Duck Rice @ Bt Batok (1st Hawker Food Review)

Stall Name: See Picture
Place: Bt Batok
Address: Blk 109 Bt Batok Ave 4
Speciality: Duck Rice

Very traditional and authentic HK style roast duck / roast pork
Duck / Meat is cut in thick pieces
Serving is generous

Comments:
I understand that standard has once dropped few years ago, but the good news is they picked themselves up and has been consistently good for a few years already

Rating:
4.5/5. One of the best duck rice I have ever tasted.

Photos:

Baked Rice @ Upper Thomsom

Restaurant Name: Crab Shack (I think)
Place: Upper Thomson
Address: Didnt get the exact address but it is directly opposite the Crispy Prata Shop
Features: Baked Rice, Fish and Chips
Also Try: Tom Yam Soup, Green Curry, Chicken Frank Salad

An accidental find as was just running out of place for food that day. A first glance, you don't know what this place is selling. There is a Malay stall selling Nasi Lemak at the entrance of the shop, and on the Malay stall glass display, it says "Authetic Thai Cusine". Beside the Malay Stall, there is a digital photo display showing western cusine like Pizza, Baked Rice, Fish and Chips, Finger Food. Then when you walk further in, you see a Wan Ton Mee Stall.

Anyway, I am taking about Crab Shack, the western department of the shop. By default, if you just sit down, the staff will walk up and serve you and pass you the menu of the western and thai dishes. For the Malay and Wan Ton Mee, you have to walk up and order yourself.

I tried the Crab Baked Rice and the Fish Baked Rice (both $6.80). For me, the thing about baked rice is that it must use the right kind of cheese and have enough cheese. The baked rice is so cheesy that it taste like pizza, the mozeralla cheese just stretches like when you pull the pizza. If you like cooked cheese like those found in Pizza, then you have to try the baked rice. Between the crab and fish baked rice, i personally prefer the fish because the fishes are sliced in bigger chunks. The crab are cut into small pieces and you cant really bite the crab meat.

The fish and chip ($6.80) is the traditional kind, where there is a big serving of fish together with a lot of chips. Fish is crisy on the outside and juicy in the inside. The tartar sauce is not bad either. It is not easy to find this kind of traditional fish and chip anymore, so i will give it to them

Other to try are the chicken frank (Read: Hotdog) salad ($3), tom yam soup ($4), green curry ($4).

I also tried the Nasi lemak ($3 to $4.20 for various sets) from the malay stall and conclusion is that the nasi is great, rest of the items (egg, chicken wings, ikan billis) are just average

Comment:
I think that the western chef is good, so it might be worth while to eat other dishes like Pizza.

Price:
As stated above

Rating:
3.5 / 5 overall. Baked rice is at least a 4/5.

Photos:


Baked Rice


This is the shop from where we are sitting.


This is the shop from far.

What's Nice @ Where - 2

AMK S-11 Blk 711
Rasa Sayang Western Food
Bak Chor Mee
Porridge (at one corner)

AMK Beside Blk 326 Coffeeshop
When you are at BLK 326 or 323, you will see this 2 coffeeshops side-by-side each other. If you are looking at the coffeeshop with a Multi-storey carpark at the back of the coffeeshops, I am talking about the one on your left.
Ice Lemon Tea / Lime Juice
Hokkien Mee
Slice Fish Bee Hoon
Kuay Chap
Western Food
Fried Mee / Bee Hoon from Economy rice stall
(basically everything is nice in that coffeeshop)

AMK Blk 729
Fish Soup with Paper steamboat
Bar Chor Mee
Tze Cha

What's nice @ where - 1

Notice that I have been talking about restaurants and neglected the provider of the good food of Singapore, the hawkers. Nope, not because I am rich so I eat mostly restaurant food, but because it is easier to review restaurants food as they are all cooked to almost the same standard.

Nevertheless, let's start off with a new series What's nice @ where. In this series, I will list down what food is nice at a certain location. NO review will be done, review will be done at a later date when i got my photos.

