Category Archives: Local

Novenea Peranakan Cuisine

It seems to be take-away week. We headed nearby to take away some peranakan food since my dad was craving them.
You know those restaurants that are always near by but you don’t visit them because you always end up  heading somewhere else instead?
This Peranakan restaurant has been around for quite a long time in Novena Ville, but ever since it opened, we never tried it.
So todays the day!

we ordered

Pork Ribs

Assam Fish

Ngoh Hiang

Close up

Chap Chye

home made meat ball in Fish Maw Soup

 

Verdict: 4//4 unanimously agree that this place should just be left as it was – no need to specially return for it. We didn’t really take to most of the nonya food that was presented. If we really had to choose, I think the favourite dish out of all was the chap chye and the pork ribs.
The ngoh hiang’s filling was just a little  .. different from the normal types we had.
The assam fish  had too strong a curry powder taste to it, more than the assam spices and spiciness..
The fish maw soup was just blend. I think Ivins restaurant still stands as my favourite Fish Maw soup place.

 

Novena Peranakan Cuisine
273 Thomson Road
#01-02 Novena Garden
Singapore 307644

Uncle Leong Seafood Restaurant

Accompanied my mum to take away some food off at Toa Pyoh.
We learned from the owner’s son that he is a relative of the guy who opened one of the more favourite crab joint among the locals, Melben.
As we were driving into this ‘factory-like’ corner coffee shop, I was thinking to myself ‘huh really? a crab place in the midst of all these factories?’

Entrance of the Shop

and on a close up, there are many write ups about this hidden gem.

Write Ups

“Open Kitchen”

The take away took a while . Glazing around this hidden coffee shop, at least on every table had the claypot crab bee hoon dish. It was also full house on a weekday night!! We however, decided to go for something different, so we ordered

Butter Crab

Chilli Crab

and of course, to go with the chilli crab, not forgetting its best friend

Fried Mantou

Verdict: 4/4 of us will return! The quality of crab is indisputable – The crabs were very meaty and succulent.  Sauce however, hmm.. slightly not as nice as Melben for the chilli crab. Butter crab however was just on the spot (but I also wonder if it’s because we have not had it for a long time so we really enjoy it). But worth the trouble going down for it!

Uncle Leong Seafood Restaurant
15 Lorong 8 Toa Payoh,
Braddell Tech
Singapore 319262 ·

SICC

We kindly got treated by Uncle P and Aunty M for lunch at their club 🙂
Our family always enjoy their company, especially Uncle P when he shares his experiences and viewpoints about Singapore, we all never fail to erupt into laughter and at the same time, agree largely to most of the things that he shares with us. A very knowledgeable man 🙂 Aunty M on the other hand, you would think she is just engaging and day dreaming away, but she would always say the wackiest thing at the wackiest moment. ( a couple of times sitting next to her in church, I thought I always did catch her sleeping, but she always said she was just ‘resting her eyes’ :p)

And is Singapore small or what,  My mum’s gynaecologist that delivered my sister and I was also dinning there! she actually recognizes my mum and said she still looks young! haha ok was abit of a weird moment for me ..I mean I don’t think they really will remember the specific baby they delivered unless it’s some special case or some birthmark on the baby or something ..

Uncle P said that this branch of the club’s specialty was  their Indian food.
And we ordered :

Special bean paste chicken

Butter Chicken

Masala Prawns

and not forgetting some local delights:

Pan fried ikan

 

Laksa

 

Satay

 

Verdict:  6/7 of us will return for the Indian Food. We ordered alot more Indian cuisine, but I didn’t managed to take them in time before it got all snapped up! 😦  In fact, this is our second visit back there for the Indian Cuisine. I love the butter chicken 🙂 I think they might have been a little short-handed on staff, because service was always very long.
Uncle P mentioned another speciality here is the prawn noodles. My bro aka the mentai monster tried it the last time around, but he didn’t feel it was the best he had.

Singapore Island Country Club
240 Sime Road
Singapore 288303

Founder Bah Kuet Teh

Met up with troopie Jans and Jean + Mr Kewl for some catch up session over bah kuet teh 🙂

Talk about hectic week!

the queue the founders is always long.  You know you are at Founders when …….. You see the walls plastered with celebrities pictures.
we ordered:

Bah Kuet Teh

Peanuts

Beancurd sheets

Salted vegetables

mee suah

Pig Trotters aka “te kah”

Verdict: 4/4 of us will return.

The peppery base of the pork rib soup was not too overwhelming with pepper, and was quite substantial a dish on itself.  The pork rib itself was quite tender( not due to tenderisers) and fell off the bone easily when pulled. Turns out this is both troopie Jean and Mr Kwel’s favourite bah kuet teh place. 🙂 And the best part, another eating place that opens till late!! 🙂

2 votes from troopie jean and me for the salted vegetable being one of our favourite dishes there.  It was not saltish enough for troopie Jan.

Founder Bah Kuet Teh
347 Balestier Road
(New Orchid Hotel)
Singapore

Old Airport Road

Troops and I decided to try a different place to satisfy troopie mother’s craving for local food and we all met at old kallang airport road 🙂

So we ordered quite a fair bit to share..

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All of this ordered from this store

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And of course from the famous lao fu zi

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And to round off dessert, I let them try Lao ban, but I found another stall that I thought tasted better than Lao ban – thicker in their bean taste

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Verdict: 3/5 of us will return. I will definitely return for the char kuey teow and the beancurd. The hokkien mee is the top dish liked by the troopies.. But the carrot cake and oyster omelette is a little disappointing.. :/

Lao huo soup

I grew up in a family that emphasises a lot about soup. Without fail our mother will be devoted to boiling the best soup, and over the years think of ways to improve the way she cooks her soup – from cooking methods, utensils to the ingredients that goes into that pot of goodness.

