Late night supper at Boon Tong Kee

Supper for the day ( night ) was at Boon Tong Kee River Valley. Many a times we have been at River Valley stretch of restuarants for supper. In fact, it is our usual makan place for late night suppers. GF particularly love the pratas there.

However that night we both didn't have dinner and we were feeling super hungry. We weren't craving for pratas but something more filling. Anyone who's been to River Valley for a meal will be spoilt for choices. From pratas to chicken rice, to the usual fish soup. Staying close to such places dun make dieting any easier.

After exploring our options, we decide to have our late dinner at Boon Tong Kee. Started by Mr Thian Boon Hua in 1979, Boon Tong Kee have now expanded to a 6-outlet setup in Singapore and thay have also stepped out of Singapore and make their foray into the Malaysian and Taiwanese scene. From the usual "Bai Zhan ji" - Boiled Chicken aka Hainanese Chicken to "Shao Ji" - Roasted Chicken, they also offer dishes commonly found in "Zi Char" store.

Dinner for that night includes one half of their Roasted Chicken, a plate of "You Chai"-Baby kailan with oyster sauce and a serving of Crispy Fried Tofu. It's been while since i last had Boon Tong Kee but they never fail to leave me with a lasting impression of the quality of food they serve here. The skin of the Roasted chicken is so crispy that it cracks upon biting into it. However the meat, thou soft and tender, lacks any "chicken taste". However i dun mind having Boon Tong Kee's Roast Chicken for dinner any day.


Chicken Rice came in cute shapes of pyramid. Presentation is a plus in itself but the real jewel is the rice itself. The rice is very fragrant and soft, but it's the key part of a good Chicken Rice and it's no wonder Boon Tong Kee makes excellent Chicken Rice.

The "You Chai" is really simple and delicious but not something to rave about. However the Fried Tofu is very good. The outer layer's fried to a golden brown and crisp, the inside soft and full of tofu wholesome goodness. It's really a simple dish but yet done in such fantasic fashion. Simply dip the fried tofu in mayo and send them straight into the mouth.


Dinner for 2 with 2 drinks came to about SGD$40 with some loose change. Not the cheapest but definately one of the better ones. Considering we had half of a Roast Chicken, SGD$40 seem a little more bearable.

Weekend breakfast at Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf

Work have been pilling up like nobody's business. Especially so since i was given a new assignment. Work have been tough but fullfilling. Nothing like proving the others wrong and make them look at you in a different light.

As usual on every sunday morning, we made it a point to have breakfast together. Usually we have breakfast at Tiong Bahru Market or at the coffeeshop near her place or mine. However this , actaully last, sunday was one hellav hot day and we decided not to venture to non-aircondition places. GF wanted Mac for breakfast but i managed to convinced her to try Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's breakfast sets.

I couldn't really remember the name of the sets but both were equally good and fulfilling. Definately much better than Mac's. I had the normal breakfast set which includes lots of scrambled eggs, sausages, toast and my choice of beverage.

GF had some sort of egg benedict set which i must say was quite good actually. There were cheese, a sunny side up on top of a piece of toast. I actually prefer hers to mine. The only thing that GF comment was that the sauce ( the yellow stuff ) was a tad too salty. But then again, i did saw her sprinker sparring her packet of salt on top of it all even before she starts eating. Lolz.


A very fulfilling breakfast indeed. Especially so when you spend quality time with your love ones, having breakfast, sipping tea/coffee, watching time passes by. What more can i ask for. She's in a middle of her exams preparations while i'm fighting head-on with the most heart-wrenching task every since i step out into the working life 3 years ago. Deep inside i know i can perform but the situation does not permits me to fully exploit my fullest potential.

All i know is that this big monster is not going away and i have the reputation of my company in my hands. Fighting between right and wrong have never been so difficult. Especially when u recieved a substantial increament from your boss. Anyway, the only way they ( as in "them"
) is going to get me is to put me down so hard that i'm not going to get up again. If not, i'm going to keep coming at them.

I hate irresponsible people!


Oh and to round it all up, breakfast at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf was an enjoyable one and it sure beats Mac's or Delifrance. Just a little more SGD will get you better quality food so what are you waiting for? ;) Total damage was around SGD$14.00 for 2 pax.

