谭鱼头, Tanyoto Steamboat Buffet

Having read not too good reviews on Tanyoto steamboat buffet, i had my doubts cos we knew authentically prepared China cuisine may not go down well with everyone - so let's have a look and i could give you a guided tour.

You maybe interested to see this list of the lunch buffet steamboat menu; usual of $25.80++ per pax includes Plum juice, free-flow. But we're on a UOB bank exclusive Groupon $18 per pax promotion that doesn't include drinks.

Dipping Sauce Table

Service staffs were all friendly; after ordering the soup base of Tanyoto's peppery Mala & Tomato soup, they asked to be excused while they prepared to serve up the steamboat with some of their selected dishes for us to start the meal - that's nice.

I then went to concoct my dipping sauce for the steamboat. If you don't know what to do, there's a simple instruction on the wall of the type of standard mixes; but you definitely want to include the Sesame sauce which is a customary dip, our favourite too.

Cold Dishes: Chicken Brine, 盐水鸡

Cold Dishes: Cold Bean Jelly, 川北凉粉

Having "Cold dishes" or 凉菜 served at the beginning of the meal is part of China's dinning etiquette. It works as an appetiser or a "welcoming dishes" here. Be sure to order the Cucumber with Garlic sauce (蒜泥黄瓜), a chill and refreshing tidbits. Then you are really to start the hotpot.

Golden Straw Mushrooms, Fishballs, Prawns, Sichuan Dumplings, Quail Eggs... 

Beef Fillet,  Pork Fillet, Luncheon Meat, Tang-O vegetable.

This was our first round of serving! And they were all good, seriously. Ric enjoyed the canned Luncheon meat slices cooked in the Mala spiced broth, and so does my brother and wife. Haha... silly ;) But it's actually quite addictive.

Fish Head, 秘制鱼头 (limited to 1 order per table)

Tanyoto was not named in vain for their fish heads specialties. The beautiful raw fish head was cooked, stop-watch timed, removed promptly and served on our plate!

You see a picture of only the fish collar? Cos i've already finished up the head; sucking clean all the soft fine meat and thick, transparent gelatinous fats or fish jello! Whatever you called that, but fish head lovers like me would be all smiles :D

For the second order list for steamboating, we recommend you have the Cuttlefish Paste, Soaked Cuttlefish, Homemade Beef Balls and Sweet Potato Vermicelli. All must have!

On the hindsight, we should have select a light broth to go with the strong Mala; having 2 heavy tasting soup makes everything taste alike towards the end of the meal. 

Ice Jelly, 冰粉

The piquantly spicy meal should left you thirsting for chill cold desserts. Had each of the 2 on the menu and we much preferred the Aloe to the Ice Jelly. Ice Jelly sweeten with Gula Melaka don't sits well with us, but you may like?

A sure bet would be the refreshing Aloe with lots of Osmanthus fragrans flowers!

Aloe Vera with Honey, 芦荟挂花蜜

Coffee Club - Gimme a Burger!

Skipper's Delight Penne ($14++)

I've never thought of dinning in O'Coffee Club; what nice food can a little cafe kitchen actually cooked up, right? So, it's their GSS 1-for-1 meal promotion that brought us here to have a try.

The penne dish was your average pasta drenched in a queer tasting lobster sauce; pan-fried fish fillets topped with aromatic lemon, garlic and rosemary crust was juicy and fresh, atoning the boo-boo.

O'Coffee Club Burger with Bacon ($13.80++)

And then, i fell in love with the O'Coffee Burger...! Or rather, it was the gloriously thick and juicy prime beef patty that it comes with. Heavenly French fries too!

We were at their Clarke Quay outlet, and their burger makes us returned soon - but visiting their Central Mall outlet a week later, was such an oversight. The burger and accompanying fries were disastrous.

 Chicken & Turkey Sandwich ($12.50++)

This was a nice crunchy toast plumped up by stuffing of Cajun chicken and healthy smoked turkey, moistures by a rich heap of fluffy scrambled eggs and melted gruyere cheese. This is enjoyable.

O'Coffee Club Coffee with Egg ($12.40++)

Where to watch the National Day Fireworks!

Tonight's our first visit to The Promontory at Marina Bay - we didn't know this place offers some of the best night scenery of the Singapore city! What's best? The vast open landscape provides lots of standing room to accommodate everyone!

