son’s kimchi fried rice

wife decided to have family cook out on 27.6.2019. ^^

we had 4pax family dinner, everyone cooked.

1. wife did pangrilled ribeye
2. son did a sous vide flamed ribeye
3.  and a kimchi fried rice
4. i did a pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onion
5. and aunty bes did pan charred brussels sprouts

son’s kimchi fried rice

son’s kimchi fried rice good standard, tasty.

wife’s pangrilled ribeye

wife’s pangrilled ribeye

wife’s pangrilled ribeye was good, done well.

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye better still. he said 2hrs 50degC, sounded a bit rare.

but after flaming, and it was not a thick cut, it came out very well, nicely medium rare, very consistemt and great flavours.

aunty bes pan charred brussels sprouts

aunty bes pan charred brussels sprouts we all like.

my pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onions

i did a panroasted 1/2 kampung chicken

halia’s excellent grilled chicken breast

to model after the excellent tender, moist, tasty chicken we recently had at halia (above photo).

my pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onions

my pan roasted “halia” chicken

came up with my own recipe, and it was pretty good la..

i seasoned with sea salt and pepper and pangrilled deboned 1/2 kampung chicken breast and thigh pieces about 4 mins, high heat, just a little butter (chicken lots of oil rendering out), till crispy skin, turned over and off fire. then 20mins in 130degC oven.

chicken was very tender, moist and consistent, quite close to halia’s.

red wine reduction leek & onions

halia’s leek side with the grilled chicken was very good too.

i decided to do mine as red wine reduction. it was really tender and tasty. PT commented it was very nice and chatted with me about how it was done.

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye

chao shan cuisine

wife bought 7pax dinner with WM, Jessie, WT & GY and HC @ chao shan cuisine 潮汕林 on 26.6.2019. ^^

first time i ate here.

food was generally good, tasty, and great teochew dishes. 🙂

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang were very good.

pig trotter jelly

this trotter jelly very tasty, much better than that at fragrant gardens recently.

braised goose

in the bill they said braised goose.

i thought no goose in singapore? except like frozen goose from 7 countries european, latin america etc.

anyhow it was very good, much better than the braised duck at fragrant gardens.

goose liver

and goose liver.

the 2 dishes S$60, goose was ok…don’t think i want to spend money on braised goose liver. 🙂

egg omelette

egg omelette also good. at S$20, quite standard price..better than fragrant gardens, about same as huat kee.

sotong with chives

sotong with chives S$26 was ok, a good dish.

the proprietress brandied some names, anyway looked like sotong, tasted like sotong, it was sotong to me.

teochew fried kuay teow

teochew fried kuay teow also very good here. better than both fragrant gardens and huat kee.

S$220 for 7pax

dinner was S$220 for 7pax, quite ok, but then we did not have the expensive dishes like halibut and pomfret which were both excellent at fragrant gardens.

i can expect them to be equally good and expensive here though. lol!

when i read the blogs, apparently their cold crab, teochew steamed treadfin also very gooda and the steamed sharks cartilage..not sure that is a teochew dish…

will try next time.

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang

had a really nice dinner thanks to arrangements by WM and Jessie, and a good get together before GY flew back to shanghai.

c.h.e.f andy

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thai dishes

5 of us OPS buddies arranged to have lunch, but WM was held up by some singtel installation, so 4pax lunch at patara on 25.6.2019. ^^

i booked the eatigo 50% discounts at 12pm. 🙂

thai seafood tanhoon salad S$23

i ordered thai seafood tanhoon salad. i think the prawn pomelo salad is better. WT doesn’t take prawns. 🙂

tomyam talay S$12

tomyam talay S$12

i ordered just one tomyam soup for my friends to try.

quite enough. i wasn’t taking still nursing a cough though 90% recovered…HC doesn’t take sotong and WT doesn’t take prawns. haha!

Grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin S$38

and the grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin. this really good quality, tender and tasty.

red curry chicken S$24

and red curry chicken.

i think red curry is the most tasty curry here. today maybe my tastebuds not fully restored so i didn’t feel it was as flavourful, lemak and intense as i thought.

my friends liked it anyway.

