lobster noodles S$25 

had an excellent 3pax family dinner with wife & daughter at xin cuisine yesterday on 17.3.2016. ^^

xin cuisine 

restaurant is as usual quiet (7pm on a sunday).

there were actually more customers/tables this evening. 🙂

lie tong 例汤 S$12 

we were here last in oct2015. as you can see all the food item prices had gone up!

we had 1 order of lie tong 例汤.

at S$12 it’s a very small serving & expensive for a lie tong 例汤.

c/w 1/2 pot (3 to 4 bowls) at tunglok signature orchard parade for S$16.

the lie tong 例汤 was very good, very savoury & tasty with pork & vegetable stock, but of course, so is tunglok’s lie tong 例汤, just as tasty. 🙂

1/2 tea smoked duck S$32 

the tea smoked duck is very good here. price has gone up i guess recently from S$28 to S$32 for 1/2 duck.

1/2 tea smoked duck S$32 

it is different because of the excellent lingering tea flavour, say c/w the very good duck at canton paradise.

the roast london duck at tunglok though is very good, basically a different more fatty Irish duck. 

i like both can’t decide which is better!

steamed mei cai eggplant & wawa cai S$18 

and the steamed vegetable 蒸梅菜，茄子，娃娃菜 is very good here, love it! absolutely! the sweet mei cai’s flavours very shoik la!

lobster noodles S$25 

the lobster noodles (S$25 instead of S$22 previously) looked a bit mushy. it was, but just a bit. taste was good. lobster was just lobster, competent. 🙂

big prawn crispy noodles S$15 

the big prawn crispy noodles likewise. crispy part still crispy, other part just a bit soft.

big prawn crispy noodles S$15 

taste wise it was great!

guilinggao 龟苓膏 S$8 & aloe vera jelly S$10 

the few times we took dessert.

guilinggao 龟苓膏 S$8 

the guilinggao 龟苓膏 was excellent here.

such nice, strong flavours…don’t get it in HK even sometimes…

aloe vera jelly S$10 

the aloe vera jelly was more ordinary. nice dessert not great.

for 3pax, we had 35% discounts using the amex palate card, all-in S$101, pretty ok la. 🙂

if it were 2pax would have been like S$80.

really quite good for these food at a good restaurant! ^^

c.h.e.f andy

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yong tau fu 

went with wife & daughter to try out hakka yong tau fu at the renovated ghim moh food centre on 17.4.2016. ^^

ghim moh food centre reopened in early mar2016. 🙂

i tried some dishes at ghim moh food centre at the temporary location in feb2016. they were mostly NOT great-

• famous ghim moh chwee kueh 锦茂李老三, 55years (now 57years?) recipe.
• hock lye lor mee
• only the chee cheong fun at teck hin porridge was good!

hakka yong tau fu @ ghim moh food centre 

queue was long at 11am.

you have to queue to select the food items. the you have to wait (can sit at table) for the food to be cooked.

the husband & wife team were managing it extremely slowly, but steady & unhurried. maybe that’s good! 🙂

the lady helper (3rd person) was likewise unhurried & unharried, slow & cool. looked messy but she got everything right la..

dong feng fa chicken rice @ ghim moh food centre  

there were queues at several stalls including this chicken rice stall which is a favourite for my daughter’s friend.

yong tau fu 

we had 3 serving dry, 1 with bee hoon soup.

yong tau fu 

the yong tau fu looked good, but taste-wise average, maybe above avergae

yong tau fu 

for me the circuit road hakka niang tou fu was much better. 🙂

yong tau fu 

we did not have to queue that day at circuit road. but if we had gone earlier during the peak hours, probably long queue also.

well, not me, i won’t go to queue to eat yong tau fu…so no ghim moh yong tau fu for a while la…

silver busker 

there was a silver hair busker.

he sang great cantonese oldies, many were english songs in cantonese or mandarin. he also sang in english. the cantonese songs were best. 🙂

silver busker 

he collected lots of gratuity. we gave a bit too.

it is good to see older folks staying active & gainful. & he kept us entertained on a very hot day. ^^

c.h.e.f andy

cake + coffee

a OPS (outram prinary school) buddy bought me chef yamashita cakes. chef yamashita was with glace then flor & now his own chef yamashita.

it was kind of unexpected. we were teasing & bantering on OPS whatsapp group chat, basically just kidding so i was not expecting the cakes. not complaining either, haha! ^^

the friend brought the cakes to another friend’s place, after our lunch at hoower court.

first time i am trying them. i have seen the photos prior, & they all looked delicious & alluring!

