After the last dim sum at Zhou’s kitchen, it took some time before i regained my craving for our “Chinese tapas“. And this time round, i chose Kam Boat since my friends wanted a convenient location. Marina Square it is, how accessible. I must admit, when i first heard that Kam boat dim sum kitchen was in Marina Square, i was thinking where it was, since i never saw it everytime i went MS. Right, Kam boat location is very easy to find, if you are coming from the underground citylink. Upon coming up the escalator, they are at the entrance of MS, breeks cafe is also there.
The restaurant interior was smaller that what i expected from the outside, still it could seat about 50 thereabouts. Simple furnishings ooze a cosy feel, and we were quite surprise that the restaurant was barely filled on a Saturday afternoon. The lightning was very good, in fact one of the few places where i only took a few snaps and i’m happy with the photos.
Note that they have discount of 30% for dim sum on weekends 230-530pm. The prices i stated are all their original price before discount. Most of their dim sum are around 4 bucks, and after 30% discount, its around $2.80, which is rather cheap.
Steamed prawn dumpling ($4.20) I loved the jade-colour basket, which exuded a feel to enhance the flavour of the dim sum. The steamed prawn dumpling didn’t allow us to have the best of both worlds. The prawn within was crunchy and whole, but the skin was a tad thick, and sticked to the teeth. But with the discount, the har gau was barely a dollar each.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao ($4.20) I was never a big fan of Xiao Long Bao (XLB), this one here was all right, the soup stock gashed out of the skin when we took a bite, but having had one of the best and most expensive XLB before, this one paled in comparison.
Rice noodle roll with shrimp ($5.60) If it wasn’t for the 30% discount, i would feel that the shrimp cheong fun was too expensive. The shrimp, like the one in the har gau, was crunchy, rolled within the cheong fun, and together with the light sauce, made a good start for our meal.
Steamed siew mai with mushroom ($4.20) The notable difference between Kam Boat’s rendition and the norm was the addition of mushroom. Like the one i had at Zhou’s Kitchen, the mushroom didn’t really enhanced the flavour of the siew mai, since the porky and prawn taste was so strong. But it’s a nice change.
Steamed barbecued pork bun ($3.50) I think most kids don’t like char siew bun since they always had it for breakfast. But i always couldn’t resist ordering char siew bun from restaurants since theirs were always so good!
Steamed chives dumpling ($4) This was one of the more unpleasant choice, since nobody liked chives, i’ve no idea who went and ordered this.
Deep fried prawn dumpling with salad ($4.20) You know, deep fried prawn dumpling is always good, especially so when you dipped in the slightly sour salad sauce. Shiok!
Deep fried prawn with mango roll ($4.20) Besides salad, mango’s another good combination with fried prawn. The deep fried prawn with mango roll was crispy outside, crunchy with the prawns, and fruity with the mango.
Pan fried meat dumpling ($4) Meat dumpling or “wo tie” is often eaten together with ginger and vinegar. But since i didn’t like eating ginger and vinegar, i ate it on its own, and it was not bad.
Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50) The pan fried carrot cake was nice, charred on the exterior, and soft inside. Personally, i felt that pan fried carrot cakes must show some char, if not the whole taste wouldn’t be there.
Deep fried seafood roll with mustard ($4.50) The bee hoon or whatever you called that, which wrapped around the deep fried seafood roll, provided the crisp crunchy bite. Although deep fried, the seafood roll didn’t lose its freshness. The usual scenario for deep fried stuff would be overly oily, but this one was not so.
Baked mini egg tart ($4.20) For some reason or the other, dim sum restaurants never seem to serve their egg tarts big. All came in mini size, how did they suppose we would be satisfied with the tiny, petite egg tart? Nonetheless, the mini egg tart was done exactly what i liked, the egg custard filling was soft, slightly “wet”, and the skin was crispy.
Steamed chicken feet ($3.50) I never ate chicken feet, so you need to try this one out yourself.
Steamed Glutinous rice ($3.50) The Chinese sausage or “la chang” injected the salty taste and enhanced the fragance of the glutinous rice. A vital ingredient for all glutinous rice. The mushroom, meat and rice portion was generous. Defintitely worth a try.
Total bill was $64.05 after a 30% discount for 4 person. There was some items like the steamed prawn dumpling and siew mai which we had two basket. We didn’t really order a lot since a friend was late and the last order was around 515pm. Still, Kam Boat was surprisingly good, much better than what i expected. The location is very accessible, the dim sum is cheap after the discount. And i think i’ll go back again.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Right, sometimes there are so many stalls within a food centre that you don’t know which to order from. So being Singaporeans what do we do? We look at the Q, if that particular stall has long queue, we follow. The herd, or “kiasu” mentality. On my previous visit to Lau Pa Sat, it was during a weekday lunch crowd period, so the queue was ’super’ long. I didn’t order it back then, since i wasn’t really craving for char kway teow that time.
Thus, when i went back on my second visit on a Satarday afternoon, there was not a soul in sight, and despite wolfing down two burgers, and two fries, my friend and i couldn’t resist trying since there wasn’t any queue, and if you don’t try, you will find it a pity right?
Char Kuay Teow ($3) The serving of the char kuay teow was generous, in fact too much given its only $3. Not that i’m complaining anyway. The fried noodles were quite oily, the char kuay teow scent was definitely there. But somehow i felt it lack that particular “wow” factor. Well, there’s another reason to explain why i didn’t feel anything for it, perhaps the burgers and fries were blindfolding me!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Hai Xiang is the flagship Chinese restaurant of Park Royal on Kitchener Road (formerly known as New Park Hotel) and offers an ala carte Cantonese cuisine and dim sum buffet for both lunch and dinner. Although I have a personal disdain for buffets, the one for one buffet voucher in my possession proved too alluring.
Hai Xiang is situated on the second floor of the hotel, which is right smack in the middle of a really terrible traffic network. The restaurant's interior comes across as classy with a modern Chinese touch through its use of wood, concealed lighting and heavy carpets.
Deep Fried Soon Hock - The Soon Hock was crispy on the outside but the fish, though fresh, was rather bland and not even soy sauce could save it. Most disappointing.
Vegetables with Abalone and Mushroom - You only get one shot at this dish and the abalone turned really small and of inferior quality. But really, you get what you pay for so no complaints.
Baked Oysters in Cheese & Mustard - This dish gave me the bumps. Plain gross if you ask me. Cheese and mustard is a bad combination in my humble opinion and coupled with a soft and mushy piece of oyster, its a recipe for disaster.
Black Pepper Beef - I personally thought that the beef cubes suffered from an overdose of tenderizer. The meat was overly tender but on the upside, at least it was sweet.
Homemade Beancurd - Soft but not exactly silky on the inside (very much like supermarket grade), the beancurd had a mild savoury taste which would render it one of the better dishes that evening. I appreciated the generous handful of enoki mushrooms that came immersed in the gravy as well.
Broccoli with Crab Meat - This dish was decent but the crab meat sauce came across as rather bland. I would have expected it to be savoury.
Spring Chicken - First looks, the spring chicken appeared appetizing with its golden brown crispy looking skin. Taste wise, it was a totally different matter altogether. The meat wasn't exactly juicy and everything seemed rather bland. More salt would have been great. And it certainly didn't help that the chicken was a tad too oily.
Prawns with Salad Dressing - A perennial favourite of mine and often spotted in cold dishes, the relatively fresh prawns were thinly sliced and served atop cubes of honey dew and rock melon. As normal as it gets. To be fair though, I've never tried any that have remotely gotten close to blowing me away.
