I am BACK!

I am back after years hiding in a mountain think my next step in life and yes …. It is a looong time.

Why, why am I back you may ask. Well I am trying to find back my passion about food and I think the best way to do it is to explore, find new places/food and share with people.

What enlightenment have I gain for the past few years …. Life is full of surprise and unknown. It will hit you with surprises (good or bad) when you least expected.

When, when I start to tell myself that I should come down from the ‘mountain’ and do what I had done before. Well, around the start of the year I had been thinking and after some procrastination, I finally decided to write my first post again.

Look forward for more sharing real soon … 😉

Eat at Triple Three

Went to Triple Three at Mandrian Orchard last week for their weekday buffet dinner. This is the first time I been there since after their renovation. It had being sometime I had been to orchard after the facelift of some old buildings and opening of new malls ... ok, not that long but still long enough that I had not been to 313@Summerset nor I am aware there us a 333@Orchard building exist. I am kinda lost where I get out of the mrt station and had a hard time finding my way to the hotel lobby or the resturant.

Ok, enough of my little 'adventure', let's go back to the food itself.

When I finnally reach, I was a bit disappointed that the spread is only on four rows (via two walkway). Was expecting a bigger spread for the price of $68/pax. And it was not very crowded either, maybe because it is a weekday.



Counter serving cook food



Counter serving cook food and dessert on the other side.

Well, although only four rows, it was enough that I am not able to try out everything. Sigh, maybe I am no longer young liao ...

Makan Plan Stage 1:


Seafood. Start off with the usual seafood. The usual spread, but off better quality. What new is the crab, not the usual ‘flower' crab or the crab with more shell then meat. The crab meat was quite a decent and sweet. So were the fresh prawn and juicy oyster. Ah Pui score of 8.5/10.

Makan Plan Stage 2:
Meat ...


One of the highlight of Triple Three, Wagyu beef. Yes, Wagyu beef. Not the top grade but good enough that I will want to have a second helping. But too bad that by then, I am too full to achieve that :( The beef was juicy and will melt in your mouth. But sad to say that I can't say that for the roast lamb.


There are the usual buffet spread like veggie, fish, stew beef, mutton curry, brayni(yes, there is a small section for Indian food), sashmi and sushi.
Something different are:
- Tapanyaki : nothing fanstatisc



- Tempura and German sasuage : One should try the sasuage, it is juicy and the favour & saltiness is just right. But one can give the tempura a miss. It is too dry and boring.



- Pasta : There is a pasta station where you can choose the type of pasta, sauce base and what ingrident you want to go with the pasta. Overall, it was above average.
- Noodle : There is also a noodle that serve duck noodle. Again, it was so so only



- Fried Rice: Normally, in a buffet, fried rice are fried in the kitchen and place on the spread for us to help ourselves. Here, the rice (soft shell crab fried rice) are fried only when you order. It was good and enough 'wok' taste on the rice. Recommended by Ah Pui.


Ah Pui score of 8/10 for the mains.

Makan Plan Stage 3:
Dessert ..

After the seafood, meat and of cos, sashimi, now the coup de grâce or the finishing move. We move on to dessert.



There are quite a few cakes to choose from and something not common, chocolate, yes real high quality chocolate. There is a shotglass holding pears soak in alchol and sweet. One word - Sweet ;)
And there is ice cream. Most buffet normally have the usual .. Corn, vanillea, chocomint or choco. Here we have pistacho, lemon sorbert, saffron pistacho and the usual strawberry. All are excellent. Best buffet icecream that I had tried.


For dessert, Ah Pui give a score of 9/10.

The overall score for Triple Three is

- Posted from my iPhone

Beef noodles at Yummy Viet

This is my first blog of 2010 ... and after so many mths of inactivity. This is also my first blog using my iPhone.

Had my lunch at chinatown at a eatery call Yummy Viet. Yep, a vietnamese resturant right in the middle of chinatown. But so many vietnamese resturant popping out in Singapore, I am not surprise.