WHOLE SEABASS In lime, garlic and chilli broth S$42

first time i ordered this steamed whole seabass.

this a very popular dish in thailand and in the distant past i had taken this many times in bangkok with thai business partners and it was very good.

i had cooked this myself, just seabass with fish sauce and lots of aromatics. today i didn’t expect much and it wasn’t much. good enough i guess. seabass with tasty sauce. should have come as a candle heated dish though.

pineapple rice with seafood S$22

i never order thai pineapple rice as it is sweet and my family always order the very flavourful olive rice.

still i expected better but this was not much tasty, i think much below par for a restaurant like patara…

WT’s haebeehiam fried rice and msw fried rice which we took recently, much better than this.

dessert platter S$22

i ordered a dessert platter for my friends to try.

i wasn’t taking and it was quite enough for 3pax. – coconut and vanilla ice cream, 2 thai chendol, durian cakes and fruits.

S$108 for 4pax lunch

Grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin S$38

we had a great lunch, and price was great too with eatigo 50% discounts.

4pax lunch for good quality food at S$108 nett.

after lunch we went to visit M’s new place and picked up some ang hae (red prawn) durians at SKC. red prawn durians so so for me…i liked the xo durians i also bought better. we had that at won lee’s place later in the evening.

c.h.e.f andy

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Patara Fine Cuisine @ Tanglin Mall

wagyu beef carpaccio

had a halia chope S$100 8.30pm offpeak voucher expiring today 24.6.2019. bought for S$50.

made reservation on chope 8.30pm and went early with wife and walked to the visitor’s centre and back, contributed to 10,000 steps. lol! 🙂

they didn’t have my favourite blackmore wagyu spare rib on the menu ay more, so didn’t order more vouchers and chope doesn’t allow once reservation time so sticked with the S$100.

food was quite excellent for the price. we had-

• 2 servings of wagyu beef carpaccio (excellent)
• Tuna tartar (good)
• Sauteed portobello (good)
• Cauliflower Soup (ok)
• Chicken breast (excellent)

all in S$53nett for 2pax with chope 50% vouchers.

cauliflower soup with roll S$5

we ordered soup of the day..a cauliflower soup..good standard not special, and it came with a roll, not bad la for i think S$5 and got 50% off soem more. 🙂

sauteed portobello S$6

ordered the sauteed portobello.

had mixed mushrooms a few times always good, as was this too…

tuna tartar S$18

competent, natural sweetness, overall mediocre not great…

wagyu beef carpaccio S$16

the wagyu carpaccio was very good, much better w/o the previous like bearnaise sauce??

wagyu beef carpaccio

natural sweetness, and nicely marbled wagyu, very tasty. we ordered a second plate.

yam crisp

complementary yam crisp.

chicken breast S$28

we ordered the grilled chicken breast. it was excellent, very tender, moist and tasty.

i told the server it was like 1/2 the size of what i had previously, which was breast plus wingstick portion, now only breast. she replied that some customers suggest to have a side, so they had the leek confit and cheeseball. i liked both. 🙂

chicken breast

in fact i went back and made the dish myself, not as good obviously but quite ok. 🙂

so 2pax dinner very good standard dishes for S$53 nett. boleh la!

c.h.e.f andy

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Halia @ Botanical Gardens

4pax dinner at huat kee RELC

wife bought 4pax dinner at uat kee this evening on 20.6.2019. ^^

i had arranged 6pax dinner including WT and GY at tasty loong @ ortho. but WT had some urgent matters to attend to, so we decided just 4 of us all around town don’t go so far. can go tasty loong another time.

wife loves the food at huat kee, so we decided to go there, quite convenient at RELC.

we ordered 3 claypot sharksfin S$30. it was very good. i didn’t take.

garlic pork 蒜泥白肉

garlic pork 蒜泥白肉 was good.

fish maw with kailan

fish maw with kailan

surprisingly the fish maw was much below par?? not tasty, not right…

chopped spinach

the claypot chopped spinach was good. i think maybe i can replicate that.

oyster omelette

oyster omelette

oyster omelette was good standard, better than fragrant gardens.

teochew fried kauy teow

teochew fried kauy teow

the teochew fried kauy teow was good but still not enough wokhae, not the best, can be better.

cheng tng

orh nee

the dessert orh nee and cheng tng were good.

dinner came to about $240 for 4pax, not that cheap though the individual dishes on the menu didn’t look too expensive. of course there was 3 sharksfin and the other dishes would add up to about S$135. i guess ok.

