thit nuong at road side skewer stall

when we strolled along the banks of song thu bong & the streets last evening before on the way to morning glory for a great dinner, we saw several street stalls selling thit nuong – the vietnamese satay where local people gathered.

the food looked exciting & enticing!

thit nuong at road side skewer stall

today, after the best pho bo @ pho lien & the best banh mi in the world @ banh mi phuong, we entered the ancient city & walked along the streets on the banks of song thu bon.

we were attracted to the thit nuong satay stall.

road side skewer stall

we asked if there was a table & the teenage helper pointed to an empty space. before we could do a doubletake, he brought like 7 low stools. 2 doubled as table support for the tray, the other 5 for us to sit on. life is simple & solutions to life’s problems also simple! 🙂

thit nuong at road side skewer stall

the teenage helper (stallholder’s son) speaks good english. he showed us how to wrap the satay meat. there’s actually a twine loop hook at the end of the twin skewers. removed that, pulled out the meat, wrapped in the thin rice paper & put it the veg & herbs!

thit nuong at road side skewer stall

the satay was good, nice aroma & tasty with the rice paper, aromatics & sauce.

road side skewer stall

taste was great just as the experience was fun.

hoi an is a nostalgic ancient city. the former port city is a mishmash of different eras & architectural styles from wooden chinese buildings & temples to french colonial buildings to japanese covered bridge & pagoda.

it has the the riverside on both sides of song thu bon are fun to walk along, & shops & eats dotted the streets.

wife is already talking about going back! ^^

c.h.e.f andy

S$7 big prawn noodles with bakut dry

6 of us were meeting for coffee to discuss our upcoming hong kong trip 10-14.1.2016.

our chief co-ordinator organised it at tian kee at 12 dakota crescent at 2.30pm. he asked me whether i liked to join him for makan at our close friend’s brother’s prawn noodle stall- 

“why eat har” located at Thye Hwa Heng Canteen, Blk 29 Eunos Avenue 6. ?

why of course! ^^

my good friend & another friend joined us for lunch. so 4pax. 🙂

S$7 big prawn noodles with bakut dry

i have been here 3 times previously & liked it every time. today was no exception.

my last here at “why eat har” was on 10.9.2015, after our pulau ubin nature walk on uniquely singapore’s cooling-off day, the day before general elections! 🙂

everything is quite consistent now. noodles were qq, just the right portion, bakut or pork ribs were very tender & “jib bee” 入味well infused,  chilli always good, tasty & today packed a punch, maybe chilli padi was spicier. i loved it. & the soup was very tasty & smooth, “XO” i said.

it’s not as intense as wah kee (which i still prefers, but just that wah kee has (for me) priced itself out of contention with days where a bowl of prawn noodles selling at S$20…really NOT the idea for me!)

big prawn noodles with bakut dry

it was a noodles that i actually harboured the idea of having or sharing a second bowl! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

mikuni chirashi don

went to mikuni (again!) for 4pax family lunch on 3.1.2016, special request by son who’s in singapore for short winter break! ^^

we could never have enuf of the chirashi don, which came with 2 chutoro, 1 botan ebi & lots of other good stuff. 🙂

mikuni chirashi don 

however, i looked at my mikuni chirashi don photo on 1.6.2015 & the uni today was less than 1/2??

mmmm… did the chef do a belt-tightening today or he dropped his uni box on my chirashi the last time?

truffle kampachi 

we have not ordered truffle kampachi for a long time.

it was just as pretty & tasted fabulous as always. 🙂

truffle kampachi 

a very fresh sashimi grade kampachi with a scent of truffle. simply delicious! 🙂

sous vide tako tempura 

the sous vide tako (octopus) tempura another of our favourites. such tender octopus! 🙂

miso kurobuta 

the miso kurobuta i think we ordered maybe only once before. not wife’s favourite so generally i don’t order it.

miso kurobuta 

son remembered & wanted it. very enjoyable but the fatty bits could do with more chagrilled or bbq preparation.

kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe 

the kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe was again another of our favourites. enjoyed the thick-cut tasty marbled beef everytime.

