Beach Road 剪刀剪咖哩饭

I guess this place needs no intro with the adults, as this place is pretty popular. And out of all their lame food court franchises where they charge us at exorbitant prices, this original store is by far the best in price, portion and taste.. I ever had a friend, who went to the bugis junction food court branch, and order 2 vegetables and 1 meat, without rice, and was charged like $5+ for that o.o

This is located at 229 Jalan Besar road S(208905), pretty near mustafa, so if you guys know how to get to mustafa, its within a  short 10mins walking distance! And its open till 3.30am! Awesome or what, good supper place to be at!

They have lotsa dishes when you come at the right time when they refill all their dishes, and they are all fresh and hot! They have awesome pork chops, both crispy and braised. They have awesome ngoh hiangs as well. And if you dont mind spicy food, you should try their chilli onion mussels, not for faint hearted and weak stomachs! And they always drizzle it with their thick and smooth curry and braised sauce! 

Basically, the 3 plates that my parents ordered had variation, one was egg braised porkchops and cabbage, one was curry chicken wings ngoh hiang and cabbage, one was crispy porkchop, egg and cabbage. But they all looked the same after the thick sauce drizzle!

Oh and one more dish you should order if you managed to see it! Their super crispy prawn fritters! Its 70cents for a piece though, but super worth! 

And if you guys need soup to accompany the rice, they sell their daily soup at $3 for a big bowl. That day i had bitter gourd soup, i hate bittergourd, but the soup was really palatable, not in the least bit bitter at all. I tried their boiled soup a few times, and they never failed me. Not too salty, and yummy! I tried their ABC soup before as well, not bad.. 

So total, we ordered 3 plates of rice with 3 ingredients each, and 1 plate of 3 ingredients with no rice, then a plate of 8 prawn fritters, as well as a bowl of soup, costing us only $21.80 in total! Super value food!

红油抄手 @ Bedok 85

Hi Everyone, its been awhile, today I'll be sharing a szechuan delicacy that I love eating since I first tried it at Bedok 85. I do not know how it originally tastes like, or how awesome it should taste, but the Bedok 85 one definitely pass my standard for richness in taste! And also, from what I recalled, it tasted better than my "virgin" experience with 红油抄手 at Swee Choon dim sum..

Look at this awesome plate of goodness! Doesn't it look so appetizing to you? 8 juicy & succulent dumplings for $4.00! Its like super fat wanton, that is freshly steamed and drenched in those HK kind of sambal chilli oil and vinegar. 

What I love about this dumplings? EVERYTHING!!! Worth the value, spicyness just right for me, sourness as well... What I love even more is their Chinchalok Chilli sauce, that i always add to every bite of my dumpling, along with more vinegar and ginger shreds.. Do beware it is not for the faint hearted, as it may get pretty spicy. (And if you don't know what Chinchalok is, wiki says "is a Malaccan food made of fermented small shrimps or krill.")

I apologize, was too famished yesterday, didn't get to take the photo of the shopfront, but it is quite easy to find, there's only one xiao long bao stall that operates in the row where the famous chai chee porridge and BBQ chicken wings are located, about 2-3 stores to the left of the chicken wing stores, refer to address below:
Block 85 Bedok North Street 4

#01-17 Fengshan Market & Food Centre,

Singapore 460085

XOXO,
CheryL

Good Bak Kut Teh!

Well, different brands of Bak Kut Teh (BKT) have different magic formula when it comes to creating their signature tasting BKT. Some like the really peppery types, some like the really herbal types, and some like clear white soup type, some like the dark soup type. In this entry, i will be listing down two of my favourite BKT stalls!

I patronized Song Fa's BKT's newest outlet(walkable from EXPO MRT) recently, and found their clear peppery soup quite superb and addictive, I always order kidney & liver soup as its my bro's and my favourite. Though their basic portions of soup were really small and $1-2 pricier then most hawker centre's, the refillable soup part made it worth, & they were not stingy about it! I loved their braised small intestines as well, huge portion, super worth. 2 small soups, 4 side dishes, and some drinks i think cost us about $50.

