Showing posts with label Tea-time ~ Local Delights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tea-time ~ Local Delights. Show all posts

Thursday 8 December 2011

Prima Taste Kitchen At Centrepoint, Ochard

Prima Taste Kitchen is a quick-service restaurant which located in Centrepoint Mall, Orchard. They serves a selection of authentic Singapore favourites such as Bak Kut Teh, Laksa, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Singapore Curry Chicken. The restaurant features a modern ambiance accented and diners can also enjoy 'live' cooking demonstrations through their showcase kitchen.

For beverage we are recommended to try their Calamansi Juice and Lychee Sensation where they used preserved sour plum in the drinks to create a unique flavour. Love their Lychee Sensation which is fizzy 7-up drinks with a few seeds of canned syrup lychee and preserved sour plum.


SIDE ORDER


First to serve is this all-time favourite local snack known as Vegetable Popiah which is richly stuffed with egg slices, turnip, vegetables, shrimp, minced pork, mushroom and etc. The crisp and refreshing sensation of the juicy fillings and intense flavour definitely leaves you longing for more. We simply love the taste of this Popiah as the ingredients are well combined without overpower taste of this dish.

Price: S$4.80 per roll

Rojak is a common local dish/appetiser which could be easily found at most hawker centres or coffee shop stalls. Prima Taste's Rojak is very flavorsome with toasted youtiao, cucumber and fresh fruits without being overpowering by it's prawn paste sauce. On top of the tasty coating sauce, we also love the generous amount of crashed peanut which they used to garish the rojak as it definitely add bonus points to this dish.

Price: S$5.90 per plate


RICE DISHES


Chicken Rice is one of the all-time local favourite which you could have it anytime of the day. I still remember vividly during my 3 years overseas stay I would always bring back at least 1/2 a dozen of these Prima Taste, Hainanese Chicken Rice sauce kit to easy our preparation on this dish.

Here at Prima Taste Kitchen, their poached chicken is very tender and juicy with a thin layer of jelly-like skin which makes you always wanted to top up for extra portion of meat. The chicken rice is very fragrant and the texture of the rice is just cooked to perfection where is it not too hard or soft too. For the chicken rice set, you could choose from either Hainanese Chicken, Soya Chicken and Crispy Chicken.

Price: S$6.50 per plate

The chicken curry for that day was a bit too thick on the gravy which makes it taste a bit powdery rather than those smooth and flowing texture.  Personally this is not my preference of curry but for those who perfect this type of Hainanese style perhaps you could give it a try. This curry set comes with a bowl of steamed rice but you could also request to change it to chicken rice instead.

Price: S$9.40 per bowl

With Prima Taste Bak Kut Teh Sauce Kit you could also cook a pot of this tasty Teochew Style peppery soup at your own convenience at home. And moreover what you required is just minimum fresh ingredients such prime/pork ribs together with their prepacked stock mix. Love the taste of the soup but it would be even better if more peppercorns are added.The texture of the prime ribs are just nice for our liking as it is not over/under cooked.

Price: S$10.70 per bowl


NOODLES


When we first taste the soup broth from this prawn mee we were kind of surprised that these actually was prepared from their Prawn Mee Sauce Kit (detail HERE). From a glance above you could see the decent amount of ingredients such as sliced pork, fresh prawns, bean sprouts, veggies and flat yellow noodles which is pretty reasonable for it's price.

Price: S$6.50 per bowl

Out of all the main dishes that we have tried, their Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle has definitely out shine the rest  of the dishes and won our heart. I love the wok taste and texture of the noodles which is just nicely cooked and fully adsorb the taste from the prawn broth. According to Vangelynn, the chef actually fried individual order plate by plate in order to maintain the standard of this dish. For your information you could use the Prawn Mee Sauce Kit to cook either Prawn Mee Soup or Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle.

And since I am in love with their Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle, I have bought a packet of the Sauce Kit from supermarket which I am going to try cooking it at home soon.

