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| Recipe Reviews | Service Reviews | The Ranting Tummy | ||
Peeps, in conjunction with Soulmate, a community of singles helping singles find their special someone, we’ll be organising a series of group dinner dates. But first, we need to grow the Soulmate community.
So come join, and like the Soulmate Facebook page.
SPR MRKT
2 McCallum Street
Don’t know why I kept calling this place S.P.R. Market. Then I heard my colleague pronouncing it as ‘supermarket’. But of course, I feel so stupid for calling it S.P.R. all the time. FAIL. :p
Last time I came here I had the Pork Rib Soup. It was absolute-est-ly the most delish pork rib soup I’ve ever had. This time, I had the Char-grilled Japanese Char Siew with Teriyaki Sauce.
The teriyaki gravy was just sweet enough, too sweet and you can forget about tasting the sweetness of the pork belly itself. SCORE. And the pork belly, as per how those ang moh trained chefs like to do it, is so soft that you can slice it with a fork. DOUBLE SCORE.
Picture:
Char-grilled Japanese Char Siew with Teriyaki Sauce, $20
Pho Stop
21 Tanjong Pagar Road, #01-01
Specialty: Vietnamese
It’s the only Vietnamese joint in Tanjong Pagar (as far as I know) and they serve pho that my colleagues totally love. I don’t love it though, I find the broth too tame. I can’t help comparing it to the ones I’ve had in Vietnam or the US because the difference is too far a cry. It just isn’t tasty enough.
The same can be said for their summer rolls. It’s exactly like a plain salad. Tastes as healthy, tastes as green. I have a problem with yucks. Problem is, I can’t taste the protein, which in this case, is the prawns. They must use frozen prawns – or they dump them in water for too long during shelling. Even the dipping can’t save it.
Meh.
Swee Kee (Kah Soh)
96 Amoy Street
Specialty: fish head noodles
LAST FRIDAY RUMBLINGS: APRIL
Pork chop rules!!!!! OMG OMG OMG. Best f-ing porkies I’ve had in ages. The batter is crispy fantastic. Pork is fresh – no smells of the pig farm. I tapaued it for my drunken colleagues back at the office and it was still so good hours after it arrived at the dinner table.
And that’s not even what Ka Soh is so famous for.
It’s known for its fish head beehoon, though I think their fish slice beehoon, san lou hor fan and anything with fish is also really good. As is their har cheong kai. Though I think the one at No. 5 is still more power. lol.
Any case, I’m so glad we came here for our Last Friday Rumblings. It was the first time I’ve had their fish slice beehoon. First comes the soup with fish slices and ginger and veggies. Then comes the beehoon on a plate and sauce. We pour the sauce over then dip the noodles in the soup. Kinda like how you do it with the Japanese soba.
Sambal prawns also awesome, so is the sambal kang kong and my friends say, fish innards tao geh. I mean fish stomach tao geh. I mean I’ll-never-touch-that-stuff-but-I’ll-take-my-dinner-kakis’-word.
Sakae Sushi
Icon Village, #01-05/11
Specialty: conveyor belt sushi
I used to hate coming here. The line is always too long at lunch time. And well, it’s Sakae Sushi – the sushi chain with the worst reputation in sushi-crazy Singapore.
And then, my lunch buddy says she has a craving for sushi. And this was the sushi joint nearest us… I’m so glad we ended up here.
(1) There was no line at all, the place was nearly empty.
We were there around 1:45pm. Maybe the lunch crowd has dispersed. Or maybe people’s finally got wind of its reputation. Whatever it is, no line. Tan tio.
(2) The scallop is fresh and thick!
Shocker. I’ve been too used to third-rate raw fish from Sakae. They’ve really upped their game.
Needless to say, I now have one more food option at lunch :)
Pictures:
• hotate (scallop) sashimi
• akagai (whelk) sashimi
• ebi kani maki (prawn and crab roll)
• Sakae chawanmushi (egg pudding)
Crystal Jade Kitchen
Tampines Mall
Specialty: steamboat
Many people come here for steamboat, but not the parents. Mum as you know, is all fussy about her pescatarian/vegetarian diet.
