Soup, ribs and stuffed

Soup restaurant is one my favourite restaurant worth visiting again and again.. and again. I simply love the dishes they serve there. Its just sooo... chinese! Which is good cause I like chinese fooooooooooooodddaah.

Plus they also serve nice slurpilicious soups which are really strongly flavoured without MSG, I guess, since I don't really feel thirsty afterwards.

We popped by Soup Restaurant in Suntec City yesterday after craving it for SO many months and ordered the set meal for two which consisted of a plate of Samsui chicken, Ah kong potato leaves, Begger pork ribs, Soup of the day and desserts.


O sweet holy mountain of nuts!

They serve nuts as an appetizer. Peanuts soaked in sugar and dark sauce, I think, which are reaalllly good.



Soup of the day was winter melon soup which was VERY good. Very well boiled and brought out the flavour of the pork ribs. Yummay~



Can I just say that the Samsui chicken is SUPER DUPER WOOPERLY NICE?! Ooo nicely boiled chicken pieces wrapped in fresh crispy lettuce and topped with a KILLER ginger sauce. The ginger sauce is just outta the world when eaten with the chicken, or alone, or with rice, or with anything. Its just so delicious! I think they added sesame oil, some soya sauce and a little sugar to it to make it taste so good but if you don't the ingredients right on your 9980th attempt to get it right, don't worry. They do sell it in a bottle for $4.80 only.


Wrap it up~ before you go go~



We also order the begger pork ribs because its lip smackingly good. The slightly charred ribs is seasoned in a sauce so good you'll keep wanting more. Come to think of it, the sauce tastes like tweaked char siew sauce. Don't come here expecting Tony Romas though, the ribs here are dry but tender and comes off the bone easily, not juicy little sticks with fat dripping down their bodies.



The Ah kong potato leaves we changed to Ah por's. And yes, there is a difference, one is cooked with sambal while the other is cooked with black sauce. Nothing special about this and it tastes like spinach drenched in dark, sweet sauce.

Dessert is a choice of white fungus and gingko or herbal jelly and we tried both which were pretty average.

Order the set meal because it's only $40 (you're allowed to change one dish) and it will save you quite a good sum. Plus, it think its more suitable for three people cause we were STUFFED to da max!

Sobs... love handles...

Kim Gary's

It's hard to find good fried rice that's nice, tasty and not oily, even harder to find just better than average fried rice in restaurants. Or maybe that's because I don't order fried rice in restaurants. How many times has it been... Cnce..? Twice?

Alrighty but Super Sam knows a good plate, or in this case a bowl, of fried rice when he sees one! ..Or tastes one! Yeeeah, trust the man who never eats fried rice.

We popped by Kim Gary's restaurant in Vivocity sometime last week which had me asking the question, "Who the fish is Kim Gary?!". But nevertheless, we crossed our fingers, clutched our souls and sacrificed our tastebuds for the greater good. Or so we thought...

Kim Gary's offer Hong Kong styled cuisine and has the usual thick toasts, pork chop noodles etc, and rice with toppings like stir fry beef, pork chop and fried fish pretty much like the stuff you can find in Hong Kong, I guess.

We had an Almond tea ($1+) which was pretty milky in a cow kind of way. It tasted diluted and not almondy enough.



Also, a dish of mini drumlets ($5+) which were pretty decent but the sauce tasted pretty much of mainly black pepper and wasn't really suitable for the drumlets.

We also wanted to try the thick toast but when it was served to the table beside us we went, "Holy shizz! Look at size of that thing!". I swear man it was at least 8 inches high or maybe it was only 4 inches... I wanted to take a picture but I was quite sure they would've minded. Oh well.



Okay finally to the mains! The hot and spicy noodles with chicken wings tasted pretty much like crap. The soup was so diluted and tasted like peanuts and yeah, that's about it.



But I ordered a gem! Yay, a gem! I ordered stir fry beef with mushroom rice which was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. The rice was well fried but yet not oily even one bit. In fact, the rice was so separated and un-mushy that I could feel every grain of rice. It had the right wetness level of sauce which actually made it taste like steamed rice which had been slightly left dried and seasoned with sauces, grainy but tasty.

