Singapore, Day 2

Date of visits: 19th July 2010

After our breakfast at the hotel (Brizo Restaurant, disappointing), we headed to Raffles City for some shopping to kill time before visiting Fook Seng Golden Hill for some home-style chicken rice. 

When we arrived it seems we were the only tourists, and I proceeded to order our lunch in cantonese. They had run out of the raw fish starter or porridge, so we simply went for the superior chicken rice (S$3), extra chicken rice ($0.5), and fried seasonal vegetables with oyster sauce (S$4-5). 

chicken rice, one each, with home-made garlic chilli sauce and fantastic with a little of the thick sweet soy sauce drizzled on top

'superior' chicken had some sesame oil  drizzled on top and cucumbers underneath.

chicken broth, not particularly exciting.

These vegetables were too undercooked for my liking, every bite was a loud crunch =P

The small plate of chicken was enough for the both of us. It was quite good, not completely bland and being given only the breast without skin, they were quite moist too. The chicken rice was even better, the texture showing great execution on the part of the chef, and it wasn’t very oily either. With the exception of the vegetables, this was a very simply yet satisfying lunch for me.

We then headed south to VivoCity for some more shopping before making a pit stop at Bakerzin for some late-afternoon fuel after hitting so many shops! On this day there was 30% discount (believe discount is until end of August, 2010) and S chose an Oreo cheesecake whilst I took the recommendation of the cashier lady and went for the strawberry shortcake.

S thought the cheesecake was too sweet, and I had some too, which I thought the sweetness was fine (I don't have a liking for desserts which are too sweet either) - cheesecakes are meant to be sweet and this one was already far less-sweet than ones you find in the US. However, I really didn't appreciate the base nor the texture of the cheesecake. It was creamy, yes, but not dense like a baked cheesecake is meant to be....and the oreo cookies...well, it didn't cut it for me, being soggy and all.

My strawberry shortcake was essentially two layers of sponge with two layers of light whipped cream layered in between, with some sliced strawberries. It was very light and is easily manageable by one person. I would've liked to see more fruit though. Nothing particular exciting and I didn't quite understand how this was their best seller. 


For dinner we decided we wanted some more local food experiences, so I suggested we head back to Clarke Quay to the Food Street, which had been set up for the purposes of the Singapore Food Festival. Yes this was more for tourists than locals as the food was probably more expensive but in normal food centres each serving is so big one dish would've filled you up. Here we were able to sample different things, and for everything below the total came to about S$20. 

This food street was set up nicely, with lots of stalls, each selling a different kind of food, from chilli crab to durian ice cream to hand-made noodles. 

Otak Otak / Otah Otah

We were late arrivers, and I was lucky enough to snab the last of the otah otah. After watching Anthony Bourdain's trip to SG, I had been wanting to try these Nyonya / Indonesian delicacies. They are steamed fish paste, which have been marinated with coconut milk and a variety of spices and then wrapped in banana leaves. These ones I had were actually grilled on a barbeque rather than steamed. 

Rojak

Next we sampled rojak - a fruit + vegetable salad commonly found here, as well as Malaysia + Indonesia. We asked or the spicy sauce to be on the side, and the man behind this rojak stall proceeded to mix some guava fruit, cucumbers, pineapples and chopped deep-fried dough sticks ("yao jar-gwai" / you tiao) with a sweet marinade resembling hoi-sin sauce, and crunchy chopped peanuts. Very light and refreshing for this hot weather.

Popiah 

Cross-section of a slice of popiah

Popiahs are fresh rolls with shredded jicama or cucumbers, vermicelli and usually a protein such as shrimp or pork or hard beancurd. Flavour comes from chopped crunchy peanuts and a sweet sauce, similar to that found in our rojak salad. We asked for ours to not include any protein as S is quite picky with her meat, but it was tasty nonetheless =). 

Hand-made noodle in soup with prawns, minced pork, anchovies, fried garlic.

