Cocotte a 2 year old French restaurant located at the lobby of Wanderlust Hotel, is located in between Bugis and Little India MRT stations along 2 Dickson Road. I took about 15 minutes to walk over from Bugis MRT station cutting through Rochor Centre. The restaurant managed by Head Chef Anthony Yeoh was recently named as one of the top 500 restaurants in the 2013 edition of the Miele Guide.

Cocotte had a unique environment. An assortment of chairs with different colours and rustic timbre tables of brown and white colour. It gave a bight cheerful and country style ambience. Cocotte has recently opened a Pastry Counter and will be serving Brunch everyday. The Pastry Counter will be opened from Monday to Saturday from 12pm to 10pm and on Sunday from 12pm to 3pm. The Pastry Counter offers a wide variety of choices with its prices displayed clearly next to it.Our table dining table, I like the brown timbre table. The Shredded Pork Confit Sandwich - Confited Free Range Australian Pork Shoulder, Wholegrain Mustard Dressing, Fresh Tarragon, Parsley & Cucumber with Toasted Country Baguette. The filling in the sandwich were delicious. However, the downside was that the toasted country baguette was too hard compared to the tender soft fillings. The shredded pork confit deserved a special mentioned. Coming from the pork shoulder, it was tasty, moist and incredibly soft and tender. In addition, the cucumber provided a nice crunch. The French inspired French Onion "Soup" Sandwich blew me away. It consisted of Caramelised Onion Confit, Melted Gruyere Cheese, Thyme Leaves and Toasted Country Baguette. Instead of a soup, you get the dry version which is probably grilled with gruyere cheese on top so that it melts. I believe that gruyere cheese was used not only because it is 'the' cheese which is traditionally used in French Onion Soup but also because of its rich, creamy, slightly smokey and nutty taste. If you are a fan of French Onion Soup, you have got to try this! The Grilled Boneless Chicken Leg was served with Garlic Roasted Potatoes and French Beans. As the whole the dish was well executed. The boneless chicken leg was grilled perfectly. Crisp cracking chicken skin with juicy tender meat. The partner and I also particularly like the roasted potato. At $12, it is cheaper in price than most of restaurants and I would consider this quite value for money considering the quality! For desserts, we tried the Chocolate Tart, Pistachio Creme Brulee, Nectarine Tart and Citron Lemon Tart.

The Citron Lemon Tart was their best seller. On the first bite, it had a tangy sour taste that was too strong for my liking. The main reason was because this was made from lemon. However, I started to like it from the second bite downwards It is a light dessert and is the type that the more you dig into it, the more you will like it. Among the four, this was our favourite. This is best accompanied by a cup of hot tea!

The Chocolate Tart was made of 72% Valrhona - dark chocolate. Chocolate fans will love as it is made of intense thick dark chocolate; not diluted. The bitterness of the chocolate is followed by a slight hint of sweetness. Best to share this!

Overall, I enjoyed the dining ambience at Cocotte. Quiet and cozy, Cocotte is a good place for a chat among friends or for a date. Foodwise, the quality of food was top notch. I am still thinking (craving) of the French Onion "Soup" Sandwich.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/cocotte-at-wanderlust-hotel-little-india.html

Two Chefs Eating Place is a popular Cze Char stall in the West, in Commonwealth to more specific. Every weekend, Two Chefs Eating Place is bounded to be packed with a long line of customers queuing up. Their signature dish, the Butter Ribs 牛油排骨 has been highly raved about on the internet.

I have been itching to try Two Chefs Eating Place for more than two years. The travelling journey was the main reason why I had been procrastinating for so long. I was thrilled when I got to know that Two Chefs Eating Place had opened a second outlet at Sin Ming (that's near Upper Thompson / Bishan). In fact, it's just located next to Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery which is the largest Mahayana Temple in Singapore. It would be timely to visit and try out their dishes.Revamped Two Chef's signboard showing their signature dishes. I believed that Two Chefs Eating Place either bought over or rented the entire coffee shop. The staff at the drink, roti prata and vegetarian stalls were all wearing Two Chef's uniform. The coffee shop was just half full during lunch time on a weekend. In fact, when we arrived at 1215pm, the place was literally empty except for another group of customers. There were many ceiling and wall fans that helped ventilate the place.Two Chefs Eating Place's menu with over 79 dishes. If you are visiting for the first time, you might want to ask the staff to recommend their signature dishes. We ordered several of their signature items and did not have to wait long before the first dish was served to us.The Drunken Cockles 醉蚶 which has garnered lots of rave reviews online was the first dish to be served. The plate of half-shelled cockles was served cold. They were covered with light soya sauce covered with lots of garlic, spring onion and chilli padi. The cockles were fresh with no sand in it and had just a slight raw taste. I thought that this was just an average appetiser. Nothing great to should about. And of course, your mouth will stink after eating this dish (due to the raw garlic). =PThe Vegetable with Egg, Salted Egg and Century Egg 三蛋时菜 was another dish that Netizen raved about. It was another disappointment; badly executed. The spinach which was supposed to be soft was firm and hard. The gavy which should have been so tasty due to the 3 eggs and spinach was tasteless. The chef failed to extract the flavours of the ingredients into the gravy. I had better ones elsewhere.The Hot Plate Beancurd arrived sizzling hot. Executed slightly different from most other Cze Char stalls, instead of slices of round shaped beancurd, the beancurds (tofu) were long, rectangular in shape and were soft. The gooey brown gravy was tasty with lots of minced meat and egg underneath. The gravy complemented the rice well and was not overly salty. An average dish. The Honey Fried Chicken, a signature dish recommended by the staff was outstanding. It was easily the best dish in this meal. The chicken was well marinated as the inside was tender and flavourful. It was deep fried till the outside was crisp. The deep fried slices of fried garlic added on top further enhanced the taste up a notch or two. The Butter Ribs 牛油排骨 is the most popular dish at Two Chefs Eating Place. The Pork Ribs (I doubt that it was ribs, should be pork meat instead) were covered with milk powder and curry leaves. I had high expectations and was expecting to be blown away by this dish. Instead, I was left disappointed yet again. The meat was tough and distinct flavour of the curry leaves was not brought out. To be frank, there was no melt in the mouth sensation. In fact, we had difficulties finishing this dish. A member of our group who had been to Two Chefs Eating Place in Commonwealth and Sin Ming several times mentioned that somehow, their standard was way off their normal taste today. It seemed that its the norm for their standard to vary on different days. Anyway, I certainly did not know how to appreciate this dish and wonder why nearly everyone online had raved about this.

