See my full review & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/11/06/s6-50-salted-egg-chicken-rice-mini-wok-zi-char-迷你锅煮炒-shaw-basement-food-republic-on-6nov2015/

went to watch “The Intern” at shaw lido with a friend today on 6.11.2015. ^^
i really enjoyed the movie. super! :-)
after movie, it was 2.30pm – ish.
we decided just to get a bite at the food republic at basement of shaw house. :-)
i had previously –
tried the brisket king 牛腩大王. it was quite good but expensive. well so are the other stalls. also ex.
& the quite below par toa payoh lor 7 teochew fishball noodles.
was going to settle for either roast chicken rice or roast duck noodles stall, but saw this mini wok zi char 迷你锅煮炒.
there were many dishes on the photo menu. i would not mind the pepper beef or the pork onion rice.
anyhow we saw this salted egg chicken rice = no.1 seller! must try!
so try we did.
& it was good leh.
this is a very professional planned instant dish delivery, very quick turnover & consistent good standard.
deep-fried chicken pieces were pro-done, fried egg too.
the instant “chef” put the chicken pieces into the hot oil, the helper placed the rice, fried egg & some pickles on the aluminium serving wok on a tray for easy handling. then the chef fried the heated deep-fried chicken pieces with the salted egg sauce, probably took 1 min & then placed on top of the rice. voila!
S$6.50 was ok. quite enjoyable! ^^
very enjoyable movie, meal & chat with friend.

See my full review & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/11/04/huatings-sg50-6-course-lunch-on-3nov2015/
a good younger friend wanted to buy lunch on 3.11.2015.
i wanted to try the huating 华厅 SG50 6-course lunch (not shy la..haha!) so suggested the place. ^^
i have not been to huating maybe >10yrs? not sure.
used to come here when i was having the ala carte card which gives 50% discounts for 2pax. liked the braised goose especially but that was like for a very short window & never had that since.
so we mostly had braised duck & also the lobster noodles. but like i was telling my friend, lobster noodles now we can have it anywhere, & 2 of the best for me are tunglok signature & xin cuisine. :-)
we had a vegetarian goose starter.
first course was the mushroom fritters & seafood salad.
mushroom fritters were good, crispy batter & tasty mushrooms.
prawns & scallops salad was competent.
overall not a particularly fine starter, but i guess a good restaurant standard, competent.
second course was sweet & sour soup 酸辣汤.
this soup is not my favourite. still i remembered it was a rather tasty soup here eons ago. well, dishes change & tastebuds change too.
i felt it was a bit below par for a huating standard restaurant.
c/w what i had at xin cuisine recently, at least that was fragrant, tasty & chokeful of ingredients as well.
even the colour & look were much better.
i always like sea perch. the taste & texture is like cod. this one sat on an emarld tofu with minced pork sauce.
photo looks ok, and overall the taste of both the sea perch & the minced pork tofu were good too.
it was a good restaurant standard. we both thought that the combination was not the best matching – a quite robust minced pork tofu competing with a sea perch.
c/w min jiang’s steamed sea perch, simple & dignified, somehow huating’s version look a bit like food from past decades.
the lamb rack was ok. meat was tender, sauce was a bit overpowering. there was a bit of gamey taste which the sauce helped mask.
i would say very competent dish. a bit of tacky decorations?
prawn noodles? for me that was really quite below par.
alan’s S$5 “why eat har” prawn noodles beat this hands down.
so would any at tunglok signature & xin cuisine.
even my own big prawn noodles (copy tunglok’s) better than this la….lol,,,^^
dessert was a mango pudding with fruits.
overall, it was a very enjoyable lunch, catching up with my friend about his business & family.
food was pretty good i supposed considering it’s a S$50pax 6-course set with sea perch & lamb, but really far below the expectations i had for a restaurant like huating. so either the restaurant standard has fallen far behind or they are not giving representative dishes for the set (which defeats the purpose of having a promo).

