InQbox is an interesting concept whereby the object of your affection is split into many different boxes or storage cabinets for purchase.
It is basically a clever ploy to allow companies who wish to spend less on acquiring shop space to have a space on the shelf by being affordable yet profitable.
Shopping in Inqbox is like a treasure hunt because you never know what you will find in the little display counters. Sometimes, you can find rare items like handmade music boxes while sometimes, even apples and pears make it into the boxes(i swear this is true).
However, even at such low rental prices, the items are priced at a premium due to the location. Music boxes can cost upwards of $500 and bags upwards for $70. It goes to show that rental is a killer though and that profit margins are either sky high or drop dead low.
Theres an employed shopkeeper who'll introduce items to you and help you out in making purchase decisions but otherwise, its all do it yourself.
An interesting concept but impratical in practice for the displayers. I haven't bought a thing yet so that says something about the items there. Still interesting though, you never know what you will find there.
Nasi Lemak, with roots in Malay culture, when translated literally means 'rice in fat'. The name is derived from the cooking process whereby the grains are soaked in rich coconut cream and then the mixture steamed. While traditionally a breakfast dish, this dish is now found everywhere at every time possible. Mentioned Nasi Lemak and Changi Village Road Food Centre immediately sprang to mind.
While there are several competitor stalls competing with flashy stall signage, there is only one International Food Stall with its rather plain and simple signage. The queue that morning said it all – this stall is legendary for its long queue, which appears to be perpetually attached to it, come rain or shine. It definitely serves one of the best renditions, with Adam Road’s Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak coming a close second. The Rice is fragrant, moist and subtly sweet – a sign that the coconut milk was thoroughly infused with the rice.
Because of the stall’s fast turnover, the Chicken Wings are always guaranteed freshly fried – crispy and juicy, and served piping hot. But what definitely caught my tastebud that morning was definitely the Sambal Chilli. A sure winner with its aromatic sweet, yet not so spicy chilli fried with onions that one cannot help but keep helping himself to it.
This is truly the best rendition I have tried so far! Anyone care to dispute it?
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
It was a last minute decision that we decided to try out the food at this restaurant. We were partly attracted by the price of the items on their lunch menu. Haha….with more than 10 main courses, ranging from sandwich to pasta, each priced at $9.90 for you to select from, we found it pretty reasonable. If you want to make it a complete set, you can do so by topping another $5 and you’ll be entitled to a free flow of either soup or salad and tea or coffee. If that’s still not sufficient to satisfy your stomach, another $3 will get you a serving of starter.
The advantage of eating with in a big group is that you’ll get to try out a greater variety of food without hurting your wallet too much. Haha… That’s precisely what we did! We ordered 2 complete set meals, one came with a mushroom soup while the other with salad, and remember, it’s free flow! We also ordered a few starters to share.
Mushroom Soup The mushroom soup was good, with bites of mushroom that you can chew on. The taste was light, not too salty.
Salad It’s just a normal salad with lettuce, cherry tomato and cucumber. However, the oriental dressing they used was good! Probably because I like more sourish dressing & this came perfectly well for me.
Wing Zing Fried chicken wing which remained succulent and it was not too oily.
Olio Laksa Spaghetti (usual price: $12.90) This was the main course I’ve chosen. It’s a fusion of laksa and pasta. Unique! What you can expect from this dish is a rich laksa gravy and typical condiments in laksa such as tau pok and hard-boiled egg. Added to enhance the uniqueness of this dish was shredded chicken. It’s definitely worthy of a try, although the over-richness of the gravy made me feeling a little sick after finishing ¾ of the plate. So it’ll be best to share this dish with someone.
Food was okay, but service was pretty slow. There was only 1 waitress and I guess 1 chef in the restaurant during lunch hour so it took them some 45mins before our main course got on the table. Really got to improve on their service.
From its name, one should have guessed correctly that this place sells something related to BEANS. Yes! It’s soybean & I totally love it! The small shop located at Raffles Place MRT serves as a convenient stop for me to grab a quick, healthy bite before and sometimes after my gym workout.
My all-time favourites include:
Pearly soya milk This drink is unique as one can find the black, chewy pearly which are typically found in bubble tea. Here is a good blend of the thick & smooth soymilk and the chewy pearls. The sweetness and chewyness of the pearls are just right and it is the perfect choice for health conscious people out there who loves bubble tea yet worry about their figure. Haha
Super beancurd I always like beancurd to be mixed with soymilk. The smooth & light beancurd together with the thick & rich soymilk. Yummy!!
