Bobo had the chance to be invited for food tasting at Village Wok. Initially this bimbo was afraid that she would have problems finding the place, with it being in CBD and all. But it was really easy to locate. It's quite near the Food Centre just slightly off the main road.
Upon entering the place, Bobo was slightly surprised. The signboard and the decor of the place itself wasn't like other Chinese restaurants. It's not like pretentiously posh but very very simple.. like a family business sorts. It was later when the lady boss (a pretty one) explained, that Bobo understood that this place is more of a B2B sort of business, selling its famous sauces to other eateries.
It was empty that day... CBD, on Sundays, is a ghost town as every one knows. So they had all the space to ourselves and the freedom to make noise. Fantastic! haha.
Popiah DIY $20 /set Completely healthy with stewed vegetables in prawn stock and condiments. Honestly Bobo thinks it is a little expensive considering it's just vegetables and stuff. BUT try preparing all these things at home then you would know what a hassle it is. It's not only good and healthy to eat, it's like an activity for family and friends to do. The good thing about DIY is that you can put whatever you want in it and leave whatever you want out. Yummy!
Chilled Crab with Special Vinegrette Sauce @ $30 /crab Bobo doesn't really like crab. Simply because it's troublesome. But the nice thing about this one was that they cut it up properly, so that it's easy to eat! They didn't need to use the hammer or weird tools to pry the meat out to eat. That aside, the flesh was sweet and fresh, tasty even without the sauce. They were told that the crabs were from Sri Lanka.
The Phoenix Soars @ $21 Yin-Yang boneless Village Wok Chicken Bobo loved this one. She liked its tasty flesh and there was plenty of breast meat for her to pick. Yummy.
Village Wok Celebration Parade @ $22 A combination of VW award dishes, VW Mustard Roast Crispy Pork and Village BBQ Pork Firstly, Bobo has to admit that she's not the sort who go for such meat. But she did try the Char Siew which was ok. The presentation of this dish is pretty special in that it looked like the chinese word "fortune". Cool eh.
Fried Brinjal with Crispy Squid in BXO Sauce @ $15 Bobo likes Brinjal! Initially she thought that this dish was carrot cake because it reminded her of the one at Taste Paradise. But it's brinjal much to her surprise. It was quite tasty but a little bit too sweet though.
Steamed Pating Fish with Preserved Vegetable @ $44 Preserved Vegetable... that's Chai Por, the thingy you have on chwee kueh? Bobo loves chai por. This particular version is not as salty as what people normally have which makes it seem healthier. But Bobo (being unhealthy) do likes salty chai por. The fish was normal she thinks.
Black Pepper Ham Leg @ $23 Voted The Travelling Gourmet’s favorite dish Bobo had a very small bit of this. As above, she's not a fan of pork so she shouldn't comment on this, having not tasted enough versions.
Smiling Fortune Noodle @ $8 Tangy noodles harmonized with delectable fresh prawn essence, topped with prawns. The serving given to them was slightly smaller that day as they already had plenty to eat. Each person had a pot to themselves. It was served nice and hot with a little tealight below. Bobo liked the soup base a lot and the noodles were served at the right time, so they weren't mushy. But she doesn't remember eating many prawns. One maybe. or was it two?
VW Desserts - Sampler size
Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut Ice-cream @ $4.80
Lemongrass ice-cream
Kaya with bread Bobo liked the Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut ice cream the best. The other ice cream had a nice tinge of lemongrass in the aftertaste. But otherwise it was normal. Bobo isn't quite a fan of Kaya but she enjoyed it all the same. It wasn't the ultra sweet sort you get from the supermarket.
The prices might seem a bit high but it IS a chinese restaurant after all and such prices are pretty common for this kind of food served there.
We had the chance to taste many of their sauces which was really nice. Bobo wanted to buy the salted fish one home but she forgot. SIGGHHH.
This almost-annual event (been happening for 4 years I think. The first one for me was in 2005) happens at the Singapore River. Thousands of people gathered at the floating platform, along the river, around Esplanade, on the bridge, at the Merlion Park, One Fullerton and everywhere possible to catch a glimpse of the display!
Some people even went to "chop" their place as early as 6pm! (Fireworks starts around 9pm!) Those who went later were either caught in the massive traffic jam or human jam. Despite the congestion and all, everyone was in high spirit to catch the firework display.
