Been hankering for some good bak chang (of the salty variety), so I grabbed a few from Kim Choo when I was in the Joo Chiat vicinity. At S$2.50 each, they were not cheap but each one was fairly sizeable and of good quality.
The smooth glutinous rice is steamed just right (not too soggy nor undercooked), and seasoned well. I could eat the rice on its own. Ingredients in the dumpling include chunks of lean meat (a little too heavily spiced, in my humble opinion), a sliver of pork fat, a couple of mushrooms and a chestnut.
I love bak chang but unfortunately they almost always leave a very full, satiated feeling. They wreck havoc on your blood sugar for hours! Almost uncomfortable. But a good bak chang is hard to resist! And I like to eat them cold out of the fridge! A more solid bite than if steamed (too sticky). I have to go try Ho Kee's someday.
I also sprung for their onde onde just out of curiosity. Unfortunately they were quite ordinary and did not justify the S$2 price for the box of six tiny bite-size desserts.
Just look at these yummy chunks of ribeye, seared very quickly with teriyaki sauce. From Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong in Geylang. Yes, I finally got to go there! Run by an affable young chap (Jason), this eatery will whip up all kinds of dishes, some with a nouveau touch or unusual twist.
But back to the ribye. Yes, yes, some pieces were rather large, making it a chewy mouthful. But for the most part, it was tender, juicy and flavourful. The beefy succulence briefly called to mind Aburiya's cubes of yakiniku heaven. We did a "tarpao" (takeaway) so mom at home could try. She, too, pronounced it divine.
Not everything was a hit though. I wanted some fish maw soup but Jason says he doesn't serve two persons as the portion is too big. So we settled for cereal prawns (S$12). When it came, we were a little taken aback. The dish was soaked in oil and had greasy, charred Nestum flakes (?) dumped on top. It tasted oddly chocolatey or coffeelike. Even the garlic bits tasted like they'd been soaked in honey or syrup. Too sweet. Prawns were fresh and succulent though. Pity the execution didn't do them justice.
I have heard raves about the Penang char kway teow, so it was also a must-try. It looks really good, eh? Well, it certainly had good "wok hei" and was a generous portion for S$4. But it still tasted a little too bland for me. I seem to be seeking that elusive tasty version that I had eons ago in Penang and elsewhere, which I'd mistakenly assumed I could easily get again.
Halfway through our meal, Jason said he could do a sambal kangkong for us instead of his "usual" sprouts stir-fry. I'm glad we took his revised suggestion, because it was the most intensely flavoured dish for the evening. Wicked sambal sauce, salty and umami. I imagine it would go well with sotong (cuttlefish) too. Heck, it even paired well with the bland kway teow.
This is the old Cafe Vienna at Royal Plaza on Scotts, given not only a facelift but upgrade in terms of food (and prices) as well. It's halal Continental and Asian in a chic, new environment. See my review at Camemberu.com for full set of photos (a lot!). I'm leaving in the captions below (italicised) to explain the paragraphs.
We liked the new decor, and thought the place was well thought out in terms of managing large buffet crowds. The food is split up into two sections - cold stuff and appetisers out in the front, warm food and mains at the back. Desserts were along a perpendicular wall linking both sections.
There are at least three dessert alcoves. This is the first one. The second one is completely dedicated to a 4 or 5 tier chocolate fountain with skewered fruits ready for dipping, and ice cream in three flavours. Third one has fruits and warm desserts.
Chic cutlery stand - they replenish every utensil you use, the moment you take it out!, originally uploaded by Camemberu.
I have to say the service is very much improved. Staff are alert, quick, attentive and polite. Constantly but discreetly paying attention to your table, replenishing water AND cutlery (every time you use something, you get a fresh set put in your holder!). They are always on hand too, to attend to needs or help with spills (which are prone to happen when you bring naughty babies along).
Sashimi and sushi, originally uploaded by Camemberu.All right, on to the food! Unfortunately I didn't capture on camera all the food we ate, and on top of that, we weren't able to sample half of what was available in this huge buffet. So what you see is just a small representation.
I began with the sashimi (salmon, tuna and sea bream, I think) and sushi (inari, salmon and unagi). I skipped the futomaki and forgot about handrolls. Although reasonably fresh, the sashimi didn't look too well-cut but at least did not taste bad or sinewy. The sushi was decent.