They are located at;

UE BizHub East (North Tower Office) 

6 Changi Business Park Ave 1, #01-38 S486017 (6694 8098) 

Daily, 10:30am to 9:30pm (Last Order: 9:15pm)

My next favourite BKT! My family's usual choice for BKT, at least once a month. Superbly cheap, reasonable portions, refillable soup and superbly flavourful! A table fit for my family of 4 does not even exceed $30, 2 soups, 5 sides and 3 carbs. I absolutely love everything from this store!

Look at those gorgeously thick innards at only $5! Heavenly! You can try their pig organs soup as well, its amazingly good! Or even their kway chap with the side dishes.

Hua Shun BKT is operated by an old couple located at;

ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah 150006

Its the row where most of the malay stalls are and near where the UOB ATM is located. 

The Bakery Chef @ Bukit Merah

Today, i finally went to try a new café that is near my house. This time its just desserts, since 90% of their menu are desserts. For once a café is actually within walking distance from where i leave, and i don't have to travel!

From my research and stalking them on instagram, on-and-off they will organize a dessert buffet at their café, i think about once every 1-2 months, which costs only $19.90. There's one coming up on 10, 11, 12 june, 2 slots a day, but according to them its all fully booked! That's how popular their desserts are i guess? (Partially, also cause their seating area quite limited, i think indoor max 20ppl and outdoor max 15ppl?)

I don't really know if they have a level 2 seating area cause its a shophouse, but when my group of friends and I asked the waitress, she said that its not opened for seating, in the end we sat outside and joined 2 tables for our group of 7.

Side view

So i skipped lunch for this dessert platter(cause i needed to count my calories wisely) which cost me $20.90 for my choice of 3 cakes, 1 cupcake, 1 glass dessert, and 2 macarons.. & i chose a rainbow cake, praline cake, red velvet cake, carrot cupcake, pistachio and hazelnut macaroon, chocolate mousse thingy(i didn't get to choose this, they just gave me)

Top view

My verdict? 5 stars for presentation and value for $! I like how it was served on the stoneware platter!

Now for the taste test; 

I aimed the macarons first, pop-ed the petite looking thing into my mouth, disappointed siah.. Shell not crisp enough, neither pistachio nor hazelnut aroma was strong enough, it pretty much tasted like an original flavoured macaron.

Next, was the rainbow cake, pastel colors so pretty! Was expecting au chocolat's standard at least. But to my disappointment, just normal vanilla sponge cake, with way too much "jelat" whipped cream on top, i practically scraped away all the cream on top, and lé bf and I left half the cake untouched.

Then, praline cake, only ordered this cause this was one of their top favourites according to the waitress. Tasted like nutella, with golden flakes, and bits and piece of crunchy stuffs, i like the crunchy feel that the cake gave me with every bite, but unfortunately it was too sweet for my liking. Again lé bf and i left half this cake untouched.

My friend told me that she tried the cakes, and find that she liked their red velvet the most. But too my horror, this was way too jelat. The cream cheese on top was 1cm thick, not exaggerating! And the cream cheese sandwiched between two 1cm thick red velvet sponge was 1.5cm thick! Was i eating cake or cheese? I scraped all the cheese away and ate the cake only, but left half untouched as well.

Maybe there was too much cream and cheese going on everywhere, it really made me lost my appetite, when i came to the carrot cake, i just threw the cheese on top away, and ate the cake. I love their carrot cake though, gobbled all of it, moist, not too sweet, with raisins, and cinnamon.

Last but not least, the glass dessert thingy, i ate it all and i liked it, the cream they used was jus right, and chocolate wasn't too sweet.

Lé bf wanted something savoury, and this was 1 of the 2 or 3 options i was given at the counter area. Chicken ham croissant at $4.50. They will ask if u want it heated, bf reckons that this was just an average croissant, nothing interesting..

To sum up my lengthy blog today, i prolly wont eat the cakes that i ordered today again. But i may come back to try their other flavours since its so near my house. I remember i saw a tiramisu cake, strawberry shortcake and some chocolate square dome shaped cake, prolly try that next time and do a review update...

Osaka Ohsho @ Westgate

Whoopees! Today I tried a new place! I brought my myanmar classmate to try this osaka famous gyoza at Westgate. We only picked this restaurant as it was the only one that didn't require us queuing at all, when we went in at 7.45pm, it was practically 75% vacant, as compared to the other famous restaurants which had like 100% occupancy and some queue outside..

