[Liao Fan Hongkong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodles]Chef-owner Chan Hon Meng, recently received a 1 Star Michelin Award for his soya sauce chicken stall at Chinatown. A stall which I frequently patronized, was now bustling with even more crowd. Chef-owner Chan named his stall "Hongkong" because he learned the cooking ropes previously from a restaurant's Hongkong chef.Borned in Ipoh, Malaysia, Chef-owner Chan was already in the F & B industry for 35 years. He worked 17 hours a day at his soya sauce chicken stall, 6 days a week. He prepared 180 soya chickens daily, currently 30 pieces more from his usual so as more customers could get their hands on it.Chef Chan did not behave "on airs" or ignorant after receiving his 1 star Michelin award. Instead, he still humbling continues to operate his stall since the very next day after the Michelin award ceremony.

Few days ago, my friends and I braved the queue just to get our hands on his food. We started queuing at 10.15am, there was already a long line infront of us but stall only operate after 10.30am! *woww* A lady stall assistant came over to take orders first in order to ease the crowd. We finally got our food around 12noon, fed our camera and tucked in!!

[1] Soya Sauce Chicken $14.00 (whole) $7.00 (half)- Look at this gorgeous plate of soya sauce chicken! Tender, fat plumpy chicken meat with skin so nicely marinated and glazed. So yum and juice all locked in! The light soya sauce drizzled on top was packed with sesame sauce fragrance but slight salty for me.

[2] Roast Meat Platter $10.00 (Char Siew, Ribs and Roasted Pork Belly)- Among all 3 types of roast meat, my best take was the char siew meat. They were nicely charred on the outside and contains equal ratio of meat vs fats. Fats' portion melts in your mouth and overall not overly sweet. Ribs was a little tough, I wished the meat was more tender. As for the roasted pork belly, the positive part was the crackling skin but negatively, the meat wasn't as flavourful.

[3] Oyster Sauce Vegetable $3.00 (small) $4.00 (big)- A fresh greeny plate of kai lan vegetables, poached and drizzled with oyster sauce. Cooking time was just right where the leaves were not overlooked and the stems still gave us a good crunch. Best take was the loads of crispy garlic bits scattered on top!

[4] Bean Sprouts $2.00 (small) $3.00 (big)- Using the same oyster sauce base/ drizzle as the kai lan vegetables, both plates tasted similar. Bean sprouts were very crunchy and for only $2.00, this portion was definitely generous.

[5] Plain "kosong" Thin Yellow noodles/ Rice noodles $1.00 per plate
[6] Plain Rice $0.50 per plate- As we ordered sharing meat portions, our carbo all came in "kosong" (plain). I love the chewy texture of kway teow (rice noodles) most. The thin yellow noodles were springy and al dente too. As for the rice, it was so good with the braised dark sauce! I believe the base sauce used for tossing were the same for all 3. It was really savory and fragrant! Nomnomnom...

If you come on your own, you could simply order their 1 person individual portion. The price will eventually blow you off with the generous portion they give.

[7] Soya Sauce Chicken with Rice; At only $2.00 per plate[8] Soya Sauce Chicken plus another meat choice with Rice (or) Noodles $3.50 per plate*** A very enjoyable and delicious 1 star Michelin meal at lowest prices you could find in the world now. My many dining experiences here previously and now, Chef Chan kept his top standards. Food were still as good after he scored his Michelin! He believes there's no first grade food but only first grade chef who works hard to make good food. My only complain now was the queuing time. I used to get his chicken in 45mins previously, but now, it's at least 1.5hrs from stall opens and 2.5hrs during lunchtime. Nevertheless, I'll BE BACK!! ***📍 Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken & Noodles 了凡香港油鸡饭面
Blk 335 Smith Street
Stall 02-126
Chinatown Food Complex
Singapore 050335
Thurs to Tues 10.30am - 7pm or till sold out
(Closed on Wed)
https://www.facebook.com/MichelinGuideSingapore/videos/1188821021181810/

[Woon Woon Pek Beehoon 稳稳白米粉]

