Crystal Jade Kitchen

Was at the Audi Fashion Festival with my mom at the area outside of Ngee Ann City when we came out famished and decided to plant ourselves at the Crystal Jade Kitchen in Takashimaya.

Crystal Jade Kitchen is a regular dinner venue and has been an extremely successful chain in Singapore. Be it the Kitchen, La Mian Xiao Long Bao, Palace or the  Korean Ginseng; and now the latest additon – Home Cooked Specialities at Shaw Centre (which I happen to think is rather awesome too), they each carry their unique traits and are all popular in their own right. The quality and taste is rather consistent throughout the outlets and well, I wouldn’t say it’s cheap but it isn’t as expensive as some of the major fine dining chinese restaurants.

That Vesak day evening, I was actually quite annoyed as almost everything I picked was “out of stock”. This was a prime location which was used to long queues and crowds. It was barely 7ish on the evening of a public holiday and 4 out of 6 items I ordered were “sold out”. However, this displeasure soon dispelled when my “replacement” dishes were just so tasty! (coupled by the fact that I was beyond starving)

The prawns were amazing. The garlic bits were perfectly done. Not too burnt yet not too fresh either. They were a nice shade of brown and the prawns were fried crisp yet maintaining succulence. This was my favourite dish of the night and my “discovery” at Kitchen. I have ordered it on 2 other occasions since.

The eggplant was not bad, although I found it slightly less tasty than the ones I had at Holland Village. It lacked spice and the eggplant was a tad over-cooked so it was too soggy for my taste. Nonetheless, it was still delicious. Eggplant with spicy minced pork served in claypot is becoming more of a common dish now so rival places would probably be Pu Tien and Tung Lok. Price-wise, they are actually quite close. Maybe one day I will do an entry on “best eggplant with spicy minced pork”.  :)

The cod was the most unimpressive. I wouldn’t have ordered if it not because all my other favourites were OOS. Simple, heathy and undoubtedly fresh, the cod was steamed and served in soy sauce. I love soy sauce fish but I guess cod just isn’t the best combination for me. At wedding dinners, I love catfish or soon hock served in soy sauce. Now that’s what I call my “wedding dinner fish” as my friends would know.

I’m really sorry for this shoddy entry. I have been extremely busy and I am half dozing off now. Ate at SENSO recently so look out for that entry coming next!

Best Char Siew!

Remember the Char Siew I blogged about from the KL Oversea Restaurant? Well, they have made it across the causeway to Singapore!!

Please bear in mind that like KL, you need to call in advance to RESERVE the char siew. It’s not cheap (the plate above costs $30) but I promise you, it will be the best char siew  you have ever had. I don’t like char siew at all. I don’t take char siew rice, I don’t take them with my wanton mee…I just don’t. But I swear by these.

The right amount of fat, nicely burnt and just the right amount of sauce…simply perfection. A must try!!

100 Beach Road, #01-27  Shaw Leisure Gallery, Shaw Towers, Singapore

Tel: +65 6294 2638

Pu Tien – my new favourite Chinese Restaurant :)

A friend of S recommended Pu Tien to me. At that time, I wasn’t quite a fan. Perhaps it was the dishes we ordered back then, not to mention I was never big on cockles which was the prized dish. Cockles were something my parents ate and they had it raw at the hawker centres with chilli sauce.

It was a client lunch that brought me back to Pu Tien and I have been love with it ever since. Simple dishes but extremely tasty. I think what amazes me about Pu Tien is how it never fails to surprise me. Things like cockles which are really not my favourite type of shell fish (I don’t even take “ham” with my “char kway teow”), I love the way they prepare it here. Yam, which I don’t ever touch. Sweet and Sour Pork??? Seriously simple everyday dishes prepared in a unique and delicious manner. For those of you skeptics out there (like my friend A whom I have successfully converted, as well as my parents), you ought to give Pu Tien a world.

One of their signature dishes, the cockles seem simply prepared yet they taste so amazing you wonder why no one has done it before. Layered with garlic and soaked in light sauce with red cut chilli, this dish is addictive and oh so yummy!!

I love garlic so it’s no wonder I chose to order the bamboo clams steamed with GARLIC! They have some bamboo clam promotion I think so they basically have it served up in 8 different ways? I tried the salt and pepper preparation as well but I think clams should be STEAMED. Look at how cute the bamboo clams are! *slurp*

Really sorry I forgot the name of this soup. I believe it’s something “prawn in herbal soup”? Either way you can match the picture in the menu. This soup has just the right balance of herbs and sweetness. I think it’s really worth it at just $4.90 per serving. I loved this. It’s great especially when it’s cold or when you are nursing a flu. Or simply just enjoying a great soup!

This is yam would you believe it?! Fried with sugar I think, this coated yam has a nice sweet and burnt taste that is just delicious. It’s sorta crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Although a word of caution: it can get very “jelat” ie you might feel pretty saturated after awhile so don’t be greedy and order a SMALL.

Always a healthy dish to order. Spinach in suprerior stock. I wouldn’t say this is outstanding but I would say I think it’s better than the one served at Crystal Jade Kitchen (oops).

So do check out Pu Tien and let me know what you think. Sigh I feel like eating it again!! :S

http://www.putien.com/index.htm

Red Star Dim Sum

I had long heard about Red Star Dim Sum. Rumour was it is cheap and good. I have always wanted to check it out but never had the chance. Well, I finally did one Sunday morning.

Located in a block of HDB flats, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as we parked in a HDB multi-storey car park and walked our way up the stairs to the 7th floor. Right at the top of the stairs was the entrance to Red Star Restaurant, a simple big room with little or no partitions. The restaurant instantly strikes me as that of a traditional Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant. The carpets are of an old dirty red and the decor is clearly aged. You can’t order from a menu but wait patiently for the push carts to come your way with whatever dim sum it carries. Unfortunately as with time, Singaporeans have become more “kiasu” so the attitude wasn’t really about sitting at your table and waiting for the carts, but rather walking to the carts and taking the dish of your choice. Everyone was doing it so it was kinda difficult to even try following tradition and waiting for the carts to pass you by as they would be empty by the time they reached your table.

Personally, I found the selection of dim sum limited to the very authentic basics. Perhaps they have a wider variety which I didn’t get to see whilst I was there. The preparation and presentation of the dim sum were also very traditional. Frankly, I wasn’t very impressed and I found the whole experience whilst interesting and lively, the chaos and inconvenience of having to wait and take whatever is available isn’t something that I appreciate now in current times. Whilst I wasn’t impatient or annoyed, it isn’t an experience that I would covet after.

I don’t like cha siew sou but there was nothing much to take from the carts. It was ok. A tad dry though.

Not something I like either. Kinda hard and not something I would have ordered off a dim sum menu.

This was surprisingly relatively ok but only for the first few bites. After awhile it just tasted like cheap crab cakes.

The food was honestly mediocre but I thought if it were really cheap then perhaps it might be worth it. When the bill came, it was alright. Reasonable but not dirt cheap either. For the quality of food, the inconvenience of the location, the inability to make a reservation and having to queue for a table (although I must say they were pretty efficient), and the selection as well as having to take as served; I know I won’t be returning to Red Star. Sorry guys…but I think I’d rather take my money to places like Wah Lok or Yum Cha for their dim sum.

I don’t like siew mai so didn’t eat this. Siew Mai always makes me feel pukish somehow. Not sure why. Anyway S says it wasn’t great.

This was traditionally done and isn’t quite as white or firm as those in other more modern dim sum restaurants. It was alright although the prawns didn’t quite taste as fresh.

This was too traditional for my liking. It was very bland and not tasty at all. The pei-tan chok at Jumbo Restaurant is way better.

They only served it with cha siew! Already sian. I usually order this with scallops or prawns. So yup, totally didn’t enjoy this one. The sauce wasn’t yummy either.