The menu horrendous lor, famous for their japanese gyoza, and yet like 30-40% of their menu items had like "not available" sticker pasted on them, which is their toji dishes and I was like -.-? How to do business like that? However, they are really "techy" though, order thru their ipad mini. Look through their drinks, and i think they are from the same company as kazokutei that I previously had at bugis. 

Ok so I always check for food reviews first before I decide to try a place, and apparently this place has bad reviews for service and mediocre food. But true enough, not much service staff la, order thru ipad mini lor, pay $ ownself walk to cashier lor. But the food on the other hand, i tried only one dish, and i think i will only come back for this one dish! So superb even my friend fell in love with it!

Tada! This is what we both ordered, "Fuwa Tenshin Han" set at $12.90 and my friend ordered the variation that had chicken pieces in the rice underneath for a dollar extra. We both added a dollar for their Houji Cha. 

This is superb ok! If you love fluffy eggs, you will love this! This is neither omu rice, nor fried omelette! Its like some scrambled-fluffy-soufflé-omelette-like thingy that wraps around the grainy not mushy japanese rice grains, and soaked in that rich thick broth like sharkfin soup or like tzechar version of "mui fan", the egg so thick and too fluffy to not love!

I'm a chilli flakes freak, so when i see a bottle of chilli flakes, that is practically what happens to my dish of rice, all sprinkled with flakes like its free. But even when i put so much, also not spicy lor, like pepper.. XD

Now the key highlights, the famous gyoza. They had this panfried golden brown color when it was served to us, but all stick together, as if like they fried all 6 gyozas together. Our local chinese guo tie are definitely way crispier and meatier than this one. This just has a crisp base on the brown side, the rest of the skin is pretty soft, slightly more vegetables. 

And this was the vinegar that you could choose to add the chilli oil if you want a spicy version. Basically, after adding the chilli oil, it reminded me of the szechuan delicacy "红油抄手" that i absolutely love at bedok 85 by the chinaman store that sells xiao long baos. Spicy and sour, just my kind of dipping sauce for guoties! So yeah this japanese version doesn't come with ginger shreds, and though it wasn't as crispy as I would have prefered, but i still loved it anyway. 

Located at level 2 of Westgate, just beside paradize dynasty, shouldnt be hard to locate it. I didn't try the other dishes, but i dont think i would anyways, cause only the tenshin han and the gyoza looked and tasted appetizing!

Johan Bakery @ Westgate

Ever since my bosses bought their baked mochis to share in the office, all of us loved Johan's bakery. I think the flavours varies from time to time, but most recently i tried their earl grey macadamia baked mochi, which was pretty fragrant and chewy. I tried the caneles before, but i didnt really like it, as the crust was a tad too hard for me to chew, prefer traditional egg custard tarts.

Their usual variants that go by $3+ per 100 grams when you order are the plain mini croissants, chocolate mini croissants, mini cheesecake, baked mochi and canele. (Pardon me for less pictures and more words, promise to take more next time)

So this was what I ordered today! Rich tiramisu puff($2.60) on the left and raspberry cheese tart($3.20) on the right. So pretty right? A little expensive if you compare to those local bakes at the hawker or mrt that cost us a dollar for a piece of bread. 

But you won't regret with the tiramisu one, it was so fluffy and had lychee bits in it, as well as the coffee aroma from the powder sprinkled on top. As for the tart, it isnt those crispy shortbread crust type, but rather a soft puff pastry kinda base, and it was practically just cream cheese with fresh raspberry in it, so it was quite sour, wouldnt order this again though, but you guys can try for novelty. They had a variant that came in chocolate raspberry filling, maybe that would taste better?

I also ordered the brown sugar bread ($2) which was promoted by the japanese staff there, and we get to sample warm bread from the oven before purchasing. This was fluffy and not too sweet with brown sugar "balls" that you would get a taste with every bite. Best eaten when still warm!

As you already know, im kind of a matcha freak. So when i saw the "karikari melon pan"($2.80) in green tea flavour, it was like the best of both worlds, my favourite melon and matcha! Lotsa raw sugar crystals on top of the bread, which made every bite crunchy!

