Dare to dream,Live the dream

Hong Kong: Ho Hung Kee Congee & Noodle Shop

Thursday, January 29, 2015 | 6:54 pm | 0 comments

There's been a lot of hype about Ho Hung Kee so as a dutiful tourist, here I am to try out the food. Let's see if they live up to their hype.

原汁柱候牛腩面 (53 HKD)

Beef Noodles Soup

First look, not bad.

The soup looks really light and clear.

Noodles were pretty springy, but the soup, oh the soup.

Why do restaurants serve up soup dishes with the soup only at lukewarm temperature?

Why oh why???!

Spoils the whole dish honestly, not to have piping hot soup. This dish felt like an afterthought lacking in sincerity, what a disappointment.

Also, I got yelled at by the waitress just because I wanted to enquire if they serve this dish with kuay teow. The menu stated you can opt to have kuay teow, but the waitress started talking really loudly (getting progressively louder when I huh at her) in Cantonese and I have no idea what the hell she was yelling about. So off putting, so I said okok to whatever she was yammering about. If I wasn't starving so badly, I would have walked right out and went to eat at the food court downstairs. Honestly, for a restaurant in such an atas setting, I would have expected more from the service staff. This is an even bigger disappointment than the beef noodles.

翠绿郊外蚝油菜 (38 HKD)

Kailan in Oyster Sauce

This is really good, fresh and crunchy.

There's a really nice bite to it and the vegetables are so fresh that you can taste a hint of sweetness.

姜葱汁爆鱼腩粥（72HKD）

Ginger & Onion Fish Porridge

Oh the fish porridge looks like crap but it's actually a bowl of goodness.

Silky smooth and absolutely flavourful, there were huge chunks of fish inside too.

It's one of those porridge dishes where you just go gloup gloup gloup, and all of it will be gone in a blink of an eye. All in all, a pretty satisfying dish especially for a cold cold night.

In a Nutshell

Verdict:3/5

Price Point: $$

Thumbs Up: Excellent porridge.
To Improve: Beef noodle mehh, service a bigger mehh

Will I return: No.

Why: If I can get 20 HKD porridge that tastes just as good, why should I come here and have expensive porridge and pay 16.90 HKD for service charge and get yelled at. The porridge is pretty spectacular, but really just not worth the bad service attitude.

Ho Hung Kee Congee & Noodle Shop

何洪记粥面专家

1204-1205 Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay.

Entrances opposite SOGO, Forever 21 and directly from MTR.

Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Food, Jan2015, SgBlog, Singapore, Travel

Sumiya Charcoal Grill & Izakaya: Affordable Lunch Sets

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 | 8:28 pm | 0 comments

I've always thought Sumiya was an expensive Japanese restaurant and I wouldn't be able to afford dining here. Until I heard about their very affordable lunch set deals!

Available until 2.30pm daily, they have a range of more budget options to more splurge-worthy sets to cater to the different wallet sizes.

NI ANAGO DON ($16.80)

simmered conger eel on rice

My dining partner picked the unagi bowl and we were pleasantly surprised to see the bowl covered with three pieces of unagi. Oh yum yum. There was no hint of the fishy taste that unagi usually has, on the contrary it's well flavoured, soft and extremely delicious.

MIX BARA KAISEN DON ($18.80)

assorted seafood sashimi chunks on rice

I picked the Kaisen Don which is a bowl of sushi rice topped with avocado and myriad of fresh sashimi cubes tossed in soy sauce and fish roe. I doubt you can get the same amount for this value elsewhere. There were lots of sashimi cubes and I regretfully dropped a piece on the floor!!! The bowl was too full, and I was trying to scoop up some rice, oh well...

Oh and don't even for a moment think that the set dishes aren't delicious. The chawanmushi took me back to my childhood Daimaru Japanese restaurant chawanmushi times, it was silky smooth and just the right consistency and flavour. Pickles are a nice pick-me-up, while the salad wasn't a wow moment, the miso soup was heartwarming. They even have enoki mushrooms inside! Last but not least, the dessert of green tea mochi was superb.

Sumiya is located on the highest level of Orchard Central, combining awesome view and awesome food together.