I know that there may be fans of Two Chefs Eating Place who may be reading this. But still I have got to say this; I left the place feeling extremely disappointed. I did not fancy any of the dishes I tried except for the Honey Fried Chicken. I do not understand the hype and thought that I had better Cze Char dishes else where. Overall, I was not satisfied with this lunch and found myself craving for more/better food (I was not the only one in the group who had this feeling).

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/two-chefs-eating-place-sin-ming.html

This is my second visit to Middle Road Pork Ribs Prawn Mee. Middle Road Pork Ribs Prawn Mee is located in a coffee shop behind Bugis+. It is located at then second coffee shop, the middle one among the row of three coffee shops. There was a short queue at the stall. Luckily, we did not have to wait too long before it was our turn to order.I ordered the Prawn Pork Rib Noodles which cost $4. The Prawn Pork Rib Noodles consisted of noodles, pork ribs, prawns (de-shelled), bean sprouts and pork lard. The prawns this time tasted different. They were hard and salty. The pork ribs on the other hand were tender.

The light brown soup / broth was robust, flavourful and tasty. However, this time I felt thirsty after drinking the soup.

Standard seems to have dropped.

Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House is located at Sunshine Plaza. Over the years, it had gained quite a number of fans including celebrities for its wanton mee. Previously, Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House had two outlets. One located in Sunshine Plaza and the other at North Bridge Road just opposite Bugis Junction Shopping Centre. Recently; 1 year ago, their second outlet at North Bridge Road closed. This means that they are now located only in Sunshine Plaza.Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House at Sunshine Plaza owns two units; directly opposite each other. There are lots of sitting capacity available. Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House's revised menu. As you can see, they sell a wide variety of food. Their most well-known food are the Yun Tun Mee (Wanton Mee) and Fried Yun Tun (Fried Wanton).The Fried Yun Tun Noodles comes in either $4 or $5. Regulars might notice that there has been a price increased since November 2011 . Previously, it was $3.50 or $4.50.The Fried Yun Tun Noodles (Wanton Mee) was served with fried wantons, char siew and vegetables in dark soya sauce. The noodles was QQ, springy and well cooked. Mixed with the dark soya sauce, it was not dry and added flavour to the noodles. The char siew which is also an important ingredient in a plate of wanton mee was tender and flavourful However, some slices were slight hard.

The Fried Yun Tun (Fried Wanton) is a popular item in Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House. Many customers would order $2 worth of fried wantons to share. The fried wantons were addictive, however I wish that more meat was wrapped in it.The Fried Yun Tun Noodles (Wanton Mee) was also served with a small bowl of soup with two pieces of Yun Tun (Wantons) in it. Although the Old Cucumber Soup seemed full of ingredients, this was because it was served in a very small metal bowl. The ingredients include pork meat, old cucumber, carrot and wolf berries. I thought that the soup was real decent, but it was on the salty end.

Overall, I thought that the wanton mee was not bad and certainly worth making a trip down for it.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/parklane-zha-yun-tun-mee-house-sunshine.html

As mentioned in my previous posts, I visited the newly renovated 85 Fengshan Food Centre on a Saturday night at 10pm. While waiting for our Bak Chor Mee from Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian 兴记肉脞面, we ordered the the BBQ Grilled Chicken Wings from Sin Bedok North BBQ Chicken Wings 勿洛北烤鸡翅 and also the Oyster Omelette from Bedok North 85 Fried Oyster 勿洛北85蚝煎.Bedok North 85 Fried Oyster 勿洛北85蚝煎 occupies two stall unit in the food centre. Ordered the Oyster Omelette and was told that it would be served to our table in 10 minutes time. However, after waiting for 20 minutes, there was still no sign of our omelette. I went back and check was told that I would need to wait for another 5 minutes!! The freshly cooked Oyster Omelette was decently executed. It had the right portion of starch and egg mixed together. Fried over (what I suspect) high heat, each piece was crispy on the outside while soft and moist on the inside. Although there were only 4 pieces of oyster, these oysters were fresh, plump and juicy! Moreover, the chilli complements this real well.

How I wish, there's such a similar hawker centre in the North that serves such food (Soupy Bak Chor Mee, BBQ Chicken Wings and Oyster Omelette). There would be no need for me to store anymore cup noodles at home. Oh man.. how I envy those living in the East. I can't imagine how happy I would be if I stay at near Bedok 85...