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This morning I had breakfast with my brother at our favourite hangout: a traditional quaint coffeeshop. We often patron this coffeeshop for its aromatic coffee and delicious kaya toast. It goes all the way down in our family line - where my late grandfather used to drink coffee at this coffeeshop - and now we, the third generation, are drinking coffee from the same coffeeshop.
So anyway, my brother ordered the usual order of a coffee, two slices of kaya toast and two soft-boiled eggs. As for me, I ordered fried carrot cake (S$2.50) from another stall and also my usual coffee.
Then, something funny happened. After I told the auntie about my order, I went back to my table. I waited for about 5 minutes and my carrot cake still hasn't arrived on the table. It was a mystery as the place wasn't really crowded. Furthermore, my brother almost finished up his breakfast. So I went back again and guess what, after I asked her about my order, her jaws dropped and without any word spoken, I understood her body language that says, "Oh my God, I forgot about your order!" I just grinned.
In the later part of the day, I went to have the famous Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Noodle. It's situated at Purvis Street where the Hainanese people (my dialect roots) used to stay when they arrived in Singapore (then Nanyang). It wasn't crowded when I went there (read: 3pm) and after reading the menu, I ordered the dry beef noodles (S$5, small) and it comes with a bowl of soup.
The dry beef noodles over here is different from the normal beef noodles stalls. It comes with strips of Szechuan Vegetable, bean sprout and a spoonful crushed peanuts. The gravy is much lighter here and after mixing with all the ingredients, it's neither salty nor bland. It means the combination is just nice. The only thing I pick a bone at is that the price is too exorbitant.
When my dad came back home last night, he surprised me with two durians. I was soo delighted! In fact, I was grinning from ear to ear. Since the durian season is happening currently, there is this frenzy about durians.
There are so many kinds of durians nowadays - there is the 'Maoshan Wang' durian and of course, other ordinary durians - I may not be durian-educated but I just lurve the king of the fruits. The sharp thorns fail to dissuade me from eating it.
My dad carefully cracked open the Maoshan Wang durian (S$20, prices vary) for me and my mum to devour. The aroma of the durian was amazing! Here is how it looked inside of the thorny shell.
The flesh was really bittersweet - in the first bite, it taste sweet and after that, it's bitter - and it's really good.
However, we need to eat in moderation otherwise it will cause dry throat or sore throat if we overeat on durians. And make sure that you drink lots of water after the eating session.
As my friend, Gin and I were surveying places at Orchard Road for some good eating places, we chanced upon Nihon Mura Restaurant at The Cathay. We haven't been there before and so we thought, it would be a good place for us to dine. Soon after, another of our friend, Ellie joined us in this new food eatery endeavor.
We realised that there is a high tea buffet from 2.30pm to 5.30pm and since we were early, we decided to wait for the arrival of 2.30pm, instead of eating food from the ala carte menu. At the stroke of 2.30pm, we studied the menu of the high tea buffet. As we were a trio of hungry people, we ordered as many dishes as possible in order to maximise our dollars.
Here are some of the dishes which we ordered:
Chawanmushi
Ellie ordered this steamed egg custard which had Japanese fishcake, mushrooms, crabmeat and etc.
Udon
I decided to have a noodle dish to accompany the other deep fried food. This dish tasted ordinary but it was not too bad for my liking as well.
The Sotong and Ebi Platter
Sotong
Ebi
All of us enjoyed eating this platter despite the fact that the wait staff might have mixed up with our Sotong order. The platter was really huge and we ended trying to finish off everything. As much as we tried, we couldn't.
Straw Mushrooms wrapped with Bacon Yakitori
Gin ordered this particular dish and surprisingly it was good. The combination between the salty bacon and bland straw mushrooms worked well.
Deep Fried Squid Balls
We had no idea who ordered this dish (no kidding!). In the end, we surmised that the wait staff may have mistook our other dish for this.
Raw Salmon
Gin's favourite dish. No comments on this as I don't really like anything raw.
