[ Do.Main Bakery ]
By looking at this Bakery name, have you wondered the meaning behind it? Because the word "domain" to me is about "owned","territorized". The great man behind this , Chef Frederic Deshayes, tells us that "Do" represents dough, "Main" means hands. And together, the magic hands created fresh & heartwarming french pastries daily.
On this perfect Wednesday evening, I hopped onto Openrice food tasting bus and came to Do.Main Bakery. When you pulled open the door, the aromatic smell from within pulled your souls away and making me hungry at the same time. Really can't wait to taste the french bread and dishes.
The whole place has simple classic deco, themed of black and white, making the bread and pastries at the counters outstanding. Cosy is the word.
Fellow Openrice members and i were shown to the kitchen, where we could see the sous chefs in action. Chef Deshayes tells us their daily kitchen routine and show us the machines they were using. Woah they were huge and I bet they were very costly too. It was a quick tour, probably Chef Deshayes knows we are hungrrrrry *hahaha*
Thereafter came our first appetizer, Charcuterie Platter with sourdough basket, followed by a salad. This platter consists of Ham, Pork Rillette, Duck terrine w/Pistachios and pickles on the side.

The meat in the rillette was shredded nicely into semi-paste form and served as a good spread on our bread. I put a pickle on it to bring up more taste, as having it alone is abit bland for me.

As i munch my way through the chunks of tender duck meat inside the terrine, the pistachios in it did blend in well to give that additional crunch and nutty taste. This duck terrine was seasoned nicely and feelings I had for it is the same as the ham. I could eat it on its own without any additional carbo. $20 for this platter is rather reasonable to me
Next is Four Seasons Salad- The colors they presents on the plate was so pretty that I don't bear to mess them up with my fork! This pretty creation is a combi of lentils, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce and roasted capsicums. Among all, I crowned the roasted capsicums the winner! Soft but not mushy, roasted but not burnt, yums! I can have a few more rounds of the capsicums alone The price? $18 per serving.
Third we have the Broken Eggs with Mouillettes. Base is tomato confit, made in-house (4 hours processing time). French ate it the rough way where you pick up a bread stick and swirl up the eggs hard, like a tornado. For me, it tasted rather plain and not salty enough. For $15, it's rather pricey.
After the eggs, we have the Tartiflette with Reblochon cheese and Cassolette oven-baked Escargots. Each serving is $16. Tartiflette with reblochon is a winter dish for the French families. It consists of cheese, bacon bits and potato cubes. If you are a cheesy person like me, then this dish is the right one for you. Indulge every mouthful filled with melted cheese, flavour from the bacon & sweetness from the potatoes cubes. The melted reblochon cheese covered on top kept the ingredients below warm, it warms our tummies when we gulp it down, probably that's why French families love to eat this during winter.
The other dish to brag about is the Cassolette oven-baked escargots. 06 sexy shell-less creatures swimming in tomato confit and topped with parsley garlic purée. The parsley garlic purée is so good and it lingers in your mouth for quite awhile. Initially I still thought it's pesto. As you know snails can be tasteless on its own, therefore this combination of tomato confit, parsley and garlic brings life to this dish.
Finally we have come to the long waited desserts time! Girls love desserts, but after this food tasting session, I realized guys at our table love them as much as we do!!
Chef Deshayes presents us with Lemon tart, Paris Brest, Royal Chocolate cake (Gluten free) and Red Plum Quetsche tart. My favorite dessert among all 4 is the lemon tart. The crust is buttery and not too hard. The lemon curd inside is jelly smooth and zesty. I love it!! Next is the royal chocolate cake made with valrhona manjari chocolate. Rich in texture and crisp at the base, feels like eating dark ferrero rocher chocolate in cake form As for the Paris Brest, the choux pastry is covered with so much nuts compared to the sugar studs, giving the choux a good crunch but the praline filling lacked flavour. I've ate more impressive ones elsewhere. Dark red plum quetsche tart is one of Do.Main bakery's hot selling item. Made daily with fresh red plums, tastes sweet with a little natural sourness from the fruit. Although I'm not a die hard fan for fruit tart, but this is worth a try. Prices for cakes, tarts, eclairs range from $5 to $8 each.
This food tasting session ends with a fun group photo. I had a great time and hope the rest too. Thanks Openrice for having us.
I will definitely revisit this bakery. It is a cosy place for afternoon tea, not noisy, good for both business meet-ups and dating too. Food portion is good enough to fill up my tummies as most mains comes with French bread but price wise, mostly reasonable but a few abit pricey. But if compare between the mains and desserts, I still prefers the latter so I will come back again for more desserts.
Bon appetit!

