Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant (Top of UOB Plaza)

The Si Chuan Dou Hua has got to be one of my fav chinese restaurant for family dining. But so far, I have not been to other outlets besides the one at Top of UOB Plaza.

Don't be mistaken that they only serve dou hua (ie. bean curd). They do serve a wide variety of meat, veg, seafood, rice & noodles and desserts. Of course, dou hua is one of their specialities. On weekends, I do see many others going there for their family dinners as well.

This is a tea master who gets into act for the 'gong-fu' tea. The water that travels from the kettle through the long spout spins the water quickly in the tea cup. Spinning the water and tea leaves together quickly helps to bring out the tea fragrance.


A nice cup of chrysanthumum tea with wolfberries.

Each is given an individual serving of appetiser and chilli sauce. I like both the haebeehiam (prawn paste chilli) and bean paste chilli.

I love this pan-fried cod-fish with sauce. The cod fish is so fresh. There is no 'fishiness' or 'cod-oiliness'. To me, this is a must-try dish. The pan-fried outer-layer is so crispy. But there is a minimum order of 2 slices of cod-fish, which costs $10 each. Cod-fish lovers could easily finish both slices at 1 go... ^^

This is pan-fried toufu with spinach and dried scallop gravy. There are about 4 or 5 pieces of toufu covered by the scallop gravy. Overall, the tou-fu was good. The top layer of the tou-fu was made of mashed spinach. It is quite unique and the tou-fu was smooth and soft.

However, the scallop taste was kinda strong and overpowering for the veg.

This is brocolli with crab meat gravy. There is generous serving of crab meat as shown in the pic. Nothing spectacular but it was within expected standard.

My mom likes the XO Seafood Fried Rice. The colour looks light but it is quite tasty. The prawns (lots of it) are really fresh. Can feel the crunchiness as I chew them.

Our final 2 dishes were desserts - dou hua with wolfberries and dou hua with water chestnut. The dou hua is really very very smooth and silky. The one with wolfberries was slightly sweeter. Both are equally great - I cld not decide which is better.

A fortune cookie to end the dinner.... there is a little note of 'advice' in each cookie.

Though the dinner did burn a little hole in my pocket but it was a very satisfying dinner and it has always been the case there. Thank goodness, there is 15% off for UOB card holders.

Verdict : Many happy returns...

Western Food @ Biopolis Food Court

Went Biopolis for lunch a few days back. The ride was just a few minutes away but we hardly go there. We have been talking about taking the Biopolis bus, which supposedly brings Biopolis people to and fro GM market. Anyway, RK drove there that day.

The food court was not extremely crowded. The environment in Biopolis gave me a campus feeling, just like in NTU.

All 3 of us ordered different dishes from the western food stall. I ordered the fish fillet with fried rice ($4). The price is quite reasonable considering that there is a small portion of salad.

The fish fillet covered with breadcrumbs was quite crispy, the batter thickness was fine, though I think some people may find it too thick. It came with chilli sauce instead of tartar sauce.

The rice was a little bland and I think the gravy did not make it any better.

Verdict : Once is enough.

Fei Fei Wanton Mee 飞飞云吞面

This is one of the more popular places for wanton mee. It is a little confusing here as you will be able to find another Fei Fei Wanton Mee just across the street. Well, what I have heard is that the older version located in Sin Wah Coffeeshop is the original stall. But it is always crowded (again, the crowd explains for itself).

Anyhow, we could not find a seat at the original and so we decided to go for the next best alternative located at:

72 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427789

This coffeeshop is at the juction of Joo Chiat Place and famous (or infamous) Everitt Road.

Supposedly, these are handmade noodles. The serving portion isn't big. The noodle looks bland. BUT, once mixed with the sauce and chilli, it tastes quite decent. The wantons and charsiew are hidden beneath the noodles.

If the noodle portion does not fill your tummy, add on with some yong tau foo. The yong tau foo comes in standard selection... so you can't pick what you like. It is served dry with a sauce on top. They were a little crispy so I think they have been deep-fried. A quick deep-fried. They taste good with the sauce.

And if both wanton mee and yong tau fee are still not sufficient, top it up with Dumpling soup. I think each portion comes with 8 pieces? Main filling include prawn and pork. IMHO, the standard of the dumpling is only so-so.

Since the place is open 24-hour, can consider going there for supper if you have sudden food craving in the middle of the night.

Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

It was New Year's eve and we reckon that most places would be crowded so we decided to head to some "outskirt" place for lunch. Since we were travelling along Upper Serangoon Road, we decided to check out if there is anything interesting to eat there. Found that some shops were closed because it has past lunch hour.

We settled down for lunch at Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

27 Teck Chye Terrace S545729

Tel : 6285 9092 / 9766 5737

Ordered a Tom Yam Chicken Soup. Had moderated the level of spiciness and sourness.

This Garlic fish looks interesting and I was rather suprised that it came with nice presentation... I am not sure what fish it was since it was almost fully covered by the garlic and onion garnishes. The entire fish was deep-fried and every part was very crispy, which also means if you like to taste the tenderness of the fish meat, you will be disappointed.