mikuni chirashi don 

the chirashi don was kind of small re the luxurious chirashi sushi zen lunch set at kuriya.

but of course the price S$45 after 50% feed at raffles *FAR) is like 2/3 of the S$68 kuriya set.

deepfried botan ebi head

we asked for the botan ebi head to be deepfried as always. really shiok!

we did mikuni many times & enjoyed everytime. hope the uni was a one time thing & the chirashi does not keep shrinking!

we added an order of chirashi so we had 6 mains (3 chirashi, 2 wagyu sukiyaki, 1 kurobuta) + 2 appetisers (truffle kampachi & sous vide tako tempura) for 4pax. lunch came to S$278 for 4pax, thoroughly enjoyable. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

S$4 ah hoe bakchormee

had the ah hoe japanese girl proprietor bakchormee ay blk 710 clementi west street 2 again today on 2.1.2016. ^^

long queue at 10.45am on saturday

a friend organised it. we first went to blk 713. it was closed & a sign said blk 710 was opened. we went over & there was a long queue…

our younger friend (3 of us) queued for 50mins from 10.45am & only got noodles 11.35am

long queue at 10.45am on saturday

this my second time here.

the first time i try ah hoe mee pok was on a weekday at 11am on 2.11.2015.

there were 9 of us & no queue, or like just 2pax ahead.

the japanese stall proprietress

not sure today’s long queue was because blk 713 stall was closed or because of festive period or saturday..in any case it should be wise to come outside rush hours on weekdays.

S$4 ah hoe bakchormee

this time friend ordered S$4 bowl.

still very good, like it & will go again (provided not much queue like my first time).

it really was a good quality, yummy noodles, great texture totally qq & good tasty ingrdients!

S$4 ah hoe bakchormee

mustn’t be trapped with concept of bakchormee, this was simply a very good delicious noodle dish, whether it is 100% bakchormee or 90% or not at all did not quite matter la…

even longer queue at 11.45am on saturday

when we finished our noodles nearer 12pm, the queue was even longer. at the slow rate they were serving, probably tale >1hrs.

after that guys came my house & we had kungfu cha 功夫茶till 1.30pm.

then one friend had to go for meeting, & i joined tea for a primary school ex-friends gathering.

c.h.e.f andy

S$8 thai beef noodle soup

went to thai noodle house with wife for dinner this evening on 2.1.2016.

used to be one of my casual go-to place for thai beef noodle soup. don’t do much of that lately.

last time i was here was on 6.10.2013.

unfortunately this time it was totally off for me, so bad i will never go back again.

quite apart from the price becoming ridiculously high for a ridiculously small serving, the centre-piece S$8 beef noodle soup (which in fact was the dish that was NOT exorbitant), the taste was totally gone!

if you look at my photo of beef noodle soup in 2013, that soup was clear, this one was mirky. i hope it was a one time anomaly.

but there was no sweet taste in the soup. i took maybe 20% of it. fortunately the sliced beef, braised beef, beef balls were still the same, quite nice.

S$13 thai stir-fry beef with basil

for the other 2 dishes, they tasted as good a sbefore. but the S$13 beef was served in a 4in x 4in plate (100cm x 100cm).

S$8 sweet potato leaves

likewise the sweet potato leaves…where does one find a 4in x 4in plate (100cm x 100cm)?

i think it was purely bad taste…how much more does a bit more sweet potato leaves cost?

for me, i guess i rather pay ridiculous price to have nicer food than the not ex price to have a tasteless beef noodle soup, but anyway all of them were quite pathetic as far as i am concerned. place was quite crowded though at 8pm+ on a saturday night so maybe other diners did not share my sentiments…haha!

but for me, it’s no no!

c.h.e.f andy

prawn noodles

had 5pax family dinner at sicc bukit cafe today on 1.1.2015. ^^

we had a S$20 voucher to use.

i decided to take the dry prawn noodles. had not taken them for a long time.

prawn noodles

noodles were ok. chilli was ok & soup was a bit thick & cloudy.

it was average or above. quite far form alan’s excellent big prawn noodles at why eat har.

ngoh hiang

the ngoh hiang is good as usual, son commented the prawn cake was a bit stale.