Mr Bean pancake A good variety of pancake flavours are available for pick. That includes blueberry, cheese, chocolate, kaya, peanut, red bean and tuna. My favourite is their cheese pancake. For the cheese-flavour pancake, cream cheese is used instead of sliced cheese and it melts in the hot pancake. Heavenly!!
And yes! They even have a few “set meals”, which usually comes with a drink and a food for you to choose from and it’s much cheaper than ordering the individual items. The set meal has definitely served as a satisfying & healthy meal after my workout.
I used the senstive skin range of products for this brand and its the nightmare of my life.
The first day I used this product, my skin itch and small red rashes broke out. I thought nothing much of it as its usual that my sensitive skin will react to new products. So I continued the use for 2 weeks and my skin itch and rashed every single usage of the products. By and by it leads to me having super dry and sensitive skin. My skin starts to flake and scarring occurs.
So I stopped the usage and returned to using Dermalogical products and my skin goes back to normal although its already scarred and the sensitiveness increased.
This outlet is the first time I've tried Batok Jones. Heard alot of good comments about it and maybe we got our expectations too high.
Set in a hawker centre, the environment is dirty and due to the crowd there, we sat near the dustbin which made it even worse. Menu looks too cluttered and we took some time to order our food. Customers for that outlet of Botak Jones seems to be few at that time of the day and that time is certainly not a good time for eating heavy western food in great or should I say humongous portion.
Not much of an impression of the food there though I should give credit as the Fish and Chips was nicely done. I found the sausage too salty though and nothing special except its size. Meat seems to be the better prepared type of food there.
Not too bad but nothing special too. Given my small appetite, I don't think that will be the place I will frequent as even though the price is value for the portion size, its still expensive if I cannot finish the food.
Visited this place last Sunday with my parents and they have since been relocated to ground level of Liang Court Shopping Centre. Their old outlet has also been taken over by Ichibantei.
My parents had the usual Black Pig Shabu Shabu Ramen, which I believed most people know they are famous for.
But what I was looking forward to was their Black Pig Pork Chop which is heavenly! You have to try it to know it. The texture is so tender and soft that it melts the moment you bite it. The $20 for the pork chop cut into 8 pieces might seems ex but definitely worth it. If you have not try it, I urge you to do so! That alone is worth 4 stars!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
After sampling the SHIOK Yakader Chicken Briyani a few months back, people all over has been asking me to try the most famous briyani stall at the other side of Tekka Food Centre instead. The queue at this stall meant nothing as I stood there waiting for 20 minutes. For those who still do not know, this stall is none other than Allauddin’s Briyani (no prize for those who guessed it correctly though).
For $4.00, what you get is also another plate of orangey red looking plate of Chicken Briyani that gets zero marks for presentation. At least Yakader’s serving came lined with banana leaf, what you get from Allauddin is just a Styrofoam plate with no achar (spicy pickled salad) in sight (not that I eat them anyway but at least visually it looks better).
In terms of the chicken, I would say they are both pretty similar in terms of taste and texture. So soft and tender was the meat that a simple tear at the lightest pressure of the fork will cause the meat to be easily separated from its bone. However, I will be inclined to find their rice overly moist and mushy from overcooking, as I expect the basmati rice to be slightly more firm and comes with a better bite. Having waited so long, I also decided to add an extra order of what they call “Lamb Cutlet” for additional $1.00 (although I do not see where the cutlet comes from). A nice savoury outer crust that was fried nicely to taste, it was disappointing though to find it soft on the inside with what seems like flour and onions and little of the lamb.
Overall, I felt that Yakader was the better of the two in terms of chicken briyani, however I would not hesitate to try their mutton next, which was ordered by the customers before me, as it looks pliable and succulent just by the sight of it. As Tekka Food Centre will be re-located to the Temporary Market along Race Course Road from May 1 onwards, Allauddin’s Briyani will be relocated to stall unit #01-189 and #01-190.
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
After watching ' Buzzing Cashier ' on channel 8 shows that the stall got 30/30 votes. My BF & I decide to go Tampines Round Market for dinner. The stall is located at a corner, they sell Pork Rib Prawn Noodles at morning and BBQ Seafood at night. Heard that their signature dish is BBQ String Ray & Bean Sauce White Clam.
