Asia Grand Restaurant is a quite a long established brand in Singapore, previously it was located at the former Asia Grand Hotel. Since the demolition of the hotel, it has relocated to Odeon Tower. I have a friend who is a fan of their Dim Sum, though I have never tried them. This remind me to try them out one day. Meanwhile, this post is devoted to the Dinner I had with a group of ex-colleagues.It is interesting that throughout the meal, the diners felt that the food served at Asia Grand Restaurant is closer to Teochew cuisine despite them being a Cantonese Restaurant. One other point to note, Asia Grand Restaurant is one of the few restaurants that offer a table big enough for 15 pax. 

On the table, before our dinner began were plate of appetizer of fish cake and peppers. Most of us find it strange that this appetizer was served instead of the usual peanuts or pickled.We ordered a Special Set Menu for 10 person at $598 ++. As we have 15 pax, we added for 5 pax. In this set menu for dinner, 8 dishes were served.
To get the dinner rolling, we started with the Steamed Fresh Prawn, 白灼生虾 as the first dish for this special menu. Anything that is fresh when steamed, the natural flavour and its sweetness were emitted. And this was the case for our Steamed Fresh Prawn.As we have diner who doesn't take shark fins, as such the Braised Minced Chicken Thick Soup with Egg White, 西湖鸡茸羮 was a good choice as soup. The texture and taste resemble the usual shark fin soup. But personally, I am never a fan of soup, and not even to mention the thick gluey kind. Anyhow, I still went ahead to try and I could savour the chicken aroma in the soup and there was a good amount of minced chicken in it.It was shortly followed by the Braised Sliced Sea Whelk with Vegetables & Abalone Sauce, 鲍汁碧绿海螺片. Nothing worth mentioning about this dish except that the seasoning added to this dish was at a perfect ratio.Who doesn't welcome the Roasted Whole Boneless Suckling Pig, 南乳去骨猪? With a layer of fats in between the crispy skin and tender succulent meat with sufficient marinate, most couldn't resist the charm. This truly is an indulgent.The fifth dish of the night is the Fried Crispy Duck, 脆皮香酥鸭. True to its name, it is indeed crispy and salty. Other than that, no other characteristics. I heard many, even one of the diner in our group was raving about its Peking Duck. Maybe it is better than the fried one.Moving on was the Steamed Fresh Pa-Ting Fish with Olives, Garlic and Chilli, 榄角蒜茸辣椒蒸八丁鱼. I thought usually the Teochew would use olives in dishes. I suppose this was the dish that cause confusion and most thought Asia Grand was a Teochew Restaurant. Another usual was the fish for the dish, it uses Patin Fish, a Malaysian fresh water fish. I am not a fan of fresh water fish as it usually has soil taste in the flesh. At least, this unpleasantness wasn't in the fish.The last dish before dessert was the Crispy Rice In Seafood Soup, 金银海鲜泡饭. Many diners always associate rice in soup as a Teochew dish. Some how I am puzzled with this phenomenon as we Teochew (I am one.) don't eat that way. And my Dad always complains about this highly debatable dish as Teochew dish too. Anyway ... I suppose this is another element that contribute to the thought Grand Asia Restaurant as a Teochew Restaurant.Both white rice and fried crispy rice were both added to the bowl of seafood soup. Hence it provided both texture to the the dish and together with aromatic seafood soup, most would not refuse this comfort food.The meal was ended with the Red Bean Pan Cake, 豆沙窝饼 as dessert.

Quantity was sufficient for all 15 person at the table and quality was beyond satisfactory. Food was considerably delish at a reasonable price. The ambience was the typical Chinese restaurant that gets noisy. As such, I would recommend Asia Grand Restaurant for dinner to all.

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I usually dine at VivoCity outlet of Paradise Dynasty as this is one of my favourite Chinese restaurant. The first Paradise Dynasty that I knew and dine at was when it started out at Ion Orchard. Ever since, I have been returning for more.
Paradise Dynasty is a name I am sure need no introduction, as many must have known about it by now. It is fame for its colourful Xiao Long Bao in various filling. Some may find certain filling exotic when it was first introduced. I did back then.