There seems to be an increase in white beehoon stalls recently. One of which I tried recently was Woon Woon white beehoon situated at Changi village food centre. Managed by two young lads (good friends) whom left their desk bond jobs to become young hawkers, which was the recent trend. The way I see them work round the stall, they definitely have passion in food. The stall was clean, neatly organized and signboards brightly lit to show customers what they actually have. As you could see from this price chart, there's different mix and match seafood varieties for you to choose from.Our beehoon portion was $30.00, which could easily feed 3-5pax, especially girls. There's 3 whole crayfish, lotsa clams, sea prawns, snakehead fish slices etc. On top of these sea creatures, generous amount of chinese cabbage, garlic bits and crispy pork lards were added in. In this whole dish, the most important factor for me personally, was the broth. It was sweet, but sweetness came from the chinese cabbage. The taste of the cabbage eventually covered the crustacean /seafood base which I felt a pity. Probably portions could be adjusted or Woon Woon could improve their base broth. Beehoon did not slurp up the soup too so it may be good if they were pre-fried with abit of "wok hei" taste to improve the overall taste. 👍🏼👍🏼 Other than the above, sea prawns, crayfish were very fresh and firm. The clams meat were sweet too. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼I also suggested to Woon Woon to add in other choice of fish such as batang fish/ snapper as they were more sweet compared to the tasteless bland snakehead. Boss told me they specially select these standard-sized snackhead slices so that they look good on the plate which I felt redundant. He even mentioned they took quite sometime to get the right way to remove the freshwater taste of snakehead. So I asked him:" Since it was so troublesome and tedious process already, why use them?". I rather pay extra dollars to enjoy better grade fish types. No offense but I do hope he take my suggestions. 👍🏼

** This whole new experience was rather a quick one. Hits and misses definitely have, as Woon Woon Pek Bee Hoon was rather new. But I believed if they fine-tune abit, results would surely improve! And having the stall at a large hawker centre attracts more crowd too from all parts of Singapore. We still did enjoy our food, great company and I would definitely patronize again to see if there's improvement in the broth **

📍 Woon Woon Pek Beehoon
稳稳白米粉
Changi Village Food Ctr
Changi Village Road
Blk 2 Unit 01-52
Singapore 500002
Tues to Sun 11am - 9pm
(Monday closed)

My jelly ratings:
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Yummy
👍🏼👍🏼 Not too bad
👍🏼 Needs improvement
👎🏼 I won't take a 2nd bite/look

[Kay Lee Roast Meat - Tanjong Katong Branch]Kay Lee Roast Meat, a renowned local brand for more than 30 years, created a big hype recently when lady boss, Betty Kong, sold her business to AZtech group for $4million dollars.

AZtech group, aimed to keep this big name ongoing, had now expanded to another 6 more outlets across Singapore apart from the main store at upper paya lebar. Meats were roasted at central kitchen now but other items such as double boiled soups and dumplings were prepared at individual outlets.Tonight, we land ourselves at Tanjong Pagar branch, to try out the taste of new Kay Lee. The interior decoration and furnishings were simple and neat.

We then started off our night with drinks made in-house.

[1] Drinks[a] Iced Roselle Tea $1.50
Iced Barley $1.50
[c] Iced Citrus $1.50
[d] Iced Honey Plum $2.00

- Among these 4 drinks, I love iced honey plum the most. Slight sourish yet very refreshing, it gave me more appetite to eat more! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[2] Salted Vege Duck Soup $4.50 per bowl

 

- Among the varieties of soup, salted vegetable duck soup was one of the top choice since Paya lebar days as told by my friend. But the bowl I had, although packed with essence from the duck, it contained too strong ginger aftertaste, the soup tasted more spiced than salty. My personal vote still goes to Lotus root soup. Nevertheless, it's still tummy warming on a cold day. 👍🏼👍🏼

[3] Kay Lee Savory Meat Roll $6.90 per portion

 

- "Ngoh Hiong" was how I usually called these meat rolls, were one of the snacks offered here. There's also crispy chicken, fish nuggets, breaded shrimps etc on the snacks menu. These ngoh hiong were very meaty, wrapped with the thinnest bean curd skin but if only there were more chestnuts inside to increase the crunch. 👍🏼👍🏼

[4] Shrimp Dumpling Noodle/ Wanton Noodles $5.00 per portion

 

 

- If you let me choose between shrimp dumplings and wantons, I chose the first. Reason being I love shrimps thus love the combination taste of shrimps and minced pork, rather than pork alone which were usually the case in wantons. The black fungus added in the dumpling fillings increased the crunchiness too, I liked! Noodles texture was springy, goes pretty well with the light sauce and fragrant oil mixed in. 👍🏼👍🏼

[5] Char Siew Noodles $5.00 per pax

 

- Char siew was nicely roasted to a beautiful color, then glazed with honey to give the sweet finish. Meat texture was abit hard and chewy as our portion did not contain much fats. Quite disappointed as char siew meat should have ratio of 50% meat: 50% fats to obtain that divine enjoyment on our palate. As for the noodles, it tasted better when I mixed in the braised soya sauce (lor chap) meant for the roast meat platter. 👍🏼

[6] Three Combi Roast Meat Platter $44.00 (comes with 6 rice)

 

- Char siew I had mentioned earlier so I just go straight to the roasted duck and roasted pork belly. Duck was nicely roasted, came with charred fragrant and skin with a crisp. Breast meat part was a little dry but dip into the dark braised sauce or plum sauce provided for a more savory taste. Pork belly well marinated with spices and the saltiness level just right. If only the skin was more crackling... 👍🏼👍🏼

Other than the dishes mentioned above, Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint now serves traditional chinese desserts too but only at Suntec city branch. There were red bean cream with glutinous rice balls, ginger tea with glutinous rice balls and yam paste.

