315. Banana Leaf BBQ Seafood

Otah

The otah they are selling was made ready and packed in boxes but when it was not served as it was seen. Ah...they flattened the otah. Hmm, I felt the flattened otah tasted nicer than it was in a rectangular size.

BBQ Stingray

Many said their BBQ is good. My friend has been craving for BBQ stingray for some time so I suggested trying out Banana Leaf's. Business was quite good for them. My friends and I felt the BBQ stingray was just mediocre. The sambal chili was hot, hot and hot. Too spicy, I felt. The stingray was a tad overgrilled as the meat was slightly dry and hard.

Fried Sambal Kang Kong

I reminded the auntie who took our order to let the kitchen staff know of less oil for our plate of kang kong but still it was oily. It was a tad too salty too. Must go with rice.

It cost $32 for all. I'm not sure how the rest of their seafood taste but the stingray alone didn't make me or my friends agree that their BBQ seafood was nice.

Banana Leaf BBQ Seafood
Blk 450 Clementi Ave 3
#01-271 Singapore 120450

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314. Grafitti Cafe

I seldom shop at far east plaza after my secondary school life ended. Just half a day in school and the rest of the time to myself. I think I had the most free time as a secondary kid and yes...I missed those days. Now, like 'Money-not-enough', 'Time-also-not-enough'. I didn't know and wouldn't have known if my friend had not tell me that there is this cafe at Level One.

Grafitti Cafe as its name suggested, the walls were full of scribbling left behind by the diners. My friend said the mess made on the walls made dining uncomfortable. I personally felt that it was cool. Well, those 'work' may not well be categorized in the artistic section but it was a form of communication.

Pontian Wanton Mee @$3.50

Anyway, Grafitti Cafe sells the pontian wanton mee which we could also see in hawker centres, along with bubble tea and desserts. So, it is like a convenience eatery for shoppers who want to grab a bite before getting on with their spree.

I felt the mee tasted alright but had too much oil added. I poured some of the soup into the mee and was quite disgusted by the appearance of a thick layer of chili oil that was washed off the mee. Please excuse me, I feared for blockage of blood arteries. My friend said the portion was small, I felt the amount was enough.

But hey, try their yam fragrance ice blended drink. It was nice.

Grafitti Cafe
Far East Plaza
#01-18/19

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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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308. Le Pasta

Pesto @$4.80

Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre, my fingers and toes are not enough to count the number of times I have been there. It's a place I frequent since young. These days, the hawker centre has turned 'international', offering not just the usual hawker fare but also Japanese and Thai food and even pasta.

The greenish pasta, Pesto, caught my eye as the boyish looking boss served it to a man in formal attire 1 table away from me. I walked to his stall, there was no one and I saw the young boss hurriedly ran back with beads of perspiration trickling down his face. One man did it all.

With fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and grated cheese makes pesto. I specifically ordered my spaghetti to be cooked softer and not al-dente. I don't like my pasta made al-dente. The pesto was aromatic and the taste was nice. A light pasta. What's more, it's cheap. If you didn't want to spend a lot on your pasta and yet hoped that you won't get a yucky one, you may want to consider Le Pasta.

Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre
#02-158
116 Upper BT Timah Road

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307. Bolu Gulung Meranti

Bolu Gulung (Keju) @Rp 40,000 (SGD 5.80)

Bolu Gulung, it means roll tart in Indonesian language or what we see here, a swiss roll. The bolu gulung from Meranti, Medan, is a famous food souvenir that tourists will buy back home. Once, I asked my Indonesian friend what is there to buy from Indonesia. And food was her reply. Narrow down from the word 'food', the usual buys will be Indonesian bakes; cakes or cookies.

In Singapore, we have our Bengawan solo, known for its 'green' cake (pandan chiffon cake); in Indonesia, they have Meranti, known for their bolu gunlung. Checked it out with my Indonesian friend and she said she heard Meranti has had no preservatives added to their cakes. "Tidak Ada Calang" was printed on their package box. I wondered if it meant no preservatives added.

The one that I had has had shredded cheese (keju) in it. The sponge was sweet and soft but it was very oily. Too much butter and oil? If you have noticed from the picture(above), the package box was already oily having had absorbed the oil from the roll. Overall, the taste was nice but it didn't make me attempt another slice. It is cheap and makes a great souvenir but if you have health-consious friends then you may want to select another souvenir for them. I have also heard that advance orders have to be made for their cakes.

Bolu Gulung Meranti
Jalan Kruing No. 2-K, Medan
Tel (061) 453-8217

306. Familie Oven

Familie Oven. The name suggested bake. Yes, cake(s). The online media has grown so much to our convenience that we do not have to go to the supermarkets to get our groceries, shopping malls for our clothes and even to bakeries for our cakes. Familie Oven operates via its online website (www.familieoven.com) with the home bakers, Lim and his wife. With the belief that a cake bonds everyone together and Lim's fondness for chocolate fudge cake, the couple started out Familie Oven.

Familie Chocolade

Familie Chocolade- a two layer dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate fudge. I have not tried any of the very much raved about chocolate fudge cakes from Lana cake shop, Jane's cake station and etc so there will not be any comparison made and I shouldn't for Familie Oven is just a starter in this industry.

A thin layer of velvety alike chocolate ganache covered the chocolate sponge cake. The sponge cake was spongy. I felt the two most important things I looked for in a good chocolate fudge cake are the moisture in the fudge cake and the taste of the chocolate ganache. Familie Oven's had the moisture but I felt it will taste even better if it could be made a tad more moist.

The chocolate ganache was bittersweet and Lim told me that they have made the cake not-so-sweet. I liked the cake not-so-sweet. In fact, I felt the level of sweetness was just right. I have tried some chocolate fudge cakes which were made slightly too sweet and I did not like it as much as Familie Oven's. I was looking for one where the ganache amalgamates smoothly to the sponge but somehow Familie Oven's still a little far from that. I realised that the chocolate ganache had a texture akin to gelatin, not very much, just a little. The chocolate ganache was dense but don't expect the very moussey kind.

I personally feel that Familie Oven's chocolate fudge cake is good and decent enough to warrant a try. In fact, my family and I liked the cake as it is presented and of course, welcome the better.

Lastly, thanks to Lim for the wonderful cake.

Familie Oven

E-mail: sales@familieoven.com

Phone : 9 029 2191

305. East Coast Lagoon Food Village II

10 km ? Yes, I can...Thriathlon? No..no, spare me. It was a big event, the Osim Thriathlon 2009, held at East Coast Park (ECP) on 1-2 August. I went there for cycling. I think it's great that such events are held at ECP. ECP was burstling with energy that weekend. We ordered some satay, barbequed wings and hokkien mee. The food was mediocre but it was the people, environment and the energy that made eating filled with joy, especially the satisfaction on the faces of the participants.

See previous entry

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East Coast Lagoon Food Village
1220 East Coast Parkway
Opens : 11am to 10pm

304. Tan's Tu Tu Coconut Cake

Phew! Finally, I managed to post. My lappy went on a 'strike' and I sent it for a week of 'free counselling'. It came back to me with a healthy 'heart' but when I wanted to post, blogger has had problems with its post editor which made me keep my post for another 2 days.

During this period, I came across a few readings on the different perspectives towards living life and I pondered how the rest of the people perceived this food blog. Frankly speaking, I am no food critic nor connoisseur, I merely shared my dining experiences. Be it good or bad or even to the extreme, I blogged my felts. Everyone has a different taste and acceptance level when it comes to eating. I particularly hate it when people take my words and twist the meaning behind it. Just like people who lack originality in writing and chose to plagarize. C'est la guerre !

Located at a corner of the halal coffeeshop at clementi where the famous Brothers rojak is, my colleague introduced to me this tutu kueh (steamed rice flour cake) made with the Tan family's heirloom recipe (stated on their namecard). I have not heard of them until my colleague recommended it to me. I often go to clementi for lunch and I know it is a hit with regulars, my colleague is one. Filled with ground peanuts or grated coconut, get 4 for $2 or 10 for $5.

I had it hot, it was very nice. It was soft and the coconut fillings which was mixed with gula melaka released a pleasing fragrance. The sweetness was just right for me. My mum finds it a tad too sweet. Another time, I had them packed and 10 minutes later, the tutu kueh turned hard and it wasn't nice. So, remember to have them hot.

Extra: The popiah stall which is just right beside Tan's tutu kueh is also a hit!

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Tan's Tu Tu Coconut Cake

Blk 449 #01-211

Clementi Avenue 3