[Media Invite] Provisions @ 7 Dempsey Road

This is the new kid in the Dempsey block. Opened in July 2017 by the talented Justin Foo and KC Rahmat. Justin takes care of the kitchen while KC is head bartender, crafting locally inspired bespoke cocktails.

Chef Justin has trained at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Ottawa, and his resume included a 2-year stint with Andre Chiang. He became the Head Chef of Senso Ristorante and Bar by the age of 24. Justin is a classically trained French Cuisine chef and at Provisions, Justin is returning to his Asian roots. KC has 14 years of experience in F&B and being half-Thai, he has an affinity in using herbs and spices in the drinks that he crafts.

Provisions

What's up, board?

let's eat

The concept is much like a Provisions store where one could get a knick knack or a snack. Provisions @ Dempsey offers much more and you could chill and relax at this cosy establishment, with hearty Asian foods such as claypot rice, assortment of skewers and a couple of drinks.

No GST, tips are welcome

hello

Feel free to wander in and you might just find that item that reminds you of childhood days. Or, you might catch a glimpse of Chef Justin in his kitchen.

Chef at work

The bar has something interesting and I spied a contained of house brewed makgeolli. Alas, it was still in its experimental mode and yet to be ready. There were also a couple of infused liqueur and perhaps, it could be the base for some of the cocktails? In any case, the bar seemed like a happy place!

smiley crew at the bar

Started off with some cool drinks. From its cocktail curated menu, we had the crowd favourite of Bantai Bandung (pretty in pink), the Passionately Dark and Stormy and the Heard It Through the Grapevine. The Bandung is of aged rum based, similar to Dark and Stormy while mine was the gin-based Grapevine.

(left to right) Heard It Through the Grapevine ($15), Bantai Bandung ($14), Dark & Stormy ($17)

The bandung started on a sweet note and finishes off with that expected liqueur taste. I loved the combination of gin, grapes, rosemary, lemon juice and tonic in the Grapevine drink. Refreshing and suitable on a hot and humid night.

For a salad-like starter, we tried the Scallops & Scallion. Large, sweet pieces of raw scallops tossed in the expected chili, soy, scallion and calamansi. Was there some calamansi peel in there? It carried a hint of bitterness.

Scallops & Scallions @$12

KFC @$10

Order up the KFC, and you might be thinking of Korean Fried Chicken? Nah, this version meant Korean Fried Cauliflower. Definitely finger-licking good and reminiscent of fried chicken but it is still vegetable, after all. Shiok and fills you up, fast. Oh, while it is best eaten hot, do watch out and try not to burn your tongue while enjoying this tasty appetizer.

yep, that's a cauliflower in my KFC

If I'm at a drinking place, and feeling just slightly peckish, most likely I'd go for the skewers. Easy to eat and one could enjoy a variety. The standard order of chicken thigh and chicken heart, please. At Provisions, there's plenty of choices. Purple Taste recommends beef sirloin, sotong, chicken anything and everything, and pork belly.

beef sirloin (@$10), prawn (@$9), Chicken thigh (@$5)

pork belly (@$7), pork jowl (@$7) and chicken heart (@$4)

The best was beef sirloin, which was nicely done with a pink center. Tender meat and seasoned well. The chicken heart tasted of dry rub; chili, cumin and garlic while the pork intestine was of soy-based marinade. Pork belly was a very nice piece of char siew and had a good fats to meat ratio. Yums!

sotong @$8

pork intestines @$5

For something more hearty, there's always the claypot rice. There are a couple of variety and we tried the seafood claypot and the oyster omelette rice. Again, some of us preferred the seafood rice and some the oyster omelette rice. All-in-all, both are quite popular orders at Provisions.

(front) seafood rice @$16 and (back) oyster omelette rice @$18

The rice was tasty and pork meat that was in the seafood rice was really good. Splash a dose of chili sauce onto the rice for a lift of tangy-ness.