Cold seafood platter - blue swimming crab, slipper lobster, boiled tiger prawns, steamed sweet clam, scallop, poached green lip mussel and Spanish black mussel, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Carousel now boasts a large spread of seafood and indeed, a whole counter of ice proudly sports various fruits of the ocean. All succulent and sweet. Have them with lemon, tabasco, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, shallot mignonette or just plain. Wish I had gone for a second round. Oh, and the waiters, or butlers as they are called here, serve you moist towelettes after you are done. Nice touch.
Cold appetisers - DIY Thai salad, mushroom terrine, cured salmon in spiced lime vinaigrette, marinated prawns with avocado tomato salsa, smoked duck breast, originally uploaded by Camemberu.There is a nice Thai salad station where you can put together your own green mango/papaya/pomelo salads (recipe cards on display to help with ingredient choice). I didn't get to try the other cold prepared salads, just the appetisers, which were okay but not spectacular.
Sirloin from the carvery, originally uploaded by Camemberu.The rotisserie featured black pepper chicken (which I skipped) and oven roasted grain-fed beef which I thought was quite yummy, although hubby didn't like it. Team it with Yorkshire pudding and jacket potatoes, along with condiments (so many to choose from!). The professional pasta station next to the rotisserie looked enticing but it would have been too much carbo for me.
Pumpkin veloute with truffle hint, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Oh this was nice! A simple-looking soup but it had a savoury, umami richness I can't describe. Hubby, again, didn't really like it (it's okay, we always differ). There were also some other soups - the seafood tom yum was done more Malay-style than Thai, and the morsels within overcooked.
Hot mains - potato and onion tortilla, stewed black mussels in fennel and tomato broth, saffron rice with achar and fish crackers, mutton rendang, lamb koulet with mint sauce and beef scallopini with kalamata and anchovies, originally uploaded by Camemberu.There are so many main dishes, it's almost impossible to try everything. One really good one was the mutton rendang - even hubby who avoids lamb/mutton, thought it was more than edible. The mussels were in a very strong fennel and tomato broth - think I prefer them cold with tabasco and lemon.
It was a pity I had no space for most of the Asian mains, much less the breads and cheeses. Oh, and I really liked that the hot dishes were elegantly presented on ceramic/electric stove tops rather than in those clunky, metallic chafing dishes.
Desserts - (top to bottom) pecan and walnut tart, raspberry cheesecake, coconut creme brulee, mango delice, mousse of exotic fruits, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Real dessert fanatics may not be overwhelmed by the range or variety here but I thought it was adequate (mainly because I was too full to eat anything more). The coconut creme brulee is a must-try here - simply sublime! Nadine loved the cheesecake!
Sweets in shooters - (left to right) lychee and raspberry agar-agar, semolina pudding with redcurrant coulis, strawberry crumble (not sure what green mousse is) , originally uploaded by Camemberu.Somehow all the shooters I chose had this sourish fruity accent, something I'm not big on. Should have gone for the mini tiramisu! Ah, the bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce was comforting, as was the cherry clafoutis. Didn't try chocolate pudding or the chocolate fountain.
In all, we had a very happy meal. Quite good value for S$35 per person (weekend lunch). This place can almost challenge Melt at the Oriental, which is slightly pricier. I'd be quite happy to come back to Carousel.
Dubbed the penultimate place for tempura in Singapore, Tenshin is also the only tempura specialist in town. Have been wanting to come here a long long time, even though I've seen mixed reviews. I just have to try, at least once, the legendary batter that's airily light. We took the Tempura Set (S$30) and the Tenshin Lunch (S$60) - see menu here.
Indeed the batter was light as air, and in some cases, barely there. So very delicate, maybe too delicate. Almost like eating nothing... and that in itself, was a problem. The meal was so light, it barely satisfied.
I think I enjoyed it more than hubby did. He much prefers our meal at Tsunahachi in Tokyo where you can feast on expertly done tempura for half the price. I do like the freshness of the items at Tenshin and how subtle and refined everything tasted. But I have to agree, the tempura on its own could be a little bland and underwhelming.
Fortunately, the dipping sauce is very flavourful and umami. In addition, there are four types of salt you can enjoy with your tempura - chili salt, seasalt, matcha salt, and curry salt. You can get quite busy experimenting with them and finish off your precious tempura cargo in a flash. Personally I liked the curry salt but thought the matcha one a little too opaque - it threatened to mask the delicate flavours of the tempura item.
