Alright Cafeteria located at level 3 (top floor) of Peace Centre serves Malay cuisine. There are no signs directing customers to the shop. You will be able to see this eatery in front of you when you take the escalator up to level 3. Most people know of this place through word of mouth (e.g their friends, colleagues).The eatery offers daily specials during weekdays.
Monday: :Laksa $3.50
Tuesday: Black Pepper Chicken Rice $4.00, Chicken Rice $3.50, Seafood Horfun $4.00
Wednesday: Roti Jala with Curry Chicken $4.00, Prawn Mee $3.50
Thursday: Nasi Briyani (Chicken / Beef) $4.50, Nasi Briyani (Mutton) $5.00
Friday: Ayam Penyet $5.00During one of the occasion during my visit, I ordered the Tuesday daily special - Chicken Rice. I also added a Begedil.
Chicken Rice $3.50, Begedil $0.50 This is the Malay style chicken rice. Unlike our Chinese Hainanese chicke rice, the rice in this case is plain white rice. The chicken is neither steam or roasted. Instead it was fried. The chicken rice was not too bad. I also requested for sambal chilli to be added to go along with the plain steamed rice. One another occasion, I ordered Nasi Padang (which is a concept similar to our economic rice stalls). It essentially meant customers choose the items they want. I chose white plan rice, along with fried egg omelette, tauhu goreng, fried chicken wings and sambal kang kong. It costed $4.80.The food was was quite good. Depending on which aunty you order from, the generousity differs. In this case, my plate was full of ingredients! Almost spilling out =).

ps: If you like Malay food especially Nasi Padang, there is this place called Warong Nasi Pariaman that serves authentic and delicious Nasi Padang. A must try!

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/alright-cafeteria-peace-centre.html

Kim Dae Mun Korean Food is located at the basement food court at Concorde Hotel; previously known as Le Meridien Hotel. (come to think of it, when has there ever been a food court in a Hotel? The norm should be restaurants.) If you are wondering where is Concord Hotel, it is located along the Orchard Shopping Belt, in between Dhoby Ghuat (Plaza Singapura) and Somerset (Orchard Plaza) MRT stations.

As it's name suggest, Kim Dae Mun Korean Food specialises in serving Korean cuisine. It is probably the most famous stall in the food court. I have heard many people raving about their food. Hence, after a period of procrastination, I decided to visit this food court on a weekday evening for dinner. It was easy to spot the stall with its distinct blue signboard. Moreover, with a queue of more than 10 persons, it would be hard to miss this stall. I was quite surprised to see the long queue considering that it was a weekday. I joined the queue and waited 20 minutes before I was able to order. After that it was another 5 minutes of wait for my food. To be fair, the staff were quite efficient considering the crowd. I ordered the Spicy Chicken Soup Set $6.50 which was widely raved about online. The set consisted of a big bowl of Spicy Chicken Soup served with a bowl of rice and a side. For the sides, customers could choose between kimchi, anchovies or cucumbers. I chose anchovies.The Spicy Chicken Soup Set was fill with generous amounts of ingredients such as chunks of chicken, beancurd, vegetable, korean (thick) vermicilli, spring onion, egg and onions. The soup was spicy and tasty - not salty (I doubt MSG was added). It was awesome combining the soup with the rice! In terms of the price, it was reasonable considering the quantity and taste of the food.

If I am ordering this the next time I would request for a less spicy version (overheard a customer requesting this).

Kim Dae Mun Korean Food is one of the few korean stalls in food courts worth a try. I will certainly be back. For the record, I seldom ordered Korean food in a food court. Besides the Spicy Chicken Soup, many others have raved about their potato pancake, tender beef sliced set and spicy shredded chicken.

Did you know that their hotplates items are cooked with water instead of oil? Yes, you heard me right! A healthier choice! What are you waiting for?


