Jollibee, the largest fast food chain in Philippines with over 800 stores worldwide, has rocked the local fast food scene and brought fried chicken to another level. In fact, I read in the news some time back that their first outlet in Singapore, started only in March this year at Lucky Plaza, is their top performing outlet of all. Impressive, isn’t it? I just wonder how much fried chicken we consume in this small little island of ours!From Krispy Kreme to Jollibee, we are just too fond of queuing, aren’t we? This is probably the longest queue I have ever encountered in a fast food outlet but it’s not surprising since this is the one and only Jollibee in Singapore. Good thing is, the logistical operations are very organised. There is an usher at the door telling customers where the queue starts while queue poles form a neat zig-zag line inside.

There are a number of counters serving the never-ending influx of customers so the long queue is able to move quite quickly. There is also a service staff near the front of the queue who goes around taking pre-orders from customers. She will then hand you an order slip which you can just pass to the counter staff for easy processing.

And because food turnover is so high that the kitchen staff has to prepare everything in advance constantly to meet with the demand so everything from ordering, paying to receiving our food order all fall in place seamlessly in quick mode.

The staff at the outlet are very polite and always carry big smiles on their faces. To be honest, there’s really nothing I can fault on in terms of service level. Jollibee is an established brand and I’m glad the same standards are also maintained here.It’s my first time eating white rice at a fast food place. Normally, fried chicken is served with mashed potato or fries but yes, over here, it’s served with steamed rice instead which is not a bad choice. It is much healthier than eating deep fried, greasy fries when you already have enough to clog up your arteries from the deep fried chicken!

There is no choosing of chicken parts as all the chicken have been pre-packed in boxes. Not a big problem for me since I have the wing and the thigh which are already my favourite parts. Every piece of chicken is lightly battered and fried to a perfect crisp. I am amazed how these chicken do not make my lips and fingers feel oily. It is light on texture but BIG on flavour. I love the seasonings that go into the flour coating. This reminds me of Arnold’s Fried Chicken or simply those fried spring chicken at western food stall but this is really much much better. This is lip-smacking and finger-licking good!

It’s a pity the rice is a little soggy. I guess it’s because it’s wrapped up in paper so it gets soaked up by its own moisture.

The gravy is not great either. I’d still prefer the mashed potato gravy from KFC. So what I did was to squeeze chilli sauce (Kimball brand of chilli sauce is so not nice! Jollibee, please consider changing brand to Sin Sin!) into the gravy and then drizzle the concoction over my rice which made it more palatable. For the chicken, just eat it naked! It’s good on its own.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/11/11/jollibee-lucky-plaza-the-best-fried-chicken-in-town/

Quality Hotel is one of my favourite places to get my porridge supper fix. Whenever we have a late lunch, we tend to skip dinner and head to here to have porridge instead. I have been here like countless times, I can’t believe I haven’t even blogged about it yet!

You may be wondering who will travel to Balestier Road at this time of the day just for porridge. Well, the fact that the Quality Cafe only accepts walk-ins during supper time (no reservations) and that there’s always a long queue outside the restaurant just before supper time starts, you’d know how popular this place really is.

By the time we are seated in the restaurant, the buffet line is already swarmed with people and the one-time special dish of chilli crabs is always the first to go. I tried joining the queue once to see if I might land myself with a piece of crab, the mother-daughter team in front of me just swept away every morsel off the chafing dish, leaving just the gravy for me to frown upon and roll my eyes. Oh well.The variety of food isn’t huge but good enough for a late night supper. You get two choices of porridge – sweet potato and chicken with braised peanuts. We normally go for the sweet potato one as it’s plain and we can just ‘decorate’ it with whatever condiments we want. Fermented beancurd, crispy ikan bilis (anchovies) & peanuts, preserved mustard greens, meat floss, canned black bean fish and achar (pickled vegetables) seem so mediocre but they are BIG in flavours. Put a bit of everything in your bowl of hot, piping porridge and then mix all up. Just this bowl of mixed porridge is good enough on its own! Of course, with so many other dishes to dig into, why should we just stop at that?

The beef rendang and squids with thai green chilli sauce are my favourites! The meat is so tender, it just shreds off with a gentle poke. The squids are blanched to perfection. They are so springy, every bite is like a bouncy chew. Coupled with the formidable green chilli sauce, I could just eat plates and plates of it (if only squids are without cholesterol!).

The steamed prawn is the next most popular item there. Most tables around us just fill plates with prawns (to the brim) but we only ate like 3 or 4 pieces. I just don’t understand why prawns are such a big thing at buffets. Are people just trying to eat to get their money’s worth? The thing is, these prawns are not even of the best quality. Small to medium size, don’t taste sweet and the shells stick to the flesh which makes it a little cumbersome to peel.

Some other decent dishes include braised chicken feet, roast chicken, braised duck, steamed egg and curry chicken. Rice is also available for those who prefer it to porridge.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/11/22/taiwan-porridge-supper-buffet-quality-hotel-marlow-balestier-road/

Recently, I have been seeing quite a number of Pezzo kiosks around. I was walking past one at Woodlands Xchange when someone inside suddenly gestured and ‘shouted’ to us to try their pizzas because they are ‘VERY NICE’ and the ‘BEST IN TOWN’. I was a little amused because the outlet looked newly opened and the pizzas on display weren’t of much variety, needless to say appealing enough for us to buy and try.