Squid Yakitori with Fish Roe
When this arrived up on our table, we looked at it with curiosity. But Gin took the plunge and ate it. She managed to eat two sticks of it. Ellie commented that it looked like a lizard.
Agedashi Tofu
It's actually a deep fried tofu and it's drizzled with soya sauce and seaweed. The taste is neither bland nor bitter. It tastes just right.
Potato Korokke
Also termed as Japanese Potato Croqutte, this dish was so good. I really like it! There was a karaage by the side of this side. The chicken was nice too.
Unagi Sushi
The only dampener is this sushi in our meal. There wasn't any meat found in the unagi and I felt like I was eating the skin only. Subsequently, I ate the rice. In fact, the sushi dishes were kinda disappointing.
Sesame Mochi
This dish was the last item for me as by this time, my stomach was pretty filled. Ellie told me she saw this strange mochi and its strangeness prompted me to try. Once I bit into the soft mochi, red bean filling was revealed. It was wholesome! Most of the mochi were really good.
We paid about S$14.90++ (exclusive of GST & Service charge) and we found the whole experience acceptable.
Nihon Mura Restaurant is located at The Cathay, 2 Handy Road #B2-04. There are other outlets as well. The high tea buffet starts from 2.30pm - 5.30pm and with free flow of tea and soft drink.
While on the way back from sending my brother, my dad happened to pass by a Dim Sum stall in one of the coffeeshops at Transit Road. He ordered a Big Pau (S$1.70) only as he thought I might like it for my supper. True enough, I was elated to see the Big Pau in the styrofoam box.
The Big Pau consists of chunks of chicken thigh meats which are marinated with sesame oil, soya sauce, pepper and spring onions and eggs. I always forward eating big pau because of the white and the fluffiness skin. It's like sleeping on a fluffy cloud. The minute I cut open the pau, the skin got peeled by itself. Awesome!
Due to my work commitments last week, I wasn't able to update my food blog regularly. But here are the food pictures of what I ate last week.
Last Thursday - I had fried rice for lunch. I threw in some canned luncheon meat, cabbage and broke an egg into the rice which made it so good. When you put luncheon meat into the rice, nothing will go wrong. I didn't use the famous 'Ma Ling' brand of luncheon meat, instead, I used 'Tulip' brand. I believe the 'Ma Ling' saga is still not over yet because there is no signs of this brand on the supermarket's shelves.
Anyway, while I was desperately trying to get the luncheon meat out of the metal tin, I accidentally injured my right thumb. Guess I was too hungry then. Fancy to call myself an accident-prone cook.
Yesterday - It was a wet morning when I woke up. On my bed, I wished I could sleep a little longer but sadly, I have something on in the late morning. Hence, I forced myself out of the bed. On a lighter note, my beloved mum bought chee cheong fun (S$1.10) and yam pau (S$0.60) from the Shunfu Market for me. So sweet of her!
Chee Cheong Fun is actually made of rice flour and usually, it needs to be steamed and then it gets roll like a swiss roll cake. Normally, the stallholder would drizzle some sweet dark sauce onto the chee cheong fun and sprinkle sesame seeds on it as well.
The yam pau comes in purple colour although the skin wasn't made of yam. I believe the pau maker added a few drips of purple colouring into it.
The inside of the pau was a mixture of yam and lotus paste but anyway, it's sweet and good. Nothing beats having a traditional Singaporean breakfast on a rainy day.
At times, I have a craving for instant noodles despite the fact that it's unhealthy to indulge in this kind of junk food. So today was one of those days when my tummy craved for instant noodles.
I cooked a packet of Nong Sim Mushroom Flavour Ramen and I threw slices of fishcake, vegetables and beaten egg into the pot. I tried my best not to empty the entire MSG soup base so as to prevent myself from drinking lots of water after that.
On Father's Day, my dad had a real treat of my mum's homemade carrot cake. Whenever there is any occasions within the family like farewell party or Chinese New Year, my mum would bake all kinds of cake for us and we are so privilege to eat her cakes.
The cake was really good. I have always enjoy eating my mum's homemade cakes since I was a kid. I even once suggested that she should open her own bakery but she always shrugged it off. Anyway, my dad commented that the carrot cake was a little sweet.