I chose this as our filler. This stall had some chicken dumplings, fried noodle dishes and noodle-in-soup dishes for one to choose from. The guy behind this stall was very friendly and sweet, and recommended the prawn soup noodle, so I agreed and went for it. The noodles were the fresh kind, pre-made for tonight, but the whole dish is assembled to order. The woman took her time, and I thought the noodles would've been better (more al-dente) if she had not boiled them for so long! The couple of shrimps were small but bouncy, and the minced meat was very flavourful. I didn't care for the soup as much as S as it was too salty and probably had a lot of MSG.

All in all a smart way to sample different local foods, and we were lucky to be arriving at the time of Singapore's Food Festival. 

Singapore, Day 1

My friend S and I decided about a month ago to take a break from Hong Kong and fly to the nearby Singapore for some shopping, fun and good food. As we were quite late in booking flights etc, we ended up on a six-hour stop-over flight via Bangkok to Singapore, both ways! Needless to say we were hungry and tired during our flight but this didn’t stop us from having an amazing holiday!

After checking into the hotel and a quick shower, we were off to the famous Maxwell Food Centre for some cheap good eats, especially since the original Tian Tian Chicken Rice was here…

We arrived at quarter to 7 to find Tian Tian CLOSED! Slightly annoyed, we decided we’d try a bunch of stuff. I went straight for the Kam Wah stall for some sliced fish soup as there was a growing line and thought it should be good! I placed my order of sliced fish soup (S$4) and waited and waited for it… With one person manning the stove and another taking orders, I thought it would suffice to churn out simple bowls of soups quickly but it took quite a long time, at least by Hong Kong standards! No matter I thought, as long as the food is good…. Or so I thought.

The fish soup was clear, unlike the bowls of fish bee hoon which had a milky-white soup. Mine was full of MSG and too salty as well. The fish was nice but little was given, unimpressed.

To help get rid of the msg taste in our mouths, I picked a soursop juice (S$1) from a nearby stall called Drinks & Desserts Corner. We've both never tasted soursop before, so we didn't know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised. The drink is milky-white in colour and is sweet yet slightly sour at the same time. 

Next S chose some deep-fried dumplings (S$4) and spring onion pancake (S$4) from a Gyoza stall. Both were served with a sweet sauce, resembling a lot like our Hoisin sauce, but less thick. The deep fried dumplings were stuffed with chicken and chives, quite flavourful and tasty with black vinegar. The spring onion pancakes were pan-fried till golden-brown but managed to retain a soft texture. It was nice on its own, but quite oily.

chicken and chive fried dumplings with vinegar and sweet bean sauces

spring onion pancake with sweet bean sauce

Lastly, I ordered a seafood hor fun (S$4) from a stall called Swee Ting. It was highly recommended by one of the many Singaporean food blogs I read whilst planning our trip, and so I was quite eager to try. It took, once again, forever to be sent to our table even though the stall had no queue. But my long wait this time was worth it. It arrived resembling your regular hor fun in gravy at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong, but tasted very different. They were generous with the seafood on top, with shrimps, fish cakes, fish, cockles and muscles. The peppery gravy, which S and I both loved, was flavourful but not salty in any way. The hor fun was the best however. Each piece of noodle was unique random shapes of noodles with a slightly chewy texture and a very strong taste and smell of ‘wok hei’ – no wonder it took so long?? It was so good we both kept raving over the noodles =P. Best. Noodles. Ever.

seafood hor fun

Before we left, we bought another drink from the same Drinks & Desserts Corner, but this time opted for a fresh lime juice (S$1). It was a much more sour and sweet drink - more 'intense' in flavour overall but also quenches your thirst. This led me to think that a half-half of lime and soursop would make for my ideal hawker centre drink!

After dinner we headed to Marina Square at Raffles to kill some time. We were quite unenthusiastic to shop after a long day and so we decided to pig out some more by going next door to Mandarin Oriental Hotel to get some pastries from Axis Lounge…. After looking at the very well crafted pastries, we decided on a Mille Feuille and Cassian’s Coffee Plantation (each S$8 before tax and service).

The Mille Feuille was comprised of three layers of crispy puff pastry. On the bottom was a thin layer of fruit jam and fresh raspberries, on the top was some Tahitian vanilla custard sandwiched between two layers of pastry. Ingredients were extremely fresh and the puff pastry was well thought-out and glazed to retain its crispiness during the day….excellent!