Dynasty Signature Xiao Long Bao
Based on the name, Dynasty 8 Flavours Xiao Long Bao, one would have known that there are 8 flavours.The original is in the centre. Starting from the Green, clockwise; Ginseng, Foie Gras, Truffle, Cheesy, Garlic and Crab Roe and Szechuan. If diner like any a particular flavour, diner could order just for that flavour in 6s or 10s. Personally, my favourite is still the original.

Shanghai Dim Sum
On Paradise Dynasty Menu, 14 Shanghai Dim Sum are offered. They are mainly the classic Shanghai Dim Sum.Pork Dumpling with Hot Chilli Vinaigrette is a dish I seldom order. In fact, I ordered it only once. It is not that I didn’t like it but I don’t usually dine with a huge enough group to allow me to order both the Xiao Long Bao and Pork Dumpling.

La Mian
Paradise Dynasty offers 8 La Mian in Pork Bone Soup selections and 9 other La Mian.La Mian in Signature Pork Bone Soup has a dense an rich soup full of pork flavour. And I like the egg with runny yolk that came with the bowl of noodle soup. All the La Mian in this category are similar except for the main topping.Pork Dumpling La Mian in Chilli Sauce and many more are available for selection. Noodles are very much the same. Likewise, it depends on what ingredient does diners prefer to have it with the handmade noodles.

Dishes
Scrambled Egg White with Fish and Conpoy has mainly egg white topped with only a single yolk on centre. It is not quite my kind of dish as I prefer yolk. But I like this dish.Diners could opt for the Stir-fried River Shrimp in Spicy Bean and Tomato Sauce too. Though this isn’t quite kind of my dish.An healthy option is the Stewed Sliced Fish in Chinese Wine.For Szechuan Specialty, one could turn to Spicy Szechuan Crispy Chicken. The chicken in this dish was so crispy. I find the spice level acceptable.Quite a good selections of greens are also available.Mains
Among the few rice option at Paradise Dynasty, I usually turned to Yangzhou Fried Rice but strangely, I couldn’t find a photo of this dish in my archive.Shanghai Fried Rice is pretty similar to the Yangzhou Fried Rice except that it is fried with an additional dark sauce. Personally, I still prefer the YangZhou Fried Rice.

Desserts
The desserts offered at Paradise Dynasty has a mixed of Shanghai dessert and Hong Kong Style dessert.Pan Fried Pancake with Red Bean Paste and the Banana Souffle like Shanghai Dessert are 2 of the available selection.For the more conventional diner, they could go for the Mango Pudding or Lemongrass Jelly.Diners are definitely spoiled for choice, as always when diners are at Chinese Restaurant. The must order at Paradise Dynasty is certinaly the Xiao Long Bao.

After knowing about Humpback Sunday Brunch, I decided to pop by with my Mom to check them out at Bukit Pasoh. The unit where Humpback is located was previously occupied by The Clan. Now that The Clan has shifted, the design of the ground floor was revamped into a more casual dinning spot with only bar tables which I never preferred.On Humpback Sunday Brunch menu, 7 categories were offered; namely Oysters, Snacks, Garden, Egg, Seafood, Meat and Dessert.I was glad to catch sight of oysters on its menu. 4 types of oysters offered. All were from Washington, USA, priced at $3 each. I tried the Eld Inlet and Kumamoto. Lemon, specially concocted vinegar and freshly grated horse radish were served with the oysters. Kumamoto was lighter in oyster pungent as compared Eld Inlet. As such Kumamoto was smoother on the palate. But personally I prefer the Eld Inlet as I like that pungent.Kale Salad ($14) was our picked. Besides kale, the main greens, pear, pecan nuts, buttermilk, topped with kale chips and dusted with a good amount of grated parmesan cheese was in this salad. My mom didn’t appreciate it initially but felt it tasted fabulous after ingesting more of them. Personally, I felt it was like having Cesar Salad, instead of Romaine Lettuce, Kale was replaced.Out of the 4 eggs, we chose the most boring one, Scrambled Egg ($10/18) with Prosciutto, asparagus on sourdough. All except the Omelette has it in either small or big plate. Personally, I would go for either the fried egg ($14/24)with octopus or omelette ($18) with oysters.The scrambled egg has a soft a soft curd texture and was creamy. As lots of chopped parsley (I think they were), resulted in more aroma in the dish.
It was their Lobster Roll ($39) that prompted me the visit to Humpback. Chunky lobster with cream, tobiko in the roll and frisee and fries by the side. We enjoyed Humpback Lobster Roll.At the meat section, either Buttermilk Fried Chicken or Pork Rib ($14) was available. We ordered the latter. The pork rib was extremely tender. With only the fork, the meat was detached from the bone. Again, a pity, the marinate did not get meat-deep.Since Humpback is part of Jigger and Pony establishment, expect a good range of cocktails and wine. Alternatively, one could customize their very own Bloody Mary.
It has limited non-alcoholic drinks though. One of them is the Iced Tea Soda ($6) which we opted to try. Practically, almost like soda.We enjoyed the food offerred at Humpback Sunday Brunch. Though the food weren’t any special but it was well executed. At least the food we ordered were delish.

