monsoon

Finally, transport available to take us to visit Daily Scoop at Sunset Way again.

This time we managed to reach just before they close at 9pm on Sunday. Glad that we will not go home empty handed this time round, but as they were closing, they had run out of both waffles and brownie. But it is ok, the ice cream alone is enough to satisfy us.There were not many flavours left as well, luckily my favourite strawberry shortcake was still available. Besides that, we ordered a scoop of macadamia nuts. Both flavours were nice, not too sweet. I also like the small chunks of nuts or strawberry shortcake added to give the ice cream a different texture.

Were very surprised when we saw this Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier at Raffles city as we misunderstood it to be related to Tiong Bahru Pau selling steamed fluffy buns or egg tarts.After surfing the web then we realised that this Tiong Bahru Bakery is part of Food Collective. The sales person was right that this Raffles City outlet is the same as that Tiong Bahru Eng Hoon, but not the Tiong Bahru Pau that were are referring to.

Their bread and pastry were nice and they also offered nice jam like banana apple coffee jam. Their signature plain croissant is a must try!

Decided to get a nice cup of tea from Gong Cha to cheer ourselves up.

We did not go for our usual lemonade with AiYu, we ordered milk tea with pearls since we were kind of hungry. Long queue in front of the stall, waiting time of around ten minutes.

First sip was not really that nice as it was a bit warm, need to give it a shake and let the ice melt before you can enjoy the cool milk tea.

Think I will stick to lemonade AiYu next time.

A small eatery conveniently located at the Queenstown MRT. Besides the Malay local delights like Mee Goreng, fried chicken wings they also offer Chinese food like chicken rice.

Chicken rice is two dollars a plate, three dollars for chicken thigh rice. Their roast chicken is a better choice than white steamed chicken. The rice was served warm and roast chicken was quite tender.

There are a small area for dine in customers, few tables and stools in a cramped and warm area.

Most of the stalls were cleaning up when we arrived People's Park Complex Food Centre for dinner. We saw that there was one stall where people were queuing and decided to give it a try.

They offered Char Kway Teow and Hokkien Mee. We naturally go for Hokkien Mee since it is their signature. The hokkien mee was quite nice, soft tasty noodles infused with the flavourful broth.

Tian Jin Fong Kee, one of our favourite stalls at People's Park Complex Food Centre. Besides this stall, they also have a restaurant in Chinatown.

Their fried dumpling or Guo Tie was nicely fried without being too oily. The pork filling was also quite juicy. The ginger and vinegar dip went really well with the fried dumpling, bringing out the taste of the fried dough and pork filling.

We were on a dessert food trail at Maxwell market, Chinatown. One of the recommended dessert was fried banana from Lim Kee (Orchard) Banana Fritters.

The crispy outer crust with the sweet banana was sinful but quite nice. The fritter was served hot and the centre of banana was still soft and tender, giving this local delight Goreng Pisang a very nice texture.

The restaurant had setup a stall first floor at the main door of InterContinental Hotel.

The small little stall sells a variety of buns and dumplings. They offered their char siew bao, big bao and their custard lava bun. There were also a number of different dumplings or lotus leaves wrapped glutinous rice as well, believe was extended from the Dragon Boat festival.

White fluffy bun with delicious roasted pork at $1.50 a bun. Note that since it is near Mid Autumn festival, the stall now focus on selling moon cake only.

Restaurant is small and setting is simple, it can accomodate at most 20-30 customers. The owner seems to be a Japanese and you can always find a few Japanese customers in the restaurant.

More review at http://monsoontravel.blogspot.sg/2010/09/bimi-kaiho-restaurant.html

My favourite in this restaurant is the Cha Soba set. Usually i will request to change all the sushi to Salmon, with an additional of $1. Their sushi had been fantastic, the vinegar rice and fresh sushi was heavenly. However, the standard had dropped significantly since a year ago.

Their cha soba was firm, liked it with lots of wasabi. Their tempura and potato salad are nice as well.

Had always been attracted by the delicious-looking Mee Goreng and their fried deep fried chicken wings whenever I walk pass a Ananas outlet near to MRT stations. Glad that there is an Ananas Cafe outlet at Queenstown MRT!

They had renovated and there is a small dining area for customers who want to dine in. Will usually packed home instead.
Oily sinful but nice food

Prawn noodles or Fish soup? a decision I have to make every time I visit this coffee shop.

Both the prawn noodles and fish soup stalls are very popular and there will always be long queues in front of the stalls.

Decided to go for prawn noodles this time round. Flavourful stock from prawn and pork with succulent pork ribs, fresh prawns and tender pork liver at $4, cheap and nice!

Topped up an additional $0.50 and you can add a big portion of vegetables to your prawn noodles.

Some expectation management, protocol and tips reference will allow you to enjoy the nice Dim Sum in Victor's Kitchen.

Scallop, sausage carrot cake with XO Sauce XO酱干贝腊味萝卜糕@$4. One of Victor's Kitchen specialities and authentic Hong Kong's Dim Sum. Soft carrot cake in its simplicity with complimenting black sauce. Slight spiciness and added fragrance of the XO sauce contrasted and brought out the taste of the radish. YouTiao Cheong Fun or "Za Leong"@$3.50. The fried you-tiao here is crispy and yet soft, which is much better than those hard ones offered in some restaurants.Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun @$4.0 for 3 buns. Golden savoury egg yolk lava flowing out as you break apart the steamed fluffy bun. Loved the consistency of the lava, not too watery nor too lumpy. The custard combined with fragrant salted egg yolk was simply yummy. Hong Kong Summer Ice Tea @$3. One of the best milk tea we had. One of the most "Kao", smooth, tasty and fragrant milk tea.Tip: avoid weekend or be early to beat the queue. Else expect to wait for at least 20 min for a seat.

Squeezy small dining area, be prepared to make way for people while you are eating. Since there is no service charge, be contented that the staffs set the table and bring you your food. Don't expect smile or attention from the busy staffs. Don't be alarmed to hear "loud conversation" among the staffs now and then.

Not every Cze Char store can offer a nice simple stir fried vegetables. We will usually order a simple stir fried vegetables from this store to fulfill our dietary fiber requirements.

A simple stir fried vegetables with garlic cost around $6. Loved the gravy where Chinese wine was added to enhance the taste. They will also topped up with lots of deep fried shallots which complement the vegetables.

For a more flavourful stir fried vegetables, order the stir fried vegetables with seafood which has an added sweetness from the seafood.

"Follow the queue" had always been a safe bet to find good food, just that some time investment is required. We followed the queue in front of Western Barbeque stall at Old Airport Road and were impressed by their pork chop and cutlet.

We were glad that they have opened a new branch at ABC Brickworks Food Centre so that residents in the west can also have easy access to great food.
There are a few popular western food stalls at ABC Market, but their pork cutlet still stands out among them.

The set comes with fries, a bun and baked beans. We usually add a fried egg with the gooey egg yolk to go with the fries. The normal set cost $5.50 while $6 with an additional egg. Although slightly expensive in a hawker centre, but it is still quite worth it as the portion is quite big.The fries are the thicker version which you can taste both the crispy exterior and soft potato within. Personally, I still prefer the thinner version and enjoy looking for that few thin crispy fries from the generous portion of fries.

We had tried their pork chop and pork cutlet. The pork chop was nicely grilled and it was served with garlic sauce, which really goes well with the pork chop.

Their pork cutlet is even better. It is not the usual pork cutlet where you deep fried a piece of pork coated with bread crumbs. The piece of pork was lightly coated with a flavourful nice batter, not sure what are the ingredients but it really enhanced the pork. Bread crumbs are not required as the pork cutlet is already very crispy with the nice deep fried batter.

The soft bun with creamy butter is quite nice as well. The portion of the set is usually too much for me and I will just leave the soft bun for later.

For take away, they will just pack the fries with the baked beans which will make the fries a bit soggy. We will usually just ask them to omit the baked beans since we don't really fancy them, this will keep your fries crispy.

The service is quite prompt, no long wait. The auntie serving is quite friendly as well.

Craving for some fish soup? Be prepared to queue for 30 minutes if you want to have it during peak hours as there will be more than 10 persons queuing in front of you.

Whenever we want to have the fish soup, we will try to go early. Previously, 15 minutes earlier will be enough, but recently, we have to go at least 30 minutes earlier in order to avoid the long queue. Thinking of going later instead? Do note that the queue will still be there around 2pm, but shorter. Do consider switching to the nice prawn noodles stall just besides it if the queue is just too long.

The stall owner will start to cook the fish soup only after you have placed your order, which is one of the reasons for the long queue and good quality as well. Besides the usual noodles, thick or thin Mee hoon, you can also try the thin rice vermicelli (mian xian) or fried yee mien.

They offered fresh and fried fish slice. The fried fish are nicely fried with substantial chunk of fish meat within the crisply fried coating. The soup is flavourful that you don't really need any soy sauce, just a few slices of the chilli to add spiciness to your fish soup.

We will go for fish soup whenever we feel guilty of gluttony as fish soup is always associated with healthy food - light, fresh fish full of omega 3. But one of the reasons why this fish soup is so flavourful is the sinful deep fried scrambled egg. The oil and fluffy fried egg up the flavour of the fish soup while reducing the healthy level of the dish. But one thing for sure, no unhealthy MSG added like other fish soup stalls. We are happy to continue to assume that fish soups are suppose to be healthy and have it at least once per week

Service is what you will expect in a normal coffee shop. At least the boss and workers does not get impatient or start to scream at people just because their business is doing well.

Try the home made barley from the drink stall within the same coffee shop which is thick and nice.