This year, there were 2 nights of display. First by the team from France and on Saturday night, by the team from Korea. These teams are both award-winning teams! No wonder everyone had their jaws wide open for the entire 15-20 minutes display.
Those who paid for the tickets to watch the display at the floating platform probably have a better understanding of the entire show as it was accompanied by synchronize music. For the rest of us, we had to imagine the music in our head while the fireworks was firing in the sky.
If you'd missed it, I've attached a short clip of the display by French team.
Anyone else went? Share your experience here! Especially if you've got photos taken!
Straits Kitchen, located at Grand Hyatt hotel, has the best of local cuisine in a contemporary market place setting. This is the place to go if you want to eat-all-you-can of the variety of food in one sitting. However I feel that the taste and quality of food is not the best you can have in Singapore. But that's almost true for all buffets right? So no complain there. The choice of food available should make up to it. Some of them are pretty decent and some of us had more than 1 serving!
One thing that I must mention is the excellent service and very attentive service staff! They clear the empty plates fast and when they see that someone is using their hands to eat (crabs and prawns), they'll bring a bowl of water with lemon for that person without having for us to ask! Each section of the place is managed by a few service staff. Hence they're able to provide the attention needed at each table. This truly enhances our dining experience at Straits Kitchen! 5 stars for their service!
Have past by this little cafe tuck at the corner of Marina Square several times. Over the weekend, we decided to give it a try.
As we weren't that hungry, and it was already pretty late, we decided to have some finger food. Ordered half dozen of NZ Greenlip Mussels and a Seafood Basket.
You can choose how you want your mussels to be done. We settled with White wine and garlic. This half dozen mussels was pretty alright. The wine was relatively mild and could taste more of the garlic than the wine.
The Seafood Basket took quite awhile to come. We were shocked to see it served in a bucket instead of the usual basket. There was a piece of fish, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 fish nuggets and bunch of fries. All quite well battered and fried. Except for the prawns, which we both felt was too tiny and too much batter. Fish was crispy and crunch. Like the texture of the way it was cooked.
Overall quite a nice and simple meal. The place is pretty cool at night, we the lightings hanging from the ceiling of Marina Square and cosy ambience of Fin Cafe. (Check out the attached video and you'll know what I mean.) :)
And well, looks like they've started charging GST already! Its hard to survive without this these days.
It's been long since I stepped into Marche. Sad that the 2 other outlets are no longer in business and this one at Vivo gets packed almost everytime I was there. Good thing we were there on a Monday and was still early for dinner crowd. Managed to get in without queuing.
The place was smaller than we expected, and it looks very cramp with all the decorations and furnishing inside. But it does gives the traditional market-like feel but yet still homely.
Food we ordered...
SweetBread - aka Filled Crossed Bun at $1.50 This is something which I never thought of buying while at Marche in the past. But thanks to bf, now I'll make sure I buy one whenever I'm there. I like the fluffy texture of the bun and the skin (outer layer) of the bun has a sweet taste to it. Makes the bun very enjoyable to eat. But the fillings is very little, filled only 1/8 of the bun. But still I won't mind paying $1.50 for it. Of cos, if they stuff in my fillings, it'll make it just perfect.
Vegetables small plate at $4.90 I loveee mushrooms. And this "buffet" style vegetables stall has great mushrooms. It's tasty and fragrant. We mixed the mushrooms with baby potatoes. Quite nice too. Will want to try the rest of the vegetables the next time.
Crepe Mushroom at $10.90 This one is my most most favorite! Thin crepe freshly made upon order. The fillings is generous and the mixed of vegetables, cheese, sauce and mushrooms is simply delicious! Just thinking of it now makes me drool for more!
Chanced upon this modernly decorated shop while browsing around Marina Square over the weekend. The concept is somewhat similar to inQbox which has been around for awhile already. But Cactus Farm gives me a better impressions. The products on display are very neatly arranged and the entire shop gives a comfortable feel for their customers. The lighting of the shop plays quite an important part too.
The products on display are mostly from indie designers from Singapore. I noticed they do have products imported from overseas. There's this one that caught our attention at the entrance. It's a pair of square slippers. Looks quite interesting. Will sure to draw attention when worn around town. It cost about $40 if I didn't remember wrongly.
A quick check at their website and the rental is only from $8/day. Sounds pretty cheap, but that's only if your products are attractive and good to draw buyers.
