Peach Garden @ Miramar Hotel

Went to Peach Garden at Miramar Hotel for an ala carte lunch buffet.  The service was quite good.  After we arrived, they ushered us in, and served us drinks promptly.  Menu was also provided for us to start ordering.

Dining environment was not too bad.  As the restaurant is hidden inside a hotel, and it is not very accessible, and it was a week day, so there were not many people.

The first dish that  came was fried fish skin.   The fish skin was very crispy, and still a bit hot.  The taste was great, but one of my friends complained it was a bit on the oily side to his taste.

Then came the deep fried shun hock fish.  The fish was fresh, and the deep fried was just nice, even the bones became crispy.  For people who hate fish bones, this dish would be a good choice.

They served the dishes a bit out of sequence, as the fish came before our appetizer, drunken chicken.  I would say this one was not bad.  It had the alcohol taste, but not so strong that it would become bitter.  The chicken meat remained tender, with a little taste of Chinese herbs.

We ordered four different types of prawn dishes.  They used good quality fresh prawns.  I must give them a thumbs up for this.  All four dishes were good.  When you squeezed the prawn, the meat would come out nicely.  And the prawn would pop in your mouth when you bite it.  Good!

They also have many different meat dishes, such as pork ribs, fried chicken wings, etc.  They were not bad too, but the portions were simply too big, even though we ordered 'small' portions.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience.  The service staff should be praised too for their good service, especially the duty manager.  He was very polite to us and also to his own staff.

For the ala carte buffet, you need to have a minimum of 4 dining parties though.  The price was S$58++/pax  for weekday lunch, with some discount.  

Sen of Japan

As part of Canon's Triple Treat deal, I was offered a free food photography workshop at Sen of Japan restaurant.  The restaurant is located in Marina Bay Sands shoppe, right next to the Art and Science Museum.

For us to practice our photography skills, of course, a delicious 9-course Japanese set lunch was offered :-)

Our Lunch Menu

Entree

Entree was Aspara salad.  Other than the normal vegetables that you can expect, they also have some fried items, which give you a different sensation from the wet and juicy vegetable taste.

Sushi Roll

Their sushi roll was really good.  The softness of the sushi rice, coupled with the freshness of mango and avocado, plus the pop pop pop sensation of the fish roe, and not to forget they actually have some kind of sauce that adds one additional layer of texture to the sushi.  All these combined together is a great feast to your taste buds.

Sashimi

Food is not just all about the taste, it is also an art of presentation.  The salmon sashimi has been carefully styled as a rose.  Isn't it beautiful?

Tempura

Their tempura set is just as impressive.  You are not just satisfying your taste buds, but also your visual sensors.

Main Course - Beef

The main course was beef.  The chef already cut the big piece of beef into smaller slices, easy for you to pick up and eat.  The Japanese spirit of attention to details is amply demonstrated here.  In terms of taste, however, I must complain a bit, as the beef is a bit on the more chewy side.  Then I am not sure whether it is my fault, because I took as much time photographing it, as I ate it.

Overall, I think this is a great restaurant where you can have multiple sensations satisfied.  And kudos to the Canon folks who delivered such a great experience for us!

How to Grow Radish Sprouts

There is a new trend in growing your own food, especially the so-called 'microgreens', such as bean sprouts, radish sprouts, etc.

Today, let me share with you my experience in growing radish sprouts at home.

Day 1: Sowing the Seeds

First, put a thin layer of soil in the flower pot, about 2-3cm thick.  Then spread radish seeds on the soil surface generously.  Don't worry about the density, just spread the seeds.  You don't have to cover the seeds with soil, leave them on the surface, exposed.  Most importantly, spray water on the seeds generously, make sure the seeds are well moistured.

Day 2: Germinating

The seeds will start germinating on the second day.  Continue to spray water on the seeds, twice a day.  Ensure the seeds have enough moisture.  If twice a day is not enough, increase the frequency of spraying water.

Day 3: Sprouting Out

Day 5: Radish Sprout

On day 5, the radish sprouts can grow about 1-2 inches high.  If you like it this way, you can already harvest the sprouts.