But let's start from the beginning. After your orders are taken, the waitress serves you an appetiser (S$3), like the obligatory pickles you get in Chinese restaurants. However, I rejected mine outright since these were CHYE SIM STEMS - my most hated vegetable, and worst of all the stems! I can still eat the dark leafy bits but not the fibrous stems! Hubby enjoyed it though. He has no aversion to chye sim.
This is the salad that comes with all the sets. The familiar tangy Japanese soy-sesame dressing worked great with the greens but the renkon chips were a little too thin and overdone. We much much prefer the version that Wakashachiya serves.
Most sets come with 5-6 tempura items. This is really way too little. The S$30 tempura set (2 prawns, 1 whitefish, 3 vegetables) has different items from the S$60 set (2 prawns, 3 veges, shown here). One tiny gripe is that the prawns are so small (slim finger-sized). And a little limp, but that could have been due to the delay in eating it (hey, photography comes first!).
What is great is that they give you a palm-size dollop of cold, grated daikon to use as you see fit - either as palate cleanser on its own, or to put into your tempura dipping sauce.
The Tenshin lunch set comes with two additional items - steamed dish and tuna on rice. The steamed dish is chawanmushi. But this is no modest chawanmushi. It comes with a mini-comb of shark's fin and special thickened stock on top.
The "special tuna on rice" is a maguro don. But when I lifted the shiso leaf, to my surprise, the bottom row of fish pieces were no less than chutoro! Buttery delicious bites!
All meals also come with rice, miso soup and pickles - certainly fillers, as the tempura alone would not suffice as a meal. The miso soup is of the red variety. Hubby did not like that but I found the flavour hearty and rustic. Plus bonus of baby nameko mushrooms!
The pickles are pretty, crunchy and delicious. You can ask for more portions (S$8 each, I read somewhere). Interestingly, houji-cha is served during main course and green tea during dessert.
Dessert is a simple but refreshingly citrusy sorbet (the waitress said mango but I think it's more like yuzu). You can taste the light bitterness of the rind. And there is this delightful fizzy aftertaste on your tongue. Very effective palate cleanser.
You can choose to sit at the counter and watch the chefs in action but being the shy sort, we sat at a table. The place is really small, though. I don't think it seats more than forty.
So in essence, Tenshin rings true about quality and execution but still does not deliver enough wow factor for what they charge. I wouldn't mind coming back to taste again the Tempura set, this time sans camera, so that I can see what it's like freshly served. I might even try the counter seat - I hear the chef serves you one piece at a time, only when you have finished each piece.
It was a very light lunch on the whole. Hubby said we'd be hungry again two hours later. He was wrong. We were hungry just ten minutes out the door!
I have been conscientiously avoiding the Hong Kong style cafes that have sprung up all over Singapore. Mainly because the "cha charn tang" or Chinese teahouse serving modified Western cuisine simply does not sound appealing to me. However, one day I was enticed by Tong Shui Cafe (some good reviews, delicious website pics and unusual decor).
My friend and I shared an oven-baked rice with chicken wings (S$8.88). He too, had never tried a cha chan tang, not even in Hong Kong. The oven baked rice came in a bamboo steamer. It had a casual homemade feel and taste about it. The cheese and sauce on top was quite delicious. I wished there was more. The rice is a bit like fried rice, topped with two fried chicken wing drumlets coated with BBQ sauce. Surprisingly the rice didn't taste greasy or overly satiating at all. Yum yum. I would eat this again.
Yes, I had my FIRST ever HK-style thick toast (S$2.88), believe it or not. My friend's first time too. The bread is extra soft, just lightly crisped on the outside and fluffy inside. That plus the peanut butter and condensed milk make this a total carbo bomb!
Oh, we had to have this when we saw it on the menu. D24 durian puree on toast (S$3.88)? It was heavenly! I'm sure sugar was added to sweeten it further but the durian fragrance was unmistakable. Another carbo bomb but some things are worth it.
The cha chan tangs are particularly famous for their fragrant milk teas, and some weird concoctions like that awful "yuan yang" coffee and tea mixed together - something I *still* can't get my head around to (yuck yuck). My friend's milk tea with grass jelly (S$3.88) was nice and light though.
Cold Eight Treasures Tea (Ba Bao Cha) comes in an iced carafe: I had the 8 Treasures Tea (S$3.88) which came in a tall carafe, with more than enough for two glasses. Extremely refreshing and best of all - it seemed sweetened only by the longans within.
The decor? Kitschy pink and lime green redolent of "Shanghai Tang"...It's one way Tong Shui Cafe stands out from the rest of its competition. Bright walls, bold Chinoiserie, dark furniture and French chandeliers.
