Food, glorious food, waiting to be served, waiting to be tried, tasted, discussed, revisited.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Jia Xiang Kuching Restaurant Pte Ltd
@ New Bridge Road
After reading famous Malaysian blogger, Kenny Sia's blog, i've always wanted to try Kuching's Kolo Mee.
And today i did! I realised too late that the brochure had an English version on the other side. For the Mandarin impaired, the brochure reads,
"Kolo Mee. New Taste! MUST try! Guarantee you'll like it!
1st in Singapore - Air-flown FRESH from Sarawak Kuching daily!
The much awaited famous noodle "KOLO MEE" from Sarawak Kuching is now in Singapore. Our special noodles and ingredients are freshly air-flown directly from Sarawak daily. Our wanton skin, thin and smooth, is very crispy when fried. Our special noodle is so different with a "QQ" feeling... Plus many other yummy dishes awaiting you! It's so good, you simply can't stop at one bowl!
The famous SARAWAK kolo mee is now in Singapore!" Even though i wasn't physically in Kuching, this came pretty close.
I ordered the basic small bowl for $3.90 and the noodles were as "QQ" as described. The minced pork had vinegar in it and when mixed with the noodles, gave a nice zing to the taste. Mix in a generous amount of the sambal chilli provided at every table to enjoy every bite after bouncy bite!
I wish i could heap praises on the wanton soup too.
But i can't.
Not only was it bland, it was oily too! Even adding pepper to the soup wasn't much help. The wanton were sadly lacking in the taste department too. Yes, the skin was thin and smooth, but hello, where's the meat?! You can't carry off a proper wanton without sufficient meat, even if the skin was the highlight.
It's like giving someone a present whereby the wrapping paper's nice and glittery and expensive, but the present like shit like that.
Overall, it's not a MUST TRY as capsulated on the brochure. It's more like a should try-for-the-sake-of-trying. Yes, the noodles were very "QQ" (i love saying that), but after awhile, it started to taste like a yummy bowl of minced meat noodle.
And the reason i ordered a basic small bowl was because the price of the ones with prawn/abalone were kinda frightening for what seems to be a bowl of bak chor mee from Kuching.
The wait staff generally don't bother you but the lady behind the counter had a funny way of listing the drinks available. Everytime someone asks for the list of drinks, she would say "Longyan (longan), suan kan (lime), ALOVELA (aloe vera)!" And i would crack up every single time.
There was no lack of seats when i was there and the air con helped sooth us from the hot sun outside, so plus points for that!
@ No.46 Pagoda Street, The Chinatown Heritage Centre Singapore 059205, Tel: 62254024
The restaurant looks so tourisy outside that most people would just walk past without giving it a second glance.
Once inside, it's a narcissist's paradise, with articles from magazines and newspapers covering most of one wall, and even a video of interviews and various introductions of Alvin Koh, the boss of this establishment, who was incidentally, Porridge King.
However, don't expect a menu consisting of solely porridge.
The first time i went there, i ordered this dish called Chilli Crab Sauce Spagetti. It was so good that i ordered it again my second time there.
There was no sign of any crab, but the prawns were enough to stave off our seafood craving. The sauce obviously being the highlight of the dish, was always licked clean off the plate, ditching our image of cool sophistication to the wind.
Thankfully, the staff was kept to a minimal of 1 waitress and maybe 2 chefs, just enough to meet the slow traffic of patrons and to successfully stay out of the hair of uncouth eaters like me.
If anyone goes there to eat and tries other nice dishes, must come report to me ok!
I couldn't find any website that introduces the restaurant, but here's an article about Alvin Koh.
The generous spread of mouth-watering sambal chilli over the seafood is heavenly. But the real test is in the grilling, which is done perfectly here. The fish is grilled till it is a little crispy outside but still tender inside. And don't forget to order a plate of seafood fried rice to complete your meal. The seafood is very fresh as the four Eng brothers running the stall buy it direct from the Jurong Fishery Port every morning. Temptations range from crayfish and prawns to mussels and crabs. Every night, people are packed like sardines here.
And i so agree! Both sting ray and the seafood fried rice is a MUST have. One is oh-so spicy and tangy and the other is a burst of seafood and succulent rice that's guaranteed to make you moan in delight!
I suggested going there for dinner on my dad's birthday and besides ordering the obligatory sting ray and seafood fried rice, we also ordered crayfish and claypot tofu, which were very much enjoyed.
In fact, i enjoyed it so much that i got so damn bloated afterwards.
Although the place is quite popular, it isn't hard to find a table among the many scattered around the hawker centre. What's more, your orders come without much hassle and waiting time, which is a huge plus point.
Another good thing is that, with a small sting ray going for $8 and the seafood fried rice going for $3 onwards, the price of the food there actually DON'T burn a hole in your pocket, as compared to other more famous Cze Cha stalls out there.
