our avis rental car VW Golf 1.4TSI

safety is paramount! so we wanted a mid-sized car, and unless you are F1 driver, you don’t want to keep changing gears on a single track road at 50mph!

we have our giffgaff & three.com sim cards, but many places we were going had no network. adding GPS to car rental is very expensive so we brought along our own GPS (my wife’s friend lent it to us).

cab from glasgow central to avis glasgow office

we booked & prepared avis car online.

though they put the car hire location as glasgow central, as you were checking out to go to the payment page, a message appeared that actually avis NOT at glasgow central, but you can hail a cab from glasgow central to avis glasgow office & claim back the cab fares.

so we hailed a cab!

cab fare £5.40

cab fare was £5.40, but i forgot to claim!

i have written to avis after returning the car at Inverness. let’s see if avis will refund me the £5.40.

avis glasgow office

service was quite good otherwise at avis glasgow office.

we were early about 8.15am, but we did not want to return the car earlier than 9am at Inverness on 15.6.2017.

so the avis staff waited till 8.45am to book us in & they put on the contract that return will be 9am at inverness.

VW Golf car key

got the car. we got a brand new VW Golf, the mileage only 11miles!

we paid for full cover so zero excess payments. no need to inspect car as fully insured.

this time though we didn’t have the same luck to land a jaguar XF i had with my 2 friends for our trip to wales in 28apr-8may2017. then we had 9 days rental and started out & returned at same london location.

this time we started from glasgow & returned car in inverness. with all the additional charges our 6-day car rental maybe equal or more expensive than my last 9-day jaguar XF rental.

can’t be lucky all the time la…a new VW Golf is good enough already! very good car to drive…

c.h.e.f andy

cooked guotie 锅贴

we all like the frozen guotie锅贴 iin london. somehow they seem much more delicious than the CP brand i get from singapore sheng shiong.

we don’t bother to eat much in singapore but in london, this very useful to have.

frozen guotie锅贴 from chinatown

so after our excellent £29 3-course express lunch at l’atelier joel robuchon, we walked over to chinatown.

wife bought a packet each of the frozen pork & chicken dumplings (guotie 锅贴).

cooked guotie锅贴

so this evening in addition to enjoying the really nice four seasons roast duck, i made some guotie 锅贴.

this very easy to do-

just take out the frozen guotie 锅贴. put some on a non-stick pan. add oil AND water. turn stove to high heat & cover.

so as the water evaporates, it cooks the guotie. after water evaporated, the oil browned the guotie 锅贴 to produce very delicious crispy guotie 锅贴, with the tasty broth still inside the dumpling!

simple & truly super treat!

c.h.e.f andy

1 for 1 beef belly S$22.90 

 went with family 4pax to seorae for korean bbq dinner on 28.5.2017.

the last time i came with my 2 buddies before our london/wales trip on 30.3.2017 & we quite enjoyed it. 

seorae 

this time though somehow the arrangements were different, the vibes were different….

there was no queue at 12pm lunch last time. this time we were there 7.30pm there was a short queue like 10mins.

more importantly last time we asked the server questions & he helped us order the food we wanted. this time it was a paper like dimsum you tick off.

for me that makes a huge different, don’t like to guess what i am ordering & not being able to make small changes…eg last time we did not take 3 in 1, but server help us to organise the same dish as 2 in 1.

banchan – replenishable side dishes 

banchan was still good. we had 3 rounds.

last time with my friends who could just go on, we ordered 5 rounds.

banchan – replenishable side dishes 

daughter likes seafood pancake.

this was pretty good, better than what we had at abuirya a week later.

US beef S$29 

we ordered a US beef S$29.

with all the korean names it was hard to order what you are ordering with more personalised service advice from the server.

King Galmaegisal 3-in-1 S$29

& we ticked the 3 in 1, too bothersome to ask the server with this ticking system..

korean charcoal bbq

the hearth is same as at aburiya, quite effective.

kimchi jjigae

kimchi jjigae was not 1/2 as good as aburiya & i think cost like S$16 instead of S$13.

kimchi jjigae 

maybe a bigger serving, but cannot compensate for less yummy dish.

to be fair this was ok dish, just that aburiya’s was far better!

naengmyeon 

the naengmyeon was also no comparison to aburiya’s bibimen!

naengmyeon 

again it was ok dish. just NOT as good by comparison.

and likewise the meats were no comparison with aburiya, quite a different league altogether la.

see our recent excellent yakiniku dinner at aburiya on 3.6.2017.

after 2 tries, don’t think i am coming back here again la…

c.h.e.f andy

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Seorae Korean BBQ

Address:

#02-01 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road, 238839

Contact:

+65 91812709

Opening Hours:

Sun – Thu: 11:30 – 22:00
Fri – Sat: 11:30 – 23:00

hokkaido beef platter S$35

no need to say aburiya our favourite restaurant..

most recently i came with my OPS bros for 4pax dinner then durians on 28.2.2017. 

just that my family come here even more than i do. this evening 5 of us came for late dinner at 8.45pm on saturday 3.6.2017.

place was renovated, no more outside boardings, nice.

