For full write up & photos, please visit my blog: http://www.aspirantsg.com/foodie-food/sumptuous-crab-feast-at-parkroyal-on-beach-road/singapore
or follow me on twitter for food reviews: https://twitter.com/AspirantSG

Nothing ends off a hard week of work better than a splendiferous night of delicious crabs. Special thanks to Daniel's Food Diary who extended his invitation for me to attend this amazing Crab Fiesta at Plaza Brasserie, PARKROYAL on Beach Road.

For starters, we got to choose from a wide spread of appetizers ranging from Dijon Crab Cakes with Coriander Paste, Baked Crab Shell, Chilli Crab Roll with Vegetables, Crab Meat Gyoza with Dip Sauce, Bread Crab Claw, Mini Crab Meat Samosas, Olive & Potato Crabmeat Balls with Pesto, Crabmeat Paste, Baked Whole Salmon with Spicy Dip to a variety of Dim Sums.
If you are one who prefers a cold start, there's the chilled seafood section with lots of really fresh hairy crabs right round the corner.

You must not miss their huge, juicy fresh oysters that's perfect with a dash of Tabasco and lemon juice. Plus its rumoured to be quite an aphrodisiac.

Enjoy the prawns without accompanying sauces to savour its freshness. It's hard to stop once you start peeling!

Next came the star dishes for the evening, prepared using the humble Mud Crab:

First to be served was the familiar Chilli Crab. The colour was vibrant & looked extremely inviting. The chilli sauce was a little spicy with a tint of sweetness.

Although Chilli Crab is one of Singaporean's favourites, it took a back seat as we got introduced to the other contenders. Stir-Fried Crabs with Spring Onions and Gingermild flavouring allowed us to fully appreciate the natural sweetness and taste of the mud crab.

Stir Fried Sri Lanka Crab with XO Sauce was quite an innovation. The crab meat tasted sweet in general but the XO seasoning was not prominent.

It will take more than high cholesterol to keep me away from these delightful Stirred Fried Crab with Egg Yolk. I stand true to the statement 'Anything goes well with salted egg yolks'. This was my favourite Mud Crab dish for the evening.

Here's Chef Jackson, the man behind all these new wonderful creations with his last Mud Crab recipe for the evening - Butter Crab. To be honest, it was really tough trying to identify Butter Crab & Stirred Fried Crab with Egg Yolk by taste.

How can I not take a photo together with our talented Chef Jackson.

Besides the Mud Crab, the co-star of the evening was the pretty flower crab.

Nyonya Curry Flower Crab was indisputably my overall favourite crab dish for the evening. The spicy Nyonya Sambal was a perfect match for the sweet, tender flower crab meat.

One is never enough. This is a die die must try!

If the crabs were not enough to fill you up completely, you can always pop by the Noodles Section for Crab Meat Le Mein with Miso Paste and Condiments or Braised Tang Hoon with Live Crabs. There's also the hot variety section for Braised Pork Ball with Preserved Vegetable and Taro, Oatmeal Prawns, Stir-fried Chicken in Honey and Sesame, Fried Baby Kai Lan and Crabmeat Fried Rice, Crispy Soft Shell Crabs and Braised Sea Cucumber with Roast Pork and Mushrooms.

Also remember to check out their Drunken Prawns. You can definitely taste the alcohol here!

Their assorted Roti Pratas are worth a visit. I particularly loved the Durian Prata. Just imagine yummy durian pengat spread generously within a nice crispy prata. Heavenly...

The Indian Pastry Chef was friendly and approachable. You can drop by his station any time for special requests like this really colourful paper thin prata!

Last but not least, do not leave the place without trying their famous Carrot Cake. Best part of the cake? The cream cheese icing.

If you love crabs, this is one hell of a buffet that's not to be missed.

You may also like to check out my posts on other delicious food places here

For full write up & photos, please visit my blog: http://www.aspirantsg.com/foodie-food/be-a-happy-boss-at-leban-hk-cafe/singapore or follow me on twitter for food reviews: https://twitter.com/AspirantSG

After previous visit to Irvin's Live Seafood House for its famous value for money $12 All You Can Eat Lunch Buffet, me & my friends decided to check out its dinner buffet for a belated birthday celebration. Apparently, Irvin's outdid its lunch buffet offering with additional steamboat choices on top of its usual lunch spread for a pretty decent price of $18.50.

While at Irvin's, it's hard to miss LeBan HK Cafe, the latest addition to the stretch of eateries at Jalan Leban. Although Leban is a malay word, its pronunciation sounded like 'Happy Boss' in Chinese Pinyin language. Basically, the owner hopes that all guest will enjoy their dining experience at the cafe and leave feeling like happy bosses!