 

 

We were honored to enjoy these desserts tonight, all thanks to Ms Noelle, marketing personnel from Kay Lee, who brought them over to Tanjong katong branch for us to try out.

 

Among these 3, my vote goes to yam paste. It was so smooth and fine-detailed, texture really creamy. Happy it wasn't too overly sweet and its vegetarian too 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

** Overall experience at this Tanjong Katong outlet was pleasant. When Miss Noelle told us fatty meats were mostly sent to Upp. Paya lebar shop, we were really disappointed. We felt all outlets should standardized. Food items and prices wasn't same across all outlets too. Hits and misses bound to have, but I felt that this household brand for more than 30 years definitely have a way of survival for another 30 years! Maybe one day we will see Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint in foodcourts islandwide.**

Read full reviews and more food photos at http://jellylovesfood.blogspot.sg

📍 Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint
283 Tanjong Katong Road
Singapore 437066
Tel: 6594 2204
Opens daily
Mon to Fri 12noon - 9pm
Sat/ Sun/ PH 11am - 9pm
More details & outlet details here:
http://www.kayleeroastmeatjoint.com/stores.html

My jelly ratings:
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Yummy
👍🏼👍🏼 Not too bad
👍🏼 Needs improvement
👎🏼 I won't take a 2nd bite/look

[CHAR]Founded by Anthony and Alvin, these two brothers came from UK to Singapore, aimed to change our views of cantonese roast meats, the western way.This highly-raved roast meat galore place moved down from Guillemard to this current 4-storey shophouse at Jalan Besar. New location was still as bad as previous because parking was a problem and mrt wasn't near. A dinner gathering with 3 other lady friends but got all of us exhausted just to get to this place, so inconvenient. Interior of grey walls and heavy metal chairs, the ambience was more like a cafe bistro.

Finally after we settled down, we "chop chop" ordered our food to cure the grumbling tummies. Our first dish was the signature char siew meat that every surrounding tables also had.

[1] Signature Char Siew $24.00 ($6.00 per 100gm, min. order of 300gm is required)- Tender meat texture with sufficient fats, these glossy OVERLY SWEET honey char siew lacked CHAR! High expectations of a more roasted version but now they were just expensive braised "Lor Bak" (pork belly) to me, nicely marinated though! The chilli oil complemented really well with the meat. 👍🏼👍🏼[2] Salted Egg Yolk Pork Ribs $14.00- Boneless pork cubes were deep fried in batter and the end product looked like "popcorns" instead of the usual ribs. Meat texture was firm but not dry. The lacking part was the salted egg yolk taste as it was almost non-existence. They should name this dish "buttered pork cubes" instead. 👍🏼

[3] Prawn Paste Chicken Wings $12.00 (4 wholes)- A commonly ordered dish at any cze char stalls, this was one of the best snack choice to go down with BEER! Lightly battered and marinated with chef's special herb recipe, they were quite yummy. A pity the deep frying dried out some parts of the wings, otherwise they would be perfect. 👍🏼👍🏼

[4] Hobgoblin GOLD draft Beer $8.00- A combi of 4 hops, with infused wheat and malted barley, this golden drink of 4.5% abv, definitely gave us the punch! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[5] Spicy 4 Seasons Beans $10.00- French beans, one of my favourite vegetable choice always, I ordered it without any further hesitation. The French beans were still crunchy when served, which is good, but was overpowered by the five spiced powder added in the frying. The dried chilies did not contribute to any of the spiciness too (another white elephant) and I wondered why was this dish even classified as "spicy"?!!! Spicy level was 0... 👍🏼

** Business was really good as whole place was packed on a Friday night. But this first experience for me at CHAR, might be the last too. Food wasn't as impressive although this place was highly raved and staff wasn't attentive too. We had to remind the multiple staff on duty at least 3 times to get one request done. Hearing the dragging of heavy metal chairs throughout the whole 2 hours was very irritating too! As for food, I'm not sure if it's still the two owners manning the kitchen but I felt chinese cuisines should have its certain % of style kept, not all products suited the fusion way.**

Read full reviews and more food photos at http://jellylovesfood.blogspot.sg

📍 CH叉R Restaurant
363 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208994
Tel: 6842 7759
Tues to Sun 11.30am - 2pm, 6pm - 10pm
(Monday closed)
*Reservations recommended

My jelly ratings:
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Yummy
👍🏼👍🏼 Not too bad
👍🏼 Needs improvement
👎🏼 I won't take a 2nd bite/look

[ Mother's Day Dim Sum Specials at Yum Cha ]

This year's Mother's Day falls on 8 May, have you made any plans yet? Yum Cha, one of our local biggest dim sum player, came up with new Dim Sum items specially for this upcoming Mother's Day.