Day 7: Fully Grown Sprouts

On day 7, the sprouts are already really tall.  This is the perfect time to harvest the sprouts and enjoy the fruit of your labour.

Radish sprouts are easy to grow, minimal care needed, while it is healthy.  You have full control of the sprouts from seed to maturity.  It is a great choice for modern day city little farmers :-)

10 at Claymore

10 at Claymore is a restaurant in Pan Pacific Orchard, a very cozy place for a gathering of friends.  We were there for a buffet lunch, making use of their promotion of the 4th person dines free.

There is a mixture of western and Asian food, but more inclined to western, in particular meat heavy.  They offer different kinds of beef, mutton and chicken, as well as pork ham.  A mini version of Canivore that caters to all the meat lovers.

In addition to the items on display, they also have 4 ala carte dishes - Angus beef, lamb shank, turkey, and the award winning char kway teow with swimmer prawns.

Lamb Shank (2-person portion)

Angus Beef (6-person portion)

I tried the lamb shank and the Angus beef, both are not bad, though they are not of the top grade.  For the effective price of $36/pax, I think it is at least reasonable.

Last but not least, they have some good spread of desserts too.

I noticed from this link that they used to offer a more expensive lunch buffet, with a lot more seafood stuff, I don't know why they changed their strategy and decided to go for lower end of the customer spectrum.  Does it reflect the current economic situation?  Mmmh....

ComNam @ Raffles City

This place has always been crowded, so decided to give it a try, to see what Vietnamese street eats means.

Everything is self-service here.  You look at the menu, choose what you like to eat, then write down your order in the order slip, which is placed in a very old-fashioned (read 'Retro') mug.  Then you go to the cashier with your order slip and pay for your food.  The food will be delivered to your table, but you have to go and get your own bowls, forks and spoons, etc.  The good thing is that they don't charge you a 'service charge'.

As the place is crowded, you have to put your bag on your laps.  There is practically no space for any extra chair for your bag, so don't go there with a big bag, or even your holiday luggage.

We ordered the spring roll to share.  Vegetable and beef wrapped up with spring rolls skin.  The vegetables give a fresh sensation, while the beef anchors the taste.  I thought the slice of sausage on top of the spring roll is for decoration only, but actually it gives another level of sensation.  It is not as light as the vegetables, or as heavy as the beef, it is something in between, just like the clouds flying in between heaven and earth.

My main course is lemongrass with wagyu beef and rice.  The rice they use should be an import from Vietnam.  It is not as sticky as the short-grain, or as dry as the Thai rice.  You can tell it is new rice, which means from the fresh harvest this year.  Sesame is generously sprayed on the rice, providing a crispy and pop in your mouth sensation.  Wagyu beef is tender and soft, a direct opposite of the sesame.  Lemongrass, chili, spring onion, onion, mushroom, all the herbs and vegetables bring about another kind of sensation.  This bowl of rice provides you with a multi-level sensation experience.

The food overall is not bad, but do expect quite a bit of waiting, so just be patient.  I think ComNam and NamNam are under the same boss, as I see NamNam staff and ComNam staff cross-serve the customers all the time.

It is a good place for a taste of Vietnamese food.

Founder's Bak Kut Teh - 2nd Visit

We went there on a cool, raining evening, perfect weather for a bowl of hot Bak Kut Teh.  We were ushered in in a minute, as there was a table readily available for us.  As we had four people this time, we ordered a couple more dishes to try.

Prime Ribs

Pork Ribs

Prime ribs and normal pork ribs are the must-order dishes.  They are both good as usual.  For the soup, as I mentioned in my previous post, it is the same whether it is prime rib or pork rib.

In addition, we also ordered pig's organ soup, and pig's trotters.

Pig's Organ Soup

Pig's Trotters

The pig's organ soup is using the same soup as the prime/pork ribs too.  The pig's livers are good, very tender, just nice, but still fully cooked, not raw, you don't see blood bleeding out at least.  The intestines are not very good.  I will not recommend it.