If you're an indie designer, you might want to go check out Cactus Farm and look for their G.O.D or B.A.D! They also has got a M.A.D too! Interesting designations for the team. :)
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
I love making my own popiahs! My grandma used to host Popiah party for us. As we grow up, everyone is too busy with work and stuff, we've not have any popiah party for long time. Now I've found the place to go for our next family dinner! Village Wok serves DIY Popiah Set! How cool is that? The set comes with all the necessary condiments, ingredients and the power chili. Love it! The popiah skin was neither too thin nor thick, just nice to wrap up all the yummy ingredients without having to worry that the skin will give way when bitten into.
Dishes ordered include the Village Smoked Chicken with BBQ Pork, Deep Fried Crystal Prawns in Light Wasabi Sauce, XO Crispy Tofu, Brinjal in BXO Sauce, Vegetarian Ee Mee and Pulat Hitam with Coconut Gelato ice-cream.
The Smoked Chicken served with their special ginger dip was quite tasty. Personally would prefer the meat to be softer thou. But still passable.
Wasabi prawns is deep fried and topped with very light wasabi sauce. As a fan of wasabi, this would attract me more if the sauce was more powerpack. This dish is best eaten while its still hot. The outer fried layer become slightly tough when I had my second piece when the dish has cooled off.
XO Crispy Tofu was good. Homemade tofu was soft and the XO sauce served on the side adds flavor to it. Simple yet tasty.
Fried Brinjal with Crispy Squid is not a vegetable which most would enjoy. But the ones at Village Wok managed to convince my friend to give it a go. He quite enjoyed it and even had quite a few pieces. Their special BXO sauce gives this purple vegetable a new life. The sauce was sweet and the crispy squid topping gives it a crunchy texture.
The Vegetarian Ee Mee was nice. There was plentiful of golden mushrooms which give the dish more texture when chewing the noodles. Sauce was not too thick nor saltish. Just nice to my liking.
The lunch ended with a refreshing glass of pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) with gelato coconut ice-cream. It gave a beautiful closure to the meal. Will surely order this when I return.
I was told that they've a special dish - Cold Crab with Special Vinaigrette Sauce. We'd wanted to try it, but this is a by-reservation-only dish. Must remember to place my order the next time I go. It looks pretty good. And Village Wok creates and uses only their own in-house brand of sauces and dips.
This Chi Zhar stall is very ulu lah! Hidden right at the corner of the estate, it's not easy to spot! There are many other coffee shops and eateries around that area, and every one of them were packed to the rim this evening. Hoping I got to the right place, finally I found this tiny stall hidden at the back of this quiet coffee shop.
It was Mum's birthday and we decided to give this place a try. Am glad that Mum enjoyed it, but I got "bitten" by the crab! My upper right lips hurts. Ok, nuff of whining, so what's good about this place?
We ordered "3 Glass Chicken", Claypot Seafood Tofu, Stout Pork Ribs, "Hei Zhou" (prawn roll like dish) and the highly recommended Jin Sha Xie (Golden Sand Crab) and fried Man Tou. Total bill came up to $108. All the dishes were the biggest portion one. (But it wasn't THAT big after all.)
The "3 Glass Chicken" was too dry and the meat was too tough. But the outside of the chicken was rather tasty.
Claypot Seafood Tofu was not bad. There were tofu, cuttlefish, sliced fish, vegetables and carrots. The sauce was not too thick nor diluted. Just nice to go with plain rice.
I didn't eat the pork ribs so I don't know how it tastes.
"Hei Zhou" was pretty good. Fried to the right texture and its crispy and flavorful.
Star of the night was the Golden Sand Crab. Dad picked up one bigger and one medium size crabs. The crab was not the freshiest, as there wasn't any sweetness to the meat. But there was plenty of meat in the crabs. The best part was the sauce! As described by Reiko and Lucardia, the sauce is very well prepared. It was creamy, milky and spicy! Great with man tou and I couldn't stop dipping my crab meat in the sauce before every mouthful. The entire plate was cleared (almost spotless) at the end of dinner! Will go back just for the crab when I'm around the area.
Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
1=SGD 0.0587
Bobo had the chance to be invited for food tasting at Village Wok. Initially this bimbo was afraid that she would have problems finding the place, with it being in CBD and all. But it was really easy to locate. It's quite near the Food Centre just slightly off the main road.