After working in Hong Kong for a while, I have come to appreciate ‘sweet soup’ – soup that is boiled with fruits such as pears or apples. So I was introduced to this place by my auntie K initially, and thought this was one of the closest that I could get to my Hong Kong experience:

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So they have probably opened a few branches across Singapore, but I will always order the pear and apple soup

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Verdict: according to my auntie K, from all the outlets she tried ( almost all from jurong to whampo), she mentioned that her jurong side tastes better and they are more generous with the pork ribs inside. Each outlet doesn’t have a fixed consistency in the thickness of the soup, so the reccomendation is that it’s better to go to the ones with higher people turnover rates! One plus factor They are generous with their servings and have offered free re-fills if you are really hungry for that day!
I bought this from the whampo outlet and I think the soup is abit watery, in comparison to the one at united square.

Lao huo tang老火汤

Soup Kitchen

We all managed to meet up to celebrate troopie peapodie’s birthday! After a few rounds of suggestions and ‘votes’, we all decided and headed down towards Soup Kitchen for dinner.

Entrance

We ordered the set for 6 – and the food came super duper fast!

Appetizer: Dried Chilli and peanuts

Chrysanthemum Tea

dan gui and kai lan

Wolfberry and Ginseng Chicken Soup

Steamed Fish Slices

Beggar’s Toufu

Ginger and Spring Onion Venison meat

Broccoli with Chinese Mushroom and Beancurd Sheets

Penang Noodles

And of course, not forgetting, the main thing that we came here for:

Sam Sui Chicken

Cabbage to go with the Sam Sui Chicken

 Verdict: 4.5/6 of us liked the place.                                                            troopie peapodie didn’t end up liking soup kitchen because she thought it was too herby for her delight. But overall taste wise is ok .. probably just not she will crave and go for.                                                                                         troopie ali overall didn’t like the soup because the chicken was “tough like sandpaper” although she said she tried their other soup – the pork rib one which she claims is not bad.                                                                                          I personally like the Samsui chicken – of course standard is still as good- as well as the broccoli and noodle dish. The chrysanthemum tea is presented quite uniquely, although the I kept drinking the flower together. Food wise, I think its quite a nice healthier alternative than the usual chinese restaurants,and of course, the second time that we are actually gathered in a chinese restaurant. 

Soup Kitchen
290 Orchard Road #B1-07
Paragon S(238859)

War of the beancurds

So i was hopping to visit a sick friend on the way home from mugging and decided to buy her and her in law something vegetarian friendly as well – i mean can’t possibly go to people’s house empty-handed right? : dau hui (豆花)otherwise known as sweet beancurd.

There was this write-up in the papers last year I think, comparing these 2 popular ‘brands’ of beancurds at old airport road.. So I thought I buy 2 of it and asked her to compare the differences …

So I bought from

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VS

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Verdict: 2/2 of us concluded that, this one is less sweeter than the other, but also still as nice 🙂 Like the cute picture on the tub 🙂 However, 51 is smoother in texture, easier on the throat, but sweeter. 🙂 My sister would be inclined to 51 better than me 🙂 So i think my vote ultimately goes to …. lao ban 🙂

Lao Ban
51 Old Airport Road,
#01-127 Old Airport Road Food Centre,
Singapore

51 Soya Bean
51 Old Airport Road,
#01-72 Old Airport Road Food Centre,
Singapore

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee (Bukit Merah) 香港街珍記

After church, because I had to rush back to complete my studying, so i told mum if we could just take away something near by for dinner.

So she suggested this zhi char place at bukit merah (was formally from
Ang Mo Kio- one of my favourite zhi char favourite) to ta bao 🙂

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Entrance : Spot the celebrity!

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if you enter from the back …

I can’t help but wonder why they like to call themselves Hong Kong Street zhi char when in hong kong, their ‘zhi char’ style is so different from like Singapore’s style .. But that aside, sure why not?

So we ordered:

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Mince pork with long beans – Si ji dou

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Fish Slice bee hoon 🙂 ❤ much!

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Special Toufu

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Daily Special: Pork patties

Verdict: 3/3 of us will return here. I love the fish bee hoon soup  – the soup is flavoured with tinges of chinese wine 🙂 very yummy on a rainy day 🙂  The pork patties, first time i am trying it and ittastes like mcdonald’s breakfast sausage patties but not as saltish and with sauce 🙂
toufu was just ok .. no biggie ..  long beans too ..
will return for the dry sam lo hor fun ( plain white noodles fried with bean sprouts and fish slices ❤ )

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee (Bukit Merah) 香港街珍記
125 Bukit Merah Lane 1,
#01-190 Singapore
 

Meng Kitchen 日夜小厨

I was feeling hungry and thought I call out my trooper star for a supper catch up session as well as something to fill my bottomless pit.

So headed down towards Upper Thomson and parked myself at this bah chor mee place as recommended by her ( a place that she frequented since she was a kid.)

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I ordered myself the mini hot pot bah chor mee .

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I was there around 12 am? and it was still a very bustling outlet – many people taking away their orders.

I like how they put in the mushrooms inside the noodles! For all those zhu you zha (pork lard) lovers, the mee pok is also soaked and mixed with them! The noodles were not too overcooked and ‘al dente’ chinese noodle style- My favourite :).

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The soup was pretty light for my tasting .. but its filled with quite a heap of ingredients (meatball, sliced pork, prawn, liver, mince pork) .. Nonetheless, enjoyed it overall 🙂

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Verdict: 2/2 of us will return here for the noodles!

Meng Kitchen 日夜小厨
246B Upper Thomson Road,
Thomson Garden Estate,
Singapore