Saturday, 20 July 2013

Chomp Chomp Food Center @ Serangoon Gardens, Singapore

Have been having western and loads of japanese cuisine lately, and felt that i have sudden urge, cravings for some local delights. Headed out to Chomp Chomp food center which is located at Serangoon Gardens (20 Kensington Park Rd). You can't miss the place, when you're near there, you could see smoke coming out from the food center!

It's a place where every local knows and must at least dine there once. The food center have a wide variety of local cuisines which are tasty and cheap, ranging from as cheap as $4/dish to $30 and above. 

Stepping in to the food center, you would see a small hawker with many yellow tables and chairs, however no seats to be found! The other thing that you'll definitely notice is the smoke! As the ventilation of the food center isn't very good, the place is very smokey & you feel like you're choking up to the smoke.

 As there's some repeating stalls, like 3 different stalls selling satay (Singapore style skewered meat) you'll be spoiled for choice and completely not knowing which stall to order from, my advice, ask around! However, different people have different taste preference. For example, i like the satay from stall 1 and my friend like the satay from another stall! So, it's up to you to taste and judge by yourself!

As i have been craving for satay recently, i can't help it to order a plate of satay ($0.50/Satay, minimum 10 Sticks) accompanying it is rice wrapped in leaf (i don't know what kind.) and steamed. The satay i could say must be eaten while it's hot, or else the meat will turn stiff. The satay is barbecued till perfection, every bite of it, you could taste the smokey taste where it wraps around the tender flesh. Most stalls provide the basic 3 meat types namely, pork, chicken and mutton. Some of the other satay stalls do provide beef. I myself prefer the mutton satay the most, as the smokey flavor wraps around the mutton giving it a unique and flavorful taste.
Next up are the chicken wings ($1.20/wing minimum 2 wings) the chicken wing are barbecued till its skin become crispy and the flesh tender and aromatic. Some stalls provide lime for your wings, some don't. I've taste better chicken wings, that's all i could say.

How can you have barberqued food without the companion of sugar cane juices! ($1 sml, $1.50 med, $2 Lrg)

Finally we have the Orh Lua ($4, also known as the oyster omelette), must try if you're here, i just love how the eggs and the geleton type taste bonds with each other. They do provide a special chilli lime sauce, which certainly in my case made the dish taste better!

The Verdict:
Price Range: $4~$30++ (Depending many dishes you want to try)
Ambiance: 5.5/10 Not for you if you don't like smokey and noisy environment
Taste: 7/10 (Depending on which stalls you order from and your preference)
Service: 7/10 (Not that bad, the stalls owner will greet you with a smile and serve the food to you.)
Crowd: 1/10 (Crowed, always.)
Overall: 6.7 (Great local food choice, however, there's better ones)


Address:
20 Kensington Park Rd, Singapore 557269





Cedele @ Maju Lane, Singapore

The Urge of having dessert after dinner at chomp chomp brought me to Cedele, located near Serangoon gardens, Maju lane.

Ordered a Brownie with Ice-cream & Walnut, dripped with chocolate sauce ($8.50).
The brownie itself taste okay, i have tasted better brownies, and the ice-cream melt too quickly for some reason, might be because it's cheap ice-cream. The best tasting thing in this dessert to me is surprisingly the walnut.

The Verdict:
Price Range: $12
Ambiance: 7/10 (Great place to chill and talk)
Taste: 5.7/10 (No Comment)
Service: 5.7/10 (I've seen hawkers that could have done better.)
Crowd: 7/10 (Most of the time, Empty.)
Overall: 6.1 (Food, not that great. Just looking for a place to chill? Not that bad.)
Additional Service & GST? - No

Address:
4 Maju Avenue 
Singapore 556682Tel: 6281 4283Fax: 6281 4809 

Opening hours

Mon–Fri: 10am to 9pmSat–Sun/PH: 9am to 10pm

RK @ Serangoon Garden, Singapore

Supper at R.K. Eating house.


Simple plain Roti prata ($1) and Roti prata with egg ($1.60).
Used to be better, however the plain prata still is as crispy as ever. 
Just simple and delicious.

Address:
1 Kensington Park Rd, Singapore 557253

Friday, 19 July 2013

OLD SCHOOL DELIGHT @ THOMPSOM

After the great day after school, me and my friends started to miss eating our "root" foods. Therefore we engange in an adventure to old school delights, located right beside thompsom road, you can't miss it!


 There's not a very wide variety of food, however a healthy selection.
The prices of main dishes varies between $5-13 which is affordable for students like me.

Decided to order a plate of meesiam($6~) and a cup of Kopi 'O to go with it. The meesiam is not those watery type, hence easy to eat and the meesiam is cut between sections before cooking, so if you don't like using chop sticks, using spoon alone will be fine. The Coffee was okay, not the best but traditional.

The ambiance of the location isn't that bad when i was there, but the restaurant itself is kind of small.

Overall i enjoyed my meal there,
The Verdict is,
Price Range, $10/person (Avg price including beverages)
Ambiance, 6/10 (No personal space.)
Taste, 6.6/10 (Traditional, nothing special)
Crowd, none when i was there.



