21 posts from 2007

Love Fish n Co?

Hate Fish n Co?

Sick of Fish n Co?

Here's your prescription for your diagnosis! Manhattan Fish Market!

The concept is about the same - seafood, fries, fried stuff, buttered rice.

Conclusion? It's nicer than Fish n Co!

We ordered their "Seafood platter for two/ three" (Fish n Co terms) which was their Fishermen's Giant Fried Platter. I love the selection! Fried fish, fried fries (duh), fried mushroom (juicy!), fried prawns (sweet!), fried calamari rings and butter rice. Not a lot maybe but the portion is definitely enough for 3.

The calamari rings tasted less like the ones you get from their rival or even Swensens. I think its the spices they used... The fries were good, the fish meat was soft enough and like previously mentioned, the prawn meat was sweet! The prawns' heads didn't escape the deep pits of our stomachs too! Which means that technically, every single thing on the plate should be polished off. Yummy.

We tried one of the appetisers too - Mussels in Louisiana Shrimp Sauce.

It's not bad... The mussels are ok, the sauce was nice and thick. Fantabulous to dip the pieces of bread into. Oh, and I like to slurp the sauce off the mussel's shell after eating the meat ;)

All in all, its a great place! The bill only came up to slightly more than $50 for 3 persons and its definitely worth every single cent. We went to the outlet at Central Mall and the ambience for the outdoor seating was great. The indoor seating was a bit noisy with the people's chatter being trapped in. But the outdoor one was airy, windy, and romantic with the changing coloured lights and view of Clarke Quay.

Here's their website which is very good by the way http://www.manhattanfishmarket.com/

You can check their outlets and opening hours etc there. They have another one in Plaza Singapura.

I didn't know it till now. A lot of other quite well known Japanese eateries in Singapore are under Kuriya. Such as Ichiban Boshi, Kuishin-Bo, Ichiban Sushi, Fiesta. Others that we can guess quite obviously are Kuriya Fish Market, Kuriya and Kuriya Dining.

Kuriya and Kuriya Dining are quite similar. Both in town and both more up market. But Kuriya Dining is more up market and I suppose more fine in dining.

The ambience of the restaurant is quite comfy, private and nicely lit. The staff here are slightly more polite than average good places. The atmosphere was kind of like returning to a familar eatery whereby you'll feel more relaxed than usual and just can't wait to sit down and enjoy a good meal.

Currently, from now till 31 January 2008, Kuriya Dining is having a Fugu promotion at $70++ per person. "Fugu", as much as it looks like "Fungus", is really "Puffer Fish". Yeah, the poisonous one. But I'm not dead.

For this set, you'll get everything puffered up for you. In English, it means, you'll have puffer fish skin, puffer fish sashimi, puffer fish hot pot, puffer fish porridge and fried puffer fish. That's almost all the different kind of ways you can cook the fish!

When you order hot pot, you'll get to sit in this separate area which is more private because you need the stove. It's really very nice.

For starters, we got the puffer fish skin dish.

Its the white stuff and it is surrounded by some light Japanese soya sauce, and some other vegetables. The orange ingredient at the extreme right bottom when mixed with the food will give a hint of spicyness. The puffer fish skin tastes chewy and a bit rubbery but not in a bad sense. It is an interesting dish after all, if you have never tried it.

For their puffer fish sashimi, its white and transparent in colour and it tastes sweet. If you see carefully, you'll be able to see the thin slices around the decorative ingredients. I like their presentation. The plate is placed on top of crushed ice. Beside the plate is a saucer containing a special sauce for you to go with the sashimi. When the sashimi and the sauce goes together, the taste is really unique and it brings out the sweetness of the sashimi even more.

For their fried version, the fish meat was not bad. But it tasted like some other fried fish so it was not spectacular or special. I like their fried "fan" like creation though. Looks like fried thorns but I suspect its fried noodles. It was crispy and light and thank god, no leftover oil flavour.

The highlight of the meal!! The hotpot.

Brown, luscious, flavourful and heart warming. The smell of it bubbling away under the heat will make you drool. The soup has a very distinctive Japanese taste to it and what I love most was the "charcoal-like" taste it has. It can be described as those slightly burnt taste, but it is of course not burnt. It's very special and the soup itself was very good. The pot was big too. If you join your two hands together and form a circle, it is something in that size, just a bit smaller.

It comes with this...

All things yummy for a perfect hot pot meal! Vegetables (lots of it)... some glass like udon noodles (Quite chewy)... Mushrooms (3 kinds and very juicy all of them) and the uncooked puffer fish meat.

The puffer fish meat doesn't cook as fast as normal fish meat. When cooked for a while only, it is a bit tough, but letting it cook longer will make it taste sweet and softer... Almost scallop like texture. Very nice. There was nothing bad in the pot.

When you're finished with the ingredients and when you still have some soup left, the friendly staff will come along and tell you its time to cook your porridge. They will add Japanese rice in and cook and will add eggs into the mixture and continue stirring. And then you will get this.

The staff was telling us Japanese prefers to eat their porridge when it is still grainy and not when it is smooth and soup like, like some of what is sold outside. On the top right hand side of the photo there are two saucers one containing seaweed and another one is spring onion chopped up nicely and thinly. The seaweed was amazing! Very strong flavour and the porridge and the seaweed were the perfect complements to each other - like the yin and the yang, chilli crabs to man tou buns, beer to peanuts etc etc. DO NOT, eat the porridge without the seaweed. You will knock your head against the wall if you know what you are missing.

After all these, we were damn full. But desserts, being desserts will always have a vacancy in our stomach (I don't know why).

So we had our black sesame ice cream which was better than all those Japanese ice cream stalls out there. Why? Its not as milky and the ice cream was actually quite dark in colour. And it was intensely flavoured no less.

It comes with some fresh fruit. The ice cream was not as little as you see it. There were more goodness underneath. After I finished mine, bearing in mind I was already full, I still craved for more black sesame ice cream. The standard is different from the Kuriya at Shaw I think. Its just nicer. Even I thought the greent tea was nicer, but the staff said it was the same. Must be the atmosphere.

Overall, $70++ for this meal was a bit expensive, but hot pots are usually not that cheap anyway. And this set has fugu! I think its a good time to try it. At least must try fugu once right? The whole meal was exceedingly enjoyable and memorable. And looks like I'll go back for other hot pots that they have too! Like their seafood hot pot.

 

Kuriya Dining

Great World City

#02-42

1 Kim Seng Promenade

Singapore 237994

Tel: 6736 0888

Lunch hours: 11.30am t0 2.30pm

Dinner hours: 6pm to 11pm

Usually when I have meals with rice, I don't have the habit of finishing it. But there are some dishes that when eaten with rice, I'll almost come into the danger of finishing every single grain. And like almost everybody else, that powerful ingredient is curry.

At Tiong Bahru, there is this special Hainanese Curry Rice.

Special in the sense that the stall fills an entire bottom of a shop house so its like a speciality food for these people.

The curry looks very smooth huh? The meat is fried chicken and it was crispy and the meat was just tender enough. The curry is thick and don't let its slightly brownish appearance fool you. It is indeed quite spicy. But as with spicy things and being a Singaporean, that is what makes it shiok and enjoyable even if you have to eat it and perspire in the afternoon heat.

You see the glass next to it? That is why you'll need to order some lime juice. Cooling an refreshing. Just the right way to finish off a satisfying meal of Hainanese Curry Rice.

They serve other dishes that you can order along with your curry rice too. Such as fried vegetables, braised three layer pork meat (which is quite good) and other meat like fish.

(Sorry no exact address availabe but it is near Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre... around the area)

For all things Japanese, you surely can't miss "Green Tea". It's like their staple drink for almost everything I think. And nowadays there are so many things out there for green tea lovers - biscuits, cakes, ice creams, sweets, you name it, they've got it.

So it brings me great pleasure today to introduce a FANTASTIC green tea snack!

Maybe you've seen this packet around in some supermarkets/ Cheers before. They have it in Chocolate and also in Strawberry and even Chocolate AND Strawberry together flavours. But the undisputed best flavour has got to be the Green Tea. Ok, maybe its not really fair because I have not tried the Chocolate one and the Strawberry one but I've tried the combination one. Its still not as nice. In fact, it tastes a bit fake.

Inside the packaging, the green tea biscuits looks like cut out mini flowers. It is coated with some sugar and I must admit the sight of it did put me off the very first time I ate it. But after a few, I surrendered my whole self to the biscuits. Recently when I managed to grab my hands on it, I ate it almost immediately. The chocolate and strawberry ones are relatively easier to find than this.

