Xin Zhao Yang Seafood Garden

Soup! This is always the first category that I will look for before ordering any other dishes from the Zhi Char - 煮炒摊 Menu. From the menu, we ordered this “Kau Khee Soup - 九杞菜汤/枸杞菜汤” which is cooked with slices of pork fillet, minced pork and egg. This is a very quick and easy soup that you can also whipped it up at home with simple ingredients such as egg and minced meat. The soup itself is infused with light ginger fragrant which it very refreshing. Look at the amount of ingredients in it, this bowl of soup cost S$4.00 which I think is worth it's price.

Xin Zhao Yang Seafood Garden - 新朝阳海鲜 is a Zhi Char Stall located at a corner in the coffee shop near Yishun Bus Inter-change at Block 921, Yishun Central 1. It is usually packed with crowds during weekends from as early as 5.30pm onwards.

This is our first time patronising this Zhi Char stall which is quite new in this coffee shop. But actually a few weeks back we had actually tried their “Hor Fun - 河粉” which mum has bought for us. And because of the good review we had from the hor fun, today we are here to try more on their dishes.

From their staff’s recommendation, we ordered two of their signature dishes which are “Thai-style Deep-fried Fish Fillet - 泰式酸甜鱼片” and “Braised Spare Ribs - 红烧排骨”. The “Thai-style Deep-Fried Fish Fillet” was kind of different from what we expected from the usual one that is cooked with those refreshing ingredients such as shredded cucumber and mango. This is dish is rather some deep-fried fish fillet that serves with some chilli sauce. Overall the taste is not too spicy or sour but we just feel that it’s still not towards our liking of thai-style sauce.

A few minutes later, our “Braised Spare Ribs - 红烧排骨” are served together with some "Deep-fried Mantou - 炸馒头". According to the staff, they only have limited plates of this signature dish available each day and from what I have observed, most of the customers do order this dish on their table. The texture of the spare ribs is very tender and it is well flavour by the seasoning and gravy which makes it a "hot" ordering item . You can also use the fried mantou to dip with the sauce or sandwich the meat from the spare ribs which is easily fall off due to the long hour of cooking time. This dish cost S$10.00 with about 6 spare ribs and 4 deep-fried mantou.

This Zhi Char stall still has a lot of interesting dishes that we would definitely go back and try out some of it soon. So if you are staying around this area or happen to pop-by, perhaps you might also want to give it a try too!

Kau Kee Mee Suah - 九杞面线

Kau Kee - 九杞 (wolfberry leaves) is a kind of leafy vegetables that comes in long stalks and sharp thorns on it. You can get this from most local supermarkets or tradition wet markets near your area. I normally cook this vegetable together with minced meat and egg. But in this post I am sharing another version by  transforming it into a noodle dish.

Komala's - Indian Vegetarian Restaurant

Komala's Restaurants are Singapore based restaurants-chain serving Indian vegetarian cuisine for its low priced and high quality of Indian food. There have different branches all over Singapore with stalls located in either Coffee Shop or Shopping Mall Food Courts. There is a Komala's vegetarian stall located at the basement food court of North Point Shopping Center just beside another famous Indian Banana Leaf Biryani Rice.

Till now we have only tried their Poori Set and Masala Tea which is quite suitable for our taste buds. Poori is a unleavened Indian bread that is served with Potato Masala or Chana Masala(chickpeas in it).

Before the main course, let starts off with some Indian finger food such as “Vadai” and “Samosa”. While queuing up for my orders, I saw these piping hot snacks coming out from the kitchen stoves so without hesitate, I also ordered one each to try out their varieties. Personally I prefer the Samosa more than the Vadai which is sort of like a deep-fried donut. We love the crispy outer skin of the samosa which is made from crust pastry instead of spring roll wrapper or flaky pastry.

All along mum and aunt were curious about the taste of Dosai which we always saw a lot of customers ordering it. In short Dosai is actually a crepe made from rice and black lentils which is a typical dish in South Indian cuisine that is rich in carbohydrates and protein. Here we ordered the “Paper Masala Dosai” that is filled with mashed potato and other vegetables like onion and green peas. This is served with coconut sauce (white in colour), onion (green in colour) and sambar (a kind of vegetable stew). The Dosai itself is really paper thin which is crispy on the outside and yet moist and soft when eaten. Overall it taste ok with all the different type of dipping sauce except we find it rather a bit salty towards our taste.

But accordingly to some of my friends, Dosai is not supposed to taste very salty when eaten. So I guess either the chef has added too much salt for my order or basically I am not those who can take savoury food :)