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/11/02/good-standard-bakchormee-ah-hoe-meepok-blk-710-clementi-ave-west-street-2-on-2nov2015/
there’s a lot of buzz in the media & among friends lately about a japanese family who started a bakchormee mee stall at clementi west.
one friend rounded the rest of us up so today 9 of us descended on ah hoe meepok at blk 710, clementi west street 2 on 2.11.2015. ^^
some of us were there at 11.30am. there was no queue yet. nearer 12pm we had about 6pax & started queueing. there were then about 4 to 5 persons in the queue. but shortly after the queue was 10+ long and continued so.
singaporeans vote with their feet. as one of the reviewers johorkaki said, if the food were not good, the hype would soon fixxle out.
8 of us ordered the S$5 meepok dry. only 1 friend ordered the soup.
so do i think it was that good?meepok was qq, texture was very good. the chilli & sauce coated the noodles well & taste was good.
there were loads of ingredients, i had 5 pork balls, 3 slices of shellfish, sliced pork, mushrooms &minced pork. there was no liver, or tipoh (the dried flatfish).
for me though, it could do with a bit more vinegar, and the chilli sauce though tasty, was not spicy & did not have the kick.
there was some garlic vinegar sauce i think, which a friend who was here for the 3rd time now said it was good, so i added that to the noodles & tossed.
i think it was similar to what we added to the ramen at Ichiran 一蘭 in fukuoka. it was nice, but somehow i still prefer the more fragrant black vinegar.
i did not try the soup version. it looked good too. i will certainly try the soup version next time.
my benchmark for meepok teng (soup version) is xing ji (興记) bakchormee fengshan food centre
i certainly like this bakchormee here & will take it again, but it was not compelling or must have variety for me.
i would prefer-
tai hwa bakchormee at crawford lane. lai heng bakchormee at changi T3 B2 kopitiam & also the 6th avenue jalan tua kong meepok tar though that is a different fishball noodles style
bakchormee was good & we had a great time among old friends 9 of us.
it is not something though i would specially drive myself to come & eat alone. unlike say my favourite ah heng curry chicken noodles at hong lim food centre; or
the really good why eat har big prawn noodles.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/11/01/delightful-delicious-100gourmet-dinner-disgruntled-chef-ang-siang-hill-on-29oct2015/
had a most delightful dinner with wife @ disgruntled chef ang siang hill on 29.10.2015. ^^
we both liked the duck breast best but other dishes (except for the lollipop & dessert) were just as delicious & marvelous.
this was a 100gourmet dinner citibank promotion
for this evening it was chef daniel sia of disgruntled chef & chef joris bijdendijk of restaurant RIJKS®we started with a charcoal bread. the bread was excellent, crusty yet fluffy inside.
the lobster & chicken in a yellow wine sauce was really delicious. chicken had a very crispy skin. something i cannot make. & such a wonderful sauce.
& the scallops were excellent. colour & presentation was beautiful of course, and Chef Joris Bijdendijk, Executive Chef at the restaurant RIJKS® in the world renowned Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, personally drizzled the oil over the dish at our table.
scallops were sashimi grade & the inside were still raw. one of the tastiest scallops i have take! bite, taste, everything! ^^
wife thought the flounder lollipop was poor. i thought it was ok, tasty enough. but it’s like glorified fast food?
the cod was a return of another wonderful dish.
server warned us that some diners feedback that the nori butter made the dish quite salty & they were still adjusting the taste.
for us, the seaweed butter did give a distinctive salty taste but nothing overpowering & in fact flavoured the dish rather well, & the shellfish bits (cockles??) added great bite to a delicious sauce. the cod tasted a bit firmer, like a monkfish texture, anyway it was good.
& what a beautifully plated dish!
& wa..the duck..it was the best duck i had.
so tender & sweet. just enjoying this duck, i am thinking i gonna try my sous vide duck breast again.
i did that for my duck l’orange some time back.
it reminded me of the excellent jaan’s hay roasted pigeon. that was quite long ago though, so this duck actually felt better.
the dessert was too ordinary to complement the excellent dishes, but still the mars mar thingy had a really nice chocolate & great texture. i am so so with the cream just took a little.
we have never been to disgruntled chef at dempsey or here at ang siang hill. i must say the service was excellent-polite, friendly, quite knowledgeable & attentive.
this was 1 of the best dinners i had for a while, except for the excellent japanese omakase at hachi. hachi is different cuisine, which we would prefer by comparison but it also cost a lot more.
it reminded me of the really sumptuous dinners & dining experience at jaan, which we do not go any more because it’s no longer offering feed at raffles discounts. presentation was delight & food was exquisite. jaan had 2 amuse bouche which were excellent PLUS a palate cleanser item, so total like 10-course.
for the price, i think this dinner at disgruntled chef was next to perfect.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/10/30/very-enjoyable-s18-80-bara-chirashi-don-sumiya-on-30oct2015/
have not gone back to sumiya for a while, forgot how good the bara chirashi don set was for the price.
last time i wrote about the bara chirashi don set here was on nov2014.
today i went with a good friend to sumiya for lunch at 12.50pm on 30.10.2015. ^^ after that we walked over to orchard cineleisure to watch the movie “the martian”.
sumiya was crowded.
full house on a weekday lunchtime. so better book!
we ordered 2 “mixed bara kaisen don” set @ S$18.80 ea. we asked for sushi rice (there is a note on the menu to say the default is normal rice but you can ask for sushi rice with no charge).
it came with appetizer, salad, pickles, chawanmushi, miso soup & dessert.
japanese tea was also foc. we had 1 cold & 1 hot green tea.
chawanmushi was by the way thing. the appetizer, miso soup, pickles as well, but i guess still good to have. :-)
salad was great.
my own chawanmushi is lots better.^^
& the mochi dessert was quite excellent! :-) the mochi dough was soft & perfect mochi texture.
there was another layer of tasty cream inside the bean paste.
restaurant is on the rooftop & we were seated by the window, so there was view as well.most importantly, the chirashi don was very good. usually bara chirashi don uses small diced sashimi from leftover bits. this one here has larger cubes & the sashimi was really fresh & sweet. there was no expensive sashimi of course, just salmon, maguro & kajiki, with lots of ikura & tobiko, & avogado.
& the sushi rice was great too!
cannot ask more for a S$18.80 chirashi don set.