& apparently price has gone down?? according to the affable jap owner. nice to hear, nicer that it is true!

the hokkaido beef platter was S$45, now it is S$35! owner said he sourced large quantities at lower cost now.

we also ordered the iberico platter S$23 (forgot to take photo). previously S$25.

both the platters always nice.  we liked the beef more so we ordered 2 platter.

wagyu jo karubi S$16

i guessed we were like very hungry or greedy, so we ordered another 2 wagyu jo karubi S$16. in a sense this even better than the platter! of course the platter had 4 different cuts some better than others, though all were good.

yakiniku smokeless hearth

yakiniku smokeless hearth

the whole dining experience was quite wonderful. always enjoy a yakiniku.

wagyu beef sashimi S$18

the owner told us the wagyu sashimi was fantastic!

we were sold! even more sold after tasting it. perfecto!

shabu sirloin S$29

& he said the shabu beef (sirloin) was the best. bbq very short time, dip in the ponzu sauce dip

so again we ordered, and indeed the best! melt in your mouth perfection….

shabu i think is just 刷, which means to just poached in hotpot for some say 8 secs. so it just means a thin slice of meat. and i have taken shabu wagyu steak at japanese steak restaurants.

seafood pancake S$12

seafood pancake was ok tasty, but so so dish for me.

buta kimchi chigae S$13

the buta kimchi chigae S$13 excellent as always.

bibimen S$11.90

the bibimen we all loved.

bibimbap S$12

& the bibimbap very good here. everyone enjoyed the dishes.

green tea parfait S$10.90

the greentea parfait was ok, not not really a parfait without the greentea cake, green & white mochi, warabi mochi etc.

no comparison with what we get in japan, or even sun with moon.

complimentary vanila ice cream

we ordered too much food, plus a whole bottle of 720ml sake, so they gave us complimentary vanila ice cream.

it was very good quality ice cream. the milk so smooth & creamy & tasty, like hokkaido ice creams.

bill

& the price was actually quite ok. minus the sake, it would be like S$280nett for 5pax & we ordered a lot of meat.

very enjoyable dinner, as always here at aburiya.

c.h.e.f andy

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

teochew muay dishes

sis called me said she on the way to the new ye shanghai place, whether i wanted to join her for lunch on saturday 3.6.2017.

ye shanghai reopened 2jun2017

ye shanghai reopened 2jun2017

she told me couple weeks back, & my OPS friend also, that ye shanghai had moved from bukit merah view to lengkok bahru.  i later checked with an employee clearing the tables & he said yes this the second day they reopen here.

constant queue at ye shanghai

i was not planning to have lunch but agreed to join her anyway, so i fetched her from commonwealth MRT, and 2 of us were at blk 55 lengkok bahru at 12.33pm. there was a queue of maybe 10pax took about 10-15mins.

one great thing was there’s lots of parking, unlike bukit merah view where it is quite hard to get parking next to the stall.

teochew chilled mullet 冻乌鱼

sis ordered a teochew chilled mullet 冻乌鱼 (S$9) and 6 vegetable dishes + one porridge for S$14.60.

compare this with the exact same fish at seng kee bakuteh, AMK ave 10 selling at S$18!!!

teochew chilled yellow croaker 冻小黄鱼

she then decided to order a second fish=teochew chilled yellow croaker 冻小黄鱼, also S$9.

these 2 fish were excellent, best i had outside=very sweet & tasty & fine texture.

didn’t think that chilled mullet & yellow croaker would be much better than what i made often at home, most recently for a 7pax homecooked teochew muayfamily breakfast after 清明on 14Apr2017. 

but they were!! and at this price, just as well to eat outside here at ye shanghai.

okra

and all the simple small plate vegetable dishes were very good!

okra crunchy and tasty.

leeks

leeks sweet, not mushy, with ikan bilis & bit of cloud fungus.

