Little Devil & I get to know about this place a few years back, when out of the blue my FIL keep coming back to this location to eat Kway Teow Mee. On one fine day, he just keep insisting that we must go and try. As we are staying in Hougang, it took us about 20 mins to get here. It was a Saturday morning and finding a parking spot was really a hassle. Alas, it also took us another 30 mins of wait before we get our order. Hungry and annoyed, my first impression here was less memorable.

This time around, after sending someone to the airport, we decided to give this place a try again. As it has received many endorsements from the media and food bloggers, there must be something good about this place. Best part, it was a weekday morning, so we don't expect it to be packed with people.Occupying two shops, Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim ('JTK') stall can be quite big. One shop sell the fishball noodle, drinks and toast while the other location, also have Yong Tau Fu. For a bright sunny day, the al-fresco can be considered quite warm, there is an option for indoors in the second shop. You must order at the cashier, make payment and get your queue number to put on your table.

We ordered 2 dry Mee Pok ($4 each) and a bowl of Fish Ball Soup ($5). We waited about 15 minutes before the food was served.

The portion size is above average. Each bowl you get 3 fish balls, few slices of fish cakes, bak chor and lean meat and ... Wow, I see prawns!! Yup, 3 pieces of prawns and they are deshelled. I have to admit, now you know where the $$$ goes to.The noodle is cook to al-dente, not sticky and with a bite of crunchiness in it. Covered under the ingredients are the generous serving of pork lard and pork oil that basked the noodle. Wow, no wonder the noodle is yummy. The fish ball is bouncy but soft, while the rest of the ingredients are fresh, especially the prawns.

As I ate my noodle without chilli, I can tell you it is very flavourful. LD's like her noodle as well, and she approved of the chilli version of the mee pok.

The Fish Ball Soup has around 10 fishballs in it. The soup looks a bit cloudy, covered with excess of the fishball which add to the taste of the soup. Again the fishball is soft and springy. Very Q.Service here is very minimum, as you need to go to the cashier to order before they deliver your food.

Overall, based on our second experience here JTK fishball noodle is one of the good fishball noodle around. Price definitely higher, however you are paying for the quality here. Waiting time will be the minus point here, but at least you can seat, have a drink and chit chat while you wait. Cheers!!

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Beer Butt Chicken! What an eye catching name for a roast chicken. If you never heard of this before, it is a roast chicken stuffed with a can of beer together with other seasoning. The idea behind this is to infused the chicken with beer flavour and maintain the juiciness of the meat. If it is done properly, you can expect to taste a super crispy paper thin chicken skin.One of the locations in Singapore where you can find this dish is Southwest Tavern ('ST'). This cowboy theme restaurant is located in business hub on the west side of Singapore. It is an open air setting and they use portable aircon and fans to cool down the place. The furniture is very rustic giving you an authentic American tavern feeling. They even have a pool table for you to pass your time there.Other than the Beer Butt Chicken, ST also served many authentic American tavern dishes such as never frozen steak, humongous burgers, baby back ribs and suicide wings (also known as buffalo wings). Not forgetting, they have extensive list of beers.We kick off the dinner with Chilli Cheese Fries ($12). One of my favourite fries dish. The fries has a crispy outer texture while soft and moist in the inside. The cheese are very subtle, more like mozzarella and well paired with the chilli. A very good finger food, but it can be quite filling for a starter.For steak, we ordered Australian Marbled Sirloin 300 grams ($30). This steak is supposed to be comparable to Wagyu grade of steak. Cooked to medium rare, the steak is very flavourful, juicy and succulent. It has a nice balance between the marbling and the meat. For the price, it is value for money. For the sides, they serve potato wedges, salad with vinaigrette dressing and brown sauce.Now for the Beer Butt Chicken ($32). Be prepare to wait for 45 minutes(that is where the pool table come in handy), as the chef only prepare it upon order and smoked it. To serve this dish perfectly, ST custom made the serving plank. It has two mini pole to hold the chicken in the upright position, sitting on a solid tin filled with beer.The skin of the chicken is paper thin and crispy. The meat is tender, succulent and well seasoned. It can be a challenge to carve the chicken yourself, but it's worth the effort. Although the flavour of the beer is very subtle in the chicken, you can use the balance of the beer in the tin and treat it as Au jus for the chicken. To accompany this dish is butter rice with raisin and grilled capsicum. The portion will be just nice for 2 person. Yum Yum!!

