Tung Lok Seafood Review

I seemed to have "kou fu" (lucky to be able to eat) as I've been dining out lately. Not that home cooked food is no good, sometimes we just need to have a change. There are many foods which I can't cook, and so is my helper. For example, chilli crabs. When it comes to cooking, the most efforts are spent in preparation. The same goes true for baking too. The actual cooking or baking is very short, perhaps about 20% of the total time spent only. Do you agree?

We were going to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. As usual, I'll be the one entrusted to come up with the venue. As the birthday lady doesn't like other cuisine except Chinese, I decided on Tung Lok Seafood for her. Tung Lok Seafood in Orchard Central is situated at the rooftop, 11th level. I suggest you go up from the street level escalator as it was quite interesting. You'll have to take a few long escalators to reach the 11th level. The last escalator to reach 11th floor was extremely long. You almost cannot see the top, especially when it gets dark.

Tung Lok Seafood offers a-la-carte dinner buffet daily. It's $39.90++ per person. A minimum of four persons are required to have the buffet. Generally, the food is rather good (because it's Tung Lok). However, there are some dishes which I like very much.

Salmon Sashimi. The sashimi is very fresh. I share half of this portion with another friend as the other two don't take raw sashimi. What a pity!

 

Sautéed Chinese Spinach with Three Kinds of Eggs. This dish had been my favourite since the day I tried it. You just can't go wrong in ordering this!

 Crisp Fried Baby Squid. I saw the other table ordered this and insisted I had to have this. The baby squid was fried till very crispy. It wasn't chewy like some other places. The sauce was sweet, not spicy though. I just love them to bits!

Crispy Fish Skin with salted egg yolk. This is a must try! Must eat! Must indulge! The fish skin was coated with some flour and fried till d****d crispy! You can hear the crispy sound when you bite into it. The salted egg yolk was finely mixed with the fish skin. Curry leaves were also used in the frying. So can you imagine the taste? Crispy, curry leaves and salty! Ultra tasty! I happily volunteered to finish this dish!

Deep-fried Marble Goby (Soon Hock) with Chef’s Special Sauce. I will usually go for this fish if I see it on any menu. My dad told me this kind of fish is fresh when it's alive. You usually don't eat it (in the restaurant) when it's dead. The marble goby served was very very small! It's a baby! However, I still enjoy it as it was crispy, combined with the tasty sauce, it was perfect for me!

 

Barbecued Salmon Fish Head with Salt. This is another "must order" dish! The salmon fish head was beautifully barbecued with salt. I can smell the "just bbq" aroma when it was served to us. Immediately, I squeezed a wedge of lemon juice on it and can smell the fragrance of the lemon juice on the piping hot salmon skin!! The salmon meat tasted a little salty and melted in the mouth. I've never tried barbecuing the salmon fish head before. Usually my helper will fried it. I shall ask her to replicate this dish next time. The lemon really made a lot of difference to the taste of the salmon!

Finally, my favourite dessert had to be Herbal Jelly served with Honey. The herbal jelly is bitter and nice. The honey is watery though. I didn't add too much honey as I like the bitterness of the herbal jelly. My friends found it too bitter for their liking. I can't help, but to order two bowls of this! :P

 

There were more many more dishes that we had. They were considered standard restaurant food and not that special though. Have a visual enjoyment!

Clockwish from top left corner: Crispy Eggplant with Pork Floss (this is rather special and tasted pretty good), Fried Carrot Cake with Sausage in Spicy X.O. Sauce, Braised Ee-fu Noodles (I didn't eat this to save stomach space) and Pan-fried Shrimp and Pork Dumplings.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Salted Pepper, Seafood Salad with Fresh Fruits (I don't know where is the seafood, I only ate the raw prawns), TungLok Meat Roll with Five Spices (this was very soft, I thought it was toufu) and Mini Octopus.

TungLok Black Pepper Crab (The black pepper was quite spicy. The crab was so-so only) and Crispy Prawns with Butter and Cereal (I preferred this to the crab actually).

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame Filling (served warm and yummy with black seasame fillings) and Ice-cream Puff (it's actually cream puff. Give this a miss!) Insert is Chilled Almond Beancurd with Longan.