We order 1 BBQ String Ray, 1 Stir Fried Nai Bai Vegetables with 2 bowl of White Rice.
BBQ String Ray - $10
First bite to us chilies wasn't really that fragant, it was abit dry. But, after adding the sauce which they have provide it different. It taste much more better with the sauce. The sauce has chopped chilies, onions, garilcs, abit of fish sauce, lime juice and abit of sugar. The string ray was not bad, it is not overcooked as the meat was thick.
Stir Fried Nai Bai Vegetables - $4
The vegetables is fresh and crunchy with some fried small fish and onion slice.
White Rice - $0.30
The rice were a bit dry need to add sauce will be better. Nothing really special.
Service was ok, we waited for about 15 mins our foods was served.
Went to Tampines round market last night for dinner because the traffic to the cinema was horrible. Thus, what to do? Try out a 30 star winner stall to save money and have a nice dinner of course! Was it really good though?
Recently featured on the television show for stalls that needed "rescueing" due to extremely bad business, the stall has since been revamped and the chef retrained to serve much better food....or rather, thats the idea anyway.
A note is that basically, the stallholders do not like anyone to take photos so please try to refrain from that. The lady boss is scary when mad.
We basically ordered only 2 items last night.
A plate of stingray ($10) and a plate of vegetables (nai bai $4) and 2 bowls of rice (30 cents). Haven't had a cheap meal in like forever so this is a refreshing start.
They made their name by getting 30 out of 30 votes for their food on zhi ca.
The stingray is actually quite big and theres a lot of chili and meat available to pick through. I'm not too sure about the freshness of the fish since the chili manages to mask the taste overall. No denying that the meat is plenty though. However i did find the chili to need more work as its too dry and not very tasty. Thank goodness for the accompanying sour sauce or something. Which gave it much needed dimension. Overall, not too bad.
I liked the greens for sure. Its pretty much my favorite way of cooking and the greens were fresh. A winner in my books.
Total meal only cost me $14.60 which is like OMG! Dirt cheap.
1=SGD 0.0587
InQbox is an interesting concept whereby the object of your affection is split into many different boxes or storage cabinets for purchase.
It is basically a clever ploy to allow companies who wish to spend less on acquiring shop space to have a space on the shelf by being affordable yet profitable.
Shopping in Inqbox is like a treasure hunt because you never know what you will find in the little display counters. Sometimes, you can find rare items like handmade music boxes while sometimes, even apples and pears make it into the boxes(i swear this is true).
However, even at such low rental prices, the items are priced at a premium due to the location. Music boxes can cost upwards of $500 and bags upwards for $70. It goes to show that rental is a killer though and that profit margins are either sky high or drop dead low.
Theres an employed shopkeeper who'll introduce items to you and help you out in making purchase decisions but otherwise, its all do it yourself.
An interesting concept but impratical in practice for the displayers. I haven't bought a thing yet so that says something about the items there. Still interesting though, you never know what you will find there.
Rating given:
Nasi Lemak, with roots in Malay culture, when translated literally means 'rice in fat'. The name is derived from the cooking process whereby the grains are soaked in rich coconut cream and then the mixture steamed. While traditionally a breakfast dish, this dish is now found everywhere at every time possible. Mentioned Nasi Lemak and Changi Village Road Food Centre immediately sprang to mind.
While there are several competitor stalls competing with flashy stall signage, there is only one International Food Stall with its rather plain and simple signage. The queue that morning said it all – this stall is legendary for its long queue, which appears to be perpetually attached to it, come rain or shine. It definitely serves one of the best renditions, with Adam Road’s Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak coming a close second. The Rice is fragrant, moist and subtly sweet – a sign that the coconut milk was thoroughly infused with the rice.
Because of the stall’s fast turnover, the Chicken Wings are always guaranteed freshly fried – crispy and juicy, and served piping hot. But what definitely caught my tastebud that morning was definitely the Sambal Chilli. A sure winner with its aromatic sweet, yet not so spicy chilli fried with onions that one cannot help but keep helping himself to it.
This is truly the best rendition I have tried so far! Anyone care to dispute it?
