Surprise from mr bean!
We were surprised that there was savoury beancurd available here, and quickly got ourselves a bowl of Signature Savoury Beancurd ($3.50, inclusive of GST).
Hot beancurd topped with spicy minced meat and fried onions, it tasted like tofu that we get from the usual zhi char stalls, just that it was a little too salty.
Quite an interesting twist to the usual beancurd 🙂
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1-For-1 Offer!
There was a 1-for-1 offer for Western food (usual price $8.90) at Mamak Culture, so we got ourselves a chicken with Hainanese sauce, a fried fish with chilli crab sauce, and a less sweet teh tarik ($1.90).
The teh tarik was excellent! Very smooth and not too sweet or acidic, we finished the drink in no time!
We were in for a little surprise when we saw our mains. There were 3 fried fish fillets but only 1 not-too-big chicken thigh meat. The sauces were also given in rather small quantities and were barely sufficient. However, the chicken was very juicy, and we preferred it to the fish. I guess its a choice of quantity versus quality? Sides includes potato wedges, baked beans and coleslaw. Certainly value-for-money with the promotion!
We rather enjoyed the food, but the service was very slow. We had to wait for the staff to prepare the orders of the previous customers before he would take our orders. So it was a good 5 to 10 minute wait by the counter, followed by more waiting while they prepare our orders 😮
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Claypot Rice
We were roaming around trying to find dinner at Toa Payoh Central, when we peeped through a corridor and there appeared to be a stretch of stalls hidden inside, so we thought that we should check it out!
The Chinatown Claypot Rice next to Hiang Ji was the most crowded, and there were some super powerful fans blasting at the tables, and thus our dinner was decided!
We ordered a Claypot Rice ($6), a platter of Roasted Duck, Roasted Pork and Char Siew ($14), and a plate of Kailan ($4) for a balanced meal 😛
A balanced meal
The platter was the first to arrive, and we were most impressed by the char siew! It had a good combination of slightly charred meat and fats, and each piece was melting in our mouths… It was divine! The roasted pork was full of crackling crispiness but a bit too fat for my liking, and the roasted duck was just average.
The Kailan was quite oily, and came with lots if deep fried lard 😮 Not very healthy I guess.
We were told that we would need to wait for about 20 minutes for the claypot rice, and it was indeed worth the wait! The salty smell from the salted fish and Chinese sausage made our mouths water; coupled with the crispy rice stuck to the claypot (锅巴), and the amount of oil and dark soy sauce at your own control, the claypot rice was really very delicious! The chicken pieces were quite tender as well, and there were salted egg pieces, which complemented the rice very well! This was such an unexpected find!
The only down side was that they had ran out of bottled water, so we were really quite thirsty after the meal… Which gave us an excuse to look for a cafe…
Note that wet tissue is $0.30 per piece.
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Note: Les Pâtisseries has ceased operations at Toa Payoh and shifted to Upper Thomson.
Coffee and Tea
It was dessert time! The Sugar app pointed us to this cafe, and I managed to get a pot of Contessa Grey Gryphon Tea for $1 (usual price $5.50) :p Being a bakery cafe, we decided to try the Torte Au Citron ($6 nett) and a Waffles with Summer Berries ($8.50). As usual, hubby had a hot Cafe Latte ($4.50).
Hubby felt that his latte was smooth and aromatic, with rather tame flavour… He liked that it was not too acidic.
The Contessa Grey was surprisingly light for a black tea, and had a slightly sweet citrus taste. The taste of eucalyptus was stronger than bergamot, but overall it was a lovely blend 🙂
Beautiful decorations
Happy couple!
Kettle-hunting led us to Toa Payoh and we decided to nua somewhere to rest our aching arms and legs… It is hard work trying to prepare for renovations! Ok, this is just an excuse for us to try out another cafe, though my arms are really aching…
We really liked the decorations of this place. Painstakingly drawn by marker pens, even the floors had the parquet floor design! All the tables and chairs had marker-drawn edges. We also liked the staircase that seemingly led to this “second floor” and there was another staircase from the “first floor” at their Little Prince Cafe at Somme Road, thus having this special connection between the 2 places! This black-and-white space really make us felt like we were in another world 🙂 Continue reading
Bloody cockles
It’s the last day of 2013 and we were looking for a place for lunch. Ended up in Toa Payoh, and since we were looking for some light food, we strolled to Toa Payoh garden and visited Oasis Taiwan Porridge!
It has been quite a while since we visited and we have always been a fan of the Taiwan porridge here because it serves cockles! This bloody (literally) shell delicacy goes so well with the plain smooth porridge! And also because this place is never crowded, has a great view of Toa Payoh Lake, and most importantly, has air-con! You see, when you eat piping hot porridge, you don’t want to be in a air-con-less place because that makes you sweat profusely and its uncomfortable.
This place has a great ambiance and the tables are not cramped together, which gives patrons enough ‘breathing space’. There are not too much parking space though so for those who drives, you may have to park at the nearby Toa Payoh Stadium, and take a short walk.
New branch at Toa Payoh
Simple decor but great food
It’s Tim Ho Wan @Toa Payoh this time! In case you didn’t know, Tim Ho Wan is Hong Kong’s most famous dim sum restaurant because it is one of the cheapest One-Star Michelin restaurant in the world!
We discovered that it was finally opened to public yesterday (8 Sep 2013), so we decided to just pop over to see what’s the crowd like! The queue was not too bad, considering we got seats within 30min, close to 8pm. That was also because there were only 2 of us; bigger groups had to wait longer for a bigger empty table. They also placed stools outside the restaurant so we can just sit, chat and wait.
BBQ cum Steamboat
KBB is directly underneath the second branch of Tim Ho Wan in Toa Payoh ERA Centre!
And no, we didn’t go for dim sum because it was the second day of its soft launch, so it wasn’t exactly opened to public yet 😛
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 