Tsukada Nojo 塚田農場 @ Plaza Singapura

It was on a Monday night, and long queues were forming at hotpot places. Hmm, everyone loves steamboat/hotpot? Or, was it because everyone has a craving for hotpot all of a sudden? *scratch head*

Friend had a craving for beauty pot, so went ahead and stood in-line to queue. At 730pm, the estimated waiting time was about an hour and all parties must be present in order to get a table.

Got seated at 830pm, and started with sparkling sake.

Mio Sparkling Sake 澪 (みお) @$16++ per 300ml bottle

The sparkling sake was very light and easy to drink.

collagen pot

While waiting for the collagen to dissolve into liquid, we had the Maximum Fries (マキシマム・ポテト). Yup, I did a double take. It was regular shoestring fries with sprinkling of secret powder. Japan menu says it's the seasoning spice of Miyazaki.

Apparently, there's a whole range of 'Maximum' family. Like 'Maximum' eggplant and 'Maximum' seasoned cucumber. So cutesy ya. All ended up in our stomach anyways.

was starving, so only had a chance to take picture of dips for the fries

cooked in a flash and gone equally fast - beauty pot ingredients @$25++ per pax

The branch at Plaza Singapura gave two pieces of chicken per pax, and tasted best with the chili and ginger dips. Hmmm, ain't that chicken rice without the rice?

lip smacking collagen soup

Service was friendly but downside was the one hour wait. That's quite a bummer. I think Tsukada Nojo at PS felt more like a touristy place. Table on my left were speaking in Cantonese with Hong Kong accent, while the one on my right were Indonesians. Heh, I'm a tourist too! (well, sort of)

token dessert

Paid $42 per pax for the meal.

Here's the link to Tsukada Nojo @ Westgate.

Shi Li Fang Hotpot - Revisited @ Orchard Central

Made reservations for early dinner on a Sunday evening. By 8pm, the place was rather packed.

Not sure why we were recommended the big pot when there's just two of us. Made more economical sense to get individual pots.

3-Soup Pot (三格大锅) @$11.80++

Chose the mushroom, chicken tonic and fish soup. Surprisingly, the chicken and fish soup was rather bland that night while mushroom was more flavourful.

As with first visit, crispy fish skin is the must-order. Place it inside the soup and wait till it softens. Order this item with tofu/vege for just $3.50++.

fish skin (炸鱼皮), napa cabbage (大白菜) @$3.50 (for 2 items)

Have tried squirrel fish before but guessed this was my first, in trying squirrel fish head. A tad too skinny though. Mostly bones.

squirrel fish head (松鱼头) @$5.60++

How can one not have meat? Ordered the rib-eye to try. The sliced meat was leaner than depicted in its menu.

rib-eye (牛眼肉) @$13.20++

If you ask me, the vote still goes to fresh superior beef. Look at those fats! However, portion seemed slightly lesser and the price has been revised upward of $2++.

fresh superior beef (雪花肥牛) @$18.80++

Also ordered some seafood this time round. Recommended is the fresh prawns and scallops. Prawns half-serving is 3 pieces, while scallops one serving is also 3 pieces. Recommendation for 2 pax is to order full serving of prawns and 2 servings of scallops.

fresh firm prawns (1/2 serving) @$4.70++

scallops (2 servings) @$10.60++

If one orders just one type of premiumly priced meats, the expected spend per pax is about $30 to $35 per pax.

Shi Li Fang Hotpot 食立方 @ Orchard Central

Located at Level 7 of Orchard Central. This casual hotpot restaurant is considered quite new in Singapore. However, the Shi Li Fang brand is not a stranger in Beijing F&B industry. Established in 2009 and it has grown to 20 outlets in Beijing since then!

store front

The vibe is very casual. Not a problem if you like your hotpot all for yourself as this place offers individual pot, as well as bigger pots for groups. Single pax diner would feel right at home here.

interior

menu

Really spoilt for choice with as many as 6 soup bases, and there's option for double, triple and quadruple-flavoured pots. Prices of soup bases are from $3.60++ (per pax) to $11.80++ (per pot).

The usual mala (麻辣) soup is available. Psst....it's not very spicy by default, so you could opt to notch-up the heat by requesting it to be spicier.

My choice was e a double-flavoured pot of fish soup and tonic chicken soup.

induction cooking

(from left) chicken soup and fish soup

If you had felt indignant over hotpot outlets that charges for dipping sauces, there's no such problem here as its dipping sauces are free of charge (免费调料自选).

take as much or as little as you need

Prices of drinks is less than a dollar per cup, and canned drinks starts from $1.50++.

90cents drinks: water chestnut, lemon tea, lime and barley

This restaurant serves up non-buffet style hotpot experience. Shi Li Fang also offers sets, which comes with vegetable platter and a choice of noodles. All sets are priced at less than $20. Plenty of choices, from crabmeat to beef/chicken/pork set, as well as mushroom/vegetable sets.

chopstick, wet tissue, ladle and spoon - all ready

sesame paste with oyster sauce and plenty of spring onions

Didn't get anything from the set items. Instead, went ala-carte. Got myself a plate of baby cabbage (or also known as nai-bai 奶白菜) The portion that came was actually quite a good for single-pax. Vegetables are priced at $3.50 for two items combo. Nice.

奶白菜 nai bai (baby cabbage)

Beancurd and fish skin are two items that I'd recommend. The fish skin here was best suited to be boiled in the soup. After boiling and absorbing some liquid, the skin became a delectable chewy collageny mass. Tofu, was so silky smooth and soft. Double yums.

beancurd (豆腐) and fish skin (鱼皮) @$3.50++

Very seldom one sees fresh eel offered as hotpot item, so ordered half portion to try. Tiny slices and once cooked, it retained some chewiness and slight crunch. Think I still liked grilled ones best!

 fresh eel 鲜鳝鱼 @$5.80++ half portion

Ordered a portion of premium beef, and it was actually quite a lot for one pax. Good for sharing.

premium beef @$16.80++

pork belly @$5.20++ per portion

Pork belly looked as though it was more suited for grilling, than in a hotpot. Much preferred the beef slices.

Had never thought that marinated meats could also be one of the hotpot items. A recommended-try here is the Shi Li Fang Specialty Chicken. Was pretty fascinated when the chicken remained tender even after boiling it in the soup, like forever. And its marinade/spices can still be tasted distinctly. Amazing.

Shi Li Fang Specialty Chicken @$5.80++

For carbs, we ordered its handmade noodles. What we got was two flattened strips of dough. 'Handmade' means diners will have to 'make' the noodles, themselves.

'handmade noodles' @$1.80++ (with plastic disposable gloves)

Simply take the disposable gloves out and wear it. Take the ends of the dough on each hand and start pulling in opposite direction while gently swing the wrist up and down.

pull and move wrist up and down

Then just slide the one long noodle into the pot. Tasted smooth and good, if it was pulled thin enough. Otherwise, can be eaten just like mee hoon kway (面粉粿).

cooked

some say the egg noodles was good

The chicken soup base was tastier but it was also pretty oily. Fish soup was light on the palate and suitable to cook all sorts of meats or vegetables in it.

Was extremely easy to go overboard when ordering ala-carte. One portion of vege and meat, was already enough to feed one pax.

For those who still like to share a pot, the option is still available.

with big pot with 4 soup bases

Something unique was also spotted in the restaurant. A traditional looking basin with handles. Hmm... It's actually a spouting basin, or also known as fish basin (鱼洗).

spouting basin

Quite fun. You may want to try it. Wet your hands first before rubbing on the handles. Here's a video of when water droplets starts to jump.

Thank you HGW for the invite and Shi Li Fang for hosting the dinner.

promo of 50% off all seafood and meat items, ends on 30 Sept 2014

For those in Orchard Central vicinity during lunch hour, you might want to drop by this place as set lunches are priced at $9.90++ only.

Click here for visit #2 in Nov 2014.

Shi Li Fang 食立方

Address: #07-10/11, Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Central Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shilifangsg
Contact: 62380800
Opening Hours: Daily: 10:30 - 22:00

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot 海底捞火锅 @ Clarke Quay

Located at Level 2, Block D of Clarke Quay, this building is actually pretty near the directory board and the bridge. Glance towards the opposite side, one will see Merchant Court Swissotel and Riverside Point.

Block D

To get to Level 2, take the lift. And once the door opens, the staff will greet and then assign the queue ticket to you.

queue ticket machine beside the lift

queue ticket

After which, feel free to roam around Clarke Quay till the staff gives a phone call. Then, head back to Hai Di Lao and wait at its waiting area. Yup, double wait.

waiting for dinner

beer @ 7pm

The phone call came around 8pm and the staff advised us to be back at the shop so that they could assign a table for us. When queried if they could give us a call when a table is genuinely ready, as I explained that we were nearby and could get back in just 2 minutes, there were hem and haws. She couldn't give a straight answer, but just repeated her request for us to be back and to physically wait at the restaurant. Ohhkay...

sour plum

first snack tray @8.15pm

Waited for another half-hour at the shop's waiting area and the answer was the same, "We're preparing the table for you..." Then, the staff suggested for us to order first while waiting. Ohhkay...

2 hours after getting queue ticket, and still no table in sight

after multiple refills of self-serve popcorn, and still waiting @8.50pm

With just a few minutes to 9pm, we were finally led inside to be seated.

wam hand towel

Went to check out the sauces while the staff prepares our orders.

an array of sauces, condiments, fruits and desserts

self-assembled sauce of sesame paste, sesame oil, seafood sauce, korean chili sauce and vinegar @$4++

double flavour hotpot (chicken and mala)

Friend whom suggested the place, did the ordering. Abundance of food! Chicken, lamb, beef, fish, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms and carb. Yup, got almost everything.

pork slices

squid with spinach paste, fish balls, crab balls and fish paste

beef slices and grouper

Needed to wait for the soup to boil, so munched down on fried fish skin as snacks.

fried fish skin

Thirsty, have some liang teh or watermelon juice.

watermelon juice in a jug

The watermelon juice was unsweetened. The sour plum was pretty diluted but my friends quite liked the herbal tea (凉茶).

chicken soup

ladle of soup

chicken soup to soothe the tummy

Staff helped to ladle the unadulterated chicken soup for us to taste. If you had indicated you'd like 葱花香菜，then the bowl of soup shall be heaped aplenty of those. Chicken soup was tasty and homely.

beautiful platter of fatty beef (肥牛) and lamb (right)

One of the orders was a platter of mixed meat; fatty beef and lamb. Pretty hard to differentiate one from the other though which presented a problem as the table had one who don't take beef and another who can't stand the gamey smell of lamb.

The fatty beef is recommended. Tender slices that cooks in seconds. Lamb slices retained its slight gamey taste but its texture was good. Dip it into the spicy broth (麻辣), and it is immediately coated with a lovely fragrance of the peppercorns. Just be careful not to bite into any of those tiny peppers. The tongue tip will be tingly numb!

tender beef slice

Friend requested for the staff to help us mix a bowl of sauces. The bowl came back with dried ingredients and we were advised to add a little bit of the broth into it. Has a peanuty and meaty flavour and goes well with all meats.

more authentically mixed sauce?

The seafood that we had were all fresh. Grouper, pomfret, scallops and prawns were all quite yummy. Realised that grouper can be left simmering in the broth and still taste nice. Yums.

pomfret

scallops

Loved the big juicy sweet scallops! For leafy intakes, we had tang-o 茼蒿 (crown daisy) and chinese cabbage (白菜). Cabbage was good in absorbing the soup, so better to have it in the chicken soup as opposed to boiling it in the oily spicy broth.

red pot makes leafy greens look so delicious

For prawns, the staff will ask if you require it to be deshelled. Lazy us said yes.

fresh looking prawns

cooked just right

Once in a while, the service staff will come by to top up on the soup.

加汤吗？

Our tummies were already straining, and we have yet to start on the mushroom platter.

mushroom platter in da pot

Not forgetting, our BYO cakes slices for the birthday girls which was temporarily kept in HDL fridge since 6+pm...

tag for easy retrieval, but they still had some trouble finding the cakes

Could barely eat anymore, but still persisted for the homemade noodles. Main reason was to watch the performance of the 'Noodle Ambassador'. Gimmicky and entertaining.

twirling the noodles

dance completed, noodles ready

The noodles is unlike ramen as it is much broader. More like 板条 (flat noodles). The spicy broth gets super salty towards the end after much boiling, hence the noodles are best cooked in chicken broth.

Till date, am not able to fathom on what exactly is the attraction of this place. Service was good but would one wants to wait 2 hours to dine here? From the crowd that thronged this place, no one seemed to mind.

Spent about $60 per pax for the meal.