Archive for March, 2008

31
Mar
08

Sembawang Hills Food Centre

Went to Sembawang Hill Food Centre for lunch last weekend. The place wasn’t really big but it offers quite a good variety of very nice local food.The fish soup stall was the most popular (seen from the long queue forming from the stall).I tried the fish soup and rice set. It’s very very fresh and nice. There are at least 15 slices of fish in the bowl of soup. Total cost = $3.50 (fish soup) + $0.30 (a bowl of rice)
Ordered the Lontong from Yong Kee for my maid. She said the lontong tasted great and polished the whole plate off in a flash (not a drop of gravy was left)I only managed to take what is left on her plate cos she started eating while I was still queuing for the fish soup. She said the lontong is very very nice.

Yong Kee
#01-02

Ordered a bowl of prawn and abalone clam noodles for $2.50. Had the dry version and the uncle was very generous with Tomato Ketchup. The noodles tasted nice and q. Abalone Clams were fresh too. I din eat the prawns (due to allergy) and let ED finished it up.

Meng Kee Abalone Clams Prawn Noodles
#01-05

Ordered 4 pcs of shui kway @ $1.20 for 4 pcs.The rice kway was very very soft and melts in your mouth but the chai por wasn’t as great. However, the chilli packs a punch and tasted great with the shui kway.

Shui Kway
#01-16

The popiah was nice. Tasted like what my grandma would make. $1.20 for a pc without lup cheong. Order one with chilli and one without chilli. Ping Kee Popiah
#01-32
Nice and cheap fruit juices are sold at Kwok Fruits & Juices. $2.00 per glass and the juices tasted really fresh and sweet.Had a glass of papaya with carrot juice ($2.00) and a glass of apple, beetroot & carrot juice ($2.50). They do not charge you extra if you do not want ice in your juice. And they give you approx the same amount of juice with or without ice. Really value for money

Kwok Fruits & Juices
#01-30

Sembawang Hill Food Centre

590 Upper Thomson Road,
Sembawang Hill Food Centre
Singapore(574419)

29
Mar
08

Traditional Pastries & Cakes @ Gin Thye

This old confectionery shop had been around for years. Think the shop started in the 1960s or 70s and is well known for their traditional peanut cookies, kuehs and cakes. They cater wedding cakes & pastries, birthday cakes, baby full month celebration cakes etc. You know it they have it.

This shop is called Gin Thye, located at 423 Sembawang Road.

All sorts of traditional pastries were displayed for sale in their glass cabinets

Trays and trays of freshly baked sweet/ savoury bean paste pastries (Tau Sar Piah), Wife Biscuits, Husband Biscuits, Sun Biscuits and Moon Biscuits.

The shop also bake simple cakes and muffins. The whole shop smelt nicely of freshly baked butter cakes and muffins. Looking at these cakes makes my mouth watered.

Sweet or Savoury Tau Sar Piah for you?

These are the vegetarian version of the tau sar piah and other pastries. Vegetable oil is used instead of lard to make pastries.

Saw these mock fish, chicken and crab made of peanut and mai ya tang. They are used as offerings to ancestors or dieties during festive occasion

Mock Chicken

Mock Fish
Mock Duck (Made of Sesame Seeds and Mai Ya Tang)
 

Mini chocolate tarts for weddings or birthdays or baby full month celebration. A tray of 12 pcs cost $10.80. You need to make reservations in advance as the shop only bake the tarts upon requests. You can see some mini cakes beside the tarts. They are also sold for $10.80 for 12 pcs.

If you order wedding cakes/ pastries from them, you are entitled to use their wedding baskets for free. They have so many wedding baskets.
You can also get other wedding items here as well. One stop service :)

Wedding Tea Set for the Traditional Tea Ceremony

Bought some soft chewy traditional sweets ($2/ pack)
Shop Speciality 1 – Red Bean Paste Kueh. Freshly made and it is soft and melts in your mouth. $1.80 per pack

Sweet & Savoury Tau Sar Piah (Sweet ones cost $0.70/pc and Savoury ones cost $0.60/pc)

Shop Specialty 2 – Gin Thye Peanut Biscuits ($4/box)
Very nice and unique. One bite and the peanut biscuits melt in your mouth.
Freshly made Gin Thye Peanut Biscuits.

