When I was previously working at Raffles Quay, one of my colleagues recommended me to try this thunder tea rice stall. I remembered tasting thunder tea rice a very long time ago but didn’t have a great impression of it because the green coloured tea soup had a very strong flavour that I wasn’t too used to. Either you like it or you hate it. I was glad I gave it a try again because I totally fell in love with this. I guess taste buds do change with age ;)

If you’re new to thunder tea rice, you may wish to know it is actually a signature dish of the Hakkas. And the word ‘thunder’ came about because it described the sound when the ingredients are pounded to make the tea soup. Thunder tea rice is very high in fibre because vegetables are the main ingredients. In fact, the tea soup itself is also made from tea leaves, herbs, nuts, seeds and grains. Low fat and low cholesterol. Great for detoxification and weight management.The take-away set meal consists of a generous portion of thunder tea rice (I normally go for brown rice), fried tofu with minced meat filling and basil omelette. The concentrated tea mixture will be placed in a separate bowl container. I’d fill it with hot water, give it a good stir and then pour over the rice and ingredients. Mix everything up and enjoy.

If it’s your first time eating thunder tea rice, then I’d suggest you taste the soup first to see if you like it before pouring over your rice.

I love the different layers and textures present. The crisp of the fried anchovies (ikan billis) combined with the crunch of the long beans, peanuts and other vegetables is formidable. The various flavours that burst in your mouth are surprisingly complementing one another. And the aroma from the basil and mint in the tea soup really tingles your taste buds too.

The side dishes of tofu and omelette are worth a mention too, though they are extremely greasy. The special chilli sauce that comes with them has a soury spicy kick to it that kind of resembles the chilli sauce for oyster omelette but is much better than that. Dipping the tofu and omelette in the chilli sauce just makes it so addictive for me.

At just $6.00 for the set meal, you’re guaranteed with a scrumptious, wholesome and very healthy meal. Say bye bye to constipation! Fibre rocks.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/10/06/thunder-tea-rice/

I remembered I was first introduced to Pu Tien several years back by my ‘PK mum’ (an endearing term for a friend who calls me PK aka Pumpkin) as she was raving about its Lor Mee. In my mind, Lor Mee has always been a bowl of thick flat yellow noodles in a thick, dark and starchy sauce with ingredients like fish cake, pork belly and hard boiled eggs. But it is not so at Pu Tien, to my surprise (and delight) since I’m not a big fan of the local Lor Mee.

Pu Tien Restaurant is named after Putian which is a coastal town located in the Fujian Province of China and it serves local cuisine of the Xinghua people (兴化人).

I have dined at Pu Tien a couple of times at different outlets and food quality has been consistent so far. And since I’m also trying to expose my husband to different food culture and cuisines here, Pu Tien is definitely a place not to be missed.Egg plants have never tasted this good! Big chunks of egg plants deep-fried to perfection and topped with fragrant pork floss all over. Really addictive. I just love the crispy exterior and the inside is so tender.And this is what we are here for. Silky rice noodles with pork belly, prawns, clams, dried tofu puffs and veggies braised in a rich, aromatic pork broth. Not overly starchy and just so tasty!Another must-try signature dish. Pig trotters are deep fried to crisp and seasoned with salt and pepper. I know of some people who find pig trotters revolting because they are considered high in fat and cholesterol but in actual fact, pig trotters are very rich in collagen which is good for the skin as well as gelatin that promotes growth of healthy hair and nails. Whether these nutritional bonuses are really true or not, enjoying this dish in moderation once in a while should be fine. Even though these trotters are deep fried, they aren’t greasy at all!

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/08/12/pu-tien-restaurant/

When I was working at Raffles Place before, Yomenya Goemon at Marina Bay Link Mall was one of my favourite places to have lunch. Since a colleague greatly recommended me this place, it has become the only spaghetti house I go to now whenever I need a pasta fix.

Yomenya Goemon opened its doors in Shibuya, Japan in the 70s and is one of the top spaghetti houses in Japan today. The secret to their success probably lies in their ingredients which they claim to be imported from Italy so customers get to taste authentic Italian cuisine with a East-meets-West (or Japan-meets-Italy) fusion twist. The end result? Tasty plates of spaghetti with unforgettable sauces and the freshest ingredients ever.