Anyway, my husband and I were feeling peckish one evening when we were at Ion Orchard and again we saw many people getting Pezzo pizzas to go so we decided to get one slice to share to see how good it claimed to be.The reason we chose Meat Munchers was because it was just fresh out of the oven. It didn’t look impressive on picture but I loved it that the pizza was hot and the crust was baked to a perfection with a good crisp and crunch though I considered it quite thick as I normally go for thin crust pizzas. To my surprise (and probably amazement), the pizza did taste good after all. The pizza crust was nicely salted with a moist and slightly stretchy texture inside. It reminded me of some good ones I had in New York.

This pizza was full of flavours from the generous portions of ground beef, beef salami, beef pepperoni, turkey ham, beef bacon and italian sausage. It was a meat galore with every bite! The mozzarella used was really cheesy (I don’t know how else I should describe it!) and because it was just out of the oven, the cheese was a little gooey and stringy underneath. What a delicious piece of delight!

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/10/17/pezzo-pizza/

When I took my first bite of the Kouign Amann (pronounced as kween a-mon), I was totally blown away. It looks like a cinnamon pastry roll but it is actually a Breton cake made of plain flour dough, folded multiple times with plenty of butter and dusted with loads of sugar. In French, ‘Kouign’ means cake and ‘Amann’ means butter so it’s very much like a crusty layered bread cake. When it bakes in the oven, the sugar melts between the layers and caramelises at the surface. The kouign amann tastes so crispy on the outside yet moist and sticky on the inside. Layers and layers of rich buttery sweet salty flavours. Excellent balance of savoury and sweet. I-S listed this as one of the 50 items to eat in Singapore before one dies. I concur, wholeheartedly. A comfort food to die for with no regrets.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/06/30/tiong-bahru-bakery-by-gontran-cherrier/

I had a sudden craving for crabs but couldn’t make up my mind on where to eat. Should we go for chilli crabs at Jumbo? Salted egg crabs at G7? Or butter crabs at Mellben? Finally the husband suggested to go somewhere new (so I can try and blog about it too) and he went ahead to book a table for us at Spices Cafe, Concorde Hotel as they are quite known for serving different styles of crabs cooked a la minute. Simply killing two birds with one stone. Perfecto.We arrived at Spices Cafe pretty early as I like to take pictures before the restaurant gets too busy and the buffet line gets too empty. The classic colours of black and white provides a modern glamour setting and a lovely, cosy ambience, perfect for enjoying dinner with your special someone.

We were met with friendly service staff who immediately showed us to our table and took orders for drinks. She also gave us a quick brief on the available crabs on the menu and suggested that we try every single one of them which we did.

The icing on the cake was when the staff informed us that we would be entitled to a serving of half lobster (200g) each, cooked in several ways (changes daily) which we could pick from.

Before we were served our lobsters and crabs, we checked out the rest of the buffet – a beautiful spread of sushi, sashimi and fresh, succulent seafood, salads, cheeses, assorted hors d’oeuvre (mainly seafood), mouthwatering hot dishes and tempting desserts. The spread is not huge but good enough for what we’re paying for.Unfortunately, the shellfish didn’t quite make their mark. The oysters were plump looking but tasted grainy (with sand). The scallops were tasteless. But the prawns were juicy and sweet – very fresh indeed. The sashimi and sushi were normal, nothing great to rave about.

What I did like was the delicate assortment of table hors d’oeuvre that were served on porcelain spoons and sauce plates so you can devour in one bite. Shelled mussels, prawns & squids and smoked salmon were used as main ingredients. Fresh vegetables & fruits, tofu, bonito flakes, pasta, etc with different dressings created a good balance of salty and sweet so you get the taste of the sea with the natural sweetness of the accompaniments. They were not only aethestically pleasing, they were appetising.

We were mesmerised by the baked cheese lobster and braised lobster when they arrived at our table. Prettily presented and sure looked delicious. The baked cheese lobster was a clear winner with plenty of mozzarella cheese on top so each bite was followed by a stringy trail of cheese behind. The braised lobster was also done to perfection. The yam pieces that were braised together with the crustaceans were so soft and tender.

There was also a live cooking station that serves pasta and drunken prawns. The soup used for the drunken prawns was very rich in flavour – you can taste chinese wine, sweet wolfberries and probably some other herbs and aromatics.

My two notable dishes from the hot food section would have to be the deep fried grouper with sweet chilli sauce and seafood pizza. I had thirds of the fish and seconds of the pizza which I normally won’t as I tend to skip carbs at buffets. The grouper was deep fried to crisp and the sweet spicy sauce that the chef drizzled over the fish with julienned cucumber and carrots just tasted so good.And these were what we came here for. Crabs cooked in 5 different ways (i) Chilli crabs (ii) Black pepper crabs (iii) Steamed crabs with chinese wine (iv) Butter and white pepper crabs and (v) Salted egg crabs. Don’t expect huge Sri Lankan crabs here. These were likely local mud crabs. Though they were less meaty, they were quite sweet. Having them served freshly prepared and hot at a buffet was definitely a bonus. My favourite was the black pepper crab – strong peppery taste and salty savoury. The steamed crabs were pretty good too because they didn’t have too much seasoning so you could taste the natural sweetness of the crab meat. Be prepared to get your hands dirty of course. Bowls of water with lemon slices will be provided to rid of any smell off our fingers.

The thing about eating a crab buffet is we’d take a longer time to eat because of the shell cracking and crab meat digging work. I don’t know if it’s just me but I felt quite full even though I didn’t eat as much as what I’d normally eat at other buffets. I believe it was because of the time used on eating crabs that my brain triggered signals of fullness which was good in a way so I didn’t overeat like how most diners would at buffets.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/09/04/harvest-of-the-sea-buffet-dinner-spices-cafe-concorde-hotel/