TungLok Xihe Peking Duck ('TXPD') is a collaboration between TungLok Group Singapore with XiHe Group from Beijing. The collaboration presents the diner with the traditional Chinese dishes with innovative cooking method and modern plating. Of course not forgetting, Peking Duck as the signature dish of this restaurant. We were looking for a place at the very last minute for gathering with our friend for our regular makan session and since it is Chinese New Year, we decided to make it a Lo-Hei session as well. TXPD got our vote due to its location and the appeal of their Lunar New Year Menu. Little Devil ('LD') and I visited TungLok quite regularly in the past, we just did not notice we have not step into TungLok restaurant for more than 2 years after they closed down Tung Lok East Coast and Humble House.

TXPD is located facing car dealers section, opposite side of the football field. The dominant red colour, Chinese traditional red lantern and the Chinese graphics of Peking Duck on the outer wall, made the restaurant easy to spot. Upon entering TXPD, you welcomed by the Peking Duck and bright red brick duck oven on the left side. You definitely won't miss it. We decided on Lunar New Year Menu 10. $468++ for 10 person. As we have about 16 person including children, we are split into 2 tables of 8. As it was getting late and some of our friends have not arrive, we ask them to serve the Peking Duck first and postpone the Yu Sheng.

As a signature dish of the restaurant, the Peking Duck received the royalty treatment. Once a duck is ready to be serve, someone will sound the GONG!! and you know there is Peking Duck on the way to a table. A chef will carved the duck in front of the table and divided into three plates. The breast skin, or I prefer to say it is the prime cut that normally eaten with sugar; the dark meat (from the thigh) and the breast meat. The condiments such as spring onions, sugar, Peking duck sauce and the wrap/pancake are served on a partition platter with bowl of hot water in the centre to maintain the moisture in the pancake. The breast skin is crispy and melts in your mouth. The rest of the duck skin is crispy and the meat are tender. The duck and the wrap/pancake was maintained warm by using the hot water and charcoal pouch (a Japanese technology). By keeping the dish warm, it helped in retaining the moisture in the pancake and preventing it from hardening and the meat of the duck to maintain its juiciness. Kudos to them for coming out with this innovative idea.

We then proceed to the Lo Hei session. The Yu Sheng ingredients are very generous, with a little twist of raisins in the dish. Two plate of salmon for 8 people. The vegetables are fresh and crispy, while the sauce has the right sweetness in it. Huat Ah!!!!Next come the Double-boiled Soup with Sakura Chicken and Ginseng. Chinese version of Chicken Consommé. A beautiful clear soup, with robust ginseng taste and chicken essence. The Live Prawn with Vermicelli in Black Pepper sauce has a little Thai flair in this dish. Served on the claypot, the black pepper taste quite prominent, covering the sauce of the vermicelli and fresh prawns. It is a pity that the vermicelli tasted a bit dry. Tan Jia style Crispy Fish is just delicious. The Garoupa fish fried until crispy on the outside but moist and tender on the inside. The robust stock gravy, helps to soften the fish a bit while still deliver on taste. For Braised Spinach Beancurd with Monkey Head Mushrooms, the tofu is soft and smooth and it just melts in your mouth. If you ever wonder what happen to left over meat from the duck, it was shredded and cook with braised Ee-Fu Noodles. The condiments are quite generous and the noodle is springy, full of flavour but not soggy. The Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls in Sesame Paste is quite ordinary as most of us did not finished the desserts. Service here is inconsistent. Our table got a very good service, while our friends table with the kids seems to get less attention. Plates are not clear properly and service is quite poor. When I was finished this review, I just realised that they forgot to give us our Complimentary Nian Gao ha..ha.. For TungLok standard, we find this service issue need to be ironed out. In a typical Chinese Restaurant, they will normally serve Peanuts and Pickles as appetizer. During the CNY period, TXPD served bak kwa. What we don't know apparently they charged $2 per person and we end up with $30 extra bill just for this little plate of Bak Kwa. Lets just say the amount serve is not equivalent to 1/2 kg of bak wah worth. Wow, talking about hidden charges.

The decoration in the restaurant consistent through out. The use of modern red colour are quite prominent. Instead of using all round tablets, TXPD incorporated modern square tables and boot seating as well.

Overall, we are quite pleased with the quality of the food served here. The presentation of the Peking Duck is very distinct and creative. Although it is not the best Peking Duck that I ever ate in Singapore, it can be considered one of the good ones. The rest of the other dishes are good and worth the TungLok standard. Hopefully we have a chance to try out their ala-carte menu in the near future. Cheers!!!

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Gim Tim Pte Ltd is a popular neighbourhood restaurant that serve Hokkien and Cantonese Cuisine in Ang Mo Kio area. They first open their door in 1975, and through the years they have been serving quality food and service to its customers. Their signature Buddha Jumps Over the Wall has won much acclaims amongst foodies. Sticking to their root, their main restaurant can be located at Blk 157 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4. On Saturday and Sunday, don't expect to get a seat without reservations.

I have wanted to try out this place for a while, so this time around when our office is looking for a restaurant to celebrate the 1st day opening of the Horse year, we decided to have it there. We ordered the $398+, 8 course meal for 10 person.

The feast begin with Prosperity Raw Salmon Fish (“Yu Sheng”). The Yu Sheng might look simple, however the ingredients such as the carrots and radish are fresh and crunchy. The sauce has the right level of sweetness, creating a well balance combination and it really wakes up your appetite for the next dish. I manage to scoop some of the salmon to give me luck for this coming year. Following the Yu Sheng there are the Shark Fin Soup with Shredded Dried Seafood and Stewed Trotter with “Bak Ku Teh” Taste. The soup is very tasty and robust, the combination of the stock and dried seafood is provide the richness in the soup. The trotter skin basically just melts in your mouth, while the meat is tender. The gravy has a unique BKT taste, but well balance in terms of the seasoning. You won't feel overwhelmed even if you have too much of the trotter that are filled with collagen.A fish dish for the Chinese New Year Banquet is a must. Steamed Grouper with Soya Sauce is well done. It was steamed just right and again the sauce is just perfect. The fish is fresh and you won't feel the muddy taste in the meat. Grouper provide a slightly resilient meat, but no complain here. Braised Sea Clam with Mushroom and Lettuce is the vegetable dish. The vegetable is crunchy accompanied with thick and robust gravy. The Sea clam was cooked slightly too soft in texture, that can be mistaken for mushroom. As most of us started to struggle to finish the dishes on the table, Poached Live Prawn with Wine & Wolfberry were served. The prawns are fresh, sweet and juicy. It is good to have a sip of the gravy while eating the prawns. The sweetness from the wolfberry and wine, is just delicious. Fried Ee Fu Noodle with XO Sauce means the banquet almost reach the finish line. This is the first time I saw Ee Fu mee paired with XO Sauce. The XO sauce is very tasty and “got kick”. The Chef seems to know the customers well. Unlike those banquet where you need to add cut chilli and soya sauce, Gim Tim version of Ee Fu Mee has all the condiments needed. For desserts, Sweetened Osmanthus with Glutinous Rice Ball signifies the end of the meal. The Osmanthus provide a healthy feel to the desserts, its roughness in texture causing it to stuck to your teeth. The combination with peanut filled rice ball, it is a dish that might takes time for one to get used to .Service is fast, friendly and efficient. Most of the service staff seems to have a good mileage working in Gim Tim, so the service is just smooth. Some of the service staff even keep checking with me if I want to take picture or not. What a nice lady

Overall, I really like the taste, presentation and creativity of the food in Gim Tim. It seems the combination of Hokkien and Cantonese cuisine created many well-balanced dishes that are perfectly executed. I really enjoy the food here and I can't wait for the next visit to use the lucky draw voucher that I won. Cheers and Huat Ah!!!!!

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Chef Jackie Nguyen is the owner cum head chef of Pho Hanoi in the Serangoon North. Graduated from ITE in Singapore and has spend more than 8 years in here, he decided to introduce North Vietnamese food. According to Chef Jackie, most of the Vietnamese food here is from Ho Chi Minh city (Southern Vietnam) and the rareness of North Vietnamese food leads to Chef Jackie to set up shop. Located under HDB at Block 153 Serangoon North Ave 1, the establishment is decorated and furnish simple yet elegant manner. They use white background, white tables and green chairs. For small group of 2 or 4, you can choose to seat inside, while a bigger group can choose the round table outside. We ordered Vietnamese Spring Roll Combination ($6.50) and Fresh Spring Roll ($3.50) for our starters. The fresh spring roll also known as paper roll are fresh with a springy texture wrap. The ingredients, especially the prawns are fresh and goes well with the peanut sauce and fish sauce. The combination spring rolls come with fresh spring roll, fried spring roll and fried beef roll in seaweed. The fried spring roll has a crispy texture with a bit of chewiness. While the fried beef roll has a strong gamey taste from the beef, which need some time to get used to. For the mains, Little Devil had Wagyu Beef Noodle Soup($8.90). The soup is clear and robust, however comparing to the Southern Version such as at Nam Nam or Long Phung, it is on the lighter side. You can taste the natural sweetness of the broth, and the Wagyu beef just melts in your mouth. The rice noodle is al dante. For me, I ordered BBQ Beef Noodle ($6.50). The beef is marinated with traditional Vietnamese flavour such as lemon grass. It is tender and succulent infused with capsicum flavour. It is good, but capsicum is not my best friend, so I just have the meat with the springy thin (bee hoon) type of rice noodle with fish sauce. Meanwhile, my MIL ordered Mango Salad with Seafood ($6.50). The mango is slightly raw and provide the crunchiness to the dish. LD says it lacks of sourness, a bit more lime will be better. We discover that the North Vietnam food seems to be more subtle flavour in the dish compare to the South side. A few items that catch our eyes in the menu is the grill seafood. It seems to be their speciality, but we did not have a space in our tummy to try this time around. We took a mental note to come back and try this out.Service is prompt and friendly. Overall, Chef Jackie's Pho Hanoi introduce us to a different taste of Vietnamese food. Although you feel that you have seen the dishes before, but the taste of the good will surprise you, as it is somewhat lighter and allow the ingredients to speak for itself. Pricing is very friendly to the pocket. During this short period, it seems the Pho Hanoi has immerse itself to be part of the food culture in Serangoon North Community. Cheers!!

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My first encounter with Ming Kee was through an introduction by old family friend Uncle E. At that time, we were missing the taste of Fried Mud Crab with Egg Noodle, Cantonese Restaurant style from our days in Melbourne - (our first food hunting ground). We instantly got 'hooked' on the crab beehoon here, and started to visit Ming Kee frequently until we were just sick of it and stopped going there for a few years. With a sudden craving for crabs beehoon beckons recently, we decided to visit our favourite restaurant.

Before making a reservation, I discovered that there are two establishments with the same signboard of Ming Kee Live Seafood. I investigated further to check if both the restaurants are the same, and turned out that the Ming Kee owner have sold the older and bigger shop space and opt for a smaller establishment. Another food blogger SgFoodonFoot, helps to point me to the right direction and made the right reservation. During the dinner, I have a chat with the restaurant manager, they say that they are trying to get the current owners of the old establishment to remove the signboard. Thus, if you are along Macpherson Road, the one opposite the Caltex petrol station is real Ming Kee. To our surprise, the boss is back in the kitchen and doing the cooking himself. Anyway, enough with the background lesson and lets direct our attention to the food.

We started with the Triple Cook Bee Hoon Crab ($5 per 100 gram), which suppose to be the signature dish of Ming Kee. First slurp of the Bee Hoon, you can taste the solid stock used in cooking this dish. It is flavourful and robust. The crab is fresh and cooked nicely. The fried shallots and mushrooms on top added another texture to the dish. It is better than most restaurant that serve this dish, however seems to fall short of the old Ming Kee standard. There is something missing in the stock, lacking of the 'Omphh' factor. While we only reach the stage in devouring the crabs, the next dish of Home-made Bean Curd ($8) and Guinness Stout Short Ribs ($12) arrived. The homemade bean curd has a tender and smooth texture. The gravy is good and well absorb in the broccoli. Good to go with rice. The short ribs are well seasoned and marinated. It is tender and sweet. The cutting of the meat are inconsistent, if you got the big piece, it can be slightly chewy. Something that they can look into. For another seafood dish, we had Mexico Pacific Clam with garlic and soy sauce. The clams are fresh, huge, juicy and steam to perfection. The fried garlic and soya sauce provided a slight salty taste that bring out the taste of the clams. The dish of the night!To balance the meal, we have Nai Bai with Three Eggs. The vegetables are fresh. The sauce is smooth and creamy with a hint of infused stock. For desserts, the manager gave us Mango Pudding, free of charge. It is smooth with a well balance sweetness. The use of fresh milk instead of evaporated milk, make this dessert provide a good ending to the heavy meal of the night. This new establishment is smaller than the previous shop. Big table are limited, while to maximise space, they have a 'cafe built-in' style of table and chairs for table for 4 or less. The setting is actually simple and clean. Service is good considering the limited service staff. The manager is friendly and full of smile. Please take note that seating is by reservation only.