I have eaten at Yomenya Goemon countless times and their quality has been consistent so far which is truly commendable.If you pick their Regular, Large or Dessert set meals, you can help yourself to the salad bar. Basically, the service staff will just hand you a bowl and you can just fill with whatever you want from what’s available at the salad bar. Do note only one serving of salad per set meal is allowed so you can’t go back for seconds. I have seen people piling ingredients as high as possible on their bowls to make it all worthwhile so you just got to try that and see how high you can go. The variety of ingredients is not huge but some notable items to get would be the lychees and silken tofu that really lends some sweetness and smoothness respectively to the salad. Their sesame dressing is a must-try!

If I’m not wrong, not every outlet has a salad bar. I recalled the outlets at Changi City Point and Marina Bay Link Mall have the salad bar but not the Citylink Mall one so it’s good to call and check if you’re going to their other outlets.

This time round, I opted for their Half & Half Set A (S$20) which consists of a Tomato Sauce with Basil & Mozzarella Spaghetti, Cream Sauce Spaghetti with Crab, Shrimp & Scallops, soup, soft drink or dessert. Their half & half sets merely mean you can try 2 selected types of spaghetti at one time. Unfortunately, the choices of spaghetti are fixed for the half & half’s so you can’t pick from the ala-carte menu.I’m normally not a big fan of tomato based spaghetti but this Tomato Sauce with Basil & Mozzarella Spaghetti is pretty good. The taste of the tomato sauce is not overpowering and the dish is pleasantly balanced by the sharpness of the cheese and aromatic basil. Even though it doesn’t have much ingredients in it, the sauce makes it very palatable.

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/08/04/yomenya-goemon-japanese-spaghetti-house/

My husband and I made a second trip down to Queensway Shopping Centre so he could buy that pair of Nike Dunk Low sneakers he had been eyeing since our last visit. But it was a wasted effort as that model he wanted was no longer in stock and we just couldn’t find it in any other shop there. I knew he was feeling a little disappointed so I treated him to his favourite laksa to cheer him up. At the same time, we also wanted to try the ‘other’ laksa stall (328 Katong Laksa) that was located within the same level as its competitor, Janggut Laksa (#01-59) which I thought was a little overrated because of its longer heritage and history that I shall not dwell into. I tried Janggut Laksa once but didn’t really enjoy it that much. All I remembered was the tremendous amount of oil floating on top of the gravy that wasn’t really worth me blogging about it.

As I am looking up on 328 Katong Laksa now, I’m pleasantly surprised to discover it is the same outlet where I had eaten at United Square a long while back. I was impressed with the laksa gravy then and I’m still impressed with it today.We ordered the smallest portions of laksa and curry chicken with rice. While the curry chicken was still considered sufficient for one person, the laksa was miserly portioned. In fact, the bowl was only half-filled when it came. Despite that, the taste was still as good as I remembered. The gravy wasn’t overly greasy (didn’t see oil floating on top) and had a good balance of aromatics and coconut milk. it came with a reasonable quantity of prawns and fish cake slices too. The gravy was so tasty, you could just slurp all up with the spoon. That’s how it should be enjoyed anyway!

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/08/30/328-katong-laksa-queensway-shopping-centre/

Monster Curry claims to be the biggest and heaviest Japanese Curry Rice in Singapore. Probably yes because it’s the biggest (hence heaviest) plate I’ve seen being used to serve curry rice. See the picture below where I had compared the size of the plate to the can drink.I ordered one Monster Combo Curry set to share with my husband and it came with pork katsu, fried fish, pork shabu-shabu, prawn tempura and grated cheese. When the rice was served to our table, I was thrilled to see the variety of ingredients soaked in a massive amount of gravy. Yum yum yum.

The pork katsu, fried fish and prawn tempura were crispy but I found them a little too greasy with a slightly thick batter on the outside. The fish was fresh with no fishy smell and the prawns had a good crunch too. The pork shabu-shabu was surprisingly tender and very tasty. Even the coleslaw was lovely with a soury sweet thousand-island like dressing that really whetted the appetite.

There are 5 spicy levels to choose from:

1 Flame (Normal Hot)
2 Flame (Extra Hot)
3 Flame (Very Hot)
4 Flame (Super Hot)
5 Flame (Monster Hot)

And we picked Extra Hot which I presumed was the chilli sauce that was drizzled over the curry. The curry sauce was a clear winner. It tasted different from the packet Japanese curry sauces we could get from the supermarket. This gravy was rich in flavour with a good balance of sweetness, spiciness (from the chilli sauce) and saltiness (from the cheese) that really blended well together.

It really wasn’t as spicy as we expected so we would probably try Super or Monster Hot next time.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/07/25/monster-curry-ion-orchard/