If you are in a group of 4 pax, would recommend having at least 2 claypot rice and 4 to 5 skewers to share. Of course, do try the dessert before calling it a night. We had the cempedak and coconut and the pisang sundae.

cempedak & coconut @$8

The grilled cempedak was very sweet and served with gula melaka and crunchy peanut bits. Coconut ice-cream and warm jackfruit makes a good hot & cold duo. The pisang sundae had a small pleasant surprise in-store for us.

Was pretty pleased that sweet ripe banana was used and the vanilla ice-cream ball was huge. Try the batter and tell me what it reminds you of? A very nice touch for this dessert.

pisang sundae @$8

Thank you Jonathan (wom_sgpr) for the invite and Provisions for hosting the tasting.

Chef Justin will be introducing new items in his menu soon, so watch out for it!

Provisions

Location: 7 Dempsey Road, S 249671
Contact: +65 6250 7090
Website: www.unionbridgelifestyle.asia
Business Hours:
Tuesday - Thursday: 4.00pm - 1.00am
Friday & Saturday: 4.00pm - 2.00am
Sunday: 10.30 am - 3.00pm
Closed on Monday

[Media Invite] Cha Thai @ 80 Telok Ayer Street

Exit from Telok Ayer MRT and the place is just across the station entrance. A quick run through of its menu revealed that Cha Thai offers popular Thai dishes. It prides itself in making everything from scratch, including the sauces. One could expect consistent quality at this place. Was also informed that chef uses western cooking techniques for its Thai-origined dishes.

Cha Thai shopfront

Beside its entrance, Cha Thai has a take-away counter where one could order up selected noodles/curry, appetisers, dessert and drinks to go. Dabao'ing boat noodles and milk tea? No problem!

take-away menu

On our day of visit, the place was fairly relaxed on a weekday night before 730pm. The people at this area seemed to like having their dinner slightly later?

interior

Thai Milk Tea @$2.90

For the first visit to any Thai restaurants, my drink order would always end up being Thai Milk Tea. Liked that the version at Cha Thai was not too sweet. However, there was an interesting drink on the menu that caught our eyes. Ordered the Butterfly Blue Pea drink and it turned out to be good. Dining companion likened it to lemongrass drink with colour! It has a dark purplish hue when served. A very refreshing drink on a hot day.

Butterfly Blue Pea @$2.90

If you felt like eating noodles in a Thai restaurant, what would you be ordering? For most of us, that would be pad thai. At Cha Thai, the ubiquitous pad thai is presented with two large prawns. The prawns were firm to bite.

Pad Thai @$22

Or, if you prefer something soupy, the Boat Noodle was pretty satisfying too. Cha Thai's Boat Noodle is served in large bowl and the soup was so flavourful that you'll want to drink it all! The thick looking soup base was cooked with 14 different types of herbs.

Boat Noodle @$18

We were in a fairly large group consisting of 9 pax and thus, ordered up some appetisers and mains to share. Communal dining coming to the fore.

Crispy Prawn Cake @$15

The prawn cakes were really good. Four pieces of bouncy goodness packed with chopped prawns. It was served with plum sauce but most of us had it as it was. So good!

Creamy Crab Roll @$15

Fried crispy springroll sticks served with crab cream sauce. The sauce had a pale bright yellow colour, creamy and sweet. Strips of crab meat can be seen. Lovely but am liking the prawn cakes more.


If you don't fancy the deep fried stuffs, then how about a plate of appetising tangy lemongrass prawn salad? It has all the right flavours that awakened the tastebuds. Didn't get to try the prawns as they flew off the plate pretty fast!

Lemongrass Prawn Salad @$28

Let's have some curry, tom yum and meat for our main courses. For curries, the must-try here is the Prawn Panang Curry. A luscious bowl of thick red curry where one gets sweet, savoury and spicy all at once. The lychee was interesting. Loved this and best eaten with piping hot steam rice.

Signature Tiger Prawn Panang Curry @$28

The spice in Cha Thai's dishes were fragrant and pleasantly mild. Of course, we had to try the tomyum. As the curry and tomyum were served together, we had some trouble differentiating between the two! Have a look at the photos and you'd see what I meant.

Tom Yum Soup (thick) @$28

Of course, the tomyum soup was served with fishballs and the soup was not as thick as the curry. Just can't get enough of the combination of lemongrass, bird eye chilies, herbs, mussels and mushroonms. Similarly to the curry, one only needs a bowl of rice to go along with these goodness.

But we got to have some meat, so let there be some! To be precise, we had two pork dishes and one fish. The grilled pork was of firm texture. Nice and those cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes made this dish somewhat like a salad.

Saute Grilled Pork with Basil Leaves @$22

Mango Salad with Fried Fish @$19

My favourite was the Simmer Pork aka Braised Pork Knuckles (猪蹄). The version here is served with vegetables. But the skin, I could eat all of those soft collageny skin. Yummy!

Simmer Pork @$22

In general, I've enjoyed the taste of all the dishes tried at Cha Thai. Flavours were strong but not too overpowering. Price is more premium but one gets the desired quality.

The heavyweight of our main course would be the Baked Tiger Prawns Claypot Noodles, good for 4-pax. The baked crab version requires pre-order. Go straight for the glass noodles. All the umami'ness are in there.

Baked Tiger Prawns Claypot Noodles @$159

Ended the night with some sweet dessert. Hot or cold, it is your choice. The cold dessert of red ruby with its slightly muted colours were nice on a warm night. The rubies were crunchy with the waterchestnut in it. We were informed that the 'real' colour of the rubies for this dessert should be slightly pale and not those bright coloured ones that we often get.

Red Ruby (front) and Thai Bubur Cha Cha (back)

I was taken by the hot bubur cha cha. The yam was so good! Of course, it helps if its colour is that nice hue of purple. It sure suit my taste! The sweetness was right, the chewiness of the yam and the slightly harder azuki beans made up the components of this delicious treat.

i yam what i yam~

Or, if you are still feeling a tad hungry, how about having a light snack of Cha Thai's Toast? They have the charcoal and normal breads. For the dip, there were two; thai milk tea and pandan. Our camp were divided on this. Some preferred the milk tea, some the pandan. Was quite evenly distributed in fact. For the toast, there was no discernible difference in taste. But black toast coated with the dip made it quite instagrammable.

Cha Thai Toast @$8

Thank you to the good folks of HGW for the invite and Cha Thai for hosting the tasting, especially to Ms Leah Sirijindapan for your hospitality.

Check out Cha Thai's Hungrydeals here.

[Media Invite] Gu Cheng @ 460 Crawford Lane

Located opposite of Jalan Sultan, this place next door neighbour is Tolido Express. Taxi would likely be dropping you at Block 461 Crawford Lane as Block 460 is not so easily located. Gu Cheng serves Penang cuisine and its menu has about 6 mains and 5 sides.

entrance

Do check out Gu Cheng's Hungrydeals (1-for-1 set lunch, and it's a good deal). The food that we tried are assam laksa, prawn noodles and fried carrot cake. Oh my, aren't we taken by that carrot cake. So much so that we had 2 servings!

Penang Prawn Mee ( 梹城虾面) @8.80

bee hoon mee is best combo

The prawn noodles was actually not spicy. Robust with smokey flavours. The sliced pork was nice and thicker than other places. As these are family recipe, it may not taste the same as those you find in Penang itself.

Penang Laksa (梹城亚参叻沙) @$7.80

My favourite noodle dish was the assam laksa. Its flavours, the robust and full-bodied soup and a balanced overall tanginess. Yums! The lady-boss revealed that for this dish, two types of fishes were used. The kembong and sardine. Both typical ingredients for the soup base. When served, a spoonful of sweetened prawn paste (hae gor) is a must.

Penang Laksa (梹城亚参叻沙)

The first impression of the fried carrot cake was of its large chunky pieces. The portion was good for sharing amongst 2 pax as side dish and we spied a few large pieces of prawns. It was topped with hae bee hiam for added taste. What I liked was the piping hot taste and crisp skin. Tasted like this chai tau kway was battered then deep fried. So good.

Gu Cheng Signature Carrot Cake (古城菜头粿) @$8.80

If you're thirsty and wanted something light and healthy, try their signature rose tea drink. For me, I was happy with my sour plum although initially, I was looking for buah long-long drink.

Gu Cheng Signature Rose Tea @$3.00

Another main dish that we tried, was the beef stew. Is this Penang food? Not sure, but it was a rather nice stew. Hearty and tasty. The beef was beefy yet tender. The meat was stewed in Guinness Stout for 12 hours! No wonder. Not to worry, it doesn't have the bitterness of the stout, only the sweetness from the root vegetables and meaty flavours. Thumbs up for this!

Beef Stew (炖牛肉) $8.80

We also tried a number of side-dishes and my favourite would be the lor bak and the prawn paste chicken wings. Worth mentioning is the crispy tofu where the tofu was incorporated with pork and seafood then minced, before deep fried. The achar had lemongrass and had a refreshing taste.

Penang Lor Bak @$3.80 (per piece)

Cuttlefish Kang Kong @$6.80

Penang Otah @$3.80

Crispy Tofu @$5.80 (4 pieces)

Salted Egg Chicken @$7.80

Prawn Paste Chicken @$5.80 (4 midwings)

Actually, the prawn paste chicken is quite pricey with just 4 mid-wings. Now that you have seen the photos, do plan on what to get for that Hungrydeals! Hurry, while promo lasts.

Oh, and there's some kueh if you like to end the meal with something sweet.

kueh kueh

Thank you Hungrygowhere for the invite and Gu Cheng for hosting the tasting. Happy eating!

Gu Cheng

Address: 462 Crawford Lane, Singapore 190462
Business Hours:
Mon to Sat:
11am to 8:30pm

Closed on Sundays

[Media Invite] Koat Aroy Authentic Thai Cuisine @ 1 Irving Road Tai Seng

Located just next to Carol Mel Cafe and within walking distance to Tai Seng MRT. Quaint little shop, with interior styled almost like a Bangkok back-alley-like feels. One could find the usual pad thai, basil rice, tom yum goong etc.

interior

As usual, I'd like to check out the Thai iced-tea when visiting anyThai food eatery. It's like ordering fried rice in a Chinese eatery, to gauge its standard. Not the fairest way, perhaps but a habit. The tea was a bit weak and lacked the strong tea fragrance but will do as a thirst quencher.

Thai iced tea @$2.80 each

The food price is reasonable so order away! We tried quite a variety and by the time dessert came, our stomachs were satisfied. Our table had pad thai, tom yum goong, steamed fish, basil rice, claypot vermicelli with prawns, and prawn cakes.

table full

For a meal like this, let's have some beer. Warm night, cold beer. That's the combi for adults.

take your pick

Of course, we had a Singha. Light and refreshing. Sharing the bottle in small small glass was rather nice. Cheers! Singha was $6.50 per bottle or $30 for a bucket of 5. German beers goes for $11.

ไชโย

The tom yum soup was rather tangy and somewhat spicy. It looked rather fiery but thankfully, manageable level of spiciness. Full-flavoured and yums.

Claypot glass noodles with prawns @$13

stir fried basil with pork @$8

The claypot glass noodles with prawns was nice but lacked the umami-ness of seafood. The stir fried basil with pork was so good. Tasted even better with white rice. And beer. Expects strong flavours.

pad thai @$6

We spied plates of pad thai on most tables. If one is dining in small group or single-pax, pad thai would be a good choice. The version here was nicely al-dente, sweet but not overly so.

For finale, I must insist that you try the mango sticky rice. I know, I know. These are usually dime-a-dozen at Thai eateries but trust me, the version here was good! For just $5. you get an oblong plate of warm sticky rice drizzled generously with coconut milk that's both sweet and salty, and lots of yellow ripe, sweet juicy mango flesh. Must try.

mango sticky rice @$5

Thank you Damien for extending the invite and Koat Aroy for hosting the tasting.

Koat Aroy Authentic Thai Cuisine

Address: 1 Irving Rd, Singapore 369520
Contact: 6386 7475
Business Hours:
11am to 230pm
530pm to 930pm