Prosperous Kitchen @ Sembawang Shopping Centre

Singapore Shopping Center has being located in Sembawang Road area among the Semi-detached estate for more than 10 years. I still remember vividly that I used to go there with my secondary school mate to enjoy the BBQ stingray, pizza hut pizza and the famous Thai Food stall. But today, after the 2nd major renovation, Singapore Shopping Center has changed most of its' previous shop/restaurant.

Today we are going to try this Chinese cuisine restaurant located at the second floor known as "Prosperous Kitchen - 天旺". They have mainly two restaurants in Singapore which another branch located at West Coast Plaza.

To start off, we order a bowl of their "Brazil Mushroom Chicken Soup" which served in small individual box @ S$5.00 each bowl. The taste of the soup is light, non-greasy and most important is full of flavour that is infused from the Brazil Mushroom. Next we have "Yang Chow Fried Rice", the rice is very fragrant and each grain is nicely fried and separated from each other. Although the price is slightly higher than normal "Zhi Char - 煮炒" stall, I guess it's still worth the price for the taste and its generous ingredients.

Em... honestly, we are very shock and a kind of disappointed with this "Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs - 京都排骨". First of all, we waited for about 20 minutes due to the dinner crowds, secondly when this dish arrived we thought the waitress might have bring the wrong dish as this look more like "Pai Gu Wang - 排骨王" to us rather than the one we saw and ordered from the menu. The one we ordered, is sort of like pork ribs, darker in colour for the sauce and there are also some extra almond/sesame seeds with it. So compare this to the one we saw it's really a big different.

From the myth, they used to say that the main ingredients to make this "3 Cups Chicken - 三杯鸡" is 1 cup each of Dark Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil and Rice Wine. This is rather a traditional Taiwanese dish but you can easily find this in most Chinese restaurants or Zhi Char stall in Singapore. While looking around the tables, it seems that about 6/10 tables around us ordered this dish. It is serve in a small claypot and you can smell the nice sesame oil aroma when the dish arrived at the table. Overall we find this is the best dish to recommend out of all we have ordered. The combination of the chicken, sauce and side ingredients like chilli, spring onion and etc plays a great part for this dish.

Next we have this "Scramble Egg & Prawns Hor Fun - 鲜虾滑蛋河粉" which comes with a serving of about 6 - 8 medium size prawns cooked in scramble egg sauce together with straw mushroom and thin flat rice noodles. This is a one person serving portion which cost S$7.50. I guess for prawn and rice noodles loves, this is sure a great deal to order. I personally love the combination of the egg sauce with the fried rice noodles.

Lastly comes our dessert of the day which is my favourite, "Mango Pomelo Cream - 杨枝甘露". This is kind of different from the usual mango pomelo with shaved ice. As you can see from the photo, this is sort of like a blended mango juice that is mixed with some cream/milk then served with some extra mango cubes and pomelo. Not a good choice you are looking for that kind of Hong Kong style Mango Pomelo with sago.

For your information, exclusively for UOB Credit Card Members, they are having a great deal promotion as follows:-

1) 50% off* à la carte food menu
Valid from 1 Oct to 30 Nov 2009

2) 1-for-1+ Set Menu lunch and dinner
Valid from 1 Oct to 30 Nov 2009

3) 15% off^ total food bill on à la carte menu
Valid from 1 Oct 2009 to 30 Jun 2010

Note:-
~ Except Beverages, Desserts, Dim Sum delicacies and Set Menu. 50% off is only applicable from 6pm to closing from Mondays to Fridays, not applicable on weekend and Eve of Public Holidays and Public Holidays.

Lunch @ Bakerzin

What is your best way of relaxing your body and soul after facing a hectic work week. For me, the best way to relax my mind is to have a fulfilling meal that satisfy my tastebuds as well as a great dinning environment that can calm soul and takes my mind off those workload. Most important there must be a "great" dessert after meal.............

Upon reading this Bakerzin, 1 For 1 Main Course advertisement(according to the leaflet, the promotion is only available at "Jurong Point" and "North Point" branch) from TODAY newspaper, I knew I must go during my off-day. They have a new branch which had being in my area for about 6 months or so. I have not dine-in every since it open, but I love their layout and design. So with this great deal offer, I must go and try out their set lunch with the opportunity to take a break off my hectic week.