Claypot Rice with Chicken - An order for the claypot rice has to be made 30 mins in advance but from the looks of it, it probably took 15 mins max. The rice didn't stick to the bottom of the claypot and was drenched in black sauce, hence the lack of wok hei. I did like the chicken pieces though, which were tender with a moderate hint of rice wine.
Fried Pig Intestines - Another personal favourite, especially when I order kway chup, the intestines were very crispy on the exterior. However, there was an overwhelming raw taste which tasted outright gross. Add the taste of cinnamon and star anise to that and you get an awful combination. The accompanying pineapple slices did quite a good job in covering up the taste though.
Roast Duck & Soy Chicken - I almost laughed when I saw the dish. It had 4 pieces of duck and 4 slices of chicken - 2 per pax. The chicken was served warm but was very tasteless whereas the duck had more bone then meat. Gives a literal meaning to picking inbetween the bones doesn't it?
Scallops with Black Bean Sauce - The scallops were small but relatively crunchy while the vegetables were normal.
Steamed Prawns - There seems to be a prevalent trend in the food here. Everything is fresh but just not sweet. Ditto for the prawns as well.
Red Bean Paste Pancake - Choice of dessert was limited so I stuck to this dish, which sorely disappointed with its ridiculously thick skin. I felt like I was chomping down on fried flour. The red bean filling was decent though, but then again, how bad can red bean filling get?
With the 1 for 1 voucher, the total bill for 2 came up to a very reasonable $42. However, take that 50% discount away and the buffet loses its draw. To be honest, the food is average at best and portions are really tiny. Going for seconds might prove a little difficult as waiting time can stretch quite a bit and its rather difficult to get the attention of the service staff, who seem to be shorthanded.
While we have the restaurant setting a stall in the coffee shop (think Cilantro), and there’s also the restaurants invading the heartlands, and we can’t possibly forget about Angmohs, or Caucasians setting up a stall in the coffee shops selling western food. Botak Jones was the benchmark, and now we have our latest entrée, Crazy Angmo!
Crazy Angmo was featured in the papers, with the trend of more Angmohs selling western food in the local heartlands. Having their first stall in Bishan, the owner, Paul, had opened his second stall at Bukit Batok. Whether it’s coincidently or not, Botak Jones happened to just set up an outlet in Bukit Batok too, just one bus stop away.
Chicken Parmagian ($7.90) The chicken paramagian was one of the more expensive item on the menu, other than the steak and the lambchop. There’s cheaper options like the express meal chicken cutlet, chicken chop at $4.80. But for “higher-end” options, the rest are priced at $6.90-$7.90.
Coated with a thick layer of melty cheese and tomatos, the chicken paramagian was quite good, i especially like the melted cheese which tasted great with the crispy chicken. But i did find the layer of tomato sauce, which was in between the cheese and the chicken, a tad sour. You needed to eat the chicken fast as it became soggy after a while. Nonetheless, the generous sides like the mashed potatos, and salad provided a hearty meal.
Crazy Burger ($7.90) The crazy burger, being one of Crazy Angmo speciality, deserved a try. I think it’s better value for money than the Botak Jones burger, since this came with cheese and egg, while the latter at $8 only had the burger plus one additional topping of either cheese or egg. The Botak Jones burger was $7 at a set, and to add egg and cheese, it’ll be $9 already.
I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of pineapples within the burger, and the melty cheese together with the runny egg was excellent. However, i did find the beef patty being over marinated with pepper. The bun was rather hard and toasted to char. And the fries were simply ordinary and forgettable.
But overall, i did think that the crazy burger at $7.90 was not too bad, and definitely better than Botak burger. The owner Paul was very confident of his burger, “This is the best burger mate!“
Total bill was $15.80 for two western meal sets. Prices are a tad higher than your usual hawker centre western food, but like what i mentioned before, if you compared Botak Jones, Crazy Angmo with the normal western stalls, prices certainly will be more expensive. On the other hand, thinking it as a cafe western food, these stalls will be much cheaper than the cafes and restaurants.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
This is a tale about the chicken and the duck. Yesterday, we have discussed why chicken is more popular than duck. But if you asked me, i’ll tell you i love my ducks more than my chickens. Just ordering half a chicken, i can actually get a bit sick of eating finish the meat, but for duck, i can have the whole duck and i can still carry on.
My friends have always complaint my blog feature nice food from Bukit Batok, is there truly no delicious food around? Actually yes and no, since different people have different taste bud, its quite hard to determine what is considered nice and delicious. But since we are on the topic of chickens and ducks, let me show you what i think is one of the better duck rice in Bukit Batok.
This particular stall is no strangers to Bukit Batok-ians, and even foodies living elsewhere. Their duck is the toast of the crowd, and it always sold out pretty fast, and sometimes if you are there at the wrong time, you’ll need to wait for them to roast the duck as they didn’t roast all their ducks at one go.
Their duck meat was considerately fatter than the normal ones, with a thick layer of fats beneath the unhealthy, yet-so-good duck skin. The meat was tender, and you must eat it together with the fatty skin to get the “oomph” kick! The only gripe - the serving was rather small even for half a duck, you couldn’t get enough of the meat.
Roast pork I also enjoyed their roast pork, with a super crispy skin. This is no joking matter, biting into the roast pork, will give you the “crisp” sound, that alone would tell you the crunchiness.
Char siew Their char siew was actually the weaker of the three. Althought it’s rather juicy, but the char siew meat somehow lacked the “wow” factor, and the sight of the bright red colouring also put me off. They also sell soy sauce chicken, but it’s not good compared to the rest.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
One fine day, the duck met the chicken and ask it a question, “why is it that you guys are more popular than us?” The chicken answered confidently, “Of course, we are the superior birds!”…
Have you ever wondered why is chicken more popular than duck? Ask a group of Singaporeans what are among their favourite local delights, and there are bound to be chicken rice, laksa, char kuay teow, and many others. But have you ever heard “Singapore duck rice”?
Looking at the offical statistics will tell a clearer picture, chicken consumed in 2007 was 33.0kg per capital compared to 3.2kg that of duck. That’s like 10 times the difference in the total amount consumed! Right, let’s discuss why chicken, is more popular than duck. First, the methods of preparing chicken are much more than duck, you can fried, steamed, stir-fried, boiled, roasted, chicken, but how about duck? You heard of fried chicken, but is there fried duck?
Half a chicken ($13) This particular stall in Bukit Batok block 273, always had long queues for their chicken. Actually i did try their chicken for quite a lot of times already but didn’t bother to feature it since you don’t bring your dslr to the market. The chicken was quite good, smooth and tender with the meat being flavourful, but rather on the salty side with the “over-generous” use of the light soy sauce.
The rice was fragrant, and not too oily. And the chili, was red hot spicy! I found it to be one of the more spicy chicken rice chilis around. But even though the chicken rice was quite good, i wouldn’t bother queuing up for it unless i really got the urge. Still, i dared say this is one of the better chicken rice stall around, in Bukit Batok. Watch out for “the tale of the chicken and duck part 2” tomorrow!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
What constitutes to a nice bowl of Teochew Fish Porridge? Ask HFB, and he will tell you its “fresh fish, tasty stock and the grains not overcooked” over and over. Started way back in 1966, HFB would dare say 泉香鱼口粥 (Quan Xiang Fish Porridge), now located at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, is one of the best in the west.