And I'm telling you, mushroom, chinese sauces and rice gotta be a match made in heaven. The mushroom soaked in all the seasonings and mixed with the already lightly sauced rice was drool worthy. Besides, the rice had the wok hei taste and they were brilliant to add corn bits to the rice which added a distinctive flavour and crunch.

The beef was soft and nicely cooked, although it may have been swimming in corn starch for a little too long. Even so, it had a good wok hei taste and nice texture and a $6 bowl of fried rice provided me with a hell lot of beef.

It wouldn't be fair to judge Kim Gary's at this point but the fried rice was really worth it.

Aston

Cheap steak! But is it reaaally cheap? Good steak! Is it reaaaaally good?

Well, apparently not.

I was down at Aston's Chomp Chomp branch last week with Qin and her brother to try out their supposedly famously economically-priced steaks which aren't really economically priced as the cheapest (a sirloin) was priced at $9.90.

Cheap? I don't think sooo. Yeah sure it's cheaper than a restaurant's but the portion is notably small. Besides, we can always find good steaks at the same price in a kopitiam which reminded me that Aston's at Chomp Chomp was located in a kopitiam.



The man over the counter was quite friendly which unfortunately didn't help in the doneness of the steak. Medium turned out becoming almost-rare which was SUCH a surprise considering the thin-ness of the steak. Maybe they didn't want to overcook it. Maybe.



Chicken chop was good though. I had the BBQ chicken chop with hickory sauce which was the only thing that caught my eye. Well, actually when I saw the word hickory my mind went like "Get the hickory dammit, get the hickory dammit, get the hickory dammit". I seriously believe that I've been tastrebud-washed ever since I ate hickory sauced steak at Hog's Breath.

Hickory was yummay! Errr, which left me undecided whether the chicken was good or not. Acceptable and quite juicy I guess.



The other chicken chop with mushroom sauce wasn't that impressive with the sauce rather mild.

Oh but I have to talk about the sides. They have quite a number of sides including vegetables, salad, coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, baked potato, mashed potato and fries.

The coleslaw and mashed potato were quite good andddd, they were quite good anddddd, I don't know what else to say. Alas!

I don't know about the quality at the REAL Aston but this one didn't make a good impression on me.

Queue Queue Rice

I wouldn't be insane enough to queue in line for 45 minutes for a rice ball, so I guess I was a little insane the day before when I DID queue up for 45 minutes... for two rice balls. Of course I grumbled during the entire time of which Qin had to painstakingly endure.

QQ rice wasn't so crowded before that one fine day. That DAY when it was featured on Channel 8. Which lead to the unimaginable horrendous queue which I contributed to by making it longer HEHE. But at least I didn't buy a whole box of rice balls and stood around the counter taking my own sweet time like some people did, jerks. I swore he took 10 minutes or more, Sheesh.

Anyways, this QQ rice is actually brought over from Taiwan and features rice balls with 5 different kinds of fillings. There are also 5 different rice to choose from namely; purple rice (like Bubur Hitam), brown rice, mixed wild rice, ice lake wild rice, wheat germ brown rice and a combination of any two. $3.20 for a rice ball or $3.90 for 2 different types of rice or make it a meal by adding a multi grain drink and rice pudding for and additional $1.80.



They also do have quite a variety of ingredients to choose from ranging from chicken floss to lettuce. Actually, what ranges from chicken floss to lettuce?! Ahha! I don't even know what the fish I'm saying.

Okay, so whether your ball of rice tastes good or not pretty much (like 98%) depends on the ingredients you choose. Choose those with very strong flavours (like I did) like chicken floss and mutton rendang (this week's specialty) and your ball (of rice) will taste good.



Hey, I like this stuff. It's like my salvation to my ban from sandwiches (Damn you wheat bread!!!). It's like I can FINALLY eat sandwiches again! Yay! Just kidding, nothing compares to a kick-ass sandwich. But rice is good, and healthy, in a different kind of way. The purple rice is gooooood and has that Piak-y bite to it when you bite chomp down into it and expore its tummy full of yummy ingredients.