The hotplate tofu was a little disappointing as it somehow lack 'character'... it only seemed like a plate of rojak with everything tasting alike.

Garlic-fried seasonal veg... it was just normal.

Thai Lemon Juice. Besides the sour taste, there is also a light stint of saltiness. Maybe it is the characteristics of Thai Lemon Juice.

Generally, it was a very normal meal for a normal day on 31 Dec 2007.

Olio @ Holland V

There is a new Olio Cafe, located at Holland V. The place used to be Gelare, the ice cream parlour.

There was a good choice of food but I opted for something not too heavy - Olio Gourmet Pie with Red Curry Chicken ($12.90). I'd had imagined the curry to be the traditional red curry but it turned out to be "fusion" curry. Just imagine that it is something with a stronger spice taste and little coconut milk or perhaps none at all.

I was a little disappointed.... the puff pastry was the saving grace.

Fortunately, we ordered some desserts, which were yummy and nice in presentation. The Olio style brownie ($7.50) came in a chocolate hot plate, just like the gravy in hot plate tofu. The brownie itself has a level of vanilla gelato in the centre.

Another saving grace for this meal was the tiramisu ($6.80). It tasted rather milky, which I like. Am not bothered that it has very coffee taste :P

My conclusion would be to always choose something that is recommended by the chef, at least at Olio Cafe.

Singapore Curry

Believe it or not. Whipping a dish of Singapore Curry is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Thanks to Prima Taste which comes with ready packed curry paste and necessary mix. Do note that the portion in the recipe serves 4 to 6 pax.

Here it is. No secret at all.

Prepare about 3 potatoes.

Prepare some chicken. Was told by a friend that if you use bone parts, it will add to the flavour.

Follow the cooking instruction on the Prima mix and ...

TADA! A pot of Singapore Curry!

Pasta @ Pepper Lunch

Pepper Lunch is sizzling with new item on their menu. This time round it is pasta. The 2 new pasta dishes are salmon cream pasta and Japanese curry chicken pasta.

I had wanted to try the curry pasta, unfortunately, it was sold out by dinner time. So I ordered the salmon cream pasta.

It is quite refreshing to see this new idea of having pasta on a sizzling hotplate with the cream sauce bubbling when the food arrived. However, I found the salmon a little too salty and the cream a little under-flavoured.

The signature pepper rice was better. Another salmon dish that we've ordered :)

It tasted good with the garlic sauce.

Ice Cream Balls @ Sushi Tei

Have recently discovered this interesting, delicious and value for money ice cream balls from Sushi Tei. 15 pieces for $2.80. Unbelievable, right? It came with 2 flavours - coffee and chocolate. A great snack to do along for afternoon tea.

Set Lunch @ Secret Recipe

Went to Secret Recipe recently and found out that they have a new set lunch menu now. The selection includes.... Spicy Turkey Carbonara, Tom Yum Spaghetti, Gourmet Laksa, and 2 other dishes.

For the set lunch, a free drink is included.

I ordered the Spicy Turkey Cabonara. It was spicy because of the chilli padi slices. I had accidently eat a slice which was hidden into the pasta! Hoohoooooo! The turkey was actually turkey ham. And the dish came with loads of straw mushroom. For a non-mushroom eater, I was lucky that a colleague helped me finished up the mushroom :)

Damage : $10.90

Shanghai Eater (真知味上海小吃)

The Shanghai Eater (真知味上海小吃), located at Jalan Leban, is actually opened by a middle-aged Taiwanese couple. It is a homely, simple food outlet which opens everyday except for 1st day of lunar new year. But need to check their opening hours before heading there as operating hour may vary from their usual hours.

Why Shanghainese food? The lady boss said that, Taiwan is like a cosmopolitan city for Chinese food, due to the influence from migrants from different parts of China.

The shop is small compared to the restaurants found along this stretch of shop house. So look out for this sign board.

Side dishes - beancurd strips in sesame oil and crunchy seaweed. (Note: cost of side dish included in bill. I think is $2 or $3 per dish).

上海炒年糕 (Shanghainese Fried Rice Cakes)

The white slices of chewy rice cakes tastes like Korean Teobokki. It is fried with pork, mushroom and cabbage. The dish was overpowered by its saltiness so remember to ask them not to add too much salt. As such, I find that it lacks its distinctive taste. I always find that China food are too generous with salt used.

馄饨汤 (Dumpling Soup)

Can't remember if there were 6 or 8 pieces. These dumplings are wrapped like a 元宝. The dumplings are not too bad. The seaweed soup tastes quite good. In fact better than the dumplings.

韭菜煎饼 (Pan-fried Chives Cake)
The best dish of all that we ordered. Each plate comes with 3 pieces. The filling is a mixture of chives with vermicelli. Quite special and it does very well with their special sauce dip.

葱油饼 (Pan-fried onion pancake)
This one is also quite good if you like onion pancakes. Besides the green onions, it seems that it is pan-fried using onion oil as the onion fragrance is quite strong.

Total damage : About $30.