With choices of the usual Batang Fish ($3, $5 and $7) and the pricier Red Garoupa ($5, $7 and $10), what one gets is a bowl of piping hot “Cheng” fish porridge, with a minimum dash of fried shallots. HFB opted for the $5 batang option and it gotten him a good 10 or so slices of fish – even if he finds them too thinly sliced for his liking. Fish slices were smooth and fresh without the lingering fishy smell, but HFB did find it frustrating at the lacked of bite.
The soup though was a delight – it was sweet and light on the palate, and it has HFB’s favourite Tang O, or Garland Chrysanthemum added within – definitely a good choice these days for those feeling under the weather.
The grains were excellently cooked to bite – every grain was firm and not mushy – HFB resisted to call it al dente, but that’s what came closest to mind. And of course, a Teochew Fish Porridge experience cannot be completed without the Fermented Bean Sauce as dip.
Overall, it would have been a satisfying experience if not for the measly serving – would probably opt for 2 portions of $3 instead on my next visit.
I've always been an advocate/fan/fanatic/supporter of dim sum so when Dim Joy hopped onto the bandwagon a couple of months back, I was tempted to have a shot at it especially in this recession period where Yan Ting and Royal China are seemingly out of reach for my shallow pockets. Of course it helped that Dim Joy reportedly specialises in dim sum and sells only dim sum items throughout the day - a psychological effect?
And I finally got the chance to dine there on a Saturday morning. Playing anchor to a row of beautifully restored shophouses along Neil Road, Dim Joy oozes sublime old world charm with its facade and simply done up interior that allows natural light in. Cool airconditioning coupled with a nice warm glow from the sunlight make for a soothing and relaxing environment.
Lingnan Egg Tart - Although the lingnan egg tart didn't fall into the buttery crust category which I personally prefer, I have to admit that it was almost in a class of its own. A flaky crust that compounded the oven baked goodness with a smooth, wobbly and not too sweet custard filling that had an almost surreal semi liquid feel. Very delicately done if I may say so.
Savoury Beancurd Skin Roll - Not your usual beancurd skin roll, this one looked like it had tempura batter sporadically coated on it before deep frying. And there was no crackling crispy skin either. Instead, the roll was a tad crisp yet moist, not to mention fragrant with a light savoury aftertaste that complemented the filling of mushroom and radish.
Custard Bun - I wasn't too impressed by Dim Joy's rendition of the custard bun even though the the custard filling was semi molten and oozed out with ease with a break in the skin. The quintessential egg yolk taste was sorely lacking and I could make out some granular substance in the custard which I presume to be partially undissolved sugar (I'm just guessing). There were traces of egg yolk as well from the slightly rough texture but as mentioned earlier, the taste was minimal.
Honey Syrup Char Siew Bao - Unlike the custard bun, the Char Siew Bao was excellent, for lack of a better word. The dough was soft and fluffy with an ample bite to it. However the char siew filling came across as rather lacklustre, mildy sweet from the honey but with a rather high proportion of fat meat in my humble opinion. Having said that, the dough itself is enough to warrant seconds for me (Not that I did though).
Barbecued Pork & Celery in Rice Rolls - The rice roll aka Chee Cheong Fun was a little different from the usual silky smooth ones in that there was an oily finish to it, very much like kway teow or flat noodles. However, as with the char siew bao, the char siew filling in the rice roll was forgettable and overall a rather bland dish.
Century Egg with Lean Pork Congee - I personally dislike century eggs but this porridge was surprisingly decent, especially the pork cubes (actually they looked like chicken cubes), which were tender with a nice salty tinge to it. The porridge itself wasn't too starchy and the ginger slices kept nausea at bay. One serving can feed 2 pax easily.
King Shrimp Har Gao - I would have preferred one large prawn in my har gao instead of 3 medium sized ones but I'm not complaining. The skin did seem a whisker too thick and elastic for my liking but on the upside, the har gao didn't carry the overwhelming prawn taste that plagues alot of har gaos.
Crispy Pumpkin Balls - This came complimentary with every spending of $30 and above. I'm not exactly a big fan of such stuff so I won't comment much except that it reminded me uncannily of those rounded pieces of chewy flour coated with sesame seeds on the outside that are being sold at most dough fritter stalls.
Durian Snow Pearl - This signature dessert reminded me of durian snow skin mooncakes except that the skin on this one was soft and excellent. No elasticity or excessive flour taste that I have a particular disdain for. The skin seemed to meld in rather well with the durian filling and cream when I popped one into my mouth. The only thing I didn't really appreciate about the dessert was the cream, which I personally felt marred the taste a little.
It does seem that Dim Joy is giving the bigger boys a run for their money with its relatively high quality of dim sum at a slightly lower price to boot. The 2 of us spent about $52 for a rather enjoyable and filling dim sum session in a nice soothing environment. Service was good but I wasn't exactly too pleased at being charged $1 for iced water.
Canelé Patisserie Chocolaterie, the fame dessert restaurant that had been making waves with its delicate and dainty small bites. With the mention of patisserie, the immediate reaction would be Canelé, which tells you something about the reputation that they had built up in a short period of time. Besides cakes and other desserts, Canelé also offered a variety of chocolates.
Canelé Patisserie has done a very good job with its marketing and branding strategy. The chic sounding name, the cool sun-shape logo, coupled with its stylish interior, and of course their “designer” cakes and desserts. Not to mention Canelé is under the Les Amis group, which has strong capital funding to make all these possible.
The miniuscule interior had few seats available. When we went around 3pm, the place was packed fully, and had to be put on the waiting list.
Seating are largely from the Al fresco area, built in mind to create the Parisian road-side cafe ambience, albeit it wasn’t prefect with the busy orchard road, and McDonald located just a stone throw away.
With the inauguration of their latest branch at Shaw centre, this brings the tally to four with the others located at Paragon, Raffles city, and Robertson quay. Like Starbucks, the opening of each outlet almost guaranteed full-house customers. This really makes me wonder why is there no other worthy competitor to come out and vie a share of the market.
Cafe caramel ($8.50) Milk chocolate coffee mousse, chocolate genoise with expresso, salty caramel and hazelnut feuilitine. Canele’s signature cake with the usage of the salted caramel, which gave an unique taste to it. However, there was only a single layer of salted caramel right in the middle of the cake, which my companion and I felt was a tad too little.
The strong chocolate, with the subtle coffee flavour, overwhelmed the salted caramel taste. But i love the hazelnut feuilitine which added crunchy bites to the cake. Having heard rave reviews for Cafe caramel, it fell short of our expectations. And we felt that the caramel didn’t really compliment the chocolate sponge cake.
Strawberry shortcake ($6.50) Japanese shortcake sponge, kirsch creme chantitlly, and fresh strawberries. Another famous cake, the strawberry was not very sweet, but it’ll be better if it’s those sweet tasting Japanese imported ones instead. We felt the cake was too tame, there wasn’t much flavour.
However, it could work either way, as it’s good for light tasting, the cream wasn’t overly heavy, the sponge was light, but not for me because i would prefer more intense flavour. Overall I felt it was mediocre as it lacked the kick and “wow” factor. But then again, its strawberry shortcake, what else could you expect?
And how can we forget Macarons? Canele’s ones are divided into two different type, with the classic and the signature flavours. With a total of 12 variety to choose from, I’ll definitely come back to try the rest.
