Food Review: Tim Ho Wan

Saturday saw me out with Ren Cui at Plaza Singapura shopping and having dim sum! I was having dim sum cravings for a while back so explained the eagerness to have dim sum for lunch. I was thinking of having dim sum at Mouth Restaurant or Bao Today at Rendezvous Hotel but Ren Cui suggested Tim Ho Wan instead.

In actual fact, I was not keen to dine at Tim Ho Wan because of the food experience previously at Toa Payoh Branch. I had been looking forward to Tim Ho Wan ever since I had it at Hong Kong and the baked char siew bun had me longing for more. Tim Ho Wan is a Michelin-starred restaurant with very good reviews in Hong Kong. However, after the first experience at Toa Payoh Branch, I never went back anymore. The food tasted horrible, the har gao and siew mai was very dry, the baked char siew bun was not as crispy as what I had eaten in Hong Kong before. I had other dim sum as well but all the other dishes were too plain and so unmemorable that I never came back anymore. I do not understand why people would queue for the food as it was totally not worth the queue. Besides, I am not the type who like to queue very long for food because I will get angry when I am hungry :X A hungry woman is an angry woman :X

Anyway, I wasn't keen to eat at Tim Ho Wan but was thinking if I should perhaps give it another try since PS was the first branch. So off we went to Tim Ho Wan. The hype was also dying thus the queue was not long. after 10 minutes of queuing, we were ushered to an empty seat. The service was quite fast and our food arrived quickly after ordering.


Siew Mai with Quail Egg - We ordered the siew mai from the chef recommendations. I think it was a new kind of siew mai. Does they look cute? :P Most importantly, they taste good too! ^_^


The second dish was the fried spring roll with egg white. This was a dish specially crafted out to suit Singaporeans taste. The egg white taste good when eaten together with the spring roll which made the whole dish stood out. Even though this was a fried dish, it was not oily at all and one could taste the crispiness of the roll :)


Now came the Har Gao. I was not expecting much from this dish because of the previous experience. However, the har gao at Plaza Singapura was surprising good. The shrimps inside the har gao was big, fresh and the har gao was pipping hot and chewy, far different from the dry, sad looking har gaos I had eaten previously before at Toa Payoh. 


Not forgetting the legendary baked Char Siew Bun from the "Big 4 Heavenly Kings". It is a must eat dish when you visit Tim Ho Wan. The baked bun we had was so good, crispy and light :) and I had two! :P The taste was as good and comparable to the ones in Hong Kong.

Overall, I must say that the dining experience was much much better than the one at Toa Payoh and the food was even better than the ones I had Hong Kong IFC branch. Maybe the chefs made a difference as the first good Tim Ho Wan dim sum I had was at Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui Branch. Nevertheless, we did have a great time there and it changed my perspective on the dim sum :D Will I visit again? Yes, definitely back to the branch at PS :P

Tim Ho Wan @Plaza Singapura
Dhoby Ghaut
#01-29A/52
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Food Review: Sushi Tei

I always look forward to Tuesday as it is the only day of the weekdays that I get to meet my boy for dinner for an early mid week break. Plus, I hardly get to see him lately, like twice a week max =.=

I was not exactly in a good mood the whole day and was quite tired that I actually forgotten that I was hungry =.= Additionally, I was craving for some dim sum but was unable to find any places that serve nice dim sum at night. With no other choices in mind, I went along with the suggestion to visit our frequent dinner place Sushi Tei at Thomson Plaza for dinner.

We are such regulars that the counter staff could recognize us easily. We chose counter seats as usual and started looking through the menu. For this month, there is a Hokkaido special menu and we decided to try the Wagyu pasta with tan tan meat and onsen egg for a change, unagi maki, spicy salmon maki and the usual - Sushi Tei salad with sesame and Sushi Tei dressings.

My mood was soon lifted when all the food started arriving. Food therapy works the best for me! See how colourful they are! :D


The Sushi Tei salad came and we mixed in the dressings and started our "lo-hei" practice. Lol, the people sitting next to us might have thought that we had gone crazy~. I always preferred the Sushi Tei at Thomson Plaza because the servings are so generous and the food are of good quality compared to some of the other Sushi Tei outlets I had went to. Can you see the generous chunks of salmon, squids and tuna in the salad?




The spicy salmon and unagi maki were crunchy with cucumber in each of the maki roll. Two simple dishes yet they were done perfectly! :)


The star was the Wagyu Pasta with tan tan meat and onsen egg. For those who does not know what tan tan refers to, it refers to minced pork. The onsen egg looked like poached egg (in Western context). The presentation of the dish was beautifully done. The taste of the pasta was surprisingly good with a hint of spiciness. We polished off all the pasta including the gravy to the last drop. Thumbs up for this dish ^_^

Really enjoyed the food and company and hopefully the Hokkaido menu is still available the next time I visit!

Sushi Tei @Thomson Plaza
301 Upper Thomson Road
#03-46 Thomson Plaza
Fairprice Town
Singapore 574408

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Recipe: Golf Pineapple Tarts

Chinese New Year is around the corner again, so it's time to bake pineapple tarts! :D 

My future mum-in-law had prepared all the ingredients necessary to make the pineapple tarts and the ones we were baking were the golf pineapple tarts. The golf pineapple tarts were much more easier to make compared to the opened ones as the latter involved rub-in method for the dough and chilling of the dough in fridge.

Let's the fun begins!

Baking of the tarts got everyone in the house in a family bonding mode as all of us were involved in the baking one way or another.