Here goes:

Chinatown Market
Claypot Rice
119 Fishhead with Bean Paste sauce
Lime Juice with 25 Limes (Somewhere near Claypot Rice)
Yam Cake, Zhu Chang Fen, Fried Mee / Bee Hoon, Fish Porridge, Raw Fish, Dumpling (same store)
Mongkok Tim Sum and Pao (Not sure whether they moved back into the new market)
Ikan Billis Yong Tau Foo
Er Ku Tong Shui

Redhill Market
Ching Tian Desert (Mickey Mouse theme)
Famous Nasi Lemak - Chinese seller - behind the desert
Grilled Stingray - 1st stall from the centre passageway, stall is somewhere in the centre row

ABC Market
Porridge
Wan Ton Mee
Pineapple Juice
Fried Oyster
Western Food - Wow Wow West
Kuay Chap / Pig Organ Soup

Crabs at Alexandra Village

Eatery Name: Spice Asia Gourmet Pte Ltd
Place: Alexandra Village
Address: Blk 119 Alexandra Village (next to the market)
Features: Salted Egg Crab.
Also Must Try: Green Curry Crab, Tofu Specality (Homemade Tofu), Mongolian Spare Rib

I went there on 2 or 3 occasions and and tried some dishes that are similar and some that are different. Why we ordered similar dishes is because some of the dishes are just so nice that it lingers in your memory and triggers a chemical reaction to order it again once you are there. Why different is because I want to try something new from this stall that serves such fantastic food. You just wish that you can order everything from the menu...

Ambience despite it being in a coffeeshop location, does not reveal any hint of its coffeeshop nature. The place is renovated to look like a simple cafe with 2 by 2 tables as well as long tables. Remind you of anything but a coffeeshop.

Food - Their signature dish is the Salted Egg Crab and one of the must-try dish is their Green Curry Crab. I have tried both of them and I find that the Green Curry Crab taste better. I may be a bit bias as I always preferred food with gravy. The crabs are cooked with thick Green Curry paste and is one of the best Green Curry I ever tried. Perhaps, it is a fusion of the juicyness of the crab together with traditional green curry that creates the taste.
The Salted Egg crab is rather tasty too with taste of salted egg soaked with the crab and it adds a unique favour to the crab. Honestly this is the first time I tried salted crab and I sort of like it already.

Other must try dishes include the Mongolian Spare Rib which the sauce is just fantastic to go with rice. Tofu Specaility is the other must try which is just one of the best that I have eaten.

Price:
2 Crabs, Homemade Tofu, Mongolia Porkchop, Vege with mushroom, Soup, rice, drinks for 4 people = $85
Crab I was told was about 1.3kg for 2 which cost about $40
Average dish is $6 to $12 and could go as low as $3 for things like soup or Hor Fun.

Comments:
One of the best and cheapest Tze Cha stall I ever been to. Crabs are fresh and so are the other food I ordered. Initially, we thought damage will be around $100+ but was pleasantly surprised when bill is only $85. Definitely value for money and a must try must go back must recommend stall for anyone into Tze Cha or for that matter, anyone...

They also do catering as well, therefore if you are looking for caterer for family outing or company event, do give them a try.

Rating: 5/5 I cannot find a better Tze Cha with the same value for money and same ambience. An absolute MUST TRY!!!

Do check out their website below...YES, they do have a website with their in-house and catering menu. You can also find the address, phone number there.

http://www.spiceasia.com.sg/


Photos:


Signature Dish Salted Egg Crab


Tofu Speciality


Mongolian Spare Ribs (Boneless)

Buckaroo @ Sembawang

Restaurant Name: Buckaroo BBQ and Grills
Place: Sembawang
Address: 12-B Andrews Avenue (Off Sembawang Road)
Features: BBQ and Grill

Description: The restaurant is super remotely located off sembawang road, somewhere around Sembawang park. Regulars of Bottletree village will find the restaurant name familiar as it is just before the entrance of the 'jungle road' towards bottletree village

First time trying today so didnt really know what and how much to expect. Environment is quiet and peaceful, partially because not too many people today and partially because it is in the natural environment. Ordered the Lamblet (Grilled Lamb), Salmon Steak and Australian Pork with Mushroom Sauce, one of the 2 chef recommendations.

First up is the Ceasar Salad (About $15, not sure). For people who love cheese, there are slice cheese and parmesan cheese. Salad dressing is rather sparse but amount is appropriate for a refreshing taste. Biscuits, breadcrumbs and egg complement the taste perfectly. Only complain is that the salad when served is not cold, otherwise it will be one of the perfect salad ever tasted this year.

Next up is what they called Lamblet (grilled lamb - $26+). Lamblet is well seasoned in black pepper and other spices and seasoned lamb taste fantastic. There is neither unwanted smell or taste as in those found in lower quality lamb. Served with potato salad and vege.