I have been hearing good things about the Tung Lok dim sum so perhaps that will be next on my to try list…

Yum Cha in Serangoon Gardens!!!

Yes, that’s right! No need to go all the way to Chinatown or order delivery to taste the awesome dim sum at Yum Cha, cos now there’s an outlet right here in Serangoon Gardens! Located inside Serangoon Gardens Country Club, Yum Cha is open to public and it has been filling out every weekend so do make those reservations!

I don’t really know what is it I love about Yum Cha. For one, their dim sum variety is awesome and they do have a few unique dishes. And I guess, for every one of those not so unique dishes, like your regular har kau, cha sau pau, chee cheong fun, etc; they do them really well.

I love dim sum, and frankly, one of my favourite dim sum to-gos (aside from those in Hong Kong), is actually Wah Lok @ Carlton Hotel. Yum Cha comes a close 2nd.

Picture this: You wake up on a lazy Sunday afternoon, get dressed and throw yourself into a noisy restaurant, with waiters and waitresses moving around taking orders, serving orders, some pushing a cart, everyone chattering endlessly in a high ceiling hollow restaurant. You can’t help but feel the “day” and to top it off, sink your teeth and fill your stomachs with nice hot delicious tasting dim sum. Mmmmm….Absolutely love it. Something different from the regular American Sunday brunch affair at some Dempsey/Rochester-like place. YUM.

check out some of my favourite dishes…

• Mango Prawn Roll
• Scallop dumpling? (it’s the green one with scallops on the top)
• red bean pancake? haha I really should start remembering the names of the stuff I order!
• chives dumpling
• pei tan chok (century egg porridge)

And here’s most of what we ate…

Oh I have to say that whilst I am not a fan of fried carrot cake, the ones here are really good simply because they really fry them crisp and it’s extremely tasty without being too ‘heavy’.

 

YUM CHA

http://www.yumcha.com.sg/About.html

Late Night Cravings

It was 12midnight and I was famished. Had an early light dinner and crashed soon after so everything I ate was already well digested and I could feel the acids corroding the walls of my stomach. Late night food typically consist of the roti prata or maggi goreng at the Indian stalls open 24/7, or BBQ seafood at Newton Circus, or Zi Char at one of those food centres you end a night of clubbing. Well, here’s 2 more for the books at Holland Village.

Essential Brew

This place is supposedly opened and run by a group of Hwa Chong JC graduates. The 2-storey restaurant is pretty cosy with the upper lever catering to floor seating only. Decked with cushions and small tables with a huge glass fitted from ground to ceiling showcasing the traffic going by, it’s great for a class gathering or just a random catch up with close friends. The 1st floor has a more structured seating with the regular tables and chairs as well as sofa seats. The place opens till 3am most days and serves a mainly western/italian cuisine. What’s good? Try the fish and chips. It was pretty good the last time I visited. The garlic prawn pasta is tasty too. However I must warn you the smoked salmon pasta really isn’t smoked salmon but rather cooked smoked salmon. That didn’t work for me. Based on a previous experience some years back, I recall the coffee steak to be quite interesting as well. The desserts are worth a try too.

The overall ambience is chill, laid back and rather intimate. The food is bordering on slightly above average for some dishes, whilst the rest are ok for me. But with limited places serving proper warm western cuisines at this time of the night, I’d say Essential Brew is still an option.

269 Holland Ave (Holland Village)
Singapore 278990
Tel: +65 64676717
Fax: +65 64676737
Email: contact [at] essentialbrew [dot] com

Operating Hours:
Sun-Thu: 11am ~ 11pm
Fri-Sat, Eve of PH: 11am ~ 2am
Public Holiday: 11am ~ 1230am

http://www.essentialbrew.com/

Crystal Jade Kitchen

This is where I settled for last night. It had been very hot and humid all day so S and I went straight up to the 2nd floor where it was air conditioned seating. Goodness. Business is seriously flourishing and no recession is even hinted at Crystal Jade. It was packed and mind you, we were there slightly past midnight.

We sat down and started ordering right away. Everything on the menu especially the seafood looked so yummy I was tempted to have them all! Especially the crabs with minced garlic and chilli and the steamed fish. But seafood is really expensive here. However high the standard and quality of food, I wasn’t prepared to spend that much just for a late night craving so here’s what we had instead:

French Beans with Minced Garlic (this is off the dim sum menu)

Usually I have the one off the main menu which has chilli and shrimp paste, this costs $10.80; however I have discovered a cheaper satisfaction from the dim sum menu at just $6. Wahla! I was pleasantly surprised that the dim sum menu was still available even at such late hours. I love this dish. Being a big fan of garlic, this is very palatable and goes easy without the need for rice. A perfect munchie for those girl talks.

Scallops on Beancurd in Black Bean Sauce

Decided to try a new dish as this looked really yummy! I love scallops and I am a huge fan of fish head with black bean sauce. Combine my 2 loves and you get this very delicious dish which S and I finished quickly. The beancurd was soft and felt very healthy. The scallops were sliced thin so it wasn’t over-bearing. The sauce was very tasty and went well with the beancurd and scallop. However I must add that there was a thick layering of black bean sauce on top of the scallops that was a tad salty. This is probably my only complaint. Other than that, fantastic.

Fried Prawns with Chilli and Garlic

I thought good and long before ordering this as it was so expensive!! (seafood here is exp remember??) But oooooh, it was well worth it. The prawns were nicely fried and looked absolutely fresh with a bright orange. The head has been snipped off so no accusatory eyes were left staring at you. The legs had also been removed. The shells came off easily and the prawns were heaven accompanied by the not-overfried garlic and onions with a tinge of salt and chilli. Magnifique!

S had the Beef Brisket Noodle Soup which was as usual very good. The soup was yummy and perfect for a late night. I love dipping the beef into the sambal chilli!! *slurp* Yum! Yum!

In Hong Kong, there is this place I patronise frequently with my friends after clubbing called “Chwee Wah” (think I got the spelling wrong) and there is this Satay Beef Noodle Soup which I absolutely ADORE!! It’s served with Cu Mee Fen (Thick white round noodles), and has the most amazing soup ever. I LURVE IT!!! Wish they could serve it here in Singapore!! If you do visit, go check it out.  There is one branch at Lan Kwai Fong opposite “Yung Gei” (the famous duck place).

Holland Village No.2 Lor Mambong

Tel: 6469 0300 Fax: 6469 4057

http://www.crystaljade.com/

Until next time!!

Yummy Dim Sum

I LURVE dim sum and one of my all-time favourites has to be the one at Wah Lok, Carlton Hotel. This place is always crowded so do make reservations if you do not wish to be disappointed. Contrary to misconception, dim sum ain’t all that expensive. In fact, I would say the prices are reasonable for the quality and service.

Like a typical Cantonese restaurant, Wah Lok is actually quite spacious and is constantly bustling with incessant murmurs of the afternoon crowd, engaged in their various conversations whilst tucking in to the delicious spread. Variety is good and YES, they serve SCALLOP CHEONG FUN!

I first had this when I was in Hong Kong 2 years back. It was a common dish back there but not popularised here in Singapore yet. In Singapore all you had were Prawns and Cha Siew. Well, I am pleased to say that Wah Lok has got the Scallop Cheong Fun and it is YUMMY!

Another yummy dish I had here was the Steamed Carrot Cake. I came here the last time with S and we had the fried ones. Those were ok but the steamed ones rock. It’s very tasty yet subtle, not too jelat if you know what I mean. YUMMY!!

When I went with S, we also tried the Fish with Spice which was a playout. There was barely any meat, but for those of you who like the jelly part of this fish, you will love this. The gravy is actually very good, I just wish there was more meat than jelly for me to eat with the gravy…

I don’t really have anything bad to say frankly. I loved everything I ate. Even dishes I wasn’t big on tasted pretty good the way they did it. Wah Lok!!! I LIKE!!

Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant

Carlton Hotel, 2nd floor

http://www.carltonhotel.sg/dining_wah.htm

XO chee cheong fun

It was one of those Saturdays after work whereby S will pick me up and I would demand a decent lunch. But today, we had some errands to run around Bugis so we settled for the Char Chan Teng (Hong Kong cafe) at the 2nd floor of Bugis Junction. Well, I guess it was “settled” for me, but for S, he had been craving for the instant dry noodles served at the Hong Kong cafe.

I ordered what I had the last time and that was the XO chee cheong fun. A little spicy and sweet, I must admit that I cant quite taste the XO in this, but on the whole, I would say the dish is rather tasty. It is pretty light and not very jelat. The portion served is also managable.

S wanted to order his Nissin Dry Instant Noodles, but for some reason, the waiter told him they only had it in soup. I could have sworn he had it dry the last time we came. Puzzled and clearly disappointed, S decided to go ahead with the Noodle soup.

As it turned out, it wasn’t good at all. It tasted just like MSG with no distinct flavour. In fact even the Ice Lemon Tea I ordered was too sweet.

Whilst the XO chee cheong fun really wasn’t half bad; We are not going back there again.

Yuan Xiao

It was the last day of the Lunar New Year so the girls at work decided that we should dress ‘ching chong’ and go lou hei together. Things didn’t quite go as planned however. For one, we had a “traitor” in our midst (ehem!), a certain S didn’t show up in her ching chong attire. Given our irratic schedules, we also didn’t manage to make lunch. Instead, we were only all available around 4plus.

Our original intention was to have cheap dim sum at Red Star. But with our  late timing, that wasn’t too possible. In settlement, we headed to Crystal Jade Kitchen at Plaza Singapura, in keeping with our theme. It was a lovely afternoon for a bunch of over-worked girls to just chill, enjoy some bonding and some yummy delights.

Dim Sum – Fried Carrot Cake: This was actually pretty good. It was tasty and well made. Nothing spectacular though.

Dim Sum – Not sure what it’s called!! Haha sorry, but here’s a picture of it. It’s some fried thingy which is quite yummy. Thin and palatable. Not too jelat.

Dim Sum – French Beans with Fried Garlic: Now I usually come to Crystal Jade to have the French Beans with chilli and minced meat so I never knew of the existence of the dim sum version. Although similar, this dish is served with fried garlic instead. Upon first tasting, I preferred the dish in the main menu, however, it became pretty addictive and soon I was in love with it. A fan of garlic, the dish was particularly delicious because of the way the garlic was fried and of course, the generous serving of it. The dish was as a whole less oily and made for a good chit-chat snack. YUM!

Whilst the girls had porridge, I ordered my usual but long untasted Sauteed Prawn Hor Fun #77 on the menu. I used to proclaim this as an excellent dish, until our certain traitor S said “if a dish only tastes good with chilli, means it’s not really a very good dish.” What she said was nothing profound, yet it struck me that I did only like this dish with chilli. On its own, I found it jelat and very blend. SO as of that moment, this dish is off my Crystal Jade picks! Just as well for they keep raising the price of this dish and it’s getting more and more expensive! From $12.90 to now $16.90!

The girls shared some porridge and as I didn’t try it, I shall not comment. Leaving it up to you girls to comment now! Based on previous experiences however, their porridge have always been of a good standard. I recall having their seafood porridge which I ordered only because of the entire crab claw that they serve it with. The porridge was starchy yet watery, and on its own, very tasty. The seafood served along in it were of generous portions and very fresh. To me, porridge is a dish I have when I am sick, but I must say that the ones served here, are good for any meal.

We didn’t get to lou-hei in the end as we thought it was kinda expensive for something on a whim. Nonetheless, our time of girl talk and sharing was probably more well worth it all.