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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Best of both worlds, fish with bear paw!

Bear Paw is originated from Taichung, Taiwan and marked the first franchise business in Singapore. The place is accessible via Bugis MRT station and within minutes walking towards end of Tan Quee Lan Street, just beside Marrison Hotel.

The outlet is located at one cosy corner of the building  with indoor as well as outdoor dining.




Bear Paw, 熊手包 was clearly indicated on its signboard
Welcome to Bear Paw

Designs were contemporary and modern with its menu board well placed above the order counter. Note the franchise logo at the left of the counter.

Counter


Menu was pretty concise and straight forward. One can actually choose to go for Bear's Buns or Rice. For Bear's Buns, Customers are required to choose the bun, patty and sauces to be served. Bear's Rice was even more simple, just choose the type of patty and Sauces.





Had the bears been here? There were left over paws marks on the wall.
Decors
There was a generous choice of drinks series to choose from. Fresh Teas, Milk Tea, Yakult and Fresh Fruit tea. The fresh fruit tea was made per order using fresh fruits and served in its most nutritious condition. The pulp and seeds of kiwi was distinct from the cup of drink.
Fresh Fruit Tea Series - Kiwi
The Lemon Yakult and Brown Rice Tea was a little sweet for me. Nevertheless, these drinks had brought out the Tawainese night market culture.








The concept of bear paws remind me of local's Kong Ba Pau (Braised Pork Meat in Buns) which I had days before. However, comparing sizes, its paw bun was twice as big as the Pau for Kong Ba and was flown in directly from Taiwan vacuum packed. Health watchers may give a few nods on these as there were no preservatives added during the baking of buns.

The Sweating Paws
These lovely fluffy buns was pillow soft and comes 3 flavours each with paws imprinted on the buns. 
3 Choices of Bun: Milk, Whole Wheat, Brown Sugar (Left to Right)

Each paw burger was kept in a square wrapping. The design was consumer friendly so that patrons would avoid dirtying their hands caused by the dripping sauces during the beary bites!

Packaging

How to resist such cute little puffs? The appealing outlook could have just had anyone of us on first sight! Seriously, I can't bear to eat them up too!

Ta-da, the Paws Gathering

Ingredients of Bear's Buns was standard apart from the customized choice of buns, patty and sauces. It include slices of tomatoes as well as lettuce to sum the bear burgers.

Spicy Chicken With Honey Mustard

Cod fish was used for their Fish patty and was equally good, fits its theme "谁说鱼与熊掌不可兼得"? absolutely well!

Fried Fish with Thai Chilli

The flesh of my fish patty was thick and well prepared!

Cod Fish



Whole Wheat Bun

Fried Chicken Patty with Tar Tar Sauce

The brown sugar bun had a tinge of sweetness and complement well with the saltish taste of fried chicken patty.See! The prints were made 3D with the sunken effect! Simply cute!

Brown Sugar Bun

Spicy Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce

French fries were pretty standard but still serves a good company as finger food.
French Fries

When anyone mentions Taiwan's night market, probably the first thing that comes to mind is the fried chicken cutlet. Here, you get the same kind of juicy, tender deep fried chicken patty, wrapped in a bun which is delicious and different from the normal fast food. If you get bored of the classic KFC burgers, Bear Paw is an absolute good alternative towards something more creative at almost the same pricing. What's else to say? Beary Nice!




Menu Page 1

Menu Page 2



Rating: 4 / 5
 
Bear Paw
Location: 103 Beach Road #01-102 Singapore 189704 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

The famous Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee located in ABC Brickworks Food Centre. Plates and plates of hokkien mee was seen on the tables as we walked through the hawker centre.


I was blown away by its creamy look that was coated on every strand of fine bee hoon as well as the round yellow noodles. This wet version of Hokkien Prawn mee has a consistence prawn broth throughout and never disappoint.

Small plate of Hokkien Prawn Mee - $3.50


Another selling point of its prawn mee, was its home-made sambal belachan. They were sticked together and placed at the side of the place with a lime. This is also one of the reason that keeps the customers coming. Its shiokness is hard to put down in words but I can say that despite the spiciness, one still could not resist to have more of it!

Sambal Belachan Chilli with Lime


Disposable plates were used and might fly off once its emptied.

