the best steamboat in town

In my humble opintion, the best steamboat in town are the ones that Coca Restaurant. The quality of the food is good (my favourites are the thin sliced beef and pork), the 'secret sauce' is excellent. But what's most important, you don't leave the resturant smelling like you just walked out of an oily restaurant. I onced went to a hole in the wall steamboat place in a Bugis shophouse and I stank when I left the restaurant. Even after showering, my hair still smelled of the steamboat restaurant.

We choose the to yam soup base - not too spicy. Good for me.

As you can see, I ate a ton of prawns. And also beef and pork...... sigh

a nice break

I was attending a course and during the break, they served us my favourite ang ku kueh from the stall at Alexandra! Now that's was a memorable tea break.
From the left, red salted tao sar, black salted tao sar, peanut (my favourite).

upgrade

Just for you guys, I upgraded my phone to one with a higher resolution camera so that I can take nicer pictures for this blog. hahahaha..

5 Years Old

Thad turns 5.

Party was in West Coast Park.

And I have no idea who Spark is.

But I had a great time flying kites, eating nasi lemak and assembling a pinata!

Desserts & Coffee for tea

I was in charge of organising the semi annual gathering of my Uni friends. It's really hard to coordinate the schedules, especially among a mother, post grad student. 2 newly weds, 1 engaged and 2 hot young things still dating.

But I managed to get most down for an outing. So the next issue: where to meet? I decided on Marmalade Pantry after doing a lot of research. Coz we were meeting at 3pm. So it's wither a High Tea buffet, jostling with the crowd for seats at Starbucks, or having a nice High Tea set at one of the restaurants I've heard so much about but never tried. I choose option 3.

I did research: the online menu said that their High Tea set was served 'everyday'. So I assumed it included Saturdays. But no... When we reached there, we were told it was only weekdays. Oh well....

But I must say, the food there is pretty good. The number 1 item we ordered was most definitely the Toffee Date Pudding. Yummy, sticky, chewy, warm - it was the perfect pudding. And the touch of cold vanilla ice cream against the warm pudding was just heavenly.

Next was a HUGE Chocolate Fudge cake which was better served warm. Word of advise: order to share. :)
The carrot cake with cream cheese topping was quite good too. But not as impressionable was the pudding and the chocolate cake.
Oh... I also judge a restaurant by the quality of coffee they serve and I am please to say that Marmalade Pantry's coffee meets the mark. It's full bodied and aromatic. The perfect pick me up on a lazy Saturday afternoon spent catching up with old friends.

Taiwan Noodles

Most of the stalls in the Koufu food court in Market Street are closed. The only stall that seems to be thriving is the Fish Dumpling Noodle stall. But I decided to give another stall a go, hoping that I can uncover a gem of a food stall.

Enter Taiwanese Noodles Stall. I have no idea if this is an authentic representation of Taiwanese noodles, or if it was some interpretation of the original variety. Either way, I am not a big fan.

Noodle broth was weak and tasted like it was made out of MSG. Plus the accompanying beef stew had a layer of oil floating on top of it. Not very healthy. I must say that they were quite generous with the beef chunks but they were not tasty at all...

Tao Sa Piah

I may be a banana. I love ang moh food, especially Italian cuisine. But I still appreciate Oriental food & snacks.

Inside this obiang pink box are the most delicious tao sa piah pasteries I've ever tasted!

The crust is prefect: crispy and flakey and buttery. And the filling is really shiok salted tao sa. Yum!

Awful beef sandwich

I've been slacking on posting new entries. Not because I have nothing to post. But coz I was really busy with other stuff.. .
So I'll start off with a short post: This sandwich bought at the sandwich shop at the bottom of Equity Plaza is probably one of the most awful sandwiches I've eaten.

The meat was way too thick and tough and lacked flavour. Bread was dry and airy. The whole combination was just bad...

Quiznos Subs

I was riding on the train and I saw a 1 for 1 Quiznos flyer hanging on the train handles. I took one and decided to give it a try since a branch is only 30m from my office building.

I went down with my friend and tried their Roast Beef and Cheddar sub. My verdict: juicy, yummy, but a little salty. I wished they were more generous with their beef - it wasn't really a meaty and satisfying lunch. But I must say that the flavours in the sandwich were rich and quite good.

I was quite impressed with the oven: this huge custom oven with a built in belt that the staff pops the sandwich in at one end and another staff receives it at the other end.

an air freshener in your mouth

My colleague went to Turkey and came back with a box of turkish delight. I remember when I was 11, reading CS Lewis's The Lion Witch and Wardrobe, a character was eating turkish delight. CS Lewis described it as if it were the most delicious sweet in the world. But my experiences with Turkish Delight was blah (Cadbury Dairy Milk's Turkish Delight and Arnott's Turkish Delight Tim Tams) So I was pretty excited when she came back with 2 boxes of Turkish Delight.