The pricing however, remained a mystery to me. If you would do some simple maths, buying 6 pieces of macarons at $2.3 will be only $13.8 instead of $14.50 per box. So is Canelé charging extra for the cost of the box? I’ll thought that buying more will cost less, since it can encourage sales.
Hazelnut Praline with roasted hazelnut ($2.30) I told you, i loved my hazelnut! It was an obvious choice when my companion wanted 4 macarons. Hazelnut was supposed to be a safe and full-proof flavour for desserts, not lest macarons. But the one here was rather weak in flavour. The hazelnut taste was mild, and i’ll prefer it to be stronger. Obolo had a stronger case for its hazelnut macarons. Nonetheless, the hazelnut was still detectable, and there’s after taste of it.
Milk Chocolate feullitine ($2.30) How can anybody resisted the temptation of milk chocolate? Not me, that’s for sure! The silky milk chocolate, with crunchy bites of feullitine, was one of Canele’s signature flavours. There was nothing intriguing about it, just a reliable and safe option to taste the chocolate while munching on the chewy shells.
Rose ($2.30) We also picked the rose classic flavour for one of our macarons. The first taste of the lovely pinkish delight was subtle, the rose wasn’t very strong. But we did questioned whether real rose was used, as it tasted like rose syrup. Nonetheless, the rose should be a crowd favourite with the ladies.
Salty Caramel ($2.30) Introducing the saltey caramel once again! Even though we chose the cafe caramel, but we couldn’t miss out having the saltey caramel macarons. Like mentioned above, the salted caramel had a very unique taste, and compared to the Cafe caramel cake, this one was much better as you could taste the saltey caramel, whereby the former was overshadowed by the stronger chocolate companion.
Total bill was $28.45 for 2 cakes and 4 macarons. I’ve to confess, amidst all the high anticipation of Canelé, my first visit fell short of expectations. I think maybe it’s a case of ordering the wrong desserts. Or because i had high hopes, which resulted in the not-as-good outcome. Such is the magic of Canele, that i’ll definitely visit them again to try out the other cakes, even though the first escapade wasn’t really what i want.
There’s plenty of others which i’ll love to try, the le royale, canele pastry, jupitar, and many more. I think the next time round, i’ll probably go to the raffles city branch, since the “in-thing” is to be seen hanging around at their Shaw centre branch, seats are hard to get here. And one thing i noted, if the area behind that is housing The Canteen (another Les Amis restaurant), is used to expand Canelé instead, i’m pretty sure it will also fill up pretty easily.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
It’s dim sum time again! This time we are heading to Zhou’s Kitchen, a mid-tier casual Chinese restaurant under Tung Lok group (TLG). Judging by its menu and interior, it is clear that Zhou’s Kitchen caters to the palates and pockets of diners from all walks of life. For its Anchorpoint branch, Zhou’s Kitchen is uniquely housed in a separate double-storey building known as the ‘Copperdome’, just outside the sub-urban shopping mall. There’s also two other outlets at Square 2 and Far east square.
Zhou’s Kitchen caught my attention mainly because of their high tea buffet which is at $16.80 per head. Initially when they just launched this buffet, it was only on weekends, but they had since included in weekdays as well.
The interior was simple and decorated according to their theme of orange and green. There’s a total of 34 items to choose from the menu, which included some appetisers, soup, dim sum, rice & noodles, and desserts.
Prawn Crackers ($3 for 3 pax) Zhou’s Kitchen provided prawn crackers for us to munch while waiting for the dim sum to be served. And just in case you’re thinking, they were not free. They charged us $3 for them since we had 3 person, so i guess its by head count.
Wonton We was expecting wonton but it came in the form of the fried wonton skin instead. Fillings were minimum, but the sweet tangy sauce that accompanied the fried crispy skin was not too bad to start your meal.
Beef slices I didn’t know what to make of this, i felt that the beef slices was average, the taste was forgettable, but then again, my friends thought it was not bad.
Salad prawn with mixed fruits I’m a sucker for salad, so anything with salad wouldn’t taste that bad to me. The salad prawns were crunchy, a refreshing appetiser. But no doubt too much of good things could turn out to be bad too, as the salad dressings would be quite heavy.
Drunken chicken This was easily the most unmemorable dish out of all the ones we had. Drunken chicken? Like what my friend said, it tasted more like “pig tails” to us (not that we had eaten pig tails before).
Pan fried chive dumplings with chicken I ain’t a fan of chives, so anything from me about chives dumplings would surely be negative. You need to try this for yourself to find out.
Mini Egg tarts Now, this is the real deal. By far one of the better dim sum i’ve for this meal, the mini egg tarts beared a reminiscent to the ones i had at Wah Lok, smooth and eggy fillings. And like before, mini egg tarts only posed the problem of being too small. But hey, we’re having dim sum buffet, this was all-you-can-eat, so no issue there. I lost count of the egg tarts i eaten that day.
Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings As always, there’s pork, shrimp, fish roe in the Siew Mai. But Zhou’s rendition had a twist by adding in mushrooms as well. Although the taste of mushroom within siew mai didn’t really enhanced the flavour, but you got to give it to them for doing something different from the norm.
Steamed BBQ pork bun Any char siew buns which had three parts would do for me. The one here was not bad, and although its very filling eating buns, i couldn’t help myself to two of them.
Steamed shrimp dumplings The shrimp was good, crunchy and fresh. However, the skin was too thick and sticked to the teeth after eating it. But if you just wanted to make the most for your money, just order and eat as much as you can. Otherwise, i wouldn’t eat too much of it as the overly thick skin made me feel sick of dim sum.
Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce I always didn’t fancy ordering steam pork ribs, since there’s always hardly any meat on this type of steamed ribs, and unlike those “pork ribs king” which are popular in Zi-char stores, there’s nothing for you to chew on the bones here.
Fried rice with chicken and salted fish The fried rice was surprisingly quite good, the wok flavour was evident with every grain of rice, and the clever use of salted fish did enhanced the taste of the fried rice. I’ll have ordered second servings if not for the fact that rices were very filling.
Deep fried prawn paste chicken Their deep fried chicken marinated with prawn paste sauce, or Har Cheong Kai, was a laughing joke. The chicken was skinny, bare to the bones, the prawn paste was weak. I could hardly finish one chicken wing. Period.
Baked flaky BBQ pork pastry The bbq pork pastry, or char siew sou, fared better than the rest. Although not excellent, but it’s still worth having second helpings if you are a fan of char siew sou like me.
Steamed custard bun Their steamed custard buns brought back bad memories like the ones i had at Victor’s, the custard wasn’t cold, but they were very hard, unlike those good ones which had warm custard fillings oozing out with the lightest break of the bun.
Total bill was $66.30 for 3 person, which worked out to be around $22 per person. TLG is well-known in the local culinary scenes with their chains of restaurants, thus i was thinking Zhou’s kitchen couldn’t be that bad. But having been there, ate that, i would say their dim sum wasn’t worth the effort.
No doubt it’s cheap for all-you-can-eat buffets, you can gorge yourself silly, but i’ll rather eat less in quantity, and more in quality. I won’t bother going back again for their dim sum buffet, for a short while, i even felt sick of dim sum after eating so much that day, that’s why i disliked buffets, especially so if the food ain’t good. And by the way, there were 34 items, we tried quite many of them, but i didn’t show all the pictures out since the rest was either not worth mentioning, or we didn’t try them.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
1=SGD 0.0587
After the last dim sum at Zhou’s kitchen, it took some time before i regained my craving for our “Chinese tapas“. And this time round, i chose Kam Boat since my friends wanted a convenient location. Marina Square it is, how accessible. I must admit, when i first heard that Kam boat dim sum kitchen was in Marina Square, i was thinking where it was, since i never saw it everytime i went MS. Right, Kam boat location is very easy to find, if you are coming from the underground citylink. Upon coming up the escalator, they are at the entrance of MS, breeks cafe is also there.
