Northern style Claypot Bah Kut Teh

Hong Ji Claypot Bah Kut Teh
(宏记砂煲肉骨茶)
Marsiling Lane Blk 19
( Quite a huge place. The coffeeshop is at the corner nearer to Blk 17)
Don't know for sure if when they are closed ( Mondays perhaps? )

The other half heard abt this place sometime back but we hardly had the chance to venture so far out from where we stay.

Chinese Singaporeans loves their Bah Kut Teh. The Hokkien version with a darker soup base and less peppercorns, and the Teochew version with clear soup and loads of peppercorns. Our version simply has only pork ribs, soup and YouTiao ( not YouTube mind you ).

Our neightbour up north has their version, which they claim to be the origin. Theirs, i understand, comes with everything from ribs to intestines to liver to stomach and has a more herbal soup base.

Legacy aside, i remember how my granddad used to bring me for Bah Kut Teh early in the morning where he spend most of the moring chatting with his friends. Having Bah Kut Teh never fails to remind me of my granddad and how hard it was for him as a settler in a foreign country bringing up his kid.




We had a small serving of braised trotters to go with the claypot bah kut teh here. Nothing fantastic abt it. The meat was hard and doesn't seem to me that they had been braising for a long time. Ah Hua's version is much better.




The claypot bah kut teh. The ingredients are extremely fresh. Especially worth mentioning are the intestines and stomach which are so tender. The ribs on the other hand should have been cooked for a longer period of time. We're not exactly looking for the Ah Hua's fall of the bone kind of bah kut but this was way too hard.




Worth A try, unless you like chewing-gums ribs. Total damage all in all SGD$13.80. Cheap but not exactly the version we like. Give me the Singapore's version any day.

Steamboat for 2

So it's a weekend, no where in particular to go. What can a couple do... the duo here at eatfatfat decides to enjoy the weekend lazing around and have a little steamboat dinner.

Considering we had a great dinner at Cartel the night earlier ( a huge slab of ribs and pork chops), we wouldn't have gotten up early on a sunday morning for anything except for food. Breakfast at Coffee Bean to be exact. Forgo Graze for Coffee Bean cause the lady wants to hit back to bed after breakfast.

After another round of bagel with cream cheese we head straight for the supermarket to shop for the steamboat dinner. We love shopping and spending time together thinking of funy and weird stuff to cook and eat.

To cut everything short, i forgot abt the rice and we nearly ended up with no rice to go with the steamboat. Thank god for the trusty electric rice cooker, the ebarrassment was quickly forgotten in 20 minutes. Trust me to let such a thing from happening. Nevertheless dinner was simple and wholesome but the company was fantastic.

They say a picture speak a thousand words. I wonder if you feel the same way too ;)

The mini-steamboat with slices of winter melon boiling in prawn stock

Sliced chicken thighs

Crab sticks and hotdogs

Chinese cabbbage

Prawns ( shelled and deveined, leaving only the heads on )

Tofu cut into cubes

Fishballs

Sliced pork tenderloin

Soy Sauce on the left for the lady and the special sauce for myself (loads of garlic, juice of one lime, some white vinegar and an equal amount of soy sauce )

Steamboat begins...

One Rochester

Wonder if anyone does still read EFF.... :) It's been a long while since i last posted. Have been extremely busy for the past couple of months. New challenges, new goals and new directions. All for a better future, i guess.

Anyway GF and i went for a drink @ One Rochester. Was supposed to check out the fantastic Bak Kut Teh at Woodlands, untill she ordered a Cheesy Lava pizza for a late lunch bite. With a full dinner out of the picture, we decided to check out the new establishment at Rochester Park which is just opposite of the MOE HQ at Buona Vista.

One Rochester
No 1 Rochester Park
Singapore 139212
Tel: 6773 0070
Email: info@onerochester.com
Opening Hours:
1700hrs to 0100hrs ( Sundays to Fridays )
1700hrs to 0200hrs ( Saturdays )
1700hrs to 0200hrs ( Eve of Public Holiday )
1000hrs to 1500hrs ( Sunday Breakfast )



We went One Rochester, a cosy joint with great ambience. It's the first house we hit after the stairs leading to up from the carpark. Lush foliage and stone paths leading to various pockets of seating areas for different crowds. We were ushered to a small little section with the whole area to ourselves( Not much human traffic today, sunday evening perhaps? ). Kind of the place you would like to bring your SO to laze around and chat over some drinks and nibbles.

An extensive range of wines and drinks, but the non-alcoholics might have to stick to the SDG$6 soft drink or SGD$3.50 ice water ( bottled ). Ordered the Lychee Martini for myself and Anita for the lady.

( Special note form the GF : Anita is just a fancy name for Fruit Punch )
The accompanying nibble for my drink, Fish Tempura.

Looks promising. GF loves the place and the setting at One Rochester. Can't wait to check out the rest of the guys at Rochester Park ( Min Jiang, Graze...). Especially the Cast Iron Pan breakfast at Graze which i read off Chubby Hubby

many many years ago on this day...

I was born :)


Check out my birthday cake. This was bought from Polar as they are the only one around that have the cute cartoon characters on their cakes. Not that i particulary like that, just that a little kid running around in my place love Elmo to bits. So for my birthday, i decide to get a "Elmo" cake.




So that's why there's 2 names on it. One's mine, the other's his.




Ever since taking on my present assignment, I have been having less dinner at home. So for this year, i told mum that i felt like having steamboat.

The spread was fabulous. There were fish maws, fish balls, mushroom balls, cabbage, vegetable, sliced fish, pork liver, meat balls, prawns, hotdogs, squid and lots of love.

My darling sponsored thinny sliced Shabu-Shabu pork belly and tenderloin. Wow, this was super good and worth every cent.


I'm a happy guy this day. I thank god that i'm blessed with love, being able to spend my birthday with all my love ones, enjoying a hearty meal of home-cooked steamboat.

Oh, dad bought lots of satay back too and we ended up eating lots of food tonight. Which is a good thing ;)

Golden Mile Thien Kee : Hainanese Steamboat

Golden Mile Thien Kee Pte Ltd
B1-20 Golden Mile Tower
Beach Road Singapore 199589
Tel : 6298 5891 / 6293 5910




Tonight dinner was yet another recommendation that GF read of the internet forums. Being a steamboat or Huo Guo fan myself, this is definately a place that we got to try. Read up on this to know a bit more about steamboat. It's the sort of comfort food that we would enjoy having in the company of friends and family where everyone cook their own food instead of mum doing it.

Alomost everyone i know has their own version of this Singaporean Chinese comfort food usually served at the Chinese New Year Eve's Dinner where every member of the family gather at the house of the eldest to have a fantastic dinner together.

GF's side does it ala-Marina South Steamboat cum BBQ style which is the 2-in1 type of setup. With a grill round the hot pot where you can enjoy cooking your food in boiling stock or just plain "grill" ( a more appropriate word would be frying ) them in butter. In this case, we can have the best of both world. Have your prawns 2 ways, boiled or grilled. No problem ;)

I on the other hand prefers the style my mums does. We used to have steamboat dinner with the traditional charcoal fired pot. Modern technology have replaced it with the Tefal's. Usually the stock would be made with prawns and pork bones, the meat marinaded by yours truely with oyster sauce, a dash of seasame seed oil, light soy, and a little bit of sugar and pepper . It amazing how the stock start off with no flavour ( or maybe just a little hint of prawns ) into a flavourful pot of soup. And mum will always make Hokkien Mee with the leftover soup. I love dipping my food in a generous amount of freshly minced garic and light soy sauce.

Today we went in search of the famous Thien Kee Steamboat. Searched the whole Golden Mile Complex but didn't managed to find any restuarant remotely similar to a steamboat place. GF was about to give up when we decide to walked over to Golden Mile Tower to take a look.

Damn, the whole place was packed@! And basically the whole B1 is filled with tables serving Steamboat from Thien Kee. Easily 100 tables that night. Basically how it works is, you need to find your own table. After you do so, the staff will look for you shortly to get your order. Being our first time here, we were recommended by the lady who took our order the mixed set since i dun take beef.



We had a SGD$20.00 set which includes cockles ( which i dun eat ), pork, fishballs, pork liver, fish, fish maw, squids, prawns, 2 eggs and vegetables. The food served here are very old school, not exactly sashimi grade freshness but still acceptable. The condiments are on the table and they includes both dark and light soy sauce, some vegeatble oil, and their homemade chilli sauce ( must try if you love your chillies ). Not forgetting 2 bowls of rice, and they serve chicken rice here.



We also had a serving of boiled chicken ( SGD$6.00 ) which is a pretty huge serving. No picture cause we forgotten about it when it came. Nothing fantastic about the chicken here ( in fact it tasted very much like how mum makes it ). But the environment is great! Everyone's digging into their steamboat and boiled chicken and having a great time. I heard they do pretty good satays as well.

Simple food, great company and busrting with activities, dining here is basically soaking yourself in a true blue Singaporean experience ( whereas to find local style steamboat, Hainanese boiled chicken, and satays under one roof ).

Dinner here sets us back SGD$32.40 including taxes ( a SGD$20.00 steamboat set, 3 bowls of rice, a serving of Hainese boiled chicken and 2 cans of coke ). Will i come back here again? Definately. But spare me the cockles please.

Manhattan Fish Market

Manhattan Fish Market
68 Orchard Road
#06-07, Plaza Singapura
Sinagpore 238839
Tel : +65 6835 9300


Just a stone throw away from my office is Plaza Singapura where i had my dinners more often than i had at home these days. GF went for an interview and was feeling sort of down after that. She came by my office and i thought what better than to treat her to a nice dinner to cheer her up a little.

Thought of having our dinner at Secret Reciepe ( for GF's favourite Chocolate Banana cake ) but we settled for Manhattan Fish Market. MFM, which has it's roots in Malaysia, bears an uncanny resemblance to Fish and Co . Both have seafood platter on the menu.

Having tried both, here's our take. Let's compare the Seafood Platter for 2 at these 2 places.

Fish and Co




Manhattan Fish Market



Fish and Co's version has loads of grilled prawns, mussels, squids, a piece of pan fried dory fillet , loads of chips and garlic rice.

MFM's version has significantly less prawns ( but the prawns were topped with a special mayonnaise and then flamed with a torch right before our eyes. ), but they were damn good. Still as much squids, chips, garlic rice, fried oysters ( damn fresh i tell you, and huge too ) ad a piece of fried fish fillet.


Both are nice. How about this. Let's say we have only 50 bucks left and we have to choose between these 2, we'll go for Fish and Co. At least we can have more prawns to go round . Plus Fish and Co dun burn the heads of the prawns off.

Service wise, both are just as good but we prefer Fish and Co's chippy environment a little more. Tough fight between both, try them both to taste the difference.

dian xiao er

Dian Xiao Er
#02-203/204 Marina Square

Tel: (65) 6337 1928

Opening Hours:
11:30am - 2:30pm,
5:30pm - 10:00pm (last order 9:30pm).

No Reservations but you can call the restaurant
between 2:30pm - 5pm for a priority queue-number.

Walked past Dian Xiao Er a couple of times and were put off by the long queue each and everytime we were there. Finally decided to give it a try, regardless of the waiting time.

GF was constantly raving about their special Herbal Duck. Being a huge roast duck fan myself, this is definately something i would wanna try. We were told that the average waiting time will be around 45 minutes upon taking our queue number.

Dian Xiao Er wants to bring it's diner a special a dining experience unlike anywhere. Some what like those ancient makan places we see in those Hong Kong Drama Serials, where travellers stop to enjoy a pot of tea and a few Man Tous.

Some may think that in such a pretentious establishment, one is not gonna find good food. Give Dian Xiao Er a try and judge for yourself.

The menu of the night was quarter serving of their Herbal Roast Duck, a simple Stir Fried Chinese Spinach in Superior Stock (with Gou Qi Zhi ), and Dong Po Rou.


The Herbal Duck - Basically really good Roast Duck served with generous amount of herbal sauce ( Tang Gui ). The roasted duck skin was so crispy and the meat so juicy and tender. The Herbal sauce, somewhat sweet, was full of Tang Gui flavours. This is the dish to go back Dian Xiao Er for.

