Mix and match

This post will be about random food from random places! Just a collection of what I had before.

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Main course

Kim Gary 

Must have at kim gary!! Their baked rice is the best because it's super fragrant and it's tasty! But it's abit overwhelming for one person so maybe sharing is better? 

You can pick between the cream/tomato sauce or have the best of both world by picking both!!

Paradise Dynasty @ Ion

 Colourful xiao long baos! It is appealing and pleasing to the eyes but not necessary the taste bud. Hmm, not every flavour taste good honestly. For example, the one with cheese doesn't even taste cheesy at all.

Ponggol Nasi Lemak

 Because my bf is the kind of person who live to eat, his favourite nasi lemak is from this stall. After hearing it a few times where he had it for his supper, I begged him to bring me HAHA. Maybe it was just me, but I don't think the nasi lemak is anything special? Perhaps I just don't really fancy nasi lemak (I don't take spice well so I don't know what's so nice about the chilli) 

The Soup Spoon

 Their soups and bread are super tasty and they are filling, I love their velvety mushroom the most!! I tried the clam chowder once and it was.. too jelat

The sandwiches are super yummy, I had the pineapple chicken sandwich and I thought it was a weird combination but NO, the marinade was well seasoned and the chicken was flavourful. 

Manhattan Fish Market

 I'm never returning to MFM anymore. The food was bad and totally not worth the price at all, they even changed their menu recently when I went! The sotongs were tasteless and it was just bad, the prawns are not juicy, the cups were dirty as well.

From some stall at takashimaya b2. It looks good but it isn't, the rice was a little hard and for the price, I recommend yayoiken instead.

Chomp Chomp Food Centre

It was my first trip to chomp chomp!! (what have I been doing for the past 16 years of my life)

My girls ordered 2 sambal stingrays (from different stalls, and the one from the stall that has channel u or some tv channel paled in comparison with the one from a stall that looks sloppy), chicken wings, hokkien mee, satays and rojak!! What a satisfying night

And this is my bf's favourite katong laksa. It is located at bugis area, opposite og (where rockery and barcook bakery is situated)  

And yes, I'm always going on a food hunt with my bf!!

 A better photo of the laksa where the lighting is better! This is also the first laksa I learned to eat because I really can't take spice at all!! But I still need a drink to go with the laksa because I'm really THAT BAD with spicyness!!

Astons

Grilled pork chop, potato salad and corn on the cob. 

Astons serve the best value for money western food and the side I'll always order will be the potato salad!! Super delicious yet cheap.

Dessert

Paradise dynasty 

Some puff with banana and red bean, nothing fantastic. Just adorable.

Chocolate origins

 So recently, there's this hype about molten lava cakes and I saw on instagram where my friend had this and I went to try it. For only $5 a cup, you'll get an extremely delicious yet not overly-sweet lava cake. (Half of it is the chocolate cake, while the bottom part is the vanilla ice cream) The design of the dessert is also convenient for a sweet treat while shopping!

Paris Baguette

Caramel, original and mango respectively from left to right.

The original is sweet enough so the caramel one was overly sweet. The mango one had an artificial and weird taste to it so both my friend and I dislike it. To be honest, I don't understand why is everyone raving about royal pudding because I find it normal? It's also quite pricey ($6-$7 for a bottle)

Salted Caramel Artisan Ice Cream @ Upper Thomson Rd

This ice cream parlour is super cosy and the amount of ice cream flavours they serve is too much especially for a fickle minded person like me!! I kept asking the staffs to let me try some of the flavours (before I actually decided) and I was spoilt for choice.... I was tempted by ALL!!! I'm a sucker for sweet food ESPECIALLY ICE CREAM!!!! yum. the cooling sensation and sweetness that lingers.

Ok, so I made up my mind and got the avocado and earl grey. 

The avocado was surprisingly light in taste yet rich, you have to try it for yourself!

