Soft Shell Crab Tsukemen @ Ajisen

Ajisen has recently launched Tsukemen, a type of Japanese noodle similar to ramen but the noodles are served dry with the ingradients (in this case, with soft shell crab).  There is a separate bowl of soup, which we are supposed to dip the noodles.  The soup is made from seafood/pork broth which appeared to be a little salty and oily.  For those who prefers their soup to be less salty, just add in some white-coloured soup.

The noodles were a little dry but tasted alright after dipping into the soup.  However, the soft shell crab was not as crispy than I'd like it to be.  The crab sticks were fresh and juicy, the most satisfying ones I've ever tried.

The ala carte item costs $12.  Topping up to $15.80 would give you 1 drink and 1 side-dish such as fried tofu or fried chicken or fried prawn etc.  Besides soft shell crab tsukemen, on the menu is also cha shu tsukemen which costs $1 less.

Sandwich Obsession @ Coffee Club

Coffee Club is having a sandwich promotion now.  Selected sandwiches comes with a complimentary smoothie (regular price: $6.90).

I had a Norwegian Catch which comes in layers of warm smoked salmon, sliced eggs and toasted tomato.  It comes with a serving of french fries.  This sandwich-smoothie combo costs $15.90. 

The food finally arrived after a 30-min wait. The Holland Village outlet was terribly short-handed with only 2 service staff.  One of service staff was also the barista.  At one point, the cafe ran short of culteries and cups for take-away drinks.  My colleagues sitting at the cushioned seats were being asked (politely by the service staff) to give way so that they could get cups stored under the seats for our take-away drinks.  Under such stress, it was unevitable that the barista made a mistake for one of my colleagues' drinks, but she had to turn down the offer for a change because we had already exceeded our lunch time....

Korean Grilled Cuttlefish at Chinatown

If you've been to Seoul and tried the street food in Myeong-dong, you'd probably have seen a roadside stall selling buttered cuttlefish.  To my pleasant surprise, there is a stall outside People's Park Complex selling this delicious Korean streetfood.

In case you're not familiar or confused with the building names at Chinatown, People's Park Complex (PPC) is the building next to OG departmental store and accessible from Chinatown MRT exit.  Occassionally, there are some buskers performing outside this MRT station.

The flattened cuttlefish was first cooked in the machine on the left side for about 2 minutes. Thereafter, the cooked cuttlefish was cut using the orange-coloured machine on the right side. For this $5 portion, you get one and a half piece of cuttlefish.

Tada!  Fresh, juicy and chewy cuttlefish that is almost as good as what you can get in Korea! 

Astons Express

Astons Express
Blk 19 Ghim Moh Road
Wang Wei Li Coffeeshop
Tel: 6466 2325

Had craving for western food for lunch a few days ago and decided to check out Astons Express.  A few other people were already in the queue before me and I overheard their orders - mostly for the grilled items.  I thought that perhaps a better way to "cut-queue" would be to order something that isn't grilled so that the chef can prepare my food concurrently.  Sounds good?

Decided to order Crispy Fried Fish as the main coure and for the 2 side orders, I decided to go for hot side dishes - onion rings and french fries.  Sinful, isn't it?  All the deep-fried and unhealthy stuff.  Sigh...

For $6.50, I felt that it was really value-for-money.  The one big slab of fish was longer than the plate.  No complaints for the fish fillet, it was good enough for $6.50.  However, the fries was nothing to shout about.  Though it looked like it was sprinkled with seasoning, it tasted rather bland.  The onion rings were just passable too... BK onion rings probably tasted better.  But anyhow, how much can you expect from this price.  =)

Dian Xiao Er (店小二)

#B2-02 Ang Mo Kio Hub
Tel: (65)6484 2268
Mon - Fri:  11.30am - 4.30 pm, 5.30pm - 10.00pm;
Weekend and Public Holiday 11.30am - 10.00pm

Where do you go if you have craving for steamed chicken with garlic dip?  - The Soup Restaurant?  Where do you go if you have craving for roasted duck in herbs? - Dian Xiao Er has to be among your choice of restaurants.

Check out this Duck Roasted in Ten Wonder Herbs (十全烤鸭).  The crispy roasted skin with its tender meat infused in the 10 herbs sauce.  If you're health concious, you can remove the thin layer of fats beneath the skin.  Otherwise, the duck is quite good.  Apparently, the duck has been marinated in the shop's special 10 herbs before being roasted.  The herbs are supposed to help revitalize one's body.

If you love hotpot tofu with generous amount of egg sizzling in the scorchy hot pan, you gotta check this out.  I am guessing... perhaps 3 or 4 eggs have been used?  The layer of egg is just so thick and delicious.  Of cos, the highlight of this dish is still the tofu, which was smooth and silky.  Garnished with minced pork and spring onion, it was a flavourable dish to go with plain white rice.

For under S$40, you get the above 2 dishes with 2 bowls of rice + chinese tea and tidbits (roasted peanuts).

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant‎

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant
10 Sinaran Drive, #03-33 Square 2
Tel: 6397 6752‎

Known as Little Seoul, Square 2 gives the most complete Korean shopping experience at the 3rd level with 2 Korean restaurants (Hansang and Seoul Yummy), Korean rice cake shop, Korean Supermart, Korean hair salon etc.

Hansang Korean restaurant is the more expensive restaurant between the 2.  Seoul Yummy operates much more casually and the food is cheaper.  Whereas at Hansang, you're served with 10 side-dishes, authentic silver chopsticks and spoon.  You get to choose to seat at the BBQ or non-BBQ section inside the restaurant.

BBQ set meal for 2 persons starts from $65 before taxes and you get the following...

This is a starter dish, individual portions served.  Depending on availability, the cold tofu may sometimes be replaced with a scoop of potato salad.  Portions are dividually equally so if 3 persons are sharing a 2-pax set meal, 1 person may need to forgo the starter.

Next is the pa-jeon dish.  Again, it is 1 set person.  Each set comprises of 1 piece of fish fillet pa-jeon and 1 piece of seafood pa-jeon.  There is also an individual serving of soy sauce for the pa-jeon.  The seafood pa-jeon was much delicious than the fish fillet pa-jeon.

Next dish that was served was the glass noodle dish.  The noodles are fried with carrot strips, green veggie and mushroom; and garnished with egg and seaweed.  This dish was rather flavourful, especially the noodles. Highly recommended if you're ordering ala carte.
 

There was also a small pot of rice, korean rice with a piece of carrot, pumpkin and sweet potato and a red date.  With the added ingredients, the light taste of sweetness came through the rice.

 

I must say that the stew dishes at Hansang is really good. Besides the bean paste soup, kimchi chigae is also highly recommended. The soup stew is thick and you can tell that they have cooked the stew dish for hours. The kimchi flavour has deeply penetrated into the veggie, tofu and noodles.

This is the highlight of the day - BBQ pork.  For the 2-pax set meal, a choice of pork or chicken is available.  For pork BBQ, there are 3 types of pork available and we had opted for collar meat and ribs.

For ala carte BBQ dish, a minimum of 2 portions is required and each portion costs at least $25.  Hence, I figured out that it is more worth-while to opt for the set meal.  For $15 more, we get to try out a selection of other dishes including pa-jeon, chigae and rice noodle. 

For the set meal, coffee/tea and fruits are also served at the end of the meal. But if the above is too much for 2 persons to stomach, it is perfectly find to share the 2-pax set meal among 3 persons.

But great food comes with price, be prepared to pay at least $76.50 for a meal for 2 if you're going for the dinner set meal.

Related Posts:
Bq Korea (click)
Hyang To Gol at Amara Hotel (click)
Odaeyang (click)

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Just Buns

If you happen to be at 313@Somerset and looking for something to snack, do consider these soft cinnamon buns from Just Buns (located at B3-49), next to Prima Deli stall.  The ones you see below are Cheese & Almond bun and Oreo bun.

The buns ($1.50 each) are freshly baked and are really soft and fragrant.  Fret not the strong cinnamon smell, the cinnamon taste in these buns are light and just right.  Just check out the cream cheese topped with almond and chocolate fudge topped with crushed oreo, they are simply irresistable!!

There are also other interesting flavours such as Just Durian, Just Chempedak, Just Banana etc, which I will return to try them one of these days.

 

East Ocean Teochew Restaurant

1 Scotts Road #02-18 Shaw Centre

Tel: +65 6235 9088

Opening hours

Mon–Fri: 11.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm
Sat, Sun & PH: 10.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm

Note: The restaurant has moved to Ngee Ann City, #05-08/09.  Contact number remains unchanged.