Mum: “I want fish but make it vegetarian.”
Server: “????”
Mum: “Tell your chef I don’t want any pork or beef in my fish.”
Server: “But… this dish is all fish…”
Me: “I think my mum means, she doesn’t want her fish to be cooked with pork lard.”
Server: “Ohhhhh…”
Yup… so… we had a custom-ordered “vegetarian fish” and luohan zhai (Buddha’s Delight: a plateful of steamed jungle) for mummy dearest. And for the rest of us carnivores in the fam, we had a mixed roast meat platter (ate it all up before I remembered the cam), poached prawns, crispy noodles and “I-guess-it’s-non-vegetarian” fish soup.
My fav was the fish soup. Forgot to pix the menu, and I can’t recall the full name. But it’s like $10.99 or something, top of the list of soups. The fish was tender and the soup was tasty. I mean, standard Teochew-fish type of tasty… but this is a Canto resto…
Well, in any case, my rumbling tums was happy. I rest my case.
Pictures:
• Fish soup (can’t recall the name of the dish)
• Custom-ordered steamed fish
• Luohan zhai (Buddha’s Delight: an all-vegetable dish)
• Poached Prawns
Shin Kushiya
Vivocity, #02-120
Specialty: yakitori
When friends suggest doing Japanese for dinner, the first image that floats to my mind is sashimi. More often than not, my mental projection comes true and I end up with servings of the raw deal in front of me.
Then one day, my dinner kaki said Shin Kushiya. And there was yakitori.
To be sure, the yakitori here is not as awesome as the ones you’ll find in Gado-shita, Tokyo. The tebasaki (chicken wings) for example, is not as well-salted. The bacon wrapping of the aspara maki (bacon-wrapped asparagus) is too thin and too burnt. And the oyster in the kaki maki (bacon-wrapped oyster) has been char-grilled so dry that you can barely tell it’s oyster.
But hey, Shin Kushiya is not Gado-shita.
What I did like was the hotate maki (bacon-wrapped scallop). My dinner kaki found her scallop too dry but I thought mine was just fine. It was thick – I like that. Too many restaurants slice their scallops in half – or maybe more – so what you get is a thin, flat morsel of almost nothing.
The gyu karubi is basically prime rib on a stick. That, I liked too. I mean, how wrong can you go with char-grilled beef?
Pictures:
• tebasaki (chicken wings), aspara maki (bacon-wrapped asparagus), hotate maki (bacon-wrapped scallop), kaki maki (bacon-wrapped oyster) gyu karubi (prime rib)
Group Therapy
49 Duxton Road #02-01
Specialty: coffee
Group Therapy talks with pride about their coffee, all-day breakfast, desserts and boutique beers. I’m not so much a coffee, breakfast, dessert nor beer person but luckily for my rumbling tums, there’s their hearty mains for me to rave about.
Last time I talked about this place – can’t remember if it was on Facebook or Twitter, but I don’t think it was on this blog – I was really disappointed with their truffled ravioli. Was different every time I ordered it and I kinda gave up on that dish. Anyway, old story.
Today I’m blogging about the Inaniwa Udon Salad and Belgian Style Waffle. I’ve had these a couple of times now and I’m happy to report, it’s consistently good. The salad could do with a little more udon though, I had to order dessert to fill the baggage allowance in my tums. But otherwise the veggies were fresh and crisp, the wafu dressing light and tasty. And it’s pretty… still $16 is on the steep side for a plate of mostly greens.
The waffle was thick, warm and marshmallow bouncy. Freshly made to order – I saw them making mine over the counter. Good stuff.
Pictures:
• Inaniwa Udon Salad with wafu dressing $16
• Belgian Style Waffle with maple syrup and butter $9
A late, late lunch at Shin Kushiya, then an early, early dinner at Ichiban Sushi. I’ve been having so much Japanese food lately that it’s like I’m living on a nihonjin diet in sunny Singapore.