Overall, ST served a very good tavern food or gastropub food if you want a more trendy name. It is simple, unpretentious and just delicious. Thank you very much to Southwest Tavern for the tasting invitation. There is one more reason for us to take a trip to the west of Singapore. Cheers!!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click here:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/Southwest-Tavern.html

Brotzeit Katong is the 5th outlet of Brotzeit in Singapore. Brotzeit is a leading German franchised concept casual dining restaurant offering Bavarian Cuisines and popular German Beer originated from Singapore (Yup, Singapore!!!). Currently, they can be found in Singapore (6 Outlets), Malaysia (2), China (3), Hong Kong (1), Phillipines (1), Vietnam (1), and Thailand (1); and on the way to grow their presence in China, Indonesia and Australia.This outlet in Katong has been in our mind for the past few times. Every time we passed by East Coast Road or Joo Chiat Road, always remind ourself that we need to try this place. So finally, we made it. Located in the junction of Joo Chiat Road and East Coast Road, this place sure attracts a lot of human traffic. The only draw back is that there is no parking available on the premises, so you need to park at the surroundings, that can be a challenge during the weekend.There are two main seating area, the bar or the high chairs section with live sports shown on TV or a more proper dining area. The atmosphere is very relax and casual. The design are modern, while incorporating the wood elements into it.For this dinner, we decided to drag S (Little Devil's BFF) along as she need to get away from home. Anyway, the more the merrier. Since we order to share, we ask them serve the food together. From the appetizer section we have: Schupfnudeln / Warm Spinach Salad with Bavarian Potato Dumpling ($14.50). A good salad to start. It is lightly seasoned and has a clean taste to it. It incorporated some stronger flavour such as sun dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar. The potato dumpling is unique, which not to my preference.Two signatures of Bavarian dishes: Schweinshaxn / Oven Roasted Pork Knuckle ($36.00) and Pork Sausage, with a twist of curry sauce / Currywurst ($17.50). The Pork Knuckle is excellent, served with potato salad, sauerkraut, gherkin and homemade sauce on the side. The crackling is light and crispy, and the meat is tender and juicy. Sauerkraut and gherkin works provide the acidity that balance the fattiness in the knuckle, while the fried onion on top of the potato salad is simply delicious. The gravy is tasty and thick. Yummy !!For the Currywurst, I need to rename it Curryworst. The worst dish of the day. The pork sausage is good, but spoiled by the curry. Although it is suppose to be the number one German Fast food, we find the curry powder and mustard on the dish simply does not work. This is comparable to the disastrous Singapore Fried Bee Hoon that you can find any Asian food court in Australia.Schweinemedaillons / Pork Medallions ($29.50) is a dish that you must try. As the medallion does not have much fats, they wrapped the sides with bacon to ensure the tenderness remain. Perfectly executed and served with shoe string fries and sautéed mixed vegetables. How I wish they are more medallions.Service is good when you can get their attention, but it can be frustrating trying to get their attention. You can see that they are short staffed, and having problems attending to the customers.

Overall, Brotzeit got our vote. The food are good, with the exception of the Curryworst (@ Currywurst). Unfortunately we are a group of non-alcoholic drinkers, so we can't comment on the beer. We'll sure be back for more. Prost!!! Cheers!!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click / copy the link below:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/brotzeit-katong.html

Tai Wah / Tai Hwa Pork Noodle are well known for foodies in Singapore. The conflict between these two stalls made the headline a while back, until today it seems the bad blood are still there. Each of these stall have there own staunch supporters, so its all come down to personal preference.

My first encounter with Tai Wah Pork Noodle during their time in Bestway Building. I remember that stall was run by the parents and a younger gentleman. Knowing my Chinese was not very bad, the mother was very friendly and patient when taking my order. Not long afterwards, the shop there was closed and I saw this stall in Hong Lim recently.This time around I ordered the $6 soup version. You might be saying, what? $6 for Bak Chor Mee ('BCM')? Well just consider BCM is the Ramen version of Singapore. It will be less ouch when you pay for it.For $6, I get quite a big bowl of noodle, which can fit my face with lots of condiments like mince meat, meat balls, pork liver, flat fish, wantons and seaweed.The broth was robust, but on the lighter side. It has the sweetness from pork bones. The noodle is springy (qq). The liver are cooked to medium, pink in the middle and tender. I notice that instead of throwing the mince meat and liver to the pot, they pour hot water on them on the bowl while they are cooking the noodle. This must be the key to the yummy pork liver.The dumplings / wanton are good. The meat are well seasoned and you can taste the flat fish flavour in it. Meatballs was springy and crunchy.Overall, Tai Wah Pork Noodle serve a very good Bak Chor Mee. All the ingredients are cooked perfectly. If only their broth are more robust, I will consider them one of the best. Cheers!!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala experience, click / copy the link below:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/Tai-Wah-Pork-Noodle-HongLim.html