Price: S$6.50 per plate

The gravy of Prima Taste Laksa is smooth and rich which is prepared from its pre-packed laksa spice. In this way you could easily prepared your favourite laksa without much trouble on grinding your own laksa paste and enjoy a bowl of decent laksa anytime of the day.

Price: S$5.50 per bowl

Apart from the above Authentic Laksa Spice Kit, Prima Taste also has another "Singapore Laksa La Mian" which you could easily purchase from their outlet or local supermarkets. You could read more about my review on this product HERE at my recipe blog. 


DESSERTS


Vangelynn mentioned that this Glass Jelly with Longan in Gula Melaka is a new dessert on their menu. And for a light and refreshing dessert with hint of gula melaka syrup to sweeten the taste, I am sure this would come in perfect as dessert after a hearty meal.

Their Chendol dessert consist of rich coconut milk, a worm-like green jelly made from rice flour, red beans and etc served together with shaved ice and fragrance Gula Melaka(palm sugar). Although the taste is great but however we find that the shaved ice was rather rough which could have being better if it is much smoother and fine texture.

Price: S$3.50 per cup

For a lighter and smaller portion of dessert, you could order this Longan with Almond Beancurd. The beancurd is very smooth and silky with hint of almond flavour that does not overpower the taste of the whole dessert.

Price: S$2.90 per bowl


TEA-TIME PROMOTION


If you are looking for some tea-time snack during your festive shopping trip around Orchard area on weekday, perhaps Prima Taste Kitchen tea-time special would have something "local" that you prefer.

For twin sharing you might consider to get their "2 dishes + 1 drink" @ S$4.50 which I think it's just nice to fill up your tummy before the next meal.


SPICE AND SAUCE RACK


Apart from serving array of local dishes at Prima Taste Kitchen, they also have a corner selling different varieties of their cooking sauce ranging from:- Singapore favourites Sauce Kit whereby you could whip up local dishes such as prawn mee, char kway teow, mee sim and etc to Authentic Asian Sauce such as garlic chilli sauce, Sambal Belachan Paste, Premium Black Pepper Sauce and etc to prepare authentic Asian dishes at home.

For your conveniences, you could also order these sauce kits via their website HERE or through any supermarkets in Singapore. And for those regular or big users you might wish to save considerably through their party packs which only available in certain popular products such as Bak Chor Mee and Lor Mee. Cooking instructions can be easily found on the packaging and online plus they also have cooking classes for those who intend to pick up some cooking skill using their ready paste and products. You could register for their Cooking Workshops at a reasonable fees(S$20.00) via their  website HERE.   


PRIMA TASTE KITCHEN
176 Orchard Road
#01-63/64 The Centrepoint Mall
Singapore 238843
Telephone: +65 6887 3786
Website: http://primataste.com.sg/kitchen.aspx
Facebook Page HERE

Lastly I would like to thank Vangelynn and Prima Taste for the invited tasting.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Rice Dumpling Aka ZongZi

The yearly Dumpling Festival is just a couple of days away which falls on Wednesday, 16 June 2010. I am sure these few days you can smell the aroma of the mouth drooling dumpling circulating around your neighbourhood area as some families are busy with the wrapping and cooking of this festive food. And as usual a few weeks to a month before the festival, most of Chinese restaurants will create all kinds of festive dumplings using some special ingredients in order to attract more customers.

Although the traditional Nonya and Cantonese rice dumplings are good, but most often we are still looking forward to delicious new creations to satisfy our taste buds. Recently I read from a food magazine that this year Cherry Garden offer a special “Lychee Braised Pork Belly Dumpling” which consists of ingredients likes dried lychees and braised pork belly flavoured with lychee liqueur. I wonder how it will taste as normally we only used cooking wine instead of fruit wine as seasoning. But I am sure this will taste great with lychee flavour.

No matter where is your choice to get the best rice dumplings or you are intending to make some before the festival. I am sure there is always something suitable for you everyone. The “Savory Pork Dumpling - 咸肉粽” shown in the photos above are made by my Mother-in-law. Sometime I just wonder in this modern society, is it only those older generations folks are willing to spend time and effort in the kitchen making all these traditional foods. Because most youngest like us tend to buy read-made products instead of spending the whole day preparing and making these time consuming food.