Ordered a bowl of beef noodle, yes, the plain old beef noodle ... Nothing new. But it is the plain usual food that make a place to stand out from the rest. Sad to say, this indeed just a bowl of plain old beef noodle. Nothing special ... well, at the price of $6.30, I expect a bit more beef inside. The rice noodle was ok and the soup base was not too saltish.


Nothing much to shout about. $6.30 was not too much to pay if one need to get some Vietnamese beef noodle fix.

I will give it a Ah Pui score of 6/10.

The location is at :
Yummy Viet
Smith St
Chinatown

- Posted from my iPhone

List of restaurants that do not serve water

After a year of no action (was busy ... and yes I admit, lazy), I saw an article that make me decided to 'come out from the mountain' and post my view.

Water from the tap cost only a few cents. Provide tap/ice water in a restaurant is part of the service that a restaurant should provide. It don't cost much, but it shows how you treat your customers.
We are already charged 10% for service charge, so I don't see why tap/ice water are not provided.
So we should all boycott restaurants that do not serve free tap/ice water, and thought that they could make more money by selling us bottle water that are marked up more than 100% of what it cost in the supermarket.

Please see the link for list of restaurant that do not serve free water (list updated by a kind soul who make an effort to do something about this)
http://sparklette.net/food/restaurants-that-do-not-serve-water/

ChinaTown Complex Rpt 01

Chinatown Complex had since open after it renovation from May till now, havn't really write anything about it. So today I decide to start with my first report (hopefully there are more to come .... #slurp)

I was doing my recce at there last week, and walk past this stall (not the usual Hokkien Mee or Fried Kway Tiao stall). It called itself a 'Cooked Food' stall. Surprise that such a boring generic name can stop me in my tracks. Actually what tempted me to stop was not the name of the stall, but I walk past a lady eating a big delicious looking plate of Chao Kway Tiao. I was very tempted to go up and ask her where she got her plate of Chao Kway Tiao. But my senses overcome my greed and stop me. I don't want people to cry sexual harassment, especially not here. But my foodie star shone on me. A few meters later, I spotted a stall using similar plate that hold the Chao Kway Tiao that the lady is eating. So I decide to end my hunt and give it a try.

The price range from $3-$5 per plate. I order a $3 plate, and yes indeed, the portion is similar to what the lady has. But other than price, how it taste is the main thing that will make me think whether should I come back again.

It does not disappoint me. It does not taste like your normal Chay Kway Tiao, which is full of egg and sweet sauce. It taste more like what you get from a Zi Cha stall (maybe thats why the stall is called 'Cooked Food' rather than xxx Chao Kway Tiao. The Kway Tiao is moist enough, not too sweet. It has generous portion of greens and fish cake. What is lacking is the 'Hum' or cockles. There are a bit on the small side, nothing close to the one from Outrum Park Chay Kway Tiao. What make it up is the chili (sambal). It taste good, just spicy enough but a bit of saltish. But must try. The Chay Kway Tiao is not really that fantastic, but overall, it taste better than usual. I personally think that one should give it a try.


Today, I decided to give this stall again. This time round, I ordered their Fied Hokkien Mee ($3) (which supposing is their popular dish). It comes with 3 prawns, fishcake, good portion of greens and slice pork belly. It too served with a small plate of their chili. And again, slightly from your usual Hokkien Mee, and less egg. It was wet, and a perfect match with the zasty taste of lime. However, given that I tried their Chao Kway Tiao, this dish is a bit disappointed. It doesn't really taste like how a good Hokkien Mee should taste like and lack the 'wok' taste (which is critical for a good Hokkien Mee). Not worth to go there just for this, but if you are not picky, it should be fine.

For the Chao Kway Tiao, I give is a Ahpui score of 7/10, Hokkien Mee 6/10.

The location is at :
Ah Ang Cooked Food
China Town Complex
#02-149
(Near the side that is facing the Buddist Temple)

Volcano is sooooo good

Well Hidden is the 2nd floor corner at The Central, lies a volcano ... bursting out bowls and bowls of delicious hot ramen. This little ramen stall (yes, the seats are very limited.) is called Ramen Santouka. With the Jap (or chinese ....) writing on the signboard .. it directly translate into fire-head mountain. I shall call it Volcano Ramen (correct me if I am wrong).

It is a Jap restaurant franchise with shops all over Japan and even the states. This franchise is different from your usual franchise, the ramen taste great. Unlike some other franchise, which claims to be best ramen in Singapore ... but come on, I can easily find 10 stalls than serve much better ramen. You won't regret stepping into this stall and the time spent waiting for a seat.


I ordered a Char Siew Shoyu Ramen ($15) that comes with about 3 pieces of fat juicy pork meat served with rich and nicely brewed soup. The noodles was springy, just nice for ramen. The fat juicy pork meat was sinful, but the feeling of the fats melting (yes, it really melts in your mouth) throw away all my worries of putting more 'reserve' in my waistline.



Ahpui soh ordered a Charhan Shio set. ($15.50) It comes with a Ramen, Japanese Fried Rice and a nicely braised egg. This version is served with a piece of the same juicy pork char siew in a rich milky broth. This taste equally great, although the Fried Rice is not equally impressive. And you should try the braised egg, it is different from the usual braised egg you got from your Kway Chap store.

For this stall, I will give a Ahpui score of 8.5/10. The Char Siew Shoyu Ramen is a must try !


The location is at :
Ramen Santouka
The Central
#02-76
Tel : 62240668

Ah Pui Goes Cooking

Having always looking everywhere to satisfy my craving for good food, I decide to venture into a brand new frontier ... cooking class to learn how to cook myself. So that I won't have to pay through my nose to someone to cook for me, using ingreidents that only cost <>
Attended this 'French' cooking class at Raffles Culinary Academy 2 weeks ago, hoping to come out of the class to be able to cook up a meal worthy of a Michelin star.

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The 'classroom' actually is a state of the art kitchen, with working stations for us to test out our cooking skill. We are suppose to learn 3 dishes,

a) Homemade Truffle 'Brioche' with poached Foie Gras and Braised 'Granny Smith'.




Quite a mouthful, but to put it simple, it is just Foie Gras with 'chopped -Vinegar soaked green apple' and butter bread. Call me suaku, this is the first time I tried truffle sliced from the actual whole truffle itself. By itself, it does had much taste, but it do have a strong and nice fragrant. The Foie Gras is really soft and it melts in my mouth nicely.

b) Roasted Turbot with steamed Baby Bak Choy and Smoked Potato 'Vine Tomato Confit'



aka .. A very small piece of roasted fish (slice) with a piece of bak choy and some other veggie with potato.
This is the first time I heard and saw a Turbot. But I got to say that the texture of the fish is really good. I will sure to try this fish again when I got the chance. It was not too soft like Salmon, Grouper or Cod. It is a bit firmer, sort of like soft tender chicken. The balsamic and olive oil soaked roasted tomato is great. A bit of sweet and smell great with the balsamic and olive oil.

c) Vanilla "Panna Cotta", Raspberry and Hazelnut Ice Cream.

Who can say no to ice cream .... especially good soft ice cream.



Overall, the experience is good, although we don't get much hands-on except for the 2nd dish. So there goes my dream of coming out with a 1 Michelin Star dinner. As a typical 'French meal' the food are nice to see, nice to eat but expensive and can't really fill your stomach.

Spending hours to prepare the dishes. The Foie Gras need to clean and remove its vein, then preapre and poached it, spending at least 2 hrs on this. And for the 2nd dish, we will need to prepare each of the item (fish, tomato, potato, bak choy) seperately, another 2 - 3hrs gone. And end of the day, only a tiny portion goes to our plate .... I don't think French cooking is for me.

Food, Ah pui score of 8/10. Cooking .... 3/10 and unless you have plenty of time to spare.