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
It was a last minute decision that we decided to try out the food at this restaurant. We were partly attracted by the price of the items on their lunch menu. Haha….with more than 10 main courses, ranging from sandwich to pasta, each priced at $9.90 for you to select from, we found it pretty reasonable. If you want to make it a complete set, you can do so by topping another $5 and you’ll be entitled to a free flow of either soup or salad and tea or coffee. If that’s still not sufficient to satisfy your stomach, another $3 will get you a serving of starter.
The advantage of eating with in a big group is that you’ll get to try out a greater variety of food without hurting your wallet too much. Haha… That’s precisely what we did! We ordered 2 complete set meals, one came with a mushroom soup while the other with salad, and remember, it’s free flow! We also ordered a few starters to share.
Mushroom Soup
The mushroom soup was good, with bites of mushroom that you can chew on. The taste was light, not too salty.
Salad
It’s just a normal salad with lettuce, cherry tomato and cucumber. However, the oriental dressing they used was good! Probably because I like more sourish dressing & this came perfectly well for me.
Wing Zing
Fried chicken wing which remained succulent and it was not too oily.
Olio Laksa Spaghetti (usual price: $12.90)
This was the main course I’ve chosen. It’s a fusion of laksa and pasta. Unique! What you can expect from this dish is a rich laksa gravy and typical condiments in laksa such as tau pok and hard-boiled egg. Added to enhance the uniqueness of this dish was shredded chicken. It’s definitely worthy of a try, although the over-richness of the gravy made me feeling a little sick after finishing ¾ of the plate. So it’ll be best to share this dish with someone.
Food was okay, but service was pretty slow. There was only 1 waitress and I guess 1 chef in the restaurant during lunch hour so it took them some 45mins before our main course got on the table. Really got to improve on their service.
Rating given:
From its name, one should have guessed correctly that this place sells something related to BEANS. Yes! It’s soybean & I totally love it! The small shop located at Raffles Place MRT serves as a convenient stop for me to grab a quick, healthy bite before and sometimes after my gym workout.
My all-time favourites include:
Pearly soya milk
This drink is unique as one can find the black, chewy pearly which are typically found in bubble tea. Here is a good blend of the thick & smooth soymilk and the chewy pearls. The sweetness and chewyness of the pearls are just right and it is the perfect choice for health conscious people out there who loves bubble tea yet worry about their figure. Haha
Super beancurd
I always like beancurd to be mixed with soymilk. The smooth & light beancurd together with the thick & rich soymilk. Yummy!!
Mr Bean pancake
A good variety of pancake flavours are available for pick. That includes blueberry, cheese, chocolate, kaya, peanut, red bean and tuna. My favourite is their cheese pancake. For the cheese-flavour pancake, cream cheese is used instead of sliced cheese and it melts in the hot pancake. Heavenly!!
And yes! They even have a few “set meals”, which usually comes with a drink and a food for you to choose from and it’s much cheaper than ordering the individual items. The set meal has definitely served as a satisfying & healthy meal after my workout.
Rating given:
I used the senstive skin range of products for this brand and its the nightmare of my life.
The first day I used this product, my skin itch and small red rashes broke out. I thought nothing much of it as its usual that my sensitive skin will react to new products. So I continued the use for 2 weeks and my skin itch and rashed every single usage of the products. By and by it leads to me having super dry and sensitive skin. My skin starts to flake and scarring occurs.
So I stopped the usage and returned to using Dermalogical products and my skin goes back to normal although its already scarred and the sensitiveness increased.
Will not use this brand anymore.
Rating given:
This outlet is the first time I've tried Batok Jones. Heard alot of good comments about it and maybe we got our expectations too high.
Set in a hawker centre, the environment is dirty and due to the crowd there, we sat near the dustbin which made it even worse. Menu looks too cluttered and we took some time to order our food. Customers for that outlet of Botak Jones seems to be few at that time of the day and that time is certainly not a good time for eating heavy western food in great or should I say humongous portion.
Not much of an impression of the food there though I should give credit as the Fish and Chips was nicely done. I found the sausage too salty though and nothing special except its size. Meat seems to be the better prepared type of food there.
Not too bad but nothing special too. Given my small appetite, I don't think that will be the place I will frequent as even though the price is value for the portion size, its still expensive if I cannot finish the food.
Rating given:
Visited this place last Sunday with my parents and they have since been relocated to ground level of Liang Court Shopping Centre. Their old outlet has also been taken over by Ichibantei.
My parents had the usual Black Pig Shabu Shabu Ramen, which I believed most people know they are famous for.