The earl grey was good in the sense that the bitterness was not too strong and it is better than the one I had at udders (another ice cream parlour, fyi) 

I personally prefer salted caramel to udders because the ice cream at salted caramel is much more light, while the ones at udders is much more heavier and creamy.

Imperial Treasure

Imperial Treasure Seafood Restaurant @ Jem

 Century egg with lean meat congee

Imperial treasure has the best congee among all the chinese restaurant!!! Their congee is those smooth and not grainy kind! It's also flavourful and I love it!!

Fried intestines

Okay, this might not appeal to everyone but I went with my mum and it was my treat for her.

So the intestines were chewy and easy to bite (same as putien's) and it was quite good.

Har gau/prawn dumpling

Baked (?) Char siew pau

 There are two types of char siew pau on the menu (if I didn't remember it wrongly, so don't order the wrong one!) 

This char siew pau is a little like bread, not the pau skin or the flaky one from tim ho wan but those soft bread texture.

 罐汤饺/ Soup dumpling with scallop

When I ordered this, I thought it was gonna be like xiao long bao, mini with soup inside but this totally caught me off guard.

It was a one pax serving and it was pretty difficult to eat, it is impossible to eat the entire dumpling on its own without the fillings spilling. 

Tastewise: 7/10

Liu sha bao/custard bun

Liu sha bao is not one of my must order food at dimsum so I don't really know how to tell if a liu sha bao is good or not!! :x

But this liu sha bao's paste is not very thick so it wont be too jelat.

 Hasma/雪蛤 

 This is quite disgusting if you know what it is actually made out of, but it's a nourishing dish. (It is made from the fatty tissues near the fallopian tubes of toads) You can google it, it has health benefits that aids in respiratory problems or something. 

But it is yummy (to me)! Like some jelly kind of thing!

Overall: good food but a bit on the pricey side. We spent about $70 for 2 pax.

Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House @ Ion 

Honey lemon with aloe vera & signature milk tea 

Try their milk tea! (Skip the honey lemon drink) It's those thick and rich kind and not diluted. (But it's abit on the bitter side due to the rich tea taste)

Congee (mix and match ingredients)

When you're at any of the imperial treasure restaurant, ORDER THEIR CONGEE!

 Bite sized egg tart

My bf said it was normal because it's the flaky skin type and not the biscuit kind! 

But it was quite yummy hehe, comparable to the ones I had in hongkong! (maybe I'm just a sucker for egg tarts)

 Ee fu noodle and special sauce (hongkong) chee cheong fun

I hate the special sauce (peanut sauce, sweet sauce, soya sauce) type of ccf!! :( It was only because of my bf that we ordered it and we regretted immediately haha. He had to finish it himself!

Skip the ee fu noodle, not really that impressive for the price! It was about $13 or $14 and the amount of ingredients inside was pathetic. (I expected with egg, mushroom and some veggie)

But eefu noodle is just pricey (I have no idea why???) and I ordered it that day because I had cravings.

Har gau and xiao long bao 

I think the har gau has chestnut bits inside and I dislike it! And my bf hates the xlb because he claims the soup has a strong meat taste (which I agree, as compared to those in din tai fung)

*din tai fung is clear and rich soup while this is abit richer in taste

Overall: It was much cheaper at this outlet, about $50 for the 2 of us. (their pricing depends on the type of restaurant you're going as well since each and every serve different cuisines) 

One of the downside is the queue which is always very long (especially on weekends)

The staffs were also very friendly, making recommendations :)

All time favourite chinese restaurant: din tai fung

 I first started to eat dtf when I know my bf because he's a lover of it. haha! 

But it's true, the fried rice is super yummy!! It's not the tze char kind where there's a strong oil (wok) taste which I detest.

So I've been to dtf countless times!

Since the days I always filter my photos till now.. haha time flies..

So let me share with you some of the hit and miss at dtf!!

Appetizer: 

Hit: Prawn dumpling, which comes with a special sauce (triangle in the photo)

Miss: Prawn pancake (top right in the photo) -> I think it's too oily

Pork chop (slices of meat, top left hand corner) -> I don't like the seasoning of it! I prefer those tonkatsu kind of seasoning and my bf don't really eat meat so the first time I ordered it, I didn't finish the pork slices (even when I'm a meat lover)

 

MUST EAT: 小菜/xiao cai (this is their signature appetizer!) -> It has beancurd slices, black fungus, vermicelli and those ingredients you will find in popiah so it's very crunchy and a little spicy!

Main:

 MUST EAT: Fried rice with egg/prawn

 It is really very yummy!! Every spoon of rice is coated with egg and it's very flavourful! 

Sometimes my bf will have craving for it so we will go dtf just to eat their fried rice. 

 

And nowadays I noticed a lot of Caucasians eating it too!! Chinese food :D

Btw they are very generous with their prawns! I remembered there were about 8 in my plate of rice.

Dumpling with prawn -> my bf hates meat so he think this is a less meaty version of the xiao long bao!

MUST EAT:  Xiao long bao/soup dumpling 

Dtf's xlb is the best! Other places (like canton paradise, imperial treasure and etc), their xlb's skin is either too thick or their xlb has a strong meat taste (critiqued by my bf, since he is not a meat lover) or their soup is too thick and it affects the taste of the xlb.

Anyway ,recently I noticed the size of xlb has shrunk.

Left: this year | Right: last year 

{there's a significant reduction right?}

 Miss: Siew mai (dumpling with prawn and meat)

It is not like the usual kind of siew mai where it has a yellow skin and the meat is pounded, so the texture is different.

This siewmai is just like the xiao long bao, where the meat is minced (soft) and there's soup in it.

Steamed chicken soup

This is a clear and sweet soup where you can tell it is cooked for a long time because the meat in the soup is very tender. 

It is quite filling despite the portion, advised to share. 

Noodle

Average, maybe because I'm not a noodle fan. The noodles don't really look appealing to me either. 

I usually go for the one which is a set (noodle and chicken soup) so I can pour the soup over!

Desserts and drinks:

 Grass jelly topped with glutinous rice

This is usually our must order dessert at dtf! It is nothing fanciful but just unique and my bf loves it haha.

note: after eating, the glutinous rice might be stucked in between teeth gaps!

In addition, the service at 313 somerset is commendable! Although the outlet is shorthanded, they gave us 2 spoons to share the dessert while other outlets are not as meticulous.

Papaya soup with white fungus

This is supposed to be a  nourishing dish （养颜), but I thought it is really really really normal. 

Save the money and go elsewhere to have better papaya soup.

 Earl grey lemon tea

This is what we usually order! The earl grey taste is very subtle so people who might not fancy earl grey can try it!

Roselle tea

I am usually very adventurous when it comes to food so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try this. But, it was really weird. Maybe it is just not my cup of tea (PUN intended :P)

The drink is very 涩 (sorry I don't know how to describe it in english)

But the drink is very pretty with the flower :)

Tim Ho Wan @ Plaza Sing

 

So this is my second time at thw, because my mum wanted to try!

There are some new additions to the menu as well! (or maybe it's my memory failing me)

This is the steamed rice with chinese sausage, mushroom and chicken! 

The rice goes well with the sauce that was poured in and it's very flavourful!

Malay steamed cake 

which I though was mediocre (maybe because I don't really fancy it)

It is just something soft like a chiffon cake! 

Steamed beancurd roll 

This was not bad but the skin is a little too thick and it's hard to bite

 

Chicken with fish maw

A little bland

And the renowned char siew pau

I still think that it's too sweet though (I don't like the idea of sweet and savoury together)

But the skin of the pau is really nice! Crispy and flaky... 

So that's the end of my second thw trip! 

The queue was still a little too long... I went at about 12/1+ and I waited for around 30 mins?

But there were chairs provided outside the place for people to sit while queuing so the service is good!