Ga Ya Geum

I do not understand why all the shopping centres in Bukit Timah look so run-down when it's supposedly a rich man area. Nevertheless, it's the little gems contained within the shopping centre that matter more! We decided to have lunch at Ga Ya Geum, which apparently refers to a Korean traditional zither. 

The lunch set is pretty worth it. $9.90 for a platter of appetisers and a main. 

The appetisers were nothing to shout about. I had never seen macaroni being part of a Korean appetiser before and I felt that the mayonnaise was a little too overpowering. My favourite anchovies were sadly missing from the platter. 

I got the Grilled Chicken Set ($9.90). I  prefer the one at Kim Dae Mun because of the sweeter sauce. Nonetheless, it was quite a generous portion of tender chicken with a bed of beansprouts and cabbage beneath it. 

My friend had the Sundubu JJigae Set ($9.90) and review of this dish and photo is kindly provided by her!
"The 순두부 찌개 (sundubu jjigae) had a generous amount of soft tofu in it and a little seafood (shrimp and mussel to be specific). The spice level was just right and the soup was very flavourful and refreshing. Loved it! The banchan was very limited and not impressive - kimchi, macaroni salad, pancake and beansprouts. Was most disappointed with the beansprouts because they use mungbean sprouts instead of the soybean sprouts that are normally used in Korea, plus it wasn't very well marinated either. But the table across us that don't order the set meal got the full set of banchan, guessing that that was probably better."

This was the Sunsal Chicken (Small) ($18) with spicy soy. Although we couldn't really taste the spiciness, the chicken had a very crispy exterior with an addictive sweet sauce over it. To describe how good it was, you had to see the reaction of my two small-sized friends chomping on the deep fried chicken like it was the yummiest thing on earth. I have never seen them finish their food so quickly once upon a time when we ate crappy food in the university canteen. 

I suppose the lady serving the food was the lady boss. A motherly figure, she didn't understand much English. But she was still friendly and very helpful. One friend asked her if she had chilli sauce and she took some time to figure out what my friend was talking about. Another friend said, "Gochujang!" The lady boss's face lit up instantly and gave two thumbs up to my friend.

Food wise, I think it was pretty ordinary although the Sunsal was quite good. Worth a visit if you are looking for somewhere affordable, chill and has good service.

Ga Ya Geum 
Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
#B2-14
Tel No: 64638011

Read More

Yong Huat

If I had eaten all that lard, I would have enough oil in my stomach to fry another plate of char kway teow.

Located opposite 112 Katong is this coffee shop aptly named Ali Baba Eating House- where your dreams of lard come true. Unlike many people, I don't eat lard. Not because I'm afraid of it clogging my arteries but because I don't really get a kick out of eating it.

I ordered Hokkien Mee ($4). The good thing about the dish is that for lard lovers, you will love love love this because the lard comes in crazy amounts. They are not stingy with their prawns, pork belly and sotongs at all and the chilli was tangy and just a little spicy. I also liked the flavour of the stock. I'm a huge supporter of Nam Sing but recently their food portion seems to be getting smaller.

The one thing that I don't like about the way this is cooked is that the garlic is chopped too coarsely. Chunky garlic bits are a big no-no for me.

I don't usually eat Char Kway Teow ($4) but since they are famous for it, I decided to try it. The sauce was sweet and had a strong wok hei taste. I don't eat enough CKT for me to determine whether this is better than a normal plate of CKT. Suffice to say, this was a decent plate of CKT.

The price is very reasonable for this amount of food. Lots of bonus points to the uncle and aunty manning the stall. They are super friendly. The aunty told me to get a seat while she cooked because she said it was hot to stand there waiting, and even told me not to sit by the roadside because it was very hot. Caring Hawkers of the Year 2012 goes to them!

Yong Huat 
125/127 East Coast Road
Tel No: 9630 1370 

Read More

Strangers' Reunion Cafe

As someone who doesn't drink coffee or have brunch often, it must be pretty strange that I ended up at Strangers' Reunion Cafe on a weekend morning.

I completely do not know how to appreciate coffee so it comes as no surprise that I didn't know that the person who handles the coffee here is a two-time national barista champion. It probably doesn't make a difference to me though since all coffee tastes the same to me. Yes coffee lovers, feel free to roll your eyes. 

Sometimes, when nostalgia kicks in, all you can think of are the sights and smells that once surrounded you. The smell of coffee, the smell of food being prepared, the selection of music- everything just reminded me of Panera Bread, a place I used to visit whenever I was too lazy to cook.

