Nakhon Kitchen

Credits to the colleagues who were fast and puntual for dinner, also not forgetting our organiser who took the time and trouble not only to introduce Nakhon Kitchen to fellow us but also make our visit there real.

Located within walkable distance from Hougang Bus Interchange or Kovan MRT, Nakhon is one of the top Thai Cuisine recommended. Known for its popularity, we were prepared to wait in the queue for dinner but we were lucky to grab hold of the last table before the crowd moved in. For those who are thinking of reserving, I'm afraid that there are no such privileges. 

Nakhon Kitchen

Indoors and outdoors seatings are all available. Help yourself with the condiments and the toilet roll given on the table. Cheers to their efficiency, although we had order quite a number of dishes, they all did come within 10 minutes to ease our appetite.

Condiments on Table

Dinner started with carb intake from the deletable plate of black olive fried rice with minced chicken. Each grain of rice was consistently coated in the dark sauce and every mouthful gave a good crunch with the onions as well as the cashew nuts. Do remember to squeeze the lime juice over it to enjoy its refreshing taste!

Black Olive Fried Rice with minced Chicken - $6

Opted for the clear type of Tom Yam out of 2 others which were its thick and with coconut type. This dish which originally gained us some hype before the meal turned the other way round. Though it was clear, the spice had fully shot up to my threshold for spiciness as i had my first mouthful, with tears welling up. Nonetheless, the seafood ingredients were not any lesser and truly Thai!

Tom Yam Soup (Clear) - $6

A consecutive hit of surprises after the incredibly spicy dish, the green curry color was another out of expectation. It's green was way off artificial in its lime color with aplenty of essential ingredients like brinja and peppers  adequately added to its flavour. Beef slices were tender but for not-so coconut milk lover like me, I find that the dish was kind of overdose with coconut milk.

Green Curry Beef - $8

How can one leave the stomach empty without such staples drink like Thai Iced Tea as well as the Iced Fragrant Lemon Grass Drink? A few sips or two of these cooling beverages in between the meal were simply amazing as it aids in reducing the spice from the food ordered.

Beverages - $3 Each

This fiery dish had its spice comparable to Tom Yum Clear Soup. Avoid the chilli padi to skip your tongue from getting numb. A typical Thai appetizer with grated green mango, fish sauce added to its taste topped with a handful of cashew nuts.

Thai Mango Salad - $5

 Searching for "Wok Hei" in Thai's Way of Hor Fun? Sorry! There's none here. The starchy gravy and sticky hor fun that lump altogether with its typical ingredients like prawns and vegetables were more of less the same to a typical plate of Hor Fun from a Zi Char Stall, less the Wok Hei smell.

Thai Style Hor Fun

Fancy tearing off the dried pandan leaves that wrapped those yummy chicken up? Well, one simply cant wait any longer to check them out. These tender meats were processed in turmeric powder and have a good infused aroma in it. For me I would like to taste the original instead of dipping them into the sweet & sour chilli sauce which would eventually covered up its flavour.

Pandan Leaves Chieck - $6 (4 Pcs)

We will never let go of the vegetables, thats my kakis style of dining! We had the sitr-fried asparagus with mushrooms. This was one of the few dishes with no spice included and suitable for children. Simply love the sweet tasting gravy over the crunchy asparagus and carrots.

Stir-fried asparagus with mushroom - $6

Another appetizer we had was its home made fishcake, its spongy chewy texture was what we got. What I like about Nakhon was that they actually make use of those dolly paper to absorb the oil from the food.

Home Made Thai Fishcake (4pcs) - $6

The deep fried brown stripes of pork were outstanding and delicious, one of the favourite dishes for the night. It looked a little bit hard on the outside but in fact it was crunchy once you sink your teeth into them.

Deep Fried Pork With Garlic - $6

Dinner ended well with Red Ruby as the last dish shared among 4 of us when it was supposed to be Mr Chua's dessert. Everyone had enjoyed his/her lion share and of course the thinly sliced fragrant chempedak on the heap of snow mountain with the starring red rubies burried underneath.

Red Ruby - $3

In summary, I would say that the level of spiciness is not of the average and definitely not for the faint hearted. For those who have taken a closer look at their menu, the dishes cost an average amount of $6 which is pocket friendly as compared to those overly expensive ones in the malls.There are only 1 kind of serving throughout without complicating matters. For those who want to enjoy this cost saving Thai Cuisine, be early to avoid the queue!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Nakhon Kitchen
Location: 212 Hougang Street 21, #01-341, Singapore 530212

Cai Yu Pian, Niu Rou, Xian Xia, Zha Jin He Fen

Try walking into Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre on a Sunday evening to experience the presence of operating stalls. In fact almost half of the food Centre was already closed for the day while Cai's Stall is one of the few stalls that were open.

Specializing in Hor Fun and Rice, a resemblance of what we had from a Zi Char Stall, Cai has only 9 dishes on her menu.

Cai's Stall in Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre

At an attractive cost of $4, one get to enjoy the Hor Fun filled with "Wok Hei" smell. These Hor Fun were readily prepared by the side and the helpers just have to prepare the beef and gravy over it, thus reducing customers' waiting time.

Beef Hor Fun - $4

Portion of beef was not any miserable and on the contrary, what they had given was generous. Meat was tender and chewy.  The only peeve that I had was its gravy as it was rather bland in taste, thus the score for the dish was very much affected by this. But still I have to say that, $4 a plate was very much worth the price as compared to what I had over in Clementi

Beef Hor Fun (Close Up)

Rating: 3 / 5

Cai Yu Pian, Niu Rou, Xian Xia, Zha Jin He Fen
Location: Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre, Blk 254 Jurong East Street 24, #01-14, Singapore 600254
Operation Hours: 10.30am - 2.30pm, 5pm-8.30pm

Xiang Ji Cooked Food

If you are thinking of the famous porridge located in Clementi Central, I have an alternative for you. Xiang Ji Cooked food is perhaps one of the best porridge stalls in the west of Singapore, at least in my opinion.  

Xiang Ji Cooked Food is located in Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre specializing in Porridge.

Xiang Ji Cooked Food Stall

Over a quiet Sunday afternoon when most of the stall was closed, Xiang Ji Cooked Food was quite crowded during the time of my order. Though the stall was manned by a middle age uncle, the queues was moving rather fast probably that he was well prepared with a pot of ready cooked porridge filled to its brim.

Every bowl of porridge came with an adequate amount of fried fritters, in addition, spring onions and preserved vegetables were added giving more fragrance to the meal.

Century Egg with Lean Meat and Egg Porridge - $2.80

Porridge were not gluey and one can still have a textural feel of the soften rice grain. Lean meat were flavourful and leaving hints of its marinating process. I would say its a value for money bowl of porridge though egg was added. As compared to the popular porridge in clementi, I would prefer this as Xiang Ji's style is not as oily.

Closer look at the porridge with You Tiao

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Xiang Ji Cooked Food
Location: Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre, Blk 254 Jurong East Street 24, #01-53, Singapore 600254

Athithi Garden - North & South Indian Cuisine [Closed]

Everytime as we pass by this Corner of Bukit Batok, I will tell him that I will like to visit the restaurant and my guy is rather amazed by my expressions as I told him I am not very sure what kind of cuisine the shop is selling since the facade did not leave any clues for guessing, moreover, its quite a distance from the road (where we are in the car).

Athithi Garden - North & South Indian Cuisine

 Athithi Garden is really a Gem, hidden in among the neighbourhood and probably get miss out from our sight due to its location. For those who are keen on  North Indian Cuisine especially, I will highly recommend Athithi Garden as they had left a very good impression to me.

They are a 2 Storey Shophouse with 3 tables of outdoor seatings. I would recommend diners to have the upper level seatings as the lower level were just too stuffy and oven warm due to that the kitchen was just beside the seating place. Here's their stairways up!

Stairways up the 2nd Level

Be pleased by such a classic looking environment ventilated with wall mounted fans and cassette air cons. The comfy cushioned chairs and sturdy semi wooden-glass tables were neat and tidy arranged across the upper dining area. Under the warm lantern lightings, it made the place cosy and one can actually free their mind upon settling in.

Level 2 Dining Environment

Each table were readily prepared with a glass jar filled with drinking and a set of cups.

Drinking water with glasses

A mixture of North & South Indian Cuisine from Athithi Garden, these two pages long of menu was said to provide too many but also not too little food to match up with one's appetite.

Page 1 of the Menu

I dont have much knowledge about Indian food specially when it comes to their small dishes. I'm glad that the lady at the counter was rather friendly and helpful in explaining the dishes.

Page 2 of the Menu

At the top level where beverages were all prepared. The place is suitable for chilling up with their alcholic beverages like "Tiger".

Beverages Preparation Counter

Crispy papadum was included in the meal as expected. The rice came in a pretty rice bowl shape with attractive colors. What's more it had a pleasant sense. Initially we thought that they could have given the wrong order as we had ordered Chicken Biryani and where's the chicken?

Chicken Biryani - $6.80

Hold your horses before asking them for an exchange. The big chunks of chicken were actually well tucked and cover up by these yellow thin and long ginger rice.

I must emphasis that upon having our first mouthful of Athithi Biryani, there was a sudden sparkle in our eyes. This must be the best biryani I ever had thus far in Singapore! The dish was infused with adequate spices and was indeed different from what I had.

Chicken was tender and easily shred off from its bone. Do dip them into the curry sauce given. At times , it might be a little spicy but one little trick - you can add some yoghurt in between for some cooling effects on your tongue. :)

Chicken found!

Butter naan were freshly made and comes in big portion and have to be shared. Each serving come in a basket of 2 and divided up into 2 small pieces with dolly paper attached to its bottom. The melted butter had boost its fragrance on the plain crispy naans.

Butter Naan - $2.30

Perfect, Chettinad is a popular Non vegetables dishes among the North Indian ! Spicy and flavorful with freshly ground masala included. A definite matching for the naans. The taste was consistent and  chicken were bite size.