"Tong Shui" means "desserts" in Cantonese but this place serves well more than that, as its menu of over 300 items can attest to. What's even better? Free wi-fi, Chinese movies on cable, football match screenings, and operating hours that run from noon to 6am - good news for night owls seeking a place to chill, eat and chat!
Cha chan tang food is still not my favourite cuisine but it's OK once in a while, I guess. And you have to pick the right dishes, as I hear some others are not too good.
1=SGD 0.0587
The smooth glutinous rice is steamed just right (not too soggy nor undercooked), and seasoned well. I could eat the rice on its own. Ingredients in the dumpling include chunks of lean meat (a little too heavily spiced, in my humble opinion), a sliver of pork fat, a couple of mushrooms and a chestnut.
I love bak chang but unfortunately they almost always leave a very full, satiated feeling. They wreck havoc on your blood sugar for hours! Almost uncomfortable. But a good bak chang is hard to resist! And I like to eat them cold out of the fridge! A more solid bite than if steamed (too sticky). I have to go try Ho Kee's someday.
I also sprung for their onde onde just out of curiosity. Unfortunately they were quite ordinary and did not justify the S$2 price for the box of six tiny bite-size desserts.
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!Actually I think the bak chang at Amoy FC is better. Just my personal opinion :)
05 May 2008 at 10:12 pm
Haa yeah but those have to go early early to town to buy...
06 May 2008 at 10:55 am
But back to the ribye. Yes, yes, some pieces were rather large, making it a chewy mouthful. But for the most part, it was tender, juicy and flavourful. The beefy succulence briefly called to mind Aburiya's cubes of yakiniku heaven. We did a "tarpao" (takeaway) so mom at home could try. She, too, pronounced it divine.
Not everything was a hit though. I wanted some fish maw soup but Jason says he doesn't serve two persons as the portion is too big. So we settled for cereal prawns (S$12). When it came, we were a little taken aback. The dish was soaked in oil and had greasy, charred Nestum flakes (?) dumped on top. It tasted oddly chocolatey or coffeelike. Even the garlic bits tasted like they'd been soaked in honey or syrup. Too sweet. Prawns were fresh and succulent though. Pity the execution didn't do them justice.
I have heard raves about the Penang char kway teow, so it was also a must-try. It looks really good, eh? Well, it certainly had good "wok hei" and was a generous portion for S$4. But it still tasted a little too bland for me. I seem to be seeking that elusive tasty version that I had eons ago in Penang and elsewhere, which I'd mistakenly assumed I could easily get again.
Halfway through our meal, Jason said he could do a sambal kangkong for us instead of his "usual" sprouts stir-fry. I'm glad we took his revised suggestion, because it was the most intensely flavoured dish for the evening. Wicked sambal sauce, salty and umami. I imagine it would go well with sotong (cuttlefish) too. Heck, it even paired well with the bland kway teow.
I also went back a second time - see the review here - and had a great vongole ban mian or lala pasta!
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!
We liked the new decor, and thought the place was well thought out in terms of managing large buffet crowds. The food is split up into two sections - cold stuff and appetisers out in the front, warm food and mains at the back. Desserts were along a perpendicular wall linking both sections.
There are at least three dessert alcoves. This is the first one. The second one is completely dedicated to a 4 or 5 tier chocolate fountain with skewered fruits ready for dipping, and ice cream in three flavours. Third one has fruits and warm desserts.
Chic cutlery stand - they replenish every utensil you use, the moment you take it out!, originally uploaded by Camemberu.
I have to say the service is very much improved. Staff are alert, quick, attentive and polite. Constantly but discreetly paying attention to your table, replenishing water AND cutlery (every time you use something, you get a fresh set put in your holder!). They are always on hand too, to attend to needs or help with spills (which are prone to happen when you bring naughty babies along).
Sashimi and sushi, originally uploaded by Camemberu.All right, on to the food! Unfortunately I didn't capture on camera all the food we ate, and on top of that, we weren't able to sample half of what was available in this huge buffet. So what you see is just a small representation.
I began with the sashimi (salmon, tuna and sea bream, I think) and sushi (inari, salmon and unagi). I skipped the futomaki and forgot about handrolls. Although reasonably fresh, the sashimi didn't look too well-cut but at least did not taste bad or sinewy. The sushi was decent.