the whole suckling pig was S$169 on the menu. however the expensive looking )as in the cost of making printing) menu not updated so the menu price for sharesfin was S$28 but the cost was S$30.

i will consider coming here with my sis and brother to try the suckling pig and other dishes.

c.h.e.f andy

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Huat Kee @ RELC

Address:

msw from four seasons durian

met up with dhanaraj and NCL at toastbox clementi mall. Mahen came by to join coffee..

durian at clementi hawker centre

after coffee we bought msw from four seasons durians = S$18/kg S$66 for 2 durians 3.7kg..

we went to eat at clementi hawker centre

msw from four seasons durian

msw from four seasons durian

durians were good just no better than what i had recently with LKY & LKH at chong boon market where we paid only S$40 for 2 durians about same amount..

c.h.e.f andy

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Four Seasons Durians

Address:

3155 Commonwealth Ave W, B1-K19, Singapore 129588

roast pork

went with wife & sumin to peach garden miramar for 3pax dinner on 12.6.2019..

went peach garden becos there is eatigo 50% discounts..

however, unlike patara and indian curry house the 50% discounts at peach garden is NOT GENUINE!

they marked up the prices eg 1/2 roast duck S$48..peach garden is average food below xin cuisine, tunglok, imperial treasure etc nobody priced 1/2 roast duck S$48!

and server try to push soon hock at S$70/kg after 50% discounts..nobody sells soon hock at S$140/kg..

anyway their restaurant their prerogative..

BASICALLY EATIGO 50% NOT GENUINE!!!

better off with minimum 4pax alacarte buffet S$48pax MON-THURS 50% off which is their regular promotion NOT eatigo..

we ate few dishes no point wasting money here still comes to S$93nett for 3pax..

roast pork

surprisingly the roast pork was good actually..

wasabi prawns

wasabi prawns 

wasabi prawns so so, oily…

yuzu sea perch

steamed sea perch 

soy sauce steamed sea perch good, yuzu sea perch NOT great…

minced pork tofu

fish noodles 

minced pork tofu so so passable

and fish noodles so so not enough wok hae.

S$94 for 3pax 

i think S$94 for the cheap food we had was ridiculous especially with eatigo 50% discounts.

see my later 3pax dinner at xin cuisine just S$82 with top quality food.

roast pork

for this evening, i think only deserve 1 star…

anyway we had good family time together.

c.h.e.f andy

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kurobuta char siew

my family always celebrate commercialised occasions like christmas, new year, valentine, mother’s day etc not on the actual day.

becos generally we say on actual days it cost double, quality dropped by 1/2 and ZERO service lol!

so for father’s day celebrations, children boguht me dinner one week before on 9.6.2019. ^^

i selected the place, tasty loong @ orto.

ORTO, formerly bottletree park is a multi recreational park, with prawning, fishing, karting, paintball, trampoline etc and like 8 F&B outlets.

for this evening we are dining at tasty loong, nice ambience over the pond.

orto carpark

ample parking.

orto pond

great ambience, there was also a live band at a platform at the drinking joint.

tasty loong

tasty loong

orto pond

our table overlooked the pond.

ice vegetable with salted egg fish skin S$18

we were introduced by the server this special dish – ice vegetables.

we had this last year at shanghai, introduced by my OPS friend, WT and his wife GY. we loved it.

here it was very good too, everyone loved it. will order this again when i come next.

1/2 roast london duck S$25

roast london duck was very good. actually better than the tea flavoured duck at xin cuisine we just had…more like the recent xin cuisine one was below their usual standard.

anyway this one great roast flavours, great texture and is up there. just that everyone didn’t think much of the mango sauce!

kurobuta char siew

kurobuta char view looked lovely.

kurobuta char siew

and tasted superb!

hand tear chicken

hand tear chicken

the hand tear chicken 手撕鸡 was good especially with the ginger scallion dip..tender, moist, sweet, nothing specail though.

pumpkin prawns 

children liked the pumpkin prawns, nothing special to me.

smoked duck

smoked duck was the poorest dish. last time i tried it was ok. after trying again, i think i can pass on this dish.

lala

lala was ok competent.

charcoal tofu

the charcoal tofu among the better dishes, great texture and taste and unique.

banana leaf seafood beehoon

the carbs were below par here.

the seafood beehoon was ok competent, but not flavourful enough, not my preferred dish.

yuan yang fried rice

yuan yang fried rice

the yuan yang fried rice was a bit better, more flavourful especially the bottom bits form the stone pot. can consider next time. but wife and i really wanted a good standard normal zichar horfun. they did not have that on the menu only the chilli crab horfun which was not great when i had it last time. will ask for noraml horfun next time i come.

ice cream in coconut

ice jelly

the dessert were the worst dishes here.

the ice jelly was a total failure. how can go wrong with ice jelly, just syrup and lime on ice and jelly? cannot order this one.

will try orh nee next time, hopefully better.

