One hit wonder?

Perhaps it's having too high hopes after a good meal.
I went back to Ichibantei and tried their black pork ramen. Sadly, it wasn't as tasty as the Tonkotsu ramen I tried. The soup wasn't as satisfying and I thought that the pork was too thinly sliced for it to be shiok.

Is Ichibantei a one hit wonder restaurant with only one good offering on its menu? After all, I also didn't fancy their Miso Ramen. I guess it might be a one hit sensation, but I will still gladly return for their Tonkotsu ramen.

Thai food

I had the Claypot Seafood Tang Hoon. It was just another meal... in another chain restaurant... no shiok factor while eating the food.

Also I don't get the napkin at Thai Cafe...

A filling meal

This is a really full set. Beef hotplate, mini udon, tempura, lobster toufu salad, chwanmushi. The beef was blah... and its got too much fat. The rest of the food was so-so. But I guess it's quite value for money at Sake Sushi.

Roasted Meat

This is how $50 of char siew, chicken, duck and fatty pork looks like when it's finished.

Not exactly the shiokest meal.

Not exactly the cheapest meal.

But it was indeed a FILLING meal.

It was torturous keeping awake in the office after.

Ichibantei

My friend told me about this little restaurant near my office that serves really good ramen. I had to try it. And I loved it.

Ichibantei's Tonkotsu Ramen is definitely a pleaser. The best is the soup - don't be deceived by its cloudy, milky colour. One sip of the soup and I was hooked - rich and flavourful, I literally finished the entire bowl of soup. The pork slices were also nice and tender, with little strips of fat at the side that melts in your mouth! One small thing was that it's egg was not as well done as it should be.

My friend ordered the Miso Ramen. It's not as good as the Tonkotsu Ramen. So remember, order the Tonkotsu version at Ichibantei!

Rabbit Food

In Circular Road, there is a restaurant called Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies .

But they might as well call the place Rabbit Food Restaurant.

Their approach to business is 'cheap seafood delicacies'. So a bowl of shark's fin set (rice & dessert) costs $5.50. As does a abalone set or a lobster set... you get the picture.

Sure. These are usually expensive items in a typical chinese restaurant. There is no enjoyment derived from consuming the food there because there is no pride in the preparation of food. It becomes a place to have an opportunity to eat usually expensive food at a cheap price.

My colleague's Tom Yam Seafood soup tasted like it was made from the MSG powder in the Tom Yam flavoured instant noodles. I think rabbit food of raw carrots would have been more edible.

My braised sea cucumber with lingzhi mushrooms was slightly better.

School Holidays

When I was schooling, I loved the school holidays.

Now I am working.

But I still love the school holidays.

Coz the roads are clear,

and the trains are empty,

and commuting is such a breeze.

Here fishy fishy

Right in the heart of the city is Amoy Market and in Amoy market is Han Kee fish soup stall.

As the saying goes, judge the hawker stall by the length of its queue. This stall's queue snaked all the way to 4 stall lengths!

And anyone who wanted a taste of Han Kee Fish Soup had to wait at least 20 minutes in hot & humid conditions to get to their bowl of soup. And everyone does. Dressed up in their office attire, girls with full make up and all, everyone obediently and patiently waited for their soups.

The 20 minute wait was well worth it! The soup had a peppery punch and was really one of the best I've eaten. Fish slices was fresh, tender and generous, the lettuce was crunchy and the fried garlic and coriander leaves were perfect accompaniments to the soup!

It would have been perfect if I had eaten the soup on a cold rainy day. But on that hot and sunny Friday, the culinary experience was still great.

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee

Don't be deceived by it's simple (and somewhat primary school appropriate) plastic bowls. For in it contains the BEST Ba Chor Mee ever!


Generous helpings of meat and mushrooms with plump pork dumplings and springy noodles. Yummy! Wished they had the fried dumpling version. It would be sooo much nicer.


And the shop is rightfully decorated with cutouts of many many newspaper articles and food show recommendations!

Pairs

2 different sets of friends went to the USA. Both came back with the exact same souvenir. Love that they love me, but what am I going to do with 2 name plates of me?

One will be at home, and the other in the office I guess.

I am an Actor!

