Shatin Chicken Congee 沙田強記雞粥

Upon hearing my colleagues taking us for porridge, I was elated as most of the time in Hong Kong, we wont get to eat porridge besides those orders from a Dim Sum Breakfast, what's more its a local recommendation and this won't go any wrong.

沙田強記雞粥

Through my colleagues, this is the famous Chicken Congee place in Shatin. As usual, out of curiosity, I walked down the street and was surprised by the number of shop units Shatin Chicken Congee has occupied. I took a look into their open kitchen, and came to realized such scene on street is quite common and unlike Singapore, most of us won't get to see this nowadays.

Preparation of porridge in the Kitchen

Congee was served in a big pot to share among 4 of us. The type of serving in stainless steel pot with a familar design ladle brings memory back of home cook food at home. Not only that, it packed full of homely aroma as the entire pot was placed in front of my eyes.

Congee

Cantonese is known for their watery type of porridge which we call it congee. The rice is being boiled and simmered under the heat for long hours thus the texture of the porridge.

Congee with Meat

With the nature sweet taste of the chicken, the congee just taste better than plain.

Chicken

Lala was tasty and cooked among ginger, fried garlic in reducing of the seafood stench. Broth was sweet with nature taste from the Lala and light. It makes it simple to just drink the broth.

清酒煮

I'm not too much of pigeon fan as they have a distinct gamey taste that somehow is much stronger than the roast duck. Though skin is pretty crispy and best part it was not too oily. For those who enjoy roasted pigeon, this should be something that suits you.

Roasted Pigeon

The comfort food from the greens. It was kind of milky in taste and totally different from what I had eaten all along. The bite was crunchy like Gang Kong but the way it was prepared was good I thought.

Vegetables

Wonderful and fresh preparation of the prawns. These prawns were steamed on a bed of vermicelli topped with alot of garlic, spring onions and celery.
 

Steamed Garlic Prawns

Entire experience was quite pleasant. No doubt that we are in Hong Kong, the kind of service here was totally different from what I had experienced in my previous trips as an identity of tourist. At least over here, service crews were not arrogant and chase us off after dinner to clear the seats. They gave us all the time to chit chat and clear the empty dishes politely. I won't mind being back here if there is a chance.

Shatin Chicken Congee 沙田強記雞粥

Location: 大圍積存街12號地下

                 G/F, 6-12 Chik Chuen Street, Tai Wai, Hong Kong

Cottage Spices

It was our last meal before heading back to Singapore and we decided to have another try of Nyonya food. We walked somewhere nearing to our hotel and realise that most of the Peranakan restaurants were closed on a Tuesday and have no idea why.

Cottage Spices

Fortunately, we passed by Cottage Spices and spotted the Trip Advisor logo.

Cottage Spices Facade

Soon after we headed into the restaurant, the friendly server handed in their menu to us.

Menu

Interior furnishing is quite down to earth, nothing fanciful in decorations. They have the oldest kinds of tiling on the walls as well as the floor. The dining area is well ventilated via air con and wall mounted fans.

Peak Hours

We ordered Lime Plum Juice while waiting for the dishes to be cooked.

Lime Plum Juice - RM 3.50

Fluffy omlette with Cincalok. Besides that having it moist, it goes well to plain rice alone.

Telur Dadar Cincarol

Straight forward and simple with lady fingers pairing up with Sambal Belachan. Never felt so contented with ladies fingers!

Bendish Sambal Belachan - RM 15.00 (Small)

Skipping the Chilli Version, we decided to go for something lighter and had the Teochew Style Steamed Fish. Server has clarified that it will be a portion of the fish instead of the fish tail that is shown on the picture. Fish was absolutely fresh, well executed in tasty broth made up by coriander, gingers, tomato and plums.

Teochew Style Steamed Fish

What I like most is all in its soup that brings out the freshness of fish together with the Teochew style of the dish.

Fresh Fish

Last but not least, a dessert that we must have and not to skipped while we are still in Melaka - The Cendol. Nyonya Cendol has a good hint of coconut milk fragrant with Gula Melaka, topped with coconut jelly as well as tasty red beans.