The atmosphere is great with tall glass window all around the cafe that enables the late morning bright light to shine in. We arrived around 11am and the area is still quite empty with only two or three tables occupied. Rey prefer the cushion sofa seats which are more cosy and we start glancing through the menu. The waitress who serves us is very friendly and she is keen in introducing to us the what are the dishes that suits our preference. She also invite us to try on their Free flow of homemade bread that you can either dip with extra virgin olive oil or balsamic vinegar.


This is the MAIN reason that bought me into Bakerzin this morning........ I was attracted by this "Braised Pork Belly With Japanese Rice" because I love Braised Pork Belly and from the menu, this dish give me the feeling of a "Comfort Dish" which that luxury, soft and fragrance braised pork belly lingering in my tongue. Indeed when this dish is served, it didn't disappoint me and my mum. We are both impressed by the taste and the texture of the pork belly which is so soft and juicy. The gravy is not salty compare to the usual Braised Pork Belly and it goes just nice with the steam Japanese short gain rice.

As mum wanted to have something light, she ordered this Seafood Pasta which serves with generous amount of seafood like Prawn, squid and green mussels. The tomato pasta sauce is great, the taste is not over-power with extra herbs added and the sauce is light and tasty which suits mum's tastebuds.

After a hearty meal, here comes the "Profiteroles" which we are all waiting for. This Dessert serves in a plate of 3 medium size Profiteroles, each sandwich with vanilla ice-cream, coated with a layer of chocolate sauce on top and drizzle generous amount of toasted almond flakes which add extra crunches and fragrance to the dessert. Everyone of us who tried, agreed that their vanilla ice-cream taste great. It has a very light and aroma scent of vanilla fragrant and it won't leave you with that creamy taste of ice-cream that is fattening. But there is a little setback on this dessert, we find that the puffs are a little bit too dry and hard when bite but after all it do soften a bit when soaked with the melt ice-cream :)

When we are looking at the menu, the waitress did pass us a piece of this kid's menu for Rey. I didn't know that they have such a wide range of Kid's menu. So my mum was telling me that, nowadays the young kids are very fortunate. They even have their own choice of "Kid's Menu" to select from when dinning out.

Note:
~ OFFER ONLY APPLY TO
* Jurong Point Branch #03-58
* North Point (new wing) #01-44

~ TERMS & CONDITIONS
* Second main course is of lower or equal value, offer strictly for dine-in only.
* Valid from Monday to Friday, 10.30am - 5pm (Not including eve and day of public holidays)

Moriya Japanese Cuisine

Saw a food review on this Japanese Bento stall known as "Moriya" in this week "U Weekly(优1周) - 201". This stall is located in a coffee shop at Block 417, Yishun Ave 11. They offer a wide range of Japanese Cuisine from Bento set, Ramen to Omelette Rice which you will sure to find something that suits your taste-buds for the day. Since our family loves Japanese Cuisine, we decided to give this stall a try.

Moriya, occupied a corner at one end of the coffee shop. The stall is nicely decorated with a Japanese-style outlook and they even has a glass-panel that allow customers to have a clear view of what is going on in their kitchen. We reached the area around 7pm and upon looking at the stall from far, I am already attracted by it's layout and food menu. So without much delay, we decided to settle for these two items on their menu list.

We order a set of "Yakiniku Beef Set" which is worth for it's cost at S$5.70. It consists generous amount of Yakiniku Beef which is very soft and tender and it also gives a very fragrance aroma which I believed is sesame oil and spring onion. This Yakiniku Beef Set served with a good portion of seasoned Green Soy Bean(Edamame), Japanese short-grain rice, Chuka Wakame (seaweed salad) and a bowl of hearty Miso soup.

Other than bento set, we also order a bowl of "Mixed Seafood Ramen" which cost S$7.90 and you can have 3 Half-shell Scallop, 2 medium size Prawn, a decent piece of grill salmon and half a portion of Japanese-style soft-boiled egg. So far, this is can be consider as a decent bowl of good Ramen for a non Japanese restaurant standard. We love the soup base which is very light, fresh sweet in taste. Although the soup do taste sweet but I think it's not from the added MSG as we don't feel any thirsty after taking the food.

They about more than 10 different varieties of Ramen in the stall that you will sure to find something you prefer. As for the Ramen, they also provide a very special Chilli Paste which we love it. Their Chilli paste taste sort of like our "Belacan Chilli" but with extra ingredients that is great to add into the Ramen soup base.