The restaurant interior was smaller that what i expected from the outside, still it could seat about 50 thereabouts. Simple furnishings ooze a cosy feel, and we were quite surprise that the restaurant was barely filled on a Saturday afternoon. The lightning was very good, in fact one of the few places where i only took a few snaps and i’m happy with the photos.
Note that they have discount of 30% for dim sum on weekends 230-530pm. The prices i stated are all their original price before discount. Most of their dim sum are around 4 bucks, and after 30% discount, its around $2.80, which is rather cheap.
Steamed prawn dumpling ($4.20)
I loved the jade-colour basket, which exuded a feel to enhance the flavour of the dim sum. The steamed prawn dumpling didn’t allow us to have the best of both worlds. The prawn within was crunchy and whole, but the skin was a tad thick, and sticked to the teeth. But with the discount, the har gau was barely a dollar each.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao ($4.20)
I was never a big fan of Xiao Long Bao (XLB), this one here was all right, the soup stock gashed out of the skin when we took a bite, but having had one of the best and most expensive XLB before, this one paled in comparison.
Rice noodle roll with shrimp ($5.60)
If it wasn’t for the 30% discount, i would feel that the shrimp cheong fun was too expensive. The shrimp, like the one in the har gau, was crunchy, rolled within the cheong fun, and together with the light sauce, made a good start for our meal.
Steamed siew mai with mushroom ($4.20)
The notable difference between Kam Boat’s rendition and the norm was the addition of mushroom. Like the one i had at Zhou’s Kitchen, the mushroom didn’t really enhanced the flavour of the siew mai, since the porky and prawn taste was so strong. But it’s a nice change.
Steamed barbecued pork bun ($3.50)
I think most kids don’t like char siew bun since they always had it for breakfast. But i always couldn’t resist ordering char siew bun from restaurants since theirs were always so good!
Steamed chives dumpling ($4)
This was one of the more unpleasant choice, since nobody liked chives, i’ve no idea who went and ordered this.
Deep fried prawn dumpling with salad ($4.20)
You know, deep fried prawn dumpling is always good, especially so when you dipped in the slightly sour salad sauce. Shiok!
Deep fried prawn with mango roll ($4.20)
Besides salad, mango’s another good combination with fried prawn. The deep fried prawn with mango roll was crispy outside, crunchy with the prawns, and fruity with the mango.
Pan fried meat dumpling ($4)
Meat dumpling or “wo tie” is often eaten together with ginger and vinegar. But since i didn’t like eating ginger and vinegar, i ate it on its own, and it was not bad.
Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50)
The pan fried carrot cake was nice, charred on the exterior, and soft inside. Personally, i felt that pan fried carrot cakes must show some char, if not the whole taste wouldn’t be there.
Deep fried seafood roll with mustard ($4.50)
The bee hoon or whatever you called that, which wrapped around the deep fried seafood roll, provided the crisp crunchy bite. Although deep fried, the seafood roll didn’t lose its freshness. The usual scenario for deep fried stuff would be overly oily, but this one was not so.
Baked mini egg tart ($4.20)
For some reason or the other, dim sum restaurants never seem to serve their egg tarts big. All came in mini size, how did they suppose we would be satisfied with the tiny, petite egg tart? Nonetheless, the mini egg tart was done exactly what i liked, the egg custard filling was soft, slightly “wet”, and the skin was crispy.
Steamed chicken feet ($3.50)
I never ate chicken feet, so you need to try this one out yourself.
Steamed Glutinous rice ($3.50)
The Chinese sausage or “la chang” injected the salty taste and enhanced the fragance of the glutinous rice. A vital ingredient for all glutinous rice. The mushroom, meat and rice portion was generous. Defintitely worth a try.
Total bill was $64.05 after a 30% discount for 4 person. There was some items like the steamed prawn dumpling and siew mai which we had two basket. We didn’t really order a lot since a friend was late and the last order was around 515pm. Still, Kam Boat was surprisingly good, much better than what i expected. The location is very accessible, the dim sum is cheap after the discount. And i think i’ll go back again.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Right, sometimes there are so many stalls within a food centre that you don’t know which to order from. So being Singaporeans what do we do? We look at the Q, if that particular stall has long queue, we follow. The herd, or “kiasu” mentality. On my previous visit to Lau Pa Sat, it was during a weekday lunch crowd period, so the queue was ’super’ long. I didn’t order it back then, since i wasn’t really craving for char kway teow that time.
Thus, when i went back on my second visit on a Satarday afternoon, there was not a soul in sight, and despite wolfing down two burgers, and two fries, my friend and i couldn’t resist trying since there wasn’t any queue, and if you don’t try, you will find it a pity right?
Char Kuay Teow ($3)
The serving of the char kuay teow was generous, in fact too much given its only $3. Not that i’m complaining anyway. The fried noodles were quite oily, the char kuay teow scent was definitely there. But somehow i felt it lack that particular “wow” factor. Well, there’s another reason to explain why i didn’t feel anything for it, perhaps the burgers and fries were blindfolding me!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Hai Xiang is the flagship Chinese restaurant of Park Royal on Kitchener Road (formerly known as New Park Hotel) and offers an ala carte Cantonese cuisine and dim sum buffet for both lunch and dinner. Although I have a personal disdain for buffets, the one for one buffet voucher in my possession proved too alluring.
Hai Xiang is situated on the second floor of the hotel, which is right smack in the middle of a really terrible traffic network. The restaurant's interior comes across as classy with a modern Chinese touch through its use of wood, concealed lighting and heavy carpets.
Deep Fried Soon Hock - The Soon Hock was crispy on the outside but the fish, though fresh, was rather bland and not even soy sauce could save it. Most disappointing.
Vegetables with Abalone and Mushroom - You only get one shot at this dish and the abalone turned really small and of inferior quality. But really, you get what you pay for so no complaints.
Baked Oysters in Cheese & Mustard - This dish gave me the bumps. Plain gross if you ask me. Cheese and mustard is a bad combination in my humble opinion and coupled with a soft and mushy piece of oyster, its a recipe for disaster.
Black Pepper Beef - I personally thought that the beef cubes suffered from an overdose of tenderizer. The meat was overly tender but on the upside, at least it was sweet.
Homemade Beancurd - Soft but not exactly silky on the inside (very much like supermarket grade), the beancurd had a mild savoury taste which would render it one of the better dishes that evening. I appreciated the generous handful of enoki mushrooms that came immersed in the gravy as well.
Broccoli with Crab Meat - This dish was decent but the crab meat sauce came across as rather bland. I would have expected it to be savoury.
Spring Chicken - First looks, the spring chicken appeared appetizing with its golden brown crispy looking skin. Taste wise, it was a totally different matter altogether. The meat wasn't exactly juicy and everything seemed rather bland. More salt would have been great. And it certainly didn't help that the chicken was a tad too oily.
Prawns with Salad Dressing - A perennial favourite of mine and often spotted in cold dishes, the relatively fresh prawns were thinly sliced and served atop cubes of honey dew and rock melon. As normal as it gets. To be fair though, I've never tried any that have remotely gotten close to blowing me away.