We decided to go for this newbie instead. True to its name, the cafe had a simple but cheerful interior.

Started with a refreshing Blueberry Lagoon while ordering our main dishes.

The health conscious can have their EYV (Eat your Vegetables) Juice.

There were a few dishes that were recommended by Stephenie, our friendly marketer from LeBan. I went for something less adventurous - Pork Chop Baked Rice in Cream Sauce ($8.90). This dish had to be served and consumed while its piping hot to fully appreciate the cheesy texture of the mozzarella. I was able to taste a slight hint of chicken stock which was used instead of water during the rice cooking process. Its actually Pork Chop Chicken Rice Baked in Cream Sauce!

My friend ordered Vermicelli with Pork Cartilage in Fish Soup ($6.20). It was a rather healthy dish with a light (& pretty boring) soup base.

But the special marinated pork cartilage that accompanied the noodles was an absolute knock out. The marinated meat was juicy, tender and flavourful. This divine piece of marinated pork cartilage honestly deserves a more fitting staple.

The next main that came along was Seafood Spaghetti In Tomato Sauce ($7.90). It had a generous helping of clams, prawn and squid over the pasta but there is something fundamentally wrong with the dish. My friend who ordered this managed to pinpoint it down to 'trying to prepare western spaghetti using traditional Chinese style of cooking'. It just tasted weird.

The final main Sizzling Porkchop in BBQ Sauce ($8.90) turned out to be our overall favourite main dish for the evening. The rich BBQ sauce added a dulcet flavour to the succulent pork chop. I wished I have ordered this instead - its so good!

After we were done with our main dishes, we ordered a serving of Fries With Salted Egg Yolk Sauce ($5.90) to munch leisurely over post dinner chit chat. Our verdict: salted egg yolk sauce taste good with practically anything but between fries and chips. Ditch the fries.

Stephenie was really sweet to surprise my friend Gabriel with 2 huge balls to celebrate his birthday!

These balls were actually Sun Fried Ice Cream ($4.00) and diners get to choose from 5 different flavours: Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Cookies & Cream, Vanilla Classic, Green Tea or Strawberry Surprise. Relished the unique taste experience when I took in a mouthful of hot crispy outer skin with the cold, soft milky ice cream interior.

A BIG Thank You to Stephenie for being such a wonderful host. We really enjoyed our birthday dinner at Leban.

Thrilled to be labelled as a 'Very Interesting Person' by Leban! I now get to enjoy 10% every time I visit the Irvin's or LeBan. Awesome

You may also like to check out my posts on other delicious food places at http://www.aspirantsg.com/restaurants-cafe-eateries-food-list-singapore

For full write up & photos, please visit my blog: http://www.aspirantsg.com/foodie-food/be-a-happy-boss-at-leban-hk-cafe/singapore or follow me on twitter for food reviews: https://twitter.com/AspirantSG

After previous visit to Irvin's Live Seafood House for its famous value for money $12 All You Can Eat Lunch Buffet, me & my friends decided to check out its dinner buffet for a belated birthday celebration. Apparently, Irvin's outdid its lunch buffet offering with additional steamboat choices on top of its usual lunch spread for a pretty decent price of $18.50.

While at Irvin's, it's hard to miss LeBan HK Cafe, the latest addition to the stretch of eateries at Jalan Leban. Although Leban is a malay word, its pronunciation sounded like 'Happy Boss' in Chinese Pinyin language. Basically, the owner hopes that all guest will enjoy their dining experience at the cafe and leave feeling like happy bosses!

We decided to go for this newbie instead. True to its name, the cafe had a simple but cheerful interior.

Started with a refreshing Blueberry Lagoon while ordering our main dishes.

The health conscious can have their EYV (Eat your Vegetables) Juice.

There were a few dishes that were recommended by Stephenie, our friendly marketer from LeBan. I went for something less adventurous - Pork Chop Baked Rice in Cream Sauce ($8.90). This dish had to be served and consumed while its piping hot to fully appreciate the cheesy texture of the mozzarella. I was able to taste a slight hint of chicken stock which was used instead of water during the rice cooking process. Its actually Pork Chop Chicken Rice Baked in Cream Sauce!

My friend ordered Vermicelli with Pork Cartilage in Fish Soup ($6.20). It was a rather healthy dish with a light (& pretty boring) soup base.

But the special marinated pork cartilage that accompanied the noodles was an absolute knock out. The marinated meat was juicy, tender and flavourful. This divine piece of marinated pork cartilage honestly deserves a more fitting staple.

The next main that came along was Seafood Spaghetti In Tomato Sauce ($7.90). It had a generous helping of clams, prawn and squid over the pasta but there is something fundamentally wrong with the dish. My friend who ordered this managed to pinpoint it down to 'trying to prepare western spaghetti using traditional Chinese style of cooking'. It just tasted weird.