It's definitely a must try for BBQed seafood lovers out there!
Visit here for their full pricelist with pictures!
Had to wait in a queue for 15 minutes before we could even enter the restaurant's small holding area, where you still had to wait; albeit sitting down and inspecting the menu.
You could immediately tell that desserts are their specialty; instead of main course meals, they had desserts on the first page of their menu. There was also an ice cream takeaway stand beside the queueing area for their much touted Hokkaido ice cream, for the ravenous customers queuing.
We started the meal with a Sukiyaki Bento and a Cold Ramen noodle with Seafood in Sesame Mayonnaise.
The bento was delicious, but the ramen was the highlight of the day! The succulent prawns, cuttlefish and scallops went very well with the ramen, cold of cos. Topped with almond shaves and mayonnaise, the dish assaulted both my sensory and savoury senses to high heavens.
I ate a couple of mouthfuls before i even realised that there was this small and quaint-looking jar beside the mega-huge bowl of ramen (i'm not kidding, i went "whoa" when the waiter came).
Inside contained a paste in a sickly shade of yellow. Upon introduction of the jar to my nose, i was surprised that the paste was actually wasabe! I promptly dumped everything in, mixed it around and took a bite.
Ooohhhhhhh... Yuuummm...
Dessert time!
I gotta say that my experience so far was a smooth ride, but there's always gotta be a bump in the road somewhere.
The desserts took an eternity to arrive. Not only for us, the table beside us were waiting for an even longer time, prompting one lady to remark, "No wonder the queue moved so slowly..."
And when my dessert came, it was to be the wrong one.
Tsk tsk... For a restaurant that prided itself on their desserts, surely they could at least make the waiting time less ardous? Maybe they were being meticulous in the presentation, or maybe i'm just thinking too much.
Oh, on to the food! The Hokkaido ice cream lived up to it's hype. It was creamy, yet didn't make me feel like i was eating calories. Or maybe i was pschologically influenced by the words "low-sugar and low-fat".
What disappointed me was the sweet potato (the yellow thing beneath the heap of ice cream). It was neither sweet nor salty, totally doing nothing to enhance the ice cream, and it just didn't have the omph i was hoping for. But i have a very very VERY sweet tooth, so maybe i'm just biased.
The other dessert was totally my cuppa tea! It had some golden powdery thing that just tasted sweet on top of the ice cream, which was on top of lovely crushed ice with red beans at the bottom.
There was even a honey pot for people with sweet teeth like mine who wants to upgrade the taste from sweet to diabetic.
I liiike...
Although the place could get abit noisy and the waiting time for your food might get a little long during peak hours, i think the food was enough to overwrite this little flaw. However, the meal set us back $40, which was down right daylight robbery if not for the lovely cold ramen i had.
It's a must try if you have the spare cash and a craving for Japanese desserts!
Visit their website here for their brand story, among other things.
@ Arab Street. Or was it Bali Street? Somewhere between la...
Walking by the shophouse on a lazy Sunday afternoon, i didn't have the intention of stepping into the premises until the sight of a near full house and the tantalising smells captivated me.
There were 3 stores. The prawn noodle store obviously, a Nor Hiang/Wu Siang/i dunno what's it called in English store and a drinks store. The drinks stall was there machiam for aesthetic purposes cos when i was ordering food, the lady also asked for the drink orders.
Speaking of orders, there were 3 types of prawn noodles to choose from. The normal, the big, the 3-in-1 and the MEGA!
Can't really see here, but the prawns in this were really MEGA huge!
If you wanna go all the way out here to eat prawn noodles, you better not order the normal one. Heck, dont even order the big one because you might be able to get it at normal hawkers on a good day.
I'll highly recommend either the 3-in-1 prawn noodles (price ranges from $6-10) or the MEGA prawn noodles ($10 onwards).
So i'm guessing you're asking what the 3-in-1 prawn noodles contain.
Other than prawns, there were pork ribs, pork skin and this cylindrical part of the pork pig that i can only guess was the tail.
I know it sounds damn disgusting but trust me, i thought it was damn gross too until i poped one into my mouth and the meat (or was it fat?) literally melted on my tongue. I tried not to think of which part of the pig it came from while i was eating it though.
Seeing as most tables were eating the noodles with soup, i nearly followed suit. I'd have kicked myself if i did because the chilli was TO DIE FOR!
I usually eat prawn noodles with both tomato ketchup and chilli, and when my noodles came with only chilli, i nearly went to ask for ketchup. I decided to try one mouthful of the noodles before i went though, and when i came back, i was holding a plate of chilli instead of ketchup!
The soup was delicious too though. I'm just a chilli person.
