Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Pin Si @ Yishun Safra

A few weeks ago, a few of us were invited to attend a food bloggers get-together session that is organized by OpenRice Singapore at Pin Si Chinese Restaurant. This restaurant has being shifted over from it old located at Yishun Central (near the bus inter-change) to Yishun Safra since last year. According to the restaurant manager, the restaurant can cater up to a maximum of 54 tables for different co-operate functions, wedding banquets and special events. They also have two special VIP rooms that is equipped with KTV system (max 1 table per room) for entertainment too.

While at our seat, each of us is presented with a special scroll that highlights the menu of the night. From a glance, we saw it consists of appetizer, soup, a few main dishes and guess what, we are having “Bird’s nest” as our ending dessert.

First dish to be served as starter is this “Trio Varieties Combination Platter - 品食聚财三宝拼”. It consists of Prawn Roll (Xia Zhao), Crispy Roasted Pork Belly (Siu Yuk) and Pork Floss Tofu where you get to try a piece of each mentioned. I love the roasted pork belly that is well season and the meat is so tender that it can just melt within a few bites. Pork Floss Tofu has a very silky texture and it goes well with the floss coating too.
Price: S$10.00 per serving

After the yummy starter, everyone is being served with a bowl of this superior “Double Boiled Shark’s Bone Soup with Twins Treasures - 鲨鱼骨汤炖双宝”. The broth is boiled for at least 8 hours using chicken, pork ribs, scallop and etc to achieve the taste and flavour. When you first give it a sip, it taste sort of like those “pig stomach pepper soup” because of the peppery taste. But after a few mouthful, you will sure start to like it, as it is full of goodness and flavour together with that tender and juice Abalone.
Price: S$12.00 per serving

I love Asparagus especially those that are lightly stir-fried with garlic and olive oil. This vegetable is a low in calories and with a good source of calcium, dietary fiber, protein and vitamin A. Our asparagus dish today is known as “Stir-fried Fresh Scallops & Prawns with XO Sauce - 酱皇露顺玉带伴虾球” where you can see really big fresh prawns and scallop in it. All the ingredients are well blend with the XO sauce and the taste is good with a bit of spicy tingle in your tongue.
Price: S$10.00 per serving

Having this common dialect dish to be served in a restaurant is definitely something new to us. Their “Pan-fried Trio Stuff Varieties Hakka Style - 客家煎酿三宝” is served in a very special mini claypot with 3 different varieties such as stuffed Green Capsicum, Brinjal and Beancurd. The meat stuffing is well seasoned with a hint of salted fish taste, which makes it so delicious together with the sauce. This is indeed a recommending dish for those who love pan-fried style of Yong Tau Foo.
Price: S$8.00 per serving

Their “Roasted Pipa Duck - 美味京酱琵琶鸭” was not as good as what we thought. The meat was kind of tough when bite and it is a bit kind of salty to taste. But overall it still taste good with its crispy outer skin and it goes pretty well with some red wine too. According to restaurant manager, the duck need to be marinated with some spices and dripped dry for a few hours before roasting in order to enhance the taste and achieve good texture on the outer layer.
Price: S$14.00 per serving

If you could remember our recent September Bloggers outing post, there is a scary “paw” dish where we featured uncommon “Stewed Crocodile Palm - 红烧鳄鱼掌” from Café De Hong Kong. And for today’s menu, we have another creepy “feet” dish that is called “Braised Goose Web with Mushroom & Broccoli - 西兰花鹅掌扣花菇”. I have tried similar goose web dish from another restaurant sometime ago and I think the one served here at Pin Si is definitely much tender and tastier on their gravy.
Price: S$16.00 per serving

The last dish of that night is “Stewed Meehon with Minced Salted Fish & Assorted Seafood - 咸鱼茸海鲜粒焖鸳鸯米”. This unusual combination of rice vermicelli (aka bee hoon -米粉) and glass noodle Cellophane noodles (aka bean thread - 冬粉) is stir-fried together using some diced scallop, prawn and hint of salted fish to enhance the flavour. But sad to say, a few of us agreed that there is much fragrant or taste of the salted fish, perhaps they can improve further on the taste for this unique noodle dish.
Price: S$8.00 per serving

Having Bird’s Nest, as a daily dessert is always what most woman dream of it is believed to provide health benefits, such as aiding digestion, raising libido, alleviating asthma and an overall benefit to the immune system. So having a bowl of this “Bird’s nest with Water Chestnut & Egg White - 蛋白燕窝马蹄露” might helps to digest those dishes that we had. Although we can taste the fragrant f the bird’s nest when served, but most of us find that there is too much water chestnuts cubes in this dessert, which unintentionally spoilt the texture and taste.
Price: S$20.00 per serving

Every one of us enjoys the great companies of new and old friends, food and wine as well as exchanging of our views on the dishes and a bits of our current updates. From the above dishes, I would like to recommend the “Double Boiled Shark’s Bone Soup with Twins Treasures 鲨鱼骨汤炖双宝”. As a soup lover, I love the flavour of its' thick and sticky soup texture that leaves your taste buds filled with all the goodness from the broth.