For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/05/spicy-chicken-soup-set-at-kim-dae-mun.html

Jia Jia Xing Pig's Organ Soup is located in Sembawang Hill Food Centre along Upper Thomson Road. Although the food centre was crowded during Sunday lunch duration, I noticed that half the stalls in the food centre were not open for business.After walking round the food centre, I decided to try the Pig's Stomach Soup from Jia Jia Xing Pig's Organ Soup. There were just two person queuing in front of me. Service was fairly slow as the lady owner was the only one manning the stall. I ordered a bowl of Pig's Stomach Soup with rice. The Pig's Stomach Soup was quite decent. The soup topped with parsley was slightly cloudy and pepperish (but not overwhelming). What was impressive was that the Pig Stomach was cleaned thoroughly, there was no pungent smell. Worth a try if you like Pig Stomach / Organs.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/05/jia-jia-xing-pigs-organ-soup-sembawang.html

The Eastern Restaurant, a restaurant located in the heart of Orchard specialises in serving authentic Northern Chinese cuisine. It is tucked away in a deep quiet corner of Centrepoint. It has been located at the same spot for many years. With virtually no signs to guide anyone here, most people would have probably missed or not know of this place. Even we ourselves who had been here before got lost while trying to recall how to get to the restaurant.

I first got to know of this restaurant more than five years ago, way before I started FoodieFC. I remember that the food here was not bad and its Xiao Long Bao was worth a try. So here I am, back here again for its Xiao Long Bao! Visited on a Saturday evening. The seating capacity at the restaurant seemed to considerably reduced. Previously, the tables and chairs extend all the way out and there were also tables and chairs under the escalator next to the restaurant. This time, the tables and chairs have been removed.

You may noticed in the above photos that it has a open kitchen concept. You can scrutinise view how your food is being prepared. Moreover, it also assure customers that their food are prepared diligently and hygiene is well taken care of. Despite the reduced seating capacity, the Eastern Restaurant was full! Quite surprising, considering the location and lack of signs. Clean, air conditioned environment. Even though there was such a crowd, our food was served fairly quickly within 10 minutes upon ordering. The Wanton with Hot Chilli Sauce (5 Pcs) $6 an authentic Sichuan cuisine was very well executed. The use of vinegar and spicy oil caused a distinct difference in taste that made it hard for me to stop at one. The skin of the wanton seemed slightly thicker than the other wantons else where helped hold the fillings in place and adsorb the immense flavours of the sauce. Very spicy and sour, yet addictive. If you are can't take spicy food, you should refrain from ordering this. The Xiao Long Bao (4 Pcs) $4, one of their signature items did not disappoint. The skin was slightly thicker in comparison to the other Xiao Long Baos I have tried. Each Xiao Long Bao contained alot more hot soup in it (more than those in Crystal Jade/Ding Tai Fung). Most probably, the thicker skin was required to hold the soup in place. The hot soup was tasty and well flavoured while the meat was well marinated. The only issue I had was that the skin at the top was too thick. This may not be the best Xiao Long Bao I had, but it was certainly one of the better ones. I ordered the Noodle in Hot & Sour Soup $8, which is another Sichuan Cuisine - spicy and sour. Luckily the sauce used was different from the Wanton with Hot Chilli Sauce. The sauce this time was more sourish and less spicy. It came with diced mushrooms, peas, black fungus, shredded beancurd and meat. The noodles were too hard and could have been cooked for a long period of time. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this dish despite feeling the spiciness towards the end. Kudos to the chef as he got the difficult part right - balancing the taste of the hot & sour soup.The partner ordered the Stewed Beef Brisket Noodle Soup $8.80 which was one of the recommended items in the menu. The soup was light, clear and flavourful - very forgiving and not salty. Generous serving of beef chunks were given and the meat was stewed till they were incredibly soft and tender. It would have been perfect if the noodles were cooked longer as we felt that it was a tad too hard.

Overall, the dining experience at The Eastern Restaurant was good. It's a hidden gem. There's no need to queue even during weekend peak hours. The food that we ordered was delicious. Despite being at full capacity the service was prompt and efficient. Price wise, it was reasonable. In fact, I would say affordable considering that this is in the heart of Orchard.

Most of us would have probably eaten at Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 before. But did you know that Din Tai Fung first started out selling only oil?