hairy gourd毛瓜

hairy gourd毛瓜 sweet, great texture.

another gourd

another gourd, don’t know the english name (bottle gourd??) very sweet & tasty.

egg plant

egg plants, good!

bittergourd

and bittergourd, good too!

with 2 fish for S$18 and another 6 small plate vegetable & 1 porridge, total was S$23.60 for 2pax.

like i said, mullet & yellow croaker are not much cheaper from sheng shiong so just as well to eat here la..

c.h.e.f andy

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

lobster in superior broth 龙虾上汤焗

having 2pax anniversary dinner with wife on the actual date, so did an earlier anniversary dinner for the family so the children & also our helper can join 7pax dinner on 31.5.2017.

2 live lobsters = 1.25kg

poached lobster = 2 for S$75 at sheng shiong

i got 2 live lobsters from sheng shiong, poached them & then short braised with superior broth just before serving.

lobster in superior broth 龙虾上汤焗

lobsters was tasty, all liked it. it was though a bit overcooked & not perfect like what i did recently for mother’s day when i did one single lobster for 3pax dinner on 14.5.2017. 🙂

prawn tofu similar to sek bao sin

i did prawn tofu which everyone likes. also son had not tried it before.

for this evening everyone liked this dish best. it was not my best delivery actually but still a very tasty dish. prawns were just right texture, sweet & fresh & deep-fried egg tofu soaked up the delicious stock with the smoothness of the egg.

golden deepfried egg tofu

for the prawn tofu dish, i made the deep-fried egg tofu. usually i will shallow fry this not to waste the oil.

this time i had 2 dinners then the teban garden preparation in succession, so managed to use the oil over 3 occasions.

prawn tofu similar to sek bao sin

the dish, though not quite my best, was still a very good, tasty & smooth (the egg) prawn tofu.

wok fried lala

the wok fried lala was a very tasty dish too, and the clams were well cleaned & done just right NOT overcooked. great as lala dish.

not quite as good as my really tasty manila clams of course.

i lazy to go chinatown & sheng shiong did not have manila clams when i went to get the 2 lobsters this morning.

claypot vegetables with siobak

the claypot vegetables were overcooked. stock was tasty. roast pork also overdone & a bit stronger porky taste.

ok dish but not quite good.

claypot vegetables with siobak

i was trying to recreate my excellent claypot fish head for my OPS bros & wives few days back but w/o the fish head.

unfortunately though the claypot vegetables looked good on photo, it was overcooked when served & roast pork was also overdone & a bit porky. this would count as failure la…

white beehoon WBH

the white beehoon WBH dish was ok, also not near my best preparation.

too many dishes requiring stock. got to do a dedicated WBH dish next time & use intense stock to get best results.

white beehoon WBH

i only used prawn head & shell stock & just little of the chicken stock as i was reserving the stock for lobster.

also it was difficult to juggle the amount of stock, amount of beehoon & cooking time to reduce the stock & infuse the beehoon. anyhow the prawns were overcooked (whereas the same prawns for the prawn tofu were quite excellent), and the beehoon alos a bit overcooked.

white beehoon WBH

there was also some timing problems as heavy downpour & daughter came back like 50mins after scheduled 7pm, and it was difficult to estimate the time to serve the several dishes.

anyhow the beehoon was still ok, just not among my best.

and when wife & i added the lobster stock to the beehoon, it was very tasty.

crispy lard – larpok

i made some larpok – crispy lard to top off the WBH.

very easy to make. bought like 70cts packet of already chopped fat from sheng shiong, washed & cooked low heat on non stick wokpan. love it!

==========================

to be honest, i was just a little deflated la!

doing the lobsters – buying them on the day, freeze, poach, cut, shell, make stock etc was quite tedious work (apart from being quite expensive at S$75 for 2 lobsters), so the result was quit below expectations.

the other dishes were not too difficult, but the claypot vegetables was an abject failure & the WBH also much below expectations, even though the prawn tofu & the lala were good. and it all still took a whole day’s work but not returning the satisfaction…a bit sian la…

anniversary book present

well, luckily there was still the anniversary book to rejoice.

this my RI bro who was one of 2 travelling companions for my recent london/wales trip took a lot of time & effort to co-ordinate for me to get the book done.

it was made of maple wood & presents a cover with photo, a back page & 2 pages of text inside. & it came with a rose wood case. excellent stuff! wife was suitable impressed. children took some photos for us.