Claypot Rice with Chicken - An order for the claypot rice has to be made 30 mins in advance but from the looks of it, it probably took 15 mins max. The rice didn't stick to the bottom of the claypot and was drenched in black sauce, hence the lack of wok hei. I did like the chicken pieces though, which were tender with a moderate hint of rice wine.
Fried Pig Intestines - Another personal favourite, especially when I order kway chup, the intestines were very crispy on the exterior. However, there was an overwhelming raw taste which tasted outright gross. Add the taste of cinnamon and star anise to that and you get an awful combination. The accompanying pineapple slices did quite a good job in covering up the taste though.
Roast Duck & Soy Chicken - I almost laughed when I saw the dish. It had 4 pieces of duck and 4 slices of chicken - 2 per pax. The chicken was served warm but was very tasteless whereas the duck had more bone then meat. Gives a literal meaning to picking inbetween the bones doesn't it?
Scallops with Black Bean Sauce - The scallops were small but relatively crunchy while the vegetables were normal.
Steamed Prawns - There seems to be a prevalent trend in the food here. Everything is fresh but just not sweet. Ditto for the prawns as well.
Red Bean Paste Pancake - Choice of dessert was limited so I stuck to this dish, which sorely disappointed with its ridiculously thick skin. I felt like I was chomping down on fried flour. The red bean filling was decent though, but then again, how bad can red bean filling get?
With the 1 for 1 voucher, the total bill for 2 came up to a very reasonable $42. However, take that 50% discount away and the buffet loses its draw. To be honest, the food is average at best and portions are really tiny. Going for seconds might prove a little difficult as waiting time can stretch quite a bit and its rather difficult to get the attention of the service staff, who seem to be shorthanded.
See all my pictures here.
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While we have the restaurant setting a stall in the coffee shop (think Cilantro), and there’s also the restaurants invading the heartlands, and we can’t possibly forget about Angmohs, or Caucasians setting up a stall in the coffee shops selling western food. Botak Jones was the benchmark, and now we have our latest entrée, Crazy Angmo!
Crazy Angmo was featured in the papers, with the trend of more Angmohs selling western food in the local heartlands. Having their first stall in Bishan, the owner, Paul, had opened his second stall at Bukit Batok. Whether it’s coincidently or not, Botak Jones happened to just set up an outlet in Bukit Batok too, just one bus stop away.
Chicken Parmagian ($7.90)
The chicken paramagian was one of the more expensive item on the menu, other than the steak and the lambchop. There’s cheaper options like the express meal chicken cutlet, chicken chop at $4.80. But for “higher-end” options, the rest are priced at $6.90-$7.90.
Coated with a thick layer of melty cheese and tomatos, the chicken paramagian was quite good, i especially like the melted cheese which tasted great with the crispy chicken. But i did find the layer of tomato sauce, which was in between the cheese and the chicken, a tad sour. You needed to eat the chicken fast as it became soggy after a while. Nonetheless, the generous sides like the mashed potatos, and salad provided a hearty meal.
Crazy Burger ($7.90)
The crazy burger, being one of Crazy Angmo speciality, deserved a try. I think it’s better value for money than the Botak Jones burger, since this came with cheese and egg, while the latter at $8 only had the burger plus one additional topping of either cheese or egg. The Botak Jones burger was $7 at a set, and to add egg and cheese, it’ll be $9 already.
I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of pineapples within the burger, and the melty cheese together with the runny egg was excellent. However, i did find the beef patty being over marinated with pepper. The bun was rather hard and toasted to char. And the fries were simply ordinary and forgettable.
But overall, i did think that the crazy burger at $7.90 was not too bad, and definitely better than Botak burger. The owner Paul was very confident of his burger, “This is the best burger mate!“
Total bill was $15.80 for two western meal sets. Prices are a tad higher than your usual hawker centre western food, but like what i mentioned before, if you compared Botak Jones, Crazy Angmo with the normal western stalls, prices certainly will be more expensive. On the other hand, thinking it as a cafe western food, these stalls will be much cheaper than the cafes and restaurants.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
This is a tale about the chicken and the duck. Yesterday, we have discussed why chicken is more popular than duck. But if you asked me, i’ll tell you i love my ducks more than my chickens. Just ordering half a chicken, i can actually get a bit sick of eating finish the meat, but for duck, i can have the whole duck and i can still carry on.
My friends have always complaint my blog feature nice food from Bukit Batok, is there truly no delicious food around? Actually yes and no, since different people have different taste bud, its quite hard to determine what is considered nice and delicious. But since we are on the topic of chickens and ducks, let me show you what i think is one of the better duck rice in Bukit Batok.
This particular stall is no strangers to Bukit Batok-ians, and even foodies living elsewhere. Their duck is the toast of the crowd, and it always sold out pretty fast, and sometimes if you are there at the wrong time, you’ll need to wait for them to roast the duck as they didn’t roast all their ducks at one go.
Their duck meat was considerately fatter than the normal ones, with a thick layer of fats beneath the unhealthy, yet-so-good duck skin. The meat was tender, and you must eat it together with the fatty skin to get the “oomph” kick! The only gripe - the serving was rather small even for half a duck, you couldn’t get enough of the meat.
Roast pork
I also enjoyed their roast pork, with a super crispy skin. This is no joking matter, biting into the roast pork, will give you the “crisp” sound, that alone would tell you the crunchiness.
Char siew
Their char siew was actually the weaker of the three. Althought it’s rather juicy, but the char siew meat somehow lacked the “wow” factor, and the sight of the bright red colouring also put me off. They also sell soy sauce chicken, but it’s not good compared to the rest.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
One fine day, the duck met the chicken and ask it a question, “why is it that you guys are more popular than us?” The chicken answered confidently, “Of course, we are the superior birds!”…
Have you ever wondered why is chicken more popular than duck? Ask a group of Singaporeans what are among their favourite local delights, and there are bound to be chicken rice, laksa, char kuay teow, and many others. But have you ever heard “Singapore duck rice”?
Looking at the offical statistics will tell a clearer picture, chicken consumed in 2007 was 33.0kg per capital compared to 3.2kg that of duck. That’s like 10 times the difference in the total amount consumed! Right, let’s discuss why chicken, is more popular than duck. First, the methods of preparing chicken are much more than duck, you can fried, steamed, stir-fried, boiled, roasted, chicken, but how about duck? You heard of fried chicken, but is there fried duck?
Half a chicken ($13)
This particular stall in Bukit Batok block 273, always had long queues for their chicken. Actually i did try their chicken for quite a lot of times already but didn’t bother to feature it since you don’t bring your dslr to the market. The chicken was quite good, smooth and tender with the meat being flavourful, but rather on the salty side with the “over-generous” use of the light soy sauce.
The rice was fragrant, and not too oily. And the chili, was red hot spicy! I found it to be one of the more spicy chicken rice chilis around. But even though the chicken rice was quite good, i wouldn’t bother queuing up for it unless i really got the urge. Still, i dared say this is one of the better chicken rice stall around, in Bukit Batok. Watch out for “the tale of the chicken and duck part 2” tomorrow!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
What constitutes to a nice bowl of Teochew Fish Porridge? Ask HFB, and he will tell you its “fresh fish, tasty stock and the grains not overcooked” over and over. Started way back in 1966, HFB would dare say 泉香鱼口粥 (Quan Xiang Fish Porridge), now located at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, is one of the best in the west.
