Astons @ Sembawang Shopping Centre

What pops into your mind first when we talk about cheap and nice western food with with perhaps a restaurant serving standard. Maybe you will think of Astons, Botak Jones, UNO Beef House, Char-Grill Bar or some other place which is good and cheap.

Astons which is located at level of Sembawang Shopping Center has both indoor and outdoor dinning area. It was on a raining evening that we went and the crowds of about 20 people are queuing outside waiting for seats since it's only the indoor dinning area that is available.

We are asked to place order of our food while waiting for the next available seats and the waitress seems to be very impatient when we are looking through at the menu. Most of the customer in the queue felt so odd that it seems like we are being force to decide our order within less than 5 minutes time. And yet we have to stand there waiting for at least 20 t0 30 minutes before entering the resturant.

After about 45 minutes of waiting time, we finally managed to get our seats and settle down for dinner. While in the restaurants, we saw a few hiccups from the tables around us like:- the steak is over cooked rather than medium raw, chicken chop is not proper cooked through, food and drinks have being wrongly served to the customers and etc.

Finally about 5 minutes our food arrived, but unfortunately it's also a wrong ordered which does not belong to our tables. With hungry mood, we have to wait for another 10 minutes for our correct orders to be served. But this round they served the food without any cutlery and drinks, and for them to take the cutlery it takes another 5 minutes.

At the point I was kind of annoyed with their service and furthermore our medium raw sirloin steak has became over cooked steak instead. And our drinks only being served half way through our meals after a few reminder. Although the food look decent and presentable but the taste is not as good as what they have over at their East Coast branch a few months back. Still wonder how come there is such a long queue while inside most of the customers are complaining about the wrong orders .......

2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 8

Finally this is the last post on our Taiwan Trip where I get to share with you those places of interests and local food that we had during the entire trip. I hope that by this post, you will have some ideas on what to expect and look for if you are planning for a trip over there. Overall this is a fruitful trip for us even though we are kind of disappointed that we didn't managed to stop by "Alishan - 阿里山" due to the road maintenance.

After our morning breakfast, everyone of us starts to divided into groups and go for our last minute shopping before leaving for the airport to Singapore. Since we have only about 4 hours or so before gathering at the Hotel Lobby to process to the airport, we decided to shop around Ximending - 西门町 which is about 10 minutes walk from our hotel.

During the walk, we happened to bypass a grocery shop where they sell a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Some of our tour mates bought some of their local vegetables such as "White Bitter Gourd - 白玉苦瓜", "Loquat - 琵琶", "Honey Star fruits - 蜜汁杨桃" and etc which we can't get them from Singapore.

Most of the shops in Ximending opens around 11am due to the late operating hours at night. At daytime, the view of Ximending is much clearer without those large crowds of people walking around. So it is easier for us to spot some of the famous food stalls where we can fill our tummy before leaving Taiwan,

This "Lao Tian Lu - 老天祿滷味" is shop that is specialised in selling all kind of Braised - 卤 food such as Duck Wings, Duck Gizzard, Duck Tongue and etc from the head to the feet. Since our family is not a fan of all these we didn't get any to try out, but according to some tour mates who bought and try most of them give positive comments on their products.

Around the corner which is near one of the junction in Ximending, there is one famous stall selling Braised Goose Meat and Noodles which is known as "Ya Rou Bian - 鸭肉扁". According to the story, the boss of the shop was known as "Ah Bian - 阿扁" and since he was selling "Duck Meat Noodles - 鸭肉面" at road side stall most of his customer known him as "鸭肉扁" which comes about his name.

We ordered a bowl each of the Bee Hoon and Noodle Soup to go with the Goose meat. Although the braised meat is fragrance and nice but we find that the meat was rather a bit tough to our liking. On the other hand, the soup noodles was great with it tasty soup base and ingredients.

Most of the people will suggest to you that when you visit Taiwan, you have to try their famous "Ay Chung Rice Noodle - 阿宗面线" which is actually Mian Xian - 面线 with Big Intestines - 大肠. This place is always crowded with customers whereby you have to stand and eat or sit on stools without tables. The original Ay Chung Mian Xian comes without any sauce and you can add in yourself such as:- chilli, vinegar, garlic and etc. Their noodles taste so different from what we have over here in Singapore and it's a great comfort food during cold weather too.

Soon it's time to say goodbye to Taiwan while we are at the waiting area to board the plane back home to Singapore. I am sure everyone of us enjoy our stay during these few days and surprising Rey cope pretty well with the weather, food and the long travelling journey and etc. And while waiting for the plane, he don't seems to be willing to back home as he still enjoying his trip in Taiwan and wish to stay longer.

Since this is an late afternoon flight, we were be having our dinner on Board and the return meal is just as good as what we have during our flight to Taiwan. As you can see, the kid's meal includes chicken baked pasta, chocolate, biscuit, fruit salad, juice and etc. While for the adults, we are having either beef stew with mashed potato or braised chicken with rice. For dessert, each of us is given a tub of Hagen Dazz Strawberry Ice-cream.




p/s: Thanks for your patience while waiting for me to update these Taiwan posts for the past 1 month. Hope you have enjoy reading them :)

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.




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

Modern Toilet @ Taipei Simending

Look at these.... isn't them cute!!! These are some of the display toilet bowl design plates and cups that are used in this special restaurant that I am going to share my dining experience with you. Imagine if your ice-cream or food is to be served with one of this plate, would you still dare to eat them????

"Modern Toilet Restaurant - 便所主题餐厅" is a Themed Restaurant that featuring washroom facilities such as all kind of toilet bowl design. For your information, even the seats in the restaurant are made from toilet bowls and not chairs. The outlet at "Ximending - 西门町" located at a junction near Xi-Ning South Road which is opposite a 7-11 store.

This is the Modern Toilet Chicken Curry Set which that served with rice, soup and a pickle dish that cost around NT$180.00. Look at the presentation; do you dare to try the Chicken Curry that is being placed in the "sitting toilet" design plate? Some of us might find it very interesting while the elderly will be thinking that we are crazy to eat from those serving utensils.

We also ordered some hot drinks, fruit juice, cheesy snack and chocolate ice. Look at all these, every item is served in a special "Toilet Bowl" design. Even the chocolate ice is served on a "squat toilet" design container. So if you are planning on a Taiwan Trip, perhaps you can consider dine-in at this Modern Toilet restaurant, which is located at either Ximending or Shilin which is in Taipei.