As for dinner, we went to have chicken rice at Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant at Upper Thomson Road. My dad didn't want any fancy restaurants except for all of us to dine together as a family. That's his wish for Father's Day.
We had half steamed chicken (S$12). They ran out of roasted chicken though I wanted to eat it so badly. I'm a roasted chicken fan man! The cook chopped up the drumstick and thigh meat for us even though I prefer breast meat. Okay, looks like I am quite a fussy eater.
We also ordered other dishes besides the steamed chicken. I ordered the Salad Youtiao (S$4 for small serving) which had the youtiao filled with fish paste and then deep-fried. It was served with mayonnaise as a dipping sauce.
My brother ordered his all-time favourite Sweet and Sour Pork (S$8). Sadly, there wasn't any pineapple found in the tomato-based gravy.
My dad ordered the Broccoli with garlic (S$8). I didn't get to taste this one as I hate the taste of Broccoli. I prefer Cauliflower to Broccoli.
Our additional dishes were supposed to end here when the friendly waiting staff suggested that we ordered their specialty dish called Hometown Tofu (S$6 for small serving). My mum got influenced by this suggestion and soon, it ended up on our table as well. To my surprise, the tofu was quite tasty. When I cut open the tofu, it was silky on the inside and crispy on the outside. Yummy!
At the end of the meal, the bill came up reasonably and my dad was pleased with it without burning his pocket on his day!
Yesterday, I had a beef noodles set (S$5.00) at Raffles City Food Junction. I had been going there practically everyday as I am presently stationed to work at Raffles City until Thursday. Thus, I have been visiting many shops and eateries in that place since the beginning of this month and nope, I am still not bored by the place as of yet. Anyway, about the beef noodles set, it consists of a bowl of beef noodles (dry) and a bowl of beef balls soup. My friend, Dawn commented that it looks good.
The taste of the noodles and the beef slices was not too bad. The thick dark gravy was just nice. I like the fact that the gravy is thick and not thin. It's almost like eating Lor Mee. However, it would be better if there are some minced garlic to go along with the noodles.
The soup was a little too salty for my liking. The beef balls taste weird too and perhaps, I don't really like to eat beef balls.
For my dessert, I had Strawberry White Chocolate donut from Donut Factory at Basement One. After trying most of the donuts from this shop, this particular donut is the only donut which has the similar taste of the Krispy Kreme's strawberry-filled donut.
Speaking of donuts, Donut Factory is the donut shop that sparked off the donuts frenzy islandwide. It was said that when Dunkin' Donuts opened in the 90s, there wasn't as much frenzy as Donut Factory. Last year, people queued more than 3 hours just to get boxes of donuts. But presently, there are two donuts shops in Raffles City's Basement One - J.Co Donuts & Coffee and Donut Factory. So I tried both out. For J.Co Donuts & Coffee, I tried the Tiramisu flavour (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of it) . Well, comparing the both donuts, I realised there isn't any difference. They taste almost the same.
But I am still hoping that Krispy Kreme would arrive in this part of the world! Perhaps, I don't mind queuing 3 hours to get boxes of donuts.
On Sunday's morning, I had Flosses Buns from BreadTalk. I had a sudden craving for it without knowing why but I guess when you have craving for something, you would just go out and buy your craving without thinking. So I went into BreadTalk @ Citylink the night before and got two flosses buns - a non-spicy and spicy one. I forgot to snap a photo of the non-spicy one.
The Fire Flosses Bun (S$1.50) was littered with spicy pork flosses. I reckoned that the fiery bits are made up of hae bee hiam [spicy dried prawns]. I enjoyed every bite of flosses and the bun. Yummy!
On the same day, it was also the Dragon Boat Festival (also called Duan Wu Festival) where people commemorate the Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan for his patriotic deeds. It's also the day where Dragon Boat race is being held.