c.h.e.f andy

bamboo clams with tanhoon 竹蚌蒜蓉蒸 S$5.50 each 

had the best seafood dinner =7pax early birthday dinner for brother & sister @ ah yat abalone forum restaurant at hotel grand central at victoria street on 2.6.2017. ^^

this was even better than the 5pax lunch i had here just last week with my OPS bros on 26.5.2017!

seafood promo @ ah yat abalone forum restaurant 

ah yat abalone is having this super offer of S$29.80 for each 500g live boston lobster. that explains why i chose ah yat again so soon for my brother & sister’s early birthday dinner..haha!

i had a prior arranged makan day out wuth my OPS bros but because this dinner was confirmed a bit late, i cut short my OPS makan & just joined the canton paradise dimsum tea. 🙂

the bamboo clams with tanhoon 竹蚌蒜蓉蒸 S$5.50 each (top photo) was among the best i had. wonder why it was better than lunch, like should be the same. maybe better chef for dinner?? the texture ie donesness was perfect & the garlic light soy sauce was really very fragrant..quite superb.

2xboston lobster in superior broth 龙虾上汤焗 S$29.80 each 

the lobster was very good too. maybe still tastier than lunch but i guess less different from the lunch. i noticed that the plating was different from lunch. i like the dinner plating better. lunch used a nice plate but presentation looked squeezy.

steamed turbot 多宝鱼港蒸 1 kg S$48 

the steamed turbot 多宝鱼港蒸 1 kg S$48 was very good this evening.

wife, brother, sister, all like the fish..very幼 (light, tender texture) & sweet, much more fine than tiger garoupa.

steamed turbot 多宝鱼港蒸 1kg S$48 

and the 港蒸 light soy sauce very fragrant…really good!

crab tanhoon claypot螃蟹冬粉煲 S$70=1 kg crab @ S$98/kg less 30% 

brother ordered the crab tanhoon claypot螃蟹冬粉煲. it came to about S$70=1 kg crab @ S$98/kg less 30%.

we all thought it was a bit expensive c/w other ah yat items…eg ah yat grandstand has a S$38 claypot alaskan crab tanhoon which is very good. here alaskan crab is S$248/kg & this crab is S$98/kg.

but this is birthday & the other dishes were heavily discounted & restaurant need to make some money also la..so quite happy to add the dishes.

turned out this was another truly excellent dish…the tanhoon so very tasty & crab wa very fresh & sweet..though we wonder afterwards for 1kg crab, we didn’t seem to see any of the 2 pincers..maybe someone ate & forgot haha!

but i would say i am happy to order this dish again at S$70. it was much bigger dish & overall even better tasting than the S$38 alaskan crab tanhoon at ah yat grandstand.

ginger fried kailan 姜炒芥蓝 S$27 = very good just far too ex 

the ginger fried kailan 姜炒芥蓝 was very good too. can taste the ginger sauce, didn’t know it flavours the vegetable so well, must try this at home next time.

this one of the times where everyone exclaimed how nice the vegetable was.

at S$27, it was just far too ex for a vegetable? like S$29.80 for lobster & S$27 for kai lan.

anyway for this dinner i was happy to order it as it complemented the other dishes very well and that’s what counted. sometimes you get through a meal every dish except 1 or 2 very good, whereas this was an occasion every single dish was good! so well worth it!

probably won’t order this when i come again..

seafood horfun 滑蛋海鲜河粉S$30 = wok hae superb +very good ingredients 

wife too busy to have lunch today wanted to add a horfun.

this seafood horfun 滑蛋海鲜河粉  was fantastic=wok hae superb +very good ingredients, large prawns, scallops, lots of sotong & also lots of fish.

i think the best horfun i had.

seafood horfun 滑蛋海鲜河粉S$30 = wok hae superb +very good ingredients 

again this another dish i don’t mind paying for S$30 when i come again.

only thing is that sometimes taste not always consistent & hopefull these dishes will be just as good when i come again.

dinner for 7pax with all these excellent dishes was S$341nett.

of course they charged S$2.50/head for tea=S$17.50.

and also 2xS$3.50 for peanuts & towel. if you don’t do this, you don’t get towels..haha!

the ala carte items were expensive but we were very happy with the overall dinner, that what counts! like i said, restaurant got to make some money, so give & take la…

had a wonderful early birthday dinner with my brother & sister. their son came along & thoroughly enjoyed it. so i joked with him to look forward to the next makan, outside or at my place haha!

c.h.e.f andy

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

Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant Address: