Sunday, September 30, 2012

Nam Hwa Chong Fish Head Steamboat Corner @ North Bridge Road

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Located at a corner shop, this restaurant boasts of two storeys of space. Visited on a Friday evening before 7pm, and easily found a table. Spied that there are also some tables at the back of the shop.

menu
carricature of the owner

The price is actually not indicated in the menu, so we took our chances. Ordered a pomfret steamboat, a plate of har-cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) and three bowls of white rice. Drinks are paid separately from the food (cash on delivery).

lime juice
ai yu bing (爱玉冰; aiyu jelly), or ai-yo drink (the staff's nickname for this drink)

Didn't have to wait long for the food as it wasn't too crowded on our day of visit.

white pomfret fish head steamboat
loads of vege, yam pieces, pomfret meat, fried sole fish

The soup was not very salty but my friends thought otherwise. It was rather light and clear type (non-milky). Ample fish slices for three pax. Thought that the yam pieces were still too intact as separate entities and hence didn't contribute much flavour to the soup.

pomfret
chili sauce

The chili sauce would've been nicer if it was spicier. More kick.

prawn paste chicken (har-cheong gai)

The prawn paste chicken (mid-wings only) was just ordinary. Deep fried but lacked the intense prawn paste taste.


The bill for food came up to about $48 (inclusive of 7% GST) for 3 pax. The pomfret steamboat was $35+, while the prawn paste chicken were $8+ for 6-mid-wings.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Boon Lay Raja @ Jurong East

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Located at Level 2, Blk 135 Jurong Gateway Road. From the Jurong East MRT station, walk towards NTUC Fairprice across the road and turn left, round the corner to go behind the outlet and you'll find the stairs/lift leading towards the restaurant.

The restaurant decoration is quite old school Chinese restaurant style. Think Chinese banquet table settings.

chopstick

Have eaten here a couple of times for casual family dinners. The friendly male service staff will recommend the portions based on the dining group size.

chinese tea


One of the items that we'd usually order, was the roast chicken.

roast chicken (half)
pickled vegetables (酸菜)
thin crispy skin
flavoured salt for roast chicken
chili sauce (spicy but salty)


Unfortunately, the standard of roast chicken had dropped. The breast meat was hard and dry.

claypot tofu (small)

The claypot tofu with bits of roast pork was served piping hot. However, the sauce became too thick as it continued to cook under the flames.

furong egg
browned egg
at its thickest part

The furong eggs omelette came looking a tad too burnt. However, it was quite tasty with squids, onions and bits of meat in it. My dad enjoyed this the most.

The luo han vegetables was the plate that almost didn't come. It was only served when we were almost finished with our meal. Crunchy vegetables and a plate of chockful of ingredients. Liked this dish.

luo han zhai vegetables (small)
shitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, white and black fungus, baby corn, broccolli, beancurd skin
nice crunchy greens


The gripe for the night was the time taken for the dishes to be served. There was an interval of 20 minutes lapse between first dish and the last dish, and there wasn't even a crowd on a weekday. There was also a lapse in service when we had two dishes sitting on the table getting cold and had to remind them to serve us the rice.

Overall, this is a no frills fuss free airconditioned place, with reasonable price. This meal costs about $50 and it fed five pax.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Dian Xiao Er @ Lot One Choa Chu Kang Part II

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Brought family out to have dinner here on a weekday. Bro decided on Family Set B (5 pax option), which comprised of two meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, one soup of the day and white rice.

Service was good and efficient. As usual, diners will be served with peanuts upon seating, with wet towels already placed on the tables. Peanuts goes for $2.00++, while towels are at $0.30++ each.

wet towel

order chit

The food came almost instantaneously once the order chit has been printed. Quite amazing.

soup of the day: szechuan pickled vege soup with pork ribs

The soup was not too salty but lacked depth. Perhaps not enough time on the stove?

duck roasted with ten wonder herbs
go for the skin!

Duck meat with skin that has little fat pockets underneath it, was the best! There were some dry parts, and some tender. Sauce was nicely fragrant with herbs and not overly salty.

dong po pork
wobbly fatty meat

One can opt for Mongolian Pork Ribs or Dong Po Pork. My dad loves fatty meat, so Dong Po Pork it was. The fatty meat surprisingly, didn't leave an oily feeling in the mouth. The sauce was mildly sweet. But the lean part was not as tender as expected. So, that was a minor letdown.

dong po pork with fluffy rice

Not to worry, the meal was well balanced with lots of non-meat dishes. Poached bamboo pith with asparagus was served next. The red wolfberries lent a bit more colour to this dish.

poached bamboo pith with asparagus
bamboo pith close up, with gou chi zhi (wolfberries)

Bamboo pith has a texture that is quite similar to fish maw, and usually used in soups. Its skirty lacy texture allows it to absorb liquid very well. A quick check with wiki, states that bamboo pith is actually a type of bamboo fungus. This mushroom has antioxidant and antimicrobial (a substance that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms) properties.

The poached bamboo pith with asparagus dish looked healthy and tasted healthy as well. Asparagus was crunchy and firm, while bamboo pith was mildly sweet from the sauce and wolfberries.

Next up, golden fried tofu. Diamond shaped and deep fried till its outer skin was of a crisp golden brown colour and served with broccoli floret. Looked beautiful and appetising.

golden fried tofu
tofu close up


The insides of the tofu was actually slightly coarse, and tasted as if it might have been minced together with something else. Not sure. Savoury. Perhaps, this dish would be better if the tofu was indeed minced together with a higher proportion of fish/meat so that the taste is more pronounced, or have it simply as plain soft wobbly tofu with crispy skin.

stir fried bitter gourd and pumpkin
spot the pumpkin and carrots


The Stir Fried Bitter Gourd & Pumpkin dish actually consist of sliced bitter gourd (that definitely tasted bitter!), sliced pumpkin and carrots, dried shrimps, mushrooms and sliced huai shan (wild yam). There were also slices of unknown entity that has a texture similar to abalone mushroom/king mushroom but tougher and also similar to maybe whelk/conch. Mystery ingredient. Hahaa.

Our table also had 3 glasses of plum lime juice and a bottle of Minute Maid drink. Total bill came up to about $135.

Payment by OCBC credit card entitles you to a return voucher of $10 (if bill was above $100 or $5 voucher for bill above $50) that can only be used for ala-carte items with min. spend of $100. Expires in 3 months time from the date of issue.

Here's the link to first visit.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe @ Yew Tee Point

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Located at Level 1 of Yew Tee Point. Had visited this cafe about thrice, and each time, service is left wanting. Seems like they may be lacking of manpower, as we only saw two staff working the floor.

interior
napkin

Mom and sis shared a plate and they ordered breakfast (though we were there for lunch).

breakfast set
wobbly eggs and not very cooked whites, overcooked ham at the back

Note that the sunny side up eggs were somewhat burnt at the bottom, while certain parts of its white appeared to be still quite raw. Ham slices were overcooked and quite oily.

mango pomelo sago with ice-cream
mine
supersized sago?

The dessert was quite nice to have on a hot day. Icy cold, with tiny sweet mango cubes. The pomelo flesh was a little sour-bitter and gave a good contrast to the sweetness. The sago tasted quite flat though.

20 minutes had lapsed since our first dish and the kitchen have yet to send out the two remaining main courses to our table. Luckily, the dishes did materialize after just one reminder.

chicken cutlet with black pepper sauce

Dad's chicken cutlet with black pepper sauce dish came with fries, baked beans, a sunny side up egg (thankfully no burnt bottom), and a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato for garnishing. The chicken was kind of hard to cut with the butter knife but it tasted quite acceptable.

My brother had the cheese baked rice.

flag that states the dish contained pork
rice looked a bit too dry
tangy tomato sauce

The cheese baked rice was indeed a little too dry but it tasted quite good when smeared with ample tomato sauce and a huge dollop of gooey cheese. The pork chop meat was not too tough nor was it too soft. Would've expected this to be piping hot but it wasn't. Guess someone had left it out for too long before we reminded them to serve us our food? Hmm.


6 pieces of prawn twisters
complimentary dish for min. spend above $30 (Stanchart credit card promo)
there's a real prawn inside!


The meal costs about $45 (inclusive of 3 drinks that wasn't shown in the pictures) and good for 5 pax of not very hungry people.

 
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