My mum bought a bunch of nonya dumplings from the nearby shop. I remembered my late grandmother used to make a lot of dumplings with extraordinary flavour like spicy dumplings. During this period, most of my aunties would help her with all the wrapping of the dumplings. Well, since I can't wrap, I just eat them up.
Here is the innards of the dumpling. It's filled with strips of winter melon, marinated pork and etc. Quite nice.
A trivia: Well, story goes back to ancient China during the Warring States period when Qu Yuan was a minister in state of Chu. He loved his country immensely. Thus, when his country was being captured by state of Qin, he threw himself into the Miluo River as a way of protest against corruption. And because the people loved him so much, they threw dumplings into the river so that the fishes won't eat Qu Yuan's body.
That's how Dragon Boat Festival was derived from.
Last Thursday, I had soup for dinner. Being an Asian, my dinner sample often consists of rice and a few dishes - fish, vegetables, meat and etc. We do have soups in our meals but we don't really drink soups as our dinner. So when my friend, Ivy suggested that we dine at Soup Spoon, I hesitated a little.
It was packed at Soup Spoon @ Raffles City when we got there. We weren't surprising as it was dinnertime and most of the office executives or families were all eating at the available eateries. Fortunately, some patrons were nice enough to give up their seats for us. Since I'm a first-timer in dining at Soup Spoon, I took a peek at the menu and we decided to order a SouperValue Combo Meal which consists of a soup, half-sandwiches/roll and drinks/snacks.
I had Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff Soup, Smoked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches and a packet of LAYS Potato Chips (S$10.05).
My Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff Soup
Smoked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
Ivy ordered Boston Clam Chowder, Mushroom Pesto Sandwiches and a ice-lemon tea (S$10.05).
I regretted choosing the Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff Soup as it was so thick and had a strong mushroom taste. I drank about half a bowl and then I stopped. Ivy commented that the thick mushroom soup could be made into a face mask.
Perhaps, I should have choose Boston Clam Chowder or something else. The Smoked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches was kinda letdown. First of all, it was delivered late on our table. The wait staff was really patient to listen despite my incessant asking. Secondly, I was hoping for melting cheese instead of the usual slice cheese which I can get from the supermarket.
Time flies. In a wink of an eye, we are living in the month of June. Whenever I thought about June, I thought of camps, school holidays, jobs and etc. It's like living in a paradise.
2/06/08 - I had tomato spaghetti with some leftover food for lunch. I was so lazy that I didn't really whip up a meal from scratch. After my lunch, I headed for my work. But I couldn't help anticipating for my dinner appointment with my two friends, Aaron and his wife, Nam.
We decided to have dinner together and do some catching up one another after my work. Aaron and Nam decided to dine at Seah Street Deli at Raffles Hotel. Being a 'country pumpkin', I have not dine at any restaurants in Raffles Hotel. It's too expensive for me to eat at Raffles Hotel unless I have a huge paycheck. Anyhow, Seah Street Deli is like the American kind of typical diner where there is a jukebox, a metal serviette dispenser, black and white flooring and the decor of the place looks really laidback. The only missing part is a waitress with rollerskates. The service and ambience were really friendly and comfortable.
Aaron and Nam had their dinner before I came in apologetically for being late. After looking at the menu for the longest time of my life, I ordered the Seah Street Burger (S$14.95). It comes with a thick beef patties, two big buns, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and french fries. My beef patties was well done as I can't really eat anything that isn't well-done esp. beef. Which is why I think I can't really appreciate beef steak. I'm not even thinking of visiting Morton Chicago Grill. For the first time, I managed to finish up my burger. The taste was not too bad after all. I always have a disdain for burgers in a restaurant but I guess they have changed my mind.
For dessert, Nam ordered the Chocolate Decadence (S$11.95) and it was good! The portion was pretty huge which was why the waitress suggested that we order a piece and share among ourselves. The cake was dense, just like brownie and in between the layers, it was spread with strawberry jam. Sadly, we couldn't finish up the cake.
I don't think I will ever go back to the restaurant again presently because the prices are exorbitant. Perhaps, I will go when I have the money. But as for now, thanks Aaron and Nam for treating me for this meal.
