Singma Deluxe

Date of visit: 26th August 2010
Singma Deluxe @ Admiralty

For lunch a friend and I went to Singma Deluxe to grab a quick bite. Rather than having a separate menu for lunch, they have their regular menus available and the items with a sea-horse sign on them are 'lunch set-available', i.e. you get a drink with the item during lunch hours. 

After looking through the extensive Singaporean-cuisine based menu, we both decided on Boneless Hainan Chicken Rice set, which came with a soup + coffee/tea. Hainanese Chicken Rice sets typically come with a bowl of chicken soup, the stock from the liquid boiling the chicken, and a bowl of rice which had been cooked using the cooking liquid from the chicken. The soup at Singma however, was a typical Chinese soup found in many households, rather than the chicken soup that you normally find with Hainan chicken rice. Different, but the soup (Pork with beans and lotus root) was tasty, so I'm not complaining! 

Between us, we had one of their original chicken rice set i.e. with skin on chicken (white and dark meat available) plus a pandan flavoured rice, and one sans skin and with plain white rice (in case the pandan rice was bad, right??) 

Above, we have the original Singma Deluxe Hainan Chicken Rice. The slices of boiled chicken looked very nice, but definitely not the smoothest in texture we've had. The chicken was quite tasteless itself, so the sauces here were very important to impart some flavour. 

The pandan rice was basically rice which had been cooked with some pandan, which gave it a nice aroma, and a slightly different taste than your standard chicken rice which is cooked with ginger and garlic... The flavoured rice was tasty, so chicken stock was probably used, but it was not oily at all. 

The other set we ordered was asked to come with plain rice instead, and without skin on the chicken. The meat was the same as before, not bad with the sweet soy sauce and chilli.

The plain rice however, failed in comparison to the pandan rice as it was poorly cooked. It was way too mushy and overcooked, having no bite and being too 'wet'... Not sure how they managed to mess up plain white rice over pandan rice, but they did. 

A little mention on the sauces - whilst the dark soy and chilli sauce were fine, the ginger sauce was a disappointment. Predominantly oil, they need to fix their minced ginger-to-oil ratio!

In hindsight we probably should have ordered something totally different between us, e.g. the steamy bowls of laksa (chicken / seafood / vegetarian) that we saw coming out of the kitchen and onto other people's tables! 

Food: ♥♥1/2

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Singma Deluxe

Shop C2, G/f, Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Rd,

Admiralty, Hong Kong

Hainan Shaoye and Mochi Cream

Date of visit: 12th Aug 2010

Hainan Shaoye @ World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay

I made reservations about a week prior to our visit, and was utterly disappointed with the service over the phone. This restaurant is no cha chaan teng (local tea restaurant) or dai pai dong (outdoor Chinese food stalls), and so I expected a little more I guess. When I spoke to the lady over the phone, I asked if I could make a reservation. She then replied with me a 'when? because if it's for dinner we are fully booked till next month'. So I told her I wanted to come for lunch, Thursday, at 11.45. She then said they were full too, and so I asked what time they open? "11.30 in the morning". I then hesitated, but asked "how about 11.30 then, can I have a table for two then?" She said "yes, we can do 11.30". With a reminder that they have a 10 minute wait policy before giving our table away, I thought to myself that was rather b.s., since it was technically 5 minutes apart from my original time plan, plus it was not like the restaurant was prepared to kick us out if we stayed passed 12 or 1pm...or at all! A table free is a table free, if they weren't going to do two rounds at lunch hour they should've given me the table regardless of time. 

Okay, phone conversation aside, our service at the restaurant was acceptable. We actually arrived on the dot and were turned away because their kitchen was "not ready yet" and give them 5 or so minutes. Say whatt???? 

Now, food! 

We decided we would forgo the signature Hainan and Roast Chicken Rice set, and went for a Bak Kut Teh ($88) (for me) and a Seafood Laksa ($88) (for E). These lunch time 'sets' come with a drink too - coffee or tea. 

Our sets arrived together, and we tried each other's, to see what we liked/disliked. My Bak Kut Teh was most disappointing, since I was expecting something more herbal and peppery with tender ribs... that it not what I got.