[Song Fa Bak Kut Teh]
Location: The Seletar Mall
My 1st visit at Song Fa although they have have been around in the market for so many years. It was very crowded when my family & I visited this Seletar Mall branch. We queued for 35mins before the waitress showed us to our seats.
Decor: The whole place was decorated like 1970s old nanyang style, with those attap house roof & harbour/jetty wallpaper. Dark walnut colored wooden tables & stools were used in this Song Fa. An old replicated Bak Kut Teh wooden cart stall was also displayed outside the restaurant.
Service: Staff were very attentive. Their speedy service in clearing up the tables after customers leaves, deserves a thumbs up. Customers queuing outside are also given the menu to order food first. Food served once we are seated.
Food: Song Fa BKT serves ribs in peppery broth. Every sip is filled with the pepper and spices fragrant. The meat on the ribs is tender too.
Soaking the dough fritters into the soup before I gulp it down is a "must-do" step as the 油炸鬼 tastes better this way!
The Liver + Kidney soup that we ordered, comes in the same peppery soup as the ribs. Best part is, the liver & kidney are so soft & not overcooked. Yum!
The pork trotters meat are not as tender as what we expect it to be but at least the springy "Q" texture is still in the skin. The intestines "粉肠" that my hubby adds on, is so flavourful. It has already absorbed all the gravy when cooking.
My family & I also ordered some greens to go along with so much meat that we consume. The poached Kailan with oyster sauce and preserved salty vegetable. And after all the fatty food, we put our Song Fa journey to an end by enjoying mini cups of chinese tea to digest some of the oil inside our tummy.. Haha..
Experience: The overall experience was good and my family liked the food also. Although Song Fa BKT is yet the best I've eaten but their standards are definitely above average. Keep it up, boys!

[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

[Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice]
18 Cheong Chin Nam Road
Singapore 599742
Many chicken rice stalls have been popping up each year and finding one was really convenient. Despite so, bigger players like Boon Tong Kee, Tian Tian, Five Star are still coping well.
I was travelling along the stretch of food street along Cheong Chin Nam road the other day, looking for dinner and decides to step into Boon Tong Kee (BTK). The last time I patronized them should be 3 years ago. I was seated indoors at the aircon area as alfresco area was too warm. Servers were going around tables with plates of honey char siew slices, asking customers if they willing to purchase them as appetizers or not. This move makes BTK look abit hard up. We didn't take it but ordered the following dishes instead.
(1) Signature Boiled Chicken $9- This is a 2-pax portion of Boon Tong Kee signature chicken. My preferred part is always the thigh area (鸡尾) as the meat is more tender therefore I requested for it as usual. I remembered BTK chicken used to have a layer of jelly fats beneath the skin but sadly it doesn't exist anymore. The meat is still soft and tender but lack juiciness. The chilli mixed mashed ginger was great companions to pair with as it brings up more flavours to the chicken.
(2) Plain rice/ Chicken rice $1- Chicken rice (油饭) was served in a pyramid-shaped cone. Presentation scores! Rice was really fragrance and texture was just right, not too soft or mushy. I can take 2 shares of this
(3) Claypot Fried Pig Liver (砂锅猪肝) $12- The pot came sizzling with very fragrant soya sauce and ginger smell, made me drool before I even start eating it. Liver slices were thick and yet so tender. Timing was right and liver not over-cooked otherwise will be very hard and rubbery. Take with the ginger to spice up your palate.
(4) Poached Chinese Spinach with Assorted Eggs $10- 三蛋苋菜 I tried many. BTK version was quite generous for small portion. Broth was sweet and filled with natural veggie taste of chinese spinach. Stems not crunchy due to slight over-cooked but overall dish still decent. The generous amount of eggs also made this ordinary greenie dish pretty!
Verdict: Although BTK Signature chicken wasn't as tasty as it used to be but still decent. I felt that their cze char dishes flared better now and is definitely suitable for family dinner/ friends gathering. I don't mind coming back for other cze char dishes. Staff service needs improvement as they talked rudely and wasn't attentive despite not much dinner crowd.

[Dunman Duckrice]
德明鸭饭
-Stall 10, Basement level-Dunman Food Ctr
271 Onan Road
Singapore 424768
(1) Duck Porridge/ Congee $3- This bowl of pipin' hot duck porridge is best suitable for a cold rainy day as it warms my tummy! Gravy was abit too salty for me but the stall owner is indeed generous in the portion of duck meat given.
(2) Duck Rice $3- I was given the duck breast meat. But still, meat is tender, well marinated and not dry. Rice is fragrant and texture is soft yet still remains some firmness, not mushy.
(3) Kway chap $3.50 + Pork Belly & Duck Liver $3.50- $3 for the kway chap ingredients and $0.50 for the "kway". For this price, the portion served was consider big. Drizzled with the braised gravy, the ingredients were full of flavour from the chinese spices. Bean curd skin "tau pok" soaked up a lot of the gravy that's why tasted abit salty when bite. But the pork skin and intestines were very chewy/Q which I like
The "kway" was plain as usual and additional flavour comes from the gravy broth it is soaked in.Pork belly was very tender and just like the kway chap ingredients, meat was well marinated with the spices. Pork belly meat and fats ratio was quite balanced too. On the other hand, I don't really fancy the duck liver as the duck stench was pretty strong which I don't like.
Verdict: Dining experience here was pleasant. Stall owners were friendly and generous in the food portions served. Prices are very reasonable too.
The only negative issue here is, the food center is way too warm and you will definitely be soaked in sweat after eating.