The interior, although not as posh as a food court, was definitely cleaner than that of a hawker centre. Although the price was more like restaurant than anything.
ps: i know i skipped rong guang. coming soon i promise!
Went down for lunch last Tuesday to celebrate Chloe's birthday, as you can read from here.
Top row left from right: Me, Chloe, KW. Bottom row left from right: ZC, Alvin, JW.
Who knew that they had actual food?!?! I always thought that TCC was a place selling cakes, pies and 20 different variations of coffee. Otherwise known as a cafe.
The decor of the place was bright and modernish. Very cosmopolitan. There was a variety of seats to choose from, from chairs to sofas. We were a fairly big group, and the chairs were made for groups of 3 or 4 so we choose to be seated at the sofa seats.
At first, we felt funny sitting there because the seats were the same height as the table! There was no problem if we were gonna drink coffee and chill out, but we were gonna have lunch! We resigned to having to eat stooping over our food.
Normally, I wouldn't order any drinks other than iced water to go with my meal, but since everyone was ordering something, i gave in and joined them.
I forgot what our drinks were called. I only remember what flavour, and that they were mostly milk based.
Clockwise from the bottom: Peach, Banana, Forgot, Coffee, Passion fruit and Peach.
One word to describe the drinks: Medicinal.
Especially the passion fruit one which seriously tasted like liquid Panadol. And the banana one just tasted too diluted, most probably because the banana they used wasn't sweet enough?
The only reason that i can describe the drinks was because i was shamelessly tasting here and there. The only drink i didn't touch was the coffee, but seriously, how disgusting can coffee taste?
Luckily mine was peach, which tasted ok at first but became increasingly disgusting as i was eating my meal.
We weren't exactly spoilt for choice for main courses, but if you take the sandwich section into consideration (the sandwiches are huge, by the way), the menu was pretty much adequate.
Just when i was done taking this shot, the waiter came and whisked my salmon away! I was kinda stunned at first, but i realised that they served me the wrong order when the waiter brought the salmon to another table instead.
That was the TCC Kahlúa Salmon, which i had wanted to order initially, but changed my mind after KW informed me that Kahlúa had something to do with coffee.
Kahlúa: coffee-flavored liqueur made in Mexico.
I didn't like coffee in the first place, so i doubted that i would have liked my salmon to be dribbled with coffee sauce.
JW wanted to start eating very badly, but evil me stopped him.
Don't let the picture fool you. Although the Teriyaki Sabayon Salmon didn't look as scrumptous as the coffee sauced one, it was HEAVENLY.
The meat of the salmon was done just right, with it being firm, yet retaining the moisture and flavour of the fish. There wasn't much of the teriyaki sauce but i felt that it was a perfect combination.
The mashed potatoes more than made up for the lack of carbo in this meal to fill up my stomach. And it was also delicious to boot! None of that powdered crap you find at fast food chains.
Throughout the meal, we were complaining that it was so awkward to eat when the table was so low! KW even suggested to sit on the floor instead of the sofa, but i said it'll look so beggarish! Anyway, the food was so good that it quelled our discomfort.
At around $20+ per pax, this is definitely a place to come back to, even though you might walk out with a backache.
ps, you might have realised that the quality of the food photos suck as compared to the first one in this entry. Or you might have not.
This is because the first photo was taken directly from flickr while the food photos were uploaded through blogger itself, which caused the quality to deteriorate.
Until i find out how to widen the space of this section where the entry is posted, you guys have to be contented with bad quality photos because flickr's "medium" sized photos are too big for this space, causing the sidebar to end up below the posts.
Hailing from Australia, it has the best steak i've ever tasted for a long long time. The last time i had steak so nice was when i went to Jack's Place when i was still in Primary School.
Now their steak taste like old tires.
Coming back to the topic, i loved their service. Everyone there was all smiles and seemed so genuine, especially my server, Lily, who had a tongue stud and was damn cute.
Scarly they thinking, "Nabeh cb cannot rest must climb up and down take orders. knn!" If they were thinking that, they didn't show it.
And yes, got a upper level one. Decor was very country-ish and everything was made of wood. The music was damn retro also, all the evergreens.
I had the Avocado Prime Rib (for some reason, they call their steaks ribs) and it was done medium and damn juicy. Heaven.
The servings were freakishly large cos, to quote Lily, "they're meant for Australian stomachs..." Lucky we didn't order any starters.
I'd highly encourage going on an empty stomach cos even i nearly couldn't finish my potato. Speaking of potatos, they had a choice of mashed potatos, curly fries or baked potatos. And they also had a choice of having vegetables or a salad to go with the meal. I penged at all the choices.
In the end, i chose their baked potatoes and salad. The baked potatoes tasted like roasted chestnuts. You know, gao lak?
