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Sunday, April 05, 2015 | 4:26 pm | 0 comments
March is no fun but I survived!!!!
Waddle waddle because when the going gets tough, I just look at penguins waddling and take a deep deep breath. Life goes on.
Watami's Modanyaki was terrible and it barely satiated the craving for good okonomiyaki.
Brought the dinner partner to try Supply and Demand and we loved the Truffle Fries!
The fries were great, but the price tag wasn't haha.
My ducks like watching tv too, tv ducks!
I got a present!
It's a penguin pouch for a tiny penguin!
Ending off the month on a sweet note.
Labels: Apr2015, Lifestyle, SgBlog, Singapore Thursday, March 26, 2015 | 7:00 pm | 0 comments
The one thing I love about Hong Kong is the assortment and variety of street food available.
It is mind boggling how some of the street food can taste so much better and more comforting than that of restaurants.
There's a curry yudan stall just down the sidewalk from our hotel.
The uncle even smiled when I was taking photos as he prepared my curry yudan and octopus bowl.
Yum yum, I could eat this all day long and not get bored!
The curry is not exactly like our chicken curry here, it's more like a spicy sweet soup with caramelized onions and spices. The yudan is very bouncy and has a firmer texture than the fishballs we have in Singapore. I quite like the texture. Slurped up all the soup and drank lots of water after that, else I'll be stuck with a sore throat the next day.
Another interesting Hong Kong dish is the Che Zai Mian 车仔面.
If you look closely, it's actually like our cai fan stall with an assortment of ingredients for you to pick and choose. Except in this instance it's noodles instead of rice.
There's braised radish, braised meat, yudan and an assortment of other ingredients.
The soup is a light herbal flavour and the noodles are very tasty.
Quite a comforting dish to have in the cold winter night.
艇仔粥 from a congee shop down the lane from my hotel.
This is hands down one of the best porridge I've tasted in my life.
It's so silky smooth and flavourful, chocked full of ingredients.
Best porridge ever.
Maxim is one of the biggest Hong Kong bakery chains and they also serve mains.
I ordered a roast goose rice to try, and it was rather interesting.
I'm not sure if goose is naturally fatty, and the meat is tougher, but I found this version extremely oily and the meat rather tough and hard to bite through. Oily is an understatemt, the oil literally drips and dribbles down your chin if you attempt to bite it in half instead of putting the whole piece into your mouth. It's definitely flavourful, but not one of my favourite. Maybe I haven't found a nice one yet.
Roast goose drumstick and wanton noodles.
The noodles were springy and the wantons very full. Soup was nice and light. Definitely better than the roast goose rice.
 
Found some egg tarts in Jordan after we had breakfast, and I love this!
The crust was light and flaky, full of buttery flavour and the egg custard was wobby and soft. This is exactly how I like my egg tarts.
This egg tart was from Tai Cheong bakery, and it has a tart-like crust as opposed to a crumbly one.
The egg custard is also firmer. Very good, but I still prefer flaky crumbly crusts more.
I think the street food that has successfully captured my heart is most definitely the curry yudan and that silky smooth porridge.
What about you? What's your favourite HK street food item?
Labels: Food, Lifestyle, SgBlog, Singapore, Travel Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | 7:00 pm | 0 comments
Found this gem of a dim sum shop just 10 steps down from where my hotel is, so this is our last meal before we depart for the airport.
CLAYPOT CHICKEN & MUSHROOM RICE (25 HKD)
花菇滑鸡饭
This strangely reminded me of our chicken rice, but better.
If I didn't have other dishes, I could finish this bowl bowl of rice.
The chicken was tender, and the mushroom had an extremely fragrant smell to it. Pair it with the rice and chicken, and you wouldn't be able to stop eating it.
SHRIMP DUMPLINGS [HAR KAU] (23HKD)
晶莹鲜虾饺
These har kau are quite different from the Tim Ho Wan's version, but nevertheless, they were good. I like that it's huge, the prawn inside was really fresh and had that meaty juicy bite to it.
PORK & SHRIMP DUMPLING [SIEW MAI] (24 HKD)
蟹子烧卖皇
Siew Mai is a pretty standard dish at any dim sum restaurant and this place did it well.