Otherwise, thats pretty much it and brown rice, well, tasted like brown rice. Duh, what did you expect?

It's good, it's nice and it's convenient but I'll probably visit it a few weeks later after all the commotion has died down.


Address:

Novena Square 2
QQ rice
#01-06

Taiwan "Xiao Chi"

It's been awhile back since we visited this tiny eatery.

Oh yeah everything is always "been awhile back" isn't it Saaaaam? Sheesh.

Arghhh get out you dumb voice in my head!

Alrighty, anyways yeah, this teeny weeny eatery which isn't really tiny actually is located opposite Bugis Junction beside Ritz apple strudel. They serve, well, Taiwanese food! What a surprise!

We were quite full so we only ordered two dishes to try out. (Okay I'm lying, after that I ate 1 plate of duck rice, two bowls of desserts and 4 packets of durian which was DAMN NICE LAR considering I got them from Carrefour)

Aaah! Nooo get off me you sickening love handles!!!



Okay, DNS (Do Not Sidetrack). We got a preserved cucumber, not literally but a plate of it. It was good! Right sweetness but sourishly preserved enough and the cucumber isn't mushy especially the seedy part. And they added sesame oil which gave it an extra kick.



The Kong bak rice was SUPER DUPER YUMMY! Albeit being like 199% overly oily. It was filled with tasty, savoury, pork belly slices soaked in a unhealthy amount of liquid FAT and I ate the whole bowl of it. Shizz, what was I thinking?

The salted vegetables also gave the dish a nice soury salty touch to the otherwise superbly-unbalanced-toward-the-side-of-unhealthy dish and stops making you feel full and sick.

Oh yeah they also have this tea egg which was cooked to dark brown but tasted like a normal hard boiled egg. So much for the effort aye?

We WILL go down and try their Zha jiang mien as well as their fried chicken as well as some other stuff which I forgot soon (I hope). Try the rice, it's damn good! Unless you're on a low cholestoral diet or something.

Some shots and what not

We gave Waraku another shot. Not much words this time round, Just enjoy the food-porn alright fellas!







Oh yeah I just have to add in that the udon was quite good. Good, chewy udon with good soup. But darn it, it made me scratch the whole night because the waitress said it doesn't contain wheat...

Alrighty, that's all for today folks, till I lay me fingers on my sexy Apple keyboard again. Adios!

Adam's road Nasi Lemaks

I've been eating a hell lot of durian lately, which uncoincidentally have nothing to do with this post at all. *Big smile*

Alrighty, having heard about Adam's Road famous Nasi Lemak, we specially made a trip down today (after having dragging that trip on for months).

Good nasi lemak? Read on.

There were two stalls side by side; Adam's Nasi Lemak and Selera Rasa's Nasi Lemak, and clearly Adam's was getting all the attention with consistent long queues but Selera's was only enjoying a tiny trickle of customers (most of which I think chose it over Adam's because of the long queue, like me).



So we were so full of anticipation before eating the nasi lemak right... after eating a spoonful of rice each, our anticipation levels dropped to half and we were like "Thats... it?". Oookay, the rice didn't blow me away this time; and I'm a person who gets blown away very easily as someone else mentioned.

It's just too grainy (read: not fluffy at all). Not lemak enough (read: not enough coconut and pandan) and just lacking of something. I don't know what, and I don't think they know too if not they'll be having queues twice as long as Adam's. Oh well, at least the sambal made up for it somehow. Don't get me wrong, it's not excellent I've tasted much better sambal elsewhere but its not bad lar. The begedil is quite nice though, soft and sufficiently potato-ey. Don't even talk about the chicken wing. It's batter is HARD and TASTELESS and so is the chicken wing. Period.

So we weren't satisfied OF COURSE. So I had to queue up for Adam's and I suay suay kena one dude who ta pao-ed 4 packets of nasi lemak. Okay, nevermind though because the nasi lemak looked promising and lets just say the rice is much much better than Selera's. It's got enough coconut, it seperates easily (Oh did I mention that Selera's rice CLUMPS?), and it's soft, not grainy.