Tuesday, 16 July 2013

NAM NAM NOODLE BAR @ RAFFLES CITY

Located at the basement of raffles city, in the midst of many small eaterys and restaurant comes nam nam noodle bar.

Myself had not eaten vietnam food for awhile decided to try it. I ordered a Pho Beef Combination ($9.90) the dish itself was simple and gentle on the stomach, great  for people who are sick or those who want to have something more subtle.
The beef slices was tender, joints was tender as well, however i enjoyed the meat balls to the fullest as they were the best tasting ingredient in the whole dish itself (in my opinion)


If you decided the noodle soup was too plain for you, each table provide a variety of sauce for you to add into your soup. I personally used quite abit as the taste of the noodle soup itself wasn't there for me.
Ordered a pot of Lotus Tea ($2.50) to go with my noodle soup, hoping it will relief some stress from my studies. The tea itself smells starchy, taste refreshing. However you should finish it while it's hot, after it turns cold, it just taste funny.

Overall, i find that nam nam noodle bar is a very affordable location to dine in. Noodle soup just around the range of $10. Personally i dislike the cramp space, the person beside me is like pushing me once in awhile, it's worse than you being in a hawker. The severing of the food isn't sufficient for a guy like me and i don't think that it would be rather sufficient for any man out there. 

Price Range, $10/person 
Ambiance, 4/10 (No personal space.)
Taste, 6/10 (bland)
Crowd, come before 6 and there'll be lots of seats.





Sunday, 7 July 2013

SHIN KUSHIYA @ VIVO


Lunner (lunch + dinner) after a morning-afternoon of fun at sentosa cove. Well, for those who wanted to know more about sentosa cove, it's basically the same stuff as wild wild wet, just that it's more thrilling. However it just means that the queue is atleast trice as long. And the thing that you can't miss at adventure cove is their man made snorkeling. However as someone that had tried real Snorkeling before, i have to say that it's not the same. In the wild the fishes will swim towards you, but in adventure cove the swim away from you. So yeah, Now Back to my LUNNER!

Well since vivo city is the nearest mall with reasonable price than dining at sentosa, me and my friend decided to head over there. The first restaurant that caught our eye was Shin Kushiya it has a nice elegant decor door front and peaceful interior. We were place by the window seat viewing towards sentosa, all i could say is the ambiance is great.

Well we ordered the Tori Shogayaki Don ($13.80) and the Buta Don ($14.80). The meat on both dishes was tender, flavourful and damn right tasty. Accompanying our "Don's" are Green Tea @ $1.50/ea


We decided to order some skewers to go with our don's as they seem to be the specialty of shin kushiya.
Start from the left,  Chizu Maki ($3.20), Salmon Maki Tare ($3.60), Tori Sasami Mentai ($2.80), Tori Sasami Chizu ($2.80). The Chizu maki is pork, stuffed with melted cheese in the middle, you couldn't believe how food orgasmic is that. It's bound to be my new favorite dish. The Salmon Maki Tare is salmon (duh!) dipped with sweet sauce and barbecued to perfection, i'm normally not a salmon eater but this. wow, and it's just the beginning.Tori Sasami Mentai are diced chicken barbecued and topped up with fishroe sauce (made out of fish roe and mayonnaise), and lastly the Sasami Chizu diced chicken barbecued and topped up with cheese. Ahh, best skewers i've eaten. i could go on and on more about them and i'm feeling so hungry right now blogging about them.


Lastly to end our perfect Lunner, we had Umeshu Tiramisu ($7.80) for dessert. It's Tiramisu with Umeshu, what more can i say? The Tiramisu is smooth throughout with slight hint of umeshu and the fruits are of course crisp and fresh. This tiramisu is even better than those that are from specialty dessert restaurants. oh my, what a great day.

Overall if you had read what i say about the skewers and dessert, you'll predict whats my verdict. Its the place to come for japanese barbecue skewers.
Price Range, $30/person (With Skewers)(total cost of my meal, $61.65 (After Service Charge and GST)
Ambiance, 8.5/10 (Thanks to it's woody interior and glass panel that shows sentosa)
Taste, 9/10 (The highest rating i've ever given)
Crowd, Need not book in advance.(Except for Weekends)

Maybe it's just me. Well, you'll just have to try it yourself. 

BACHMANN @ VIVOCITY

Tried out Bachmann @ Vivocity after a club event. The Restaurant itself is mixed in with several other restaurants like ajisen ramen. The place is very crammed no space between you and other people, hence you can't have a normal conversation. Have a very messy ambiance like a japanese hawker feel.

I had the Prawn cheese rice ($13.90) which was, amazingly quite tasty. The rice is not too soft till the state that it's mushy but just right. The prawn i could tell is fresh as when you bite into the crispy exterior the prawn itself is crisp and sweet.
Price Range, $15/person 
Ambiance, 4/10 (No personal space.)
Taste, 7.4/10 (Food was okay, probably MSG-ed)
Crowd, Need not book in advance.