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For original post, visit http://www.nahmj.com/2016/03/02/humpback-sunday-brunch-menu-bukit-pasoh-outram-park-singapore/

Full review on http://www.nahmj.com/2016/01/06/elements-and-co-cafe-singapore-cecil-street-tanjong-pagar/

The space is pretty industrial as it uses lots of wood material and green, hence it provided a softer touch. And it has high ceilling, therefore, you will the cafe spacious. It has a mixed of bar tables and normal dinning table which was thougthful.

I went for takeaway, to share with my sister who’s florist shop is a stone throw away. Aloha Crab Cakes with Papaya And Basil Sauce ($11.50) makes a good light lunch. I didn’t think the papaya and basil sauce paired well with the crab cakes. I enjoyed better eating the crab cakes by itself, without the sauce. I would certainly prefer this dish with more salad.

The Moroccan Souk Kebabs ($14.00) was the second dish I ordered from the All Day Menu. I love the lamb mince kebabs. The spice marinate was great for the kebabs. The quinoa with pumpkin, chickpea and sultana bed was filling. I felt it was a little too sweet contributed by both the pumpkin and sultana.
Cappuccino ($4.50) was more than decent. A well balance cup with medium to low acidity and full body. It has a good nutty, milk chocolate and dark berry tone.
Elements And Co Cafe Singapore is a good add to the area for tasty healthier option. Since it opened early, a good breakfast place option too.

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Full review is up at http://www.nahmj.com/2016/02/11/ji-xiang-ang-ku-kueh-everton-park-outram-singapore/  

Most must have known about the famous Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh, one of the most talk about in town. It is located at Block 1 of Everton Park. My family has been enjoying this Traditional Chinese delicacy ever since we know them. I don’t even remember when it was. It must have been many years ago. Lol. Importantly, the quality has been consistent and has maintained over the many years. By the way, Ang Ku Kueh when it is literally translated, it is known as Red Tortoise Cake.Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh outlet is very much an unassuming shop. If I am correct, they occupied 2 units at the ground floor of Everton Park Block 1.Traditionally, Ang Ku Kueh is in Sweet Bean 甜豆沙 and Peanut Paste 花生. My personal favourite is the Sweet Bean Paste. The best part of the Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh is the skin of the cake is thin. And I like the sweetness level. Perfect for my tastebud.The other lesser known traditional flavour is the Salty Bean 咸豆沙 Ang Ku Kueh. Those who like sweet and savoury food such as the salted caramel would probably enjoyed this.The remaining flavours available at Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh are introduced laterr. There are Coconut 叶子 Ang Ku Kueh, Corn 玉米 Ang Ku Kueh and Yam 芋头 Ang Ku Kueh. Yam is the other flavour that I enjoyed.There is also a seasonal flavour, durian.All its Ang Ku Kueh is priced at $0.80 except for the Yam at $0.90 and Durian at $1.30.

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