The Cassian Coffee Plantation was their most popular dessert according to the waitress. We could see why. Rich in chocolate and coffee, it was like drinking thick cup of smooth mocha. On the outside was a dark chocolate glaze. Inside was a brown chocolate mousse, and a white Sumatra coffee-flavoured mousse, with a thin layer of chocolate sponge sandwiched between. There was also a biscuit base and caramelized pecans to give it crunch and cut some of the richness of the mousses. Quite sweet by our standards, but a completely delight.

So these two cakes rounded off our night and we slept like babies in preparation for the next full day of shopping =)… 

Sweet Classroom

Date of visit: 17th July 2010

Sweet Classroom @ Third Street, Western District

After dinner at a Tea Restaurant nearby, S and I walked here to have dessert. After looking at their menu, we decided on a crème brulee, Hokkaido Milk soufflé, and a Green Tea Snowflake Ice.

The Crème Brulee ($30) was superb. To be honest when it arrived there were two miniscule slices of strawberries and a single blueberry which made the not-very-brown caramelized sugar on top quite sad-looking and generally not as appetizing as a plain well-caramelized crème brulee would look (an example would be like Paul Lafayet’s). The top caramelized sugar cracked nicely with a tap of the spoon and cut through easily without ruining the ‘look’ of the custard. The torched sugar, even though not brown enough in colour, was surprisingly sufficient and good to give the burnt-sugar taste and aroma. The custard underneath was cold, creamy, smooth and rich – very addictive!

 First soufflé, quite white on outside

The Hokkaido soufflé took a bit of time to arrive, but when it did it was barely cooked. The middle was very ‘wet’ and I asked for them to bake it longer. When they returned later it looked quite hopeless so the other waitress /chef offered to make us another one! As it took a while we decided to order a snowflake ice ($28) to kill time, and settled for green tea as I remember liking their green tea flavour. We ordered chocolate sauce and black sugar to go with it for no additional costs. This was S’s first time having snowflake ice and she loved it – light, clear matcha flavour and silky texture, but the snowflake ice was quite small in portion compared to other dessert places with similar pricing.

birds eye view of our green T snowflake ice with black sugar jelly + chocolate syrup

 second Hokkaido milk soufflé arrives, looking much browner on the top - i.e. cooked properly

Twenty minutes or so later our new Hokkaido Milk soufflé ($35) arrived. Whilst I was happy with its doneness, it didn’t taste as good as I remember. The texture was a little more ‘plastic’ on the outside, and was quite lacking in any flavour. A vanilla crème anglaise would certainly help here! Not a bad dessert at all, but definitely room for improvement.

We probably overdosed on sugar between us two but it was all good! 

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Sweet Classroom

G/f, 150 Third Street, Sai Ying Pun, 

Western District, Hong Kong

Luk Yu Tea House, Revisited

Friday 16^th July 2010

Luk Yu  @ Stanley Street

On a rainy Friday night I was invited to a dinner at Luk Yu with my mum by my aunt, having just been here a little over a week ago. We were seated in their cute booths once again and my aunt ordered their pigs lung and almond soup before we studied their menu. The soup was just as creamy white in colour as the last time, but slightly less thick or chunky from ground almonds and less salty, which I thought was better.

pigs lung soup!

Auntie ordered the sweet and sour pork with young ginger, and on the recommendation of one of the waiters, a stir-fried sliced pigeon with ham dish. The sweet and sour pork was one of their signatures, and although ginger is not for everyone I loved the use of the young ginger. It had no roots and I loved the spicy crunch in my mouth. The pork was soft and not chewy or tough at all too. Sauce was well-balanced, without overdosing on the sugar or vinegar…yumm.

sweet and sour pork with young ginger

The fresh sliced pigeon with ham was stir-fried with button mushrooms and ginger pieces. The 'ham' was nothing other than deep-fried Yunnan ham and was laid out by the chef in the shape of the bird (see photo!) – creative, no? It was very easy to eat as it was all meat (no skin or bones), and had been very well seasoned – perfect with rice. The dish was overall very delicious and I couldn’t stop raving over it at the table.