The sambal is not bad but Selera's would be the winner in this category. The chicken wing is better than Selara's but only slightly and the begedil and otah is only average.

*Sigh* Aye, I prefer Hup Lee's nasi lemak lar at least their chicken wing rocks my socks and their chilli is Mmm, very yummy and their rice, Hieh can easily beat them both. (Subjective to taste, please don't flame me okay?)

No. 1 Nasi Lemak in Singapore? You be the judge.



Address:

Adam Road Food Centre

Stall 2: Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak
Stall 1: Adam's Nasi Lemak

Good Morning Granny

There's only one grass jelly stall I would ever recommend to anyone and that's granny's grass jelly located at Golden Mile Food Centre. The first time I tried it I was blown away by how good it was.

I ordered the drink back then and the jelly was just so... melty, soft, squishy and smashy. Not something you can really sink your teeth in. For those who don't like the grass jelly taste (like my fussy gf), this particular drink doesn't have that taste too (or so the fussy girl claims).


This time round I ordered the jelly version which is really nothing compared to the drink. Okay, it is softer and stickier than normal but I'd rather have it chopped up and slurp it all up in the form of a drink.

Address:

Casuarina Prata

Oh sweet tunnel of food

Shucks, blogger is acting up again and I can't put my pictures up! So I'll just put up something we ate like a few months back (which doesn't help when we tried to recall how they tasted like).

Uuh... just enjoy the pictures. Like a children story book! Ya know, when you were a kid and you only flip through the pictures and not the boring text. Just treat it that way.

So here goes nothing:

Paper thosai masala



Quite good. HAHA (Pathetic). That's all I can remember. Oh yeah, it's crunchy... uhm, the coconut side was goody goody and we swapped dhal curry for mutton curry which was much better. The masala potatoes were, well, I forgot. Hehe. =)



Egg prata was quite huge (the biggest egg prata I've ever seen) but tasted pretty average.



I may be forgetful but not that forgetful to write about probably one of the nicest bryani I've eaten. Fair enough though, I don't eat alot of bryani so if my tastebuds fail to judge accurately, don't ostracise me please?



The gravy was ooooooo maaaa goodddddneesssss. I loved it! And so did everybody else. It's more to the sweet side (shizz I think my brain can only identify sweet and savoury... okay maybe bitter and sour too, not that good at defining the taste). The rice was ooookay only. Actually I didn't get a good shot at the rice cause I was frantically scooping up the rice with the gravy and shoving it into my mouth which will end on in my belly which will ultimately end up on my love handles. Aaah, *sobs*

The chicken was a little hard though.

Umm, I don't have the address but I'll be visiting the place tomorrow again and I'll just post it up ASAP. :)

Alright here it is

Casuarina Curry
126 Casuarina Road,
Singapore 579514
Phone: +65-64559093
Fax: +65-64551230
Opening Hours :
Mon - Sun & Pub : 7:00 AM - 11:30 PM
Weekends & eve of Public Holidays 7:00am - 12:00pm

More loving

Oh did I mention my mum cooks a kick-ass chicken too?



Well, now you know.



And some pon teh. At least thats how I think it's pronounced.

My love

These are what I had during my trip home:

Achar





Made by my dear Mom a.k.a the most awesome mom in the WWW. No lar not the internet, Whole Wide World!

Nonya Bak Zhang



I wrapped them okay. Quite standard right?!



Loads of meat and a little rice for a glutton like ME.

Hock Lam Beef Noodles

Clear clear clear!

I'm in such a mad rush to clear all my drafts before I post my Perth pics which unfortunately couldn't be posted because the dumb system in camp doesn't allow me to upload pics.

Oookay. I think I'm ranting more than usual nowadays. Haha, maybe I'm going bonkers. Or maybe I WAS already nuts... to start with. Nooooo don't leave me my dear readers! Hehe.

Oh yeah yesterday I ate like the most AWESOME (shizz Sam stop using the word awesome!). The most [add in your preferred spectacular word here] thosai ever. But unfortunately I forgotten to bring my phone so I couldn't take pictures. Ah ha! Gotcha on a teaser.

