yong tau foo S$3.50

2 of us went to visit a friend in SGH on 14.11.2016.

after that we went to kopitiam for dinner.

there was a queue at the chicken rice stall, just couple guys at the yong tau foo.

it was 7.50pm. not so many items left.

i picked 7 pieces no noodles = S$3.50, decent price.

there were not many “real” yong tau foo ie with fish meat fillings, so i took mostly the fish ball, fish cake, ngoh hiang, only 1 piece of taupok, & chinese cabbage.

cuttlefish was cut so small…

cuttlefish + yong tau fu from chinatown market

my own white bee hoon ＋ yong tau foo

the fish meat filling in the taupok was quite pathetic c/w what i bought at chinatown & cooked myself at home.

look at the ytf i bought from chinatown market basement 1.

the ytf filling (chinatown market ytf stall’s) were good. they were like 3 or 4 times the filling there was in this taupok!

yong tau foo – S$3.50

other than the limited choice & depleted food items at close to 8pm, the soup & the ytf were quite ok, competent if slightly below expectations.

cold dessert stall

friend bought ytf.

so i went to get cold dessert.

cold chengteng S$1.90 + soursop jelly S$2.10

the cheng teng looked to have good ingredients, and so my friend reported.

soursop jelly – S$2.10

my soursop jelly was definitely good standard. nice jelly & great flavours only S$4 for 2.

this very enjoyable!

c.h.e.f andy

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kopitiam @ SGH

Address:

Singapore General Hospital(SGH), 6 Singapore General Hospital, Level 1, Singapore 169608

Contact:

kopitiam.biz

xapadillo eel & pork belly – $20

son was back for summer break & wanted to go foc.

so we had 3pax dinner at foc on 18.8.2016. ^^

we had a family dinner here last with our daughters on 23.7.2016. 🙂

el vermouth de dali – S$16

wife & son ordered a drink each.

mushroom croquette – S$10

we started with the mushroom croquette. nice & flavourful.

octopus galician style – S$22

& the grilled octopus.

nice dish still. i guess not able to replicate our experience at lake como or cinque terre.

xapadillo eel & pork belly – $20

we tried a new dish – xapadillo eel & pork belly.

this was good. very tasty, excellent dish to share. ^^

seafood fiduea – S$24

& we always ordered the fiduea, which now not on the menu. i wonder?

seafood fiduea – S$24

always good, and a change from just eating pasta or risotto.

seafood fiduea

very tasty like beehoon dish, well infused with all the seafood stock & flavours. quite wonderful la! ^^

lamb chops – S$22

the lamb chop was tiny today!

i wonder? looked very different from what we had recently, like 1/2 the size!

look at the phot0 here! not sure if it was the same dish leh! 

lamb chops – S$22

anyway still a very nice lamb chop la…just not the same level of shiokness by comparison.

kurobuta pork ribs – S$30

& the kurobuta pork ribs always good, my favourite yet, excellent marbled texture & superb flavours! 🙂

dinner was S$189 all-in for 3pax including 2 drinks. not cheap, but very enjoyable, i guess quite ok la..

c.h.e.f andy

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1/2 roasted duck S$33.60 

had a S$50 groupon (bought for S$28.80) expiring in few days time, so got my OPS buddy to go lunch today on 7.11.2016. ^^

the restaurant call themselves 小香港. the food has some hong kong standard.

horrors – the 1/2 roast duck price gone up from S$25 to S$33.60 (no 1/2 duck on menu now, only a portion at $16.80 so i asked server, she said 1/2duck price = 2 portions).

canton paradise starvista 

place ok traffic at 2pm.

roast duck+porridge+dimsum 

i ordered porridge & 2 dimsum plus 1/2 duck.

1/2 roast duck – S$33.60 

the duck here has always been quite ok. for me –

• for me it’s about house of roasted duck劉強烤鴨店standard
• not as good as royal london duck
• not as good as tunglok singatures at orchard parade hotel
• not as good as xin cuisine 
• not as good as ya wang 鸭皇 in JB 

basically duck had good crispy skin, fairly good taste but not as flavourful “pang” as the others. among all tunglok’s royal london duck & xin cuisine’s tea flavoured roast duck were the best. 🙂

combo 3 porridge-kidney+liver+sliced beef= S$10.80 

porridge was good. smooth, about crystal jade standard, better than the hawker’s porridge like 鸿记porridge, but still not as sweet as porridge in hong kong street stalls.

combo 3 porridge-kidney+liver+sliced beef= S$10.80 

and actually even the porridge made by the centre director of teban gardens community service centre was better.