Cold seafood platter - blue swimming crab, slipper lobster, boiled tiger prawns, steamed sweet clam, scallop, poached green lip mussel and Spanish black mussel, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Carousel now boasts a large spread of seafood and indeed, a whole counter of ice proudly sports various fruits of the ocean. All succulent and sweet. Have them with lemon, tabasco, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, shallot mignonette or just plain. Wish I had gone for a second round. Oh, and the waiters, or butlers as they are called here, serve you moist towelettes after you are done. Nice touch.
Cold appetisers - DIY Thai salad, mushroom terrine, cured salmon in spiced lime vinaigrette, marinated prawns with avocado tomato salsa, smoked duck breast, originally uploaded by Camemberu.There is a nice Thai salad station where you can put together your own green mango/papaya/pomelo salads (recipe cards on display to help with ingredient choice). I didn't get to try the other cold prepared salads, just the appetisers, which were okay but not spectacular.
Sirloin from the carvery, originally uploaded by Camemberu.The rotisserie featured black pepper chicken (which I skipped) and oven roasted grain-fed beef which I thought was quite yummy, although hubby didn't like it. Team it with Yorkshire pudding and jacket potatoes, along with condiments (so many to choose from!). The professional pasta station next to the rotisserie looked enticing but it would have been too much carbo for me.
Pumpkin veloute with truffle hint, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Oh this was nice! A simple-looking soup but it had a savoury, umami richness I can't describe. Hubby, again, didn't really like it (it's okay, we always differ). There were also some other soups - the seafood tom yum was done more Malay-style than Thai, and the morsels within overcooked.
Hot mains - potato and onion tortilla, stewed black mussels in fennel and tomato broth, saffron rice with achar and fish crackers, mutton rendang, lamb koulet with mint sauce and beef scallopini with kalamata and anchovies, originally uploaded by Camemberu.There are so many main dishes, it's almost impossible to try everything. One really good one was the mutton rendang - even hubby who avoids lamb/mutton, thought it was more than edible. The mussels were in a very strong fennel and tomato broth - think I prefer them cold with tabasco and lemon.
It was a pity I had no space for most of the Asian mains, much less the breads and cheeses. Oh, and I really liked that the hot dishes were elegantly presented on ceramic/electric stove tops rather than in those clunky, metallic chafing dishes.
Desserts - (top to bottom) pecan and walnut tart, raspberry cheesecake, coconut creme brulee, mango delice, mousse of exotic fruits, originally uploaded by Camemberu.Real dessert fanatics may not be overwhelmed by the range or variety here but I thought it was adequate (mainly because I was too full to eat anything more). The coconut creme brulee is a must-try here - simply sublime! Nadine loved the cheesecake!
Sweets in shooters - (left to right) lychee and raspberry agar-agar, semolina pudding with redcurrant coulis, strawberry crumble (not sure what green mousse is) , originally uploaded by Camemberu.Somehow all the shooters I chose had this sourish fruity accent, something I'm not big on. Should have gone for the mini tiramisu! Ah, the bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce was comforting, as was the cherry clafoutis. Didn't try chocolate pudding or the chocolate fountain.
In all, we had a very happy meal. Quite good value for S$35 per person (weekend lunch). This place can almost challenge Melt at the Oriental, which is slightly pricier. I'd be quite happy to come back to Carousel.
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!Another great review on Carousel! Sheesh, we must go try this one weekend! Hard to find Halal buffet.
05 May 2008 at 9:16 pm
Indeed the batter was light as air, and in some cases, barely there. So very delicate, maybe too delicate. Almost like eating nothing... and that in itself, was a problem. The meal was so light, it barely satisfied.
I think I enjoyed it more than hubby did. He much prefers our meal at Tsunahachi in Tokyo where you can feast on expertly done tempura for half the price. I do like the freshness of the items at Tenshin and how subtle and refined everything tasted. But I have to agree, the tempura on its own could be a little bland and underwhelming.
Fortunately, the dipping sauce is very flavourful and umami. In addition, there are four types of salt you can enjoy with your tempura - chili salt, seasalt, matcha salt, and curry salt. You can get quite busy experimenting with them and finish off your precious tempura cargo in a flash. Personally I liked the curry salt but thought the matcha one a little too opaque - it threatened to mask the delicate flavours of the tempura item.
But let's start from the beginning. After your orders are taken, the waitress serves you an appetiser (S$3), like the obligatory pickles you get in Chinese restaurants. However, I rejected mine outright since these were CHYE SIM STEMS - my most hated vegetable, and worst of all the stems! I can still eat the dark leafy bits but not the fibrous stems! Hubby enjoyed it though. He has no aversion to chye sim.