In my dark red soup there were plenty of wolfberries and dates (and even dried lychees) in this soup to make it way too sweet for Bak Kut Teh and resemble the Chinese herbal soup (for the ladies - "bo huet"/help produce more blood). I'm not saying the soup was bad, I just wasn't expecting it to taste so sweet and mask any signs of spices and pepper (if any was added...).  Other components included dried tofu puffs (tofu-pok), coriander for garnish and pork ribs that were so dry, tough and chewy I struggled to eat them... 

The other parts of my lunch set included a dish of chopped deep-fried dough sticks ("yao-tiu"), a bowl of white rice and some chilli-infused dark sweet soy sauce and a few pieces of bak choy. While the dough sticks didn't not impress, being soggy and nothing like the ones at good local restaurants serving congee, I loved the rice! Each grain doesn't stick to one another, and was cooked perfectly - not soft but not undercooked either...pure comfort with the dark soy sauce. Ahhhh I must make a mental note to ask what brand of rice they use when I return! 

E's Laksa was also not what we were expecting, but not bad. Hainan Shaoye's version is spicier than the laksas I've had locally, but same spice-level as they do it in Singapore. The soup however, is very watered-down to a thin broth with a mild taste of coconut only. Now a little mention of other restaurants serving Sing/Malay cuisine - Good Satay in TST East offers a good bowl of laksa that has a very rich broth - too rich to drink but delicious nonetheless. Meanwhile, Sabah Malaysian Restaurant in Wanchai has a hearty curry broth that is right in between Hainan Shaoye's and Good Satay which we thought took first place between the three. 

Hainan Shaoye's big bowl of seafood laksa came with toppings of tofu puffs, sliced fish cakes, two large shrimps and some fishballs. These all fared very well, and the two shrimps which E gave to me were fresh and bouncy. 

We vowed to return, not for a repeat of the food we had ordered this day, but for the highly controversial Chicken rice meals! 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Hainan Shaoye

Shop P311, World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2111 3166

Mochi Cream @ SOGO Department Store (level B2) 

We wanted a sweet ending to our lunch, and a steamed milk custard from Yee Shun seemed way too much after our large lunch sets.... I suggested we visit the basement of SOGO to hunt for some good Japanese sweets, and were attracted by the lovely display at Mochi Cream. 

I was about to go for the black soybean flavour, when I hesitated and asked the shopkeeper which one was her favourite. She said apple pie and purple yam. I wanted to see how they were to pull off purple yam ($14), and being a sweet potato fan I was quite drawn to it...naturally it was my choice! E opted for the caramel macchiato ($17) mochi, and we paid and ate. 

Caramel Macchiato mochi

purple yam mochi

Whilst I liked mine because of its lovely purple colour and not-too-sweet and natural yam taste, I wished it wasn't so cold... it was almost frozen, and so it was a bit too hard for me. E  loved hers though. There were bits of caramel and a coffee-flavoured centre, which she continued to rave about after!

Mochi cream has loads of flavours, from chocolate to raspberry mille feuille, and I will be back for more!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $

Mochi Cream

Shop B2-29, SOGO Department Store, 555 Hennessy Road, 

Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2831 3946

Singapore, Day 4

Date of visit: 21st July 2010

As our last real day (day 5 would be our flight back to HK), we decided to visit China Town, but first, some more shopping!

We began Orchard Road's 313 @ Somerset mall, and then lunch was at the more touristy Newton Food Centre. We arrived at around 3pm, so many stalls weren't open yet (all of them open for dinner, but not lunch). After walking around we decided on a Laksa ($5?), some BBQ Stingray ($10), Singaporean Chilli Crab ($32), and a plate of fried Kang Kong ($10).

Laksa was S's brave choice. Not a person for spicy food, she still managed to enjoy this. This bowl of noodles consisted of dried tofu (doufu pok), fishballs, cockles, rice stick noodles and of course a spicy curry broth with a visible amount of chilli oil. Hong Kong laksas are much milder in my opinion, as any bowl you find in Singapore is almost always quite spicy. This particular bowl (save for the quite fishy cockles) was good nonetheless, and the fishballs were damn good. 