Meaty, juicy and the tiny fish roe lookalike added a burst of texture as well.
TRUFFLE XIAO LONG BAO (22 HKD)
黑松露小笼包
This was a mehhhh.
MEHHH.
Don't bother ordering this, I have extremely high standards when it comes to xiao long bao.
Not even Din Tai Fung, the king of xiao long baos can beat the streetside ones I had in China.
This one doesn't even come close.
PINEAPPLE BUN [PO LO BUN] (13 HKD)
真丝菠萝包
  This is my first time having pineapple bun and this one is pretty good. I like that the top part is crusty and mildly sweet, opening up the inside was quite a surprise too because there were pineapple paste and pineapple chunks hidden within. PIGGY SALTED EGG & CUSTARD BUN (23 HKD) 金沙肥猪仔   Hello custard bun! This is their signature dish and I really enjoy the salty sweet paste hidden in the pig. Unfortunately, it doesn't flow and that was quite a disappointment. The bao was also too thick so I just ate all the insides haha. You got to admit the pig design is rather eye-catching though. DEEP FRIED WASABI DUMPLING (13 HKD) 芥末咸水角   This is a vegetarian dish, there's some kind of a sticky paste inside that's flavoured with wasabi, the outer layer is deep-fried but the skin seemed to be made of glutinous flour as the texture was quite mochi-like. CRISPY SHRIMP RICE NOODLE ROLL [CHEE CHEONG FAN] (23 HKD) 脆皮鲜虾肠   This has got to be my favourite dish out of everything. The rice roll is thin and q, and there's a thin layer of crispy vermicelli inside (I think so because the uncle explained in Cantonese but I know nuts about the dialect haha) and then you get to the very bouncy juicy shrimp inside. Damn this is one creative chee cheong fan, so many layers of texture and flavour, definitely one of the highlights of my eating trip. In a Nutshell
Verdict: 4/5
Price Point: $$
Thumbs Up: The chee cheong fan was soooo good. To Improve: Focus on what they do best, creative dim sum dishes.
Will I return: Yes yes yes!
DimDimSum Dim Sum Specialty Store (Wan Chai)
7 Tin Lok Lane, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China (Wan Chai)
Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Feb2015, Lifestyle, SgBlog, Singapore, Travel Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | 6:30 pm | 0 comments
Tim Ho Wan is a name many Singaporeans are familiar with. With various branches opening up in Singapore, we can satisfy your craving anytime without flying to Hong Kong. Yet many of us are still joining the crazy mad queues in Hong Kong for this, for two very simple reasons.
It's delicious and it's insanely cheap.
Baked Char Siew Bun
The signature dish.
This is 10x better than the one we had in Singapore. Partly contributed by the fact it's also extremely cheap. I like the crispy outer layer and the salty-sweet balance of char siew inside. The Singapore version tends to be a little on the sweet side, but this version here in Hong Kong is more balanced.
Black Bean Steamed Pork Ribs
Hello pork ribs! This was juicy, tender and delicious.
Carrot Cake
This is another of my favourite dish here at Tim Ho Wan. I like that the carrot cake is slightly charred so there's a crispy contrast to the softness inside. Very flavourful, more so if you pair it with their chili sauce. That chilli sauce is the bomb man, it elevated the taste of the carrot cake to this point-of-no-return level. No other dim sun style carrot cake can ever beat this now.
Shrimp Dunplings {Har Kau}
I always order har kau at a dim sum place, it's my benchmark test for any dim sum restaurant. If you can do the har kau well, you can do the rest of the dishes well. This did not disappoint, the skin and shrimp didn't fall apart (yay!) and the shrimp was huge. Huge and crunchy. I'm in dim sum heaven.
Shrimp Rice Roll {Chee Cheong Fan}
The rice roll is thin and the shrimps are fat and juicy! Not a fan of the sauce, not sure if it's cause we poured the wrong sauce hmm..
Shrimp Wonton & Black Fungus Soup
This was just so-so, nothing extremely special to shout about.
