See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/05/shiok-as-before-2pax-dinner-tunglok-signature-on-4aug2015/
had not been to tunglok at orchard parade for a while. last was in sep2014. was deciding where to eat out for dinner. we had japanese recently at kuriya dining, and tomorrow i am cooking 12pax dinner at home which is mostly western/italian.

so we went to tunglok signature at orchard parade hotel for dinner this evening on 4.8.2015.

for me, the food never dissappoint, just as shiok as ever. don’t think other diners share my views though. the place had just few tables, quite empty.

we ordered the garlic pork 蒜泥白肉. it was good. i liked it & would order it again, but honestly it was not better than my own garlic pork 蒜泥白肉 though the style was quite different. i like mine more in terms of the flavours & tenderness of my belly pork but this here was good & looked very nice too.

we had the lie tong 例汤. it was really good! ^^ my helper made very good lie tong 例汤 at home quite often, so this had to be really good to impress us. they had old cucumber & dried cuttlefish & softbones soup base. it was really tasty!

we ate up the 3 large pieces of pork softbones before remembering to take photo.

the steamed razor clams with tanhoon was really good too. this was as good as the ones we often had previously at ah yat grandstand & very less frequently at jumbo at dempsey.

top restaurant standards & very much better than the ones we had at the daipaidongs 大排档 in hong kong.

we ordered the garoupa fillet with brocoli & lily bulbs 百合. this was excellent too. wok hae was very good. the garoupa fillet & vegetables – brocoli & lily bulbs 百合- were very well done. i can definitely do this dish at home, maybe i will start with a vegetarian one for my niece’s coming brthday.

i was looking forward to the lobster noodles. it was still good, but a far cry from the lobster noodles we had here previously, or at any good restaurants eg xin restaurant. just look at the old photos of the “real” loster noodles. that’s how it should look like!

& i always like the dessert 雪中情怀. it did not dissappoint. really excellent, the combination of fresh coconut, mango, grapefruit, vanilla & coconut ice cream was super! i take this everytime!^^

with 50% for 2pax amex palate discounts the food came to S$100nett for 2pax & we got free parking as well.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/31/fabulous-5-course-wine-dinner-da-luca-on-30jul2015/
went with wife for a wine dinner hosted by a bank on 30.7.2015^^ the menu looked fabulous..restaurant was filled up. there were 45 diners including quite many bank staff.

food was excellent. & we had great company, seated with the wine distributor & the CS banker. a most enjoyable evening dining & chatting! ^^

we were served a toasted bread. it was good. i finished all of it. & we had a prosecco.

#1 first course was chef luca’s signature chilled capellini in wild truffle emulsion. chef luca hailed from garibaldi & gunther. this was really good!

it was so very flavourful, wonderful truffle aroma, with a japanese laver (seaweed) & ceviche of hokkaido scallops. you can get decent even good chilled capellini at saveur & also just as good ones at concetto for S$7 but this here is the “real thing”.

we had the maculan bididi 2011, not that i know what it was. a pretty good, sweet white wine. wife liked it. ok for me too.

#2 the slow cooked spanish octopus was done very nicely too, very tender. ^^ the grilled flavours (server said it was braised then grilled) kind of masked by the tomato sauce.

the best octopus i had was at alle darsene at bellaggio lake como. the roasted octopus tentacles at miky monterosso cinque terre was good too.

the preparation at da cula was perhaps more fine i guess, but taste & overall experience wise, alle darsene was just heavenly, and i think i prefer miky monterosso too.

in singapore the best i had was the sous vide octopus tempura we had almost everytime at mikuni.

#3 & the porcini funghi risotto with black truffles was good, great texture, al dente, good taste. i did not find it as intense & flavourful as the funghi risotto (sans the black truffles) which i had recently at tess bar & kitchen though.

not sure why. maybe the more expensive black truffles overwhelmed the mushrooms? anyway it was a good risotto.

the red wine braised wagyu cheeks was very good too. very tender, a very good braise. it was beefy but not very beefy so easier on the palate. portion was fairly generous, not totally satiated but almost there.

for a good braise, i think my own spanish slow-braised beef ribs with a vegetable ratatouille gives a more balanced flavour. and i also prefer beef ribs to the beef cheek. there was good wine pairing for each course, & i do enjoy just a little of the wine, though they were basically lost on me.

chef luca came to say a few words. we all enjoyed his food very much, so chef luca was very popular man for the evening.

#5 & yes, the crispy apple tart was excellent!^^ maybe i will give this a try if i can find a good online recipe. it was really a fabulous dinner & company.