Back to why you shouldn't order any starters, a mother and son pair came in and ordered nachos as their starter. It came in a freaking huge plate that could have been shared by 5 people! I heard the son exclaim, "OMG, so much." By the time they finished their starter and their steaks came (their order was same as mine), they couldn't finish even half of the main course.
The mom, being the Singaporean auntie that she was, asked for a container to tapau the food. She was like, "Ok, pack this (son's steak) and this (her steak) and ummm this (the potato). I don't want this (the corn)."
So funny.
The meal totalled up to around $30+ each, a little steep, but it was well worth it.
From the name, you'd have to be an idiot not to know that this place is Italian.
With the intention of only having a snack, we went in and ordered an appetizer and a pizza.
Of cos, as you would have read here, we ate half the appetizer before remembering to take a photo of it. So don't get turned off by the phallic-ness of the dish and how it's such a pathetically small serving, because it's not.
According to the website, our appetizer, Augusto, was thinly Sliced Parma Ham and Rock Melon. And it rocks. Seriously.
The sweetness of the melon eaten together with the slightly salty ham was such a total clash that it blended!
The pizza was, well, what can i possibly say about an ingredient-less pizza except that it was nice?
Actually, if an ingredient-less pizza was nice, imagine one with pineapple slices, ham, tomatoes and everything else you can dump on a pizza.
Must be wonderful...
Oh oh! The glasses that the water came in were made of real crystal!
I would know because i made one hell of a din with all the wung wung sounds i was making by running my fingers along the rim of the crystal.
I can't tell you much because i wasn't really out to blog about food when i ate this so i'll just stop here. All i can say is that whenever you feel like something Italian, pray don't turn to the nearest Pastamania. There are better options!
Not like this place is expensive, with a large pizza going for $19 and the appetizers going for $9.
The staff were friendly and the interior was cosy. Recommended for couples celebrating their anniversary/just out for a romantic meal.
Located a few roads away from Sim Lim, it is an inexpensive yet tasty way to cool off after a day of shopping!
The only problem is that the roadside seats are always taken and sitting inside the shop in Singapore's stifling heat, with only the occasional breeze from the fan, can kill.
Met up with Xinhe and Boon Kian, my best buds from FDC to try out this newly opened restaurant.
Don't expect to fill up your belly there unless you order surplus, us being the poor NSFs that we are obviously didn't order more than one set each.
I'll advice you against ordering what i ordered, i forgot the name, but it was a seafood set. Order the meat set cos it seemed more filling.
The slice of fish (note i used the word slice) i had was so pathetic. If i were to have left it there any longer, the whole thing would be stuck onto the stone, never to fulfil it's destiny of being eaten. That's how thin the slice was.
Also, due to everyone's food being cooked on the stone infront of their eyes, the whole restaurant was filled with smoke which sticks onto clothes. You'll end up smelling like you just went for a BBQ at East Coast beach instead of to a restaurant.
At $20+ per set, i felt that what i got wasn't really worth the price.
The staff were friendly, but overzealous in promoting their desserts and various other after-meal condiments. Even after giving them a firm "No, thank you", they continued yakking about how the pears were soaked in red wine for several hours yadah yadah. It got irritating after awhile.
Verdict: It's just a novelty, and after you've tried it once, you wouldn't really think of going back.
Don't even bother visiting their website, they have nothing useful and the song that plays when it loads is damn irritating. If you still want to take a look, it's here.
With a blackboard touting it as the "Best Authentic Fish & Chips", i had to try!
Ordered the Fish & Chips set, which includes a drink and coleslaw, and a choice of either chips or fries. I'd suggest the fries cos they taste better. The chips just taste like a soggier version of the fries.
The interior was surprisingly cosy for something this open. (it's located right by the main road)
After finishing half a can of coke, the food finally came in baskets. What a good excuse not to wash up.
Ahhhmmm!
Despite the ambience, and the nice furniture, the main thing i was there for was for the food, and fish was a little let down.
It didn't taste very fresh, and was even a little on the tough side. And the fish kept poping out of the breaded layer la! So i ended up having to eat the fish and the outer layer seperately, which kinda defeated the purpose of it being breaded fish. It was more like fish and chips and breaded layer.
But seriously, you guys should just go try it for something new. It's quite a change from hawker center anyway.
At less than $10, it's quite a bargain, what with drinks and coleslaw too!
They don't have a Singapore website, but the San Francisco one is here.
Hey everyone, i've decided to set up a seperate blog for the (glorious) food that i've been sinning with.
Why the sudden decision? Cos i realised i've been posting so many entries on the many delectable delights that i might as well dedicate an entire site and join the food-blogging industry!
Not as if i can even pit myself against the blogkings and blogqueens of food out there.
Ok, i've crapped enough. The only reason for this entry is because i have to have one entry up before i can preview my template to change it anyway.
