Friday, October 10, 2014

West Co'z Cafe @ Yew Tee Point

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Located at Level 1 of Yew Tee Point @ Choa Chu Kang North 6. Yew Tee Point is very near the Yew Tee MRT. Where's Yew Tee? All the way towards the north-west area of Singapore, next to Choa Chu Kang. This place serves halal zhichar (煮炒).

menu
interior

Service was patchy, but earnest. Patience is welcomed.

Signature dish? Ok, let's try one

Ordered some mains to share. Food arrived fairly quickly.

Curry Fish Head @$20+
had to dig quite a bit to find the fish
stir fried kangkong @$9+
bittergourd omelette @$8+

Ordered all small portions for the dishes.

saucy dinner

The curry fish head sauce was thick, tasty, lemak and quite spicy. However, the fish was abit of a letdown as its flesh not as firm as anticipated.

The best dish, was actually the stir-fried kangkong. Thumbs up for this plate of well-fried vegetable.

Drinks prices varies between $1.50+ to $2.50+, and a plate of white rice goes for a dollar each.

Total cost was $60 inclusive of drinks, and enough food to feed 4 to 5 pax.






Sunday, October 5, 2014

Tim Ho Wan 添好运 @ Westgate

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Located at Level 1 of Westgate, Jurong East. This outlet was opened last December 2013. It's been 10 months since, and here's an account of a first-time visitor. Neither have I been to Tim Ho Wan's original outlet in Hong Kong where its Michelin star shines.

Visited on a weekend, during tea-break time, close to 4pm. Shop was bustling but there was no queue. Got our table within 5 minutes.

Paper menu on table, take your pick and write it down on the order-chit. Pass it to the service staff and food shall be served within minutes. Fast and efficient. For a family of 5 (adults), we had 13 items and 2 bowls of congee to share. That was like 3 plates per pax. Wow. Haha, guess we wanted to try it all! (almost)

食点心
write your orders here
3 dishes that's under Chef's Recommendation

Started with a bowl of congee, of chopped bits of lean pork, century and salted egg.

light tasting bowl of congee (@$4.20)

For contrast in texture, have the congee with a plate of Chef's recommeded crispy fish skin with garlic.

crispy fish skin with garlic (@$6.80)

The crunch from the fish skin was quite shiok. Sis ordered the glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf.
 
lotus leaf glutinous chicken rice (@$5)
chicken thigh meat, lean pork, chinese sausage and mushroom

Flavours for the glutinous rice was good, but too much rice compare to filings ratio.


pan-fried carrot cake (@$4.50)
vermicelli roll stuffed with pig's liver
pork dumpling with shrimp (@$5)


The cheong fun with pig liver was different from expectation. Thought the liver would be mushy but it was slightly sprightly and chewy. Think I'd stick with shrimps and char siew version of the cheong fun for now. Carrot cake was nice and fragrant but lacked the chinese sausage and dried shrimps kind of oomph.

spring roll with egg white 赛螃蟹春卷 (@$4.20)
beef balls (陈皮牛肉球) with beancurd skin (@$4.20)


Spring rolls were well-fried but couldn't really discern the ingredients inside the rolls. Beef balls were tender but a tad soft. Thankfully, the taste of dried tangerine peel is not too strong. Subtle yet distinct enough. Quite enjoyable. Not too sure about the role of the beancurd skin here though. There wasn't any sauce for it to soak also.

chinese tea @$1.50 per head (refillable)


Beancurd skin rolls is also something that I'd order when having dim sum. The version here at Tim Ho Wan was three nicely padded rolls and lots of sauce.

beancurd skin roll with pork and shrimp (@$4)
well steamed, adequate ingredients

Coming up, plates to munch that doesn't fill you up. The chicken claws and pork ribs.

chicken feet (@$5)
pork ribs (@$4.20)
One word to describe the pork ribs: 滑 (smooth).  Seriously, smooth. But has small bones, so eat cautiously. The chicken feet is not fall off the bones tender, yet can be easily 'tackled' (解决). The sauce for both were pretty light. Mild flavours, more on texture.

The last are reserved for the last two heavenly kings; 四大天王之二.

steamed egg cake (@$5)
baked bun with bbq pork (@$4.50)
sweet bbq pork

Felt that the baked bbq pork bun was more value for money (in comparison to the rest of the dim sums here). Baked till crisp outer layer that's non-greasy, with strongly flavoured moist sweet bbq pork fillings. The 马来糕, or steamed egg cake was a tad sweeter than expected and was rather enjoyable. Less fluffy than expected, more moist and can taste the brown sugar. Think it'll pair quite well with a cup of coffee.

Service staff was efficient, and worked swiftly to clear off plates that are empty. Liked that there are conscientious staff, whom would finish topping up the tea before attending to the needs of other customers. Generally quite friendly too.

Felt that the flavours at Tim Ho Wan Westgate, tend to be on the lighter side of things and its prices are best suited for dining in a group or at least with a partner.


Expect to spend between $10 to $20 per pax when dining here.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Curry Times @ Novena Square (Velocity)

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Located at Level 2 of Novena Square. Perpetually packed during lunch time. Ambiance, noisy.

curry chicken set @$8.90++
set lunch comes with a drink (coffee/tea/cold drink)

Curry was thick and came with 3 chunks of chicken thigh meat, plus two large pieces of potato. Not too spicy.

a serving of retro

The accompanying vege of the day was skinny long beans, fried with fragrant sambal that tasted a bit like hae bee hiam.

Colleague's fried laksa (ala-carte) tasted nice and modern.

fried laksa @$7.90++

Friday, October 3, 2014

Lao Beijing 老北京食堂 @ Velocity Novena Square

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Located at Level 2 of Velocity, Novena Square. Was there for lunch and the place was bustling. Even so, service was efficient and we were quickly brought to the table.

menu

Ordered quickly and noodles were the first to arrive. For lunch, we opted for under $10 dishes.

stewed pork ribs noodles
老北京炸酱面 (zha jiang noodles)

Tried abit of the noodles, and the sauce on the pork ribs was not too heavy plus the meat cooked till soft. Liked the presentation, that the noodle soup was served separately from the ribs. Gives you the feeling of more bang for your buck. Ample vegetables, so that was good too!

By now, it has led me to believe that there are many variations of 北京's 炸酱面. This one in particular, looked and tasted more of 干捞面, dry noodles. Nevertheless, it was tasty.

spicy wantons@$8++
pan-fried onion pancakes 葱油饼
@$8++
mid-section view

The wantons dumplings were plump and chockful of chopped prawns and mushrooms. Nice and actually, not quite spicy. The spring onion pancakes had juicy minced pork filling that's enhanced by plenty of fragrant spring onions. However, the skin of the pancake was quite doughy.

The meal costs about $12 per pax.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

You & Mee Noodle Place @ United Square

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Located at B1 of United Square Shopping Mall. Place is smallish, and service was forgetful. The staff literally forgotten about our drinks, and the free crackers. Yes, one could get a pack of crackers (worth 80cents) when the bill exceeds $15.

cashier / drinks counter
80cents crackers
The number shall be flashed near the kitchen's service window, and it's self-service to get the noodles.

mee kikil @$5.50

Ordered a beef tendon noodles, which has some beef balls in it. The soup was clear as compared to the mee kangkung which looked darker and perhaps, more flavourful.

dark sweet sauce, vinegar and various chilies
Beware that both the red and green chilies on the table, are quite strong. The tummy felt hot after just a couple of dabs of those chili paste.

beef tendon

The tendons would probably be better if it was softer. The kicap goes well with the noodles.
 
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