Hai Zhen Fang 海珍坊

There is something special about gathering around a table with good friends and a spread of dishes to share. So, back into the heartlands we went, this time for a seafood feast at Hai Zhen Fang.

Hai Zhen Fang

Before stepping inside, this eye-catching banner at Hai Zhen Fang already gives you a glimpse of what’s on the menu. With tempting seafood dishes featured, you might just want to keep these recommendations in mind when placing your order.

Banner 

Even though the shophouse doesn’t look particularly large from the outside, I was quite impressed by what Hai Zhen Fang had on their menu. For a neighbourhood eatery, the seafood selection looked surprisingly enticing and definitely gave us plenty to consider for our order.

Hai Zhen Fang Menu

It was more than our usual Rojak order, with the crispy baby squid adding an extra level of crunch on top of the generous peanut shavings. The combination of textures made every bite more interesting, while the sweet sauce had a good level of sweetness that complemented the savoury and crunchy toppings without being overly sweet.

Baby Squid Rojak 鲜果苏东仔Rojak

The dark, glossy appearance might not look immediately tempting, but these Iberico Pork Ribs with Homemade Sauce were quite the surprise. The ribs were sweet, tender and coated in a rich, sticky sauce that gave them plenty of flavour. Once you start picking at them, they are hard to resist and definitely one of the dishes I would recommend adding to the table.

Iberico Pork Ribs with Home Made Sauce 京都黑猪排 - $15.90

Bacon Wrapped Sotong Balls definitely caught my attention as hey looked almost like little donuts! The combination of tender sotong wrapped in bacon was surprisingly good, with a nice savoury richness in every bite. A fun and different dish to try if you’re looking beyond the usual seafood choices.

Bacon Wrapped Sotong Ball 鲜烟肉苏东丸 - $10.90

A refreshing pause halfway through the meal! We had the Signature Green Island Slushie to wash down the fried dishes before moving on to the mains. Cool, icy and refreshing, it was a nice little break before the next round of dishes arrived.

Signature Green Island Slushie 招牌绿岛冰沙

A nice alternative to the Signature Green Island Slushie is the Green Lime & Sour Plum Slushie. If you prefer your drinks with a more refreshing sour kick, this one brings that tangy lime and sour plum combination to the table especially welcomed after all those fried dishes.

Green Lime & Sour Plum Slushie 酸甜话梅冰沙 - $4.50

The Signature Seafood Treasure White Bee Hoon was packed with seafood flavours, with the silky bee hoon soaking up that delicious seafood broth. The combination of Lala, crab meat and prawns brought a lovely natural sweetness to the dish, while the crispy fried pork lard added an extra savoury crunch. Definitely one of those comforting dishes that’s best enjoyed while hot!

Signature Seafood Treasure White Bee Hoon 招牌海珍百米粉 - $29.80

The Golden Pumpkin Broth Platter is one to consider if you are dining as a group. You can order the portion according to your number of pax, with a comforting sweet-savoury pumpkin broth filled with goodies like fried fish, abalone and prawns. The seafood adds plenty of flavour to the broth, making this a hearty dish to share around the table.

Golden Pumpkin Broth Platter 金瓜霸鲜海珍汤 - From $29.80 (2-3 pax)

What a generous piece of Braised Shark’s Fin! Served warm in a rich, savoury broth, the sizeable portion made this feel like a rather indulgent dish to have at the table. The shark’s fin was tender and silky, making it a comforting addition to our seafood feast.

Hai Zhen Braised Shark's Fin 红烧鲍翅 - $19.80

Overall, it was a good seafood meal that felt a little different from the more mainstream options you usually find around the neighbourhood. I’m glad we ventured into the heartlands and got to taste what Hai Zhen Fang had to offer. With its interesting selection of seafood dishes and comforting flavours, it was certainly a meal worth gathering around the table for.

Hai Zhen Fang Seafood 海珍坊
Location: 212 Hougang St 21, #01-341, Singapore 530212

The Braised House

I have been seeing Braised House all over social media and I'm glad I had finally made a trip down to savour their Braised Meals. Braised House is about a bus stop away from Kovan MRT station and perhaps will take about 8-10mins walk from the station too.

The Signature Braised Chicken was served with chopped chicken wings, Xiao Bai Cai, Shitake Mushrooms and Peanuts. 

The chilli was quite spicy but gave us a fiery kick to our dishes.,

Signature Braised Chicken - $11.50

The Signature Braised Pork bowl was served with uncut Pork Belly, Xiao Bai Cai, Ramen Egg and Mild Spicy Minced Meat. Do not judge the book by its cover, the minced pork was thoroughly braised.

Signature Braised Pork Bowl - $11.50

The pork belly not only looked well braised, it looked fatty, but it simply disintegrated once it popped into the mouth.

Pork Belly

While I cut into the ramen egg, the lava of the egg gradually flows into my bowl of rice. 

Ramen Egg

It's way too obvious that we simply could not get enough of the Pork Belly and thus we bought the Kong Bak Bao. Besides just having the fluffy soft bun sandwiching the "melt in your mouth" braised pork belly meat, it was accompanied by a big lettuce too.

Kong Bak Bao - $3.50

The staff's friendliness was commendable. 

Thanks The Braised House & Scale Micro-Influencers for the invitation.

The Braised House
Location: 1019 Upper Serangoon Rd, #01-01, Singapore 534757

Pong Cheer Cheer Thai Food

When it comes to Thai Food, we will automatically think of Pineapple fried rice, Phad Thai for example. Nestled in the Industrial Area in Defu Lane. Upon seeing their business name "Pong Cheer Cheer", it kind of sounded like a quirky name to me even though I have no idea the meaning behind it.

Stall of Pong Cheer Cheer Thai Food

Besides the speciality of serving Thai Kway Chap and their braised Pork Trotter rice, they are also selling Thai Style Minced Chicken Rice as well as Thai Style Lap Cheong Rice. For sides, you get to see Thai Fish Cakes, Pandan Chicken and Thai Style Chicken Feet Salad etc.

What's on the menu?

As a braised food lover, I was kind of impressed by the 4 sections of braised items at their stall. 

Braising in Progress

Unlike the Singaporean Style Kway Chap, The Thai Kway Chap had the ingredients all mixed within the same bowl as the Kway.

Thai Style Kway Chap - $4.50

The Thai Kway Chap has a light herby taste and contains a medley of braised pork meat, fried beancurd skin, pig's skin, and braised egg.

Ingredients on Thai Kway Chap

There were a few pieces of Pig Skin in my bowl of Kway Chap. To be honest, I like them.

Pig's Skin

This is utterly the best Thai Style Braised Pork Trotter Rice that I ever have had in Singapore. Those who had tried before will agree that this is simply to die for. At a price of $4.50, this is definitely value for money in terms of quantity as well as quality.

Thai Style Braised Pork Trotter Rice - $4.50

The meat was braised till fork tender and was flavourful with the skin literally melt in your mouth kind. It was a perfect pairing to the plate of white fluffy rice. 

Braised Tender and Soft Pork Trotter

The portion comes with a whole hard-boiled egg and thoroughly braised Tau Pok. They do serve a bowl of radish soup separately.

Braised Items on Plate

If you cannot get enough of this savoury Thai Braised Pork Trotter, you can get them in whole portions at $17 without rice.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Pong Cheer Cheer Thai Food
Location: 4 Defu Lane 10, Singapore 539185
Nearest Station: Kovan (NE13)

Wan Xin Mala Xiang Guo

Was introduced to Wan Xin Mala Xiang Guo (MLXG) by a regular here. I am never a fan of MLXG but having such food once in a while is a thrill with the level of spiciness and the peppercorns that make the tongue kind of numb.

Wan Xin Mala Xiang Guo

Occupying 2 units of shop space, I find that the place was spacious with ample of walkways. 

Marble Tables

The use of rectangular and circle Marble Top table and wooden stools / chairs make the place so welcoming

Furnishing of Wan Xin Mala Xiang Guo

There are both indoor and outdoor seatings but the latter is rather limited, along the corridor of the shophouse.

Dining Area over at the next unit

There are a good selection of MLXG items for us to choose from and patrons are simply spoilt for choices. In fact there are 3 big refrigerators that we can pick our items from. 

Besides MLXG, Wan Xin also offers other specialised dishes like Chong Qing Grilled Fish, Spicy Chicken, Spicy Prawns Etc. Since we do not have too much stomach space, we decided to have just MLXG alone for dinner.

Fridge for Items

We picked a wide variety of items, chives, cucumber, mushrooms, seaweed, sausage, beancurd skin, chicken meat, meatballs, celery, lotus, bamboo shoot. potato slice, vegetables noodles etc. These items sum up to about $33.40 for 2 pax.

Items for MLXG

Though we order small spiciness, the level of spice seemed to be higher than what was expected. Nevertheless, our serving of MLXG was fragrant, stir fried with dried chilli, pepper corns and topped with roasted peanuts as well as Chinese parsley.

 

Our Order

There are a number of Wan Xin MLXG outlets around and if you are thinking to eat at the comfort of your place, they are on deliver platforms too and you can get them deliver to your doorsteps with according to your selected schedule.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Wan Xin Mala Xiang Guo
Location: 1006 Upper Serangoon Rd, Singapore 534744
Nearest Station: Kovan (NE13)

Honeypeachsg Bakery

Honeypeachsg Bakery specializes in creating unique customise birthday cakes and wedding cakes. With all cakes produced fresh and made with the finest ingredients, one can entrust them to bake a cake for your special occasion. 

I was impressed as soon as I caught sight of the Stoke Black Cake which was delivered right to my doorsteps. The packaging was out of my expectation for it was boxed up in transparent material. I thought this is a great way of displaying such a beautiful cake especially when it is hand-carried without any other carrier. 

To perfect the presentation, the box is adorned with a ribbon, nicely tied up.

Stoke Black Cake

The Stoke Black Cake was chosen from their Promo Website as the monthly promo page is tailored based on local preference on the latest trend in Singapore to produce and design these creative cakes.

The aesthetic of the Stoke Black Cake was impressive and looked exactly what was of expectation from the ordering site.

With Happy Birthday Topper

Customization of Cake is made easier with a selection of cake sizes of either Classic 4", 6" or 8". What's more for the Flavour of Cake, there are a variety of assortments to choose from:

• Double Chocolate
• Cookie Butter
• Salted Caramel
• Chocolate Banana
• Vanilla Raspberry
• Match White Chocolate
• Earl Grey Lavender
• Vanilla Bean

Cut Cake

The Stroke Black Cake is an ombre black & gold themed cake with meringues. I opt for the Chocolate Banana version. There are alternating layers of chocolate sponge cake with chocolate creams and the bite was textural with some little chocolate balls within. Pieces of cut bananas were seen too. 

Chocolate Banana

This is the minimalist and prettiest cake I ever had throughout all my birthdays. Good efforts and creativity in their design!

Decorations

As for the cupcakes, I had ordered the Birthday Cupcakes (Black-Themed) with Vanilla Raspberry flavour. It comes with a regular box of 6 cupcakes with Happy Birthday Wording, and Mini chocolate bars in silver x black theme.

Birthday Cupcakes (Black-Themed)

The box was delicately laced with a ribbon too. Look at these assortments of cupcakes!

Here's the 6 cupcakes

There are a number of flavours to choose from, namely:

• Double Chocolate Crunch
• Cookie Butter / Speculoos
• Sea-Salt Chocolate Salted Caramel
• Matcha White Chocolate with White Choco Bits
• Vanilla Raspberry
• Earl Grey Lavender
• Premium Pure Vanilla Bean
• Lemon Curd

Cupcake

On the selection, the website indicates that this series of Black Themed Cupcakes consist of black food colouring being added to achieve the pitch dark effect and there is a possibility of staining the teeth.

Happy Birthday Cup Cake

The silver balls on the black elegant swirls gave a final touch to the cupcake, making them look outstanding. 

Swirls

There are 2 cupcakes designed with piped elegant swirls with a slight difference from the box. Can you spot the difference? 

Can you spot the difference?

While I'm usually not a cupcake lover as what I had was mostly too cloying but Honey Peach SG cakes are moist and the sweetness level is just right.

With a small chocolate bar

There are two other cupcakes that looked similar too and are topped with a small bar of chocolate. 

With a small chocolate bar

If you want to make any occasion a memorable one, customizing cakes will not only throw a surprise, it will also create joys to the occasion.

The Birthday was made special this year. Thank you Honeypeachsg Bakery  for these lovely and fantastic Birthday Treats.

Honeypeachsg Bakery 
Location: The Promenade @ Pelikat, 183 Jln Pelikat #B1-64, Kovan, Singapore 537643
Website

Lola‘s Cafe

It's not very frequent that I visit Kovan and I remember the last round I went back disappointed as Lola was full. We are lucky this time around as walking in customers and we get a table almost immediately. 

Lola's

In the All-Day Menu, we chose Bangers & Mash to share among ourselves. This comfort food comprises of a few pork sausages decked up by House-Made Mash Potato topped with caramelized onions and cider jus. 

Bangers & Mash - $14

The colour of the battered pollock was kind of overdone. Nevertheless, the fish still tasted good with Cajun potato fries and pairing with the Passionfruit Tartar sauce was impressive.

Battered Fish & Chips - $16

The Kurobuta Pork Collar was tough and kind of overdone. It was served with Celeriac Mash, Apple Caramel, Pickled Pomegranate and Cider Jus.

Grilled Kurobuta Pork Collar - $20

Love the light and delightful fragrance of Lychee Rosewater. The cake makes up of Rosewater Vanilla Sponge, real lychee and Rosewater Swiss Meringue buttercream sprinkled with Pistachios and Rose Petals. It would not go wrong if you are a lychee lover.

Lychee Rosewater Cake - $6.50

Tiramisu was served in a jar. The Cocoa Almond Sponge was soaked in Coffee Syrup and coupled with Mascarpone Mousse.

Tiramisu - $7

Take a look at the sponge

The cosy vibes and the environment is good place to gather. As for the food-wise, though the dish's name is familiar, there is some twist on the dish that makes Lola different from other cafes. Apart from that, the price of the dishes is relatively cheaper than other cafes too.

Lola's Cafe
Location: 5 Simon Road Singapore 545893
Nearest Station: Kovan (NE13)
Website