Afuri Ramen

Ever since that the popular Japanese Ramen stall has come to Singapore and has its launch in Funan Mall, we will always notice the snaky long queues in the basement outside its stall. Comparing to other food options in the mall, their queues are the longest during meal times.

Afuri Ramen in Funan Mall

Orders are pretty easy via the ipad that is docked to every table. Its quite efficient in times when there is a crowd and servers do not need to wait for us to decide on our orders. The entire place was kind of open concept, diners can even see through the glass panel into their kitchen.

Open Concept Kitchen

A full bodied dashi based broth that brings up the sweet aroma of Yuzu. Enjoy having Tsukemen dipping the ramen into the dipping sauce that is packed full of citrus taste. The noodles are springy and pieces of belly meat was so soft that it disintegrated at the slightest force. Not only that the Yuzu has elevated the dish and make it so refreshingly great.

Yuzu Tsukemen - $15.90

Don't feel like having Yuzu based ramen? How about going for a slight cream base soup in ramen? The broth are rich in pork taste with a light mouth feel.

Tonkotsu Shio Ramen - $13.90

Surprised that their Char Siew has more charred flavours than I have thought.

Char Siew or Charred "Siew"

The Yuzu Shio ramen is a combination of citrus and salt taste. It comes with a clear soup broth with a subtle taste of Yuzu. Its perfect for someone who isn't going after those rich and creamy Tonkotsu broth base.

Yuzu Shio Ramen - $15.90

For those who prefer to have rice, they can order this Kakuni Cha Shu Don. Love its colorful dish with onsen egg.

Kakuni Cha Shu Don - $9.80 / $6.80 (Regular / Small)

So what's the verdict? Does it worth the hype and time in queuing? I believe that Afuri's Yuzu collection stands out from the crowd. Together with its whole grain noodle and no MSG used I would say that this unique combination is still worth a try.

Rating: 3 / 5

Afuri Ramen
Location: Funan Mall, 107 North Bridge Road, #B1-29, Singapore 179105
Nearest MRT Station: City Hall (NS25/EW13)

Chang Xian XO Seafood (Try Fresh XO Seafood)

By the look of "La La Bee Hoon" Sign board that is located in the food court of Sultan Plaza, one may feel that it's just another ordinary stall. As its not a place that we will pass by, we made a trip down purposely to the place and check out this popular KL Noodle.

Stall with TV advertisement

The dish was executed differently with cooking wine, Hua Diao. Seafood soup was packed full of the taste if you are a fan of it. Having paid $6.90, I think it's pretty worthwhile for the ingredients that were generously filled in the bowl. Lala, prawns, cuttlefish, vegetables and spring onions were spotted in the bowl. 

Hua Diao Seafood Bee Hoon Soup 花雕海鲜米粉汤 - $6.90

Bee Hoon is unique too which is imported from Malaysia. The texture is springy and close to "Dong Fen" aka vermicelli.

Bee Hoon

This dish would probably appeal to salted egg lovers and since such trend still have not lost its shine. Luckily, the gravy was not thick and gluey type and instead its more watery. It was made from crumbled salted egg. Taste was robust and satisfying. Worth trying if you are a salted egg lover.

Salted Egg Seafood Bee Hoon 咸蛋海鲜米粉- $8.90

Yummy!

Given the chance, I will like to revisit and try out the braised seafood Mee Sua. I see that these Mee Sua is of a different texture too.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chang Xian XO Seafood (Try Fresh XO Seafood)
Location: 100 Jalan Sultan Road #01-06/07 Sultan Plaza Singapore 199001

Una Una

Unagi has been quite popular ever since Man Man came in with their concept of Hitsumabushi at Keong Saik Road. One similar trend here is that Una Una has an open concept kitchen that allows diner to see through the transparent glass of staff grilling the eels. The main difference of Hitsumabushi served between these two is the price of the set.

Una Una

Man Man uses live eel and one can see the process of preparation entirely from the kitchen, from live eel to cook eel. While in Una Una, they gave consumers a competitive pricing by offering frozen eels.

Menu

Interior was designed to fit the Japanese culture with hanging lanterns, normal seating as well as partitioned seating.

Interior

We prefered the partitioned seating as we felt that there were more privacy and interesting. We have to take our shoes off before settling ourselves there.

Seating

Philadelphia roll consist of salmon Aburi topped with mayonnaise and fish room.

Philadelphia Roll - $12.80

We topped up the meal with potato salad as a side dish at $3.

Potato Salad - $4

I prefer not to have entirely just rice and unagi for my meal thus I decided on a mixture of Unagi and Shabu beef.

Unagi Beef Shabu Ju - $22.80

Served in a Bento box with half side filled with Unagi and half side filled with beef Shabu on top of a bed of rice added with some preserved ginger.

Shabu Beef

Unagi tasted pretty common to me with sweet tasting sauce coated.

Unagi

Shabu beef tasted ordinary too. However, I still stand firm to my selection of choice for having killed 2 birds in 1 stone.

Shabu Beef

This meal comes with a Chawanmushi. 

Chawanmushi

While Kaisen Hitsumabushi has a mixture of Uangi deck on top of sashimi that was cut into cubes.

Kaisen Hitsumabushi - $18.80

If you love sashimi and want to have best of both world choices, this is another good alternative too.

Close up

There are 3 types of size, small, regular and double of Htsumabushi. For regular portion set at $14.80, price is quite attractive.  

Hitsumabushi - $19.80 (Double)

The hungry man opted for a double portion. Basically, rice and soup portion remains the same. The only difference is the double portion of Grilled Eel.

Double Portion

Comparing to the Japanese restaurants that specialized in Hitsumabushi, the quality is a vast difference. However, pricing from UnaUna still remain at a competitive rate to the consumer. Where can you get a small portion of charcoal grilled Unagi at $9.80?

Rating: 3  / 5

Una Una
Location: Bugis+ 201 Victoria St, #04-10, Singapore 188067
Nearest MRT Station: Bugis (EW12/DT14)

East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle

East Treasure Specialty Prawn Noodle belongs to the same group as Astons. Previously at the similar location, they focus their business mostly on the Chinese Restaurant Style Dishes but right now they are heading towards making prawn noodle a specialty.

East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle

Bowls of noodles were competitively priced, starting from $5 from its classic prawn noodle. Patrons can have a choice of either soup or dry version with choices of noodles.

Menu

We were there over a Sunday morning for brunch and it was already quite packed and there was queue formed when we left the place.

Interior

Sugar Cane drinks with lemon was refreshing and cooling. They were freshly squeeze on the spot and one can see the machine right at the counter. 

Sugar Cane with Lemon 

Condiments were allocated for each table. Diners can feel free to help themselves with fried shallots, chilli powder and chilli in soya sauce.

Chilli and Shallots

You can have your bowl of Classic Prawn Noodle soup or dry. Ingredients that make up the bowl of noodles was rather classic with prawns, pork belly slices, beansprouts and kang kong. The stock was tasty with sweetness and I felt that taste of prawns stock was of the right amount.

Classic Prawn Noodle 经典虾面 - $5

Ingredients for this order was similar to the classic prawn noodle just that a bigger prawn size here were used. Soup can be topped up free of charge if you want more.

Classic Big Prawn Noodle 经典大虾面 - $7.50

The stock of Penang prawn noodle is different from the classic ones. It's slightly spicy, however stock is still pack of prawn taste.

Penang Prawn Noodle 槟城虾面 - $7.50

Compared to Da Dong Prawn Noodle down the road, both of them have their traits. East Treasure is more economical and generous in prawns while Da Dong has its stock done best without dilution. They both tastes great and it depends which of the prawn mee style floats your boat.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle
Location: 328 Joo Chiat Rd, #01-01, Singapore 427585

Lao Liang 老两猪脚冻沙鱼肉

Even being born in a Teochew family, I have never heard of such dishes till one day I passed by Lao Liang and realised the beauty of their traditional Teochew way of serving Pork Trotters and Shark Jelly. Out of curiosity, I ordered one of the "rare" dishes and try it out for fun.

Stall of Lao Liang 老两猪脚冻沙鱼肉

Over the years, Lao Liang were popular in the media due to the traditional food served.

What they are serving?

Though it do not have a strong herbal braised taste in there, the innards were clean without any "special" taste. Just look at how organised each items were placed neatly over at Lao Liang's preparation counter.

Busy at work

We ordered the set without the Kway as we already had a full meal before this. Braised items set consist of pork belly, boiled eggs, big and small intestines.

Braised Items Set 潮州式粿汁套餐 - $4

The Shark Jelly was served refreshingly chilled with a handful amount of ice, this is to prevent the aspic from melting. Each piece of shark jelly consist of white shark meat together with the nutritious translucent jelly / collagen of the shark.  

Shark Jelly 鲨鱼冻 - $5 

 Its almost tasteless but texture was bouncy consisting of subtle sweet shark meat taste. However by dipping them into the tangy peanut chilli sauce, it did really complement them well!

Items with Different Chili Sauce

Try it before such food items are disappearing or before its loses its traditional roots. Perhaps the next round when I have more stomach space, I will like to try the Pork Trotter Jelly.

Rating: 3 / 5

Lao Liang 老两猪脚冻沙鱼肉
Location: Berseh Food Center, #02-37 Singapore 200877

Bangkok J.N Thai Food

Thai Cuisine seems to be our recent dinning option. With family and friends, we decided to patronize Bangkok J.N Thai Food located along Balestier Road in a coffeeshop. During the evenings of Weekends the place seems to quiet down a lot as compared to the weekdays.

Menu was extensive and all dishes were listed clearly on the signboard. We placed our orders efficiently after settling down.

Bangkok J.N Thai Food

Fluffy egg topped with some oysters and lemon slices. The dish was pretty ordinary, just eggs and oysters.

Oyster Omelette 蛋包炒蚝煎 - $10

The dish had confused my mind with the preset illustration of Fried Basil Minced Pork. Instead of the usual just minced meat and basil leaves, this dish was sweeter in taste with chopped long beans, carrots slices and yellow onions. The style was different, lacking the strong basil taste that one is looking for. On the contrary, its good for someone who do not like the basil taste.

Stirred Fried Basil Pork 九层塔炒猪肉 - $8

Fiery! That's the word to describe this soup not just because of the fire from its pot but also the spicy level of its soup. Although we mentioned the portion to prepared to be lesser in spice, we still felt that burning sensation on our tongue. Nevertheless, the soup was both sour and spicy, generously filled with fresh seafood like prawns and fish slices. Other ingredient like shredded lemon grass and tomato had given the dish an enhancement in taste.

Tom Yum Soup 冬炎海鲜汤 - $6

Fire 

Big portion of rice, simple and generously served. I thought its quite plain with just meat floss, cucumber slices, pineapple chunks and bits of eggs but still I will go for this rather than a plate of plain rice.

Pineapple Fried Rice 黄梨炒饭 - $5

Breaded prawn cakes were bouncy and soft. Good appetizer and finger food to start the meal with.

Prawn Cakes 香脆虾球 - $8

Of all dishes ordered, I like this best as the fish is fresh and the soup was addictive. A handful of garnishing was used and the soury and tangy taste of it was inviting. Carrots, lemon grass, onions,celery, chilli and garlic were used.

Steamed Seabass With Lemon Sauce 清蒸柠檬鱼 - $25

Service was polite even though it was from the coffee shop and I will say that the taste was not too Singaporean Thai Style as their cooking style is rather different. Overall I find the dishes rather decent.

Rating: 3 / 5

Bangkok J.N Thai Food
Location: 567/569 Balestier Road Singapore 329884