Bamboo Charcoal Swiss Roll

When I'm out dining, I can't bake. I've been out too often to be home baking! Heehee...

This evening, I decided to do some baking, otherwise, I'll totally lose touch with baking. I've wanted to use my bamboo charcoal since I bought it from Kitchen Capers a couple of months back. I knew I wanted to try Shirley's Bamboo Charcoal Swiss Rolls when I saw her post. It got preceded by other bakes that it was forgotten...until today.

The cake turned out rather dry, but soft. I think I might have over-beaten the egg whites. However, when mixed with the fresh cream, it was still quite nice. Bamboo charcoal has this... weird and funny taste. The taste is like, when you burnt your tongue and upper mouth, and it leaves a coated layer on them. It tasted exactly like it. It leaves a layer of charred taste on the tongue. I just don't know how to describe this taste. I don't dislike it, neither do I love it. You just have to try it to experience for yourself! However, I do like this black... so cool, isn't it?

Johor Bahru Food Reviews

On Sunday, my spouse and I brought our twins to Johor Bahru (JB). The traffic jam started before Woodlands checkpoint. It took us almost 1½ hours from Woodlands to JB clearance. When we reached Aeon Tebrau City, we headed straight to Old Town Cafe for our lunch.

I had Old Town Asam Laksa (RM6.80). I found that the portion was a bit too little. I like the sour and spicy taste. I've always been a fan of Penang Assam Laksa. I remembered my Penang friend told me decades ago that she rarely know of any Singaporeans who likes Penang Assam Laksa. There was only one small piece of sardine. I finished up the soup as it was really tasty.

My spouse ordered the Hainanese Chickenchop & Rice (RM10.30). The piece of fried chicken was huge, though it was quite oily. Topped with crispy eggs, mixed vegetables and ketchup. Fragrant chicken rice was served. This set was really worth the price.

My youngest son ordered the Western Platter (RM8.50). It consisted of a ham sandwich, two sausages, baked beans, french fries and a fried egg. This was...ordinary.

After our grocery shopping, we had our afternoon snack at Lavender Bistro. Lavender produces very wonderful cakes, pastries and buns. The shop setup looks very elegant too.

My son ordered the Cappuccino (RM6.90). My daughter had the Jelly Bubble Tea (RM5.90), while my spouse and I shared a pot of Camomile Ginger Tea (RM8.90). The tea was really very refreshing. The ginger taste wasn't overpowering, rather, it was more of the camomile fragrant, with a hint of ginger.

I also ordered two cakes. An Earl Grey Chocolate cake and an Uji Macha cake. The Earl Grey Chocolate Slice (RM5.20) was layered with earl grey and chocolate mousse. Although the earl grey was mild, it was very fragrant and you can really feel it's presence in the mousse. The cake was light, not too rich or too intense. The mousse was very smooth and melts easily in the mouth.

The Uji Macha (RM5.20) has a soft chocolate sponge sandwiched with macha mousse and azuki beans. It was light and very pleasant to the palate. The nice feel about the cakes were, they were not tooth-aching sweet. The sweetness is just nice. The macha taste was rather strong, which suited me just fine. The Ondeh Ondeh (RM1.50), seen at the back of the cake, was a bit a too thick. There wasn't enough brown sugar to ooze out, even though it tasted rather good.

We also bought home a 10" Blackforest Cake (RM68.00) to celebrate my spouse's birthday. The sponge cake was really soft even though it wasn't airy. It sort of melted in the mouth with a very light taste. Three layers of chocolate sponge, with one layer of chocolate mousse and cherry, and another layer of cream with cherry syrup. The cake was decorated with big chunks of decorated chocolates, four halve strawberries and half a peach. It looked very presentable. The cake wasn't very sweet, and the cream wasn't extremely generous, which all of like.