I did not buy these but these here freshly made and out of the steamer. Looks nice and soft to eat.
Gin Thye Cake Maker
423 Sembawang Road
Singapore 758392
Tel: 6257 1566

Mon-Sat: 8 am – 8 pm
Sun & PH: 8 am – 1 pm

Blk 152 Bukit Batok Street 11
#01-264 S650152
Tel: 6899 6929
Mon-Sat: 8 am – 10 pm

 

28
Mar
08

Nice and Q Ang Ku Kueh from Bon Choix

The shop had since shut down. Not sure if they had moved elsewhere or shut down completely.

————————————————————————————

Decided to get some Ang Ku Kuehs after packing my lunch at Amoy Food Centre after hearing rave reviews about it from my office cleaner auntie.

I decided to get 6 pcs of Ang Ku Kuehs as the stall is having a promo. If you buy 5 pcs, you get an extra pc of Ang Ku Kueh free. Each pc cost $0.60.

I bought 3 bean paste ones (the red ang ku kueh) and 3 bean paste with sweet corn flavoured ones (the yellow ang ku kueh)

See the skin of the ang ku kueh, it’s so thin and the filling is alot !!

The skin is quite nice to chew at. Very easy to bite. Very Q. I only use a plastic spoon to cut open the ang ku kueh. Did it without much difficulty and the skin did not even stick to the spoon.

Not too sweet also. And I love the one with sweet corn as compared to the bean paste one (shown below)

Here’s the address:

Bon Choix

#02-133 Amoy Street Food Centre

Tel : 6862 2180

Fax: 6821190

www.bonchoix.com.sg
Email: sales@bonchoix.com.sg

Other than Any Ku Kueh, the stall also specializes in Egg Tarts and Banana Boat

25
Mar
08

Sampo or Nadri Korean BBQ Restaurant???

Had lunch with 2 other colleagues at this Korean Restaurant the other day. It is located near Tanjong Pagar MRT Station.

Took the name card of the restaurant from the namecard stand on the dining table. Realised that the name printed on the namecard differs from the one printed on the tablemat on the dining table. Funny… how come one restaurant have 2 different names… ??? The one printed on the name card showed Sampo Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant while the one printed on the tablemat showed Nadri Korean BBQ Restaurant.

We decided to order their bean paste tofu soup set lunch. I had eaten this dish at other korean restaurants before and it contain ingredients like pork slices, tofu, radish, mussels and bean paste all stew together.

I remembered asking the waitress if they use pork or beef for their tofu hotpot and she replied they use pork. However, when we were served the bean paste tofu hotpot, there were only radish and tofu inside. The 3 of us find their servings really small even though we are quite small eaters. I wonder how would male customers feel after having their lunch there. Don’t think it would fill their stomach. Anway we went to Dessert Hut for dessert after lunch as we were still quite hungry.

Even their appetistiers servings were very very little too. These are for the 3 of us to share. Really pathetic,

After lunch, the waitress served us a bowl of plum vinegar each to aid in digestion. It looked, smelled and tasted like diluted cough syrup

We each paid about $12 each (including GST and service charge) but all felt that this place is definitely not worth a second visit.

Sampo Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant
72 Peck Seah Street Heritage Court
S079329
Tel: 6324 3009
(Near Tanjong Pagar MRT Exit A)

20
Mar
08

冰馆 Ice Monster @ Plaza Singapura

After movies, I was feeling really famished. Din know where to eat and ED suggested just finding a place to have dinner at Plaza Singapura. In the end I decided to have Zha Jiang Mian (Braised Minced Pork Noodles) at Ice Monster (located at the basement)

We ordered 2 bowls of Zha Jiang Mian, a plate of Gyozas (6 pcs) and a bowl of fresh fruits with shaved ice.

We waited for quite some time before the noodles came. The food totally disappoint us. Noodles were cold and the sauce was really diluted. It wasn’t nice at all.

The gyozas hadn’t arrived even after we had finished our noodles. When it finally came, it doesn’t taste nice either. Filling is really little and it was too oily.

Finally our shaved ice was here. We ordered the mixed fruit shaved ice that comprised of strawberries, kiwis and mangoes cubes on top of the ice. Only the mangoes tasted sweet. The other 2 fruits are simply too sourish.

Overall, the food wasn’t nice at all. Don’t think we would go back there again.

17
Mar
08

[Part 4] Fixed Deposit Rates – Which is the Best Deal Around?

Interest rates for fixed deposits offered by a few banks had their rates adjusted downwards in the past few weeks.

Was at DBS last week to change my passbook when the counter service staff recommend me this ‘forced’ monthly savings plan that pays a higher interest compared to normal savings account. And if the monthly amount is quite, the interest earned would be higher too. Eg, for a min sum of $800 per mth, the interest earn is 1.2% (which is higher than some of the fixed deposits interest rates).

This ‘forced’ monthly savings plan is called MySavings Account

Monthly Savings Amount

Interest Rate (p.a.)

S$50-S$290

0.45%

S$300 – S$790

1.00%

S$800 – S$1,490

1.20%

S$1,500 – S$3,000

1.50%

Pls Note: I am not an employee of DBS bank nor am I in any way related to them. The analysis is done purely for my own reference. For details, you might wish to check with the bank directly.

13
Mar
08

Wan Chai HongKong Tea Room @ Bishan Junction 8

Ate at Wan Chai HongKong Tea Room a couple of times but that’s at IMM. This is the second time I am having lunch at the other outlet at Bishan Junction 8.

Loved their ice milo as they use evaporated milk instead of condensed milk and they do not add sugar into your drink. A scoop of vanilla ice-cream is added to the ice milo and it tasted simply heavenly when the vanilla ice cream melt and blend with the milo drink. Simply delicious :)

But this time round I decided to order their hot lemon tea to try instead since the weather had been so cold recently. Wanna have something hot to warm myself.

But ED still want something cold to drink and ordered his fav ice Yuan Yang (ie Milk Tea cum Coffee). It also comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Mmm what should I order for lunch??

Felt like eating wanton noodles and ED want to try their Wan Chai Special Fried Rice. We noticed that almost every table order the Prawn Paste Chicken Wings so we decided to try that too.

Wanton Noodles comes with a bowl of soup.

The wanton noodles comes with 5 wantons and each is filled with minced pork and chopped prawns. I did not realised that the wanton contained prawn till my allergy started. And I only managed to finish 1 wanton. Gave the rest of the wantons to ED. :( so sad

Wan Chai Special Fried Rice. Rice was a bit too oily but it’s full of the wok taste (typical of hongkong stir fried dishes). If the rice is a little softer, this dish would be great. We felt the serving is a bit big as ED managed to finish 2/3 of it. He commented that there are alot of fresh juicy prawns in this fried rice dish. Lucky I did not order this for myself :p

Here comes our Prawn Paste Chicken Wings. Very nice and yummy

So how much does it cost for all the above food and drinks? Here’s the receipt

Wan Chai HongKong Tea Room
9 Bishan Place #01-49
Junction 8
Singapore 579837

They have another 2 outlets at IMM and Lot 1.

12
Mar
08

Myco Mushroom Farm @ Seletar Farmway West

Do you know that eating mushrooms can lower your cholesterol? And mushrooms have anti-aging, slimming properties and can also enhance your brain power? Well this is what I learnt when I visit Myco Mushroom Farm @ Seletar Farmway West last Sun.

My parents love to eat mushrooms and had been wanting to visit this mushroom farm for a long time. Decided to bring them there on Sunday to see how mushrooms are grown locally and also to buy some fresh mushrooms from the farm.