We settled for a cosy little corner. There are paintings on the walls and I suppose they are for sale since prices are indicated.

I didn't try the Hot Chocolate ($5.50) and the Buttermilk Waffles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Fresh Fruits ($8.50) but they surely looked pretty. The people who drank/ate them said that they were yummy although the one who drank the hot chocolate commented that the one at Starbucks was better.

I know most people just have their famous Magic coffee/waffle/cakes, but I decided to have the Scrambled Eggs with Sauteed Shrooms ($15). Scrambled eggs were cooked just right and the mushrooms were nicely seasoned- they were a little dry though. Other than that, I liked how everything came nicely together. Some places have issues with English muffins where it can end up a little tough but there was no such problem here.

I heard it can be really crowded on weekends but when we went on a Saturday morning, it was pretty empty till we left. Most servers weren't friendly, with the exception of one guy who was very pleasant. It's a nice place to hang out and enjoy the music and the food. Bad reception within the cafe, which is a good thing so that you can't check your phone! I also love the little pots of flowers on each table!

Strangers' Reunion Cafe 

37 Kampong Bahru Road 

Tel No: 6222 4869 

Read More

Straits Kitchen

"You need peanut sauce to go with satay, you know?" 

"There are different varieties of laksa. Penang laksa wins." 

Straits Kitchen is the perfect place for a Singaporean food crash course, in the comfort of an air-conditioned environment . Over the course of 1+ hour and some accidental eavesdropping while walking around to get my food, there was a lot of food tutoring going on by Singaporeans to foreigners. 

Straits Kitchen is pretty much like a high class hawker centre. Here are certain interesting aspects of this place. Firstly, the food is halal. Secondly, I like how they have different kinds of plates for different kinds of food, instead of your old, boring white plate. Thirdly, they have big trays for you to put your little plates in them- so considerate! Fourthly, every station is manned (i.e. your food is more likely than not cooked on the spot).

I zoomed in right to the Indian food. I pretty much love Indian food and took some tandoori chicken, nann and roti prata. The tandoori chicken was delicious- Charred, bursting with flavour and very juicy too! The roti prata was not greasy yet not cardboard-dry.

The skin of the popiah was nice and thin, but the vegetables unfortunately lacked flavour and was quite bland.  

I didn't try any of the Malay food because nothing particularly appealed to me. I have to say the smell of the belacan was heavenly when I walked past it! 

The Chinese wok selection comprised of some deep fried food items, fried rice, fried noodles and some egg with tofu thingy. Besides these wok selection, there's also a noodle selection where you can have prawn mee soup, laksa, chicken noodle soup etc. I tried the Hainanese style steamed chicken. They basically cut a small portion of chicken for you and drizzle soya sauce over it, just like what they do at the chicken rice stalls. The chicken was very smooth. 

I tried the salt and pepper prawn which i ate with the shell because it's healthy this way with all the calcium intact. Okay, that's not the main reason, I admit. It was because I was just plain lazy to remove the shell. The prawn was a little over deep fried. 

Although the satay is done on the spot, it didn't take very long for the satay to be ready. The satay is not overcharred and is very sweet. 

A galore of nonya kueh. See that empty plate in the middle? It's supposed to be kueh dadar which is done on the spot. It's one of the best kueh dadar I have ever eaten, incredibly smooth skin with lots of juicy shredded coconut within. I tried the thing next to the kueh dadar and it was quite bad- too dry. It contains corn.

My test of good ondeh ondeh depends on the skin and whether it instantly bursts in your mouth. It burst pretty much instantly but the skin was too thick. The cake next to it was a very popular item although I felt that it was far too sweet.

Besides these, there was also a station where there is warm dessert. However, the station looked strangely deserted and I didn't get to try the famous goreng pisang. They had some deep fried items on display but nobody was manning the station and it seemed like the food was left there for quite some time. At the same station, there is also ice kacang and chendol.

The ice cream quality is very good. The flavours are very Singaporean and includes coconut, durian and sweet corn ice cream. For sherbet flavours, they have mango and soursop. I tried the mango sherbet and it was sour and shiok.

You get free flow of juices as well. There's mango, sour plum, barley, rose flavour drinks.