Botak Jones at Ang Mo Kio

After reading much rave reviews on Botak Jones, we decided to give it a try. One thing to take note is they closes at 2200hrs so any time after that, you can treat yourself to the satays sold at the same coffeeshop at Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5.

Frankly speaking i don't really know the history to Botak Jones except that he was formerly at helm at Bernie's and Bernie Goes to Town. Apart from that i have absolutely no clues as to how he got himself there in Ang Mo Kio.

Anyway that night we reached Ang Mo Kio pretty late at around 2207 and they were closing. Thankfully the assistants there were very welcoming and they offered the very last order of the day to us. Pretty novice to Botak Jones, we were recommended Cajun Chicken which i gladly accepted. GF went for the safe choice, the Fish and Chips.

Promptly bottles of sauces were served to our table. Malt vinegar, Mustard and the usuall chilli and tomato sauce. This really built up our expectations.

GF's Fish and Chips was the first to arrive. We really love these thick fries and Botak Jones are pretty generous with the serving as well. The piece of fried fish fillet was quite good too. The meat is still fresh and juicy but we really thought it will be even better if a thicker cut was used. Overall a pretty decent Fish and Chips.



Then came the finale. The much acclaimed Cajun Chicken arrived at our table. This is getting weird. We have never had "western-food" in neighbourhood coffeeshops that serves anything other than the usual "chops", Cutlets, chips etc etc.

First taste of the Cajun sauce reveals a slight hint of spiciness and a tad bitterness. However what amazed us was the piece of chicken breast. It was cooked to perfection as the meat was so juicy. Eaten together with the sauce and the melted cheeze makes it a even weirder experience for both of us.

Anyway since you ain't getting any usual "western food" which we could find in almost all HBD estates, dun expect the usual "western food" prices ya. Just a little more for something special. Give it a try if you arein the area ;)

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant at Hotel Miramar

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant,

401 Havelock Road,

#01-01 Hotel Miramar, Singapore

Tel : 68873788 Fax : 68870079

Dear, being the huge Sashimi fan, brought up the topic of dining at Ikoi ( Miramar Hotel ). On the other hand, I'm not into putting raw meat into my mouth ( with only exception for oysters ). Keyed "Ikoi" into Google and found several great reviews on it.

Checked with GF on the dinner date and she's concern whether i could enjoy myself. Unknowingly to her, I have already did my research on the items available and pretty much decided that i could always stuff myself with the Yakitoris, Griled Salmon and Saba.

So our dinner date was set. I called Ikoi up and made a reservation for a table ( there are tables, and seats infront of the sushi bar ) for 2 on 1st April ( April Fools Day ). It was a saturday. An unfortunate incident happened the night before ( or should i say early on the April Fools Morning ) shattered my mood for anything else and even GF suggested giving Ikoi a miss. However as much as i was affected y the incident, i decided against letting that bugger who kapok my stuffs spoilt the lovely evening that i had planned for GF and myself.

We reached Miramar at around 1845 and the place was already packed. Lucky us for there were a group of couples outside Ikoi, who didn't made reservation, and was turned down. Staffs were generally friendly and helpful but dun expect much. Apparently there are 2 groups of staffs there. One group are in charge of taking orders from the guests, the other group are in charge of clearing the table, getting you more tea etc etc so dun be unhappy when some of the staff says they can't take your order. Which in any case, they will inform those who can and direct them to you.

Another thing to note is they take orders in individual servings. So like tempura, if you order one, one will be all that you will get when it comes to your table. So try to order, especially for ebi tempura, a bigger serving like for GF and myself we ordered 10 per time. They take quite a while to arrie so in the meantime keep yourself busy by ordering some other stuff available on the menu and enjoy the complimentary dishes they served.

This is the Stewed Fish with Raddish which i throughly enjoyed. The sweetness form the Japanese soy, mirin and natural wholesome goodness form the chunks of fish in the dish, i could down a couple of bowls of rice with that. This is complimentary.

Also complimentary is this salmon sashimi. As much as i enjoy the presentation of the dish, i decided to let GF have my share of this dish. And though she didn't say much, from the empty plates i know they must have been good.

This, also complimentary, is a Mixed Veg Salad. Nothing fantastic but just that the vegetables are fresh and sweet.