But if you are interested to try, there is a Rice Dumpling making post(with video) in my recipe blog that you might like to read more about it. (click Here)Posted by Picasa


Saturday 22 May 2010

Local Nonya Kueh

Nonya(Peranakan) Kueh is one of the famous tea-time snacks that are available throughout the day at most of the coffee shop stalls or food stalls at shopping area. Usually most of the kueh are made from grated coconut, coconut cream, rice flour and gula melaka. Sometime tapioca flour and green bean four are used to give the kueh a distinctive soft, pudding like but firm texture.

Above are some of my favourite Nonya such as(description starts from top down) :-

1. Kueh Salat - This is made of two layer whereby the cooked glutinous rice is at the base and topped with a layer of eggs and coconut milk custard. You can read more on one of my recipe Here.

2. Getuk Ubi - Is sort of "Mashed Steam Tapioca" that is topped with grated coconut that is infused with red sugar/gula melaka. There are two Steam Tapioca Kueh recipes which I would like to share with you at:-
~ Steam Tapioca Cake
~ Steam Ubi Kayu

3. Pulut inti - Blue Glutinous rice topped with caramelised grated coconut and wrapped in a cut banana leaf/plastic wrapper to resemble a square pyramid.

Are you familiar with these two??? Lapis Sagu(rainbow layer kueh) and Kueh Dadar(pancake wrapped with grated coconut) which I am you can get it at most of the stalls near you. I remember I used to love Lapis Sagu where I will peel it layer by layer before eating. Posted by Picasa


Friday 21 May 2010

Local Delights

What do you usually prefer to have for your breakfast or tea-snack? Here are some of the local traditional kueh that you can find is most hawker center or coffee shop stalls. Most traditional Chinese kueh are made of either Rice Flour or Glutinous Rice Flour that wrapped with either sweet or savoury fillings.

Fried Glutinous Rice - 糯米饭 is a kind of savoury dish where they stir-fry the cooked glutinous rice with some dark soy sauce and seasoning then served with extra garnished like peanuts, spring onion, dried shallot and chilli sauce. A good Glutinous Rice dish lies on the preparation of the rice as it cannot be overcooked or too mashy if not it will affect the texture of the end product.

Png Kueh - 饭桃 is best served after pan- fried together with drizzles of sweet dark soy sauce & chili sauce onto it. It is usually wrapped with glutinous rice, diced mushrooms, dried shrimps and roasted peanuts over a thin layer of pink colour rice flour wrapper. I love to eat this since young from the influence of my dad and I remember we only get to eat this during Chinese New Year or special occasion.

Soon Kueh - 笋粿 is a steamed Chinese dumpling that is made of rice flour skin and often stuffed with turnip strips and dried shrimps. This is also eaten with some sweet dark soy sauce and chili paste. There are a few types of Soon Kueh depending on their dialect group or fillings. The soon kueh that my mother-in-law made consists of dried mushroom, minced meat, turnip strips and dried shrimps and she also used steamed yam together with the rice flour to make the skin wrapped which maken it more tasty and fragrance. Posted by Picasa


Thursday 20 May 2010

Youtiao & Fried Butterfly

What is your favourite local snack whenever you walk past the hawker centers or coffee shops? For me, sometime I love to get hold of either one of these "Youtiao - 油条" or "Butterfly Bun - 麻煎/花煎" together with a cup of Black Coffee(Kopi O) to start off my day before attending those piles or work.......

Youtiao - 油条 is a deep-fried dough stick which has a crispy crust on the outer surface, tender and fluffy when bite. Usually this is eaten during breakfast together with congee or soy milk but some of the people like me would love to dip it with Coffee before eating. There are also many other ways of eating this snack, for example:- Youtiao Rojak(a kind of salad dish that is commonly found in Malaysia and Singapore) or Deep-Fried Sotong Youtiao and etc.