P.S. i went with wife to an amarone wine dinner at american club last november. looking at the food picture again, that dinner would be a bit better by comparison. still, this one was very good, and we enjoyed every bit of it.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/26/wonderful-dinner-tess-bar-kitchen-on-24jul2015/
family celebrating a special occasion, so daughter arranged a 7pax dinner at tess bar & kitchen on 24.7.2015.^^

it was a quite wonderful dinner. ambience was very happening with drinking crowd & food was good.

i was here earlier in march. the food was pretty ok.

we ordered a dozen fresh oysters, S$3ea. they were big, plump & sweet, no metallic aftertaste.

daughters liked the truffles fries. there were yam, sweet potatoes & potatoes. i didn’t taste any truffle, didn’t think much of it.

wife ordered a cocktail to share. cocktailit came with pink grapefruit, grapes & raspberries etc. so you “mixed” your own, kind of anyway. i not into liquor but it was a drinkable cocktail for me.

wife ordered a bespoke cocktail for herself. it was very nice!^^ we also had an order of beer & another cocktail.

i loved the duck rillette! the best i had was at the clifford. this one here was of no comparison with the favourful duck rilette at the clifford.

the smoked duck breast was nice too, with the lentils. i don’t take foie gras these days if i can help it.

the camembert cheese was good too! & the caramelised apples.

the crispy skin salmon was better than i expected, quite nice with the passion fruit sauce & mesclun.

the funghi risotto was excellent!^^ this definitely much better than my own funghi risotto.

the prawn linguine tomato sauce was good too. it was nothing special though, just a very competent one. the gamberini linguine at kith looked really good & i must try it sometime.

vongole was very good. very tasty!^^

1 of the best vongole i had. & it was quite different from the vongole i had for lunch sometime ago. that seemed from the photos to be a lot drier & if you don’t taste the sauce at the bottom it was not so great. this new version was much better.

the wagyu beef with bone marrow was superb!^^ wagyu beef was tender & the bone marrow was fantastic! it was quite perfect to have the bread to mop up the bone marrow.

dinner was S$393 nett inclusive of the drinks for 7pax. less drinks it would be like S$280 so about S$40pax nett. pretty ok!

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/17/satisfaction-guaranteed-teochew-muay-ye-shanghai-on-16jul2015/
when i was queueing for shi le yuan 实叻圆糜 the other day, the guy in front of me said ye shanghai was cheaper & had a larger spread, and he only came to shi le yuan because ye shanghai was closed that day.

so i came with my sis & b-i-l to try out ye shanghai on 16.7.2015. it’s not bad!^^ we came at 1030am so no queue, but also not all dishes were ready.

we ordered total 10 dishes. it came to only S$20.60. so the man was right, a bit cheaper than shi le yuan, more variety of dishes just as good but not really better. maybe the veg dishes were better here.

there was no ngoh soon (small treadfin) & mullet 乌鱼 they only served those in the evening. we ordered the “kee her” fish. i thought it was very good actually taken with tau jeon, good proxy to mullet 乌鱼.

the big intestines was good very well cleaned, nice texture, slightly milder lor 鲁 taste, i quite like it.  the kong bak belly pork too. nice big intestines.

veg here very nice. the brinjal was every tasty. pig’s skin was very good. just like the ng ah sio one we had recently at rangoon road, no fat, all collagen.

salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼 was very good too. somewhat different from shi le yuan but equally good.

only dish not great was the steamed egg. not much taste, maybe that was to be expected of a steamed egg with nothing in it.

peanuts nothing to talk about.

spinach was very good, tasty!

tau kee was the usual.

cabbage was very good, very sweet & tasty. we had a second order.

so after the 10 dishes, sis went to order 2 more, cabbage for S$1.and pomfret for S$4. pomfret was good too. i didn’t mind it but maybe i prefer the kee her more.

so we had 10 dishes (top & above) for S$20.60. then greedy added 2 more dishes so total S$25.60 including 3 porridge. really good meal & totally satisfying with or w/o the additional 2 dishes.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/14/just-average-bakuteh-ng-ah-sio-on-11jul2015/
we were at civil service club at tessensohn road on 11.7.2015. it was closed to 4pm. 4 of us decided to go ng ah sio at rangoon road nearby to have bakuteh.

i have not come to this ng ah sio for the longest time, maybe 10 years, but i have been to ng ah sio at chui huay lim a few times & my experience there was good.

the prime ribs were expensive, 2 pieces for S$8.50. soup was good, one friend said ng ah sio always too peppery. i thought so too, but found it quite ok this time. but i am more the rib person than soup person. we ordered 2 bowls prime ribs + 1 bowl spare ribs to share among 4pax.

one friend was especially impressed with the ribs which were fork tender falling off the bones. for me i prefer a firmer texture like i used to enjoy at rong cheng 榕城 in sin min

(though i hardly go there now as it is so easy to make my own bakuteh at home). i guess it is personal preference thingy.

everyone loved the pig skin, no fat, all collagen, or so we had ourselves believed.^^ peanuts etc were usual. i don’t normally take extra dishes when i eat bakuteh since i mostly go for the ribs.

you char kueh was soft as i expected. usually “lau hong” pre-cut in a bowl. nothing much to say about the veg. mee sua ok i guess, can replace rice for less carbs. ^^ o

verall it was just average for me. for S$8.50, i can do my own bakuteh (using 1/2kg fresh indonesian pork ribs from sheng shiong or 1kg of frozen ribs from chinatown market) at home as it is the easiest thing to make. there are so many good bakuteh places in singapore. for the more recent ones i been to, i still like rong cheng bakuteh best, & song fa bakuteh & also ng ah sio at chui huay lim. last time i went to lao ah tee bakuteh at boon keng i did not like it so much.