chicken karaage

this evening a RI friend arranged our monthly dinner at level 2 at killiney on 16.7.2015.^^

this friend is the district governor (elect) july2016 term for rotary 3310 & they meet often at level 2 at killiney. indeed the restaurant owner sylvia is also a rotary member at suntec.

it’s a small group this evening. at first there was 7 but 2 could not make it last minute so we had 5pax. 🙂

i guess it’s good to have a big group. still even in a large group, we often talked mostly among a few seated next to each other, so it’s quite fine among old friends, whether a big or small group.

place was small. we had a good chat with the lady server. she said there were 2 in the kitchen & 3 servers, though i only saw her serving.

there were 4 tables including ours occupied. the place can take 40pax for a private function. they have a S$30pax 3-course set dinner menu, and a S$9.80 set lunch menu. 🙂

the server gave us a complimentary tapas – chicken karaage to start. 🙂

smoked salmon canapes

the organiser arranged for a special menu – 3 tapas, lobster bisque, choice of 1 main & dessert of the day.

smoked salmon canapes

the smoked salmon canapés was ok – smoked salmon average, the pastry was crisp & good, quite a lot of avocado cream?

sausage with mustard & pickled gerkhins

the sausage with mustard & pickled gerkhins was good too. i had 2 pieces.

sausage with mustard & pickled gerkhins

it’s not chorizo, probably chipolata.

lobster bisque

lobster bisque was competent, had all the right shellfish & bit of liquor flavours. 🙂

lobster bisque

i guess not the best i had but certainly very competent. it’s also about personal preferences. i like a much more intense lobster bisque & slightly more liquor.

also for myself i prefer a good vegetable base to balance the shellfish flavours which i do for my own lobster bisque.

but i do also like a standalone just intense lobster bisque. ^^

seafood alio olio linguine

i thought the seafood alio olio linguine was excellent. very nice garlic taste, very flavourful & al dente.

there were like 5-6prawns & several pieces of sliced scallops. the prawns were good, texture a bit like the chinese crystal prawns (brine treated?). not my preferred texture but overall it was good.

seafood alio olio linguine

the server said they added white wine which was not the usual preparation. that’s what i do too for my seafood alio olio spaghetti.

i had the alio olio at kith recently. i liked both but overall i guess i would prefer this preparation.

braised beef cheeks

the braised beef cheeks is 1 of the favourite dishes here. many bloggers had commented favourably.

another new favourite dish is the steak sandwich which had a ribeye steak (server told me about 2/3 normal steak portion). i will try that next time.

server told me they were braised for 4hrs.

braised beef cheeks

it was a competent braise. soft, tender. i didn’t think it was special. texture wise i guess it was very good. the flavours were ok, beefy, not specially tasty. braises not really my thing, but for such cut of meat, slow gentle braises or low temperature cooking like sous vide are the way to produce a nice tender meat w/o making it too sinewy & to turn tough connective tissues to flavourful gelatine. for such preparation, i would prefer the more fatty meats & more gelatine. i have not made my spanish slow-braised beef ribs for a long time, maybe i will give it a try again.

dinner came to S$192 for 5pax so about S$38nett. we gave S$40ea & a friend decided to top up the remainder & give S$20 tip to the lady server. it was a great gesture & a good habit to have when you are happy with the service. ^^

c.h.e.f andy

10 dishes teochew muay @ ye shanghai

when i was queueing for shi le yuan 实叻圆糜 the other day, the guy in front of me said ye shanghai was cheaper & had a larger spread, and he only came to shi le yuan because ye shanghai was closed that day.

ye shanghai @ bukit merah view

so i came with my sis & b-i-l to try out ye shanghai on 16.7.2015. it’s not bad!^^

we came at 1030am so no queue, but also not all dishes were ready.

we ordered total 10 dishes. it came to only S$20.60. so the man was right, a bit cheaper than shi le yuan, more variety of dishes just as good but not really better. maybe the veg dishes were better here.

“kee her” fish

there was no ngoh soon (small treadfin) & mullet 乌鱼 they only served those in the evening.

we ordered the “kee her” fish. i thought it was very good actually taken with tau jeon, good proxy to mullet 乌鱼.

big intestines+belly pork

the big intestines was good very well cleaned, nice texture, slightly milder lor 鲁 taste, i quite like it. 🙂

the kong bak belly pork too.

big intestines

nice big intestines.

brinjal

veg here very nice. the brinjal was every tasty.

pig’s skin

pig’s skin was very good. just like the ng ah sio one we had recently at rangoon road, no fat, all collagen. 🙂

salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼

salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼 was very good too. somewhat different from shi le yuan but equally good.

steamed egg

only dish not great was the steamed egg. not much taste, maybe that was to be expected of a steamed egg with nothing in it.

peanuts

peanuts nothing to talk about.

spinach

spinach was very good, tasty!

tau kee

tau kee was the usual.

cabbage

cabbage was very good, very sweet & tasty.

cabbage

we had a second order. so after the 10 dishes, sis went to order 2 more, cabbage for S$1.

steamed pomfret

and pomfret for S$4. pomfret was good too. i didn’t mind it but maybe i prefer the kee her more. 🙂

10 dishes teochew muay @ ye shanghai

so we had 10 dishes (top & above) for S$20.60. then greedy added 2 more dishes so total S$25.60 including 3 porridge.

really good meal & totally satisfying with or w/o the additional 2 dishes.

c.h.e.f andy