Ok, about the biscuit, the green tea filling inside is really fragrant and flavourful! Every single one has a strong and delightful final taste to it. Even the biscuit itself without the filling is great!

Just submit your soul already. Recently they added a new flavour - Almond

 

Very nutty taste but still... Green tea still wins hands down, legs down, stomach down. 

For strategic searching for this biscuit, please attack the Japanese Section at supermarkets.

Japanese speciality biscuits shops like the one in the basement of Central are good too.

I found my recent one in Cheers. So you'll never know. ;)

Dian Xiao Er, or roughly translated to "Shop's waiter" in English, is a really quaint and cute eatery brought to you by the same people under the Soup Restaurant. The eatery is really small and cosy compared to the humongous place that it is in, that is Vivocity. The waiting time is fast and the service staff is highly efficient and even with a queue of more than 10 people, at the very most, you only have to wait for 20 minutes.

Inside the restaurant, it really reminded me of those found in ancient China, those places that you only see on TV. There are red lanterns and even Nu Er Hong (a type of Chinese wine) on the menu. Quite an interesting place!

Since Soup Restaurant is famous for their Samsui Chicken, Dian Xiao Er is famous for their roasted duck! No, I'm not making a sweeping statement, because it is really true. How do I know? Because even right before you step into the restaurant, you will see a few hanged ducks glistening and tempting you - It's almost as if they are sun tanning under the light. They even dare to drip their juice/ fat absent mindedly once in a while, making it almost unbearable for anything else other than placing them in their rightful place - which is your stomach.

Every table I saw ordered their duck.

 

It is availabe with three different type of herb sauces. The one in the photo is with Dang Gui. The meat was tender and soft enough. The skin was crispy without a repulsive amount of fat (shows that the duck is not overweight. Haha) and the sauce was extremely flavourful! The only best way to enjoy this dish is to cover every part of the duck meat with the yummy sauce. I loved the sauce so much I even used my spoon to scoop the remainder to drink it. It's a bit salty, but what gives? A bit salty is addictive you know. Yes, you should know. After all that salty snacks you've been eating for your whole life.

Another signature dish for Dian Xiao Er is their Prosperous Suckling Pig. The version here however is a vegetarian one and it can be considered healthy if you think fried flour is healthy. Haha. Most people have the misconception that mock meat is good because it has no meat, but seriously, its not. Its usually fried and has lots of sugar. Well, most great food are not that healthy anyway.

The suckling pig here was really nice. I could taste beancurd skin in every piece, and the "skin" was crispy. The sauce that came with it was a bit sweet and sourish and just a bit tangy. It has hints of spicyness in it, but it is extremely mild.

So, what other better way to make a chinese meal complete by having some light and nutritious soup? They have quite a few double boiled soups here, they even have Buddha Jump Over the Wall. The one below is their Black Chicken soup.

It was steamingly hot when it arrived that was why there is a white blurry patch in the middle of the photo. As you can see, the soup is really clear! There wasn't even oil hanging around the edges. So it was light and tasted nice. Sorry, not really a herb soup person, so I don't really know how to describe other than its nice, light and clear.

Of course, no meal at this eatery with the ancient ambience is complete without downing a little of the Nu Er Hong.

Nu Er Hong is quite strong. It is 16% alcoholic which is not as a bad as hard liquor but "badder" than wine. At first taste, it was as if some chicken essence was lurking somewhere within the 33ml of liquid. But its nice to try it. After all, I bet most of our long ago ancestors drank it and its affordable at only $3.20. What a better time than now?

Overall, a good meal. Ambience was memorable at Vivocity's outlet.

 

 

Dian Xiao Er

Vivocity #02-137/8

Monday - Friday

11.30am to 2.30pm

5.30pm to 9.30pm

Weekends/ Public Holidays

11.30am to 3.00pm

5.30pm to 9.30pm

Tel: 6376 9786

 

No, the stall's signboard is not "Tiong Bahru Wanton Mee". Just that I can't read the sign. Too cheem. And sorry about the dark photo.

 

 

 

 At Tiong Bahru Food Centre, there are a lot of famous food. The lor mee, the min jiang kueh, the roasted pork, the well-loved Tiong Bahru Bao are just some to name a few. And now, to add to the list, is this wanton mee stall. It is extremely easy to spot this stall. Just look for the one with the looooongessstttt queue. The queue never ends at any hour of the day. I think it opens till lunch time. It starts selling its fantastic food even before 7am.

However, being able to enjoy the wanton mee is like a luck game (It's not as tough as striking 4D though). That is because they open on any day they like. On weekdays, its not as easy, but most of the time I'd catch them on some Wednesdays or Fridays. Weekends are a bit easier. Since there are only 2 days to try your luck on. But Sundays seem quite a good day. Who knows, maybe they're opened on both Saturdays and Sundays too.

The actual portion for the soup is not that big. I ordered an extra big bowl for $2 (there's $3 too) as its hard to satisfy my greedy self. The actual bowl of soup only has two wanton! That will never do for me. The noodles are well cooked but may be a bit dry at times. But that is not a problem. Just add some soup. Their noodles are not the wet kind anyway. A lot of people like to order their chicken feet noodles too. Their chicken feet are very soft! If you've never tried chicken feet before don't worry, you won't be put off by the version here.

In the spoon, behold the gastronomical delight. The wanton here is heavenly. It seems to have come out of this world. Could such a delicious thing even exist? Just look at it. It is of a good size (I hate puny wanton - like is there even anything in my mouth?!), and it is as if the meat is covered by a long flowy dress which hugs and shows off the correct angles. Placed inside your mouth, you will notice how smooth the skin actually is and as you chew on it, it is as if the wanton is melting on its own and without noticing it, everything has slided down your throat and into your expectant stomach. THAT is when you will spoon for another one - and it never stops. It is hard to ever get enough of it. Sometimes I think I can just skip the noodles and eat a $3 bowl of wanton. But even so, I wonder if that is enough. The only bad thing I can think of is that the wanton is kind of salty but it is never as bad as any potato chips.

Why are you still reading this? You should be out there trying out for yourself now! ;)

 

Tiong Bahru Wanton Mee

Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Level 2, #02-24

Opening Hours/ Days: ??? (Good Luck)

Famous American Brand doughnuts! Even the box for the doughnuts looks so nice already! After looking at it, I finally get a glimpse into why caucasians (especially Americans) love to eat doughnuts so much. Everyone knows their policemen can't stop eating them with hot coffee inside their patrol cars. And also accidentally spilling the hot beverage onto their pants everytime. Another famous doughnut eater/ gulper/ "killer" is Homer Simpsons!

The following pictures below are for your viewing (and some envying) pleasure. Haha.

 

 

 

Pretty pretty glazed doughnuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 The colourful one looks just like the one Homer eats. Haha.

If you're wondering whether its nice, IT IS NICE! When you see such lovely things, your mind will suddenly switch off and you'll forget its sweet and fattening! The doughnut wasn't too thick with dough and was just the right amount of fluffy-ness. The chocolate coated parts were great. Extremely delicious. And I love it when I burp a little even a few hours later, I could still smell the doughnuts. Haha. Disgusting. I know.

Got all these from Indonesia though. But so what? It was good still. Maybe in America it is even nicer. *drools

The very FIRST thing you will notice when you step into this restaurant is that it is old and it looks as if it has seen better years. However, all these just adds more charm to this place. It is almost as if you've gone into another time period, a time capsule of sorts. Everything is almost like how it was when it opened in 1986. I heard even the staff remained pretty much the same.

Here's the thing. Even though everything in this restaurant is old, it does not stop people from waiting outside the restaurant before it opens for lunch hour. When I got there today, there were about ten people waiting outside, for the slow and magical movement of the elderly staff to come over and flip the sign from "Closed" to "Open".

The second thing you will notice is that the restaurant is very dimly lighted. There are lots of nice and no doubt pretty lamps with yellow lights hanging overhead you if you have a seat at the sides, but they are still not bright enough. I guess it is a good place for a romantic date since it is quite dark and you can hide any facial imperfections. It is also good to hide oily food (if any) or dusty and dirty corners (if any).

Everyone settled in very quickly and everyone seemed to be a regular there. Orders were taken very quickly, deeming the menu almost redundant. The service there by the more mature waiters and waitresses are fast, efficient and chop chop. This is not a place to complain about their service. Sometimes they smile at you, sometimes they don't. But they are in no way unfriendly. They have just been working in this line and this same restaurant for many years.

We had escargots for appetizers.

They have half dozen portions and a dozen portions. The escargots had melted butter all over it, and when you bite into it, you could be mistaken into thinking you're biting into a really good mushroom . The flesh is just the right amount of thickness and it is very nice to bite into it. (Yes, I know I am repeating, but I have no other ways to describe how it feels like)

We ordered their famous Borsch soup too.

That dollop of white white thing is sour cream. This soup is tomato based, and there are cabbage, onions and beef pieces inside it. I would say the soup is very delicious and tasty. For people who love cabbage soup, this is a fantastic soup. The soup can be described as slightly on the heavier side, but it is definitely not like cream of mushroom thickness. It is light with hints of heaviness. Haha. The soup is really very intense with the tomato flavour but it is not as thick as those canned tomato drinks. And I think that is a good thing.

For our main dish, we had their all time favourite Shashlik Beef Fillet.

Its that long blackish looking thing in the middle. Blame the lightings.

When they serve it, they will bring the stick that they bbq (grilled?) the beef on and they will slide the beef off the stick and onto a sizzling plate for you. It really smells good! The beef was medium cooked and when it goes into your mouth, you can almost taste all the bbq (grilled?) goodness of the meat. The meat is tender and it is comparable to some very good lamb just that it has no lamb taste and it is not that tough.

This main dish comes with this too.

Vegetables done in some pickled way (aka a bit sourish those kind), a slice of papaya, 1/4 of a hard boiled egg, shredded cabbage, pickles, cucumber, potato and carrots. The slices of tomato and spring onion look a like thing from the previous photo came from this plate too.  

For desserts, we had no more room for it. But its seems that they are well known for their Baked Alaska (which is something similar to an ice cream cake. I say something similar because I am not sure at all). Usually for Baked Alaska, they will light the top of the dessert and so it will look very pretty I guess. And for the alcoholic, Makansutra recommends their Cherry Jubilee dessert too. It has brandy inside!

Overall, an interesting place to go for a meal. After all it is a Russian restaurant, and we seldom come across restaurants like this. The Borsch soup is really good. But if you are a non beef person, the rest of their stuff are just average. Their chicken which I tried the last time was nothing great.

All these cost $85. So it's not really cheap. But the soup is very good! Haha.

 

Shashlik Restaurant

545 Orchard Road

#06-19 Far East Shopping Centre (Not FE Plaza)

Opening Hours:

12pm - 2pm

6.30pm - 9.30pm

A picture can speak a zillion words. So here goes.

Doesn't the durian cake look pretty? Only with orders of a 2.5kg cake and above will your durian cake be lovingly adorned with big, fresh, sweet strawberries and other smaller berries. Those squarish looking things with icing sugar dusted on it are actually just sponge cake.

You know for A LOT of other cake shops that sell durian cakes, when you cut open and look inside, you will see at the very generous least 3/5 sponge layer and 2/5 durian mousse and some real durian fruit. But not so for the Goodwood Park's version!!!! HAHAHA. *excited laugher

Since GWP knows that the customer wants DURIAN, durian is what we will get. And tada! Inside, the cake is made up of 5/7 durian (lots of REAL durian) and 2/7 sponge layer. Seriously, the sponge layer is so little, you don't even taste much of it! It is almost like eating durian only. Isn't that great?

Yes, I know you can't differentiate between the durian layers and the sponge cake layers. I can't too! It doesn't matter as you don't have to dig for the durian parts as the durian is everywhere. This is an extremely good treat for anyone who loves durian.

If you're buying for people who even eat durian as a replacement for a proper meal, please buy at least the 2.5kg cake for 4 people. They will finish it all by 3 days. I should know. Haha. For 2.5kg or personalised cakes, please order 3 days in advance.

 

Goodwood Park Hotel

22 Scotts Road

Singapore 228221

Order from Deli (Tel: 6730 1786)

9am - 9pm

Icewine, is also known as sweet wine. And indeed, it is really sweet.

Every sip is concentrated in taste and the alcoholic content seems to taste stronger even though it is only 10%, lesser than normal wine. It has almost a light syrup-y feel to it. But it is smooth and feels like honey, as if it is gliding through you mouth and sliding into your throat. This Riesling Icewine is from Canada and I think it's nicer than the one I tried in Canada which was too sweet and horrible.

Visit www.henryofpelham.com for more.