Everbloom mushroom farm used to occupy the current site where Myco Farm is. Everbloom had cease operations and had invested a 25% stake in Myco. One of the staff brought us and 2 other families on a tour around the farm. FOC tours are conducted on every sat and sun on a hourly basis from 10 am to 4 pm.

The mushrooms were stored in these barn-like air-conditioned and humility controlled buildings there.

The mushrooms are grow on these logs that are packed with sawdust and some sort of nutrients and placed on shelves in these barn

Mushrooms had medicinal properties. This is the Monkey Head Mushroom. It helps to improve one’s brain power when taken.

Rows of Monkey Head Mushrooms growing from logs on the shelves

We walked out of this barn and entered another one where Shitake Mushrooms are cultivated. Shi means Pine and Take means Mushrooms in Japanese. Shitake mushrooms were grown on pine logs in Japan. That’s how the name shitake comes about.

The white ’spots’ you see on the shitake mushrooms are not mould. It’s the mushroom spores which are very good for your body.

Freshly plucked mushrooms are best consumed within 7 days. Afterwhich, the good nutrients and stuff died and what you are eating are just fibre.

Shitake mushrooms have anti-aging properties. It also helps to tones up one’s muscle and burns away fats (these are what the staff there told us lah)

The 3rd barn we went into is where white and black oyster mushrooms are cultivated

Here’s some White Oysters Mushrooms. Eating Oysters Mushrooms lower one’s cholestrol. The staff told us that taking 150gm of fresh oyster mushrooms consecutively for 7 days helps lower one’s cholestrol.

The staff had just harvest baskets and baskets full of White Oysters Mushrooms

These are the Black Oysters Mushrooms… Aren’t they pretty to look at? :)

Rows of Black Oysters Mushrooms

Close up of a bunch of Black Oysters Mushrooms

Black and White Oysters Mushrooms growing side by side :) They looked lovely

And I think they looked like bunches of flowers to me


Little White Oyster Mushrooms sprouting out of these man-made ‘logs’

Mushrooms (shown below) which sprout from the sides of these man-made ‘logs’ are considered as second grade mushrooms. They are used as ingredients for soup bases.

These are called Willow Mushrooms. One of its medicinal properties is it reduce water retention and swelling in the body. It also aid the recovery of bruises. Those mushrooms that are covered in white below had mould growing on it. And such mushrooms are not edible.

We went back to their packing room where all the mushrooms are packed and ready to be delivered to the supermarkets. The staff told us that mushrooms sold at the supermarkets are at least 2 days old due to transportation and logistics matters. So if we want fresh mushrooms, we can buy directly from them at the farm. Best time to get it is at before 2-3 pm daily where all the freshly harvested mushrooms are packed.

I bought 150gm of Monkey Head Mushrooms ($4.50) and 500gm of Shitake Mushrooms ($9). My parents bought the 3-in-1 Mushroom pack (comprising of Black and White Oyster Mushrooms and Willow Mushrooms – $10/pack)

Myco Biotech
9 Seletar West Farmway 5
Singapore 798057
Phone: 65. 6773 0377
Fax: 65. 6773 1766

11
Mar
08

My Little Ninja

Recently brought Irvin to this mushroom farm at Seletar West Farmway 5 on Sun. He was complaining about the smell of the mushrooms (btw he hates mushrooms) so ED mask up his face so that he can’t smell them.. haha…

he said what xiang gu .. it’s chou gu… so smelly… hahaha

06
Mar
08

Muffins Muffins & more Muffins

went to queue for muffins from  Bake_of during lunch time. Wow… there were at least 7 persons queuing in front of me… waited at least 10-15 mins before I was served. The muffins smelled really nice… some were just out of the oven. Too bad the apple muffin is sold out by the time it’s my turn. The lady told me they are still baking some more in the oven and it’s not ready yet.. :(

Got these instead:




 

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