The final main Sizzling Porkchop in BBQ Sauce ($8.90) turned out to be our overall favourite main dish for the evening. The rich BBQ sauce added a dulcet flavour to the succulent pork chop. I wished I have ordered this instead - its so good!

After we were done with our main dishes, we ordered a serving of Fries With Salted Egg Yolk Sauce ($5.90) to munch leisurely over post dinner chit chat. Our verdict: salted egg yolk sauce taste good with practically anything but between fries and chips. Ditch the fries.

Stephenie was really sweet to surprise my friend Gabriel with 2 huge balls to celebrate his birthday!

These balls were actually Sun Fried Ice Cream ($4.00) and diners get to choose from 5 different flavours: Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Cookies & Cream, Vanilla Classic, Green Tea or Strawberry Surprise. Relished the unique taste experience when I took in a mouthful of hot crispy outer skin with the cold, soft milky ice cream interior.

A BIG Thank You to Stephenie for being such a wonderful host. We really enjoyed our birthday dinner at Leban.

Thrilled to be labelled as a 'Very Interesting Person' by Leban! I now get to enjoy 10% every time I visit the Irvin's or LeBan. Awesome

You may also like to check out my posts on other delicious food places at http://www.aspirantsg.com/restaurants-cafe-eateries-food-list-singapore

For full write up & photos, please visit my blog: http://www.aspirantsg.com/foodie-food/home-cooked-italian-meal-trattoria-gallo-doro/singapore or follow me on twitter for food reviews: https://twitter.com/AspirantSG

Most of us will remember fondly the delicious, comforting dishes of childhood cooked by our mothers, grandmothers, or other relatives. Today, it's hard to find those soothing dishes we grew up with unless we have learned to cook ourselves.

Thanks to the kind invitation by OpenRice & Trattoria Gallo D’Oro to their 23rd OpenRice Tasty Union (ORTU #23), I had the chance to experience authentic home cooked Italian cuisine in a cosy restaurant setting.

Trattoria 'Gallo D’Oro' also known as 'The Golden Rooster' Restaurant in English is located at Central Mall, a rather quiet spot of Clark Quay.

Yellow interiors soothed diners after a long day at work. The presence of traditional red brick walls with wooden furnishing gives the place a warm homely feel.

To get the ball rolling, a quick 'ice-breaker' game was conducted by the OpenRice folks for everyone to get to know one another better.

Our first dish sparked immediately excitement and curiosity among the diners. What on earth were these 2 balls?

That's Burratina di Bufala con Pomodorini ($18) - Fresh buffalo Burratina cheese with sliced tomato, basil and ‘first pressed’ organic extra virgin olive oil. It was accompanied by freshly-baked bread &

Tagliere de affettati misti Emiliani ($22) - a delicious selection of thinly sliced authentic Emilia Romagna cold cuts.

The Buffalo Burratina Cheese looked so cute that we were initially reluctant to break up its ball structure. The thin external layer was a little tough probably to retain its shape but the interior was soft, flavourful and really easy to spread onto the bread.

Just top everything up with one of the cold cuts and you have yourself a yummy appetiser.

Next came the Sardine Fritte ($22) - Deep fried sardines with onions and lemon. The size of the sardines were slightly bigger than our familiar ikan bilis. They were crunchy but still command a meaty texture and strong taste of sardine. It's addictive if you are a sardine lover.

With our appetite whetted, It's time to serve our first pasta for the evening. Casonsei alla Bergamasca ($20) - Stuffed veal ravioli served with golden butter, crispy bacon and sage was indisputably my favourite dish!

Smooth melted butter, titillating crispy bacon .... this is a dieter's worst nightmare but it tasted so good.....

Our second pasta was Foiade del Gallo D’Oro ($20) - Homemade pappardelle pasta, with sausage and spinach. The sausages looked more like meat balls. They offered a rather bouncy bite which complimented the creamy pasta really well.

By the time we were done with our appetisers and pastas, I am already 3/4 full. Thankfully, the first main course Involtini di manzo ripieni ($28) - Rolled beef with mozzarella and capers was a tomato based dish which made it less filling.

The succulent beef roll hides a cheesy secret - mozzarella stuffing.

Strangely, the Branzino intero al forno ($29) - Oven baked whole Sea Bass with leeks and Italian herbs had a fishy river taste. Nevertheless, the fish was really fresh. Perhaps I am not used to the Italian treatment of their fishes.

Our last main dish Pollo al forno rustico ($26) - Roasted chicken with potatoes, olives and shallots was a delightful piece of art. Bloated from too much good food, most of us skipped the potatoes but the olives were a hit!