This is located at westgate basement 2, at the exit where customers pay for their isetan supermart purchases, lotsa variety of Japanese-French Fusion pastries and bread, do try them!

Five & Dime Eatery @ River Valley

Here's what my uni-pals and I explored for brunch today! Made a reservation for 6 pax, and got this really cosy corner at the back, beside the barista area. Look at the pretty vintage looking menu, and the awesome table setting!

So these are the drinks we ordered, forgot how much each of them cost, but they were on average between $7-$8 per glass. Green Tea Latte, Ice chocolate, Hot mocha & Hot green tea. I love how they served the hot teas/coffees with cute latte art & 2 pieces of my favourite childhood snacks, Iced Jems Biscuits FTW! I ordered the green tea latte for myself, and its honestly quite comparable with starbuck's version though smaller in quantity at five & dime.

This is the $16 Egg Benny that they have on their menu, and this was what my friend ordered!

And if you are adventurous like me, and don't mind topping up some cash. I added 2 chicken sausage for $5, which I reckon was pretty worth. The sausages were soft and tender, and wasn't too salty, like the usually fried with lots of oil kind, that you get at most restaurants. I reckon they boiled them, and lightly fry the sides  I was surprised that their fruit salad was a little sour, i think they squeezed lemon juice on top. Mesclun was suffiicient and simple. Breakfast potato cubes could use some more seasoning, I paired it with chilli sauce, and it was quite nice. I love soft-boiled eggs, so 2 poached eggs was the best thing I could ever have for breakfast, on a superbly soft, fluffy and warm brioche.

And this is their $22 worth of Big Brekkie, consisting of thick toasts, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans that were superbly flavorful and appetizing (not your usual canned beans), bacon, chicken sausages, and a choice of 2 sunny sides or scrambled egg.

This is their Spinach Tamago at $16, pretty awesome dish if you like the japanese version of tamago.

This French Toast at $15, is not too filling, a good portion for a light brunch at just $15. The butter and the toast was pretty fragrant and fluffy.

Overall, cosy ambience, decent music, decent service and staff, and all their staffs practically say goodbyes and thanks to you when you leave the eatery. Reasonable price for food, good quantity, good taste & pretty pleasant experience.

They are opened everyday, but do take note of the serving times, as different menus are served. Lunch serving is weekdays 12-5pm, Brunch serving is weekends 10am-3pm, Dinner serving is 6-9.30pm and they even have Supper serving only on Friday & Saturday from 10-11.30pm. Do take a look at their menu at http://www.fiveanddime.com.sg/menu.pdf

They are located at 297 River Valley Road, and I suggest taking Bus 32 from Redhill MRT, as it allows you to alight at a bus stop opposite the restaurant within a visible distance of about 5 minutes walk. I highly advise that you make reservations (call: 9236 5002) before turning up to avoid disappointment, as the area isn't very big, and there aren't alot of tables.

Nara Thai @ WestGate

Hey guys! Today my bosses brought the company for an impromptu farewell lunch for me, and my mgr, wai & I got to choose the location. So when i knew Nara Thai opened at Westgate, I suggested for us to give this a try, as this restaurant is highly raved by SG bloggers for the outlet in Bangkok, at Siam Paragon.

They had two seating areas, one outdoors one indoors, initially we got seated indoors, but the aircon was way too cold. I guess it was cause the restaurant was pretty vacant at opening time, we reached the restaurant at about 11.45am. So switched to the outdoor area, which was pretty relaxing, due to the lush "greeneries" just behind our table of 6.

We practically ordered a feast fit for a queen's or princess's banquet i think, lots of dishes ranging from carbos to proteins to sugars;

This is "Khao Pad Samunprai" aka Thai Herb fried rice cost $10.90, we ordered this cause of curiosity as we have never tried and seen blue colored rice. I don't know what this should taste like, but for me this was a mediocre dish, just fragrant colored rice...

This is "Khao Pad Sappaprod" aka Thai Pineapple fried rice with chicken and pork and cost $12.90. Honestly, I had high expectations of this dish, but it disappointed me. Rice didn't had that "wok-fried" taste, it was pretty moist, in fact this dish felt like they cooked it in the rice cooker, didn't think it was fantastic, rather have the blue rice.