har gao – S$6.20 

har gao was pretty good, though not my favourite dimsum.

steamed pork ribs – S$5.20 

and steamed pork ribs were great, smooth, tasty, tender pork, not too fatty.

lunch was S$67. after S$50 voucher = S$17, so total S$28.80+S$17=S$45.50, very decent price for the food we had.

the food we had was good for 3pax. in fact we did not finsih the duck & tapao the remainder.

will certainly get the groupon again when the promotion is back.

c.h.e.f andy

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char kway teow – S$4 + S$1 cockles

went with wife & daughter to adam road food centre on 6.11.2016. ^^

crowded. wilson parking full, but managed to park on side road, legally…haha! 🙂

adam road food centre @ 830pm sunday

place just reopened. crowded at 8.30pm on a sunday, not easy to find a table.

not sure what has changed. looked like same stalls.

char kway teow stall

wife bought $4 char kway teow add S$1 cockles. 🙂

char kway teow  = S$4 + S$1 cockles 

still the same good tasty char kway teow. 3 of us shared. still quite like it. 🙂

char kway teow – S$4 + S$1 cockles

good wok hae. & kway teow was flavourful with slight sweet taste of dark sauce.

adam road noo cheng big prawn noodles

there was a long queue at noo cheng.

daughter queued for 15mins+

guant size prawns

they had some giant size tiger prawns on display. 25cm? maybe 30cm size, like 250g??

prawn noodles – S$5

she ordered a S$5 prawn noodles dry.

soup was about same as before, quite intense & sweet, not as smooth as why eat har (which is closed now).

prawn noodles – S$5

noodles & chilli ok, still quite tasty.

prawn noodles – S$5

not much change from before renovation la…i guess that os a good thing…

c.h.e.f andy

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Adam Road Food Centre

indian curry fish head lunch 

my good OPS primary school classmate bought indian curry fish head lunch @ banana leaf apolo bistro today on 4.11.2016. ^^

i turned into clive road & stopped at banana leaf at the corner at 1pm but already passed hastings road, where the carpark entrance was. anyway i was able to find parking on the street at campbell lane. was at banana leaf in good time & my friends duely arrived.

we ordered the fish head, mutton curry, chicken masala, the black ink squid, 3 white rice & 1 bryani rice.

indian curry fish head 

i have taken many curry fish heads this year, including cooking it several times.

but for indian curry fish head, looking up my blog, the last time i had was more than 3 years ago, on 29.8.2013! & that was also at banana leaf apolo, at the other outlet on race course road.

indian curry fish head 

today’s fish head though we all agreed, was quite mediocre or maybe below par.

the curry was very sour, and not sweet & tasty enough. fish meat was ok, quite fresh.

indian curry fish head 

for me, i can’t really remember how it should taste like, only had good memory of tasty indian curry fish head, a taste memory NOT met by this curry we had today.

maybe food standard have gone up so much, this indian curry fish head dish is NOT as appealing as it used to be.

but that really shouldn’t be also, as only 3 years ago, i recorded that the fish head curry was very tasty then.

chicken masala 

the masala chicken was ok, competent.

mutton curry 

curry mutton too. mutton was tender. curries strong in herbs but quite ok.

mutton curry

black in squid 

in my memory, black ink squid was an excellent dish, especially at soon heng then in race course road in the 1990s. that was like 20yrs ago.

today this dish was quite poor. there was no distinctive squid ink flavours. squid dish was still nice, but squid did not appear to be very very fresh. meat though was not not tough so the cooking was pretty ok.

plain rice set with 2 veg items 

we all remembered the good old days, when they served us plain rice on the banana leaf with some side dishes.

it is still the practice. there were 2 side dishes (though it was 3 previously) – cabbage, & what maybe a hal with some eggplants.

plain rice set with curry fish head

so the fish itself was pretty ok. only that the fish head gravy & the other meat curries were quite so so in taste.

the lunch was S$85, which my friend took the bill & refused to split (go dutch!). i guess lunch was not like overly expensive. yet it was below our expectation for an excellent taste curry la!

c.h.e.f andy

ohmi wagyu shabu

introduced my RI buddy to my favourite restaurant hachi today on 3.11.2016. ^^

this same friend organised an incredible 10pax birthday lunch for me at kai garden, and also did a coffee table book collage for me. simply fabulous! 🙂

so my turn to do a belated birthday lunch for him la… 🙂

hachi

hachi had good lunch crowd today.

it’s quite unpredictable, but maybe lunch mostly well taken up, dinner crowd a bit more uncertain.

i honestly didn’t think hachi’s ohmi wagyu omakase could get any better. it’s already so good.

and oh, wife & i just returned from a 5day stay at nikko, autumn hikes. one of the 3 ryokans we stayed this trip was shikisai, a quite good standard ryokan.

and on the first evening of our arrival at shikisai, we were looking forward to a delicious, wonderful kaiseki dinner but the dinner (on the first night) unfortunately was not even 1/2 as good as this hachi’s lunch omakase.

looked at the dishes, really quite far off actually!

