2 side dishes. And you are correct, at Astons, you can choose 2 different side dishes for free when you have placed an order for a set meal. (Ex: Chicken set, Steaks set, Fish set...)

Click here for the website of Astons.
Click here for the menu of Astons.

A taste that you grow up with - Dessert

Been a local living in a area pretty close to Tiong Bahru for the past 20+ years, One would definitely have dine at TIong Bahru market before. And frankly speaking, I still miss the old old Tiong Bahru wet market a lot. I remember that I had been eating the 'Chwee Kueh(水粿)' bought from Tiong Bahru Market ever since I was studying in the nearby kindergarten, having lunch at Tiong Bahru Market after my classes during my secondary school days and having my meals at Tiong Bahru Market during my weekends.

One would definitely miss the older days where most of the stalls in Tiong Bahru Market were providing cheap delicacies like, 'Lor Mee(卤面)', 'Chwee Kueh(水粿)', Soya Bean drink and much much more. Even though some of the stores can still be found in the new Tiong Bahru Market, the taste of the food were much inferior that what you can get in the past.

This is one of the stalls that I still make my constant visits up till today.

Tian Tian Yuan Dessert House (甜甜園甜品屋)

Left: Ice Cream Ice Kacang, Right: Chendol
Up till today, they are still providing cheap, delicious and big portions of desserts.
And they are open to special request to customise your desserts.
For example: I would place an order for Chendol or Ice Kacang
with only the ingredient of Red Bean alone, once in a short while.

Other delicacies of Tiong Bahru market includes the prawn noodles, western food, boneless chicken rice, hokkien noodle, etc.

Click here for the map of Tiong Bahru Market

More Information about 'Tian Tian Yuan Dessert House (甜甜園甜品屋)':

• It closes at 11 pm everyday

Note:

• Most of the stalls close pretty early as they will close the shop, once the ingredients ran out
• It could be very crowded during Lunch time on weekdays and Breakfast on every single day, as there is a wet market on the first floor

Zhong Hua Steamboat (中华火锅,拉面) at the intersection of Liang Seah Street and Beach Road

I think my stomach is taking over my mind almost like everyday... And it just happen to have the urge of eating steamboat. When it comes to the topic of steamboat, one of the best place to search for steamboat restaurants would be Bugis, Liang Seah Street. And we decided to tried the one at the intersection of Liang Seah Street and Beach Road.

Here are the photos taken that day.

They have a large variety of ingredients.
For example, a large spread of vegetables, noodles, seafood, poultry, etc...
They also have cooked food like Fried Bee Hoon, chilli crab, fried chicken, fried buns, etc...

Here's a close up of one of the plates of ingredients.
It's a mixture of seafood and poultry ingredients. I love to eat seafood when eating steambooat, especially when it comes to fish slices and prawns.

One word to describe the Si Chuan Ma La soup base, Shiok.
This is probably the best 'Si Chuan Ma La' steamboat soup base that I have tasted for years.
You can actually feel the spicy taste using your tongue and eventually making it numb.
More Shiok.
And one thing that make the soup completely different from the other 'Si Chuan Ma La' soup base was, some of the soup base out there had a thick layer of chilli oil in the soup and they would named it as a 'Si Chuan Ma La' soup but this one doesn't. You could actually identify the ingredients that they were using to make the soup base so tasty.

One thing that I would always do when it comes to steamboat would be the step of throwing in noodles into the soup base. The 'Si Chuan Ma La' soup base could blend with the noodles very well giving it a very delicious taste but as for the 'Herbal Chicken' soup base, that noodles and the soup base doesn't blend together very nicely.

Here's their contact number: 63371655
Click here for the location of the steamboat restaurant

Note:

• Drinks are provided for free, but most of the drinks are soft drinks
• Try to make a reservation before going as the place was very crowded, especially during weekends

Ya kun isn't the only place for Kaya Bread in Singapore

When it comes to Kaya bread, most of the Singaporeans will think of Ya Kun almost immediately. And I do agree that it's one of the most common chain of coffee shop in Singapore. However, there's another place that prepares the Kaya Bread in a way that is similar to Ya Kun.