Overall, I am glad that Ming Kee has managed maintained their standard of food, serving good quality seafood with a more reasonable price compare to the old establishment. I wish they are able to get back the 'Omph' factor in Triple Cook Crab Bee Hoon. Cheers!!

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&Made is the brain child of Chef Bruno Ménard, a 3-star Michelin Star Chef with Olivier Bendel, founder and CEO of Deliciae Hospitality Management Pte Ltd. The hospitality group responsible for F&B concept such as L'Entrecôte, Forlino, Sabio and 83 Club Street. At &Made, you can see informal food such as salad and burger, however do expect Chef Bruno to pay special attention to the ingredients use and homemade condiments straight from Chef Bruno recipe book which are made daily. Our friend G has a sudden burger cravings. So after scouring the web for artisan burger in Singapore, &Made name keep popping up. To be honest, this is our second choice, however as the first choice establishment closes on Sunday, we move on next on the list. As &Made does not take reservation, we decided to come in early, just in case there are a queue. Luckily, there was no queue and we were seated immediately. G & I decided to order The 3 Little Pigs ($23), Little Devil ordered The Rossini ($28), G's hubby, 'H' ordered The 'B' Burger Lunch Set and Little C have Mini Beef Cheeseburger($10).

The 3 Little Pigs are made from combination of pork fillet, bacon and chorizo patty. Inspired by Japanese flavour, it is topped with spicy yuzu-kosho mayonnaise, shitake and cabbage. The patty is tender, juicy and quite generous in size. While the spicy yuzu mayonnaise give a subtle kick when you bite into the burger. The brioche bun has the nice texture and flavour to complement the burger. This pork burger is definitely comparable the beef counterpart. Each of the burger come with fries and homemade BBQ Sauce. LD's Rossini is actually in a different class compare to ours. The dry aged beef patties are topped with French pan seared foie gras. It might look very simple but when you bit into it, the perfectly cooked foie gras just melts in your mouth and become the delicious creamy sauce for the beef patties. A definite must try, Yummy!!! For the set lunch, it came with salad and sundae. The salad is quite a simple garden salad with a vinaigrette dressing. The comment from H about his burger is quite good, while little C enjoyed her Mini Cheeseburger. The sundaes are delicious, as both sundaes are polished clean by the father and daughter. While the burgers are delicious and a must try, there are consistency need to be address. We actually send back two of the fries as it were overcooked. Taste wise, it is quite ordinary and lose its crispiness before the end of our meal. The &made BBQ sauce does help on enhance the flavour though.

The drinks can be on the pricey side, however the taste is quite good especially on the &Made Lemonade ($8) and Iced Choco Coffee ($8).The service side needed some improvement. Although the service staff are polite, it seems they are out of their depth and inexperienced. When we want to change the drink in the set menu, different staff give different answer on the additional charge that we need to pay. When we asked for ketchup from one of the service staff that deliver the burger, he answered “we don't serve ketchup, we only have homemade tomato sauce!” A very informative answer but might lead to a misunderstanding such as putting down the customer.

Ambiance of the restaurant is French, bright, fun and playful. My first impression remind me of one of the scene from the Movie Moulin Rouge (starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor). There are the options of indoor and outdoor seating as well. Overall, we really enjoy our dining experience with Chef Bruno burgers creation. We just hope that it can be more consistent in its delivery and service. We look forward to our next visit here to try his other creation such as his waffle and desserts. Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click / copy the below link to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/02/by-bruno-menard-every-day-food-gourmet.html