Sakae Buddies

Children Day is one of the special holiday that kids of all ages look forward to. They enjoy all kinds of treats, food, goodies and gifts that is given to them on during celebration. So this year we are having our early Children's Day lunch @ Sakae Sushi.

Look at the range of "Froggy" goodies that Sakae offers. They have all kinds of item made in the shape of that green frog which is so adorable in the eyes of both kids and adult. Rey have a few collection of these items and his wishing list is to get all of them and display them in his playroom just that what they did in the Sakae Sushi outlet.

Rey's classmate tried this Salmon Skin(鮭皮) Inari Sushi which consists of sushi rice filled in a pouch of fried tofu and topped with crispy minced salmon skin that blend so nicely with the sushi rice. We have never tried this before and at the 1st glance, I still thought it is minced beef or tuna :)

Although we have tried countless of the Chawanmushi from Sakae, but I must confess that this is the first time we order this Unagi Chawanmushi. Imagine have a few pieces of tasty grill eel on top with a cup of smooth and silky steam egg custard. Both Rey and his classmate enjoy this little treat which they called it "pudding".

I knew Rey and his buddy love the combination of "meat floss" with rice. So I specially order this "Fruitti Maki" which is coated with a layer of floss on the outer layer of the roll and some extra colourful fresh fruits on top of it. The choice of the fruits give this sushi an extreme appetizing look.

As you read from my previous two Sakae related posts, there are always "Temaki"(Temaki sushi is a form of rolled sushi, created in a cone or roll shape) available in our list. I am always fascinated by its vibrant colour combination. So start from top right to button left to right we have:-

1) Manago Avocado: Decent amount of sushi rice wrap with a layer of nori sheet and top with crunch of lettuce, slices of green apple, mango and avocado. Mum love this combination.

2) Ebi Fry: Rey's buddy choose this as he loves the combi of deep-fry prawn with rice and wrapped with nori sheet and he finished it in less than 2 minutes..... So I guess it must be really nice, must get hold of one on my next visit :)

3) California: This round, I order the California Tamaki which consists of cucumber, imitation crab stick, avocado and a spoonful of fish roes. Yummy!!!

Dragon Roll is wrap with a inner layer of deep-fried prawn and nori sheet while the outer layer are covers with a generous amount of avocado slices which has a buttery taste infuse in it. This is definitely a healthy choice for weight watcher and I love anything that has avocado in it.......

Ajituske Idako is a combination of sweet and savoury baby octopuses that is place on top of sushi rice wrapped with nori sheet. My mum will always pick up a plate of this from the convey belt as she loves the crunch and taste of the baby octopus in their special sauce.

Look at this hot and spicy Kimuchi Hotpot, does it spice up your palate to order 1? This soup is infuse with some hot and spicy taste from the Kimchi, sweetness of the seafood and great nutritious of the vegetables used. And since Rey's buddy mummy love to try something which is unusual, we recommend her this dish which is value for it price that consists of so many ingredients in one pot. We all love the taste of this soup which is just nice for what we are looking for.

Finally it's dessert time that everyone is looking forward too... Too bad the branch has run out of Tempura Ice-cream so the kids will have to settle on other choices. One of the waiter recommend us to try this "Strawberry Smiles" which is fresh strawberry stuffs with frozen ice-cream. Everyone of us love this, as the frozen blend just great with the strawberry. The colour is really sweet and eye catching for the kids.

Another dessert that we venture is this Lychee flavour "Mochi Ice-cream". Being a fan of Sakae sushi for so many years, I have not actually try their other dessert range than the Tempura Ice-cream. So today, we really benefit a lot from trying all these cute and interesting dessert that they offer. Their mochi is wrapped with the Lychee flavour ice-cream which makes the dessert very light and refreshing taste.

Look at the kids, they really enjoy they visit at Sakae and it is really fun and heartwarming to give a treat to those who have similar taste. And since, Children's Day is around the corner, this is the best treat to reward them :)

And Candice, thanks for your recommendation on being a Sakae E-journalist too. Now we have more excuses to visit Sakae for our favourite dishes. Thank you :) So readers, if you are reading this post and you are interested to be like one of us who can eat and blog with Sakae at the same time, do click on this link to find out more :p

Din Tai Fung - 小笼包

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) starts with a small shop, located on the intersection of Xinyi Road, in Taipei City. It has become a symbol of Chinese delicacies with its "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包". This small shop has venture out into international market where they have many branches in countries such as Taiwan, Japan, USA, China, Singapore, Korea and etc.