Sliced pigeon with ham 

 no dinner is complete without some veggies

My experience here was better than the last, because of the soup as well as the dishes were relatively new for me. I would strongly recommend diners try the pigeon dish, and can’t wait till my next visit!


Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$$


Luk Yu Tea House
24 Stanley Street, Lan Kwai Fong
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2523 5464

Stormies on a rainy ladies night

Date of visit: 15th July 2010

Stormies @ Lan Kwai Fong 

On a Thursday night my friend and I decided to try out the ladies night promotion at Lan Kwai’s Stormies. Their menu is not extensive – a couple of soup and salads, sandwiches and burgers, steaks, ribs, pastas – reminds me of a shorter version of Hard Rock Café’s menu (which is re-opening nearby in LKF this year apparently!!!). We decided on a spinach salad, burger and king crab legs.

Spinach salad ($88) was definitely a starter size. Dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, toppings included strawberries, blueberries, goats cheese and pecans. Quite tasty and we both liked the pairing of fruit and spinach.

Stormies’ Burger ($88) was a medium sized burger with a thin beef patty that was ordered to be medium-well. It came with a side salad and seasoned fries. The burger itself was pretty much…..bad. The beef was way too tough – especially on the outer rims where it had been fully cooked – and there was no natural beef juices at all present. Comparing this to my last burger at HKJC’s Food Plaza this was…. unimpressive. Fries were pretty good according to my friend and she proceeded to finish them all, since I hate dislike potatoes. 

Alaskan King Crab Legs ($128 for small size) – was served warm. It tasted quite salty from the parsley butter sauce but really tasty. They came with two long pieces of garlic buttered bread which were nicely charred from the grill. The crab legs were meaty and in general very good.

For this meal we ended up paying about $100 each, quite reasonable for the quality of food we received. But whether I would pay their original listed price for the salad and burger in particular is another story – I didn’t think the portion or quality of beef justified their standard prices at all. 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $$

Stormies

G/F & 1/F, 48 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, 

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2845 5533

Holly Brown - for gelato

Date of visit: Thursday 15^th July 2010

Holly Brown Coffee @ Stanley Street

After lunch at Green Waffle Diner, it was time for dessert. Seeing as I wasn’t able to sample their frozen confectionaries last weekend, I was desperate to try Holly Brown’s gelato, claimed to be ‘hand-made’. We sampled the milk gelato (your standard sweet cream flavour), the strawberry gelato (so-so only) and their plain frozen yogurt (not bad), but decided we liked mint chocolate the best.

menu

menu 2 

We looked at the menu and rather than having a plain scoop we went for the pre-set ones in waffle bowls, which come in three sizes. We opted for a large mint a la mode ($56) (i.e. a waffle bowl with a huge scoop of gelato ‘fried’ with chocolate sauce, dark chocolate shavings and oreo cookies).

Appearance wise it didn’t look as good as the menu – there was significantly less toppings and I couldn’t really detect any chocolate sauce, as promised. However the ‘chocolate chips’ were very thin shavings of dark chocolate which went so well with the mint chocolate flavoured ice cream, giving it a good ‘crispy’ texture all around. The oreo cookies were also chopped up in good sizes to give it extra crunch. What disappointed the both of us was the badly made waffle. Yes this place is relatively new but if you are to open a gelato bar with waffles you might as well make sure your waffle bowls are executed well. They were not crisp at all like what you would expect from a cone (think Haagendaz’s ) but actually soft…. You could literally ‘tear’ it rather than snap it like crunchy waffle cones usually do… which gave us an impression of a cookie left overnight. I knew we should have asked for another ‘bowl’ but seeing as we were full from lunch and our huge scoop of gelato we decided to let them off.

gelato corner

Service was extremely friendly and seating was comfortable and spacious. Would come back for their many flavours of gelato (snickers, yakult, chocolate!!), but please do improve your waffle bowls!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $

Holly Brown

22 Stanley Street, Lan Kwai Fong, 

Central, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2869 9689

Waffles, please!

Date of visit: 15th July 2010

Green Waffle Diner @ Graham St., Soho

I hadn't seen E in a while and it was time to catch up over good food. Now E loves breakfast foods so when I suggested Green Waffle and its concept, she was damn excited. Reservations were never needed for my previous visits here during dinner, but I made reservations in case. When I arrived the small-ish diner was three-quarters full on a Thursday lunch... a good sign? 