The complimentary Chicken Soup from Ikoi. As you can see in the picture above, there's a tiny little piece of white meat ( chicken ) lying comfortably at the bottom of the pot. A sliced of lime was given, presumably to add the extra zing into the soup. Somehow i dun really fancy the soup as it has a fishy smell to it.

This is yet another complimentary dish. Sort of like a steamboat with generous amount of fresh salmon and vegetables in it. Understandably Ikoi used fresh salmon for this dish, the parts used are the belly, the bony areas. Our take was that the fresh was already used for sashimi and since they have these parts available ( sashimi grade ) , might as well make a dish out of it and serve free to the customers. Very good.

As it is a buffet dinner, we are free to choose from their extensive menu of dishes ranging from sashimi to grilled meats, to tempuras. If you're the sort that can down plates after plates of fresh sashimi, den Ikoi is the place for you. At SGD$30+++ per pax, i reckon if you could finish up 2 plates of mixed fresh sashimi, it would have already been very worth it.

I think this was the Swordfish sashimi. This serves one pax. We also had the mixed sashimi but we were so busy with our hands and mouths at that moment that we pobably forgot to take a shot of it. But GF was clearly satified with the sashimi there.

This is the mixed tempura. There were sweet potatoe, huge shitake mushroom, lady finger, and yam. The mushroom tempura was so goood. The batter was fried to a crisp and the inside (the shitake mushroom itself) was huge and juicy). This Shitake Mushroom Tempura blew my mind away. Awesome. The rest were probably as good but i'm unable to register any other favours of the tempuras at this moment.

These are the Ebi Tempuras. Be mindful when u order this, it's gonna take quite a while before you see it appearing on your table. We had 3 orders of Ebi Tempuras ( 8 - 10 each time ). This is addictive. Served hot and fresh, the prawns inside were screaming to be eaten. The batter was just right, giving the tempura the right amount of crispiness and retains the natural sweetness of the prawns, but yet generous enough to impart the right amount of crunchiness to the tempuras. This is very very good.

We also had the Yakitori. The pic above shows 4 sticks of Chicken Yakitori. The meat was slightly chewy ( the cut perhaps? ) Nothing worth mentioning.

GF had several helpings of the Katsu ( pork chop and chicken ). Personally i find the meat too dry for my liking.

This is carb stick wrapped in bacon. The bacon was undercooked ( soggy and oily ) and the crab stick was soggy as well, was like biting in a lump of dough. Give this a miss ya.

Grilled chicken wings, bad. Too dry and tasteless. Not a hit of chicken taste present.

The cold soba was very good. Pity was the serving was quite small. One sip is all i took and the soba was all gone. But it was good. The stock was light and fragant and the soba just the kind of texture i like.

We also had the udon which is equally as good as the soba. GF probably don't know cause she was busy trying to finish up the 3 Californian Handrolls which she ordered. Which reminds me that we didn't take a picture of the handroll as well. They are generous with the ingredients and this makes the handrollhighly addictive. You have been warned.

The fried tofu dish was very nicely presented. Being the big tofu fan i am, this was a must try dish for me. The tofu is smooth and the accompanying sauce compliments the tofu very well. Take note, the tofu is only 1/4 mouthful but it's the quality that counts. Otherwise you may order additional servings.

Chawamushi, or steamed custard egg is another eatfatfat favourite. Ikoi's version can be a little too generous with the ingredients that the steamed egg becomes the supporting cast. Personally i could do without that much chicken, fish cakes and peas. Alternatively i wouldn't mind if the chawamushi is served in a 2-litre bowl.

If you love fish, and dun like them raw, i recommend Ikoi's grilled Salmon and Saba. The ones we had were grilled to perfection with the skin being crispy and the meat still juicy. Apparently the fish must have been extremely fresh and fatty and this makes a excellent grilled fish.

If you do go Ikoi, please remember to try their grilled salmon and saba. You will not be disappointed.

MIA

Have gone thru a bad patch these days. to make things simple, i lost my laptop, my work, my everything in a car breakin. Have been, and will be fire fighting to salvage my work so when i'm done i'll be back.

Sincerest Regards
Damien

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak
Add: Opposite side of Khatib Camp, and just besides Chong Pang Camp.
Opening hours : no idea, always open when we were there around 10pm


GF and myself are big fans of Nasi Lemak. Some of the nasi lemak that we had are :

1) Hill Street - Near to the previous Malaysia High Commission in Singapore, the coffeeshop is on the side facing the Asian Civillisation Museum, between 2 other chinese-owned coffeeshop. Their nasi lemak cost about $2.50 and comes with a peice of fried chicken wings, an egg, a piece of ikan kuning and 2 slices of cucumber. Worth mentioning also is their chilli sauce. ( 4/5)

2) Those $1.99 Nasi Lemak chain. They do a pretty good version of the nasi lemak, especially their fired chicken wings. We always have extras. (4/5)

3) Changi Village Nasi Lemak - frankly speaking i dun understand the fab about their nasi lemak. Credit must be given to them for whipping us such a nice nasi lemak but there's really nothing to shout about.

4) Fong Seng Nasi Lemak - near NUS. This is one place where the standards varies from time to time. Sometime their good, most of the time they are just bad. Rice is cold, chicken wings cold, price is steep. Consider the location i rather have my fix at Chong Pang Nasi Lemak at Sembawang Road.

5) The best - This nasi lemak stall at Golden Shoe Complex in the CBD area. Their's a green nasi lemak but the best thing are their fried drumsticks and chicken wings. Enough said, must revisit them some day, when the queues are not so long.


So last night GF had a major craving for Chong Pang Nasi Lemak. So we went up to Sembawang for some good nasi lemak. Ordered the usual stuff ( Fried chicken wings, drumsticks, eggs, ikan kuning, ikan billis, fillet ) .

The rice here is damn lemak. And the chilli is among the best i had. Food here are served fresh and pipping hot. Their deep fried drumsticks and chicken wings are filled with meat juices and it's apparent that they marinated their chicken for quite a while. They are delicious and often we find ourselves ordering extras.

So please remember to try their chicken wings, drumsticks, fillets, "mei-ren-yu"

Xin Tao Yuan

Address : 63 Tanjong Pagar Road
Tel : 6323 6367


Xin Tao Yuan Restaurant at Tanjong Pagar. Being my first visit to this establishment, i couldn't help but feel the space was some how a commodity here. Or perhaps one time too many suppers.

Anyway Xin Tao Yuan was crewed by a staff of mostly PRC ladies ( well in actual fact, i didn't really notice any non PRC staff around) and they speak with perfect Chinese which i think most of us will be able to understand. Near the entrance is this space kitchen space where the noodle chef prepares the handmade noodles in full view of all the customers. Once heard a joke that while making homemade noodles, the chef dun have to add any seasoning to the mixture. They comes naturally through the plams and forehead.

Walking into such an establishment like this, complete with the presence of PRC ladies, seeing others digging into plates of jiao zhi, you will know the place will be good, and authentic.

So the order for the night was Shredded Pork in Special Sauce (Dou Ban Jiang), Zha Jiang Mian ( handmade noodles in special sauce ), Beef Noodles ( Handmade noodles in beef consomme ), Lobster Noodle ( Stir Fried ?handmade noodles with lobster ), Guo Tie , Xiao Long Bao, Chong You Bin ( Chinese Spring Onion Puff ), and Gou Qi Ye Soup.

WE had this special Chinese flower tea which GF commment cost $2.50 per serving. Taste wise, nothing much to shout about but the presentation was beautiful.

The handmade noodles were fantastic. They had the right amount of texture to it. But the sauce was a tad too salty for my liking. I like the chewy bits of savoury meat and the crunchy vegetables in it.

Shredded Pork in Special Sauce. We were supposed to wrapped the meat into tiny packets with the meat and the popiah skin. Eaten alone, the meat can be quite salty but wrap it all up and dump it into the mouth, it lightens up the salty taste of the meat and we found it very delightful.

The xiao long baos were one of the better ones we had. The skin were thin and each little mosels of dumplings were pack-filled with piping hot and savoury meat juicies. They were generous with the filling and eaten together with shredded giner and vinegar makes the whole experience a wonderful one. Think i saw on Zhen Guo Chen's "Mei Shi Da Shan Tong"' on the Xiao Long Bao, and i think in the making of authetic Xiao Long Baos, lard and water were added in a certain percentage to the meat mixture to attain the meat juices inside the baos. If my memory doesn't fail me, lard were finely minced and mixed together with the minced meat in a 40/60 ratio. 40% being lard. ( cue Star Wars opening music ) WOW!. Water is then mixed in together to form a rather watery mixture. So be wary when u asked for seconds on this.

I was most impressived with the quality of the Guo Tie here. They were huge and generously filled with some sort of meat and vegetable mix. I can see shredded carrots, Jiu Cai and spring onions in it. The based were crispy and the skin was al dente. And it's no surprises that people came here for their Guo Tie. And there are many other choices of filling for the Guo Tie ranging from different kind of meats to seafood to vegetables.

Next up, we had Cong You Bing ( Chinese Spring Onion Puff ). It was quite a disappointment. It's not that bad actually just that it pales inthe presence of the excellent Guo Tie and Juicy Xiao Long Baos. Nevertheless, i find the puff too thick but overall still savoury and filled of spring onions. Comparatively, the ones i had in Hong Kong and Taipei seems to a lot better.

The Gou Qi Ye soup ( the leaf of Guo Qi, the red little dates that mums used to add in the soup for that extra sweetness. Said to be able to improve memeory and eyesight ). My first impression when i had the soup was it's slightly more bitter taste and in fact it came across rather familiar to me. I think my mum used to cooked this soup with dried anchovies and egg. Anyway to me it's more like a feel-good soup to accompany the deliciously-high calories dishes were had. It kind of takes that little bit of guilt away. ;)

For dessert we had this very interesting dish. Can't remember the name but they are like some white fluffly balls fried to a light golden colour and topped off with icing sugar. We later found out the skin was actually made of egg white and the stuff was that of red bean paste. I believe egg white were beaten up til extremely fluffly and a small quantity of flour added to the beaten egg whites and folded in slowly like souffles are done. Then balls of red bean paste are den coasted in the mixture and deep fried. When served, they appears huge and puff up. But as they sits on on the dish, air started leaking out and the whole thing just slowly sinked into the shape of a lump of golden balls. I took a bite and found that i could still taste the egg white texture. the skin is thing but extremely oily. Quite a interesting item and we made a mental note to experiment this someday.

Overall an extremely satified dinning experience. I was filled to the brim but somehow GF have other ideas. So after dinner we made our way to Punggol Park for a drink and chat. Things started to get really scary when she ordered Fried Chicken Wings from the menu. I was like ..."Huh?!~!"She's becoming more and more hardcore than myself. I could hardly manage my cup of hot raspberry tea!~!~!~! Is this karma?

Anyway a friend called and asked if i could meet him tomorrow for a drink. He's a real estate agent and i mentioned to him about GF and myself looking around for a flat and our plans to settle down in the near future. In actual fact, before i even mention about looking for a HDB flat to GF, i have seek advice from my friend and seriously spending a good amount of time dissecting HDB's websai. I think i first mention about getting a HDB apartment to her when we were in Bangkok. Getting close to 2 years together, planning to settle down in another 2. Our plan is as such a i believe it's realistic and practical. Well at least both of us are committed everything is going smoothly.

So after the phone call i told GF about it and she asked if it was a proposal. Lolz. I'm not the romantic kind of person but i'm sincere serving, opps i mean spending the rest of my life with her. So as most Singaporean males, i choose the most straight forward approach, and asked the HDB question.

I mean this is the all important question when a man and woman in a stable relationship got to consider if they choose to walk down the aisle to holy matrimonial isn't it? And i was promptly warned of the 'consequences' should i dare try using the same method to propose. It's is scary... very scary.

So we met-up the next day for breakfast at a fastfood joint to have a chat with him and his wife. Found out more details on how first timer like us should take note, kind of options available to us, fitting our budget to something that suits our needs. I guess we learnt a great deal from them and they were kind enough to give us print outs on cost of flats , renovation costs, etc etc.

We came out more aware of our needs and requirement. We are in fact looking at 4-rooms HDB flats in Boon Lay / Jurong area. Near MRT station, neighbourhood shopping malls, market and coffeeshops. Punggol, SengKang, and anywhere from Lavendar to Pasir Ris, Bukit Batok to Toa Payoh are not in our consideration. Anyone got lobangs? ;)