This is the salad that comes with all the sets. The familiar tangy Japanese soy-sesame dressing worked great with the greens but the renkon chips were a little too thin and overdone. We much much prefer the version that Wakashachiya serves.
Most sets come with 5-6 tempura items. This is really way too little. The S$30 tempura set (2 prawns, 1 whitefish, 3 vegetables) has different items from the S$60 set (2 prawns, 3 veges, shown here). One tiny gripe is that the prawns are so small (slim finger-sized). And a little limp, but that could have been due to the delay in eating it (hey, photography comes first!).
What is great is that they give you a palm-size dollop of cold, grated daikon to use as you see fit - either as palate cleanser on its own, or to put into your tempura dipping sauce.
The Tenshin lunch set comes with two additional items - steamed dish and tuna on rice. The steamed dish is chawanmushi. But this is no modest chawanmushi. It comes with a mini-comb of shark's fin and special thickened stock on top.
The "special tuna on rice" is a maguro don. But when I lifted the shiso leaf, to my surprise, the bottom row of fish pieces were no less than chutoro! Buttery delicious bites!
All meals also come with rice, miso soup and pickles - certainly fillers, as the tempura alone would not suffice as a meal. The miso soup is of the red variety. Hubby did not like that but I found the flavour hearty and rustic. Plus bonus of baby nameko mushrooms!
The pickles are pretty, crunchy and delicious. You can ask for more portions (S$8 each, I read somewhere). Interestingly, houji-cha is served during main course and green tea during dessert.
Dessert is a simple but refreshingly citrusy sorbet (the waitress said mango but I think it's more like yuzu). You can taste the light bitterness of the rind. And there is this delightful fizzy aftertaste on your tongue. Very effective palate cleanser.
You can choose to sit at the counter and watch the chefs in action but being the shy sort, we sat at a table. The place is really small, though. I don't think it seats more than forty.
So in essence, Tenshin rings true about quality and execution but still does not deliver enough wow factor for what they charge. I wouldn't mind coming back to taste again the Tempura set, this time sans camera, so that I can see what it's like freshly served. I might even try the counter seat - I hear the chef serves you one piece at a time, only when you have finished each piece.
It was a very light lunch on the whole. Hubby said we'd be hungry again two hours later. He was wrong. We were hungry just ten minutes out the door!
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!
My friend and I shared an oven-baked rice with chicken wings (S$8.88). He too, had never tried a cha chan tang, not even in Hong Kong. The oven baked rice came in a bamboo steamer. It had a casual homemade feel and taste about it. The cheese and sauce on top was quite delicious. I wished there was more. The rice is a bit like fried rice, topped with two fried chicken wing drumlets coated with BBQ sauce. Surprisingly the rice didn't taste greasy or overly satiating at all. Yum yum. I would eat this again.
Yes, I had my FIRST ever HK-style thick toast (S$2.88), believe it or not. My friend's first time too. The bread is extra soft, just lightly crisped on the outside and fluffy inside. That plus the peanut butter and condensed milk make this a total carbo bomb!
Oh, we had to have this when we saw it on the menu. D24 durian puree on toast (S$3.88)? It was heavenly! I'm sure sugar was added to sweeten it further but the durian fragrance was unmistakable. Another carbo bomb but some things are worth it.
The cha chan tangs are particularly famous for their fragrant milk teas, and some weird concoctions like that awful "yuan yang" coffee and tea mixed together - something I *still* can't get my head around to (yuck yuck). My friend's milk tea with grass jelly (S$3.88) was nice and light though.
Cold Eight Treasures Tea (Ba Bao Cha) comes in an iced carafe: I had the 8 Treasures Tea (S$3.88) which came in a tall carafe, with more than enough for two glasses. Extremely refreshing and best of all - it seemed sweetened only by the longans within.
The decor? Kitschy pink and lime green redolent of "Shanghai Tang"...It's one way Tong Shui Cafe stands out from the rest of its competition. Bright walls, bold Chinoiserie, dark furniture and French chandeliers.
"Tong Shui" means "desserts" in Cantonese but this place serves well more than that, as its menu of over 300 items can attest to. What's even better? Free wi-fi, Chinese movies on cable, football match screenings, and operating hours that run from noon to 6am - good news for night owls seeking a place to chill, eat and chat!
Cha chan tang food is still not my favourite cuisine but it's OK once in a while, I guess. And you have to pick the right dishes, as I hear some others are not too good.
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!