Friday, August 8, 2014

Liang Court Signature Food Trail: Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant

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Liang Court has just concluded its food trail, in conjunction with the Tanabata Festival celebration. The Liang Court Signature Food Trail coupon was priced at $40, and one can use it to enjoy one fixed set-meal from a specific restaurant as per stated on the coupon. For the next 2 set meals, diners are free to choose from any of the participating restaurants. Plus, one of the coupon can be used to redeem a free drink from Thirsty Beer, and the other a quick bite from selected shops.


So, took the opportunity to try Nirai Kanai at B1 of Liang Court. Restaurant was quite busy on a weekday evening.

tables outside of the restaurant
Orion draft beer @$8.90++

Had the braised pork belly rice set. It consists of seaweed soup, braised pork, some vege with tamago and tofu.

braised pork belly rice set
closer view

The sauce was noticeably sweet. Pork was tender and the egg was really nice. The green vege tasted like 帝皇苗 or ceylon spinach.

lava egg!

The texture of tofu was pretty dense, so that tasted quite unique. Tofu was sitting on a slightly thicker savoury sweet sauce.

savoury tofu with a pinch of minced ginger


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Chinatown Traditional Kitchen 牛车水传统小厨 @ Mosque Street

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Located at 28 Mosque Street, near Chinatown MRT. Took bus #851 from workplace and alighted opposite of Hong Lim Complex. Walk towards Chinatown MRT and turn left into Mosque Street. From there, #28 is located at the far end of the road.

shop front

This eating place is flanked by a backpackers inn and a pub. During the night, the atmosphere becomes quite lively. Chef's from Ipoh, and the food here is Chinese zhichar (煮炒), or if one wants 'fast food' there's an economical rice too that one could point and choose those ready sides for their plate of rice.



table for 7 pax

Started off with radish soup (白萝卜汤). Light tasting and had plenty of meat. Those wobbly chunks of collageny goodness!

radish soup with pork @$4

Next was one of their signature dish, the KL Hokkien Thick Noodles with imported thick round noodles.

KL Hokkien Thick Noodles 吉隆坡福建面

One of the things I noticed about my friends whom are from Ipoh, is that they have skin that's fair and lovely. The Hokkien noodles here is also not as dark as their KL-cousin. The combination of sliced meat, cabbage, fishcake and prawns with the authentic round noodles plus topped with lard, offers diners a taste of KL without having to travel all the way there. This dish is best eaten hot, and with sambal belacan. The version of the sambal belacan here is different and more tangy.

sambal belacan

Next up, another signature dish - Salted Egg Yolk Chicken. A portion that's good for 2 - 3 pax, costs $8 only.

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken
moist, juicy, salty

Chicken was well fried, and retained that moist juicyness on its insides. Well coated with plenty of the salted egg yolk. Yums.

Claypot Snowfish, $12 onwards

My favourite dish for the night, was the Claypot Snowfish. If you cna order only one dish to go with the white rice, this would be it. Strongly flavoured yet not overly salty, and fish was amply fried till fragrant before cooking in claypot. Huge chunk of fish that's tender and smooth. This is one tasty dish!

snow fish, upclose

Fried Black Soya Sauce Prawns

The prawns' glaze was finger licking good, as it was both sweet and salty. It just takes abit of effort to peel off the shell.

Pork Belly in Fermented Beancurd
closer view of pork belly


The Butter Fried Fish Fillet is another dish that's a must-order, if you like heavier sauce. The curry leaves gave a nice lift to this dish. Best eaten while it is hot.

Butter Fried Fish Fillet

Also had a chance to sample their version of KL Wanton Mee. Nice mixture of sauces, well tossed and noodles was springy to bite.

KL Wanton Mee

Many thanks to HGW for the invite, and Samantha and Richard for your kind hospitality.

Chinatown Traditional Kitchen

Address: 28 Mosque Street, Singapore 059506
Telephone: 62229700
Opening hours: 8am to 11pm Daily (zhichar is available in the afternoon and evening)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChinatownTraditionalKitchen

Monday, August 4, 2014

Gurney Drive Hawker Centre (Pusat Penjaja Anjung Gurney) @ Gurney Drive Penang

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Visited Penang island recently, and stayed at Evergreen Laurel Hotel at Gurney Drive. Did what most tourist would do, which was to explore the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre. It was a 15 minutes walk from the hotel.

evening walk towards Gurney Drive Hawker Centre

Along the way, one would pass by coffeeshops, restaurants, cafes, malls, condominiums and finally, the hawker centre.

seafood restaurant where mostly tourist buses will unload
teochew food
Gurney Plaza shopping mall
Gurney Drive Hawker Centre

One thing that I've learnt while in Penang, was on how to cross busy roads.

lots of choices
what to eat?
kangkung sotong

One local taxi driver divulged that locals won't be flocking to Lorong Selamat, Gurney Drive Hawker Centre, Line Clear etc if they want good food. They would hunt down different stalls that sells tasty individual items. For example, a Malay stall along Jalan Macalister that sells very good stuffed fried fish or, a stall in Air Itam that sells assam laksa etc.

For myself, hawker centres plays the role of conveniently bringing lots of different types of food under one roof. Though, sometimes one need abit of luck (or do some research first) to get tasty good food.

Throwing caution to the wind, I didn't do any research on this one and just went around looking for things to eat.

what's a prawn lam mee?
Decided to try Prawn Lam Mee as I have not heard of this before.

just a small one and add a side of intestine
prawn lam mee

Soup tasted like regular Penang prawn noodle (or here they called it Hokkien mee) but not as robust. Ingredients were few and little. Almost meatless and with a thin slice of egg. Total cost was RM6.50 due to the added intestine (生肠). Would not recommend.

Feeling unsatisfied, walked around the hawker centre and spotted a stall selling apom.

snacks

Observed it a while, and looks quite good so bought some. Regretted not buying more!

sweet apom
small modern mini woks for the crispy ones
pancake making in progress

Two versions of the pancake, crispy or with banana version. Tried the banana pancake and it was good. Sweet, light and has abit of banana slice and some coconut shreds. RM3 for 6 pieces or RM2 for 4. One pax can eat 6 even right after dinner. It's really tiny, probably just 2 bites.

banan apom
with coconut


 
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