5 mins later, the Salmon Steak ($20+) and Australian Air flow Pork Chop($??) is served together. I usually have my reservation on cooked salmon because most of them will be overcooked. Not this one. The Salmon Steak is cooked to the extent that on the outside it looked a bit grilled while on the inside, tenderness of the Salmon is preserved. On the whole the Salmon is soft and tender. Served with potato salad, cheese and vege.

The Pork chop with Mushroom sauce is a thick slab of pork chop with creamy mushroom sauce covering over it. The Porkchop again is tender and evenly cooked considering the thickness. Mushroom sauce is the attraction here and goes very well with the pork. Served with Salad.

Comments
Overall all four dishes are superb with of no less than 4. There are many good western food around but this one is really reaching perfection. Not cheap but they uses really quality food, therefore I think it is worth the money.

It was a treat, so not too sure on the price. I just caught a glimpse on the menu, so dont be too depend on the prices that I quoted. To the best of my knowledge and I am not a person with a photographic memory.

Price:
3 pax, bill of close to $120. Average about $20 plus per plate ++. Some dishes price tag are friendier to the eyes with $10 plus ++.

Rating
Rating: 4+/5 Must try

Website: http://www.buckaroobbq.com
Email: buckaroogrill@yahoo.com.sg

Photos


Caesar's Salad



Lamblet



Salmon Steak



Australian Pork Chop with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Update as on 24 Aug 08, 8:30pm:

Went to Buckaroo again yesterday and tried their famous Bufflo Wings. We tried the first level spicy wings which really live up to the name. The seasoning of the wings is rich and it really blend into the meat. It is a little bit spicy but it is the overall taste that is scores the close to perfect 9.5/10

A must try when you are there.

Hilltop Cafe @ Sembawang Road

Restaurant Name: Hilltop Cafe 山顶茶餐厅
Place: Yishun
Address: Sembawang Road (Beside Drive-thru Mac)
Features: Baked Rice, One Pax steamboat, HK Dim Sum, Chinese Food, Western Food
USP / Must try: Baked rice, One Pax steamboat, Pork cutlet



Description: The cafe is rather remotely located along the stretch of shop along sembawang road. Therefore, it may not be heard of widely by many people. Still i considered this find as a gem among stones. The entirely area is aircon (think HK cafe style) and the cafe setting is rather simple. Posters on the walls, some decorations at the coutner, old magazine at the entrance for you to read while waiting. Not too much of a posh kind of setting, which does it really matter that much? Not to me. Let's move on to the food.

Personally, I have been there a few times and the food there is rather consistently good in the taste department. Ordered baked on two occasion and concluded that it is a must try item for people who like cheese. One of the only 2 baked rice shop that I have found to have sufficent cheese for cheese lover like me. The other one, by the way, is at Swensen Thomson Plaza. I particularly like the Fish baked rice with mushroom cream (app $8). The rice is fragrant while the creamy sauce mixed with rice taste fantastic. Fish served is also cut into appropriate size.

The tomato soup based steamboat soup ($9.80) with a choice of either mixed meat or seafood is another dish you have to order. They call it the one person steamboat 一人火锅. I ordered the meat one and beside sliced meat, it is served with assorted vege and egg, noodles and such. Of course, for steamboat, it is up to you to customise the taste and to me, the soup based goes very well with the meat. Adding soup is a must.

For a HK cafe, they serve western food as well and very good western food in fact. I ordered Pork Cutlet with black pepper sauce and it comes served with 2 big pieces of pork cutlet, some pasta, fries and the heated black pepper sauce separated in a metal bowl. The pork cutlet is not only big piece but also thick enough to ensure biteness feeling is there. Separated black pepper sauce also let you choose how much (or how little) black pepper sauce you served on your meat.

Comments: The cafe is not usually crowded even on weekends. Reason being geographically yishun is out of range for most people unless you live the north. Even if you manage to drive here, there are not readily available parking lots around. The nearest is the HDB carpark across the road of the private housing estate behind the cafe. Both of which are about 200m away from the cafe, not a pleasant news for singaporean drivers.

Cafe is opened till 1am daily, therefore if you are in the north happen to be looking for places to eat, this could be one of them

Price: I find the price reasonable and to some extent cheap for a cafe / restaurant setting. There is GST but no service charge.

Rating: 4 / 5 Most of the food are that good.