pork & chicken satay

satay was good. we had pork & chicken. mutton is usually very dry.

chicken wings

chicken wings were 1 of the best. son said better than adma road’s selara rasa nasi lemak (well actually i didn’t think much of the chicken wings at selara rasa).

chicken wings

but these wings were really quite good.

hokkien mee

the hokkien mee was the poorest dish. not even close to the fragrant, tasty hookien noodles we are accustomed to.

cha kuay teow

& cha kuay teow is always goo here, very good wok hae!

chicken rice

& son could not do w/o chicken rice. there was only breast meat left, but son said it was vey tender.

chicken rice also not my favourite club food. singapore has so many good chicken rice stalls all over & standard of chicken rice very high. so i usually don’t need to pay nearly 300% to have chicken rice.

overall it was almost S$70 for 5pax so after the S$20 voucher, we signed for about $$50, quite passable with the voucher.

c.h.e.f andy

cereal prawns

went back to uncle leong jurong east for 5pax family dinner on 29.12.2015. ^^

this my 4th to uncle leong since the first visit on 17.11.2015.

if anything i enjoyed it even more than the most recent time i was here on 17.12.2015. our good RI friend was visiting from cupertino USA. we wanted him to have nice comfy singapore food.

cereal prawns

this time was the same also. son was on a 2 weeks+ winter break from london. we already went on a 7-day family holiday to vietnam. & this crab beehoon soup is something really memorable & distinctive.

cereal prawns

the cereal prawns were quite excellent! one the of best i had…this was a lot better than the (too sweet) milk powder prawns we had the last time. 🙂

seafood pot

the seafood pot was again super!

seafood pot

the seafood were very fresh & tops & the sauce also very good.

3 egg spinach

the 3 egg spinach were good as before.

3 egg spinach

the only problem was that we always ordered back the same dishes.

thing is everytime we return with a different person & want him to try the food we had before that were really good. so the results! lol!

salted egg crab

the salted egg crabs were for me, really good too.

salted egg crab

again it was a lot better than the chilli crab we had previously.

salted egg crab

very nicely done!

crab beehoon soup

& the main event = crab beehoon soup.

crab beehoon soup

seemed that they ran out of smaller craypots. so we ended up with a huge pot for a 1 kg crab!

crab beehoon soup

previously we had a refill of the soup & beehoon for S$8, so we repeated this time & ordered an additiona S$8 refill.

however this pot was so huge it was 2x the amount of soup we had previously, & son decided to order a sanlo horfun, so we dropped that order.

the bill cam to S$238. I decided to give a tip this time so i gave S$250. after S$80 groupon discount (about S$119 for S$200 voucher), price was S$170 nett for 5pax & 6 dishes.

really shiok!

c.h.e.f andy

#1 edamame mousse with uni

had another wonderful 4pax family lunch at hachi on 29.12.2015. ^^

i mostly come hachi for dinner & for me, hachi delivers the best kaiseki dinner for the price. wife usually not free for lunch. the last time i had lunch at hachi was almost 2 years ago on 17.1.2014.

#1 edamame mousse with uni

every dish in hachi looks fabulous & tastes even better. the edamame was unusual but very good, and you could taste the edamame & the excellent sweet uni which was a pretty good size helping.

#2 sashimi – chutoro, akami, kampachi

my wife took the cheaper S$78 hachi omakase. the rest of us took the S$88 ohmi wagyu 近江和牛omakase.

both were excellent but the wagyu omakase was worth many times more than the S$10 difference.

for the sashimi, we had chutoro, akami (lean toro) & 2 kampachi. for the hachi omakase, it was 2 akami, no chutoro.

the sashimi was very sweet & fresh, top quslity!

#3 excellent crab chawanmushi (hachi omakase)

wife had the crab chawanmushi. 🙂 really sweet & tasty.

#3 ohmi 近江wagyu sukiyaki (for wagyu omakase)

we had something better though – ohmi wagyu 近江和牛sukiyaki!

#3 ohmi 近江wagyu sukiyaki (for wagyu omakase)

ohmi wagyu 近江和牛 is among the top 3, after matsuzaka & kobe, so it was just perfect melt-in-the-mouth experiecne.