As I've never tried a Mochi bread, I bought one Bamboo Charcoal Mochi Bread (RM2.90) to try. I thought it was very special. Since many bloggers are crazy over this mochi bread, and I'm very "mountain tortise", I thought I should at least try one to taste what the raves is about. The mochi bread was very chewy on the outside, and soft in the inside. The bamboo charcoal was a little like charcoal taste and many like black sesame taste. I felt in love with it instantly! I wondered what have I been missing all this while! I should have bought it long long time ago! You bet I'll be buying lots to eat the next time I visit JB again!

Overall, this cafe is value for money. You may consider visiting the bakery and bistro when you are in JB. I believe they have branches all over Malaysia.

Jusco Tebrau City
Old Town Cafe
Lavender Bistro
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last week, my spouse and I went to Jusco Bukit Indah. We tried a chinese restauarant called Tang Shifu (汤师父). They seemed to use natural ingredients and lots of herbs in their preparation of foods. They served pickled guavas (RM2.00) as an appetiser. It was crunchy and sweet, and a good way to start your meal!

We ordered the Abalone Mee Suah Chicken Soup Set (RM14.90) each. This set comes with the mee suah, topped with some sauce which I thought it tasted like XO sauce sans chilli. The chicken soup was very tasty and the chicken meat was very fresh. The soup didn't even have a layer of oil. The mee suah was very tasty. I'm very much a mee suah person. The condiments were marinated black beans and pork chunks. The pork chunks were a bit hard and dry although it was fragrant from the marination.

We also ordered the Spinach with Wolfberries (RM8.90). The spinach was soaked in a pool of chicken stock, which made it very tasty. The wolfberries added to the sweetness of the spinach. I finished up the chicken stock too!

Finally, we had Herbal Jelly (Gui ling gao). My spouse had the normal jelly (RM6.90) while I had the Pearl Jelly (RM8.90). It wasn't very bitter, and it tasted good without much honey. The honey used wasn't thick, it was watery. I can't really taste the pearl powder though. The texture of the jelly was just soft enough to eat and swallow.

I felt very healthy after a hearty meal, even though I wasn't very filled. It was just enough for me to last through the afternoon. I like this place, and will visit it again if I go to Bukit Indah again.

Jusco Bukit Indah
Tang Shifu

Review on Olio

This was not the usual Saturday where I have to "hunt" for my dinner. The usual dinner is at my mum's house – home cooked food. They had programme on that day. Therefore, we have to eat on our own.

You know how it's like on Saturdays and Sundays where malls are packed with people. Popular restaurants with long queues that snaked to other shops. Well, I'm not ready to queue that long, because by then, I would probably faint of hunger!

There is one place with lots of good food hunts, and you can find restaurants that are half empty – City Square Mall. It's such a shame that a rather nice place there, with truly a lot of food joints, don't have enough crowds on weekends. I just hope the restaurants or cafes don't close down one by one. My favourite restaurant is Sushi Tei. However, for that day, I would like to try "new" place.

Olio has been around for a long time. I remembered when I started dating with my spouse, visiting Olio Dome (in Wheellock Place) was like a a treat. Back then, we were not earning a lot, so that kind of prices was considered a luxury to us. From then till now, there were a lot of value for money cafes that sprung out every now and then. So, we haven't been visiting Olio for a long long time.

Therefore, for our dinner that day, I decided we shall try Olio with our children. The outlet in City Square Mall was only 40% occupied when we arrived at 7.10pm. It was quite a pitiful sight. We sat down, looked at the menu and was totally blank. There were just too many good foods which we cannot decide! Finally we ordered the following.

Braised Cod Fish ($15.90). The cod fish is served with soba noodles and cabbage wrapped mushrooms. Cod fish taste good without the fishy taste. Generous portion of fish roe sprinkled on the cod fish. A parcel of cabbage which wrapped shredded mushrooms, turnips and carrots was very sweet and soft. Soba noodles tasted really nice on pool of teriyaki sauce. The dish wasn't very warm, more like at room temperature.

Catch of the Day ($14.80). The catch of the day that my spouse had was snapper. I wasn't sure about the taste of this. I figured it wasn't too bad because I didn't hear him complaint. :p I noticed that the vegetables were served on top of mashed potato.

Japanese Teriyaki Chicken Steak Baked Rice ($11.50). The teriyaki chicken was topped with tuna flakes. Generous chicken pieces was given. The teriyaki sauce was sweet and not very salty. It goes really well with the japanese rice. My son was delighted when he found more chicken pieces underneath the rice! It was a huge portion altogether!

Golden Fish & Chips ($14.90). Crispy breaded fish was served with tartar sauce with a squeeze of lemon. It was crispy on the outside and soft inside. My children enjoyed the fish. Long strings of crispy chips complimented the fish. A small portion of coleslaw helped to cover the oiliness of the fish and chips.

Olio Gourmet Beef Stew Pie ($13.90). An interesting way of serving the pie. A small dish of salad was served alongside with the bowl of pie. I didn't get to try this. However, my helper said this dish was very very nice. I recommended her to try this. :) She was very happy with this dish. I saw her eating chunks of beef from the bowl though.

Munchy Combo Platter ($13.90). We ordered this based from the recommendation by the service staff. It consisted of potato wedges, fried prawns, spicy fried chicken wings and fried vietnamese spring rolls. The spicy fried chicken wings were a tad too spicy for the children. The vietnamese spring rolls tasted really nice with their sweet and sour chilli sauce. There were too much deep fried in this dish. If you're quite health conscious, you may skip this. Overall, I only like the vietnamese spring rolls. The rest were just ordinary.

Olio Sizzling Brownie ($6.50). It was served in a hot plate. The service staff poured the hot chocolate syrup into the sizzling hot plate, and topped it with crushed peanuts. There were three layers – brownie, vanilla gelato, then brownie. The warm brownie mixed with the very cold gelato was a warn-cold feeling, where you "hoo" out with the ice-cold gelato. I cut the small piece of brownie into six tiny portions to let everyone have a share. We all amicably agreed that it was worth the tummy space even though we were really full.

Overall, we had a good experience. Most importantly, the children enjoyed their foods too! If you use Standard Chartered Credit Card, you can get 15% off your total bill.

Olio Café @ City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road, #03-39/40
Singapore 208539
Tel: 6509 0656 / Fax : 6509 0657
10am to 10pm (Daily)

The Handburger Review

Since my food review on Chaozhou Inn, I thought it might be good for me to review restaurants whenever I visit one. So that it might create awareness to others. Just like myself, I'm quite lost on where to eat and what is nice if I dine out. The problem is, I don't dine out vedry often (very lucky aren't I?). Therefore, if there is any occassion which warrants a good dining place, I'm totally lost! I will rely very heavily on food reviews by others. Since I relied on others, I thought maybe, just maybe my simple food review could help perhaps? Hopefully.

My children didn't need to attend school on Children's Day. I thought of bringing them out, but don't know where it will satisfied both myself and them. Then I read with interest on Lady Iron Chef's blog about The Handburger's set lunch. I decided then, I shall go 313@Somerset to do some shopping, then go for the set lunch.

The set lunch comes with a choice of 4 burgers - The Handburger Original, Pulled Pork Burger, Chicken Caesar Burger or Battered Dory Burger; Caesar Salad or Chunky Fries; and Ice Lemon tea or Green tea. It cost $8.80++ for a set.

As there were seven of us, each of us ordered different burgers. I ordered the Battered Dory Burger. Toasted honey wholewheat bun was used for this burger. The bun tasted really good. I tasted pumpkin seeds and flaxseeds. They were very generous with the coral lettuce. A slice of tomato was used. The spicy tartare sauce goes very well with the battered dory. However, I found the battered dory a little too small to satisfy me. The crispy lotus pieces were a nice additional to the burger. I ate of them separately as they were too tall to be eaten together!

I ordered their Caesar Salad ($7.80) which comes with very generous servings of bacons. Not bacon bits, but big pieces of bacon crisps, which my children ate with delight. There was also slices of hard boiled egg. Cherry tomatoes and generous crotons were added. I had to ordered this a-la-carte Caesar salad as I shared my set with my daughter since she is a small eater. She wanted the chunky fries. Otherwise, the set comes with a small bowl of caesar salad which I thought is a good quantity. No picture for this though.

Bundled as a set, the Chunky Fries' quantity was quite a lot. The fries was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was sprinkled with black pepper and some chilli powder. A typical kind of fries that you would like. Not fantastically good, but definitely much better than fastfoods! At least it fed my children well. It comes with a small bowl of ketchup.

I ordered the Handburger Original for my youngest son. Caramelised onion bun was used. However, when I tried the base, there was nothing special, tasted like a normal bun. As usual, generous coral lettuce was used. There was melted cheese on the 100% NZ ribeye beef patty. I asked for well done. Surprisingly, it wasn't very dry. It was still quite moist in the inside, even though it was dry on the outside. However, I don't really like the beefy taste.

I didn't get to try the Chicken Caesar Burger even though my eldest son ordered it. He said it was very nice. I thought it was a nice way of adding caesar sauce to the chicken. There was bacon wrapped around the chicken breast meat. I believe the basil pesto mushroom would taste great too. Toasted sundried tomato bun was used for this burger. My son finished everything on his plate, except the bun base. I believed the bun tasted good too!

My nephew order the Pulled Pork Burger. From the look of it, it looked dry. I don't know how it tasted though. They didn't even touched the pork! I have no comments on this burger though.

The ice lemon tea was served in a rather huge plastic gobble. The tea taste was pretty strong, less of lemon and wasn't sweet at all! More like ice tea even though there was half a slice of lemon in the drink.

The food was served in a nice wooden serving plate, which was already placed on the table as part of the decor. The cafe was bright and pleasant with white as the background.

Overall, I found that it's truly value for money. The extra perk is, with each bill, you get to receive a membership card, which can be used to accumulate points and redeem them during your next visit. You'll need to register this online though. If you're a bread or burger person like me, this is one place you should try. The service staff are friendly and the serving...satisfying!

The Handburger
313 Orchard Road #B2-17/18/19
313 @ Somerset Singapore
Tel: +65 6509 6214

252 North Bridge Road #B1-77/78
Raffles City Shopping Centre Singapore
Tel: +65 6334 4577

(Blogger paid for her foods.)

Chaozhou Inn - An Invitation

I have not been to a food tasting before. Therefore, when DreamersLoft asked if I was interested, I was both elated and hesitant. Elated because I finally got invited. Hesitant because of the recent saga involving a famous food blogger. After much consideration, I finally agreed.

This place that we had our food tasting is Chaozhou Inn. Looking into the interior, it's like those posh restaurant which you might not want to step into. The ambience looks classy and warm.

 

As I belong to the Hokkien dialect, I have not much knowledge about Teochew food except for steamed pomfret and yam paste. Through this food tasting, I got to know more about Teochew food preparation, what are the more authentic Teochew likenings and the taste. I was in the great company of three others- Precious Moments, DreamersLoft and a lady from omy.sg. Sharon from Fish & Co group, was our host for the afternoon.

The first few items were from their Dim Sum selection (潮式精美点心).The Steamed Spinach Dumpling with Prawn & Dried Scallop 瑶柱菜苗饺 ($4.50) has a smooth and thin skin. With the diced water chestnut, it adds an extra crunch to the dumpling. The dumpling is moist, and the prawn is fresh.

Next came the Braised Pork Belly Bun Chaozhou Style 鲍汁扣肉包 ($3.60). The bun is soft, and the braised pork belly isn't too fatty. The soft shredded yam blends well with the pork belly and the bun. If more sauce is added to bun, it'll be better. The pork belly is so lean I wasn't picky about removing the fats, which I normally will.

The Pan Fried Black Sesame Cake 豆沙煎软饼 ($3.90) combines softness with crispiness. The red bean mochi, topped with black sesame seeds, is pan fried lightly. The mochi is warm and soft, which compliments the crisp and fragrant black sesame seeds very well.

Next, we were served the Double Boiled Old Yellow Melon Soup 八宝老黄瓜炖盅 ($8.00). This soup is very special. The soup is served inside the cut yellow melon. The soup was really very tasty. There are lotus seeds, mushrooms, sea cucumbers and shrimps, all diced to bite size for ease of consuming. We understand that there are a lot of work into preparing this dish.

From the Marinated / Barbecued Selection 烧味卤水, we had Braised Platter Chaozhou Style 潮州卤水拼 ($10.00). I'm not a fan of duck. However, I found that the duck wing and braised duck taste pretty good. At least it doesn't have a strong duck taste. I also tried the gizzard. I found it to be a bit hard though crunchy. I had it with chilli, in case I don't like the taste. The toufu is very silky and smooth. It has that kind of melts in the mouth taste.

I dislike oysters. However, this Battered Fried Oyster 金钱蚝仔酥 ($8.00) is good enough for me to have two! (Can you imagine?) The batter was very peppery and crispy. It could be due to the strong peppery batter that musked the oyster completely. If you are like me, don't take raw or cooked oysters, then you'll have to try this! Likewise, if you are a big oyster fan, then maybe this dish is not for you.

The Steamed Pomfret Chaozhou Style 潮式蒸仓鱼 ($22.00) is really worth the value. The pomfret is enough to feed 10 persons! The broth taste really good! The pomfret is steamed with leeks, tomatoes, mushrooms, veg (tang orh), carrot, sour plum, salted vegetable and shredded ginger. Even though there is a lot of ingredients used, it was just enough that it didn't overpower the clearness of broth and the fish!

They have recently introduced the lunch special which comes with complimentary soup. We tried the Steamed Rice with Spare Ribs 原盅豆豉排骨饭, with Winter Melon soup (soup of the day) 附加每日例汤 ($6.90). The spare rib has a slimy taste, although the black bean sauce goes well with the rice. The winter melon soup is sweet and good too! This lunch special is a wholesome meal itself.

Next, we had Chao Yang Four Treasure Vegetables 潮阳四宝蔬 ($9.00). The four treasures are  mushrooms (button, straw & shitake), beancurd, lotus seeds and chinese cabbage. The chinese cabbage was so soft it melts in the mouth. It also absorbed much of the gravy that makes it very sweet.

The Pomfret Porridge Chaozhou Style 潮州仓鱼粥 ($12.00) is served from a small claypot, which looks like those used to brew medicine during our ancestor times. The soup is very tasty, and the fish slices are very fresh. However, I tasted a portion of the fish head which was very fishy. According to Sharon, all the parts of the fish are used to cook the porridge.

Finally, we came to the dessert (甜品) part. My favourite dessert was served - Yam Paste with Gingko Nut and Pumpkin 福果芋泥 ($4.90). This truly lives up to its name. The texture is very smooth even though it has bits of yam pieces. I like the small bits though. The sweetness is just perfect for me. The combination of pumpkin and gingko nut are just enough to compliment the yam.

Their Homemade Soya Beancurd 桶仔豆腐花 ($4.50 for 2 pax. $7.00 for 4 pax) is served in a beautiful wooden container. The beancurd is very soft and smooth. Good thing that there is no sugar added to it. Eating it without the syrup was truly good for me. However, you can add their pandan sugar syrup, which I find that it's too sweet. There is only a very faint smell of pandan in the sugar syrup, but you can't really taste the pandan though.

Finally, Sharon let us try their latest creation - Sweet Potato Paste with Pineapples ($3.20). Surprisingly, the sweet potato paste is very light. Unfortunately, it was so sweet none of us could take it! The chef told us that butter was also added to it, as we could tell there was more ingredients than what we knew. The pineapples used are canned pineapples.

They have promotions during weekdays. A-la-carte high tea buffet from 3pm-5pm. Adult @ $14.90++, Child @ $8.90++. Lunch specials @ $6.90++. They also serve a-la-carte buffet dinner from 5pm onwards. Adult @ $39.90++, Child @ $15.00++.

Overall, I am very happy with the foods they served. It is those places where you can please your parents or your future parents-in-law. I'm definitely going to bring my in-laws there for a meal.

Thank you Sharon, for hosting this fun and wonderful session.

Chaozhou Inn
80 Marine Parade Road, B1-84D,
Parkway Parade, Singapore 449269
Tel : 6346-6617

(This food tasting was sponsored by Chaozhou Inn).