Lee's Taiwanese @ JEM Jurong East

Had dinner there on a Friday night with the family. Less crowded as compared to say, Din Tai Fung. They do have staff that sounded Taiwanese, so that added that bit of authenticity. We were seated next to the window. The self-service area was right at our back. You need that cold/warm water, more chili, some pepper, more serviettes? Just go towards the self-serve area.

interior

menu

Family was having the Premium Set Meal (4 pax @ $17.80 per pax) and I got a Deluxe Set Meal for 1 pax @$15.80.

Both sets comprised of 1 main, 1 side dish and a drink.

mini sausages, braised large intestines and salt & pepper chicken (part of Premium Set)

beancurd strips (part of Premium Set)

For the premium side dishes, the braised intestines and salt & pepper chicken (盐酥鸡) were the better choice. The beancurd strips (豆干) were rather bland. Chose the chicken wing as side dish for Deluxe. When the menu stated 2 pieces, it really was just 1 mid-wing and 1 drumlet.

pork belly rice (Premium)

The Pork Belly Rice (扣肉饭) came with quite a few pieces of pork belly (more lean than fats), half an egg, some beancurd strips, half a mini sausage and some pickled vege. The meat came across as too lean and somewhat tougher than expected.

I had the rice vermicelli (mee sua) with intestines and pork balls (大肠肉丸面线).

pig intestines and meat ball mee sua

The mee sua was served piping hot, and the soup tasted quite garlicky. Would've preferred if it was oyster mee sua with intestines. That would be major yum. Anyway, the intestines were firm and no funky taste nor smell.

Service was alright, but it was rather difficult to differentiate some of the cold drinks because the drinking glasses used were colored hence, the colour of the drink was kind of hard to decipher. For example, red milk tea and green milk tea. So the one that brought the drinks to our table had to call her colleague to help decipher which was which.

I guess we were there for the novelty of dining in a shop that has same surname as ours. In reality, the prices are rather steep.

Din Tai Fung @ JEM

Located at Level 2 of JEM, this eatery was always busily churning out steamers after steamers of xiao long bao or chinese pork dumplings.

full house

chefs at work

Visited on a Saturday for late lunch around 2.30pm and still needed to queue for another 15 minutes. For those rare first timers to this eatery, do take the queue number from the counter staff before waiting.

beancurd appetiser

Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing

The beancurd appetiser was nicely sweet and has good texture. Ordered a bowl of ramen soup with vegetable wanton to share, and we could portion out 5 tiny bowls with one wanton each.

vegetable wanton ramen soup

single portion

The ramen soup was rather bland and the tangy appetisers were partly to be blamed as well. Didn't like the vegetable wanton either.

stir fried spinach

pork chop fried rice

well fried pork chop

egg fried rice

Somehow, the fried rice here doesn't seem as tasty as other branches that I've tried. It's pretty toned down. But my sister likes the pork chop very much.

The star at Din Tai Fung, is still its xiao long bao (小笼包).

regular pork dumplings!

vinegar and ginger

Also tried specialty dumpling; Chili Crab Xiao Long Bao (4 pieces @$6.80++).

chili crab dumplings with one regular pork dumpling in the middle for size comparison

chili crab dumpling

The chili crab dumplings are touted as 40% larger than regular ones and it was flavourful, with its sweet and not quite spicy chili crab broth.

The restaurant was rather busy and hence, getting tea refills requires some patience.

The meal costs about $83 and fed a family of five adults.

Bugis+ Food Trail 2013: Taipei Station

Located at Level 4 of Bugis+, this bright red and white outlet sure looked chirpy in the morning.

Taipei Station counter

Drinks have customisable sweetness level, so I had my usual 30% sugar and less pearl for my drink.

Jasmine Green Tea with Pearl (@$2.50)

Got to sample some of their Star items.

food from top, left to right: sweet potato fries, crispy fried vegetables, original crispy chicken, cheese crispy chicken, oyster vermicelli and braised pork rice

Mains can be ordered ala-carte or as a set. The set means choice of 1 main + 1 side dish +1 drink. Sets are priced between $7.90 - $8.60. Prices of mains are between $4.20 to $4.90.

Original Crispy Chicken (@$4.20)

Cheese Crispy Chicken (@$4.50)

The sweet potato fries were really sweet, no kidding! Didn't know deep fried french beans could taste so good. If you need lots of carbs, then probably may want to try the braised pork rice as it was not too salty and the meat wasn't too fatty. Just simple comfort food.

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Taipei Station

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Website: www.taipeistation.com.sg

Lai Lai Casual Dining @ Jurong Point

Located at B1 of the shopping centre, this is the area where everyone who goes up by the nearby escalator can peep down at you while you eat. The shop has two sections; the 'outer' section where the sun shines on your table in the afternoons or the 'inner' section where it is more enclosed but sometimes there are flies flying around.

interior

paper napkin with cute logo

Not wanting the sun, my bro and I chose the inner section. They have lunch sets of between $12.50++ to above $13++. The set comes with a pre-selected main dish (either rice or noodles), a side dish (choose from a limited selection) and a drink (milk bubble tea). My brother chose the braised pork rice (卤肉饭) set with red milk tea, and a side dish of braised pork knuckles (boneless). I had an ala-carte order of taiwanese rice vermicelli with pig intestines (面线with猪大肠).

our orders

braised pork rice served with braised egg, peanuts and and preserved vege

My brother seemed to enjoy his rice. He's the one that has been to Taiwan, so he said it was pretty authentic.

rice vermicelli with intestines

The mian xian (rice vermicelli) served here, was just alright. Not outstanding. The vinegar wasn't as tasty as another shop that I always patron at Lot 1 CCK. Thankfully, the intestines was as tender as it ought to be.

The star dish of the day? The braised boneless pork knuckles!

not much of a looker, but taste yummy~

Thin slivers of melt in your mouth fats and meat. It literally dissolves on your tongue. Ok, it was pretty oily and a little too salty as well. Hahaa!

red milk bubble tea

The bubble tea tasted pretty nostalgic. This was the taste that accompanied us during our university days and then some. By us... I really meant the oldies. Nowadays, I don't really care much about 'powdered' bubble milk tea. Give me the more natural tea taste with foamy slight saltish milk foam on top. Yums.

There was a 10% discount on ala-carte items if paying via DBS/POSB credit card. All in all, we paid $21 (incl. of taxes and after discount) for two pax.

Asian Kitchen Lu Gang Xiao Zhen (鹿港小鎮) @ ION Orchard

Located at B3 of ION Orchard. Small and compact place but still managed to walk-in without reservations despite the other restaurants at B2 needing to queue for at least half hour.

menu

Was in a group of four, so we ordered some dishes to go along with steamed rice. Ordered a medium portion of 'guitar' duck (original flavour). What's a 'guitar' duck? Apparently, it meant 'pipa' (琵琶). Anyway, it's roasted duck. Other dishes that we called were the four season beans with salted egg, deep fried beancurd with some vegetables, a'reunion' omelette and sweet and sour pork. All the rest of the dishes (except the duck) came in small portion.

This place serves ice water. To order, just write it down on the order chit, and pass it to the service staff. Someone will then come over and recite the order once again for confirmation.

chili condiments (not very spicy)

guitar duck (medium)

tender meat

The duck was nicely tender and not gamey. The medium portion is good for four pax.

french beans with salted egg

tiny chili padi's lurking, so be careful

tofu with some vege

looks healthy

sweet and sour pork

closer view

reunion omelette

got prawns and taiwanese sausages underneath

The dishes were enjoyable. The 'reunion' omelette were really thin and it had fresh prawns (just slightly cooked) hidden inside. Seasoning was agreeable to our tastebuds, and somehow the portion worked for the four of us (three ladies and one guy). But then, our guy friend needed an extra bowl of rice.

It's fuss free dinner (without having to queue too long for seats), pleasant tasting food and quick service.

Paid about $76 for all the above (inclusive taxes and drinks: 2 evians, and iced milk tea and soya bean).