Here they have a very reasonably-priced lunch set menu which includes a main and a dessert (half a waffle with a scoop of ice cream). But since nothing on the set lunch menu enticed us (green apple compote with waffle and sausage?!) we opted for their simpler items on the menu. We decided on a breakfast of seared vine tomatoes with scrambled eggs and a whole-wheat waffle (instead of the normal toast) ($44 + 9 for the upgrade), and a buckwheat waffle with blueberries and cinnamon sugar.

The scrambled eggs here were quite good - creamy and slightly runny… lovely! The seared vine tomatoes (my favourite kind) were really sweet and juicy albeit slightly undercooked for my liking. A little more time on the grill or pan would have made it better and less hard in texture. The whole wheat waffle upgrade was E’s idea. Not a bad one either. There was a strong presence of that wheat taste, similar to 100% whole wheat bread, but the texture was maintained at a light and airy form – delicious with a little maple syrup complimentary from Green Waffle.

The next plate of buckwheat waffles with blueberries was sprinkled with the right amount of cinnamon sugar to give it the divine aroma that the cinnamon-addict in me lusts after. In hindsight I probably should have ordered something that was pre-set rather than ‘create-your-own’ since this relatively simple and small plate ended up costing $51 (not that it is expensive for Soho, but compared to the previous huge plate of food!). Anyway, the buckwheat waffle itself, I would think, is closer in taste to the original plain ones, but didn’t have that airy texture here =((. Blueberries were fresh but more could’ve been provided as it looked quite dull on the plate…

A good lunch anyhow, and will definitely return for more breakfast items or whenever a waffle craving kicks in!

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: $$

Green Waffle Diner

G/F, Kar Ho Building, 35-39 Graham St, Soho 

Central, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2887 9991

Congress Restaurant at Convention Centre

Date of Visit: 12^th July 2010

Congress Restaurant @ Convention Centre, Wanchai

the lunch menu

This was my first time here and I was quite shocked by the size of the restaurant. Walking in you see an open-style kitchen with counters for the buffet, and proceed further there is many tables for guests. For today’s lunch I decided to visit my friend D who was working in the area….

Lunch at Congress is straight-forward. You can choose the salad or noodle buffet ($105 each), have both for an extra $35, or have either plus one from the main courses list for an extra $35.

Seeing it was my first time here, I went for the salad and noodle buffet to sample as much as I can. Meal began with a heart-warming soup – there was a Chinese pork-based soup, and cream of pumpkin. Both were simple, light and tasty. Bread rolls were pretty good too, I particularly like the black sesame roll =).

Chinese soup

Cream of pumpkin soup

Next was the salad bar where there was a variety of salad leaves for you to pick from, including butter lettuce, mesclun mix, romaine lettuce etc etc.

For toppings you can expect the regular salad-bar items, e.g. corn, chick peas, kidney beans, diced chicken, diced ham, artichokes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and heart of palms. There were several dressings for you to choose from, before you end up at the salad bowl where two chefs were at your disposal to help you mix everything up nicely! Oh yes, and don’t forget to help yourself to one of those crunchy thin breadsticks…!

salad selection

The noodle station was our next stop, with four soup bases and an abundance of vegetables, seafood, meats and noodles for you to pick from. Between us we sampled the clear Japanese mushroom broth, Pork bone soup and the relatively light laksa soup bases. Simple but hearty and filling! (Note: ramen noodles in laksa broth makes a very yummy bowl of noodles.)

Laksa with ramen, tofu puffs, mushrooms, fishballs and Chinese fishcakes. 

my bad attempt to make Japanese Oden but didn't taste good at all!

After these I was very satisfied indeed, but I couldn’t help to wonder if I should have went for one of the main courses? Tandoori cod fish had caught my eye but decided against it since chefs here were Chinese…. For the fantastic harbour view, relaxed atmosphere (we sat chatting until 3pm!) and the flexibility of combining ‘set lunches’, this is definitely a place I will return to!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Congress Restaurant

6/F, Convention Plaza, 1 Harbour Road, 

Wanchai, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2582 7250