Nothing out of the extraordinary about the stir fried spinach. Everything was done just right. I had more than 3/4 all by myself ( actually GF is a hardcore carnnivore ).

The Dong Po Rou was a mistake. The serving was too huge even for 4! Apart from that, the dish was really good to go with a bowl of hot fluffy thai fragrant rice. Quite a "healthy" ratio of fat vs meat i must add.

Overall we give Dian Xiao Er a 3.5 out of 5 stars for their friendly staff, delicious food,prompt service, and of course, the interesting decor. Total cost, around SGD$40.00 if i dun remember wrongly.

P/S : pay your bill with UOB Visa to enjoy a 10% discount ;)

A surprise for D

To my bestest friend and lover,

I love you even more this year, than last year on this day.

My love for you will always grow, with every passing year.

The love we shared made everything so beautiful in life.

You are someone,

who is special

who changes my life by being part of it

who always make me laugh

who makes me believe that there really is good in the world.

Thanks for always being there for me...

I not so clever to come out with this, but i saw this on a website (i got modified a bit hoh) and it says everything i wanted to tell you

From J

Waraku at Starhub Center

Waraku Japanese Restaurant
51 Cuppage Road
#01-12 StarHub Center
S(229469)
Telephone: +65 67211123
Fax: +65 67211124


It's been a busy June. Reservist, work and more work. For GF, she has cleared her final year papers. It's been a while since we last indulged in something we love. Food.... Honestly, Japanese food isn't really my cup of tea. While i do love watching Japan Hour and Channel 57 for the wonderful Japanese cooking shows but when it comes to raw meat, it's a big no no for me. I prefer the fried stuffs. GF on the other side, loves her sashimi.


Have been working odd hours these days and more often than not, it drags til into the early morning. Have been neglecting GF more often after i was tasked with the recent assignment. And i went for my in-camp in these period. Anyway we promised to spend some quality time together after my in-camp and that was what we did.


GF suggested Japanese food and after some reading here and there we decided to try Ohsumi at Cuppage Plaza. Actually we are more interested in trying out their shabu-shabu. However we can't seems to locate Ohsumi in Cuppage Plaza. Anyone knows where they are located? In the end we settled for the next best alternative which is Waraku.

Business is good ( Sat night ) and we had to wait for around 20 minutes for a table. Not connoisseurs ourselves,but we both enjoy good food. The exterior of Waraku was excellently designed. Very japanese decor inside and outside. But one have to bear with the noise level inside.


Having a serious craving for shabu-shabu, i ordered the next best alternative the Pork Nabe. There's lots of vegetables, japanese tofu skins, shitake mushroom, needle mushrooms, meat balls and thinly sliced pork. This was a healthly meal in itself! Wow. I was definately blown away by this dish. The sliced pork was very fresh and the meat balls are definately the best i ever had. I'm definately going back for this Nabe.


GF made Tuna Sashima her first order. Seeing her putting piece after piece of fresh tuna sashimi into her mouth, without uttering a single word, it must be that good. We also had Shishamo. This is disappointing. The shishamos were a little overdone and charred. The flesh were very dry. Not good.


Waraku did a good tori karaage. Extra crsipy on the outside, soft trender and juicy on the inside. And the serving is pretty huge. We also made it a point to try the ebi tempura at each places and all i can say about Waraku's is HUGE. 5 pieces of huge ebi tempura, fried to a light golden brown, and still juicy and tender on the inside. This is reason enought for us to go back Waraku again.


Still hungry, we each order a handroll. I had the tried and tested Californian Handroll while GF had her favourite Tuna mayonaise Handroll. Nothing to shout about but the seaweed was kind of soft. It reminds me of the japanese restaurant ( think it was Maro Sushi or something ) at the previous Marina Square near the Arcade at level 2 where the Japanese chef toast the seaweed only after an order was place so the handroll arrives at your table crispy.


We round of the meal with an order of grilled saba. This is a must have for me. They do it perfect here, crispy skin ( lightly salted ), oily flesh. Wow This is very good! Would have down another serving of rice if GF had not stopped me. Bill came up to around $80 plus but it was worth every bit! Try it and let me know how you like it.