Rong Guang BBQ Seafood, Island Creamery

~ Been ages since I last update my blog.. Do pardon me for the lack of flow in the below post. ~

We braved the rain to go to Alexander Village (AV) to have Mum's Bday meal. It been years since I last stepped into Alexander Village and this is also one of those rare times that Dad agrees to eat out. His brother told him that there is a good eating place there but not knowing which, we decided on the zhi char stall in AV that was in our thumbs up list based on memory.

This is the only Zhi Char stall with 3 stall fronts in the market. There is no way you can miss them with a signage like that. Orders have to be placed at the stall as they do not come to you. Once the food is ordered, you do not have to wait long for the dishes to be served. This kind of surprises me for I have not seen zhi char stall who dishes out good food at such speed.

As they had no menu for us to browse, we ending up ordering a few standard dishes that came to our mind. 1st up, Sambal Kang Kong ($8). A standard, or kind of default veg to order. LOL.

 

Next is the Hei Zhor ($8).This is not a standard dish but ordered as there was some pictures showing this dish at the stall. I do not know how to translate this into English though but roughly, it should be prawn and  meat paste wrapped in beancurd skin and then deep fried. The actual colour is not as dark as in the pic but as I only had my SE C905 (which still cannot balance out certain colours), have to make do with the quality and colour of the pic. Taste wise, I was a little disappointed at the dish as it seems to have been prepared in advance and slightly warmed up before it was served. It was a little to hard for my liking. 

Next, Chilli Crab (2 for $32). For this stall, they do not have live crabs on display. Only some mini "advertisment" posters with the number of crabs and the price. One for $18 and 2 for $36. Think Dad wanted to have something "lavish" for Mum so he ordered this dish even though he did not see the crabs. Usually, he will want to choose his crabs and if the store does not give us the correct one, he will complain and then boycott the place. This time round, there was no such option. When the crabs were served, they didn't look too appetising as they were quite small. But for $32, there is nothing much you can complain about the size.We concluded that this stall probably uses chilled crabs which explains why the service can be that fast. The sauce is a little tangy but not spicy and again, this dish was not really piping hot as one would expect of the dish from a zhi char stall. The banana leaf underneath was not even slightly burnt.

What is chilli crab without Man Tou, aka Fried Steamed Buns? This bun is not bad. Texture is right. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside but I find it a tad too pricey at $0.80 a piece. 

I guess the only redeeming food is this BBQ Sting Ray ($14-Large). Been ages since we last ate BBQ Sting Ray.The fish was meaty, nicely grilled and the chilli on top complements the fish totally. YUM.... :)

 We also order Bak Kut Teh Soup from the nearby stall.  Bak Kut translates to Pork Rib and Teh actually means tea or in this case, the soup. My sister said that this is the only one she found that had the taste most simliar to the one we like in Malaysia. The pic above shows a bowl of only pork rib and the soup ($5) 

This bowl consists of the various parts of the pig, aka spare parts ($5). There were liver, intestines, stomach, etc in it. I still prefer the taste of the "normal" soup  :P

Authenticate Bak Kut Teh Stall always have You Tiao, aka Fried Fritters ($1) as a side dish. Why? Till this date I still do not know. Maybe it helps to soak up the last bit of the yummy soup?  :P  

On our way home, we make a quick stop at Island Creamery @Serene Centre to buy Chendol Ice Cream. Been thinking about this ice cream since I last ate it. It really taste like the real dessert and since my sister was agreeable to stopping by, bought it to share with my family. :) Everyone likes it too!

What is a birthday without a cake? My sister got my Mum a chocolate cake from Dino House called the Royal Chocolate. It was marketed as a Chocolate Cake that is light and not awfully sweet. It looks good and taste quite nice. The chocolate sponge cake was really light and bouncy.

Side view of the cake.

My slice of cake with chendol ice cream... yummmy.... :D

Ramen Play @ 313@Somerset

It was a mad rush to meet up with friends before CNY as the Chinese believe that owning anyone anything means bad luck in the coming year. Hence everyone is frantically meeting up with one another amid the preparations for CNY. Singaporeans are generally workaholics who put so much time into work that they rarely have time to catch up with their friends. I find it ironic at times as we are not miles apart as the country is very small but we find it so difficult to meet. The furthest you can be away is probably an hours’ worth of train ride away?