& i had good time as you see above, coffee + cake when i got home. ^^

chef yamashita cakes

i don’t know the names, but looking at the sliced cakes in chef yamashita website, i had the uji, a green tea cake (btw uji is a small town about 15km south of kyoto on the way to nara & famous for its green tea…i visited with my sis in may2013); the mt fuji; the ichigo; & another pink roll which looks like the framboise turned sideways.

& among these, looking at the whole cakes in chef yamashita website, seems that ichigo is his recommended cake.

cakes are not exactly my forte to comment. i do like japanese cakes. the cream is usually lighter & tastier. & of course they are visual delights to behold.

my daughter though knows of chef yamashita. she ate most of the cakes..haha!

i tasted each of the 4 cakes. i think my favourite is uji. the green tea flavour was excellent, light but lingering, not too sweet (not sure, maybe can be even less sweet), and already said the cream was light & tasty. next was the ichigo (which means strawberry).

actually mt fuji also not bad, chocolate & chestnut cream…not sure what was the pink cake. but it was not bad too. this are cakes that i am actually quite happy to finish the whole cake, usually i would not.

c.h.e.f andy

curry rice dishes

this the second time i have curry rice lunch here at hoower food court, a coffeshop on haig road, on 14.4.2016. ^^

i was first introduced to the stall about 2 months ago by my OPS (outram primary school) buddy on 17.2.2016.

that time was after i sent my shantou nephew & his family (wife +12yr old daughter) to airport.

this time we a bit earlier at about 12pm (i went for a short 6km run this morning…didn’t have much time so could not do it earlier in any case).

the last we ordered 4 dishes for 2pax for S$10 all-in. this time we also ordered 4 dishes (not much choice/dishes left) for 4pax which came to S$22 all-in. the curry chicken had 2 wings more so like double portion.

overall it was ok la…

curry chicken

i liked the curry chicken best. i asked for more curry & mopped up most of it.

sweet & sour fish

the sweet & sour fish was pretty good too.

sweet & sour fish

the deep-fried garoupa was done ok, not dry, and the tomato sauce with pineapples quite well done, so the dish was overall quite tasty. i considered one of the better sweet & sour dishes which i don’t order often (there were not many choices/dishes to order).

kong bak, tau kua & tau pok

a friend liked the kong bak best. i had considered to order additional portion. this time it was just ok for me, so did not add more.

cabbage, a bit of tanhoon

the cabbage was quite well done, quite tasty.

the dishes were all quite ok. & the prices were still ok. so overall pretty ok, still a place i don’t mind coming back. only constraint is that the choices/dishes a bit limited (the OMO stall lady is also the one who cooks, so not easy to manage too many dishes & also wastage, so basically she does it in such a way that basically all the dishes are sold out).

but the important thing about any dish is it must taste good, & the dishes here taste good. 🙂

some plant leaves

after lunch, we went went to the friend’s house for drinks & cake.

the friend made drinks from some plant leaves. he gave me some to bring home.

some leaves

one friend is a flora expert, so he dig out some technical info on the plant…sound like martian to me la…

the drink

i like the drink. somehow i felt i had taken it before & remembered the taste. must be long ago.

macha cake

a friend brought the macha cake he made. it was pretty good, not to sweet. he was looking to perfect it a bit more, maybe increasing the macha tea powder to have a stronger flavour.

later another friend came & brought me some yamashita cake.

had a good time with my OPS friends but had to leave/rush for another appointment.

c.h.e.f andy

teochew muay dishes

we arranged to visit a primary school classmate & 7 of us decided to have lunch at ye shanghai on 7.4.2016. 🙂

we were early at 11.15am so there were only few people queueing.

never thought i would say this of ye shanghai as every meal i had here were good previously, but it was not so good today.

a few people wanted lor arh, braised duck. i have not tried here before, so quite happy to try it.

unfortunately though it was quite expensive (duck are more expensive items so not that it was especially expensive here!), and really not nice, too salty & not “pang” ie flavourful…

kong bak & egg

i list the food in accordance with my personal preference.

i wanted pig skin. somehow they did not have today. my friend who blanjah lunch (treated us) ordered the kong bak. always liked it here, but it was also not really special…

the one at hoower food court at haig road (happens that also blanjah by this same friend) was actually more flavourful.

minced pork balls

the minced pork balls were not bad, though i personally prefer the 咸鱼饼minced pork with salted fish.

chicken cutlets?

the chicken tonkatsu (haha!) was ok, but then it’s chicken dish not what i normally order for teochew muay, meat was dry not moist & tender so maybe below par even as chicken cutlet kind of dish.

cabbage

cabbage always good here.

now i think my own cabbage much better la…

peanuts

never taken peanuts here. it was ok.

1/2 braised duck

& the expensive 1/2 duck. 2 friends who had wanted the duck also said it’s too salty.

1/2 braised duck

in fact i ended up eating more duck i think. but as i said, not “pang” also ie flavourful…

hmmm…my own lor arh, braised duck, a whole lot better than this la…

haebeehiam mnced pork

this dish though i cannot understand. it’s actually a disaster, quite bad!

firstly the minced pork texture & flavour did not go well at all with the haebeehiam, dry PLUS dry texture.

the spicy black bean minced pork in shi le yuan was much better.

my own spicy black bean minced pork which i did for the first time, not so good, but also a lot better, actually no comparison cos this one is just bad.

i not sure how much the 1/2 duck cost, estimate say S$19, plus 6 other dishes, i estimate around S$50 for 7pax.

well, work most times, but not as well once in a while. 🙂

will still come back…the only take away i have is not to order duck so can order another few nice dishes at same total cost.

c.h.e.f andy

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Ye Shanghai Teochew Porridge (夜上海潮洲粥)

Address

#01-217, Boyang Coffee Shop, Blk 117 Bukit Merah View, 151116

apple strudel + coffee

coffee time 11.4.2016! ^^

bought 1/2 apple strudel from ritz S$12.50, time to relax & have a cuppa.

met my own dutch friend for tea this morning. after that went to Xinlu 新路 for teochew meepok tar, but that seem not so satisfactory this time.

went to giant to get some stuff for a 5pax dinner the next day. on the way back, decided to drop by ritz at bukit timah (they have like 16 outlets) & grab a apple strudel. they said apple is the most popular. 🙂

apple strudel

one of the thing that sparked by interest was actually the egg cream pastry at tartine in lisbon, portugual. i thought that there was similarity in taste & tartine’s pastry was better.

ritz apple strudel

i have not taken apple strudel for years.

1/2 apple strudel3 for S$12.50

the pastry was still crispy & fluffy, that stands out.

i felt that there was too much apple, too dense & not enuf cream. maybe that is the healthy way. so after trying, it confirmed for me that i liked the tartine egg cream pastry better. we had that twice in lisbon.

1/2 apple strudel3 for S$12.50

taste are so different though. my daughter now likes this apple strudel, maybe for the reasons i thought i didn’t like it much.

c.h.e.f andy

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Ritz Apple Strudel

Address –

No. 833 Bukit Timah Road
#01-10 Royal Ville

Tel: 6469 3470
Fax: 6465 4776

Opening Hours-

10am – 9.30pm Daily

S$3 teochew fishball noodles at xinlu 新路 10.4.2016 

a very good dutch friend visiting town. he was having golf at SICC afterwards so not free for lunch. i told him to come over my place for tea this morning on 10.4.2016.

this the same friend i had lunch with at reddot brewhouse at dempsey on 19.11.2013. & we both remembered that! 🙂

he now basically visits singapore 2 times a year. had a good catching up. 🙂

after that i dropped him at sicc for his golf game about 1.15pm.

another group of friends, my primary school classmate were having lunch at 刘强 at bugis from 12pm. we had earlier said to play by ear since i did not know when my tea would end. it was too late for me to join & they had in any case split already…

i thought of repeating my usual lunchless day, but on the spur of the moment decided to go to Xinlu 新路 at meiling food centre for meepok tar.

xinlu 新路 teochew fishball noodles10.4.2016 

use to do this a lot 15-20yrs ago, not much now. quite a favourite then.

last time i had it here was in nov2014.

S$3 teochew fishball noodles at xinlu 新路 

mee pok still qq, al dent. chilli still good, but this time i felt a bit salty.

6 fishballs – S$3 teochew fishball noodles at xinlu 新路 

normally 5 fishballs. i asked for 面少 ie less noodles so got 1 addition 6th fishballs.

fishballs still springy, bouncy. again a bit salty.

S$3 teochew fishball noodles at xinlu 新路 10.4.2016 

i don’t whether my tastebuds has changed or i not in tune to appreciate the noodles, but today i did not quite enjoy the noodles, just felt it was a bit salty.

c.h.e.f. andy

big prawn hor fun

daughter decided to buy dinner last evening at kok sen on 9.4.2016. ^^

her friend enjoyed the big prawn hor fun there recently so she wanted to try that also. 🙂

i have not been there since dec2014. the food was kind of so-so then.

S$14 small yong tau foo

we ordered wife’s favourite yong tau foo.

it was very good indeed! 🙂

S$14 small yong tau foo

this dish here had been good consistently. yong tau foo was tasty & sauce pretty good too. should be not difficult to do this myself.

actually by comparison, i would say the recent yong tau foo i had with my friends at u hakka at circuit road was even better.

though we are talking about 2 different styles of preparation.

S$11 foo yong egg

i never/seldom order foo yong eggs. this time, i think wife remembered she had good foo yong eggs here with her friend, so we ordered a small serving.

S$11 foo yong egg

& it did not disappoint.

it was very good, crispy without being oily, very good flavours especially the parts with minced pork & cut shar siew pieces.

S$32 medium big prawn hor fun

the big prawn hor fun was the main event, the star of the show.

big prawn hor fun

luckily, it was really quite good. 🙂

hor fun had great wok hae (wok fragrance/aroma), prawns were good, but really that was no great stuff. i could do the prawns just as good or better easily & we had them often enuf.

i can possibly do the horfun too. it felt a bit like the XO spicy sauce.

anyway i wanted to try some local food like hokkien mee etc, maybe i will get my friends to come over & try hokkien mee, this big prawn hor fun & also (say) chilli crab! 🙂

2 eggs spinach

the 2 egg spinach was competent.

it was however quite far behind uncle leong’s standrad. 🙂

2 eggs spinach

they did not add the 3rd egg either.

the heng chai was pretty good. they did not have a 3 egg version with the egg whites of  a fresh egg scattered over the dish. they only used slated eggs & century eggs.

we had a really good time with the 2 daughters, but 80% of the conversation were about korean series & descendants of the sun…lol! ^^

food was great & enuf. the girls were full & happy & eldest daughter bought dinner. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

teochew muay dishes 

made nonya curry chicken for newgate learning lab bathesda community lunch at bedok north ave 3 today on 9.4.2016.

after the community lunch, & my friends had emptied the rubbish& cleaned up, we walked over to blk 216 bedok north street 1 market & food centre for some makan chat. ^^

there was a queue of 10+ at the more “famous” fish porridge stall. my friend said that was a short queue & worth queueing.

2 of us decided though to just go for the teochew muay stall in front where there was no queue.

stingray with bittergourd 

my friend ordered 4 dishes for 2pax. the other friend had eaten lunch & was just taking coffee.

the dishes were pretty good, and just S$12 for 4 dishes + 2 porridge. my friend thought the dishes were average but i though it was pretty good, for the few items we had.

the stingray with bittergourd was as good as any teochew muay stall like say ye shanghai, even zi char stalls.

teochew fishcake + belly pork 

the teochew fishcake here was nice, unlike some places where they have too much flour(like shi le yuan). this was quite authentic.

the plain white belly pork was strange. i think this the first time i saw basically boiled belly pork instead of the usual braised ones like kong bak.

& it was good too, great texture & tasted good too (the bland type taste) with the chilli.

cabbage 

& cabbage also good.

i guess it was not exceptional, but many expensive teochew muay stalls give you much poorer food, so this was ok for me.

i am not sure how good the fish porridge was & i will try that but generally between the 2 i would actually prefer teochew muay dishes.

c.h.e.f andy