In a Nutshell

Verdict: 5/5

Price Point: $$

Thumbs Up: Jap izakaya style decor, level 12 store location offers great view too!
To Improve: The table legs are all in the center, kinda blocks the legs a little.

Will I return: Yes yes yes!

Why: The sashimi is sooooo fresh, and the portion is really value for money!

ORCHARD CENTRAL

#12-02, 181 Orchard Road,

Singapore 238896

(formerly known as Kuriya Penthouse)

Tel: +65 6509-9618

Fax: +65 6509-3886

OPERATING HOURS

Lunch 12:00 to 3pm

(Last Order at 2:30pm)

Dinner: 6:00pm to 10:30pm

(Last Order at 10pm)

Opens daily

Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Food, Jan2015, SgBlog, Singapore

PODI: Celebrating the First Anniversary

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 | 10:45 pm | 0 comments

PODI is the latest baby of The Bakery Depot Pte Ltd, the same company that brought us Cedele, Toss & Turns and P.L.T Sandwiches. PODI which stands for Pure, Offbeat, Delicious and Infusions offers all day breakfast and grills on the menu.

It's been a year since PODI opened it's doors to the public at a fantastic location, Raffles City basement, right beside the beautiful fountain. A year ago when the place just opened, they've received mixed feedback about the food. Now, a year later, as they celebrate their 1st anniversary, I've been invited to try out their latest offerings. Thank you Nicole for the invitation!

TRUFFLE FRIES ($12)

This came as a surprise.

I was expecting shoestring fries but what I saw was a pile of glistening golden thick cut fries. The truffle fragrance is overwhelming and very enticing. I took one bite and was convinced, this is not some gimmicky item but the real deal. Many places offer truffle fries but you can barely taste the truffle. The sauce is truffle-infused honey mustard dip and it was an extremely refreshing pairing for the fries. My only gripe was that the fries can feel a tad oily, thick cut fries have the tendency to soak up oil like a sponge so it can feel a bit jelat after awhile. You definitely need the dip to balance out the flavours, and while you're at it, share this dish too. Which led me to think, shouldn't the fries taste great on its own instead of leaning heavily on the dip? I feel that this fries is good, but if I ever need to satisfy that truffle fries craving, I 'll head to Habitat Cafe instead

CRABMEAT KONBU AGLIO OLIO ($18)

with house prawn oil, chilli, cherry tomatoes,

a sprinkle of konbu seaweed, rocket leaves and parmasean cheese

The item caught my eye when I first saw the menu and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a lot of crabmeat hidden in the linguine! Definitely value-for-money in that sense.

The highlights of this dish is that the crabmeat had no fishy smell, some of the places serving crab pasta ended up with certain parts smelling quite fishy, which turns me off.

It's alot mildly spicy and a little sweet, somewhat reminding me of our local delight chilli crab.

The konbu added a nice texture to it, except I kinda got bored of this dish after a while.

This seems to be a recurring problem in Western dining, the dish is stunning and tastes really great, but after awhile it just got kinda boring.

ARBORIO CHICKEN & PORTOBELLO RICE ($23)

with paprika chicken & portobello mushroom.

Their rice dishes are all gluten free and the rice is tossed with konbu seaweed, egg, asparagus, mushroom & diced tomato, and comes with a side salad.

This rice is spectacular. Reminds me of our zi char mui fan, wet rice coated in sauces. albeit salty but I like the very complex taste of this dish. The portobello mushroom was huge and juicy, there's such a wonderful meaty bite to it. The paprika chicken was a little lacking though, it was pretty much tasteless, where did the paprika go? However if you pair the rice, chicken and mushroom all together in a mouthful, then the dish seems to come together nicely. There's a sambal lookalike red paste at the side which tasted mildly sweet, a pretty interesting addition to the rice.

GREEN TEA MATCHA CAKE ($5.80)

The matcha sliced cake is one of their star items but I found it a little lacking...

The cake was light and airy, and the matcha flavour pronounced but...

I really don't like it when my cake loses balance and falls down.
It''s very annoying.

Then my dining partner realized the two layers of cake could barely stick together.
I wonder why.
All in all, an okay cake and really quite overpriced for such a small slice of cake.

