Singapore Blog Awards - Best Food Blog

16 September 2009 is the date where most of the Singapore Blog Award finalists look forward to. Our family are so happy to be invited to attend the OMY Singapore Blog Award Ceremony that is held at Supperclub at Odeon Tower. We were so excited to see so many blogger from different nominated categories as well as some other guest blogger. You can take a look at the full-list of winner for each category HERE.

Upon registered at the entrance of the event hall, each of the nominee or blogger who attend will be given a door-gift from "Fabrix" which is a - camera case. These cases come in a few colour and designs and Rey request this design from the counter. These cases are also of quality material that comes with extra slot for memory cards too.

Before the Guest-of-Honour, Foreign Minister George Yeo arrive, blogger and nominees were chatting around with each other and helping themself with some light refreshing and drink. They are also some performances by award-winning local Chinese instrumentalist group, The Teng Company, as well as singer Chen Diya.

I managed to grab a photo of this Salmon Pasta that served in a mini Chinese take-away box, which look more presentable and edible compare to the rest of the snacks like over-cooked fries, not so appetising looking pizza and etc. There is another deep-fry beef balls which look crispy and nice on the outside but....errrr.... cannot make it when you pop into your mouth :)

Group photo of all the winners with OMY members and Minister, George Yeo.

Some of my photos for receiving the awards and doing interview.

All blogger and guests who attend the ceremony will bring home a set of this goodie bag which consists of 1 omy logo recycle-bag, a T-shirt, some instant noodles by KOKA, torch light and note pad and some vourchers.

Tata... so dear friends and readers with all your support, nomination and voting.... Cuisine Paradise managed to win the BEST FOOD BLOG award for 2009 :) Thank you for all your supports...... I am really speechless when I saw my blog and name being shown on the big screen while revealing the Food Blog result.

This is my award Certificate for the BEST FOOD BLOG.

You see... all winner walks home with all these different flavour of Instant Noodles by KOKA. Whatever flavour you name, you have it... Pepper Crab, Spicy Black Pepper, Spicy Marinara Beef Pho, Chicken Abalone, Laksa...etc... wow... don't know what to do with all these noodles.. maybe can come up new DISHES with them.. :p

Other than the above, winner also have a movie premium hamper from United International Pictures. It consists of CDs, books, posters and USB port mouse pad and etc....

And.. to my surprised, my blog actually got into the top 5 most voted blog category which enable me to win a set of this HTC Diamond, touch screen hand phone. This extra gift is given to me by those who voted my blog during the 7 weeks voting period. I thank everyone for all your support and time and with all your daily votes and also Jocey Yeong who nominated my blog for selection. With all these Cuisine Paradise is able to have such a great spark in blogging life....... Thank you.

Red Star Restaurant

"Red Star Restaurant - 红星酒家" located at level 7 of the HBD block in Chin Swee Road. From the official website, you can read about the history of this restaurant which is set up by two chef in around 1974. The operating hours starts from as early as 7am daily which they offer all kinds of hot piping dim sums that are ordered from push trolleys.

Since my in-laws was around Chinatown area doing some shopping, we decided to meet up for dim sum - 点心 lunch since this restaurant is somewhere near my working area. Since lunch hour was pretty rush for me, I didn't really have much time accompany them throughout the whole session. But they will very thoughtful, while waiting for me to arrive, they already ordered some of my favourite dishes to avoid the waiting time.

Although I personally prefer "Siu Mai - 烧卖" more than "Har Gua - 虾饺" but I find that the Har Gua that served here are very fresh, the wheat starch skin that used to wrapped the prawn was thin and the prawn filling it in is crunchy and sweet compare to most of the dim sum stall.

Next comes my favour which is the "Siu Mai - 烧卖", the serving here is just nice for the size as some outlet are serving those extra big size which making it feel so greasy upon eating. The fillings of the siu mai consists of ground pork, shrimp and chinese mushroom that is wrapped with a yellowish skin and there is often an orange dot on the center.

I am not sure what is this dish called, but it is wrapped with ground pork, prawns and chinese chives with a skin that is similar to dumpling skin. The taste was quite ok for me as the chives taste did not actually over powder the rest of the ingredients.

"Century Egg and Pork Porridge - 皮蛋瘦肉粥" is one of the most common Congee that customers will order while having dim sum. Normally, they will also have Chicken/Pork/Fish Congee in the menu, but the most popular orders will still be this century Egg & pork porridge.

"Fung Zhao - 鳳爪" are chicken feet that are being deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. This cause the texture to be light and fluffy, while moist and tender on the inner area. When having dim sum with my mum, we will always ordered at least two plates of this because we simply love this dish due to it braising sauce.

"Fried Wontons - 炸馄饨" which is a great finger food to go with some mayonnaise dipping sauce for both adults and kids. This dish has to be served hot while the so that you can take the crispness of the wonton skin and the juicy filling in it.

Lastly, after all the steam and deep-fry food, it time to settle with something sweet to end with the meal. My in-laws are having "Black sesame paste - 芝麻糊" while me and my sis-in-law each grab a bowl of this "Almond Jelly - 杏仁豆腐" with Longan. The taste of this almond jelly is light for those who don't really keen with the Almond taste/fragrance. But to me, I still prefer those with a stronger almond taste flavour.

The Prata Place

The Prata Place located at the end of a stretch of shophouses at Thong Soon Avenue near Thomson. This shop is also Halal certified and they make the prata only after you place your order so the prata will remains hot and crispy when served at your table.

We arrived at the venue around 6.30pm on a Saturday evening and there are already a lot of people dinning inside the shop. So in order not to wait for seats inside, we choose a table outside the shop and starts looking at the menu on what we want.

Teh Tarik is always one of the drink that I would order when patronize any of the prata shop. I love the taste of that milk tea with that extra bubbles on top. The temperature of the tea is just nice, not too hot and it's very smooth and I just like that taste of it.

I guess no one can resists their wide variety of prata and their thin and crispy prata! We ordered their "Paper thin prata" and "Strawberry Prata" which is very crispy and fragrance. As you can see from the photo the strawberry prata is drizzle with some strawberry sauce and sprinkler with colourful bits and the texture of the prata are just as thin as a piece of crispy cracker.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, here comes our Chicken Murtabak which we ordered the small size serving that they cut into 6 portions. Their murtabak comes in different sizes like S, M, L, XL. We will kind of disappointed with their chicken murtabak which appears to be like some chopped chicken minced stir-fry with chopped onion and spices that wrapped between a layer of the prata skin.

Overall we still prefer the Egg and Cheese Prata which serves with a plate of their dipping curry sauce. The combination of egg and prata is so fragrance especially with the extra curry and you just can't seems to get enough of eating it.

Taste Of Thailand @ Yishun Industrial Park

Those staying around Yishun, Sembawang or Woodlands area would most probably have heard or patronize this restaurant called "Taste of Thailand" that used to have a store at the basement food court before Giant took over the basement level. After the partial renovation of the shopping center, the stall move from the basement up to the 4th storey. Now they have shifted out of the new Sembawang Shopping Centre to a coffee shop in Yishun Industrial Park A.


This is their famous deep-fried fish with Thai chili sauce the fish which is so nicely fried. The grouper is surprisingly fresh, crispy and succulent with a tender and juicy flesh, which most places would usually use “not-so-fresh” fishes for deep frying. But you definitely won't be disappointed with this restaurant. This dish come in 3 different serving size and from $10.00 for small, $15.00 for medium and etc.

Tried Stir-fry Baby Kailan With Beef during this visit rather than the usual Stir-fry Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion. This Kailan Beef was served with a gorgeous amount of tender beef slices which is very great value for the price of S$9.00 for a medium size plate.

Instead of getting a plate of their famous pineapple fried rice, we ordered this "Stir-fry Thai-style Thin Noodles" which I personally find it nice. But if they add a bit of chopped roasted on top before serving like most of the Thai noodle dishes, it will definitely add extra points to this dish.

They have a wide range of economic dishes which is very affordable for value of money. Like what we ordered above these 3 dishes come up to be around S$28.00 with medium serving portion for 2 - 3 person. Usually these two restaurants are well packed with customers during dinner timing around 5.30pm onwards, so it's best to be early in order to get a place.

They have another branch @
Bei Sheng Seafood Restaurant 北腾泰国小食
Block 701A #01-01
Yishun Avenue 5
(Opposite Chong Pang Market POSB Branch)
Telephone : 6756 4883