This is "Phad Thai Gai" aka chicken phad thai and cost $14.90. Quite awesome really nothing to complain about, though my mgr commented that we shouldn't be matched with chicken, should have matched with prawn instead to make it more fragrant.

We ordered "Tom Kha Gai" aka chicken in coconut soup that costs $13.90, and "Tom Yum Kung" aka river prawns in spicy lemongrass and lime soup that costs $19.90, both for 2-3pax portions. My bosses and mgr loved the Tom Kha Gai, i guess people who loved coconut milk and spicyness will love this dish. I honestly do not really like it, as I felt it was less flavorful as compared to the Tom Yum Kung, which I absolutely loved, and practically finished half the pot on my own!

We ordered "Yum Sum O" aka Pomelo Salad that costs $13.90. Superbly good and appetizing! The aroma of the fried shallots and the cashew nuts, as well as the sweet sauce with the pomelo was a heavenly match! Then we ordered "Koh Moo Tord Hgar" ask deep fried pork neck with sesame seeds that costs $9.90. We ordered cause my boss tried it in bangkok and said it was awesome. And true enough, the lime chilli sauce that go with the crispy pork neck was superb!

This is "Tord Mun Pla" aka thai fish cakes that costs $13.90 for a mere 6 pieces. You can order this if you want to try your luck, but i wouldn't suggest that, the fish cakes were too hard to even bite, and my boss complained that it wasn't fresh, all of us had 1 bite, and then we got the waiter to refund us. Though the waiter claimed this fish cakes were freshly made everyday.

Hors D'oeuvre Nara aka assorted nara dishes that costs $17.90 suitable for 2-3pax, if you don't want to order the sides separately and just wanna sample, 3 pieces of thai chicken satay, 3 pieces of pandan chicken, one mini pomelo salad, and I recalled 2 thai fish cakes(-.-||| which we totally left it there un-touched)

"Gai Tord Kapi" aka thai version of shrimp paste chicken that costs us $9.90. This came with a sauce dish of pepper and salt that matches the chicken quite well, crispy, but the meat a little dry. I reckon not enough shrimp paste too.

 "Phunim Phad Pong Karee" stir fried soft shell crab with yellow curry that costs us $18.90. Honestly this dish actually quite nice, but cause they used deep fried soft shell crab, it was a little salty, best to match with some plain carbos like a bowl of white rice? The curry wasn't spicy at all, so its suitable for the people who prefer non-spicy dishes.

I love pandan lemongrass drink, from the first time I drank it, so when i saw this pandan lemongrass roselle cooler, i thought i tried it, it costs $6.90 i think. I love my teas without sugar, so they went a bit heavy with the syrup, this drink was quite sweet, and hint of lemongrass was mediocre. The waiter promoted their thai young coconut, claiming it was shipped in from Thailand, from Nara Thai's own plantation. But when we ordered two of it, well the meat was pretty tough, so I guess the coconut is pretty old?

(You guys can try making this drink on your own actually, I boil a huge batch from time to time, 1 bunch of pandan leaves and 1 stalk of lemongrass plus 1 green tea bag would suffice for a 1.5litre portion to be kept in the fridge and added with hot water whenever you want to drink it or just drink it cold lo.)

 Before we ordered desserts, we were mostly neck-full, kinda over ambitiously over ordered. But girls being girls will somehow always have room for desserts right? We ordered their "Khao Neeo Mamuang" aka thai mango sticky rice that costs $7.90, we didn't regret this, though portion of the rice was a pretty small ball, but the mango was ubber sweet! Then we ordered "Tub Tim Krob" aka thai red ruby, my usual favourite thai dessert, nothing much to complain about this dish, totally love the jackfruit slices on top!

My bosses paid for this, so i don't really know much it amounted to in the end, but base on estimate, 5 pax, 3 carbs, 2 soups, 5 sides, 5 drinks, 2 desserts, I reckon it amounted to $200-250 plus the gst and svc charge. It may be a little expensive for some people, and way "pricier" than hawker thai food, but I think it is quite worth for the ambience and the quality of most of their dishes.

It is located at Westgate #03-07, opened everyday, 11.30am to 10pm. This is their menu from their website that you guys can browse http://narathai.com.sg/nara-menu-singapore-2013-e12.pdf and for reservations can call 6710 5867.