1/2 roast london duck

overall everyone loved the food and ambience. had a really relaxed and fun evening with the family.

c.h.e.f andy

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Tasty Loong by Chef Pung

HK steamed song fish head

OPS friend bought 5pax zichar at OK 美味 @ Dunman Food Centre on 7.6.2019. ^^

OK zichar @ dunman fc

tiny crammed single stall OK 美味 @ Dunman Food Centre

zichar dishes at OK

we ordered 4 dishes.

HK steamed song fish head

HK steamed song fish head the usual good standard, flavourful sauce, fresh song fish head. 🙂

steamed salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼

good steamed salted fish minced pork咸鱼饼。 ：-）

fried egg bittergourd

fried egg bittergourd good, flavourful.

sambal potato leaves

and sambal potato leaves great too.

taukua pao

HC went downstairs to buy taukua pao. very good!

WT’s fried rice

WT brought fried rice.

WT durian fried rice

the durian fried rice was really good, much better than expected.

very tasty and fragrant. it was kind of like pineapple fried rice, which i usually don’t take because it is sweet. this durian fried rice also sweet, and i think i cannot take too much of it.

WT durian fried rice

a small portion very enjoyable.

haebeehiam fried rice

the haebeehiam fried rice also very good.

in fact for more helping, i prefer this haebeehiam fried rice.

xo and msw

afterwards we went to WM place and had xo and msw durians. very good.

xo durian

msw from skc

xo was good. i have had better msw but this msw was pretty good already.

c.h.e.f andy

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pig trotter jelly

had early 7pax birthday dinner for brother and sister @ fragrant garden teochew restaurant on 13.6.2019. ^^

food was good as always, especially the teochew streamed halibut, claypot pomfret soup, and very flavourful orh nee..

duck was below par, orh lua quite “pang” not the best. teochew fried kuay teow mediocre not enuf wokhae, garlic kailan non-descript, pig trotters jelly so so

pig trotter jelly

pig trotter jelly was competent, i guess what people said “mai hiam buay pai” lol!

meat was soft, jelly was good enough not very flavourful…

claypot pomfret soup S$98

the claypot pomfret soup the best, unfailingly.

very tasty soup, sweet chinese cabbage, and pomfret very fresh, firm and sweet. i like this better than steamed pomfret, and better than the very tasty teochew steamed halibut!

not cheap obviously S$100/kg and 0.98kg.

teochew steamed halibut

teochew steamed halibut the next best dish, super delicious!

teoche steam has sour plum, salted vegetable, delivering excellent tangy sweet taste.

and halibut was sweet, delicate, firm white fish. the dish was just superb!

braised duck

braised duck was much, much below par! wet and not tasty not “pang”.

my own teochew braised duck, super “pang”, moist, tasty

wife said far below the braised duck i made. in fact now we decided not to order braised duck in restaurants, doesn’t make sense.

i find it strange that roast duck are uniformly better in restaurants c/w hawkers/coffeshop, whereas braised duck are almost equally uniformly better at hawker than at restaurants

example –

• hup seng braised duck at sin min road
• chinatown braised duck at commonwealth crescent

far superior to this!

oyster omelette

oyster omelette was good enough competent, did not stand out.

beng thin’s crispy version beats this hands down.

likewise many hawker stalls oyster omelette better!

fried kai lan

fried kailan quite nice, some wok hae but kind of pedestrian for me.

i have taken very good fried kailan elsewhere.

teochew fried kuay teow

teochew fried kuay teow below expectation, can’t say below par but i expected it to be much more fragrant with good wok hae. not quite this evening.

orh nee

orh nee

orh nee here very good, one of the best for me.

not too sweet, and have everything, the right texture, flavours, ingredients.

fragrant garden

brother and sis and sil, bil had a great time.

youngest daughter was able to join us so we had 7pax.

a truly enjoyable family dinner.

c.h.e.f andy

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