Ke-ray-zie. I’m gonna go on a cold turkey, see how long I can go without Japanese food. It’s gonna be tough, saying no to the tummy, my mum and dinner kakis. Seriously, we in Singapore, are prolly the world’s biggest consumers of sushi/sashimi/yakitori outside of Japan… maybe even including Japan.
In any case, more variety of food is good. Just means more variety for this blog too.
Cya.
Hi guys! Work at my day job seems to be winding down a little… hope I’m not speaking too early. And I hope that I’ll be able to blog regularly again.
In any case, I will be taking a break end May and I will deffo be writing from… Bali!
Will be there with mummy dearest so, lots of veggie and fishy… fishy? dishes I’ll be writing about. But no worries for you carnivores out there. I’ll still be chomping down the babi gulings, bebek betutus.
If all goes well, be blogging latest by end May. Meantime, entertaining you here with a picture of me, extremely light sensitive and pissed drunk after downing the famous martinis at Naughty Nuri’s Warung a couple of years back.
Bali!!! I can’t wait.
My day job’s calling,
Putting a pause on my blogging,
But I’ll keep on eating.
See you in a month, max.
东风发 TONG FONG FATT
Stall 17, Maxwell Food Centre
Speciality: Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Chicken, gizzards and rice only
No ru dan, taukwa or vegetables. These guys are just focussed on chicken rice. My colleagues love this stall. It’s garnered many rave reviews from TV food programmes too. There’s even a picture of the guys with LKY standing in front of the stall.
I didn’t quite enjoy their chicken rice though. The chilli was kinda weak. The rice was mushy. And my request for chicken thigh puts my order at $1 more than the regular $2.50 meal. I didn’t get a lot more meat for that dollar extra either.
Few days later, I saw a colleague getting the same chicken thigh order for lunch. She got a lot more meat than I did. Hmpf.
The Guide of (sic.) Korean Restaurants in Singapore
Look what I found outside the Korean Association of Singapore. Oh, I just love working in the neighbourhood of good food and great-ways-of-finding-good-food.
哈哈美食 Ha Ha Mei Shi (Closed)
Stall 22, Maxwell Food Centre
Specialities: mee siam, mee rebus, laksa
十五：圆满结业
Right before the Chinese New Year, the husband-and-wife proprietors of this stall decided to take a break from the business and hang up their aprons. I’ll miss their $2 mee siam and laksa. Never got a chance to try their mee rebus. My wallet will also be missing all that lunch savings.
Picture:
• mee siam $2 + fish cake 50c
=== update ===
The stall has reopened under new management. But apparently, new management doesn’t like fish cake. Neither does it know how to make good mee siam. Thumbs down…
Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restaurant
Blk 124, Bukit Merah Lane 1
Specialty: seafood
十四：I’d been broke if this happened anywhere else
I haven’t written my review for January’s Friday Night Rumblings at Valentino’s but I’m skipping ahead to do February’s at Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restaurant.
Only because I’m doing this 15-day CNY cheap and good eats thingy and this restuarant fits the bill to the T. For eight persons: 3 crabs, 1 chicken, 1 gianormous fish head, a sea of drunken prawns and a heaping of sambal on kang kong. Only $222.
Only $222! It’s like Christmas came again for Chinese New Year.
The food was better than good. Except for the crabs – I think my crabs taste better, ha! Not that anyone else at the table agreed, but I have thick skin. But really, we have no bad words for anything that landed on our plates. Only good ones.
I loved especially the mantou for the chilli crab. So pretty! It was like the talking point at our table for a full 10 minutes or so. Second most popular topic next to a brewing scandal about one of my dinner kaki’s love life. Quite impressive.
The crispy roast chicken was quite something too. Perfectly tender, all the way delicious. If there was something I must pick on, that’ll be the claypot drunken prawns – and only to say, I’ve had even better ones.
If you’re thinking of heading to the restuarant, I recommend everything you see in the pictures here.
Pictures:
• pretty mantou
• chilli crab
• salted eggs butter crab
• sambal kang kong
• claypot drunken prawns
• Hong Kong-style fish head
• crispy roast chicken