Nyonya Cendol - RM 3.80

In terms of Service, Cottage Spices fares more better than Restoran Ole Sayang. Servers came with a smile and polite when taking orders. They are more professional in handling customers and if you notice, they leave a stool against the wall at every table for diners to place their bags on. This make us feels very cozy. Morever the quality of food in which Cottage Spices doles out from the kitchen tastes good with a homely favour.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Cottage Spices
Location: 171, Jalan Merdeka, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia

Jai Thai

Jai Thai is known for its value for money authentic thai cuisine. With 4 outlets around, half of Jai Thai outlets are serving Halal Menu while the other half consists of non-halal menu. We visited the outlet in Clover Way which is tuck away among the neighbourhood estate.

Jai Thai

Interior is simple with Thai music playing in the background. Servers are mostly Thai and you can hear them communicating in Thai language among themselves.

Interior 

Haven't seen this on Thai Menu for sometimes and Thai Chendol makes up of Thai Ruby, green jelly, sago and taste refreshing with the light coconut milk with ice.

Thai Chendol

A good start to the thai food with the finger food on a mix platter. The platter contains 4 kinds of fried items like Thai Fish Cake, Deep Fried Beancurd, Prawn Cake and Popiah accompanied with fragrant chilli and peanut dipping sauce.

Mixed Platter - $8 (Small) 

No Papaya salad in their menu but you can choose to have Tang Hoon Salad or mango Salad.

Mango Salad - $7 (Small) 

Preferring noodles to rice, we ordered Phad Thai to pair along with other side dishes. Phad Thai taste sweet and appetizing, ordinary.

Phad Thai Prawn - $10 (Medium)

Well executed deep fried fish fillet with sweet tamarind sauce, a perfect go with either a plain bowl of rice or just as finger food alone.

Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Tamarind Sauce - $8 (Small)

Comparing the Thai Food that we had in the neighborhood in a few posts back, Jai Thai's Pandan Chicken is no doubt the best between them! Pandan Chicken is sold at a minimum of 2 pieces and each costing $2.50. The golden brown chicken meat was plump and juicy, dressed nicely in pandan leaves with roasted sesame seeds on it.

Pandan Chicken - $2.50 / Pcs

Chicken or Seafood? Clear or Chilli Base? That are the common options we have for Tom Yum Soup.
Ingredients include, prawn, sotong, msuhrooms and fried fish. We seldom get to see fried fish in the soup and this is not very common. The taste is pretty good with slight spiciness giving you the fiery kick!

Tom Yum Seafood Soup - $7 (Small)

One of the Kid's friendly meal option with no chili for your consideration. Fried Tang Hoon is moist and appetizing fried together with chicken and vegetables.

Fried Tang Hoon - $7

One place off the To-Visit List! I have been waiting to visit Jai Thai every time I pass by their outlet in Bugis. Considering the price and quality of food, the standard is there and decent. I won't mind recommending people there for a pocket-friendly Thai Food over in Jai Thai.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Jai Thai

Location: 7 Clover Way Singapore 579080

Tamoya

I'm not really a fan of Udon but was simply amazed by Tamoya's dining concept when my friend suggested that we should have this for dinner.

Tamoya's Udon has won awards for its distinctive chewiness smooth texture and its popular broth. Ingredients of making Udon is rather simple with 3 items, flour, water and salt. 3 types of flours are used and they took pride in making the udon to perfection such that the blending of 3 flours ratio changed by each season, the amount of salt and boiling time is carefully measure base on the temperature and humidity on daily basis.

Tamoya

Pick your choice of hot / cold dishes from the menu and once you are done, you can pick up your choice of tempura side including fried oysters, Tako Yaki or veggie to accompany your bowl of noodles.

New Menu

Once after heading to the payment counter, you will proceed to this station for utensils and toppings.
Grab your share of garnishing like tempura crumbs, spring onions, dipping sauce and seaweed.

Condiments Station

Tempura Crumbs

Seaweed (Self Serving)

Having it the basic and plain style with kake Udon just in its broth if you want to taste the quality and texture of the noodle.

Kake Udon

Mixing udon is interesting with a few ingredients in a bowl like minced pork, green onions, leek, garlic, bonito flakes, nori and an onsen egg. Toss them together and enjoy a riots of flavour.

Mixing Udon - $8.80

Beef was thinly sliced and brought a usual sweet salty beef taste complimenting the yummy broth well. In terms of quality as compared to the ones we had in Yoshinoya, this is much better.

