Overdose wiith best crabs (?) in Singapore - Uncle Leong Crabs

The morale of the story is - Do not over order if there is a non crab eater among you.  We went for a farewell dinner, and committed the sin of over ordering!

There were 8 of us, but these were what we ordered:
1.  Fu Gui Ji (Prosperity Chicken)
2.  Brocooli with Scallop
3.  Mee Goreng
4.  Chilli Crab x 1
5.  Crab with Bee Hoon
6.  Steamed Crab
7.  Black Pepper crab with Bee Hoon
8.  Guinness Stout Ribs
9.  Complimentary Yam Paste
10.  Beer

Total Bill came up to be about $420.   Pretty reasonable, given the amount of food that we ate!  They have 2 branches, one in Punggol and one in Toa Payoh.
Not your restaurant ambience, but cozy and cool enough.

Fu Gui Ji:

Chili Crabs:

Crab in Bee Hoon Soup:

Guinness Stout Ribs

Steamed Crabs:

Uncle Leong Seafood

15 Lorong 8 Toa Payoh, Braddell Tech

Singapore 319262 · Tel: 6554 3453

Department Lunch @ Restaurant Ember

My boss wanted to buy us lunch, one of the criteria is the place has to be close to office, and the most important criteria, it cannot be too expensive.  So we decided on Ember at Keong Saik Road, which serve delicious and reasonably price 3 courses set lunch.

Bread to start the meal.  Served warm, though nothing great, good enough to line the stomach.

Starter:  Scallops.  Big and succulent. 

There are 2 different foie gras that you can choose from  I am not a big fan of foie gras.

This is: Roasted and Poached Foie Gras with Mirin, Shoyu, and Shiitake, though i think that the mushroom taste better than the foie gras.

Another version of the foie gras:  Pan-seared Foie Gras with Caramelized Apples and Clove, Port and Raspberry Glaze.  The apple give the oily fatty foie gras a refreshing taste.

Deep-fried Soft Shell Crab with Sweet Wasabi Aioli

Mushroom Soup

Here comes the main:

Crispy Duck Leg Confit with New Potatoes, Caramelized Onion-thyme Jus

Crispy enough, but i still prefer the one at Black Sheep.

12-hour Cooked Pork Belly with Savoy Cabbage, Apple Puree & Spiced Calvados Sauce- Close up of the pork.

Marinated Cod with Black Miso, Sweet Peas and Herbed Potatoes:

Warm Valrhona Chocolate Fondant with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  One of the best in town.  The chocolate really oozed out from the cake! 

 Frozen Nougat with Seasonal Berries

Included in the set lunch is coffee/tea.  Overall is a good value set lunch.  Be there early so that the food does not run out.

Ember

Address: 50 Keong Saik Road, Hotel 1929, Singapore
Tel: +65 6347 1928

Chui Huay Lim Teochew Cuisine

If you like Yam Paste (Orr nee), this is the place to go.  The Yam Paste here is served with Pumpkin, Ginko Nuts, with the sugar syrup on top.  If you do not like it to be too sweet, you can always remove the syrup.  The texture is good, not too oily, with a light fragrant of the yam and pumpkin.  Served in individual portion, the portion is just nice.

We also tried others dishes such as Prawn Rolls.  Deep fried, served in a plate of 6, is a good way to start your lunch or dinner.

The braised goose in a speciality in Teochew cuisine, but I find the meat a bit tougher than duck.  The sides that served with the goose, bean curds are very good though. They soaked up the essence of the braised sauce, simply yummy.

The steamed promfret is another highlight.  Steamed just right, the meat is tender and sweet, and not too fishy.  The only feedback is that the fish was too big, and 3 of us struggled to finish it.  Learnt my lesson, hence the second time when I returned with my family, we decided not to order it.

The braised conpy with eight vegetarian treasures is also a delight.  There are mushrooms, Fa Choy, Cabbage,spinach, carrots, golden needle mushrooms (and 2 more which I could not remember).  A bit light, but good to balance so as not to have meat overdose.

The hotplate oyster egg was sizzling hot and generous with its oysters.

For your daily carbo intake, you can choose either the Teochew Fried Kway Tiao with Diced Kai Lan or Fried Seafood Mee Suan.

Overall, if you like Teochew food, Chui Huay Lim is highly recommended.  We skipped many of the traditional Teochew food such as Cold Crabs, Teochew Fried Liver Rolls and Pig Trotters Jelly. It is a surprise that this restaurant is under the Jumbo Group.  If you have a jumbo member card, there will be further discount too.  This place will be my regular hunt if I have Yam Paste craving.  The location though sounds remote, is not too difficult to locate.  If you are a rich Teochew, you probably already know that it is in the Chui Huay Lim Club.


Chui Huay Lim Teochew Cuisine
190 Keng Lee Road, #01-02 Chui Huay Lim Club, Singapore.