Deciding where to go for excellent Japanese food in Singapore used to be a daunting task. You can step into the Japanese Restaurants in 5 star hotels or higher, you can expect to pay exorbitant price. You go to normal shopping centre, you end up with some sushi franchise with a very standard quality. Fortunately in the past few years, there has been some Japanese restaurant popping up in Singapore providing excellent quality food with reasonable price.

Please note that Chubby Botak Koala referring to “reasonable price” not cheap price.

Located in Triple One Somerset, Fukuichi is slightly out of the way from the major traffic on Orchard Road. Little Devil, I and a guest visited Fukuichi on a Sunday and the Triple One Somerset is not very crowded. There were ample parking space in the building. From our seating, we actually have a glimpse of the Sushi Bar, which was well occupied that day.We started our meal with Yasai Stick (($8) and Tatami Iwashi ($9). The Yasai Stick is combination of raw vegetables with miso paste. The vegetables were chilled, so it remain fresh and crunchy. The miso paste is average, not the better ones. Meanwhile the Tatami Iwashi (Baby Japanese Anchovy) is light and crispy. Good appetizer.The Sashimi Moriawase (Jyo - $78) next to appear. It is the premium assorted cuts consist of swordfish, salmon belly, tuna, scallops, yellow tail and sweet prawns. The cuts are smooth, fresh and good in size.Next we have the Sushi Moriawase ($35) and Shake Aburi Maki ($22), which consist of salmon, scallop, sweet prawn, fish roe, unagi, tuna, swordfish, tamago and mini roll of tuna. The spread of the sushi selection is very good. The rice taste just nice, not lumpy and well balance vinegar taste. Shake Aburi Maki is a seared salmon roll. It seems that seared sushi are in trend at the moment, and the seared salmon just melts in your mouth. Foodgasm? Almost, but not there yet.For the cook food section, we proceed ordered Tako Karaage ($12), Niku Fagura Sauce ($35), Hiyashi Gyomen ($12) & Kaisen Zousui ($16). Tako Karaage or deep fried octopus was juicy, tender with a slight springy texture. It is not chewy and goes well lemon and mayonaise. Niku Fagura Sauce is grilled beef cube with foie gras sauce. The beef cube is tender, grilled to medium rare. It is juicy and tender, but the creamy foie gras sauce is just amazing. Yum Yum, definite foodgasm!!Hiyashi Gyomen is a cold fish noodle. A creative alternative to normal soba. I saw this in an Iron Chef show, so I could not resist to try it out. It is very springy and a bit chewy. The dipping sauce has some ginger in it to offset the fishy smell in the noodle. Very unique, but not to my liking. Kaisen Zousui is just the complete comfort food. It is a rice with seafood broth. The rice are well covered with different cuts of seafood. The clear broth is very robust. A very good way to end the meal.Unfortunately, it was not the end of the meal for us, we decided to satisfy a little bit more of our cravings. So come the Uni sushi ($20/pair), unagi (eel - $10/pair), anago (sea eel - $12/pair) and toro aburi sushi (seared tuna belly - $24/pair). Well LD has the perfect ending, with her uni. The sea eel taste lighter then the normal eel, which was good here. And the seared tuna belly just melts in your mouth. At this point of time, we were basically stuffed and happy to be rolled out from the restaurant.Service here is very friendly and attentive. The service staff even told us to stop ordering, as she was worried that we might ordered to much.

Compliment to Chef John Phua for the excellent food and his friendliness. He even took time to post for the photo below. Thanks Chef!!Overall, we totally have a memorable dining experience dining in Fukuichi. The food is excellent in terms of freshness, quality and taste. Price is very reasonable. You get what you paid for. Our final bill was $348.40 inclusive GST and service tax. We look forward to our next visit. Kassai!!! Cheers!!

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http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/05/fukuichi-japanese-dining.html