But what I was looking forward to was their Black Pig Pork Chop which is heavenly! You have to try it to know it. The texture is so tender and soft that it melts the moment you bite it. The $20 for the pork chop cut into 8 pieces might seems ex but definitely worth it. If you have not try it, I urge you to do so! That alone is worth 4 stars!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
After sampling the SHIOK Yakader Chicken Briyani a few months back, people all over has been asking me to try the most famous briyani stall at the other side of Tekka Food Centre instead. The queue at this stall meant nothing as I stood there waiting for 20 minutes. For those who still do not know, this stall is none other than Allauddin’s Briyani (no prize for those who guessed it correctly though).
For $4.00, what you get is also another plate of orangey red looking plate of Chicken Briyani that gets zero marks for presentation. At least Yakader’s serving came lined with banana leaf, what you get from Allauddin is just a Styrofoam plate with no achar (spicy pickled salad) in sight (not that I eat them anyway but at least visually it looks better).
In terms of the chicken, I would say they are both pretty similar in terms of taste and texture. So soft and tender was the meat that a simple tear at the lightest pressure of the fork will cause the meat to be easily separated from its bone. However, I will be inclined to find their rice overly moist and mushy from overcooking, as I expect the basmati rice to be slightly more firm and comes with a better bite. Having waited so long, I also decided to add an extra order of what they call “Lamb Cutlet” for additional $1.00 (although I do not see where the cutlet comes from). A nice savoury outer crust that was fried nicely to taste, it was disappointing though to find it soft on the inside with what seems like flour and onions and little of the lamb.
Overall, I felt that Yakader was the better of the two in terms of chicken briyani, however I would not hesitate to try their mutton next, which was ordered by the customers before me, as it looks pliable and succulent just by the sight of it. As Tekka Food Centre will be re-located to the Temporary Market along Race Course Road from May 1 onwards, Allauddin’s Briyani will be relocated to stall unit #01-189 and #01-190.
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
After watching ' Buzzing Cashier ' on channel 8 shows that the stall got 30/30 votes. My BF & I decide to go Tampines Round Market for dinner. The stall is located at a corner, they sell Pork Rib Prawn Noodles at morning and BBQ Seafood at night. Heard that their signature dish is BBQ String Ray & Bean Sauce White Clam.
We order 1 BBQ String Ray, 1 Stir Fried Nai Bai Vegetables with 2 bowl of White Rice.
BBQ String Ray - $10
First bite to us chilies wasn't really that fragant, it was abit dry. But, after adding the sauce which they have provide it different. It taste much more better with the sauce. The sauce has chopped chilies, onions, garilcs, abit of fish sauce, lime juice and abit of sugar. The string ray was not bad, it is not overcooked as the meat was thick.
Stir Fried Nai Bai Vegetables - $4
The vegetables is fresh and crunchy with some fried small fish and onion slice.
White Rice - $0.30
The rice were a bit dry need to add sauce will be better. Nothing really special.
Service was ok, we waited for about 15 mins our foods was served.
Total Bill: $14.60
Rating given:
Went to Tampines round market last night for dinner because the traffic to the cinema was horrible. Thus, what to do? Try out a 30 star winner stall to save money and have a nice dinner of course! Was it really good though?
Recently featured on the television show for stalls that needed "rescueing" due to extremely bad business, the stall has since been revamped and the chef retrained to serve much better food....or rather, thats the idea anyway.
A note is that basically, the stallholders do not like anyone to take photos so please try to refrain from that. The lady boss is scary when mad.
We basically ordered only 2 items last night.
A plate of stingray ($10) and a plate of vegetables (nai bai $4) and 2 bowls of rice (30 cents). Haven't had a cheap meal in like forever so this is a refreshing start.
They made their name by getting 30 out of 30 votes for their food on zhi ca.
The stingray is actually quite big and theres a lot of chili and meat available to pick through. I'm not too sure about the freshness of the fish since the chili manages to mask the taste overall. No denying that the meat is plenty though. However i did find the chili to need more work as its too dry and not very tasty. Thank goodness for the accompanying sour sauce or something. Which gave it much needed dimension. Overall, not too bad.
I liked the greens for sure. Its pretty much my favorite way of cooking and the greens were fresh. A winner in my books.
Total meal only cost me $14.60 which is like OMG! Dirt cheap.
Wouldn't mind returning for the good value.
Rating given: