GRUB

When I heard from Lilian that Meryvn, the chef behind Cookyn with Mervyn whom we took cooking lessons from during their fund raising for Tribute to Japan, is opening a restaurant, I got super excited.

GRUB opens for business on 1st May 2013. Nested in the peaceful surrounding of Bishan Park, they believe in serving excellent food with quality ingredients at a price level affordable to most. I like it already.

The interior decoration gives a homely feeling with earth tones colours, raw red brick wall, a big clean modern open kitchen with a bar top (presumably to conduct cooking lessons) and a see thru glass area to the main kitchen where Mervyn and his crew do their magic.

Menu offerings reflect western style food, from Breakfast set featuring scramble eggs and toast for the weekend brunch, to appetizers like Truffled Egg Cocotte and Chili Con Carne to tease your appetite, to burgers and meat as mains and delightful desserts to end off the night.

I absolutely love Chili con and that had to be my must order for appetizers. Lilian is not a big fan as she often finds it too gelak. But on this plate, she was fighting with me to finish it. It's yummy yet not too heavy and Lilian loves it. I think partly could be that they used chips instead of fries.

We also ordered the Caramelized Onion Gratin just to try another appetizer. The gratin is so sweet, and silky.

Lilian ordered the Pan-Seared King Salmon. Its very nicely done. Crispy skin, pink meat throughout and moist.

I was torn between trying the Pulled Beef Burger or Slow Roasted Pork Belly. In the end, chose the pork belly. I find it hard to resist pork belly option. I could only grin ear to ear when the big cube of meat was served.

But this is no ordinary pork belly. Its gonna take the title of most "collagen" pork belly I have ever ate. Just look at the meat to fat ratio.

We looked around and quite a number of patrons ordered their burgers. Gonna try them too next time. Though we were full and satisfied, I just had to order the Belgium Waffle with Salty Caramel, Grilled Bananas and Dark Chocolate as dessert. Just reading it on the menu makes me salivate.

The grilled banana, the dark chocolate and the salty caramel, oh what heavenly combination. There is also a scoop of sour cream under the banana. Although we find that weird, I still licked the whole plate clean.

From what I read online, this is one place that is also dogs friendly (alfresco area). There were a group of bikers who parked their bikes outside and dine at the alfresco area. Opening hours is on the second photo.

Hup Seng Duck Rice

Hup Seng Duck Rice is my favourite stall when it comes to braised duck rice.The perfect balance of the oil, the fats and the dark sauce never fails to make me drool.

Popular coffeshops usually have one super stall that majority of patrons will order from. As the chinese saying, 一山不能藏二虎, having two super stalls in a single coffeeshop is a rare sight. Unless they complement each other. And complement they did. Lilian and I would always order a plate of Hup Seng braised duck to go with Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh. And we would usually order Hup Seng's duck porridge for Xavier. 

We love Hup Seng's braised duck as it is juicy and tender. One bite and you feel like you are in paradise, as the aroma oozes out from the meat. Like Lilian says, "很入味". The other popular dish is the Salted Veg Duck Soup. We are not a fan of the soup but we always see many patrons ordering it.

Blk 22 Sin Ming Road

Eng Ho Hup Coffeeshop, #01-258
Singapore 570022

Tel: 6454 3810

Shan Tou Shi Teochew Fish Head Seafood

Lilian loves streamboat. And ever since Johnson bought us to Fish Head Streamboat at Whampoa Market (one of the best we have eaten, but the >1 hour waiting time is also the "best"), we have been on a lookout for somewhere similar.

煮炒来咯 recommended Shan Tou Shi Teochew Fish Head Seafood in Hougang sometime ago but we have never eaten there despite passing by that coffeeshop a few times. Recently, while passing by yet again, the sight of the oyster omelette was so irresistible that I decided to call for a gathering on Veask Day just to try out the place. Let's just say I'm not impressed. The food was ok, average, not those that die die must try (like the Whampoa Market Fish Head Streamboat).



The Oyster Omelette was one of the better dishes. The oysters are fresh but the omelette is average, abit dry as if it was overcooked.