Upon entering the place, Bobo was slightly surprised. The signboard and the decor of the place itself wasn't like other Chinese restaurants. It's not like pretentiously posh but very very simple.. like a family business sorts. It was later when the lady boss (a pretty one) explained, that Bobo understood that this place is more of a B2B sort of business, selling its famous sauces to other eateries.
It was empty that day... CBD, on Sundays, is a ghost town as every one knows. So they had all the space to ourselves and the freedom to make noise. Fantastic! haha.
Popiah DIY $20 /set
Completely healthy with stewed vegetables in prawn stock and condiments.
Honestly Bobo thinks it is a little expensive considering it's just vegetables and stuff. BUT try preparing all these things at home then you would know what a hassle it is. It's not only good and healthy to eat, it's like an activity for family and friends to do. The good thing about DIY is that you can put whatever you want in it and leave whatever you want out. Yummy!
Chilled Crab with Special Vinegrette Sauce @ $30 /crab
Bobo doesn't really like crab. Simply because it's troublesome. But the nice thing about this one was that they cut it up properly, so that it's easy to eat! They didn't need to use the hammer or weird tools to pry the meat out to eat. That aside, the flesh was sweet and fresh, tasty even without the sauce. They were told that the crabs were from Sri Lanka.
The Phoenix Soars @ $21
Yin-Yang boneless Village Wok Chicken
Bobo loved this one. She liked its tasty flesh and there was plenty of breast meat for her to pick. Yummy.
Village Wok Celebration Parade @ $22
A combination of VW award dishes, VW Mustard Roast Crispy Pork and Village BBQ Pork
Firstly, Bobo has to admit that she's not the sort who go for such meat. But she did try the Char Siew which was ok. The presentation of this dish is pretty special in that it looked like the chinese word "fortune". Cool eh.
Fried Brinjal with Crispy Squid in BXO Sauce @ $15
Bobo likes Brinjal! Initially she thought that this dish was carrot cake because it reminded her of the one at Taste Paradise. But it's brinjal much to her surprise. It was quite tasty but a little bit too sweet though.
Steamed Pating Fish with Preserved Vegetable @ $44
Preserved Vegetable... that's Chai Por, the thingy you have on chwee kueh? Bobo loves chai por. This particular version is not as salty as what people normally have which makes it seem healthier. But Bobo (being unhealthy) do likes salty chai por. The fish was normal she thinks.
Black Pepper Ham Leg @ $23
Voted The Travelling Gourmet’s favorite dish
Bobo had a very small bit of this. As above, she's not a fan of pork so she shouldn't comment on this, having not tasted enough versions.
Smiling Fortune Noodle @ $8
Tangy noodles harmonized with delectable fresh prawn essence, topped with prawns.
The serving given to them was slightly smaller that day as they already had plenty to eat. Each person had a pot to themselves. It was served nice and hot with a little tealight below. Bobo liked the soup base a lot and the noodles were served at the right time, so they weren't mushy. But she doesn't remember eating many prawns. One maybe. or was it two?
VW Desserts - Sampler size
Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut Ice-cream @ $4.80
Lemongrass ice-cream
Kaya with bread
Bobo liked the Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut ice cream the best. The other ice cream had a nice tinge of lemongrass in the aftertaste. But otherwise it was normal. Bobo isn't quite a fan of Kaya but she enjoyed it all the same. It wasn't the ultra sweet sort you get from the supermarket.
The prices might seem a bit high but it IS a chinese restaurant after all and such prices are pretty common for this kind of food served there.
We had the chance to taste many of their sauces which was really nice. Bobo wanted to buy the salted fish one home but she forgot. SIGGHHH.
For more pictures, click here
Rating given:
Singapore Fireworks Festival 2008 was awesome!
This almost-annual event (been happening for 4 years I think. The first one for me was in 2005) happens at the Singapore River. Thousands of people gathered at the floating platform, along the river, around Esplanade, on the bridge, at the Merlion Park, One Fullerton and everywhere possible to catch a glimpse of the display!
Some people even went to "chop" their place as early as 6pm! (Fireworks starts around 9pm!) Those who went later were either caught in the massive traffic jam or human jam. Despite the congestion and all, everyone was in high spirit to catch the firework display.