Butterfly Bun - 麻煎/花煎 has a similar texture like Youtiao but it is smaller in size and it is coated with some sesame seeds to give it that extra fragrance and taste. This butterfly bun has a slighter sweeter taste compare to Youtiao and I love to eat this while it is still hot which will give it a better taste. Posted by Picasa




P/s: Anyone can recommend/share your view on a good stall selling these in Singapore?

Monday 26 October 2009

Tau Sar Piah @ Telok Ayer Street

Here is another post relating to Tau Sar Piah........ This is one of our family favourite Tau Sar Piah stall which is recommended by my lady boss. This shop is located at 86 Telok Ayer Street which is some where near the Central Business District (CBD) region. On the other hand, Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop is very famous and has been around for more than 50 years and most of their customers love the "Ma Ti Su - 马蹄酥" and "Tau Sar Piah - 豆沙饼".

On and off when we pass-by this shop on the way back after meeting with clients, we will always make an effort to stop by and grabbed a few packet each of their signature pastries. And out of all their pastries, these are the 3 types that I will always grab when I patronize their stall. In order to make a different between the Sweet and Savoury Tau Sar Piah, they actually add some white sesame seeds on top of the "Sweet Tau Sar Piah" in order to show the differences. Look at the crispy flaky skin of this little treasure that is filled with generous amount of green bean filling. It has always being our favourite tea-time snacks to be served with a cup of Chinese or English Tea.

Out of the three flavour that I used to purchase, I was always fascinated by their "Savoury Tau Sar Piah". I love the fragrance of the filling which consists a light scent of onion taste that makes the filling so tasty. When you start eating it, you can't seems to stop because the crisp skin goes so well with the savoury filling. Em... maybe to some of you, it taste sort of like the "Penang Tau Sar Peng" from Malaysia.

Lastly, let's look at the main attraction of this shop which is their Signature "Ma Ti Su - 马蹄酥". During lunchtime, you can always see the lrowds queuing to buy these crisp and chewy biscuits. According to the shop owner, this is so popular that each customer is only allowed to buy 3 packets each. The outer skin of this biscuit is indeed very crispy, fragrant and the filling is chewy and yet won't stick so much to your teeth. And this is one of my boy's favourite which he will always asked me to buy if I am around that area. Posted by Picasa


Saturday 3 October 2009

Loong Fatt Tau Sar Piah

Along the extreme right end of Balestier Road at the junction of Thomson Road, there is this famous Tau Sar Piah stall known as LOONG FATT that known to be “The Original, The Only Outlet Specialist in Sweet & Salty Tau Sar Piah

Look at the crowd at queuing to get their favourite Tau Sar Piahs. This shop really live for it name on serving their products. No wonder there are so many Press and TV interview on them. They have a open bakery concept at the back of this coffee shop where about 10 stuffs are rolling, filling up the dough as well as baking to sever the customers their freshly bake products. So let's wait no more. but hope over to join the queue and get a some mixture of their Tau Sar Piah to try as well as send as gift.

They are two flavors available which is either “Sweet or Salty”. The sweet tau sar piah is marked by the sprinkling of sesame seeds on its crust and you might notice that the shape is flatter than the usual ones sell in other stalls. At first when we taste the Tau Sar Piah we are rather confused by the taste as it seems to be the same, both have that bit of salty taste. But when you have another bite on it, you will get the differences of one is much saltier than the other.

The pastry of these tau sar piahs soft, flaky and buttery which have so much generous of filling in between pastry what I packed without any hollow. I am those who prefer Salty flavour of Tau Sar Piah whenever I get them in the stall, but for this case, I prefer Loong Fatt's Sweet Tau Sar Piah over their Salty type. But if you are those type of dislike flaky and buttery pastry then this Tau Sar Piah might not be up to your liking.

[Updated on 01 June 2011]
During my recent visit to Loong Fatt for some Tau Sar Piah craving I was surprised to notice that they are also having those traditional sliced cake which we used to eat during our childhood time. So without hesitate I bought a few slices of different flavour and this is one of the Blueberry flavour which cost S$1.20 each slice.

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