With choices of the usual Batang Fish ($3, $5 and $7) and the pricier Red Garoupa ($5, $7 and $10), what one gets is a bowl of piping hot “Cheng” fish porridge, with a minimum dash of fried shallots. HFB opted for the $5 batang option and it gotten him a good 10 or so slices of fish – even if he finds them too thinly sliced for his liking. Fish slices were smooth and fresh without the lingering fishy smell, but HFB did find it frustrating at the lacked of bite.
The soup though was a delight – it was sweet and light on the palate, and it has HFB’s favourite Tang O, or Garland Chrysanthemum added within – definitely a good choice these days for those feeling under the weather.
The grains were excellently cooked to bite – every grain was firm and not mushy – HFB resisted to call it al dente, but that’s what came closest to mind. And of course, a Teochew Fish Porridge experience cannot be completed without the Fermented Bean Sauce as dip.
Overall, it would have been a satisfying experience if not for the measly serving – would probably opt for 2 portions of $3 instead on my next visit.
You can view all the photos here.
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I've always been an advocate/fan/fanatic/supporter of dim sum so when Dim Joy hopped onto the bandwagon a couple of months back, I was tempted to have a shot at it especially in this recession period where Yan Ting and Royal China are seemingly out of reach for my shallow pockets. Of course it helped that Dim Joy reportedly specialises in dim sum and sells only dim sum items throughout the day - a psychological effect?
And I finally got the chance to dine there on a Saturday morning. Playing anchor to a row of beautifully restored shophouses along Neil Road, Dim Joy oozes sublime old world charm with its facade and simply done up interior that allows natural light in. Cool airconditioning coupled with a nice warm glow from the sunlight make for a soothing and relaxing environment.
Lingnan Egg Tart - Although the lingnan egg tart didn't fall into the buttery crust category which I personally prefer, I have to admit that it was almost in a class of its own. A flaky crust that compounded the oven baked goodness with a smooth, wobbly and not too sweet custard filling that had an almost surreal semi liquid feel. Very delicately done if I may say so.
Savoury Beancurd Skin Roll - Not your usual beancurd skin roll, this one looked like it had tempura batter sporadically coated on it before deep frying. And there was no crackling crispy skin either. Instead, the roll was a tad crisp yet moist, not to mention fragrant with a light savoury aftertaste that complemented the filling of mushroom and radish.
Custard Bun - I wasn't too impressed by Dim Joy's rendition of the custard bun even though the the custard filling was semi molten and oozed out with ease with a break in the skin. The quintessential egg yolk taste was sorely lacking and I could make out some granular substance in the custard which I presume to be partially undissolved sugar (I'm just guessing). There were traces of egg yolk as well from the slightly rough texture but as mentioned earlier, the taste was minimal.
Honey Syrup Char Siew Bao - Unlike the custard bun, the Char Siew Bao was excellent, for lack of a better word. The dough was soft and fluffy with an ample bite to it. However the char siew filling came across as rather lacklustre, mildy sweet from the honey but with a rather high proportion of fat meat in my humble opinion. Having said that, the dough itself is enough to warrant seconds for me (Not that I did though).
Barbecued Pork & Celery in Rice Rolls - The rice roll aka Chee Cheong Fun was a little different from the usual silky smooth ones in that there was an oily finish to it, very much like kway teow or flat noodles. However, as with the char siew bao, the char siew filling in the rice roll was forgettable and overall a rather bland dish.
Century Egg with Lean Pork Congee - I personally dislike century eggs but this porridge was surprisingly decent, especially the pork cubes (actually they looked like chicken cubes), which were tender with a nice salty tinge to it. The porridge itself wasn't too starchy and the ginger slices kept nausea at bay. One serving can feed 2 pax easily.
King Shrimp Har Gao - I would have preferred one large prawn in my har gao instead of 3 medium sized ones but I'm not complaining. The skin did seem a whisker too thick and elastic for my liking but on the upside, the har gao didn't carry the overwhelming prawn taste that plagues alot of har gaos.
Crispy Pumpkin Balls - This came complimentary with every spending of $30 and above. I'm not exactly a big fan of such stuff so I won't comment much except that it reminded me uncannily of those rounded pieces of chewy flour coated with sesame seeds on the outside that are being sold at most dough fritter stalls.
Durian Snow Pearl - This signature dessert reminded me of durian snow skin mooncakes except that the skin on this one was soft and excellent. No elasticity or excessive flour taste that I have a particular disdain for. The skin seemed to meld in rather well with the durian filling and cream when I popped one into my mouth. The only thing I didn't really appreciate about the dessert was the cream, which I personally felt marred the taste a little.
It does seem that Dim Joy is giving the bigger boys a run for their money with its relatively high quality of dim sum at a slightly lower price to boot. The 2 of us spent about $52 for a rather enjoyable and filling dim sum session in a nice soothing environment. Service was good but I wasn't exactly too pleased at being charged $1 for iced water.
See all my pictures here.
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Canelé Patisserie Chocolaterie, the fame dessert restaurant that had been making waves with its delicate and dainty small bites. With the mention of patisserie, the immediate reaction would be Canelé, which tells you something about the reputation that they had built up in a short period of time. Besides cakes and other desserts, Canelé also offered a variety of chocolates.
Canelé Patisserie has done a very good job with its marketing and branding strategy. The chic sounding name, the cool sun-shape logo, coupled with its stylish interior, and of course their “designer” cakes and desserts. Not to mention Canelé is under the Les Amis group, which has strong capital funding to make all these possible.
The miniuscule interior had few seats available. When we went around 3pm, the place was packed fully, and had to be put on the waiting list.
Seating are largely from the Al fresco area, built in mind to create the Parisian road-side cafe ambience, albeit it wasn’t prefect with the busy orchard road, and McDonald located just a stone throw away.
With the inauguration of their latest branch at Shaw centre, this brings the tally to four with the others located at Paragon, Raffles city, and Robertson quay. Like Starbucks, the opening of each outlet almost guaranteed full-house customers. This really makes me wonder why is there no other worthy competitor to come out and vie a share of the market.
Cafe caramel ($8.50)
Milk chocolate coffee mousse, chocolate genoise with expresso, salty caramel and hazelnut feuilitine. Canele’s signature cake with the usage of the salted caramel, which gave an unique taste to it. However, there was only a single layer of salted caramel right in the middle of the cake, which my companion and I felt was a tad too little.
The strong chocolate, with the subtle coffee flavour, overwhelmed the salted caramel taste. But i love the hazelnut feuilitine which added crunchy bites to the cake. Having heard rave reviews for Cafe caramel, it fell short of our expectations. And we felt that the caramel didn’t really compliment the chocolate sponge cake.
Strawberry shortcake ($6.50)
Japanese shortcake sponge, kirsch creme chantitlly, and fresh strawberries. Another famous cake, the strawberry was not very sweet, but it’ll be better if it’s those sweet tasting Japanese imported ones instead. We felt the cake was too tame, there wasn’t much flavour.
However, it could work either way, as it’s good for light tasting, the cream wasn’t overly heavy, the sponge was light, but not for me because i would prefer more intense flavour. Overall I felt it was mediocre as it lacked the kick and “wow” factor. But then again, its strawberry shortcake, what else could you expect?
And how can we forget Macarons? Canele’s ones are divided into two different type, with the classic and the signature flavours. With a total of 12 variety to choose from, I’ll definitely come back to try the rest.