Some of you may remember my post a few weeks back on the wedding montage for John & Yanleen. Well, yesterday they gave me a dvd of the shoot and here is my portion!

This 1 minute clip took us more than an hour to shoot! I now understand: Life as an actor is not all glamour. It is tough work with all the retakes and different angle shots. But the output is well worth it.

Unhealthy Yong Tau Fu

Normally, I would take Yong Tau Fu in a food court when I am feeling that I should go on a diet after eating a few rich or heavy meals. So when I was introduced to THE unhealthy yong tau fu - where everything was fried - I was a bit skeptical. Why would people wanna eat yong tau fu where all the ingredients were deep fried?


Now, I was very pleasantly surprised when I was at Fu Lin Tou Tu Yuan. The items were very fresh! Usually, those at the food court would taste stale. I once bit into sour tou fu - not the most pleasant experience. Besides the freshness, I actually appreciated that the items were deep fried! It added a nice crispy edge to the silken tou fu and other items! I likie.


Now the only small complains were that the 'special meat & mushroom sauce' was mostly sauce and lacked the meat and mushrooms. But hey, the sauce was free, so no big complains. Also they only had it in thick bee hoon, which I am not a fan of, or rice. I would have very much liked it with yellow noodles.


But all in all, it was a great meal!

My Bishop's favourite restaurant

We were in the Serangoon area looking for a place to eat and my dad suddenly pointed out - that restaurant there is our Bishop John Chew's favourite restaurant. And it was decided, we were going there to find out what this Yuan Xing teochew restaurant was all about.

We ordered Goose meat, Kong Ba Bao and Spinach. The verdict: My Bishop has good taste in food!

The restaurant was pretty generous with the goose meat. The meat was juicy - just that the layer of oil floating on the sauce was a put off to me. But I can look pass that and enjoy the meat and also the tou fu.

Spinach was also good.

But my favourite was the Kong Ba Bao! Shiok! And although I know it's bad for me, I took it as it was, fat and all. The meat and the fat was melt-in-your-mouth. And the bun went well with the saltiness of the meat and sauce.

on the feet

Nice splash of colour anchoring her look, but not too sure about the use of Nike dunks to add the colour. Perhaps heels in that combination of colours would be prettier.

Linen vest

Japanese men can get away with anything. Plucked eyebrows, skin tight jeans, permed hair. This gentleman here rocked his linen vest. Perfect accessory for layering in Singapore's hot weather. Now, where do I get me one?

Hot meal on a hot day

A colleague from Shenzhen was in our office for a week. "I want to have a taste of the local cuisine" he said when we asked where he wanted to go for lunch.

So after some thought (I emphasize on some thought for if we have thought harder, we won't have brought him to eat spicy food in 35 degree weather), we brought him to a nasi padang stall at Circular Road.

It was a feast! We chowed on beef rendang, green curry chicken, long beans, sweet potato leaves, ikan bilis and potato balls! Practically very thing was spicy. Perspired buckets but I must say it was almost worth it coz the food was sedap and our guest had his taste of the local cuisine.

PDofA

PDofA

Yay or Nay?

It's part of taking public transport. Having people blatantly making out in front of you. But I've noticed that this occurs more often on the trains than on the bus. It can range from the cute, I once saw 2 people sitting opposite me passing M&Ms to each other orally, to the in-your-face making out. Can 2 people be so eager to get into each other's pants that they are oblivious that they are intruding into our space too?

It's the best burger!

It's one of those moments when I've discovered something good and I wanna share it with the world!

It was the BFB. 2 beef patties, steaky bacon, 1 egg, edam cheese, all sorts of vegetables & Berg's secret sauce!

Everything was a match made in heaven! The juiciness of the beef, the sharpness of the edam cheese, aroma of bacon. My mouth is watering as I'm typing this. And who would have thought to put beetroot in a burger? It provided just the right amount of sweetness to this savory burger!

Just one teeny tweeny complain: the bottom bun was soggy.. probably from the water in the veggies. If this were fixed, the burger would truly be the best I've had.

Oh... don't forget the fries! Golden, plump, crispy and salty. Just perfect!

on guard!

A sad looking security guard on his way to work at 7:30am. Someone's not looking forward to going to work!