Not exactly sure how their brand meaning of Pure, Offbeat, Delicious and Infusions factor into the menu, well okay I can definitely see some infusions and the dishes combination are pretty offbeat, if you interpret offbeat as not mainstream. The food quality is pretty decent but I'm not sure how Pure factors in. To me, it felt like PODI tries to be the Jack of all trades so it's a little eclectic. If they could focus on one thing and do that well, then they will have a winning formula like their sister cafe Cedele.

In a Nutshell

Verdict: 3/5

Price Point: $$$

Thumbs Up: Nice ambience to dine by the fountain, huge servings.
To Improve: The food is good, but none of the dishes are fantastically mind blowing.

Will I return: Maybe.

Why: I'm more of an Asian food kind of person, so if you want to entice me back with Western food, you must be extremely outstanding. The food is good, but they're not amazingly unforgettable. I might just pop in for some fries (I do like that honey dijon dip!) and a cuppa, it's a nice place to chill by the fountain.

PODI

Raffles City Shopping Centre

#B1-45

Singapore 179103

Tel: +65 63365648

Opening Hours:

Mon-Fri: 10am - 10pm

Sat-Sun, PH: 9am - 10pm

Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Food, Jan2015, SgBlog, Singapore

Supply& Demand: Modern Italian Southeast Asian Bistro and Bar

Tuesday, January 06, 2015 | 8:19 pm | 0 comments

Supply & Demand is a modern Italian Southeast Asian Bistro and Bar, serving up some really interesting recipes of fusion food. This is their second branch opened in a quiet corner of Orchard Gateway. It's hard to miss that place because they've tacked a giant chalkboard on the wall with colourful writing all over it. Definitely an inviting environment made for dining.

After hearing so much about their pizzas, we decided to try it for ourselves.

THE MORNING AFTER ($18 for 9 inch, $22 for 13 inch)

Between the two of us, we decided to order a 2 flavour 13 inch pizza.

The Morning After is a delicious combination of pancetta, mushrooms and a beautiful runny egg lying on top of the beautiful gooey mess. I like that the thin crust pizza here is really as advertised; thin crispy crust that is so light you can gobble 2-3 slices and not feel bloated at all. Pizzas with eggs are almost always a winner for me, this is definitely a must-order happy tummy dish.

CALABRESE (add on 1/2 - $3)

The Calabrese is a salami and roasted potatos pizza and this one tasted rather salty, but I enjoyed it a lot. The saltiness came mainly from the salami but it blended pretty well with the rest of the pizza and is a much more mainstream flavour than the comparatively lighter half of The Morning After.

ITALIAN TIRAMISU ($12)

No meal is complete without a dessert and we ordered a pot of the Italian Tiramisu to share.

Seeing as it's my first time having tiramisu, I really have nothing else to compare to.

All I can say is this version at Supply& Demand was sweet without being too cloying, moist and moderately alcoholic, one thing I didn't like was the fact that it kept sticking to the roof of my mouth while I ate so that was rather annoying.

In a Nutshell

Verdict: 4/5

Price Point: $$

Thumbs Up: Delicious pizzas with interesting flavours!

To Improve: Seats were too close, aircon a little too strong resulted in food turning cold too fast.

Will I return: Yes definitely!

Why: Being a fan of thin crust pizzas, Supply & Demand has convinced me that even though many places do awesome thin crust pizzas as well, their pizzas are actually worth returning for.

Supply & Demand

Orchard Gateway, 277 Orchard Road #02-13/14 Singapore 238858

Tel: +65 67026218

Opening Hours: 11:30am – 10:30pm (Mon-Sun)

Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Food, Jan2015, SgBlog, Singapore

Insta-Dec

Thursday, January 01, 2015 | 11:00 am | 0 comments

It's here! It's here! December is finally here!

I can't wait to start all my feasting and fun!

Celebrated my birthday with a simple plate of hokkien mee from East Coast and it was sheer contentment. The older I get, the more I feel that birthdays are not about the presents you get but the moments you share with the people who matter. This might be my simplest birthday ever, but it also warmed my heart the most.