I had to try the Singaporean Chilli Crab because A. I've never had it and B. its their bloody national dish! I told the man I wanted it less-spicy and it was for one person but I guess he gave me a bloody big one any way and just charged me more. Whatever. The crab was very meaty and good, but I thought the sauce was prepared poorly - should probably have asked for black pepper crabs instead?? The sauce was more like sweet and sour sauce... the chefs poor attempt to make it 'less spicy' I'm guessing? Wasn't bad, just not what I expected or wanted.... 

This Kang Kong was not bad, slightly chilli and much like the one I had at the Thai restaurant Cafe Sapunsa night before.

Initially I was going to order either this or the crab...but I gave up debating in my head and went for both. Not a good idea since I was stuffed for 7 hrs after this meal, but good because I've never tried stingray and this stingray was damn tasty. I didn't think a BBQ stingray would be dressed in a thick layer of chilli sauce but it was...more lemon would have helped cut the heat but it was so good I didn't care. This is a piece of the fin of a stingray, which has bones which are attached together so it forms one big piece, and the meat sits on top ready for you to scrape it off the bone. Stingray's flesh is quite meaty, soft and succulent...definitely something I'd eat again.........

 and again....and again....=P 

[This lunch was S's fave meal of the trip because it was a really unique and tasty experience for her. So so proud! =)]

Before we hit China town we decided to get a caffeine fix back at 313@Somerset. We went to the newly opened Oriole Cafe (this was a new branch), and after looking at their relatively short drinks menu, S went for a vanilla latte, and me a cappuccino. 

Vanilla latte was very aromatic, quite milky but enjoyable for S. 

My cappuccino certainly looked impressive - latte art and all - but it tasted more like a latte and the use of whole milk was so apparent I couldn't bring myself to like this drink... the foam was also sacrificed for the bit of latte art =(.

K Ki on Ann Siang Hill was one of the patisseries I wanted to visit, but sadly when we visited they were sold for the day.... the aroma of baked goods was soooo strong just sitting in there felt as if we were consuming something........ 

At around 9.30pm hunger struck us and so we walked over to Robertson Walk's Queens Tandoor for some indian fooooooodddd. The restaurant was very fragrant of the many spices and so we opted to sit al-fresco tonight.

The menu was pretty long, lots and lots and lots of choices, be it chicken / fish / lamb / vegetarian.... yummm. 

A fish tikka (S$7 - bar size) was my choice. This was cooked in high temperatures so the exterior was nicely charred and flavourful. The fish was I think a bass/cod variety, soft and oily =)

How I ate my fish tikka ..... wrapped it in a chappati of course!

Paneer Makhanwala (S$17.90) was your standard butter chicken but with paneer cubes instead. The paneer was slightly chewy / rubbery, which is what I think paneer is meant to taste like, but S didn't like the texture too much... softer would've been better in her opinion and I agree. The sauce however was simply heavenly...and with the rice it topped any butter chicken sauce I've tried in HK.

The chapati (S$2.9) was hot and very soft, much like a tortilla and not like the ones I've sampled in HK. Plain Basmati Rice ($4.90) was pricey, but well-cooked - fluffy and none of the grains stuck to each other. Our total came to S$38.50, and this was expected given this area is more touristy and 'up-scale', not that we minded because the restaurant is actually very decent and we would have dined inside if we weren't afraid of smelling like Indian food when heading out to the bars nearby after....

After several random bars and clubs in Clarke Quay, I went into Nectarie, a pastry shop (still open at 1am...why doesn't HK have this????) between the many bars and chose two desserts for myself after a talk with the very sweet lady working in there. I chose a kiwi blueberry tart and she suggested I try their strawberry shortcake which doesn't have cream like the many other shortcakes available in Singapore (people love their shortcakes here). 

The fruits on the tart was fresh and custard was okay (using real vanilla pods like Mandarin Oriental's would have made a big difference), but I didn't like the pastry base so much - it was made with ground almonds and was just too thick... not so good. 

The strawberry shortcake on the other hand was really good. The best cake for me on this trip. It was a sliced cake, consisting of layers of sponge (moist), custard (same as the tart) and sliced strawberries, which came together very well. The outside rim of the cake was also coated with sliced almonds...

For the two pastries I paid S$14.20, although I think I was overcharged because I didn't have it dine-in but to-go...(service charge and gst was on my receipt) didn't notice until now so nevermind! I'll definitely visit Nectarie for other yummy pastries on my next trip to SG!