Chettinad Chicken - $6

Drinks came last perhaps they had forgotten our order. Lime juice were not too sweet and best of all, that was actually done manually, hand-squeezed.

Mango Lassi and Lime Juice - $3.80 & $3

Washing down all those yummy food with a cup of soothing mango Lassi to conclude my dinner. Chilled and refreshing drink after the spices, this Mango Flavoured Yoghurt drink is one of  my Must Order Beverages in my North Indian Cuisine meal.

Mango Lassi - $3.80

If you were to ask if I prefer Wala Prata or Athithi, I will not hesitate to choose the latter for a wonderful North Indian Fix. Now that you know for sure, I will be right back in Athithi for more!

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Athithi Garden
Location: Blk 643 Bukit Batok Central #01-42, Singapore 650643
Operating Hours: 11 am - 10pm 

Queenstown Popiah

Queenstown Popiah! Does it ring the bell? If you have been to the demolished Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, upon spotting this stall, I bet you will have some flash back memories.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon that I decided to visit the place when almost half of the hawker stalls were closed and caught sight of this stall by chance. It was manned by an elderly couple and business seemed slow on such a day.

Queenstown Popiah - Originally from Margaret Drive

I still miss the good days when popiah cost $1 each but nowadays Popiahs are mostly charged at a minimum rate of $1.30 just like what we have here in Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre.

 The fillings are classic, packed with sweet sauce, braised turnips, bean sprouts, eggs, crunchy bits and not forgetting the grated peanuts that give additional aroma to it.

Popiah - $1.30

But those were the days where the stall owners had did their own popiah skins. Sadly, theirs was abit dry and the distinctive taste of the delicious turnips were forgotten here. It tasted far from what I remembered when I had the first taste of Famous Queenstown Popiah.

Rating: 3 / 5

Queenstown Popiah
Location: Yuhua Village Market & Food Centre, Blk 254 Jurong East Street 24, #01-27, Singapore 600254

Sedap Corner Nasi Ayam Hainan

Located in S11 Coffeeshop which is just within walking distance from Bukit Batok Bus Interchange, Sedap Corner offers a Halal version of Hainanese Chicken Rice (Nasi Ayam). Though it was Halal Certified I thought it was rare as we seldom get to see Chinese working in the stall. In fact the one who prepared the meat was a chinese uncle.

Stall of Sedap Corner

If you are unsure of what to order, Sedap Corner had actually help to simplified the decision process by printing out a big banner with its available meal for you. With its delicious images of its meal and signature dishes, for sure that there will be one that suits you.

What to order?

Many of us may have a misconception that Hainan Chicken Rice serves chicken that is de-boned. To clear the thought for those who are still having such misconception, only Hainanese Boneless rice will have the bone taken off from the meat.

I had the special meal which comes with a good portion of rice and chicken, also with braised Tau Gua as well as half a slice of the egg. The skin of roasted chicken looks a little dry and tasted rather salty, not to my liking. However to average out the scores, their price was pretty fragrant and not too oily.

Special Meal - $3.60

Rating: 3 / 5

Sedap Corner Nasi Ayam Hainan
Location: S-11 Food House, Blk 640, Bukit Batok Central, #01-40, Singapore 650640

Saladworks

Saladworks which is originated from America is known to provide fresh, made-to-order salad and giving consumers an alternative choice of having a healthier fuss free meal.

Not long ago, we had all learnt that due to the delayed opening of JEM shopping centre, Saldworks had suffered some loss due to that the imported food had to go into waste as they were perishables.

Saladworks

After learning about its freshness, I wanted to tried Saladworks so much since they were the closest salad place to where I'm residing.

Saladworks

Their environment were vibrant, well lighted with vegetables over a bright colors as their wall papers. Service staff was friendly and carried a smile throughout the transaction though she was abit too soft spoken.

Salad Bar

I'm kind of surprised that the place was rather empty as many seats were unoccupied on a Saturday afternoon like this especially when we get to find most people hiding in the malls for its air condition due to the bad weather we had nowadays.

My meal and theenvironment.

While waiting for the main course, I had my soup served.

French Onion Soup while waiting for the mains

The french onion soup was a disappointment. It was peppery and did not have too much of caramelised taste from the onions.

French Onion Soup - $2.90

Opted for half salad and half panini for the meal. Nuevo  nicoise was my choice of salad which contain romaine, iceberg, radiatorre pasta, chunk tuna, tomatoes, egg whites, Nicoise olives and green beans.

As for the panini, I had the chicken mozzarella. This sour dough bread was accompanied by mozzarella, tomato sauce and sliced chicken, heated up. Do give the helpers sometime for preparation.

1/2 Salad and 1/2 Panini - $11.80

Perhaps Singaporeans and patrons over here in Asia still prefer some traditional meals from the hawkers or food court due to its value for money pricing. Such expensive healthy meal which costs over $10 were unlikely the top few choices when it comes to a meal.

Rating: 3 / 5

Saladworks

Location: Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Road #02-19, Singapore 608549