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http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2015/09/long-ji.htmlCrab Bee Hoon is one of the dish that LD and I totally have a soft spot for. Dunno how, LD found this new place Long Ji and we fell in love with their Crab Bee Hoon (Long Ji Bee Hoon Crab $55/kg). From the look, it will not win the prettiest crab dish contest, however, who cares as long as it tasted fantastic. The broth / gravy is robust and packs with the freshness and sweetness of the crabs. The bee hoon is covered with Wok Hei, slightly al dente yet manage to soak up the beautiful gravy. For this dish, it is important to use female crab, as the roe adds flavour to this dish together with fried shallots and pork lard. The crabs are good in size and fresh. So definitely worthy to be the signature dish of Long Ji.For this dish, Chef Mac Kong (who can be mistaken for a member of Taiwanese Boy Band) will only use one crab for each servings. So if you ordered 2 crabs, you will get 2 servings of Crab Bee Hoon. At our last visit, we ordered 2 crabs and end up have to packed one of the dish. To my surprise, it even tasted better the next day. The Chef also gave us some extra broth and packed them in different container. What a great service!!If this version of the crab dish is not to your liking, you can try their black pepper crab. Using the male Sri Langkan crab, stir fried and coated with Malaysia version of black pepper crab. It has a nice black pepper aroma to it, but not as spicy as the Singapore version. We still prefer the Crab Bee Hoon way of cooking. To accompany the crabs, we suggest you also try their Fermented Pork Belly ($20 / medium). Crispy, well seasoned and moist internally, and provide you with a good porkgasm experience. Of course if you prefer the chicken version, their Shrimp Paste Chicken ($10 / small) is also pretty good, however we found the seasoning did not penetrate beyond the skin. So the meat can be a bit lacklustre compare to the pork.For Fish Head Curry Lovers, their Curry Fish Head ($25) is an absolute mind blower. They use chilli padi in the curry, it will literally blow you head off. The curry gravy was thick, robust and well absorbed into the fish. If you are looking for a “rice thief” dish here, this is definitely the one.

Crispy Fried Baby Squid in Rojak Sauce ($12). This a good dish to open up your appetite. The squid is deep fried till crispy, and the rojak sauce is not overly sweet, unlike the regular caramel sauce. Not only a good starter, but a good dish to go with your beer.Romaine Lettuce Stir Fried with Fermented Beancurd ($8 / small). A good vegetable dish, with a touch of Cantonese cooking of the fermented beancurd. Panfried Salted Egg Pork Ribs ($15 / small) might be a dish you want to avoid. We find the meat over-tenderised, it does not tasted like pork. Though we are a fan of salted egg dishes, but this might not be right dish.Service here is friendly, but don't expect restaurant standard. As Chef Mac Kong and cooked almost each of the dish personally, be prepare for the food to come at a slower pace. Called ahead to book the crabs, and reservation is recommended everyday. Expect a longer waiting time on the weekend and they only accept cash payment only.

Overall, we personally found a new place to enjoy our Crab Bee Hoon dish. Totally delicious and value for money. There are some hits and misses, however if you are not sure, you can ask the chef for recommendation. We have been there a few times this year and we will probably visit it some more before the end of the year. Cheers!!

Saveur - a French restaurant set up by Mr. Dylan Ong, Mr. Joshua Khoo and another business partner with the aim to offer quality yet affordable French cuisine to the masses. After the successful outlet of Savour in Purvis Street and Far East Plaza, these two young entrepreneurs just can't keep still and decided to set up a Italian sibbling for Saveur, thus Concetto was born.Little Devil ('LD') and I have tried Saveur, for the price we actually find it quite good. So when the opportunity arises, we decided to tried Concetto. Unlike Saveur that always packed with crowd, we manage to get a seat in Concetto on a Saturday afternoon without any problem.

We started our lunch with Buffalo Mozzarella ($8.90). The Mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, parmesan cheese are served on top of toasted rye bread. Drizzle with good balsamic vinegar, it was a good appetizer, light and refreshing. We wished that there were more of the mozzarella. Grilled Octopus Caesar Salad ($11.90). This salad is colourful and beautifully presented. Fresh salad, crispy bacon, shaved parmesan cheese binds well with the anchovies base dressing. The octopus are tender, although slightly limited. However the almost powdered eggs really captured our attention and palate. Yum Yum. For mains, we have Crab Risotto ($13.90) and Wagyu Tender ($26.90). The risotto is al-dente and creamy. You can feel the robust broth absorbs into the arborio rice. To add to the texture, they also use crispy rice, capsicums, cucumbers and brussel sprouts. The crab meat tartare tasted fresh, but it seems that the flavour of the crab in the risotto seems to be missing. Using the Wagyu shoulder, the meat is quite lean similar to filet mingon. Low in fat but tender and juicy. Cooked to medium rare and accompany with foie gras with shallots and portobello mushrooms. The beef jus that accompany the dish was just perfect. Delicious. Service is good and efficient. The décor of the restaurant is very minimal, however it is bright, spacious and cosy. Rather than charge you for decoration, they decided to pass the savings to the customers by keeping the price low. Overall, we really enjoy our meal here. Concetto interpertation of Italian food is more towards simple, modern, nice presentation and pack of punch. Kudos to them for bringing the food people. Cheers!!