Beef Udon - $10.80 (Free Upsize)

Mentai Butter Egg came in dry version and just mix them altogether to enjoy the little bits of mentai over the thick strands of Udon. It tasted yummy :) . However the butter smell was not too distinct or close to none here.

Mentai Butter Egg - $8.60

Close up on Butter Egg Mentai

You get to choose different kinds of tempura, however it might be a little disappointing here as it may not be as crispy as expected as items were left on the shelves for quite a bit of time. Nevertheless if you are soaking them into the Udon Broth, crispiness does not matter here.

Egg Plant - $1.20 / Pcs
Shitake Mushroom - $1.20 / Pcs
Fried Chicken - $1.80 / Pcs

Kakiage - $1.80

If you want some simple Japanese food in Liang Court over ramen, you may want to visit Tamoya for a different dining experience.

Rating: 3 / 5

Tamoya
Location: 177 River Valley Road, Liang Court Shopping Centre #01-32, 179030

Kam Long Ah Zai

We all heard about the famous curry fish head that is within walking distance from Johor Bahru's City Square. The place is quite popular and is always packed with queues and full house. It has a good history of serving curry fish head for more than 30 years.

Kam Long Ah Zai 

The preparation of fish curry was open concept and you can see it all while queuing up waiting to be seated.

Fish Curry Prepartion

Pots after pots of Fish Head Curry was prepared and boiled. You can feel how busy and fast pace the staff were.

Preparation

I was more than surprise to see that Restaurant Kam Long is solely selling Curry Fish Head & Meat in different portion with no other side dishes. Restaurant opens from 8am to 4pm however during mid day when I was there, the fish tail portion had already been sold out.

Food Menu

Ingredients were pretty standard with Tau Ki, Tomatoes, Ladies Fingers etc.

Fish Head - RM 35 (Medium)

Of course we would prefer the Tail over the head as it is meatier with more flesh but just too bad that the tail portion is sold out.

Ingredients in the pot

The curry was light in taste and perfect to go with a white bowl of rice. The coconut milk taste was fragrant and not over powering. Regarding the spiciness of curry gravy, I guess its the typical Malaysian style of curry that is neither thick nor too thin.

Fish Head Curry

All in all, the fish meat was sweet and tasty, we were all satisfied by its freshness. We were quite lucky to have waited less than 10 minutes to be offered seating. However do bear in mind that you may have to share table with others and queue more as long as 30 minutes. To avoid disappointment, go earlier as fish tail is easily sold out.

Rating: 3 / 5

Kam Long Ah Zai
Address: 74, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Soi Thai Kitchen

A pleasant surprise to see Soi Thai Kitchen up in the Jurong West Neighbourhood! We were so excited as finally we can get to enjoy some authentic Thai Street Food without travelling a long way.

Soi Thai Kitchen

Interior was simply furnished with both internal and outdoor seating. Service wise, they are quick to serve.

Interior

The appetizer was rather disappointed as it lacked the taste and punch of what a Papaya Salad should have. You might want to give this a miss.

Papaya Salad - $6

At least the Premium Fried Pork Cheek did not disappoint. It was well marinated and the dipping sauce was a good reminiscent of a childhood comfort.

Premium Fried Pork Cheek - $12

Killer to the stomach yet shiok! We always say do not judge a book by its cover and now do not judge a bowl of soup by its clear color. It was so spicy that I can almost tear out but overall, that's the way how Tom Yum Soup taste isn't it?

Clear Tom Yam Soup (Chicken / Prawn) - $7

One of the dish that I love with Thai Raddish. Coupled with onions and raddish bits, as compared to the chinese "Cai Po" Egg, the raddish tends to be on the sweeter side instead of the salty version which we had in Chinese Style of Egg. Simply love the bite and texture of the egg.

Egg with Thai Raddish - $8

Pandan Chicken comes in a plate of 4 with Sweet Thai Chilli by the side. Pandan Chicken was quite bland in taste and if you are expecting some tasty chicken, you might be disappointed.

Pandan Chicken (4 Pieces) - $8

If you want to skip the malls for stomach comforting Thai Food at a cheaper price without having to pay GST and Service Charge,  Soi Thai Kitchen might be an excellent choice for you. Do remember to avoid the peak hours if you do not want to get caught in the long snaky queues.

Rating: 3 / 5

Soi Thai Kitchen
Location: Blk 502 Jurong West Ave 1 #01-811 Singapore 640502