Before the desserts were served, these wonderful man behind all these fabulous food, Master Chef Carlo Marengoni came round to say hi. He passionately explained his vision of promoting and upholding the noble notion of sharing homestyle northern Italian cuisine in a classic Italian way.

He only has one sacred rule: “In Gallo D’Oro, have food must SHARE.” Gallo D’Oro is a reflection of his Italian roots, particularly that from his hometown, Bergamo. True to his rule, the restaurant will have a daily ‘sharing menu’, featuring up to a range of appetizers, pastas, meat options and desserts. All orders, including those from the ala carte menu, are prepared for sharing and placed in the middle of the table.

To end off the delightful session, Torta della Nonna con gelato ($10) - home-made custard cake with vanilla gelato handed down to Chef Marengoni's grandmother was presented as the parting treat for all attending OpenRicers. It has a tangy lemony taste which offered a good contrast with the sweet gelato ice cream.

Trattoria Gallo D’Oro is one of the rare restaurants around Clark Quay that offers quiet and relaxing ambience for its diners and the menu prices are reasonable for quality Italian cuisine.

You may also like to check out my posts on other delicious food places: http://www.aspirantsg.com/restaurants-cafe-eateries-food-list-singapore

For full write up & photos, please visit my blog: http://www.aspirantsg.com/foodie-food/celebrity-chef-tang-hong-kong-gourmet-restaurant/singapore or follow me on twitter for food reviews: https://twitter.com/AspirantSG

I was thrilled to receive an invitation to a food tasting session at Tang Hong Kong Gourmet from my good friend Dennis Toh. Although it was quite a rush down on from work for me on a Monday evening, the thought of being able to experience the culinary skills of a Celebrity Chef made it all worthwhile. Thankfully the restaurant was just minutes walk away from Outram MRT Station.

After a round of introduction with friendly fellow foodies seated at my table, we were all ready to start our culinary adventure! First came the choice between 2 signature drinks: Water Chestnut with Sugar Cane ($1.50) or Pink Guava ($1.50). Decided to go for the brighter coloured option which was really refreshing.

First dish served was one of the chef's speciality - Spicy Coconut Prawn ($12.90). Crunchy golden brown prawns coated with a layer of coconut milk and diced chilli. Rather innovative starter, a definite must try for new patrons.

Next came the chef's Special Spice Roast Duck ($25 for half portion). I love the roasted crispy skin but the meat is a little too healthy for me. I like it when there's a little bit of oil oozing out with every bite. But that's just me, ladies will definitely prefer this healthier version.

Pig Trotter Vinegar ($8.90) - this Chinese dish traditionally prepared for ladies undergoing post-labour has evolved to become a delicacy that everyone, including men can enjoy openly without any fear of embarrassment. Furthermore, the natural collagen of pig’s trotters helps fight visible effects of aging on the skin!

The pig’s trotters are usually moist, tender and succulent after hours of slow cooking in the sweetened black vinegar. But I personally feel that the meat here is a little too tough for my liking.

The Steam Fish Head with Chilli and Garlic Sauce ($16.90) was a lovely sight to behold! The portion was generous and I really loved the fresh, tender steamed fish meat. The fish spicy gravy goes really well with rice.

The Spicy Silver Fish ($6.90) was crunchy and highly addictive. Great finger food for hanging out with friends after the main meal.

Chicken Cutlet ($8.90) was actually not part of the food tasting menu. It was served by the thoughtful boss just to make sure that all of us leave the restaurant feeling full and well fed. You can never go too wrong with fried Chicken Cutlet especially when its hot! This dish usually served with accompanying fries.

Everyone went into trigger frenzy mode when the star of the evening made his appearance.

Introducing our friendly and talented Mr Benson Tong, chef and owner of Tang. Listeners of 100.3FM will know him better as Mr Simple, celebrity chef for 好吃小计划 program airing every Tuesday at 10:30pm. He has also won Successful Entrepreneur 2010, Singapore 100 Special Commendation 2008 and other culinary competitions.

After sharing with us his entrepreneur journey and the vision behind his cooking, I quickly took the opportunity to take a shot with our amazing chef.

How can a wonderful meal end without sweet endings? We got to enjoy a sweet concoction - Double Boil Papaya with Snow Fungi ($4.60).

The presence of papaya is believed to moisten the lungs, strengthens the spleen, helps restore vital energy circulation and is good for digestion while snow fungus soothes coughs and is a good source of collagen.

We had an additional sweet treat which was made by Benson's friend. It's awesome and may potentially make it's way into the restaurant menu.

You may also like to check out my posts on other delicious food places: http://www.aspirantsg.com/restaurants-cafe-eateries-food-list-singapore