Creamy outlook

All in all, this is one of the best plate of Hokkien Mee in singapore. There was a chinese newspaper cutting hung outside the stall saying that the stall owner's son did not want to learn the art of flying the hokkien mee and the trade could be lost when the boss retires.

Rating: 4 / 5

Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee
Location: ABC Brickworks Food Centre, Blk 6 Jalan Bukit Merah #01-13, Singapore 150006

Monday, October 21, 2013

Dong Ji

Located next to the famous Jin Jin dessert stall at ABC Brickworks Food Centre, Dong Ji sells a decent fare of chinese delights.

We were roaming around the market for decent dinner and this stall caught our attention. Their food caught us by surprise and normally after having these kind of chinese food in hawker, we dont have the thought of making a return but Dong Ji is exceptional.

Stall
Spring Onion pancake was prepared based on order. The waiting time is about 5 minutes and from observing them pre-heating the pan to having the end product. The spring onion pancake was a surprise. Divided into 4 pieces, they are very crispy and thin, close to thin crust pizza. It was not greasy and does not have the strong greens smell. The chilli that comes with it was powerful, it was thai chilli but the amount of spice was stronger.

Spring Onion Pancake


The braised beef noodle broth was clear and flavourful with the La Mian soft to our liking.

Braised Beef Noodle Soup - 红烧牛肉面 $4

The La mian was thin and soft. Though it may not be the smooth silky long La Mian / Hand Made Noodle we saw, these are equally good and one of its kind.

Noodle

The thin slices beef was believed to be simmering under the fire for hours resulting the tender and chewy freshness of the meat. The portion was generous with big slices conquering the surface on the bowl. What a satisfiable dinner!



Rating: 4 / 5

Dong Ji La Mian Xiao Long Bao Chu Mee Fen 东记拉面小笼包粗米粉

Location: ABC Brickworks Food Centre, Blk 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-19, Singapore150006

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Authentic Hokkien Food

Facade


Walk along the Amoy street, this is the place where you will find hidden gems among the modern club house. There were a few authentic dialect groups cuisine at the area and Beng Hiang Restaurant serves quite a decent Hokkien style fare. Her facade was plain ordinary looking but filled with traditional old looking shophouse style as compared to its neighbours.


As we swayed into the restaurant, the strong woody smell gave us a good nostalgic feel somewhat back in the 80s. On top of that, the old school decors like red walls, carpets, Chinese paintings and lazy Suzy were a great reminiscent to those younger days.



Ha! The stage too, had somehow wind me back to the days when I was a kid attending my aunts & uncle's weddings. Those were good lovely memories.



Although it was a weekday night, when meal time comes, it gets packed. The atmosphere was noisy but enjoyable. It also served as a good place for after work dinner considering its ambiance and can hold big groups on their round tables.



Orders were written on the carboned copy Order Chit and was cancelled off one by one when the dishes were served.

Order Chit

All portions were small as we are dining in a group of 4 ladies. The Fish Maw Soup was the first dish of the night and was surprisingly good. A known good alternative to the Shark Fin Soup! As the menu suggest, the soup was thick with crab meat. This dish was indeed lip-smacking good with or without the additional vinegar.

Fish Maw Thick Soup with Crab Meat - $18 (Small)

Generous ingredients was loaded and every mouthful was incredibly flavourful. Also, Crab meat was fresh and thick. If only there were extra servings and I could pop more than just 1 bowl!



Opted the Prawn instead of the usual Oyster Oyster Omelette, it was my first try and a wonderful choice. The omelette was deep fried to golden brown and was very crispy under-which with a distinct yellow layer from the egg, a total different experience like those we had from the Hawkers.

Prawn Omlette 香脆虾煎(Small) - $12
The sweet and spicy chilli compliments them well!

Yummlicious prawns under the shelter of the crisp!

When love and hates collide - Love the luscious slabs of braised pork meat that was cooked to a tender perfection but worry about the cholesterol intake? The umami rich braised pork was irresistible despite its sinful fat and cholesterol. Just heck it! Eat first then say! :)

"Kong Ba" - 扣肉
Kong Ba, traditionally, was best served when sandwiched by the white looking purses. Steamed and served with sweet tasting nature as one of its characteristics.


Steamed Bread

The Steamed Bread with Braised Brisket ("Kong Ba Bao")  - 扣肉花包 $16 was to die for! Yums!
Combination of Steam Bread with Braised Brisket 扣肉花包
The authentic kind of Hokkien Mee with its dark and sweet savoury gravy over the flat yellow noodles. This is the MUST-TRY dish for True Blue Hokkiens.

Traditional Hokkien Mee (small) - $7
Every strand of noodles was lavished with its sauce and it crispy pork lards was the bonus that brought the dish to another level of aroma! Seafood is reasonably fresh and filling. Almost all tables had this dish on their table by default. So what are you waiting for?

Smaller Portion of Hokkien Mee

Last but not least, we were served with little bowls of green bean soup, complimentary desserts from Meng Hiang. These bowls of dessert once consumed has beneficial elements in cooling down the body system. It was cooked together with little translucent sago and  right amount of sweetness.

Green Bean Soup
To sum up, Beng Hiang is definitely a Gem to the Hokkiens, holding up the traditional values. The restaurant is big enough conduct events like traditional Chinese wedding. Service was quite okay with the helpers promptly topping up our pot of tea even though they knew we were not be ordering anymore food. What's more, no service charge was required!

Rating: 4 / 5

Bee Hiang Pte Ltd
Location: 112 Amoy St, Club Street, Singapore 069932

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Newton Meng Kee Prawn Mee

Lunch times are made interesting visiting new places apart from the routine Hawker Centre which we were ferried too weekly by the company bus.

Thanks to our kind colleague who will date us once in a while for lunch outing and just this afternoon, we had our lunch here in Jurong Logistics Hub.

Jurong Logistics Hub Food Junction

Although there were many stalls in the Food Court, our trip there was solely for its Prawn Noodle everytime without fail. Newton Meng Kee Prawn Noodle is quite reputable and has a number of franchise in Singapore but their standards do varies.

Lunch Crowd
Meng Kee offered a variety of Prawns Noodles for customers to choose from, e.g, pig tail, pork ribs, intestines but we had chosen the standard bowl of Bee Hoon Prawn soup for this trip. One will end up
sipping on its aromatic broth accompanied by shallot oil, not forgetting that slices of fishcakes and lean meat included. The soup contains a strong and rich robust prawn taste. Prawn Noodle comes in both dry and soup version which I find are equally yummy! A Die Die Must Try!

Prawn Mee (Soup/Dry) - $3
Rating: 4 / 5

Newton Meng Kee Prawn Mee
Location: Jurong Logistic Hub, 31 Jurong Port Road , Singapore 619115

Friday, October 18, 2013

Xiang Xiang

Changi village Food Centre had undergone a 10 months renovation last year and was re-opened just this year on January. Although the hawker centre still look the same with its original blue metal roof facade intact, many stalls was seen relocated. However with the enhancements, there were more seating available as well as improved toilet facilities.

With a new brand new appearance from Xiang Xiang's signboard, it was a good showcase to customers that they had won good comments from the media on their specialties.

Xiang Xiang served only 4 dishes, namely: Fried Rice, Fried Hokkien, Prawn Mee, Fried Kway Teow and Mee Goreng.

Stall Front Unit #01-58
Every order is cooked fresh, these flat rice noodles were stir-fried on the spot with soy sauce, cockles, beansprouts, prawn, chinese sausage and egg. It packed the kind of traditional flavour I had longed for - my Char Kway Teow fix! The amount of sweetness was perfect from the bits of eggs and black sauce, most importantly they were not as greasy as I thought.

Char Kway Teow - $4 (Medium)

 Char Kway Teow with prawn is not really a common sight in hawker centre and they have it!

Char Kway Teow With Prawn

Awarded by TheNewPaper as the Best Hokkien Mee in Changi Village, they did live up to their name. My smallest ordered portion was in fact generous and totally out of my expectation. It does really give an oomph!

The plate of mixed yellow and white noodles were moist enough to my liking cooked with their flavourful prawn broth. Squeeze some lime juice over them to enjoy a tangy and refreshing taste of the Hokkien Mee. Yummy!

Hokkien Mee - $3.50 (Small)

Sotong

The 4 items sold by Xiang Xiang is a good place to "show off" the local cuisine to our foreign pals especially if they choose to dine in Hakwer Centre. Having said that, considering the cost and quality, it isn't too bad a choice after all.

Rating: 4 / 5


Xiang Xiang
Location: Changi Village Hawker Centre, Blk 2/3 Changi Village Road, #01-58, Singapore 500002