Photos:

Tze Cha @ Commonwealth

Restaurant Name: Two Chef Eating Place
Place: Commonwealth
Address: Blk 118 Commonwealth Link / Crescent
(See below for direction)
Features: Butter Porkchop, Prawn Balls, Slice Fish, Cockles
USP / Must try: Butter Porkchop 奶油猪扒



Description: Stall is full house when we reached there at about 8.15pm. Reasonably as it is a sat and seen people waiting for tables too. When we finally got ours, we ordered 4 dishes - Butter Porkchop, Sambal Kang Kong, Slice Fish with onion and ginger and You Tiao. Cooking is efficient and we waited less than 15 mins before all the food ordered are served.

Butter Porkchop is a must try, pork chop cut in thick slices soaked in what seems like powderly butter. It is something like Cereal prawns except that it is pork and butter is used instead of cereal. The first bite is fantastic and butter melt once it is in your mouth, giving off the intended aroma and taste. Combined with the porkchop, the taste is just superb. If there is just one dish you are allowed to order, die die must order this. Guaranteed you will not regret.

Rest of the 2 dishes are also above average except for the You tiao which the mayonaise is a bit sour for certain reason.

Comments: Serving is generous and we ordered all small except for the Kang Kong for all of us kang kong lovers. It is enough for 5 person to have a decent meal.

Direction - Okay, direction here could be a bit complicated as even when you are at Commomwealth Link / Cres, there are 4 Tze Cha stalls at each corner of the market. Therefore, to identify the correct stall, it is the one at the end of the one way road (commonwealth link) and the junction of Commonwealth Crescent.

Price - Very value for money. All meat dishes are $8 for the porkchop, fish and you tiao for small and Sambal Kang Kong is $8 for medium. Total damage for 5 pax: $35.

Tip - There is a very nice cheng teng in the market level 2. You can pack the cheng teng from the market to consume as desert after the meal.

Rating: 5 / 5 for the butter porkchop and 4 / 5 for the rest of the item.
Must try the porkchop and worth to give it a try for all other dishes.

Update 3 Aug 08
Just went back to the stall again and some other dishes. One dish to highlight is the satay prawns. The satay prawns is a crispy yet not oily prawns on a satay stick. The prawns ar cooked to a certain way that the whole prawn is crispy. You can basically eat the whole prawn if you like to without removing any of the shell.

Also tried watercrest soup and the fried rice, both above average standard.

Photos:


Some of the dishes at 2 Chef Eating Place


The butter porkchop


Satay Prawns - Only available during weekends

Dim Sum @ Chin Swee Rd

Restaurant Name: Red Star 红星
Place: Chin Swee Road (Off Chinatown)
Address: Level 7, beside Multi-storey carpark
Features: Dim Sum 点心
USP / Must try: Big Big Bao

Description:
Authentic Dim Sum style. (Old) Staff pushes Dim Sum cart around and each cart contains different kinds of Dim Sum. Siew Mai and Har Kao and non fried stuffs are cooked just right and not overly salty. Fried stuffs are crispy and crunchy with food again not too over cooked. Must try the Big Big Bao which I estimate about 15cm in diameter. One bao can easily be shared by 3 pax if you want to eat other things

Comments: If you like authentic push cart style Dim Sum in restaurants, this is one of the place that you must go. Price is not the cheapest Dim Sum you can find (about $2.50 - $3 for normal dolly), but for the restaurant setting and the quality of the food, it is definitely value-for-money. Can get very crowded on Sunday morning and public holidays. Queue can go up to 20 pax easily.


Rating: 3.5 / 5 Not a must try but have to try.


Photos


Their famous Big Big Pao.
See how big as compare to a standard Dim Sum Dolly.



The Big Big Pao with some of the Dim Sum dishes

WELCOME

Hi, whether you stumble upon this blog by accident or incident, look around because you will never know if there is some good places in Singapore to eat near you.

My thinking is very simple, the same $3 or $30 for that matter that I intend to spend on food, why don't I spend the amount of money on something good rather than something average?

With this mentality, I went around the island to look for and consolidate the good food and good makan (eating) places and boy was I surprised that the list is never ending.

In this blog, I am going to feature one food place per post and some of my comments on the food, environment there.

For any comments, please feel free to post or email me.

Peeps who are not living in Singapore, apologies as I can only make you salivate with my comments and photos. Please pass the blogsite address to anyone you know who is visiting Singapore or take down the address before your next visit here.

ENJOY!