Monkey Thai Seafood - fishes & crabs

Crab with Tang Hoon ($25, $30 per kg)

I love Tang Hoon, do you? Its light springy texture and ability to retain flavors makes it a prominent choice, rather than the commonly available rice vermicelli.

But i do realized that when crabs were prepared in this way, its sea fresh sweetness tends to get a little diluted, or washed down? It's a pity.

Steam Fish in Thai Soy Sauce ($16)

The Thai chef has a unique way of bisecting the Seabass - clearly separating the flesh from the bones, it's interesting. There is no questioning the freshness of steamed seafood here but we were tantalized by their serving of fried fish with Thai chili sauce. Maybe, next time.

Bought a Jaegar-LeCoultre for Ric today, and we were sort of celebrating with a dinner here ;)

Cheapest Roasted Duck?

I believe many of you know the whereabouts of this cheapest roast duck in Singapore? No? They are the Yan Chuan Roaster, in Jurong West. Prices start from $12.90 then, to $13.90, to the now $15 per duckie, inflation lah..

No, not some substandard roast duck, they are sweet, meaty, savory and non too fatty. Get one whole duckie for the family or a kaki beer drinking session - next Saturday, the Election Day!

Enjoy the holiday! And make your vote count ok!

Nestle Gold Noir Intense 70%

Nestle Gold Noir Intense, 100g ($6.20)

This stuff is quite expensive; for a mere 100g dark chocolate bar even though it's manufactured with a minimum of 70% Cocoa solids.

And believing that since our palate isn't flat so shouldn't our chocolates?? NESTLE NOIR's Créateurs de Chocolat in Switzerland thus crafted "a new shape that is uniquely designed to unleash the intense cocoa flavours in dark chocolate and heighten your pleasure."

I beg to differ, very much beg to differ ;)

Shape does not matters here, Chocolate are made to melt in your mouth.

Q Vodka Blackcurrent

Q Vodka, Blackcurrent, 275ml ($4.75 promotional price)

We had kind of given up on Vodka; lured by sweeter Gin mix. So this is one more try on a commercial product rather than my own home mix - hopefully it's better.

Q Vodka scores with its high alcohol of 8%, getting you comfortably euphoric. But it tasted like cough mixtures - the Blackcurrent and Raspberry flavored concoct. Cheers.

和合, Woh Hup Cze Char

苦瓜排骨, Bitter gourd with Pork Rib ($10)

As with all upgraded and retrofitted hawker centers, along with their revised rental, we note the burgeoning food prices as we check out newly re-opened Hong Lim Food Centre.

Well, price hike couldn't be a concern when you need to eat - we were here upon a friend's recommendation for the boneless Fish Stomach Soup.

鱼胶汤, Fish Stomach Soup ($12)

Lightly stir-fried, the fish stomach retains most or all of its collagen! Non fishy, succulent fish pieces in rich broth - even a non-fish eater like Ric finds this acceptable.

You wouldn't see the fish soup featured on their signboard, but in fact many of the Cze Char stall in this food centre serves this dish of fish stomach soup, you just have to ask them.

For a healthy, lean and delectable chow, make an order of "Fish Stomach Bee Hoon" as 1 complete meal! I would, it's our favourite order :)

Ghirardelli Caramel Trio - Limited edition

Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares Caramel Trio Pack, 241.6g ($11.95)

We fell for Ghirardelli Caramel series after having an assortment of their Square Chocolates in Jan. Was on a look out for them; hopefully buying it in Singapore. Then comes Valentine's Day in Feb when NTUC supermart featured this limited edition pack - of ALL Caramel filling!

"Milk & Caramel Latte, Dark & Caramel, Milk & Caramel!" Plucked up the phone and excitedly told Ric, "i want this for Valentine!"

Very Cheap Bak Kut Teh, Kway Chap

I didn't have to say, "Very cheap Bak Kut Teh here." Their signboard says it all - Very Cheap Bak Kut Teh, Kway Chap.

For that, we have to try and give them due credit shall this stall at Geylang Bahru came to be "value for money"?

Bak Kut Tek ($3), Tau Pok ($0.50), Braised Egg ($0.50)

Frankly, i really could not find reasons to reject the stall albeit the lesser flavorsome Bak Kut Tek soup. The amount of tender sweet ribs served for a mere $3 was the catch and more than make up for anything else.

Braised pork knuckle was faultless. Served de-boned and neatly cut up for ease of consumption. We couldn't ask for more :)

Braised Pork Knuckle ($3)

Trung Nguyen - Vietnamese Coffee!

Creative 1: Thoughts ($4.20, with milk)

Like many others, we are intrigued by the taste of traditional Vietnames coffee. Brother who had been to Vietnam, has only praise for their coffee despite not being a coffee enthusiast - love it so much, he bought the 'Phin' (stainless steel coffee filter kit) home as souvenirs :) 

Today, we were finally at the Trung Nguyen Coffee in Liang Court Singapore and ordered their basic (cheapest) coffee for a try.

Was tipped by the server to keep the filter on for 5-6 mins for the coffee to drip through... "Great!" i was thinking - plenty of time for photo-taking.

After which, we stirred the Vietnamese sweetened condensed milk that was left at the bottom of the cup into the coffee.

Plenty of very sweet milk, powerful thick coffee, very different, we like it! And  will be back for all their other creation!

Monkey Thai Seafood

Late dinner, we were combing the Telok Blangah Market & Food Centre for food... going row after rows of hawker stalls till a gaze of hopeful light greets us - a new Thai Cze Char that's only been in operation for 6 mths.

They should be good with seafood - else the signboard wouldn't say so? But alas, crabs ($30 per kg) got sold out, followed by all their fishes ($16 for whole fish)! We had to re-write our order, making a mental note to come earlier nxt time.