Pin Si also offered daily Dim Sum menu from 11.00am - 2.30pm for those who enjoy dim sum for lunch with different varieties of choices such as Shrimp Dumplings(Har Gau), ShaoMai(Siu Mai), Egg Tart, Assorted Steam Buns, Porridge and etc. Posted by Picasa

Pin Si Chinese Restaurant
60 Yishun Ave 4
#02-V1
Yishun Safra Country Club
Singapore 769027
Telephone: 6852 8933
Fax: 6852 9669
Website: http://www.pinsi.com.sg

Operating Hours:
Opens Daily: 11am - 2.30pm; 6.30pm - 10.30pm

Dim Sum Ala-Carte: 11am-2.30pm (daily)


Chocolate Banana Muffins

Last month I have made some “Banana & Oreo Muffin” where you can make use of those oreo cookies in a new way rather than dipping them in fresh milk for snack. With the same concept, I replace the oreo cookies with some cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips to create another lovely flavour for chocolate lovers.

As you can notice from most of my posts, I love to make muffins especially those mini or mouthful size type. I find making these makes it easier for my kid to have it as tea snack or sometime it can be also act as a lovely gift for friends too.

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

The Charm of Chatterbox

Recently my mum has seen an advertisement on MyPaper regarding the “Late Lunch” promotion on Chatterbox, Mandarin Hotel. This promotion was quite a good bargain for patrons to enjoy their signature Mandarin Chicken Rice and other local delights at S$15++ from 3pm to 6pm on weekdays only (excluding eve and day of public holidays).

Since mum had a good impression after trying their Chicken Rice during one of the dinner menu, she decided to ask us along to try this “late lunch” treat. So here is the review of our local most expensive Mandarin Chicken Rice that cost around S$22.00 if not during any promotion.

Chatterbox is located at level 5, Orchard Wing of Mandarin Orchard Singapore. Its menu featured a spread of local hawker food, including it’s award-winning Mandarin Chicken Rice and some other favourites such as Mandarin Lobster Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Herbal Bak Kut Teh and etc.

From my opinion, the “rice” could have been better as it is not as fragrant or fantastic as I thought it would be. But rather the chicken was tender and juicy, and it goes very well with their chilli and ginger sauce. The waitress will also give you an option on choosing either thigh or breast meat. But if you ask me whether is it worth trying, I think for this promotion you can give it a try but I don’t think I will spent the full price of S$22.00 on this.

I don’t know why I ordered this “Seafood Laksa” as they are still quite a number of choices to pick from the promotion menu such as Beef Hor Fun, Char Kway Toew, Herbal Bak Kut Teh, Nasi Lemak, Wonton Noodles and etc. But surprisingly the broth taste great with a hint of heat that isn’t too spicy and it will leave you to crave for more scooping of it. For a bowl of S$15.00 Seafood Laksa, I guess what we are paying are those “big prawn” and hearty broth. For those who don’t take cockles, don't worry Mandarin Seafood Laksa don’t comes with any of those as ingredients too.

For an additional top up of S$3.00 you can enjoy a jar of either one of these homemade Soya Bean Milk, Barley Water or Grass Jelly drink to along with your meal. At first we still thought these drink might just be a glass for its' S$3.00 value as most of the drinks on the menu are at least S$8.00 and we are so surprised to see they actually serving a jar each of what we have ordered.

We prefer their Homemade Soya Bean Milk compared to the Barley Water, as it is more fragrant ad thick in taste. As you can reference from the photo, the Barley Water is more towards milky grey in colour and I find that it taste more of like those barley beancurd dessert than drinks.

Recently, Chatterbox opened its new premises on Level 5 of the hotel with a refreshing look that is furnishing in earthy hues of green and beige.


Chatterbox
333 Orchard Road
Level 5 Mandarin Orchard Singapore
Enquiries: 6831 6288/91
Website: Chatterbox

Operating Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 11am - 1am
Friday, Saturday & Eve of Public Holiday: 11am - 2am


Late Lunch Promotion:
~ Monday - Friday
3.00pm - 6.00pm (excluding eve and day of public holidays)




Monday, 4 October 2010

Magical Night @ Universal Studios Singapore

Universal Studios Singapore is having an “After Hours” event where they features the Lake Hollywood Spectacular show as well as Dine and Shop at the Hollywood zone from 7:00pm to 10:00pm on every Friday and Saturday. Guess what, the entrance fee is only S$5.00 per person and this will be a great bargain for those who just wanted to go in and have a feel of the atmosphere but not rather on those exciting rides.

With this valuable offer, last Saturday our usual group decided to organize a trip to USS to explore what they have in the theme park. I am shared that every one of us has an enjoyable night moving around the park and the kids are so overwhelming with the fireworks performance that they yield for more.

You can purchase the limited same day entry ticket from the ticket booths located outside the Universal Studios Singapore (USS) entrance where they starting selling it at 6.30pm onwards. So do go earlier to avoid disappointment if you are going to catch the Fireworks performance that is available only on every Saturday night.

As this is the “After Hour” ticket, we can’t proceed far in to the other area of the park, except around some parts of the Madagascar and area, Hollywood and New York where you can take photos and visit some of the gift stores and restaurants.

This is an amazing HUGE pizza from “Loui’s NY Pizza Parlor” that is a must-stop eatery for those who loves traditional Italian pizzas and pastas. Too bad, we give this a missed because we had already tried “Mel’s Drive-In” burgers before spotting the pizza. Perhaps next round…..

Are you tired after the walk? Want to take a cab?

Beautiful view from the Lake Hollywood before the Fireworks.

Every Saturday night at 9:30pm you’ll get to watch the Lake Hollywood Spectacular which is an incredible new show where you will see beautiful fireworks burst across the night sky right in front of you!

Fireworks!!!

If you want a good spot to catch the fantastic view of the fireworks or take photographs during the performance, remember to secure a seat at the viewing area just outside “Mel’s Drive-In” restaurant at least 30 – 45 minutes before the show starts at 9.30pm.


Note:
For more photographs on the above mentioned post, please click HERE.




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