Singapore’s food standard is now way up there la….

#1 uni kakiage

omakase started with uni kakiage.

it was a quite generous serving of uni. batter was very good. the other piece is a mushroom, and sitting on a bed of edamame mousse.

it’s a very good quality starter, though i always prefer uni served as sashimi or sushi.

#2 oyster with ponzu jelly

the oyster is huge, served in 2 cut pieces with ponzu jelly.

it’s quite a regular fixture in this omakase.

oyster with ponzu jelly

oyster very fresh, plump & sweet, & the ponzu jelly combined perfectly. 🙂

#3 ohmi wagyu nimono

the ohmi wagyu 近江和牛nimono (steamed dish) is a new dish.

the restaurant told me this replaces the sukinabe, and they asked me if i wanted to have back the sukinabe. i was quite happy to try out their new dish.

#3 ohmi wagyu nimono

very good dish anywhere. nice tender, smooth braised wagyu. with sweet potato.

here this was the first of 4 ohmi wagyu dishes, and 2 other wagyu dishes were just incredible la.

#4 sashimi moriawase = akami, kampachi, hirame, bonito

a good sashimi moriawase, with akami (lean toro), kampachi (amberjack), hirame (flounder) & bonito (tuna family).

#4 sashimi moriawase = akami, kampachi, hirame, bonito

lean toro very sweet & smooth, not as good as chutoro which they sometimes serve.

my friend commented the hirame very good. indeed no residue, usually hirame has some chewy part. kampachi & bonito all very sweet & tasty. a good standard sashimi.

#5 grilled A5 ohmi wagyu steak

the grilled A5 ohmi wagyu was fantastic, so flavourful, marbled, melt-in-your-mouth. ^^

grilled A5 ohmi wagyu steak

everything else were excellent, the dried cuttlefish, tomato, & crackers.

#6 ohmi wagyu sushi

next was the wagyu sushi.

one with daikon, minced radish. the other topped with uni & caviar.

ohmi wagyu sushi

server specially highlighted that the preparation already incorproated sauce, so no ned to add wasabi or sauce. 🙂

really top quality sushi la…

#7 ohmi wagyu shabu

the best dish came in a grand ending. a young chef came to serve it himself.

it’s a ohmi wagy shabu, not the traditional shabu but with he said a chopped wagyu gravy/sauce.

in fact nothing like a shabu 涮, 8sec poaching la! the wagyu was thick cut like A5 steak quality not thin slices for shabu.

#7 ohmi wagyu shabu

so marbled, flavourful, awesome wagyu dish!

& after the wagyu, there was the onigiri & pickles, this dish serving as gohan dish to round off the excellent meal.

#8 yuzu sorbet

& for dessert, we had a yuzu sorbet.

very good, totally refreshing & had some yuzu pieces also in the sorbet, very nice la!

yuzu meringue from the patissier

i went to get a slice of a yuzu meringue from next door, the patissier.

they told me this (new) yuzu flavour less sweet than their signature passion fruit meringue.

hachi plated it nicely for my friend with the birthday candle…

yuzu meringue from the patissier

nice cake but i think i kind of went off patissier & the meringue cake a bit liao.

this lunch omakase was so good la…totally awesome! will come back again.

c.h.e.f andy

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dinner at aburiya, our favourite yakiniku restaurant 

went with wife to our favoruite yakiniku restaurant aburiya on 1.11.2016, again! haha! ^^

it’s our go to place when lazy to think where to dine & feeling like eating bbq. 🙂

this evening aburiya not so busy, just few tables.

sake sampler – S$18 

wife took the usual sake sampler, sweet to dry, very good.

smokeless grill 

they use the smokeless grill with powerful ventilation. i guess most places do now.