The pricing however, remained a mystery to me. If you would do some simple maths, buying 6 pieces of macarons at $2.3 will be only $13.8 instead of $14.50 per box. So is Canelé charging extra for the cost of the box? I’ll thought that buying more will cost less, since it can encourage sales.
Hazelnut Praline with roasted hazelnut ($2.30)
I told you, i loved my hazelnut! It was an obvious choice when my companion wanted 4 macarons. Hazelnut was supposed to be a safe and full-proof flavour for desserts, not lest macarons. But the one here was rather weak in flavour. The hazelnut taste was mild, and i’ll prefer it to be stronger. Obolo had a stronger case for its hazelnut macarons. Nonetheless, the hazelnut was still detectable, and there’s after taste of it.
Milk Chocolate feullitine ($2.30)
How can anybody resisted the temptation of milk chocolate? Not me, that’s for sure! The silky milk chocolate, with crunchy bites of feullitine, was one of Canele’s signature flavours. There was nothing intriguing about it, just a reliable and safe option to taste the chocolate while munching on the chewy shells.
Rose ($2.30)
We also picked the rose classic flavour for one of our macarons. The first taste of the lovely pinkish delight was subtle, the rose wasn’t very strong. But we did questioned whether real rose was used, as it tasted like rose syrup. Nonetheless, the rose should be a crowd favourite with the ladies.
Salty Caramel ($2.30)
Introducing the saltey caramel once again! Even though we chose the cafe caramel, but we couldn’t miss out having the saltey caramel macarons. Like mentioned above, the salted caramel had a very unique taste, and compared to the Cafe caramel cake, this one was much better as you could taste the saltey caramel, whereby the former was overshadowed by the stronger chocolate companion.
Total bill was $28.45 for 2 cakes and 4 macarons. I’ve to confess, amidst all the high anticipation of Canelé, my first visit fell short of expectations. I think maybe it’s a case of ordering the wrong desserts. Or because i had high hopes, which resulted in the not-as-good outcome. Such is the magic of Canele, that i’ll definitely visit them again to try out the other cakes, even though the first escapade wasn’t really what i want.
There’s plenty of others which i’ll love to try, the le royale, canele pastry, jupitar, and many more. I think the next time round, i’ll probably go to the raffles city branch, since the “in-thing” is to be seen hanging around at their Shaw centre branch, seats are hard to get here. And one thing i noted, if the area behind that is housing The Canteen (another Les Amis restaurant), is used to expand Canelé instead, i’m pretty sure it will also fill up pretty easily.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
It’s dim sum time again! This time we are heading to Zhou’s Kitchen, a mid-tier casual Chinese restaurant under Tung Lok group (TLG). Judging by its menu and interior, it is clear that Zhou’s Kitchen caters to the palates and pockets of diners from all walks of life. For its Anchorpoint branch, Zhou’s Kitchen is uniquely housed in a separate double-storey building known as the ‘Copperdome’, just outside the sub-urban shopping mall. There’s also two other outlets at Square 2 and Far east square.
Zhou’s Kitchen caught my attention mainly because of their high tea buffet which is at $16.80 per head. Initially when they just launched this buffet, it was only on weekends, but they had since included in weekdays as well.
The interior was simple and decorated according to their theme of orange and green. There’s a total of 34 items to choose from the menu, which included some appetisers, soup, dim sum, rice & noodles, and desserts.
Prawn Crackers ($3 for 3 pax)
Zhou’s Kitchen provided prawn crackers for us to munch while waiting for the dim sum to be served. And just in case you’re thinking, they were not free. They charged us $3 for them since we had 3 person, so i guess its by head count.
Wonton
We was expecting wonton but it came in the form of the fried wonton skin instead. Fillings were minimum, but the sweet tangy sauce that accompanied the fried crispy skin was not too bad to start your meal.
Beef slices
I didn’t know what to make of this, i felt that the beef slices was average, the taste was forgettable, but then again, my friends thought it was not bad.
Salad prawn with mixed fruits
I’m a sucker for salad, so anything with salad wouldn’t taste that bad to me. The salad prawns were crunchy, a refreshing appetiser. But no doubt too much of good things could turn out to be bad too, as the salad dressings would be quite heavy.
Drunken chicken
This was easily the most unmemorable dish out of all the ones we had. Drunken chicken? Like what my friend said, it tasted more like “pig tails” to us (not that we had eaten pig tails before).
Pan fried chive dumplings with chicken
I ain’t a fan of chives, so anything from me about chives dumplings would surely be negative. You need to try this for yourself to find out.
Mini Egg tarts
Now, this is the real deal. By far one of the better dim sum i’ve for this meal, the mini egg tarts beared a reminiscent to the ones i had at Wah Lok, smooth and eggy fillings. And like before, mini egg tarts only posed the problem of being too small. But hey, we’re having dim sum buffet, this was all-you-can-eat, so no issue there. I lost count of the egg tarts i eaten that day.
Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings
As always, there’s pork, shrimp, fish roe in the Siew Mai. But Zhou’s rendition had a twist by adding in mushrooms as well. Although the taste of mushroom within siew mai didn’t really enhanced the flavour, but you got to give it to them for doing something different from the norm.
Steamed BBQ pork bun
Any char siew buns which had three parts would do for me. The one here was not bad, and although its very filling eating buns, i couldn’t help myself to two of them.
Steamed shrimp dumplings
The shrimp was good, crunchy and fresh. However, the skin was too thick and sticked to the teeth after eating it. But if you just wanted to make the most for your money, just order and eat as much as you can. Otherwise, i wouldn’t eat too much of it as the overly thick skin made me feel sick of dim sum.
Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce
I always didn’t fancy ordering steam pork ribs, since there’s always hardly any meat on this type of steamed ribs, and unlike those “pork ribs king” which are popular in Zi-char stores, there’s nothing for you to chew on the bones here.
Fried rice with chicken and salted fish
The fried rice was surprisingly quite good, the wok flavour was evident with every grain of rice, and the clever use of salted fish did enhanced the taste of the fried rice. I’ll have ordered second servings if not for the fact that rices were very filling.
Deep fried prawn paste chicken
Their deep fried chicken marinated with prawn paste sauce, or Har Cheong Kai, was a laughing joke. The chicken was skinny, bare to the bones, the prawn paste was weak. I could hardly finish one chicken wing. Period.
Baked flaky BBQ pork pastry
The bbq pork pastry, or char siew sou, fared better than the rest. Although not excellent, but it’s still worth having second helpings if you are a fan of char siew sou like me.
Steamed custard bun
Their steamed custard buns brought back bad memories like the ones i had at Victor’s, the custard wasn’t cold, but they were very hard, unlike those good ones which had warm custard fillings oozing out with the lightest break of the bun.
Total bill was $66.30 for 3 person, which worked out to be around $22 per person. TLG is well-known in the local culinary scenes with their chains of restaurants, thus i was thinking Zhou’s kitchen couldn’t be that bad. But having been there, ate that, i would say their dim sum wasn’t worth the effort.
No doubt it’s cheap for all-you-can-eat buffets, you can gorge yourself silly, but i’ll rather eat less in quantity, and more in quality. I won’t bother going back again for their dim sum buffet, for a short while, i even felt sick of dim sum after eating so much that day, that’s why i disliked buffets, especially so if the food ain’t good. And by the way, there were 34 items, we tried quite many of them, but i didn’t show all the pictures out since the rest was either not worth mentioning, or we didn’t try them.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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