This year, there were 2 nights of display. First by the team from France and on Saturday night, by the team from Korea. These teams are both award-winning teams! No wonder everyone had their jaws wide open for the entire 15-20 minutes display.
Those who paid for the tickets to watch the display at the floating platform probably have a better understanding of the entire show as it was accompanied by synchronize music. For the rest of us, we had to imagine the music in our head while the fireworks was firing in the sky.
If you'd missed it, I've attached a short clip of the display by French team.
Anyone else went? Share your experience here! Especially if you've got photos taken!
Rating given:
Excellent service!
Straits Kitchen, located at Grand Hyatt hotel, has the best of local cuisine in a contemporary market place setting. This is the place to go if you want to eat-all-you-can of the variety of food in one sitting. However I feel that the taste and quality of food is not the best you can have in Singapore. But that's almost true for all buffets right? So no complain there. The choice of food available should make up to it. Some of them are pretty decent and some of us had more than 1 serving!
One thing that I must mention is the excellent service and very attentive service staff! They clear the empty plates fast and when they see that someone is using their hands to eat (crabs and prawns), they'll bring a bowl of water with lemon for that person without having for us to ask! Each section of the place is managed by a few service staff. Hence they're able to provide the attention needed at each table. This truly enhances our dining experience at Straits Kitchen! 5 stars for their service!
Rating given:
Small but cosy cafe.
Have past by this little cafe tuck at the corner of Marina Square several times. Over the weekend, we decided to give it a try.
As we weren't that hungry, and it was already pretty late, we decided to have some finger food. Ordered half dozen of NZ Greenlip Mussels and a Seafood Basket.
You can choose how you want your mussels to be done. We settled with White wine and garlic. This half dozen mussels was pretty alright. The wine was relatively mild and could taste more of the garlic than the wine.
The Seafood Basket took quite awhile to come. We were shocked to see it served in a bucket instead of the usual basket. There was a piece of fish, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 fish nuggets and bunch of fries. All quite well battered and fried. Except for the prawns, which we both felt was too tiny and too much batter. Fish was crispy and crunch. Like the texture of the way it was cooked.
Overall quite a nice and simple meal. The place is pretty cool at night, we the lightings hanging from the ceiling of Marina Square and cosy ambience of Fin Cafe. (Check out the attached video and you'll know what I mean.) :)
And well, looks like they've started charging GST already! Its hard to survive without this these days.
Rating given:
It's been long since I stepped into Marche. Sad that the 2 other outlets are no longer in business and this one at Vivo gets packed almost everytime I was there. Good thing we were there on a Monday and was still early for dinner crowd. Managed to get in without queuing.
The place was smaller than we expected, and it looks very cramp with all the decorations and furnishing inside. But it does gives the traditional market-like feel but yet still homely.
Food we ordered...
SweetBread - aka Filled Crossed Bun at $1.50
This is something which I never thought of buying while at Marche in the past. But thanks to bf, now I'll make sure I buy one whenever I'm there. I like the fluffy texture of the bun and the skin (outer layer) of the bun has a sweet taste to it. Makes the bun very enjoyable to eat. But the fillings is very little, filled only 1/8 of the bun. But still I won't mind paying $1.50 for it. Of cos, if they stuff in my fillings, it'll make it just perfect.
Vegetables small plate at $4.90
I loveee mushrooms. And this "buffet" style vegetables stall has great mushrooms. It's tasty and fragrant. We mixed the mushrooms with baby potatoes. Quite nice too. Will want to try the rest of the vegetables the next time.
Crepe Mushroom at $10.90
This one is my most most favorite! Thin crepe freshly made upon order. The fillings is generous and the mixed of vegetables, cheese, sauce and mushrooms is simply delicious! Just thinking of it now makes me drool for more!
*SLURPS!*
Rating given:
Chanced upon this modernly decorated shop while browsing around Marina Square over the weekend. The concept is somewhat similar to inQbox which has been around for awhile already. But Cactus Farm gives me a better impressions. The products on display are very neatly arranged and the entire shop gives a comfortable feel for their customers. The lighting of the shop plays quite an important part too.
The products on display are mostly from indie designers from Singapore. I noticed they do have products imported from overseas. There's this one that caught our attention at the entrance. It's a pair of square slippers. Looks quite interesting. Will sure to draw attention when worn around town. It cost about $40 if I didn't remember wrongly.
A quick check at their website and the rental is only from $8/day. Sounds pretty cheap, but that's only if your products are attractive and good to draw buyers.
If you're an indie designer, you might want to go check out Cactus Farm and look for their G.O.D or B.A.D! They also has got a M.A.D too! Interesting designations for the team. :)
Rating given:
"Curry so Good"
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
Rating given:
DIY Popiah anyone?
I love making my own popiahs! My grandma used to host Popiah party for us. As we grow up, everyone is too busy with work and stuff, we've not have any popiah party for long time. Now I've found the place to go for our next family dinner! Village Wok serves DIY Popiah Set! How cool is that? The set comes with all the necessary condiments, ingredients and the power chili. Love it! The popiah skin was neither too thin nor thick, just nice to wrap up all the yummy ingredients without having to worry that the skin will give way when bitten into.
Dishes ordered include the Village Smoked Chicken with BBQ Pork, Deep Fried Crystal Prawns in Light Wasabi Sauce, XO Crispy Tofu, Brinjal in BXO Sauce, Vegetarian Ee Mee and Pulat Hitam with Coconut Gelato ice-cream.
The Smoked Chicken served with their special ginger dip was quite tasty. Personally would prefer the meat to be softer thou. But still passable.
Wasabi prawns is deep fried and topped with very light wasabi sauce. As a fan of wasabi, this would attract me more if the sauce was more powerpack. This dish is best eaten while its still hot. The outer fried layer become slightly tough when I had my second piece when the dish has cooled off.
XO Crispy Tofu was good. Homemade tofu was soft and the XO sauce served on the side adds flavor to it. Simple yet tasty.
Fried Brinjal with Crispy Squid is not a vegetable which most would enjoy. But the ones at Village Wok managed to convince my friend to give it a go. He quite enjoyed it and even had quite a few pieces. Their special BXO sauce gives this purple vegetable a new life. The sauce was sweet and the crispy squid topping gives it a crunchy texture.
The Vegetarian Ee Mee was nice. There was plentiful of golden mushrooms which give the dish more texture when chewing the noodles. Sauce was not too thick nor saltish. Just nice to my liking.
The lunch ended with a refreshing glass of pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) with gelato coconut ice-cream. It gave a beautiful closure to the meal. Will surely order this when I return.
I was told that they've a special dish - Cold Crab with Special Vinaigrette Sauce. We'd wanted to try it, but this is a by-reservation-only dish. Must remember to place my order the next time I go. It looks pretty good. And Village Wok creates and uses only their own in-house brand of sauces and dips.
Rating given:
This Chi Zhar stall is very ulu lah! Hidden right at the corner of the estate, it's not easy to spot! There are many other coffee shops and eateries around that area, and every one of them were packed to the rim this evening. Hoping I got to the right place, finally I found this tiny stall hidden at the back of this quiet coffee shop.
It was Mum's birthday and we decided to give this place a try. Am glad that Mum enjoyed it, but I got "bitten" by the crab! My upper right lips hurts. Ok, nuff of whining, so what's good about this place?
We ordered "3 Glass Chicken", Claypot Seafood Tofu, Stout Pork Ribs, "Hei Zhou" (prawn roll like dish) and the highly recommended Jin Sha Xie (Golden Sand Crab) and fried Man Tou. Total bill came up to $108. All the dishes were the biggest portion one. (But it wasn't THAT big after all.)
The "3 Glass Chicken" was too dry and the meat was too tough. But the outside of the chicken was rather tasty.
Claypot Seafood Tofu was not bad. There were tofu, cuttlefish, sliced fish, vegetables and carrots. The sauce was not too thick nor diluted. Just nice to go with plain rice.
I didn't eat the pork ribs so I don't know how it tastes.
"Hei Zhou" was pretty good. Fried to the right texture and its crispy and flavorful.
Star of the night was the Golden Sand Crab. Dad picked up one bigger and one medium size crabs. The crab was not the freshiest, as there wasn't any sweetness to the meat. But there was plenty of meat in the crabs. The best part was the sauce! As described by Reiko and Lucardia, the sauce is very well prepared. It was creamy, milky and spicy! Great with man tou and I couldn't stop dipping my crab meat in the sauce before every mouthful. The entire plate was cleared (almost spotless) at the end of dinner! Will go back just for the crab when I'm around the area.
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Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
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