Had brunch at East Ocean Teochew Restaurant which serves dim-sum during lunch.  Although this is a Teochew restaurant, it serves hong kong dim sum and you see waitresses carrying trays of dim-sum and shouting out what they have o their trays. 

But, the waitresses spoke in cantonese.  Hmmm... this is kinda unfriendly to those who do not understand the cantonese language.  When I asked for the dim-sum menu, the waitress answered that they serve all dim-sum today, just listen out. =(  So, what happens to customers who do not know what the waitresses are "promoting"?

蛋煎肠粉 (Pan-fried Cheong Fun with Egg) - It felt like flattened cheong fun dipped in egg (just like when cooking bombay toast) before it was pan-fried.  Light soy sauce was served together with this dish.  The eggs tend to soak up the soy sauce, so I thought it would be better if the soy sauce is served in a separate sauce plate.

Steamed Carrot Cake - the rice cake was soft and filled with lots of radish and dried shrimps.  Definitely something which we can't find at hawker centres.  Light soy sauce is added to the carrot cake when served.

The century egg porridge isn't too impressive.  Would say that the quality is just average.  Can give it a miss if porridge isn't a miss for you...

Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun comes with generous serving of char siew, as you can see.  What's unique is that - it is served with green veggie. Otherwise, this dish is also quite average...nothing to shout about.

奶皇流沙包 (Custard bun) - This is a must have! Beware of the golden yellow hot milky custard, else you might scald your tongue. However, the bun tastes best when eaten while it is hot! 

At the end of the meal, wash it down with a cup of thick chinese tea. It is so thick that it tastes bitter... yucks!

Total damage for 2 persons was less than $40.... a little steep for about 5 dishes.

 

 

Related Posts:

126 Eating House (click)

Leong Sang Hong Kong Pastries (click)



Everything with Fries (HV)

40 Lorong Mambong
Singapore 277695
Tel: 64633741
Sun, Tue to Thur: 12nn to 11pm
Fri & Sat: 12nn to 1am
Close on Mondays

Everything with Fries .... of course, it means that all main course comes with a serving of fries.  What's the difference from fast food restaurants then?  Well, the main difference is that you get a choice of seasonings for your fries.  The seasoning choices include curry, salt & vinegar, sour cream & onion, garlic & herbs or you like it as it is, choice original flavour.

The outlet at Holland Village is the chain's 2nd outlet, the 1st being at Joo Chiat.  The ambience is very modern... with white being its main colour theme.

My drink - Butterscotch milk shake.  Being a milk-lover, how can I resist not having a milk shake.  But that means I will not be able to finish my food cos this glass of milk shake can easily take up 50% of my "intake capacity".  I wonder how many scoops of butterscotch ice cream was used to make this milk shake... can't imagine how many calories that translates too... but I can't be bothered with it cos the milk shake was good!

Chose Tandoori Chicken Sandwich as my main course. Wanted to order its salmon main course but was told that they were not serving salmon that day *sob*. Chose sour cream and onion for the fries.

Love the thousand island sauce that was drenched onto the tandoori chicken sandwich. The bread was slightly toasted and was really soft. The tandoori chicken was also tender and juicy. Highly recommend that if you prefer something not too heavy.

However, the sour cream & onion was somewhat ordinary... instead I like the curry flavour most, followed by salt & vinegar, sour cream & onion and then garlic & herbs.

Thanks to the special promo from ieatishootipost website, we got each a free cupcake. The cupcakes are somewhat different from cupcakes you see at regular cake shops. These cupcakes comes with a generous butter cream topping. It comes with peanut butter, strawberry and coconut flavours. The strawberry cupcake really stood out because of its fresh strawberry bits. The cupcake itself is dense but not too rich. Can I say... it was al dente.

 

Total damage was less than $20/pax for a lunch meal with main course and drinks... certainly worth returning to experiment other dishes, esp the NZ salmon strongly recommended by others who have been there.

Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream (MOS Burger)

Latest dessert added to MOS Burger's menu.  Besides green tea, there is also mango and chocolate flavour. The green tea flavour ice cream comes with red bean.  Personally, I've like it to be a little milkier.  But generally, the ice cream isn't too bad.  $2.95 per cup (ala carte) or get 20c off if purchased with a meal.