#4 large oysters with ponzu jelly

hachi regularly serves the large oyster during dinner, in different preparations.

this lunch oyster was just as big & good.

#4 large oysters with ponzu jelly

basically a freshly shucked oysters with ponzu jelly toppings.

#5 excellent hotate seaweed deepfried roll

the scallop roll was quite an incredible dish. the hotate was sashimi or rare texture but the batter over seaweed was deepfried.

#5 excellent hotate seaweed deepfried roll

an excellent age (fried) dish.

#6 grilled ohmi 近江wagyu

we all had the grilled ohmi wagyu 近江和牛. for the wagyu omakase we had 1 more piece = 4 pieces vs 3 for the hachi omakase. ^^

really by comparison, i can only say the ginzawa’s wagyu & onion don at S$50 was truly pathetic!

even the recently upped S$38.80 (used to be just S$30.80) wagyu don set at sumiya was better!

#7 sushi – uni, chutoro, kinmedai (for hachi omakase)

the sushi was superb quality, better than the sashimi.

#7 sushi – uni, chutoro, kinmedai (for hachi omakase)

for the hachi omakase, it was uni, chutoro, kinmedai (golden eye snapper or alfonsino).

#7 sushi – kinmedai, chutoro, uni

all excellent stuff! ^^ 🙂

#7 wagyu sushi in 3 flavours

for the wagyu omakase, we had wagyu sushi in 3 different preps. could not remember but they were all superb, especially with the uni topping! 🙂

#8 zaru soba

there was the cold soba.

#8 zaru soba

quite ordinary, nothing special there.

#9 yuzu jelly with blackbeans

for dessert, we had the jelly yuzu & blackbeans.

#9 yuzu jelly with blackbeans

japanese have many difference black beans sweet. i like them all mostly. this one was very good, not too sweet & very good balance to the tangy jelly.

c.h.e.f andy

the blog pasts 500,000 hits on 28.12.2015.

i started blogging on 5.3.2013 for my personal musings, to cherish & share fond memories & relish good times & wonderful moments with my family & close friends. at first it was food reviews & cooking. shortly i added travel.

500,000 hits in 2+ almost 3 years is nothing much…anyway it serves the purpose i wanted which is to capture the memories, and for the cooking part, i do need often to refer to my own recipes. haha!…

& unlike Facebook which still does not have a search function, and your photos are as good as lost after posting (very tedious to sieve through the photos), i can easily search for restaurants, recipes etc on my blog. ^^

& when my different groups of friends want to go some eating or coffee places or come my place for makan, if i have a post i can easily share on whatsapp.

P.S. & of course it is great that other internet users may find some use or pleasure reading my posts, just as i have benefitted from the experience of   others through their online posts.

c.h.e.f andy

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 240,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 10 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

S$38.80 wagyu don

son was back from london for holidays.

we decided to have a sunday family lunch. mikuni was fully booked so we went to sumiya on 20.12.2015. ^^

came to sumiya a few times, most recetly with a RI friend on 30.10.2015.

then the bara kaisen don set was still S$18.80 & the wagyu don set S$30.80. price had gone up since. the bara kaisen don set still ok at S$20.80, but the wagyu don set went up very steep, now at S$38.80!

S$38.80 wagyu don

it was excellent though, the beef was so wonderful, very marbled & tasty! 🙂

c/w the realtively poor S$50 wagyu & onion don at ginzawa that was much below expectations.

bara kaisen don

2 of us had the bara kaisen don set, wife had the anago don set (forgot to take photos) & youngest daughter had the ex S$38.80 wagyu don set.

bara kaisen don

the bara kaisen don just just as good. sashimi cuts were very fresh & tasty.

salad

salad was usual.

my own chawanmushi 茶碗蒸

there was chawanmushi. it was ok but btw item for the set.

we all agreed my own chawanmushi was better – smooth, tasty.

sweet potatoes

side today was sweet potatoes. nicely sweet with good bite texture.

mochi

& we all liked the mochi.

mochi

very nice cream inside, not so sweet la so quite edible!

had a great family lunch.

c.h.e.f andy