Which brings me to this post on Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeef noooooodles!

I love beef noodles. Totally dig em. When people were eating baby food I was drinking beef soup. Aye, no kidding, this boy likes his beef. I love the beef noodles at Rex (at Selegie road) which my dad a.k.a the most wonderful man, used to bring us a long, long time ago. Cooked by this old lady and served with damn good chinchalok (the white stuff with chilli) and loads of chye poh (preserved vegetables), totally awe...licious! The sauce was damn good and beefy also. Anyone knows if it had been passed down? Pleeease tell me pleaase I'm BEGGING you!

After that we found another beef noodle stall located at Scotts shopping centre food court and that became our next best thing over the years. But now Scotts is gone! Ahhh, they just want to rid me of my beeeeeeeef, don't they?!



Okay, so I've found Hock Lam. Well... it's not exactly up to that standard though. Hock Lam's beef noodle is strongly flavoured. Rrrrright, but in a different kind of way; the way of garlic and spices. Boy, it was strong, but in a subjective kind of way; as some people do not like garlic (not me). The sauce tasted mostly of (very) strong use of spices and reeked strongly of garlic. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but when you think about it, it's supposed to be a bowl of BEEF noodles.

Dude, the beef stock is simply not strong enough. The soup is also too salty and strongly flavoured and when both taken together, Phoo! A little unpleasant.

Not that it's a bad thing, some people like it but I don't. really. find. it. that. good.
I also don't like the idea of peanuts in my beef noodles? Oh well...

Waraku

We don't usually eat at Japanese restaurants alot. And nooo, Ichiban Boshi doesn't count, it's just like a sushi chain thingy. So I was really anticipating how Waraku would taste like (not the store but the food duh) especially after reading Food Glorious Food's multiple posts on how uber fabulous the negitoro tastes like.

Verdict: It's freakin' good. Awesome. Fabulous. Yummy. Slurps slurps!



Good fatty tasty tuna belly with rice (which was pretty normal) with huge loads of heavenly spring onions which is the SUPERB sidekick to minced tuna belly. It's like robin to batman... Or kaya to toast... or issit toast to kaya (okay I've got some strange metaphors going on back there in my head). Or bananas dipped with chocolate... Jesus it's quite shitty I'm stuck in camp now and I'm hungreeeeeeeee.



Seriously, it's awesome. The spring onions added this fragrance to the otherwise (presumably) yucky raw tuna belly. I said presumably. Nah, actually I would like the tuna belly with rice alone too. But the spring onions are just so essential! Read the above paragraph again if you do not understand (or just keep reading it over and over again). And adding good grade soya sauce and a little wasabi would just hit the spot.

NEXT



This uber fabulously nice sushi. Raw chopped up tuna with a quail egg yolk. At least I think it's quail egg cause it's so teeny weeny. Omg, gobble up the whole thing and feel the awesome tuna taste combined with eggy texture so smooth it just slides down. Awesome.



We liked the pork katsu too. It was thick, and juicy... and sufficiently porky. And dipped into their AWESOME sauce meant for katsu. Ooo, genius. The best sauce I've ever tasted in my life (and I totally dig those things). It's not as sharp yet that's what brought out the flavour. Okay that explanation sucked... I can't remember much except it being the best I've ever tasted.



The udon was just pretty normal though. No hoo haa about it.



Ooo and we ordered the 5 kind sashimi. HAHA you should have seen Qin went into a state of shock for like 2 seconds when the dish was served. Actually I also went into a state of shock because the thing was SO FREAKIN HUGE we had to be shifted to another table!

But alas, the sashimi was a little of a let down. Not that fresh I suppose and the salmon doesn't have that milky taste. The rest were also only so-so and not the freshest I've had.

But otherwise, it was a good dinner and the bill came up to around $60 for both of us.

Did I also mention they provide two kinds of soya sauce? The one for sushi is sweet while the one for sashimi is a little more salty. But both rocked.

You can find out more here.