In a Nutshell
Verdict: 4/5
Price Point: $$
Thumbs Up: Baked buns & carrot cake! To Improve: Bigger shop, it was so packed!
Will I return: Yes!
Tim
Ho Wan
添好運點心專門店
Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Feb2015, Food, Lifestyle, SgBlog, Singapore, Travel Thursday, February 05, 2015 | 7:30 pm | 0 comments
Ramen Friday began when the management decided that there will be extra unnecessary meetings and activities every Friday afternoon so that everyone will be unable to complete their tasks asap and go home early to rest. Dinner time has already rolled by after said meetings ended (mehhh), and ramen is the one food we crave to sooth our hungry tummies and our overworked souls.
First stop: Chabuton @ Star Vista
The broth is one of the lightest I've tasted and it could easily be one of my favourites but the soup wasn't piping hot. Don't get me wrong, it's not lukewarm but the whole point of a good bowl of ramen is that the soup stays warm til the very last drop. This turned cold pretty quickly so that was a disappointment. The one thing I loved is that they offer half portions on the menu, perfect for small eaters!
Chabuton
#01-41 Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, Singapore 138617
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Second stop: Keisuke Tonkotsu King @ Orchid Hotel
This was a wow moment when I first tasted the soup.
Definitely a good start.
The broth tastes very clean and rich, distinctly a pork bone broth flavour.
It was extremely umami and packed full of flavours. The only downside was the soup is more on the salty side, so if you like your ramen broth light, you probably wouldn't like this too much.
Keisuke Tonkatsu King
1 Tras Link, #01-19 Orchid Hotel, Singapore
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Third stop: Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King @ Paya Lebar Square
I love the slight spicy and super umami broth, it was thick and piping hot. The addition of stir-fried pork to the ramen was a stroke of genius. It added a certain smokey sweetness to the soup and created this very distinctive flavour.
The only downside was the soup was way too heavy so about 1/4 through the bowl, I was already feeling quite jelat so I just ate the noodles and left the soup alone.
But if you're not a light eater like me, you'll definitely love this bowl of ramen. Order the spicy black, the fragrant garlic oil is something not to be missed.
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King
60 Paya Lebar Road, Paya Lebar Square #01-04
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Fourth stop: Ramen Keisuke Tori King @ Amara Hotel
Oh this is by far one of my favourite places to have ramen.
Love the atmosphere best (Japanese waitresses are awesome hosts and very smiley!) and the ramen oh the ramen, is unforgettable!
Every bowl of ramen here comes with a giant chicken drumstick reminiscent of the drumsticks that come with your Indonesian grilled drumstick rice. The meat was so tender I could easily tear it apart just using my chopsticks. Love the free flow beansprouts and the broth is soooooo deliciously good.
Don't try to finish all the broth if you don't want to end up feeling too jelat, it can get a little too heavy towards the end. But all in all, a very delicious bowl of ramen that is worth revisting.
Ramen Keisuke Tori King
Amara Hotel #03-15, 100 Tras Street
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Fifth stop: Ramen KeisukeTonkotsu King Four Seasons @ Bugis Village
I can't believe it but this branch of Keisuke did not impress. My dining partner agrees.
Not that the food wasn't good, but it just wasn't as good. It can't compare to the other Keisuke branches and it didn't have that "OOMPH!!" feeling that I get at the other outlets.
Every bowl of ramen should have that "OOMPH!" factor the minute you take in the first mouthful of soup. That is the deciding factor whether a bowl of ramen is worth finishing.
Even though it wasn't as good, I have to say this Autumn bowl of ramen with 3 types of fried mixed mushrooms mixed in is pretty refreshing. The broth is not as heavy (the flavour was also not particularly complex and lacked some depth), considerably lighter and easy on the stomach so feel free to slurp it all up. My dining partner ordered the King ramen but the soup wasn't piping hot, what a disappointment. The staff reheated it in a microwave again upon request but I expected more from Keisuke.
Having said that, I probably wouldn't return again. Definitely not on my to-return list.
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons
158 Rochor Road Bugis Village
In a Nutshell
Labels: dream-oracle.blogspot.com, Feb2015, Food, Lifestyle, SgBlog, Singapore
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