Anyway, met up with this dear fren of mine and we decided to check out the newest kid on the block – 313@Somerset. Not knowing what is available and having to answer to our rambling stomach and empty pockets, we decided to join the mini queue we saw outside RamenPlay as we were going down the esacalator.

Service was very prompt. We did not have to wait long for our table and the service staff was very polite. There was a constant smile on her face and she kept apologizing for making us wait for a table. We were given the menu to browse while waiting so that orders can be taken quickly.

RamenPlay came about through a collaboration between BreadTalk Group Ltd and Japanese Giant Sanpou Co Ltd, a distinguished name synonymous with quality ramen for the past 40 years. Under the leadership of Hironobu Kaneko (son of creator of Sanpou, Yukihiro Keneko), Sanpou ventured onto the international scene from a family run business which started in 1967. We even saw Hironobu himself at the outlet but I do think he felt a little out of place with the crew who was mainly Singaporeans. :P

The restaurant was quite tightly packed with you being able to hear the conversation going on beside your table. Who can blame them for trying to optimise the rental for such a prime location? The picture above is the eating area right outside the kitchen, a place I normally wouldn't take as I feel strange looking at the chef while he is cooking and having someone looking at me while I'm eating :P

On our table were 3 covered containers. A natural reaction was to remove the cover to see what is sitting inside the containers.  ;)

We foung Garlic Chips, Chilli Chives and Chilli in the containers. I have seen garlic chips and chilli served in many Ramen outlets but never seen chives served in this manner before. Further exploration led us to a poster describing what the contents of each container.

The garlic chips looks more like garlic bits and it is fragrant and crispy. Just beware of your breathe after if you cannot resist adding it to your ramen. The chives was kinda interesting.Added to the ramen gives it additional flavour.

There are options to top up your Ramen with extra braised egg, chicken wings, braised pork belly, cha siu slice, pork cheek and seasoned bamboo shoots if you feel like having more ingredients in your ramen. We did not opt for any as we wanted to try the original version first.

I ordered the "must-eat" ramen after flipping through the menu. The picture and description made my mouth water. However, when my ramen was served, we almost rejected it as it looked nowhere close to that in the menu. Only when the waitress said the name of the ramen did i realised that it was my Sanpou Tonkotsu Ramen! Hmm...

A close up of my Sanpou Tonkotsu Ramen ($14.80)

There were 3 different types of pork in the ramen namely Toroniku (braised pork cheek), Cha Shu (braised pork belly in char siew sauce) and Butakakuti (braised pork belly in special sauce). The colour of the pork and presentation of the ramen is quite different from that in the menu. This reduced my enjoyment of the dish by a little. However, the pork cheek on the left of picture and the braised pork belly in the bottom center of the pic does meet expectation. They were tender and very nicely braised. The Cha Shu was a bit of a disappointment though. The soup was full-bodied though a little too oily/salty for me.

My friend's Tebasaki Ramen ($10.80)

I did tried a little of the soup and it tasted like mine. Maybe my taste buds are not sensitive enough to tell the difference or maybe there ain't any difference to start with? Feedback from my friend was that it is decent.

Overall, I would think that it is decent ramen for the pricing. But personally, I felt that the soup was a little too oily and salty for me.

RamenPlay
313 @ Somerset
B3-04/05/06
Tel: 6634 0051
http://www.ramenplay.com.sg/

Spring Romance by the Singapore River

A side track from all the food posts...

Received this stalk of rose while walking down Orchard road this evening. It was a nice perk up at the end of a working day. An ex-col whom i bumped into even asked me who gave me the rose. LOL.. looks like the "advertisement" is half successful.. :)

This is a actually a promotion gimmick by Central to promote the event called Spring Romance by the Singapore River.  There are Jazz performances starting from 5-28 Feb,  every Sat and Sun, from 8-9pm at the Centrals' Promenade. You can even walk through an arc of love, ring a bell, inscribe a love note on a lock and more at the flower garden outside Central. For more information, can refer to http://www.thecentral.com.sg/

This year's V.Day happens to fall on the 1st day of the Lunar New Year, throwing retailers all over the island into disarray as to which market segment they should target at. I think those lovebirds whose relationship are still under wraps are having the same problem as well as most of them will be required to celebrate the most important day of the year with their family and relatives. It will be interesting to see how these youngsters sneak out and how the elders react to it. ;P