The first box was really good. It was Pistachio Turkish Delight. I think the crunchy and slightly salty pistachio nicely complemented the sweet and sticky turkish delight. And the whole sweet was covered with white icing sugar.

But the second box was less well received. It came in 4 flavours: Rose Strawberry, Mint and Lemon. I meant to take Strawberry but since I can't read Turkish, I picked the sweet in the pink wrapper thinking it was strawberry. It was Rose.
I popped the sweet in my mouth and the rose was OVERPOWERING! It was literally like popping an air freshener into my mouth! The flavour was strong - to the point where it hit my nose. Something like having an extra large serving of wasabi with your sashimi.
The mint flavour wasn't as strong as the rose. But generally, both flavours were really sweet and stuck-to-your-teeth-and-roof-of-your-mouth-sticky.

when they look better than they taste

It was a friend's birthday and we had a mini celebration! We got these mini cupcakes that looked so pretty. But with good looks comes high expectations. The cupcakes didn't taste quite as good as they looked. They were a tad dry and the sugar frosting was, well... sugary and tasteless...

However, we also got an old faithful: the Da Paolo Tiramisu! That is a tried and tested cake. Love the layers of sponge, cream & kahlua.

it's my comfort food!

I was thinking about it and I think that Kway Chap is my comfort food! A good bowl of kawy chap never fails to cheer me up! And I have discovered a great stall that serves one of the best kawy chap! It's in the market at Toa Payoh Lorong 8.

Look at this glorious plate of pig innards. I cannot fully describe it but devouring these innards is shiok!!

San Lou Hor Fan

Had a craving for San Lou Hor Fan for the longest time. I tried to get my fix a few times but each time it was sold out! Sigh... So I just grabbed the chance when it rose on the next lunch outing.

It was to a coffee shop near the junction of Cross St and South Beach Rd. Well, the price was reasonable ($4.50), the portions was sufficient. But it lacked the oomph of a great san lou hor fan!

Plus it was SWIMMING in oil. Not cool.

Ang Ku Kueh

One of my most favourite kueh is the Ang Ku Kueh. I really cannot say no to a good peanut ang ku kueh. The tao sa and lotus paste versions are also good too!

We were on our way back on a taxi from a meeting in Comtec when my colleague suddenly decided to make a detour to Alexandra to buy some. Again, this gem of a stall is located next to an industrial estate filled with car workshops. (what's with industrial estates with car workshops having good food??)

They hand make their Ang Ku Kuehs and each piece is divine! The skin is not too think and chewy. It breaks easily to reveal generous fillings of peanut or tau sa. I think the yellow one was durian - didn't get to try that one!

My humble verdict? Absolutely worth the detour!

The New Ubin Seafood!

This place is hidden in an industrial estate in Sin Ming, next to car workshops. When we park there, we park next to mangled up cars - I mean totally crushed, BER cars! So who would have thought that this industrial estate would host such gem of a restaurant?

This is the STAR ITEM on its menu. The fried pork knuckle! Yup! I'm literally salivating as I type this. The crispiest pork skin, together with the tenderest of meat with layers of glorious and juicy fat sandwiched in between. Every bite is heavenly! It's best paired with the black pepper sauce which has a hint of alcohol! (the Thai Chili sauce isn't as shiok). Of you'll notice, at the background is fried squid and claypot toufu - both very yummy too!

The next best item: their Crab Bee Hoon. The bee hoon is cooked with the crab and a bit of ginger so it's infused with the crab essence and ginger sauce - totally YUMMY!
And not forgetting the crab - beyond words to describe the yumminess...
This is the butter crab! Quite shiok too! We also ordered another artery clogging dish: salted egg yolk crab. But at that point my hands were too oily from eating the crabs to take a picture!

Tian Tian Chicken Rice

The search for a seat is stressful, the queue for the chicken rice is long & Maxwell market is really far away. So it takes quite a lot for me to head there for Tian Tian Chicken Rice.

I am not a big fan of the chicken rice to begin with. But the meat is really tender and juicy. And because the chicken was swimming in a small pool of sesame seed oil and soy sauce, when I bite into a piece of meat, it literally bursts with juices. Loved the bean sprouts with cuttle fish - cruchy! But will I walk 15 mins under the hot sun then wait 10 mins for a table to open up, then wait 20 mins for a plate of Tian Tian chicken rice? Nope...