USA kurobuta platter (200g) – S$25 

we took the usual kurobuta platter – belly, collar, loin & skirt, something like that la…

all were good! ^^

USA kurobuta sampler plate (200g) – S$25 

200g quite a good serving for 2pax.

harami with negi (scallions) – S$10.95 

we took the cheap harami (skirt). sometimes they were quite good.

today wife didn’t like it much, not sweet & slightly tough, should have ordered the jo karubi (prime ribs).

smokeless bbq

in korea, japan, china etc, gathering around this “hearth” would be a pleasant dining experience in a cold evening. 🙂

kimchi chigae – S$12.95 

yakiniku 烧肉 basically a japanese styled korean bbq 日式韩国烤肉.

i feel it is better in quality to most korean bbq here. one key difference is they don’t serve free banchan 반찬 or side dishes, but you can order kimchi etc from menu.

kimchi chigae – S$12.95 

the kimchi chigae is excellent here.

very tasty, strong, has some belly pork, generally the dish a bit salty.

bibimen – S$11.95 

& wife likes the bibimen here which i came to like as well.

good serving of meat too.

bibimen – S$11.95 

& i like the ubiquitous gochujang 고추장 sauce, peppery, sweet, savoury.

nice dinner! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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11pax makan dishes

had dinner with my OPS friends at beng thin hoon kee on 31.10.2016. ^^

we had 11pax. i ordered 8 dishes.

food was quite delicious. all my friends enjoyed the dishes. 🙂 i have not dined here for a while, and i was enjoying the food also. ^^

duck salad – S$35

i asked for large duck salad. the server who took orders said medium was enough. that was good service.

& indeed salad was enough for 11pax.

duck salad – S$35

this duck salad very refreshing & delicious. enjoyed it every time.

if you just looked at the ingredients – cucumber, melon, mango, a fed shreds of duck, it was very expensive at S$35 c/w say a far more substantive 4-appetizer starter at a teochew restaurant. but really what is enjoyable for the palate is all that counts. so i am very happy with this salad dish as starter.

fish maw soup – S$40

the fish maw soup is always good here, literally choke a block with ingredients.

a very tasty soup because of the stock & crabmeat, great texture & intense goodness.

oyster egg sheets – S$28

the price of the oyster egg is a bit off the charts! large is S$38! oyster egg for $38???

but eating here must order oyster egg leh. so i ordered medium S$28.

oysters were huge, fresh & tasty & quite good serving. the egg were like thin sheets, really well done. i guess i need to apply the duck salad psychology here. just that duck salad is uncommon & a delight, oyster egg is great here but not so special dish.

overall i must say it was a very good dish, even if it was S$28. 🙂

sea cucumber duck – S$80

sea cucumber duck is another excellent dish here at beng thin.

i ordered large, which had a whole duck.

this dish was superbly done. duck was excellent, tender & sweet, sea cucumber added great texture, gravy was tasty, natural.

sea cucumber duck – S$80

very enjoyable dish. ^^

cereal prawns – S$42

for me, the cereal prawns was below par.

it was passable i guess, not sure if could be considered competent.

cereal prawns – S$42

prawns were not the very fresh, or it was over-fried or was left out too long & the shell softened not so crispy.

a complete world of difference from the excellent cereal king prawns i had at ban heng harbourfront recently.

i thought that it was not as good as the cereal prawns by my friend’s son at his house on 6.6.2016.

brocoli – S$28

the worst dish though had to be the brocoli.

brocoli is always a nice vegetable dish to have, no thanks to the cooking.

but this was tasteless, no wok hae, & texture not crunchy enough. most likely blanched not garlic fried & imperfect timing.

brocoli – S$28

also, i was deciding between medium S$18 & large $24 & decided on large, so i am quite certain it was S$24 & not S$28. i did not notice till i got home.

at S$24 it was excessive for me. at S$28, it was like “rolling my eyes” la!

kong bak pao – S$30

kong bak pao was excellent! 🙂

server told me there were 12 slices, anyway enough for 11pax. my piece was very tasty, the broth was excellent, & went very well with the bun.

金瓜芋泥 pumpkin orh nee – $28

the orh nee was i guess average.

not too sweet which was a plus, good texture & ok taste, just not “pang” enough. becos no lard? also no coconut milk on top.

金瓜芋泥 pumpkin orh nee – $28

better than some, and not among the best la! 🙂

we had a great fun time together. food was delicious & very enjoyable overall. & as old friends we shared a lot of jokes & banters.

restaurant was empty, like 3 tables included our own. service was good actually, kept changing plates, new towels, filling up tea pot, taking photos. quite cheerful too. nothing to complain la…

cost of dinner was S$384 for 11pax. i think quite ok for the delicious dishes we had. a friend brought a red wine & they charged S$5 per bottle corkage. that was quite good too.

it has been a while. the last time i was here was 2+ yrs ago on 1.6.2014.

i will probably come back here with my family.

c.h.e.f andy

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