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!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala experience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/02/ming-kee-live-seafood-new-place-with.html

Ricciotti is a modern Italian Restaurant that brought the concept of 'cucina nostrana' (warmth of eating Italian) dining experience in metropolitan setting. Like many Italian Restaurants, they specialises in pizza, pasta and grill.

Frankly one of the reason that we visited this outlet in China Square Central are due to the most inviting offer of One for One on their selected pasta and pizza selection. This promotion is valid on Mon – Thu: 3pm – 21.30 and all day Saturday. This attractive promotion is actually on top of their already reasonably priced menu.

While we are waiting for the others to arrive, we ordered Caprese Salad ($14.50). This salad took a simple form of combination of Mozarella cheese slices with tomatoes and fresh basil, topped with olive oil and cracked black pepper. For this dish to work, it required that all the ingredients to be fresh, and Ricciotti deliver on this. It is a simple yet refreshing salad. Those who do not like strong flavour cheese, you should give this a try, as it has a similar texture to a tofu. When our group of food gobbles arrived, we decided to share the dishes. For Pizza, Al Crudo ($25.50), Salame ($22.50), Salmone ($27.90) and Pizzotto ($23.50). Based on the offer, we only have to paid the two highest value pizza, which is the Salmone and Alcrudo. All of the pizzas come with a consistent thin crust, with thick and generous fillings and toppings. Al Crudo simple combination Parma ham and Rucola is just simply delicious, it seems that nothing can goes wrong with Parma ham. Pizzotto can be consider a pizza version of breakfast, where you can find the familiar taste of egg and bacon. While Salame is traditional favourite, of spicy salami and cheese. The only pizza that not to my taste is the Salmone. It seems that my taste buds can't get along with capers. So this is the least favourite pizza for me.We also ordered the pasta to share. Starting from traditional Fettuccine Alla Bolognese ($19.50), Lingueti Pesto ($18.50) to more modern pasta like Fusilli Gorgonzola ($25.50) and Linguine Granchio ($22.50). Each of the pasta dish are cook to al dente. For those who prefer creamy and stronger cheese flavour you will like Fusilli Gorgonzola. It is creamy and the cheese flavour is very strong and pungent. Similar to blue cheese flavour. For crab lover, Linguine Granchi is like the italian creamy version of chilli crab, however you don't need to use your fingers as the crab meat has been picked for you. The sauce is creamy, with subtle level of spiciness from the chilli to accompany the fresh crab meat. Yum! This is actually the second time we try this dish. The Bolognese sauce is thick and nicely coated the fettuccine like it hanging on for its life. However, taste wise, it is missing the punch from the long time simmering process for my preference. The pesto sauce looks light, healthy however it is flavourful with a packed punches. We later found out was due to sundried tomato. No wonder we like it so much, one of our favourite ingredient is in it. I actually manage to get a taste of Grilled USDA Sirloin Steak, 250 gram ($23.50). The steak is plated on bed of mash potatoes, salads and serve on ceramic baking dish with Truffle with veal jus sauce. Cooked to medium rare, the sirloin is well seasoned, but it is tough and difficult to chew. The mash potatoes is thick and lumpy. You can say that this is the most disappointing dish of the day. The service is friendly and patience. On Saturday lunch time, there were only about 5 tables occupied. We do not have to wait long for our food and it came on regular interval. A good gap between the pizza and pasta.

The setting of the restaurant is quite modern, with open concept. There is no door / window separating the indoor and outdoor dining in one unit of the restaurant, while the other unit has a clear glass window separating the kitchen and desserts counter from outdoor dining. The walls are decorated with menu of the day, shelf of products that their use and desserts counter in another end. No table cloths are used, instead they use printed brown paper with Ricciotti logo.Overall, we find the food in Ricciotti is very enjoyable. The quality of the food are good and consistent. Best of all is the one for one promotion, it is just value for money. We hope they will continue this promotion for many months to come. Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala experience, click / copy the link below to your browser.
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/01/ricciotti-china-square-central-best-one.html

Arashi Yakiniku Charcoal Grill Restaurant ('Arashi') is the new kid on the block of Boat Quay dining scene in Singapore. One of the popular dining spot and watering hole in Singapore, due to its proximity to Raffles Place and its beautiful scenery of Singapore river. A dining location that I hardly step foot on, but this time around I gratefully accept the tasting invitation from Openrice Singapore and Arashi team.For me, Arashi Yakiniku represent a breath of fresh air, breaking away from the fad of Korean BBQ that has engulf our tiny island dining scene this past few years. I personally enjoy the bbq pork belly, beef tongue and Korean beef, however Japanese yakiniku is something that I have not eaten for a while. One thing that you need to admire about Japanese is their relentless pursue of excellence. Arashi uses the latest technology of smokeless bbq from Japan together with white charcoal to ensure the best tasting result for their top grade meat. While we are waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive, we commence the dinner proceeding with Arashi Kaisen Salad ($15.80). A seafood salad consist of fresh greens with slices of salmon, prawns, shredded crab stick and fish roe and light vinaigrette dressing. Light and refreshing salad to face the upcoming barrage of protein. For the sides, we have pickled bean sprout, spinach and mushrooms also known as Namuru ($7.80) in Japanese. For the Japanese Wagyu Beef, we kick-off with Ohmi grade A4 Wagyu beef. Terderloin, Rib Eye and Sirloin ($68.80 each for 150 gram serving). Each type of meat have a different tenderness and marbling. You will have a choice of cooking the meat directly or dipping it in a marinating sauce before grilling. All the of meat are tender with nice charred caramelised grill flavour. For comparison purposes, tenderloin tenderness is 8/10, rib eye is 8.5/10 but has more fats in the centre, while surprisingly sirloin 9.5/10 and it just melts in your mouth as it has a more even spread of the marbling on the meat. To accompany the meat, you have the choice of yakiniku sauce, sesame sauce and rock sea salt and lemon. You can choose whichever you like and what suits your taste buds. I personally like sea salt and lemon to accompany my beef. Lightly seasoned the meat and let the acidity in the lemon to take care of the fats. For yakiniku sauce, you have an option to apply it to the meat before grilling as well, which presented a different flavour to the meat.

For non moo moo lover, Japanese Kurobuta Pork can be your option. We sample the Pork Belly ($19.80) and Pork Collar ($20.80). The pork belly looks deliciously sinful and due to the fat content you might want to keep an eye on it as it catch fire easily, unless you like your pork belly charred. The pork collar is sliced almost paper thin, so it will take a very short time in the grill. Afterwards, it just melts in your mouth. Please note that if you are watching your weight due to whatever reason, this might not be the place for you.If you are a chicken lover, you can try their Momi Tare Chicken (Marinated with Shoyu - $9.80). Arashi uses the chicken thigh with skin on, so the meat is more juicy and succulent Seafood selection is also available. Assorted Seafood Platter ($28.80), which consist of tiger prawns (4), squid (60g), scallops (4) and salmon slices (60g). The prawns are big, fresh and juicy; the squid is tender not rubbery while the scallops are thick, tender and juicy. Unlike the rest, the salmon slices need to be cook on aluminium container marinated with yakiniku sauce. Unfortunately due to the way it was stack in the container, it is difficult to judge the cooking time. If you want all part to be done, some part will definitely be over cook. I personally don't like this method of grilling the Salmon. From the ala carte menu, the Gindara Nitsuke (Japanese Cod Fish - $18.80) and Tempura Moriawase ($23.80) is a good option. The cod fish has is smooth in the mouth, no fishiness smell and the sauce is quite subtle not overpowering the fish. The portion of the fish is quite small. The Tempura is fresh and nicely fried. Meanwhile, you can try their garlic fried rice (Ninniku Gohan - $4.80) in you need your carbo fill. Simple and with slight hint of garlic flavour. As a Japanese restaurant the décor of the place is very simple, Zen like. We were seated in the private room on the third floor, with floor seating and you put your legs under the table. Quite popular for Japanese restaurant private room in Singapore. Overall, I really enjoyed the food here. The Wagyu Beef and Kurobuta Pork is just amazing and at the best quality. If you come here without having these above items, it will just be not worth it. I would Budget around $80 to $100 per person, without the sake. So if you have a cravings for yakiniku, give Arashi a try. Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2013/12/arashi-yakiniku-drooling-over-wagyu.html

What is a perfect way to spend your Sunday morning? After all the buzz catching up with your chores on Saturday, Sunday morning is just a good time to sit back, relax and tuck in to a good brunch and cuppa.

Jones the Grocer is one of the more popular destinations to tuck in for a weekend brunch. It is a branch for popular Australia grocer / food emporium to provide natural and artisan ingredients from Australia and worldwide. The one that really catch our eyes, is the bread that freshly baked on the premises.We pop by on Sunday morning, just after the morning drizzle clears. As this is our first visit to Jones The Grocer @ Dempsey, we notice that they do not take reservation for brunch. Luckily, due to the rain, the crowd was not there yet thus the queue was quite short and we got our seats in 15 mins. So what's good on the menu? Little Devil's (LD) decided on Jones Big Breakfast ($24), I had French Toast with Berries ($18), while our friend SH had Eggs Benedict ($20).

Jones Big Breakfast basically have everything you want in a big breakfast. Sourdough Bread, eggs, bacon, sausages, hash brown. For something more up class, they also have sautéed baby spinach. The bread is fragrant, nice and crispy providing a nice bedding for the eggs. The sausages, bacon are cooked perfectly. Good solid brunch. Since LD's decided on big breakfast and I know I will probably eat half of that, I decided on something light. Cinnamon French toast with mixed berries and vanilla crème fraiche. The bread is nicely coated with eggs, crispy and soft. The combination of mixed berries, icing sugar and vanilla crème fraiche is just so inviting to dig in into your breakkie. Eggs Benedict come with smoked ham, spinach & poached eggs on house baked English Muffin. Don't let the simple presentation of this dish fool you. To produce the a nice hollandaise sauce, you need to be very skilful in the kitchen. Slight miscalculation will turn the sauce into sour scramble eggs. The eggs poached to the right temperature, while exuding white vinegar aroma the yolk will ooze out when you cut through the egg. The sauce is smooth and creamy while the ham is slightly salty. Nothing better to complement a beautiful breakfast a great coffee. The coffee here is imported from Australia. It has a full body flavour, slightly bitter, but bode well for milk base coffee such as latte or cappuccino. Nice caffeine shot to start the day. Basically when you are dining in Jones the Grocer, you are dining in a grocery shop. Surrounded by artisan produce and wine sold by Jones the Gorcery. It is a open concept shop with a high ceiling. Certainly does not feel like you are dining in Singapore. The service staff here is very good and professional. Our order took around 15 minutes to come, while we took turns to check out the produce selling on the shelves.

Overall, if you are looking for a place to have a good breakkie, I would recommend Jones the Grocer. Delicious food complement with delicious coffee. G'Day Mate.!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala exprience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2013/11/jones-grocer-aussie-brunch-at-dempsey.html

Tim Ho Wan (THW) officially opened in the heartland. After much fanfare opening of its first overseas outpost in Plaza Singapura, THW has made inroad to the heartland. The residents of Toa Payoh now can rejoice and licking their chops in anticipation to savour the popular Baked Char Siew Bao.After reading about their soft opening from RubishEatRubishGrow on my blogger buzz, Little Devil and I decided to try our luck on Friday (23/08) pre-empting that the queue won't be so long. So far, we have not tried the Plaza Singapura outlet yet, as we don't want to queue and we don't work near town area. Lucky for us, we can now claim that “We don't need to line up at Tim Ho Wan”. Understanding that it is currently on soft launch mode, we kept our expectations in check.

The décor of the restaurant is very simple, light wooden colour and Zen like. The decoration is similar to the THW at IFC Mall in Hong Kong and Plaza Singapore (which I saw when I passed by). For review of Hong Kong Tim Ho Wan @ IFC Mall, click here***. Small table size and limited personal space is something to remind you of Hong Kong, but be glad you are given a slightly bigger personal space here. This place can sit maximum about 100 customers.

First out from the kitchen within 10 minutes of placing our order are Vermicelli Roll with Pig's Liver ($5.50) and Vermicelli Roll with Sweet and Sesame Sauce ($4.20). The Vermicelli Roll on the Pig's liver filling is slightly thinner than I remember. It is smooth in texture and the pig's liver is cleaned properly, no foul smell, silky, juicy and tender. For sweet and sesame sauce, it has the right thickness, smooth and goes well the with sauce, tasted like one of Littledevil's favourite street food in Hong Kong. For traditional Dim Sum, Prawn Dumplings / Har Gao ($4) and Pork Dumpling with Shrimp / Siew Mai ($5). Har Gao here is fresh and juicy with a sticky, soft and resilient skin. What we find interesting about the siew mai is it tasted better after you let it rest a while. Slightly chewy and flavourful with a wolfberry uniquely placed on top to add sweetness to the siew mai.Beef Ball with beancurd skin ($4.20). This dish left a lasting impression during our visit in Hong Kong. They add a little tangerine skin into the ball to create a distinguish taste. When the first order came, the beef ball is over steamed until the beancurd become dry and the supposed unusual flavour of the tangerine aroma did not come out as expected. We ask the a couple of service staffs, if it suppose to be like this. Finally the Executive Chef came out to check with us, graciously accept our feedback and insisted to make us a new batch. This is what I call service. Kudos to them. The result of the second batch is nice tender juicy beef balls with its distinct tangerine skin twist. Finally come the time for reckoning the Baked Bun with BBQ Pork ($4.50). It's thin crispy crust with the texture of a 'Bo Luo Bao', is simply amazing and melts in your mouth. The filling has a familiar sweet juicy char siew flavour chopped pork. Yummyyy, I can say this is as good as the one in HK. If you have to wait in line, this is something that you can look forward too. Steam Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce ($5). It has a nice rich flavour from the abalone sauce, unfortunately the chicken feet is slightly mushy instead of springy and crunchy comparing to the ones that we tasted in Hong Kong. Hopefully they can do something to get back its crunchiness. The presentation with parsley and cut chilli, show that they are trying to twist Singaporenise in their dish.

For desserts, we have Mango Pomelo Sago ($5) and Tonic Medlar & Osmanthus Cake ($3.50). The mango sago is thick, flavourful with a nice combination of sweet and sour. The pomelo taste is somewhat missing. Osmanthus cake is like a jelly, with visible Osmanthus flowers and wolfberries in the jelly. It is very flavourful and it is not as sweet as we thought it is going to be.Service is very good. Their service staff is very friendly including the trainee. According to the service staff, they are going to open take away counter on the 1st floor in the near future. At the moment, they only entertain dine in. If you want to take away after you dine in, you can order but you need to pack yourself due to the company policy. Styrofoam box and plastic bag will be provided FOC.

Overall, we like what we saw. Although all the food is not one hundred percent of the Hong Kong standard, it is close enough, especially on the Baked Bun with BBQ Pork. I hope the line will not be as long as the one in Plaza Singapura in the future. All I can say is that from the soft launch, it can only gets better. Cheers!!

For full review and more photos, please visit http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2013/08/tim-ho-wan-toa-payoh-hot-off-oven.html