Buffet lunch is $44++. Food quality's pretty good but I find it a little too expensive, considering that there are not many expensive food items but food that you can easily get in a hawker centre or decent nonya kueh stall. I wish they could put little tags in front of the food itself, instead of putting it as part of the menu at the side. This is a perfect place for those who are looking for halal buffets or want to bring their foreign friends to experience a slice of Singapore in a comfortable environment.

Straits Kitchen 
Grand Hyatt Singapore
10 Scotts Road
Tel No: 6 732 1234 

Read More

life on pause

my blogging activities had taken a back seat recently because of some important stuff going on. will be back this coming friday (hopefully)! :) 

Read More

Long Phung

Joo Chiat has a reputation for so many things- its architecture, its rich history, the unbelievable amount of good food that lines its streets and also increasingly, for its reputation as a red-light district. Located admist the karaoke bars, Hotel 81s and Fragrance Hotels is this place called Long Phung. The eatery was filled at 1 p.m. and there were always queues forming outside. 

Goi Cuon (Prawn Roll) ($6) never really appealed to me. Not sure if it's because of the paper skin or that it tastes a little bland. But that said, the prawns were fresh.

The deep fried Cha Gio (Vietnamese Spring Roll) ($6) was so much better- well, everything deep fried is better right? The ingredients also differ from the Prawn Roll. It consists of some ground meat and some shredded vegetables like carrots.

This was a massive plate of Goi Vit (Minced Duck Salad) ($10). It's as though beansprouts are free, and so is the duck! The duck was chewy and was was appetising when drizzled with the sweet and sour accompanying sauce.

The deep fried chicken was boneless (at least the one I ate). What did I say about deep fried food tasting good? It's pretty ordinary though!

The Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup) ($5.50) was delicious! Light and sweet soup with heaps of chicken! I'm not sure if it's just got to do with their cooking culture but it seems that pho is always laden with lots of ingredients. How is it that everytime towards the end of a meal all I'm left with is some meepok without any more ingredients, but for the pho, after i'm done with the noodles there are still so many chicken chunks swimming in the bowl? Mysteries of life.

An eatery selling very affordable and pretty good food. It was quite difficult to communicate with the waitresses/waiters there though. We tried to get a cup of water twice but gave up after we realised they couldn't really understand what we were asking for.

Long Phung 
159 Joo Chiat Road
Tel: 6344 2005 

Read More

Yayoiken (Liang Court)

It's rare that you see something on hungrygowhere which has a rating of 100%. So we decided to troop down to Yayoiken to see if the food is indeed that good. On a side note, we combed the shelves of Meidi-Ya after lunch and saw grapes priced at $70 and rock melons priced at $90. Grown with gold fertiliser? 

There were no queues at all when we went at 1 p.m. on a weekend although it was comfortably packed.

I got the Mix Toji Set ($13.90) where you can change the sliced beef to sliced pork. This dish consists of sliced pork, fried prawn and pork katsu topped with egg. I probably can't fault them for this, but the pork katsu and the prawns were far too soggy for my liking. While I was okay with the texture of the sliced pork, some found it overcooked resulting in it being tough. I do like the eggy goodness of this dish together with the sauce over it though. Pretty generous portion of pork katsu for this price.

Service was decent and the food came pretty quickly. Pity, the food doesn't live up to its 100% rating!

Yayoiken 
177 River Valley Road
Liang Court Shopping Centre
#B1-50

Read More

Trail #5: Little India

Introduction

It's said that the only place in Singapore where you can get a birthday cake at 3 a.m. is at Mustafa. Wanting to see if it's true (not at 3 a.m. though), I embarked on a trail at Little India. 

Little India Trail

I did a Little India trail and here, I've marked the places on Google Map. If you are interested in retracing my footsteps, all you need to do is to print out the map and to follow it accordingly. Why I did this was because sometimes when I was travelling, I was often bothered by which sequence I should take in order to maximise my sightseeing.

View Larger Map

A. Rochor Centre 

Ordinarily, this shouldn't be part of the trail. However, I slotted this in because in the near future, this will be part of our history. It was built and completed in 1977 but will be demolished to make way for the construction for an expressway. Nowhere else in Singapore will you be able to see such happy coloured buildings! 

B. Abdul Gaffor Mosque
This mosque caters to mainly the Indian Muslims in Singapore. It is built in a fusion of Southern Indian and Moorish styles. Please note that only worshippers can enter the prayer hall.

C. Campbell Lane 
Named after a British military officer, Campbell Lane is a visual feast of colours. It sells vegetables, accessories, prayer items etc. During Deepavali, this road is closed to traffic.