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In the past few years, more and more Vietnamese restaurants seems to open up in Singapore. Although the growth was not as exponential as the upper class Ramen invasion in SG, Vietnamese PHO follow the slow yet steady path to win the stomach of Singaporeans. Although it is no very obvious, to get a Halal Vietnamese food can be a challenge for our muslim friends, especially when pork feature prominently in Vietnamese cuisine. Fortunately, Katrina Holdings see the opportunity in the market and introduce So Pho.Little Devil has a bit of Vietnamese Food cravings when we were in NEX, so we decided on So Pho.We started with Gỏi cuốn (Summer Roll – with prawn and lemongrass chicken $4.50). The rice paper roll is moist and filled fresh ingredients such as carrot, chicken, bee hoon, sliced prawns and vegetables. The sauce was sweet fish sauce, is light and not spicy. However, We are missing the peanut sauce that normally come with the summer roll.For mains, I had Fresh vermicelli with grilled beef and fresh spring rolls ($9.80). The portion is good and the spring rolls are fresh and crispy. The grilled beef is flavourful, but a little though to chew on. The combination of peanuts, crunchy vegetables, the vermicelli and sweet fish sauce, create an explosion of flavour and textures in your mouth. Yum!!Vietnamese Pho with sliced beef and beef ball soup ($8.80) is robust but on the sweet side. We feels that they put too much rock sugar in the broth. The sliced beef are tender, while the beef balls and rice noodle are springy (qq) in texture.Interested in trying out their Baguette (Banh Mi), we ordered Bahn Mi Chicken (Baguette with Grilled Chicken & Chicken Pate $5.90). Using the chicken liver as pate is a creative way to replace the pork version. The baguette is light and crisp, the pate is smooth, velvety and flavourful. The chicken is tender. A good Banh Mi flavourful, yet well balanced.For drinks with Vietnamese flair, give Lemongrass Tea or Sparkling Vietnamese Limeade a try.

The concept of the restaurant is open, bright and modern yet simplistic in a way. The use of light wood colour are prominent in this place. There are lots of mini flowers on the pot used to for decoration. Service is fast and the food come quite fast. Overall, if you are looking for a quick fix of Vietnamese food or something that looks more healthy, you might want to consider So Pho. The food are fresh and flavourful, serving are fast and accommodate to the mass. Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala Review, click here:
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Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice needs no introduction. Rated as one of the best chicken rice in Singapore, its original shop in Maxwell market drew the crowd like no others. During meal time, expect the queue to stretch around to shop to the open air car park. And that's not all, most of the tourist guide, blogs or other food reference, recommend Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice ('Tian Tian) as a must try in Singapore.

In 2013, when Singtel Invited Michelin Stars Chef Gordon Ramsay for Hawker's Challenge. Representing Singapore National dish, Madam Foo, the owner of Tian Tian, won hands down and send Godron back to UK licking his chops. Prior to that, Anthony Bourdain and other celebrity food host have given their seal of approval to this establishment.Since Madam Foo has come to a ripe age, the second generation has come in to continue the business. With that the expansion of Tian Tian begun and this time around we visited the shop in Joo Chiat.

The set up is an upgraded version comparing to Maxwell Market Food Centre. It is air-conditioned with simple and minimalistic furniture. Today we have 3 hungry guys for lunch, we ordered 1/2 steam chicken ($14), 1 portion of giblets and heart ($4), Hainanese Pork Chop ($8) and small baby kailan ($6). Oh not forgetting the Rice ($0.80) per plate.The rice is fragrant, flavourful, plump and fluffy. It does not stick to each other. The chicken is plump, silky and succulent. There is skin and meat does not stick to each other and the breast meat us as succulent as the thigh meat. The same can be said about my favourite part of the chicken as well, the bishop. It is springy and full of flavour. Although it is a bit oily, it's just irresistible. The best part, they remove the smelly part from it.The giblets and kidney tasted clean, no gamey smell. I like giblets because of its crisp and chewyness, while the kidney has a velvety texture.Hainanese Pork Chop is thick yet tender. However, the meat is not as tasty but it is well fried, coated with panko and not too oily. The traditional tomato sauce, provide the sweet and sour flavour to the dish. The vegetables are fresh, crunchy and tasty, stir fry with garlic.Service is average. As we are seated near the entrance, it is very difficult to get their attention. There is at one point, you can't even see them. Although the set up is minimum, at least it is air-conditioned so you won't sweat too much if you had too much of the chilli.

Overall, it is a good place to have Tian Tian Chicken Rice if you don't want to line up in Maxwell Market. However, I must admit their standard is not as equivalent as their main store. The chicken is missing the X-Factor compare to the one I had in Maxwell. Kind of lost in transition. Cheers!!

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I got to know this place from the recent Facebook Posting from Singapore Makan Guru KF Seetoh. Looking at the yummylicious chicken feet, I just can't say no.Decided to drop by for brunch on one nice Saturday morning. Here is the ordering process, you approach the stall, place your order, get yourself a number, find a table and wait for the food. I decided to go for Wanton Mee ($4) and Chicken Feet ($2).The serving of the noodle is quite generous for my order. The noodle is springy, very qq. Wanton is crispy and the char siew is pretty tender. Although I ask for my noodle without chilli, they forgot about it. At the end, I scrape most of it off; those that remain gave a good heat to the noodle.For the soup base, it is very robust from the long boiling process. However, the star attraction of this place is the braised chicken feet. It is flavourful, tasty and absorb the braising liquid and mushrooms flavour nicely. The skin has the right texture, not soggy. Al dente will be the right terms. The mushrooms are quite huge in size. YumYum!Service is minimum, but the auntie that delivers my food is very friendly. She did give me a curious look when I took out my camera in the first place. Overall, it is a good place for wanton mee. My suggestion is that you order a wanton mee and a serving of chicken feet on the side. When crowded, expect to wait between 20 to 30 minutes. Ciao!

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