The pig's trotter is not bad.  A thick layer of fat, but it is not greasy.  The meat will melt in your mouth, like the Don Po Rou.  They must have stewed it for many hours to have this kind of texture and sensation.

Lettuce

You Tiao

The lettuce and You Tian are not bad too.  Last time we tried the Choy Sim, which was very good, and the lettuce is quite decent.

Somehow this time, I think the soup is a bit diluted, and MSG was probably added.  Nevertheless, it is one of the good Bak Kut Teh in Singapore.

Melben Seafood @ Ang Mo Kio Ave 3

It has been more than a year since I last visited this seafood joint.  Some new colleagues from Europe would like to try it so we went there again.

The sequence they brought out the food is healthy.  Wondering why?  The first dish that came was a vegetable dish.  It is said that vegetables are easy to digest, but the meats are not.  If you eat meat first, vegetables later, the vegetable will just get stuck in your stomach and produce gas.  If you vegetables first, as they are easy to digest by the stomach,  they will not get stuck.  And your stomach can get plenty of time to digest the meat later.

The second dish was salt and pepper prawn.  We ordered the medium size, which means you will have 7 pieces of prawn, for $30.  The prawns are good.  Deep fried till crispy outside, even the shell became crispy and you could eat it too.  The meat inside was still tender.  This is the kind of prawn I like very much.

Coming to Melben, crab bee hoon is a must-eat item.  The soup was real soup cooked with the crap.  I think they didn't put milk in the soup to make it look more milky, as I didn't sense the taste of cow milk.  The soup is thick, and a strong fragrance of crab meat.  The crab meat itself was very fresh, firm but tender.  Good quality stuff!  Thumb's up!

Another must-eat dish here is the butter crab.  It is still very good, but the butter taste is less strong now.  The crab meat, as usual, is firm and tender.  Not just the clamp is good, the body, which is quite coarse usually, is also tender and firm too!

We ordered the chili crab too, but before I could snap a picture, it was already gone.

They have three 'types' of crab, in terms of weight.  The SMALL is ~1kg/each, for $68/kg.  The MEDIUM is 2 crabs for 1.5kg.  I think this should be SMALL.  Then the BIG ones are ~2kg/each.  For 6 people, we ordered 3 1kg crabs, plus a medium-sized prawn dish, and medium-sized vegetable dish, plus drinks (both beer and soft drinks), the bill came up to a total of $346.  That's a pretty decent dinner with very good quality crabs.

Would go there more often, if there is no concerns for cholesterol.  :-)

Kay Lee @ Suntec City Mall

When the original Kay Lee Roast Meat was sold to Aztech in 2014 for 4 million dollars, it was big news in Singapore.  It was said that the recipe itself was worth more than 1 million dollars.  I was just curious what kind of recipe that would cost this much.

I ordered the 3 combinations with rice.  The 3 combinations include their signature black char siew, roast duck and roast pork.  I have never heard of BLACK char siew before, a black char siew, to me, means the cook was not good enough and the outside is burnt, which is equivalent to say your skills are no good, the food is no good!

When I took my first bite of the black char siew, wow... I was pleasantly surprised.  Never before in my life do I like char siew.  Usually it has a strange taste and I don't like it at all.  The black char siew here is different.  I suspect they use honey during the roasting process, so the char siew still has a tint of honey's sweetness, but not too sweet.  The 'black' part is not burnt, just darken, and it is not carbonized, just darker in color, probably due to the honey.  Inside, the meat is still tender and juicy.  When you bite it, it feel like a naughty boy jumping up and down on a bumping pad.  I told myself, this is the best char siew that I have ever had so far.  The 1 million dollars for its recipe obviously is worth every single cent of it.

The roast duck and the roast pork are decent, but I would say just average,  nothing to wow about.  As a matter of fact, I think both are on the salty side.

I also ordered the salty vegetable and duck soup.  Too much salty vegetable, the only taste of the soup is being salty.  There is room for improvement here.

I will give a 5-star for the black char siew, but at most 3-star for the rest.