These specialty items, namely:
[1] Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green Bun 梅菜扣肉包
[2] Almond Tarts 杏仁挞
[3] Minced Pork Bun with Salted Fish 咸鱼猪肉包; were available from now till 14th May 2016.

The purpose of presenting these nostalgic items was to bring back some good old memories of food from our parents era.

[1] Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green Bun 梅菜扣肉包 ($2ea)- Peeled open this bun and found myself a fatty slice of pork belly. There was more fats then meat, thus the achieved tenderness. Personally loved fats but it may not be a healthy choice for seniors. Pork belly was well marinated but preserved mustard green very bland to get any distinctive taste. *Rating: 3/5*

[2] Almond Tarts 杏仁挞 ($3.20/ 3pcs)- Tarts' center fillings were really power packed with strong almond taste and could be overpowering if you had more than one. Fillings texture was soft like tofu but I love the crust part more as it was crispy and flaky. With a choice of having them hot or chilled, I chose the hot ones as I felt it brings out the flavour better. *Rating: 4/5*

[3] Pan -fried Salted Fish Bun 咸鱼猪肉包 ($5.00/ 3pcs)- Compared to the steamed 梅菜扣肉包, these pan fried ones flared better. Overall taste was good, with salted fish fragrance in each bite but flavour could be stronger. I believed more salted fish input will do the trick. *Rating: 4/5*

Other than these above mentioned specialty dim sum, we also had some of their usual signature dim sum selections together with mains from their dinner menu. The mains we had were all in large portions, suitable for 10pax.

[4] Steamed Prawn Paste with Fish Maw
($4.80/ 3pcs)- The prawn paste were really fresh, firm with a little crunch from the prawn bits. Fish maw below the paste were steamed till soft and almost melt in the mouth. The accompanying golden gravy was flavorful with hints of sweetness too. *Rating: 5/5*

[5] Crispy Fried Tofu 七味脆皮豆腐
(Regular$16 M$24 L$32)- Tofu, a very common ingredient on the table, was well executed and made into a unique dish here at Yum Cha. The highlights here were the 7 different elements used to make the orangey powder scattered on top of the tofu. Other than the obvious ones such as sesame and paprika powder, the rest of them were deemed secrets by the chef. Tofu were deep fried till very crispy batter, together with the secret powder, it gave off a unique taste combination of sweet, salty and the least spiciness. I love this but not its $32 price tag! *Rating 5/5*

[6] Stir-fried Beef w/ Black Pepper 铁板黑椒爆牛柳
(Regular$23 M$34 L$46)- As i don't consume beef, I could not give my comments for this dish. Appearance looked appealing, don't you think so?

[7] Salted Egg Prawns 沙翠葱片咸蛋虾
(Regular$23 M$34 L$46)- I was really exciting when I was told Yum Cha version of salted egg prawns were very different from those cze char stalls. But after served, I was disappointed. Not only the shells had no salted egg taste, the prawns' flesh were dry also after the deep frying. The consoling parts were the pretty plating and the stir-fried onion slices placed in the center of bowl as they were the only part of the whole dish coated with salted egg bits. A controversial dish indeed. *Rating 1/5*

[8] Stir-fried Mee Sua w/ Assorted Seafood 海鲜桂花炒面线
(Regular$14 M$22 L$30)- Wowwww! The big amount of seafood made your saliva drool, right? A nicely done noodle dish with the "wok hei" aftertaste. Everyone on the table enjoyed this mee sua, especially with the generous seafood. If this dish could be a little less oily, it would be perfect! *Rating 4/5*** It was an enjoyable night at Yum Cha's. Dim sum standard was good and reasonably priced. There's hits and misses for the taste of mains, high price tags but still, they were enjoyable. Staff attending to us were definitely with great service and positive attitude. Yum Cha main branch at Chinatown can accommodate more than 150pax! If you have yet to find a venue to celebrate Mother's Day and budget wasn't an issue, you could consider going to Yum Cha. **

🚩 Yum Cha Chinatown
20 Trengganu Street
Unit 02-01 (off Temple Street)
Singapore 058479
Tel: 6372 1717
www.yumcha.com.sg

- Monday to Friday
From 11am to 11pm
- Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays
From 9am to 11pm