Din Tai Fung was founded by a man called Bingyi Yang. He opened a shop in Taiwan called Din Tai Fung and sold cooking oil. In the 1980s, when the business went down hill, he and his wife decided to use half of the shop to sell steamed dumplings. Their steamed dumplings were so good that they eventually stopped selling oil and ventured into a full fledge restaurant.

Today, Din Tai Fung is an award winning chain of restaurant with branches in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United States and Thailand. In Hong Kong, several of its branches are awarded one Michelin star.Din Tai Fung was brought into Singapore after Breadtalk Group won the franchise rights. The group also won the franchise rights to operate Din Tai Fung in Thailand. Currently, there are 14 Din Tai Fung branches in Singapore.

I visited the Din Tai Fung branch at Raffles City Shopping Centre (which is just next to City Hall MRT station) on a Saturday evening. As usual, there was a crowd waiting outside the restaurant waiting for their numbers to be called (this is a norm during weekdays too).

For those who have never been to Din Tai Fung, here's a tip. There is no need to queue, instead you should approach the counter, inform the service staff how many person you have and get the order form (with the queue number written on it) from the staff. After that you can fill in the form, according to the dishes you would like to order. You should also ask what is the estimated waiting time. If the waiting time is long, you can consider walking around before coming back to check if your queue number has been called.Although the restaurant had a considerably large sitting capacity, the place was full. We waited half an hour before our queue number was called. Simple, clean yet classy ambience. In addition, I like their open kitchen concept. Its great to see how the chef prepare our food! In another corner of the restaurant, the place had a classy oriental feel. Its great that they had Chilli, Vinegar, Soya Sauce, pepper and toothpicks on every table. It makes it so convenient for customers and at the same time, free up some bandwidth for the serving staff to concentrate on other things. Win-win situation. Crystal Jade use to provide these at every table too. However during a recent visit to their Plaza Singapura outlet, I noticed that they had removed them.The ginger slices immersed in vinegar is a must have when having their Xiao Long Baos! The Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing $3.50 was superb! It is my favourite appetiser at Din Tai Fung! Whenever I patronise Din Tai Fung, I am definitely order this! It's made of seaweed, beansprouts, strips of spicy bean curd and rice vermicelli. The ingredients are then mixed and tossed in their special vinegar dressing. It's very refreshing and addictive as each ingredient gives a different texture and flavour. A must order. The Steam Pork Dumplings aka Xiao Long Baos (XLB) $6.80 (6 pcs) are one of Din Tai Fung's signature dishes. The XLB were filled with pork fillings and rich and tasty juice. Although the skin of the XLB was wafer thin, it was able to hold the juice. Each piece of XLB is wrapped with a minimum of 18 exquisite folds. Do handle the XLB with delicate care to avoid breaking the skin. In addition, be caution not to scald your mouth when the hot juice ooze out. The XLB are best eaten with ginger slices and vinegar. The Fried Rice with Shrimps & Eggs $10.80 is another of my favourite dish! It was executed perfectly. You would be amazed to find out that the it consisted of just rice fried with shrimps, eggs and spring onions.

The shrimps were fresh with sweet succulent flesh. Each grain of rice was well coated with flavour from the egg, spring onions and shrimps. In addition, they did not stick to one another and was not lumpy. Kudos to the chef for his skills (heat control, timing and frying). The partner ordered the Special Braised Beef Noodle Soup with Beef Brisket $11. The beef soup was incredibly rich and well flavoured. However, the beef meat was disappointing. Several big chunks of beef meat were given. Although the meat were well flavoured, they were too tough and chewy. To put it simply, it was hard biting through the meat. Moreover, certain pieces had a thick layer of fat on it.

What I thought was amazing was that Din Tai Fung has so many branches in Singapore. Yet, somehow they manage to maintain the consistency of the food across all their branches. No matter which branch you patronise, the food taste the same! Not an easy feat to achieve. Although the Special Braised Beef Noodle Soup with Beef Brisket was a let down, the rest of the dishes were perfect! I will certainly be back for more!

Do note that Din Tai Fung does not accept reservations. Please click here to view the locations of the other 13 Din Tai Fung outlets.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/din-tai-fung-raffles-city-shopping.html