Old Trafford - Theatre of Dreams

Finally I made it to Old Trafford to watch Man Utd played live!! I am no longer a plastic fan.  I watched Man Utd played Wigan on 26 Dec 2011!!!

It was not an easy trip, and thanks to GT and T, I managed to get to Old Trafford.  Especially GT, who has to drive 11 hours in total.  I was supposed to be a backup driver, but I could not even get into the first gear.
The driving there was quite bad due to the traffic condition.  We set off at 8am for the 3pm kickoff.  Though it was boxing day, the roads were quite busy.  To make matter worse, there was an accident on M25 (A car hit a pedestrian on the highway!) and we had to make a detour, which wasted 45 mins of our time.  When we finally arrived at Old Trafford, it was past 215pm, and we could not find parking space.  I had to get down to meet the guy to collect the tickets while GT looked for a parking lot.  We finally made it to the match, 5 mins before kick off.

The atmosphere was electrifying, though GT thought that it could be better with 75, 193 spectators.  End result:  5 goals, including 1 penalty converted by Berbatov.  The icing on the cake was when we were leaving the stadium, they announced that Man City were held to a draw by West Brom.

I have been looking forward to watch Man Utd play in Old Trafford.  Thank you T for helping me to get the tickets.  A total of 4 men were involved in getting the tickets.  Most importantly, thank you GT who drove me there.  It is really special, especially he is a Brighton fan.  It was a match with love.

Movies 2011

The last quarter of 2011 has been very hectic, did not have any time to update this blog.  I thought I would start by doing a recap of the movie that I have watched in 2011 because I could not answer GT's question of which was my favourite move in 2011.

Movies that I have watched in 2011:  (not in any order)
1.  Paul
2.  The Adventure of Tin Tin
3.  Kung Fu Panda 2
4.  Something Borrowed
5.  Crazy Stupid Love
6.  X Men First Class
7.  Transformer 3 - Dark of the Moon

Of which, Crazy Stupid Love was the most memorable one.  This was because we sat the first row!  It has been a long time since I watched a movie at the first row.  So it felt like watching the show in 3D!  Morale of the story - Always book the tickets, regardless whether it was a weekday or not.

Best Birthday Celebration - Morton's Steak

If someone is to ask me today, "where is the best place to celebrate birthday, my answer will be" Morton's Steak".  After the experience in Morton's, I realised that the best dining experience is a combination of food, service, to the very minute details.

These are the reasons why it is the best place to celebrate birthday (Of course if your budget can afford it)

1.  Customised menu. 
It has your name printed on it.  Does not cost much but it warms your heart.

2.  Fresh Ingredients

Before you order your food, they start with the "sales" talk to introduce their fresh ingredients.  It is a good chance for you to know the different cut of the meat.

 Morton's serve seafood too.  Lobster!  But I wonder why are you eating seafood in Morton's?

3.  Best Bread- Onion Loaf
I can never get enough of this.  Crispy on the outside, soft and warm in the inside.  Do not commit the same mistake as me, ate too much of this, and not much stomach space left for appetizer & steak!

4.  Best Appetizer

Steamed Scallop wrapped with Bacon

Look at the fats on the bacon!!  Yummy

 Lobster Bisque.  Very rich and creamy.  To be honest, I was full after the bread and appetizer.

5.  Best Wine Selection

I refrain myself from saying is the best wine.  The selection is good, from the traditional wine country to the new world.  But it is pricey, probably marked up 200-300%!  We chose a Spanish wine to go with our steak.

6.  Best Steak

These are the stars of the night.  Tender, cook to perfection, what else can you ask for in your steak?

Big cut, at least 400grams

Small one, single cut filet mignon.  About 180 grams, still too much for me.  Interestingly, Filet Mignon means "cute fillet" or "dainty fillet" in French.

7.  Best Dessert

Morton's legendary molten chocolate cake!

 Apple crumble, where they also serve with the birthday candle.  It happens to be GT's favourite colour :)  When they served this, they will also gather around your table and sing you a birthday song, LOUDLY!

8.  Birthday card

After a satisfying meal, how do end the dinner on a high note?  Well, Morton's did it in its way, the Mortons' birthday card!  Again, it does not cost much, but it made the birthday girl extremely happy.

Not cheap, but it is worth a visit to celebrate some special occasion.  No wonder we were not the only one celebrating birthday.

Morton's The Steakhouse

Mandarin Oriental Singapore

Fourth Storey
5 Raffles Avenue
6339 3740

Lao Ban Bean Curd 老伴豆花 @Maxwell Hawker Centre - Revisit

Since i had the lao ban beancurd, I am constanly craving for it again!  There must be something that they have put in the beancurd.  I went back on a Friday afternoon with my colleagues.  It was opened much earlier, and there was at least 5 people queueing at 1145am!

The silky beancurd.  Beware, it is addictive!

Our loot: