313. Happy Realm Vegetarian

Last Sunday, my bro had a sudden whim for a vegetarian meal so we decided to go to Happy Realm. We had wanted to go to another but could not find its address. Happy Realm is not a new place to us. We have been there a few times when I was still a child. I remembered vividly that business was brisk on the weekends. The place was like a Hong Kong style cha-can-teng with hot piping egg tarts and an array of vegetarian pastries like curry puffs, dao sa piah and etc. The sunday that I went was no longer like before.

That's fried potato strips! Sweet, spicy and it had a mild sourness taste. I think it makes a great beer snack.

Yam Ring @$15

Dad's favourite. Crispy on the exterior, finely smashed on the interior, it was a tasty yam ring. Ah...what's more important was the fried veggies cooked with gravy was tasty and made the yam ring not too dry.

Curry Vegetables @$4

My mum is a big curry fan. Mum did not like it. It was not very spicy. I find it a tad diluted.

Mushroom Fa-Choy Soup @$10

I only took the picture of a small bowl of the soup. For a better view, I decided that I need to scoop up what's in there, else what we will see would be just a mass of black 'hair-like'(Fa-choy) stuff. There were tiny mock meat strips, mushrooms and ginger slices. Very simple but also very bland. Dispensable dish.

Fried Bee Hoon @$6

The bee hoon had a nice sesame oil fragrance. Notice the colour contrast of the bee hoon. Some were darker and thus more moist in colour. I think the sesame oil was not evenly spread. Still, the bee hoon was nice.

Luo Han Chai @$7

Claypot Noodles @$4

Even though there wasn't any meat, the noodles was tasty with the tau kwa and greens. In fact, a group of elderly was there when we arrived. Each of them ordered the claypot noodles. Cheap and tasty.

Our bill cost about $56. Some of the dishes was cheap and some not. Mum felt the food was rather oily and so the idea of having vegetarian means eating healthy somehow didn't quite fit in this scenario. I personally felt that the food was just mediocre.

Happy Realm Vegetarian
100 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-16
Pearls Centre S059812
Tel: 62226141

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312. Tetsu (哲)

Tetsu (哲), prides itself on being Singapore's most famous Japanese restaurant for authentic Kushi-style (meaning on skewers) Tempura and Tonkatsu menu. They have come up with a new menu recently. It was my first time to Tetsu even though I have always put Tetsu on my list after seeing the raved reviews by LIC.

Kani Tofu @$8 (L), Sashimi Salad @$9.80(R)

Kani, or I should say imitation crabmeat was added to the tofu. The tofu was not the silken kind but the kind with egg added. Kani gave the sweetness to the tofu and the slightly pungent century egg balanced out the eggy taste.

Sashimi Salad, greens with sashimi cubes. Drizzle the vinegary sauce over and you get a healthy dish. I realised that carrot was very finely minced and added in the sauce. That's one more vegetable to your garden salad. This is the Tetsu's specially concocted wafu dressing. I felt it's always good to have a salad before feasting on the fried food.

Fugu Mirin Boshi @$10(L), Kawa Ebi Karaage @$8(R)

Again, it's my first time to taste fugu (puffer fish). I have seen chefs in a drama preparing puffer fish sashimi. Don't be deceived by the cute appearance of the puffer fish. Cute can also kill! Fugu is lethally poisonous. It is the second MOST POISONOUS vertebrate in the world. On Tetsu's menu, what you get is dried puffer fish seasoned with sake. It tasted like bak kwa minus off the greasiness. It's a great beer/sake snack. You should give it a try!

The kawa ebi karaage, deep fried river shrimps, were not small. They were short and fat. Sashimi Moriawase @$55

Assorted Sashimi. I looked at it, I beamed. I ate them, my beam broke into a laugh. Amari desu~ Oiishi desu~ The sashimi was very fresh and they were sweet. DELICIOUS.

Yaki Niku @$16

Grilled beef tenderloin slices. The succulent hand-grilled beef slices were coupled with a sauce which tasted like the Japanese worcestershire sauce newly created in the hands of Tetsu's chefs to suit this dish. It managed to seduce one who turns away from beef everytime to say that the yaki niku was tasty and didn't reject a second slice. It was this good. Must-try!

Hiyashi Udon @$6.80

I like udon but most of the time I had my udon fried. This udon was very different from those that we get from supermarkets. 3 reasons why you should eat udon. First of all, it was air-flown from Japan. Second, it was thinner. Thirdly, the udon was surprisingly very tangy. The cold udon was light and refreshing.

Katsu Curry Rice @$16.50

I loved curry but my heart is more receptive to the Japanese curry. Singaporeans loved spicy food. Tetsu's curry rice had a mild spiciness and hey, it did not have a powdery taste. Once, I watched a Taiwanese variety show on food, featuring a famous braised pork trotters outlet in Taiwan. When asked why is it that their pork trotters is so good, the chef replied that it was because they have been using the same pot of braise sauce to cook the pork trotters for many YEARS!

Fear not, Tetsu's curry has not been re-cooked for many years. I came across Tetsu's interview on papers and got to know that their curry could only be served after a night of rest. The chef said this will make the curry tastier as the contents in the curry had submerged, thus making the taste matured and then it's ready to serve. Ah....the cooking knowledge in there. The pork katsu was very different. The breaded crust went "ka-cha" as I took a bite. So crispy. The meat was juicy. If you like curry rice, try Tetsu's.

Grilled Wagyu Slices

Extra. Out of the menu, a courtesy of Chef 谢. While waiting for our other dishes to arrive, Chef made us this dish. Take a closer look at the marbling and notice the hand-grilled to perfection skills, I don't mind another plate. It was very delicious, chef!

Yuzu Ice-cream on Strawberry Sherbet @$5.80 (L), Goma Ice-cream

The yuzu (柚子) ice-cream was unique because usually we see the very common choice, matcha ice-cream in Japanese restaurants and not yuzu. The ice-cream was smooth and also very refreshing as it was with a tinge of sourness. It tasted like a hybrid of lemon and grapefruit and/or sour mandarins. A citrus fruit. Lots of vitamin-C. Makes the perfect ice-cream in this hot summer.

Tetsu's new menu at a whole new level brought with it good food and service. I had a very good lunch at Tetsu.

Extra: Tetsu's "Summer-licious" brings you summer favourites at a special price from just $4.80 on Mon-Thurs evenings.

Thanks to Tetsu and Racheal for the hosting.

Tetsu
163 Tanglin Road
#03-18 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 68363112

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311. Toast II

Rose cupcake @$4.50

Toast. Go for their cupcakes. But hey, I'm not saying that only their cupcakes are nice, it's just that I'm always there for their cupcakes. Ya know, grab-and-go kind. Having had tasted their limonata, we fell completely, entirely in love. I happened to be at Raffles Place yesterday and I wanted to grab a cupcake or 2. Too late, they are left with just the rose cupcakes.

Rose cupcake contained glacing made of rose,raspberry and lychee if I didn't remember wrongly. It was a pleasing smell. Reminded me of rose isaphan. The cupcake was moist. And I was for a moment, shocked when I found something whitish in the middle of the cupcake. I thought....don't tell me that is some plastic or tissue. Gosh....embarrassed. How could that be? It's actually a lychee.

Some people may resist the taste of rose as rose has quite a strong floral smell. I was once so but I think for the rose cupcake here, the addition of lychee made it better.

See my previous entry.

Toast
OUB Centre
Unit 01-09
OUB Centre1
Raffles Place
Singapore 048616
Tel 6534 1755

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310. Wine-infused Macaroni

Some time ago, I bought this pasta sauce at NTUC. It's creamy tomato sauce with chardonnay. Wine-infused. I wondered how would it taste with the chardonnay, having been made into ready-to-cook sauce and not added when preferred. So, I decided to use it for my pan fried macaroni. It's easy and what's better than your home cooked food?

My Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of Macaroni
1 egg
2 tbsps of pasta sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 clove of shallot
half cup of water
2 crabsticks (cut into shorter lengths)
1 chicken frank(sliced diagonally)
chopped coriander(add as you wish)
some parmesan cheese powder and chili flakes for seasoning.

Directions

1. Cook the macaroni in boiling water. Add a pinch of salt. Drain them in a strainer when cooked.

2. In a pan, add some oil. Sauteed the diced garlic and shallot. Add in the chicken frank and crabsticks. Stir-fry for a while.

3. Add in the pasta sauce and add the water. Mix well. Allow the sauce to come to a boil. You may wish to add a pinch of salt if you find the sauce not flavored enough.

4. Add in the cooked macaroni. Stir well.

5. When the sauce is about to dry up, crack the egg over the macaroni. Allow it to be cooked for some time before tossing the macaroni.

6. Add in the chopped coriander.

7. Serve on a plate. Topped it with parmasan cheese powder and chili flakes. Done!

309. Jing Hua Fish Head/Sliced Fish Bee Hoon

Sliced Fish Bee Hoon @$4

The Maxwell Food Centre is crowded on working days and even on a Sunday morning! As usual, Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice had a very long queue and I could see the other hawkers "hawking" at the queue with their big big eyes. I once saw how the neighbour stall owners talking curtly to the people queuing for Tian Tian to move away from their stalls.

Walking further in, I saw another queue and I decided to join the queue. A table directly in front of the stall sat 3 persons savouring on their fish bee hoon, slurping in the hot bee hoon and I wondered if it was really so delicious. I noticed the young chef used a very big fire. The fire flames engulfed the pathetic aluminium pot which has been 'working' non-stop and I wondered again how healthy is this way of cooking? Definitely not on the top list. So after a cool wait of approximately 20 mins, I got my bowl of sliced fish bee hoon.

The fish slices were cut in big slices, doubled the size of batang fish slices we usually have for fish bee hoon. And of course, they are not using batang fish. However, I also have no idea what kind of fish they are using. The bee hoon smelled nice with the sesame oil and huadiao wine. The stock was tasty. The sliced fish bee hoon was slightly above mediocre but I wouldn't say it was heavenly nice.

There was also a long queue for the Hainanese Curry Rice in the same row of stalls. Ah Singaporeans!

Maxwell Food Centre
1 Kadayanallur Road
Singapore 069184

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