The glazed pineapple tarts

Adding some decorations to the pineapple tarts to make it look like mandarin oranges

We baked 4 bottles of pineapple tarts (around 100-120 pineapple tarts) the whole afternoon! :D

One bottle of pineapple tarts cost around $18-$23 during the Chinese New Year season. So why spend the money to buy when you can make them yourselves and enjoy the process?

Recipe:

          
Ingredients (makes about 100-120 golf ball size pineapple balls):
350g flour, sifted
50g milk powder, sifted
350g soft butter, cut into small cubes
50g sugar
2 eggs
Pineapple Paste, rolled into small balls
1-2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
Yellow food colouring
1 egg yolk (for glazing)

1. Cream butter, sugar using a mixer (medium speed) until well combined. Add in eggs, and mix until combined before adding in the flour and milk powder and 1-2 drops of yellow food colouring. Continue to mix well and the dough will be ready.

2. Knead the dough into a ball and wrap in pineapple paste. Place the pineapple tarts in tray greased with butter to prevent the tarts from sticking and brush some egg yolk on top of the pineapple tarts.  

3. Preheat oven for 180 degree celsius and bake for around 17 minutes.

4. Cool the pineapple tarts before you keep them in the containers.

Optional: You may add some garnishes to decorate the pineapple tarts if you want.


Enjoy baking!

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Food Review: Little Diner

Instead of having brunch at the usual few brunch places (which I will write about shortly!) my boy and I always go to, we decided to try somewhere new upon doing some research. The place is called Little Diner, located along Bukit Timah Road, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.  

Parking was hard as the parking area was cramped but thankfully, we managed to find a space just as one of the other diners was driving off when we reached. For non-drivers, it is not too inconvenient to come by the place as I spotted a bus stop before the cafe though some walking was required.

Anyway, back to the food! I ordered the "Krusty Krab" Benedict and my boy ordered an EPIC Breakfast Platter and a mocha coffee (his usual order) to go with the brunch.

Krust Krab Benedict
My "Krusty Krab" Benedict arrived first with a generous serving of hollandaise sauce on toasted brioche. The benedict comprised of two golden crab cake pillows (quite small in my opinion, but they were certainly flavourful), two poached eggs, two strips of bacon, two pieces of grilled asparagus and garden salad. Every bite was bursting with flavour, tasting oh so good and certainly I do not regret coming over here for brunch! :) 

EPIC Breakfast Platter

The EPIC Breakfast Platter arrived in a plate full of delicious slices of brioche, eggs in any style you like (the boy chose poached eggs), pork sausages, sautéed mushrooms, crispy bacon, grilled tomatoes, cut roasted potatoes and salad. It looked so heavenly too that I could not help stealing food from my boy's plate too :P 

Carbohydrates overloaded! :O

Halfway through the meal, the service staff came to check on us if we had any feedback on the food. So attentive and good service right? :P


I also noted that the coffee served here were from Toby's Estate coffee, one of the coffee cafe which had very good reviews :) So we killed two birds with one stone by visiting Little Diner today!

This is one of the better brunch places I have been to and I will certainly be back again soon! :)

Little Diner
Blk 789 Bukit Timah Road Singapore 269763

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Food Review: Yoogane Singapore

I finally visited Yoogane Singapore and had my Korea craving for chicken galbi satisfied!

I was unable to find good places that served good Korean food after my visit to Seoul and Jeju last Nov. I visited some, but I only left the restaurant feeling disappointed and longing even more to return to Korea again.

I read raving reviews about Yoogane and the long queue outside each time. I was having craving for the chicken galbi so the boy and I decided to drop by Yoogane for lunch.

To skip the queue, we reached the moment Yoogane was opened. There was no doubt that there was a small queue forming though it was not for long before we were seated.

As the orders were for a minimum for two person, we ordered chicken galbi for two person. Imagine my disappointment when I wanted to order the ramyeon noodles, fried rice and mozzarella cheese to go with the chicken galbi but was stopped by the boy because he reminded me that the portion we ordered in Jeju was so huge that we had a hard time finishing it (though I finished up all the rice in the end) :(

Oh wells..

Once seated and orders placed, we went to choose some of the free side dishes at the self-service counter that you would find in a typical Korean restaurant to have some appetizers before the food arrived.

The 2 servings of chicken galbi came in a big pot and we wore the aprons that had been prepared for us to prevent the food from dirtying our clothes. Similarly to Korea, the service staff would prepare all the necessary set up and the cooking as the cooking required some skills.






Two of us having a great time pretending to cook :P Look at the big pot in front of us! :D

I wanted to try the ramyeon noodles and fried rice badly so we placed additional orders again and the ramyeon noodles were added to the whole pot for cooking. Look how the food was so wonderfully cooked, coated with the hot sauce!


Once the food was ready, we started to eat. And mind you, they really tasted as good as the reviews had said! I finally found a Korean eatery that served good Korea food! The chicken galbi was spicy though not as spicy as the one I had eaten in Korea but overall, it was good :D


Not forgetting the fried rice and mozzarella cheese, they were added in for cooking once we are almost done with the chicken galbi. The rice was pan-fried and coated well with the sauce and the mozzarella cheese was spread on the rice to melt the cheese and created the "baked rice" effect. Again, the fried rice tasted so heavenly that both of us ate up all the rice, not even leaving a single grain of rice in the pot.

Overall, Yoogane Singapore was a pleasant dining and served good authentic Korean chicken galbi. The price however, was around 2.5 times more expensive compared to the one I had eaten in Korea. Do give it a try if you are around the area and you will not be disappointed with it.

Yoogane Singapore
200 Victoria Street
Bugis Junction
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