We ordered the Pomfret Streamboat and as I'm not a streamboat fan I can't really comment. But Lilian didn't think it was good. The soup base seems bland.

We also ordered other stuff like the prawn paste fried chicken, prawn springroll and porkchop. Nothing impressed. Just a normal Zi Char place to me.

Koi Cafe, bubble milk tea that's worth the wait...

There was a time when every 10 steps you walk there was a stall selling bubble tea. That was the bubble tea craze some years back when these stalls mushroom all over our island. As the craze dies, the stalls that were cashing in on the craze closed down as well.

When we went to Taipei in 2008 for holiday, 珍珠奶茶 (Bubble Milk Tea) was on my to-eat list. Its just so different there, the milk tea was so smooth and the bubbles were so Q. And the chain we frequent alot was 50嵐 as there was a stall near our hotel. We had a cup when we were going out and we had a cup when we were going back hotel. In fact, we drank more milk tea then plain water in Taiwan.

Then last year, we happen to chance upon this trendy place call Koi Cafe in Marine Parade selling Bubble Tea and you should see my excitement when I saw a small print that its by 50嵐. Although it was after the bubble tea craze, it had brought in the crowd with the same yummy bubble teas from Taiwan.

There are currently 5 Koi Cafes (that I know, namely Marine Parade, Ang Mo Kio, Chinatown, Bishan and Toa Payoh) in Singapore and they are all takeaway cafes. The cafes are plays the current popular Chinese Pop songs and the stalls are usually manned by young people. The menu are pretty extensive covering flavoured tea, milk tea, coffee and smoothies. You could also choose the sweetness of the tea. Our usually order is large Milk Green Tea with pearls at 25% sweetness and it cost $3.50. Their pearls also comes in 1 size and its smaller than the usual pearls you get with other bubble tea. But the chewiness is perfect (not too hard and not too soft). The milk tea is smooth as usual and its just the perfect drink for our hot humid weather. Whenever I'm at Marine Parade or Ang Mo Kio, I just had to have a cup to satisfy my bubble tea craving.

Below are the address of two outlets I usually frequent. As for the other 3 stalls, you would have to google for it.

Ang Mo Kio
Blk 704 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 #01-2545

S(560704)

Marine Parade
Blk 83 Marine Parade Central #01-562

S(440083)

Sidenote: I used two different iPhone photo apps for the above photos and they are both free. You should try them too, its pretty fun. The first photo I used the app call MoreNoel. What it does is it brightens and softens the photo and you can choose to add bubble or stars for the dreamy feel. The second photo I use this app is call Morelomo (by the same company). It gives your photo the "Lomo" effect. For more information about what Lomography is all about, read this and this.

So go out and have fun with your iPhone camera.

Uncle Leong Seafood

Had these photos since Dec '09 and totally forgotten about them. Well it was a Saturday evening when my parents came over after buffet lunch. They were too full from the buffet that they didn't really want dinner. Hence I hatch the evil plan of asking them along for crabs, so that they can help look after Xavier while we satisfy our long awaited and very duly missed crab craving. Afterall, there is no way to bring Xavier along and enjoy crabs if its just the two of us.

Uncle Leong Seafood Restaurant is situated a coffeeshop below the HDB block. And in front of it is a very large carpark. Interestingly at the adjacent corner of the large carpark is another coffeeshop where Mellben Seafood is. I was told before that the owner of both restaurants are brothers but I am not sure if its true or not.

Anyway I have always rated Mellben to be better than Uncle Leong. The food is just better. But the wait is a lot longer and crazier. As we only wanted to satisfy crab craving, I decided on Uncle Leong as the queue was more sane. Afterall, you cannot be waiting for over 1 hour to have dinner when you have a baby with you. The baby will probably drive you nuts.

Ordered the Crab Beehoon, Chinese Spinach with Three Eggs (Century Egg, Salted Egg and Egg), and Wu Xiang. I can't recall how they individually taste but overall it was average, nothing to shout about. Maybe that's why I can't recall the taste as it was forgettable. :P

So would I go there again? Yes if I'm not picky on taste that day and just want to satify craving and not queue for long.

Uncle Leong Seafood

Blk 233 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3

#01-1194

S(560233)

Tel: 65543453

Pine Garden's Cake

So many food blog post and photos I want to do, so little time...

Xavier's birthday is around the corner. We were initially planning on throwing a party for him (like those 1 year old parties at function rooms we been attending quite alot recently). But due to many reasons (Chinese New Year, want something more cozy, the need to time the party to his mood and sleeping time, etc), we decided to celebrate with the very people who are important to him now, our immediate families.

But we wanted to get him a nice two-tier birthday cake (very popular now) since you are only 1 year old once right? Lilian wanted to check out Pine Garden's Cake and we ended up ordering the cake from there.

As we flip through the photo catalogue, I keep seeing these acronyms and a price behind. Being someone from the mountains (when it comes to cakes as I'm never really into cakes since young), I thought that's the price of the cake. It turn out its the "Artistic Charge" for designing the cake and making it pretty and this charge is on top of the cake price. All in all the cake cost just under $100 for 2kg, excluding cake toppers (toys to decorate the cake).

We initially choose a Mickey Mouse design but ended up changing it to Pooh Bear as I could not find the Mickey cake topper in the photo (the other two available were not very nice). Will post photos of the cake after his birthday. If you are looking for balloons and party flavours, I found the following two local sites useful: Kidz Party Store and Babyterror.

Anyway back to Pine Garden's Cake. Its actually a neighbourhood cake shop in Ang Mo Kio but they are actually quite famous with numerous reviews. Their must have are the Blackforest Cake and the Pandan Cake. We actually bought a few small slices of the following cakes to try. Presenting, unique Orange Zest Chocolate Cake, sexy Blackforest, innocent Lychee Martini.

Verdict from the guy from the mountains? The Blackforest is yummy. The cream is fresh and alcohol is well balanced (not overwhelming). Once you start, you dun wanna stop. The Lychee Martini taste like... Lychee Martini. I didn't like the first taste of it but the taste grows onto me. The Orange Zest Chocolate Cake (what a mouthful name) taste like those orange chocolate, nothing special.

If I were to go back again (and I will have to to pick up Xavier's cake), I would get more Blackforest, definitely. Then again, they have so many other flavors that I wanna try too, like Bailey Chocolate Crunch Cake, Raspberry Choc, Pulut Hitam, Hazelnut Crunch, Citrus Drop and many more...

Pine Garden's Cake

Blk 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10

#01-2369/2329

Singapore 560529

Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh @ Sin Ming

It's been a long time since I blog something on food. I am reminded how torturing it is to do food blog. Imagine editing enlarged photo of yummy food to make them look even yummier, made worse by an empty stomach. Lilian was wondering why I stared at the following picture for so long.

You can't really blame me for staring, the braised pig trotter made me salivate just staring at the photo. The trotter meat is soft and tender and the skin is oh so tasty. If you prefer leaner meat, just let the stall know, but I recommend getting the fatty ones. Afterall, what's braised pig trotter without the yummy skin and that heavenly layer of fat below it.

And on to our main subject, Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶). The Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh is clear soup based and you usually get one long pork rib and one short in each soup. I love Bak Kut Teh with long rib bone as it adds to the experience of holding it by the rib bone with one hand and ripping the meat off while I scope the rice with the other.

The pork ribs used has two layers of meat separated by a layer of fat. Somehow the meat I had that day was a little tougher than its usual standard. The soup is very fragrant and the mix of garlic and pepper seems just right. Sweet and spicy would be how I would describe it.

However, I do find when we replenish the soup, it doesn't taste as good as the first, usually more bland.

Special mention is the braised duck rice stall in the same coffeeshop. Will do a post on it when I next eat there, provided the insane queue is not too long. Apologises for missing out the photo on the stall. If you look at the block from the carpark, the coffeeshop and the stall will be on your extreme left.

Blk 22 Sin Ming Road
Eng Ho Hup Coffeeshop
Singapore 570022