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) has about 5 branches in Singapore located at Paragon Orchard, Bishan Junction 8, Tampines Mall, Wisma Atria Orchard and Raffles City. They have a many varieties of Steamed Dumplings varies from Savory to Sweet. Other than steamed dumplings, they also have a few choices of La Mian.

My mum and aunt love to order this "Appetiser - 小菜" which is on a mixture of seaweed, tofu, bean sprout, chilli etc whenever they visit Din Tai Fung. They always kick off with this signature appetiser before starting their main course.

This is one of our favorite dish called "Pork Chop Fried Rice - 排骨蛋飯". I love the way they seasoned the pork chop which the spices and the combination of the pork chop goes well with their fragrance egg fried rice.

First time ordering this "Glass noodle soup with fried bean curd and pork rolls - 油豆腐粉" which is one of their recommendation dish on the menu. The soup base is great and overall this dish is light and healthy with their self-made Pork Rolls. But if you do not fancy "Glass noodle - 冬粉" then don't expect too much from this dish.

The distinguishing feature of Din Tai Fung's dumplings is that the chefs would make 18 folds to seal the dumplings. I love dumplings especially the "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包" which I will use the chopsticks to poke a little hole in the skin of the dumpling to let the soup flow out onto the spoon and sip the soup. Then I will add some julienned ginger (soaked in black vinegar) on top of the dumpling before eating it.

Other than their signature "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包", we also ordered their special promotion "Steamed Chili Crab Dumplings" which is one of the Food Festival Award dish. Although the dumplings that serves on us is not what we expected it to be, it still have it's unique taste. The combination of chilli crab gravy with the soup base of the usual steam dumplings makes this festival dumpling a special dish to venture on.

Sakae @ North Point

This evening we are having our weekend dinner at newly renovated Sakae Sushi @ Northpoint Shopping Mall. Before the new location shifted to the newly renovated building, Sakae used to have their branch located at the Basement 2 of the old building.

First we ordered this Ungai and Tempura Bento which comes with assorted tempura set such as prawn, capsicum and mushroom. Gorgeous amount of grilled Ungai sandwich between slices of Tamago. This set also comes with rice and miso soup which is at a reasonable price of S$15++

Out of the set, I love the crabmeat Chawanmushi which is very smooth and fragrance in taste. The texture of the steam egg is very delicate and it really will melts in your mouth with that Opps feeling!!!

As usual every Sakae visit you will see us ordering this Tamago Sushi which is one of Rey's favourite and a must order.

Temaki is one of my mum's favourite to order list when she comes to Sakae. Like before, today we ordered Mango Avocado and Salmon Mango. But to our disappointment, today's temaki is not up to the usual standard as the nori sheet is rather soft and moist compare to the usual crunch and crispy texture.

Due to the hot weather, we also grab a plate of this green tea Cha Soba which is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour and also with the added ingredient of fresh Green Tea leaves.

Sunshine Maki is one of my favourite because I simply love the combination of Mango and Prawn. The extra fish roe topping do add on extra flavour to each individual piece of cut out. Luckily, today the mango slices used is still fresh and vibrant in colour and most important is it's freshness and sweetness that enhance the overall flavour of this dish.

Salmon Kammage is my mum's favourite dish which she can eat at least 2 plates on the go. This seems to be one of their popular dish which is always out of stock if you dine in late in the afternoon or evening.

Fried Doufu which is crispy on the outer skin but soft and juicy in the inside. I love the sauce that is come with the fried doufu that makes this plain dish extra tasty.

Before we ends our meal for tonight's dinner, I grab a plate of the Salmon Nigiri which is appears to be very fresh and tender to me. And just as I expected, the taste and texture of the salmon slice is great :)

Share an interesting shot with you. Rey spot these cute little fish roes on top of the Sunshine Maki and he insisted that I must take some shots on them. He was fascinated with these fish roes because of a recent Japanese Animated Movie called "Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea". He said that these little fish roes is Ponyo because if you look carefully at the darker orange image it seems to be like a little paw prints.