Monkey Fried  Chicken ($4 for 5 drumlets)

This seems to be a must order since the dish was named after the stall - Monkey. And it was not bad at all, of deep fried chicken drumlets coated with crushed peanuts, melon seeds and black sesame!

Sweet-toothed alike me finish the drumlets with a generous drizzle of the oriental Mandarin sauce while my mature partner preferred munching on its pure nutty taste ;)

Asparagus with Prawns ($5)

Was told the chef might be working a little too fast with the asparagus - it should have been a drier dish. But never mind, the sauce was tasty and none overly salty, nice.

And the Asparagus, sweet and refreshingly crunchy.

Black Pepper Beef ($6)

We always enjoyed Beef; and this peppery fare helps emptied our rice bowl ;)

Tchibo, Kenya Dark Blend

Tchibo Kenya Dark Blend, 100g ($9.80)

Tchibo from Germany is coffee experts since 1949; from selling roasted coffee beans to opening of coffee chains and bakeries in Germany, even newly reunified East Germany states then. They become Germany's biggest coffee shop operator in 2003; think Starbucks, and celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2009!

Such rich history packs this ordinary looking bottle of 100% Arabica beans of which 60% comes from the harvest of Kenya, an East Africa land!

You never really know what you are drinking, sometimes... a taste of rustic charm.

Weisser Burgunder brut

Weisser Burgunder brut, versektet im goldenen Mainz

Weisser Burgunder, or Pinot blanc is a white wine grape variety. In Alsace, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, the wine produced from this grape is a full-bodied white and is the most common variety used for sparkling wine.

This bubbling bottle from Germany was exceptionally delicious, and none too dry with a clear hint of sweetness - we finished the bottle rather swiftly. Its 12% vol. alcohol was smooth and comfortable.

Wine with shimmering gold flakes makes impressive gifts and should be reserved for special occasions - i had wanted to wait till Ric clinch his new deal, but we have ran out of wine today.

Besides, being all stressed up over the new contract that was kind of secured yesterday, he can well deserves a toast... ;) and a pat on the back!

A Motor? A Car? A Tri-car!

MM NmG, US$29,995

Call me a 'Mountain Tortoise', which i believe many are, in limitary Singapore. This could be the one and only three-wheeled car registered here - The Myers Motors No more Gas (NmG) electric single-seater three-wheel vehicle. Earlier, the originator of this motorcycle, then named Sparrow, was by Corbin Sparrow till they filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

I was all the "Wow...!" when Ric show me these pics.

Quoting from the Green Autoblog, this three-wheeled configuration, called the tadpole or reverse-trike, keeps two wheels up front and places one in the back, is much stable and has the advantage of decreased weight and lower rolling resistance, being the preferred arrangement for builders of green vehicles.

Go to the Myers Motor website and you can see that the motorcar comes in 14 bright colors!

But there's no saving for owning this green vehicle in Singapore though, the LTA registered it under the car category - meaning you've got to pay for road taxes and parking charges that of a car and not a motorcycle ;)

Now you know why you don't see much Sparrow here?

Texas Fried Chicken!

Texas 2Pc Chicken Set ($7.40)

Our ultra healthy and light Shabu-Shabu lunch must have got us! - we were so craving for a more exciting tasting bud... ... "Wanna try Texas Chicken?" Ric proposed. "YES! SURE?"

So how does it fare compared to our latter tries of Popeyes Chicken? 

We both preferred the taste of Texas Chicken that's slightly less salty than Popeyes, yet flavorsome and enjoyable. Texas also does a perfect bake of the Buttermilk Biscuit!

On the other hand, Popeyes serves healthier and more refreshing Coleslaw than Texas's cloying salad. Now you decide.

Eno-Oka Japanese Restaurant

This was our first Shabu-Shabu in an authentic Japanese restaurant, and i wasn't afraid to ask question when we were served 3 types of dipping sauces - the sweet Sesame, savory Ponzu and a Ginger Green Onion Yakumi Kikkoman dip!

Traditionally, ponzu is for the vegetables and sesame sauce for the meat, but you could use whichever you like. And the sauces does enhance the otherwise plainly tasting Shabu-Shabu pot.

The helpful waitress turned up the heat of the table top induction cooker and advised us to cook the vegetables first, then Shabu-Shabu-ing our Kurobuta in the Dashi soup base.

Appreciate the soup, only at the end of the meal when fatty Kurobuta had deposited all its 'goodness' in the broth. Any earlier, the savorless water would have been a displeasure.

After all, grilled Kurobuta are still my favourite ;)  

US Kurobuta Mori Course, 150gm ($47.80, purchase at $22 from Groupon, all taxes inclusive)

水煮, Water Cooked.

Steam Slice Beef, 水煮牛肉 ($6)

水煮 literally means "water-cooked" - is one of my favourite Sichuan cooking. The dish had a relatively short history but was made really popular that it had become a 'must have' item on all Sichuan restaurants and eateries.

In China, the dish is usually served in a large bowl; almost like that of your face-washing basin ;) Water-cooked Fish, 水煮鱼 is the universal rendition of this famous dish, while Water-cooked Beef favor those who doesn't like trying their luck with fish bones.

Don't be intimidated by the covering of the thick layer of red chili oil, most version of this dish are spicy but bearable, especially those served in Singapore. And from Chinese medical point of views, eating heavily spiced food (Pepper, Chili) help purge one's body internal dampness caused by humid climate, such as those experienced in Chengdu Sichuan, and perhaps Singapore?

A very stimulating experience indeed, you've got to try.

We have ours, here.

If You Love Something..

If you love something, let it go,
If it comes back to you, it is yours,
If it doesn't, it never was.

You had probably heard of this wise saying; very wise indeed.