295. Lai Lai Family Restaurant

It was a lazy weekday afternoon, it so happened that a friend is free from work so we went out for a grab and did some grocery shopping. Went Lai Lai, another outlet at Jurong Point. My friend had the mee-sua, tofu with minced meat and a glass of pearl milk tea. Looking at her mee-sua made me reminisce of Taiwan's A-zong mee-sua at Xi Men Ding. The patrons hold the hot bowl of starchy mee-sua in their hands and eat it whilst standing. I did not try Lai Lai's so I have no idea if it was on par to A-zong's.


Chef Salad

Eating at a timing after lunch and before dinner, what is this meal called? A few days ago, I saw a review on tea. And it was mentioned that Singaporeans usually call this meal HIGH-TEA but it was wrong!

HIGH-TEA - A meal eaten in the late afternoon, probably after 6pm.
The correct answer should be AFTERNOON TEA.

And so...I decided a salad seemed to be the best option. Lai Lai's 2-5pm special deal. I had the chef salad along with a side dish and a fruit freeze at $6.90. The salad was good, a mixture of red, green and yellow capsium, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage and roasted melon seeds. But I didn't like the vinegrette dressing. A tad too sour.

Fried Century Egg Wedges

It didn't look appealing with the coated skin. Taste was just so-so. Nothing special in particular, just probably another way of presenting the century egg.

Banana Freeze w/ konnyaku Jelly

I had the banana freeze. Banana is good. Aids digestion. With the colourful cubes of konnyaku jelly, the drink is made interesting. Also, those cubes gave the freeze texture.

I think the 2-5pm special deal at $6.90, available only for the weekdays, is worthed the money. Unfortunately, most of us are unable to enjoy this deal because we are occupied with work. Well, you can, if you are 'free'.

See previous entry here.

Lai Lai Family Restaurant
Jurong Point
Basement1

214. New Taiwan Restaurant

We were served two small bowls of braised tofu with fried ikan bilis. Served in place of the usual pickles, achar. It was hot like it was just cooked ready-to-serve. It was a good dish to go with porridge.

And....before we were served of our dishes, a small bowl of greasy gravy was served. The waitress said it was for us to drizzle on our rice. So, it was the braised sauce. I tasted a bit. It tasted of cinammon and star anise. Like the braised sauce used for ducks. The layer of oil put off the idea of having it in our rice.

Stir fried French Beans @$14

Average. No crunch on the french beans. Dried shrimps whole added. Not the pounded hay-bee-hiam.

Pan-Fried Cod Fish @$30

It was delicious. Very crispy on the exterior and yet not oil laden. The sauce was not too salty and of the right density. However, it lacked the wow. I felt the sauce could be further improved. Maybe add a little spice to create the oomph.

Ngoh Hiang @$12

The ngoh hiang was above-average. It wasn't oil-laden. The friendly waitress reminded us that it was piping hot. It was one of the ngoh hiangs which I felt had not had too much fats in them.

Century egg with cold tofu @$6

It was my 1 of my favourite dishes of Taiwanese cuisine. I felt it was a refreshing and healthy dish. New Taiwan Restaurant has had pork floss added to the tofu. The sauce was a little bland. The amount of pork floss was slightly too much. But for that quantity @$6, I felt it was quite cheap. I felt some chopped chili and parsley would have increase the overall taste.

Sweet potato porridge @$0.80

The porridge was slightly watery.

Makansutra 2007 rated it excellent. I felt the food was just decent. Same goes for the price.

Our bill worked out to $91 for 5 pax. No service charge but service was still good. I dare not say it will still be the same on weekdays where business would have been much better with the working crowd. On public holidays, it seems like restaurants in the CBD area have less business.

New Taiwan Restaurant

110 Amoy Street

Tel: 63248310

132. Lai Lai Family Restaurant

It's time to change to a simple fare before me and my makan kakis turned broke. Last night, we ventured to the bustling Liang Seah Street for Lai Lai's beef noodles and the Lu Rou Fan. But in the end, Lu Rou Fan was left out of our list. I have been to Liang Seah Street many times, for the steamboat next door, for Ah Chew's desserts opposite it and yet not once for Lai Lai.

A Taiwanese eatery sandwiched between 2 steamboat restaurants. On the level floor, there is a bar counter but no alcohol drinks, just bubble tea. I reckoned the glasses were just for show.

The 3 of us took us the sets A, B and C. All on noodles. A main, a side dish and a glass of bubble tea at $13.30 did help us save a few dollars......to be accumulated for the next makan hunt? Maybe.

Side dish- Fried beancurd

The fried beancurd wasn't in anyway special. Just fried beancurd.

Side dish - Pepper Salt Chicken

The pepper salt chicken is a famous snack of Taiwan. I still remembered the days I toured Taiwan. Every night, I will queue for the pepper salt chicken at Xi Men Ding. It was so woolala....makes me drool now. The pepper salt chicken at Lai Lai was just so-so because I think the one at Xi Men Ding is the ultimate. My makan kaki felt it was a tad too salty.

Noodles in miso base with fish fillet toppings

I didn't taste this so I shall reserve my comments on it. However, my makan kaki who ate this had the runs for the night. I am not sure if this bowl of noodles caused his bowels to suffer or he ate something wrong earlier on. Me and another didn't run to the loo.

Beef Noodles

Added another $1 to enjoy tendons. It does look like it's a big bowl but it was definitely the psychological influence. The meat and tendons, 2 pieces each. Noodles in soup sure looked more in quantity than a bowl of dry noodles. The soup broth had a piquant herbal taste. The noodles was harder than the usual noodles we eat. The texture was more like that of udon. More chewy. I wondered if the noodles would be hard to digest.

Side dish - Century egg and tofu

This is another common side dish in Taiwan. I think it's a pretty healthy starter. No oil. The tofu in its original taste. Maybe just not too healthy to eat too many century eggs.

Pork ribs noodles

The noodles were dry. Stewed pork ribs were then added to the noodles, together with red dates and wolfberries. Very much like a bowl of vegetarian style noodles. The taste was quite light.

3 of us ordered the red tea bubble tea. The drink was quite different in taste to the Sweet Talk's version. It was quite weird. I guessed the difference laid in the type of red tea and not the milk. It wasn't too sweet though. The pearls were smaller in size and was sweetened, more likeable compared to Sweet Talk's.

Add another $1.80 to enjoy dessert of the day - Almond Jelly. The dessert was basically an instant type. Make the almond jelly and add a spoonful of canned cocktail.

The bill totalled up to $47.20. Service was prompt. Could cater to 2 storeys of customers.

Lai Lai Family Restaurant
20 Liang Seah Street
Singapore 189041
Tel: 6837 1556

Opening Hours: 11.30 am - 3am daily

59. Taiwan Muah Chee

If you have been to taiwan recently, you will catch this 一之軒 muah chee advertisement on their tv. [Cherish the memories]. This is a gift souvenier shop where they sell handmade muah chee. Taiwan has a lot of muah chee outlets. The first time I went, I bought muah chee made of fruit yogurt fillings and not of those traditional fillings from another shop. [Cherish the memories] wasn't so popular then.

Last month I went again, I saw this shop's advertisement but didn't buy any. None of my family members like muah chee. This was brought over by a taiwanese friend. The muah chee from this shop was not bad. The skin was very Q. They had this strawberry muah chee. Together in the box was some sort of strawberry-jam-alike for you to dip your muah chee into it. Pretty innovative.

54. Taiwan - 吉元酒家

chye-po egg

吉元酒家 is located at shilin night market. Wondering why would I go for a restaurant when I could easily fill my stomach with the wide varieties of snacks available at this night market? I have got travel companions who can't do without a proper meal. A proper meal....rice with dishes. Haha.

I liked the 三杯 tofu. It was so good that I kept attacking it. It was a big pot but we finished it. The chye-po egg was a complimentary. I think they must have thought some HK food reporters arrived at their shop? All eyes were on us when we were there with the camera. They had thought we were hongkongers and we didn't want to explain we were not because we wanted to eat the food before our eyes. Haha.

The roasted chicken was served with squared pickled radish. Usually, in singapore, roasted chicken was served with achar, a variety of pickled cucumber, carrot and white radish.

The food there was reasonably good. One thing I didn't like was the waiters, waitresses and even the kitchen staffs were like staring at us while we have our meal. They had a open concept kitchen. Our bill totalled up to app NT1200 (SGD55). Considered pretty cheap for a restaurant's standard.

53. Taiwan - 明福餐厅

明福餐厅, another taiwanese style restaurant. The taiwanese loved to cook food in "三杯" style which basically used 九层塔 leaves. These leaves has a very strong smell, almost like peppermint leaves but stronger. This restaurant mainly served seafood. We only ordered 3 dishes as the pot of octopus was too big. 3 was enough. This clamy stuff is called 九孔, the son of abalone? Compared to the one I had in Qingdao, it cost only SGD3. In taiwan, it is much expensive. I would say this was a simple fanfare for us. My bill totalled up to NT1360 (SGD 62) for these 3 dishes. I think it is expensive. The octopus alone cost SGD35.

52. Taiwan - Dante Coffee

Caramel macchiato @SGD3.40
American brew @SGD1.60

Lamb chop

If you are hungry and want to have a nice cuppa of coffee, go Dante Coffee. The coffee there is good. I tried the macchiato, great! The lamb chop....I thought what good would come out of a coffee focused cafe. I was wrong. The lamb chops was good. The rosemary matched well with the lamb chop. The sauce went well with the chops. The sauteed mushrooms....you thought they were just plain jane, no they weren't. They were nice too. Only flaw was the portion of rice was equivalent to a single scoop of ice-cream. It will be excellent if more rice was given. This lamb chop was cheap and well worth. Priced at NT128 (SGD 5.80). Where can you get such a cheap plate of lamb chop? Coffee was priced at a much much lower range than the mega monster, starbucks too. They ain't any inferior type.

51. Taiwan- 鱼丸伯仔

This is a definitely must-try ! Located at 九份, a few stalls away from entrance. Their 冬粉 with the miso sauce is very nice. The fishballs are all freshly made. One funny thing happened when I was eating at this stall. The cook herself was eating cup noodles! I guessed she must have been tired of what she is selling ! After all, this stall has been there for 55 years! One set cost only SGD55.

50. Taiwan - 明月汤包

The XLB here were very delicious!! Whenever I visit taiwan, I will definitely go to this eatery. It's freshly made on the spot. The soup in the XLB oozed out piping hot with a small bite. I swore their XLB is definitely better than those served at Ding Tai Feng in Singapore. Their 锅贴 were real crispy. The bowl of yellow gluey stuff was the 小米粥 , a healthy food. Goes very well with the side dishes they have there. The food served at 明月汤包 was cheap and good. My last visit, they have opened another eatery at the alley next to this, one with more dishes. My bill totalled up to NT330 (SGD15).