And it is super windy! you could definitely fly a kite here. Perfect for an evening picnic; bet we'll be here more often ;)

It was just one of the Saturday of full-dressed rehearsal for the forthcoming National Day Parade and we didn't bother with tripod set up; Ric just snapped these photos with the automatic night scene mode on our Sony Alpha 550. Turns out pretty well, though not of professional quality and with most shots being over-exposed.

Tips: With camera on tripod, set your camera to ISO 100 and aperture of at least F11 to avoid over-exposure.

Update: Returned to the same venue for the official National Day Preview on 30 Jul '10 to catch the state flag fly-past with 5 thundering fighter jets and much grander pyrotechnics display! I later learned that it was just 50% of the total firework that would be released on the actual day! So, beat the crowd and consider to be there on 9th Aug ;)

Happy 46th birthday, Majulah Singapore!

茗香菜馆, Beng Hiang Restaurant

Well known for serving authentic Hokkien cuisine, Beng Hiang Restaurant is one of the oldest and best Hokkien restaurants in Singapore. Serving their customers quality ingredients and cooking with reasonable pricing seems to be always the order of the day.

We had ordered 3 of their signature dishes which we used to have; of course, there's much more on the menu that we wish to have on our next trip here ;)

蚧肉鱼鳔羹, Fish Maw Thick Soup with Crab Meat ($18+)

香脆蚝煎, Fried Oysters with Egg ($12+)

炒面线, Traditional Vermicelli, "Mee-Sua" ($7+)

Visit the restaurant if like us, you value decent, sincere cooking without an overdose of MSG and elaborated food presentations. The dishes were flavourful and tasted naturally seasoned; this is a trait we looked for in restaurant dining.

Red Bean Soup (Table charges of $1+ per pax include the day Dessert, Tea and Napkins! )

曾入几人离恨中。。

青青一树伤心色，曾入几人离恨中。  ~ 白居易 “青门柳”

I read this verse off a composition about "Learning the Departures of Life" in our Chinese Dailies, the 联合早报. Given my weak Chinese literature, the poem strike me as a beautifully sorrow poem about parting - i need source out its meaning online: -

The tree is the Willow, 柳树. Ancient men had a farewell custom of bending a stalk of its leaves; the action of such, sounds like and meant, "Don't wish you to go, but had to let you go." The great anguish shadows the greens of Willow in gloominess..

Fern Tree Cafe @ Hotel Miramar

Because of the poor publicity Miramar Hotel has, we had rather low expectation of our 1-for-1 International buffet lunch ($32++ per pax) at their lobby Cafe - the Fern Tree. But boy was i excited! as i inspected the spread; there was so much food!

"Let's start, there's so much food!" I told Ric after my photo shot of the buffet line ;) i couldn't wait!

 Seafood (Mussels, Prawns, Salmon) with White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce

 Lamb Leg with Garlic & Sauce

Besides the above western cuisine representation, there was also some fine Mini Steak with Red Wine Sauce and Mashed Potato bake.

 Sweet & Sour Cuttlefish

 Sweet & Sour Fish Fillet

 Braised Chicken Wings

 Mutton & Chicken Satay

Followed by some really delectable local selections; not forgetting their Roast Duck with Plum sauce which i don't have a photo to show for :(

 Salad Table !

Particularly indulged in this plateful of assorted salad Ric had assembled! I was amazed by the quality standard of the well-chilled salad mix; would certainly love a repeat if i wasn't saving my stomach for other samplings. 

The Roasted Pork and Char Siew were worth a special mention too! A repeat would be good if we could afford; with their fragrant Chicken rice :) Boy, i need a cow's stomach here.

Poached Prawns, Mussels and Salmon Sashimi

As an alternative to these light selections, there's also a deep fried area for Japanese Tempura of prawns, eggplants and sweet potato. I had enjoyed both.

DIY - Yong Tau Foo Laksa !

Braised Chicken Feet & Har Gau

Two Dim Sum representation from Hong Kong of well braised Phoenix Claws and passable Prawn Dumplings.

We believed Chicken Feet aficionado would have as good a time as our neighbouring table who polished off at least 10 saucers of these! - didn't mean to spy, but his frequent trips to the table were plainly obvious ;) Good for him. 

Chocolate Mousse, Nonya Kueh, Cookies and Cakes

When we reached the end of the meal, we could barely stomach a round of desserts, there was so much more than what's shown here! A nip and pinch about was all we could swallow as we struggled to leave after a full plate of fruits and cupful of thick coffee ;))

Blogging the meal makes me bloat with satisfaction; yet again. 

Cut Fruits with Chocolate Fountain options