D. Little India Arcade
A conserved building, it supposedly houses "all things Indian" under one roof. We entered the small hidden lanes and found some shops selling clothes and random knick knacks. There's also a variety of Indian snacks sold.

E. Tekka Centre 
Tekka means bamboo clumps in Hokkien, which once grew on the banks of Rochor Canal. It's hard to imagine seeing bamboo around in Singapore, but I guess they definitely have some now, now that the pandas are in Singapore. The first floor is a hawker centre. The second floor sells clothes at a very good price! I once bought a sari for racial harmony day somewhere else and now I realised I should have come here for a better deal!

F. Residence of Tan Teng Niah

The vibrancy and shout-out of colours persists throughout the trail. This is one of the last surviving Chinese Villas in Little India. It was built in 1900 by Tan Teng Niah, a prominent Chinese businessman. 

G. Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple

This temple is dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Kali. Other Kali temples include the famous Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown. One interesting anecdote about this temple was that during World War II when there were air raids, many took refuge in this temple and both the temple and the people within escaped the bombings. 

H. Mustafa Centre 
You have to really see it for yourself to believe what Mustafa Centre actually sells. I think it was either 5 or 6 stories, selling everything from tuxedos to gold to electronics, to food to stationery to party essentials to oil lamps. Many people also come here to get their electronics before taking a flight home. I think the prices might be slightly cheaper here. But guess what, I didn't spot a birthday cake!

One thing that you will remember about Little India is the smell of spices and the attack of colours. A vibrant place to be, you can get a few souvenirs back from here, whether from the roadsides or from Mustafa. There are also many gold and pawn shops, probably as a result of the influence of early Indian settlers in Singapore, who were either moneylenders or goldsmiths. 

Read More

Xiao La Jiao (Part II)

Something has to be done about the air-conditioning in 112 Katong. The other place I know that can rival the bitter winter winds of 112 Katong is Vivo City. It took some hot and spicy food from Xiao La Jiao to warm ourselves! (Click here for the first entry I wrote about Xiao La Jiao.) 

I like it when websites of restaurants are transparent, where they reflect both the menu and the prices. Here's the menu! 

We decided to get some noodles to share. The Pork Noodle Soup ($8) was pretty ordinary but good if you are just seeking something warm. 

The Dan Dan Noodles ($8) was also nothing exceptional.

The GeLeShan Style Chicken ($10.90) is deep fried chicken with spice seasoning. Eat it when it's still piping hot so that it is crispy. After a while, it becomes kind of hard after cooling off. But I like the spice seasoning and how the seasoning is salty at an acceptable level.

Sichuan Style Boiled Fish ($17.90) was something I had to order ever since I went to a restaurant in Boston that sold this. Soaked in chilli oil, this is a mean dish. Don't order this if you have a low tolerance for chilli. The fish slices were fresh.

The thinly-sliced Sichuan Pork Belly ($10.90) was very flavourful and had a wok taste to it.

The Claypot Eggplant ($9.80) was ordinary.

The Stir-fried French Beans ($8.50) had a very good bite to it, crunchy and juicy.

I don't really like baos so it doesn't come as a surprise that  I didn't really like the Sichuan Bun (4 pieces for $4.50, pro rated). They are pan fried buns with a layer of sesame below it with pork fillings. It comes with ginger shreds, as though it's xiaolongbao. The meat filling is juicy.

Besides the above, we also ordered Mapo Tofu ($9.80) which is really nothing to shout about. I don't eat frogs but the rest at the table said that the Griddle-cooked Tian Ji (Frog) ($16.90) was good. We also shared a plate of Stir-Fried rice with egg and crispy fish ($7.90). The fried rice was fragrant and the crispy fish added another dimension to the dish.

Here, when we asked for rice, they gave us Sweet Corn Steamed Rice ($1 per bowl). Didn't like it very much because the corn made the rice stick together. As dessert, we had Mixed Sugar Guokui ($5.90) which is a  traditional Chuan style sweet bread baked with brown sugar. It tastes like green bean paste buns.

Service by a particular waitress was exceptional. She was very friendly and even offered her jacket as we told her that it was very cold in the restaurant. While there are some hits and misses, the prices here are wallet friendly, and the quality of food is decent. Just make sure that if you can't take spice, check out beforehand which are the spicy dishes and which are not.

Xiao La Jiao 
112 Katong
112 East Coast Road
#03-05
Tel No: +65 6636 3736

Read More