Let me introduce you to...

Five Foot Way Kaya Bread stall located at Tanglin Halt Market.
This is the same market where you can find Wei Yi Laksa.

Let us move away from Kaya Bread for a short while and turn our head a bit.
Here you go the long queue outside 'Wei Yi' Laksa as usual. (I'm drooling again~~~)

These are the ingredients inside the Kaya Bread and its almost similar to what you are getting from Ya Kun and yet you don't need to waste a lot of time waiting and queueing up.
Okay back to my Kaya Bread. Ittadakimasu~~~

More Information about 'Five Foot Way':

• It only operates during Breakfast and Lunch hours
• There will only be selling a limited slices of Kaya Bread everyday, so if you would want to grab a slice of it, I would recommend you to turn up early.

More Information about Tanglin Halt Market:

• Most of the stores operation for Breakfast and Lunch hours only.
• Other delicacy includes Laksa, Soya Bean and Soya Bean drink, etc

Bak Kut Teh（肉骨茶） - An old time favourite

I have been living in the area pretty close to Tiong Bahru for the past 20+ years. There were a lot of Bak Kut Teh store located in this area. If I'm not mistaken, there were more than 10 Bak Kut Teh stores within a walking distance of 30 minutes. Hence, I decided to pay a visit to one of the stores which is...

Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh（亞華肉骨茶）

Ya Hwa Bak Kut Teh and some other dishes
Peanuts（花生） Preserved Vegetables（梅菜） and Youtiao（油条）	Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh（亞華肉骨茶）

Although, Bak Kut Teh in Singapore is slightly a bit costly, but after tasting and trying numerous Bak Kut Teh stores in Singapore, this is one of the better ones. The service provided by the place is considerably good as compared to the other Bak Kut Teh stores. For example, the waitress would top up the soup of the Bak Kut Teh automatically, topping up of the soup is free and the best part is the Bak Kut given in each bowl of Bak Kut Teh was fantastic. Even though the soup had a lot of pepper in it, I still managed to empty the soup of the Bak Kut Teh a few times.

Click here for the location of Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh.

New Sapporo Ramen Restaurant 'Sa No Maru'

I had been taking Japanese lessons at Ikoma Language School since last year. According to my Japanese teacher, there was a new Ramen shop at TripleOne Somerset. Therefore, I decided to give it a try when I'm free.

This is a photo of 'Sa No Maru', which serves Sapporo Ramen.

'Sa no Maru' Sapporo Ramen shop (Interior)

After looking at some photos...

here comes "Spicy Miso Special Ramen".

The taste of the Sapporo Ramen was similar to the Sapporo Ramen that I had tasted at Sapporo Ramen 'Miharu' located at Gallery Hotel a few years ago. The taste and ingredients of the Ramen of both Ramen shops were almost similar.

Note:Sapporo Ramen 'Sa No Maru' also sells dishes that you can find at a Japanese Izakaya.

It's that season of the year again for....

Durians... In fact I was thinking of writing about another Ramen shop that I had visited last week, but it just so so happen that I had durians for supper yesterday... Hence I writing about durians now since this is the best season for good durians... :D

Before showing you sinful photos of good Durians (猫山王), here's a youtube video that will always reminds me of Durians... V(O.O)V Whahahaha~~~ Upon listening to the song, does it reminds you of Durians also..? Whahahaha~~~

After popping one flesh after the other, I suddenly realised
that I had finished eating 1 big Durian. Whahahaha~~~

Look at the flesh of this Durian so solid and tasty. :D
Yummy yummy... Ittadakimasu~~~

Note:

• Dispite of the fact that it is the Durian season now, please drink lots of water after eating especially when it haven't been raining for the past few days
• One of the best places to find cheap and good Durian would be Geylang Road where it has 1 whole stretch of stalls selling Durians