Curry Times

Curry Times where the name suggests curry as their core business is actually managed by Old Chang Kee. A strategic location they are located as they are directly link to Jurong East MRT Station.

Curry Times

As I walk into the restaurant, the time machine had somehow winded the time back into the 60s-70s where things are so old school with traditional Chinese decorations at corners of the restaurant, Ceilings decorated with bird cages hanging, even the servers they were dressed in those "Ah-Ma" clothing. I bet people who has went through the era could have probably have the kind of sentiments reviving memories of those old good days.

A great reminisce at a corner in Curry Times

Coffee Chendol was pretty new to me. Served in a cup in mixture of coffee with chendol. Jelly, Attap Seeds as well as red bean. Not very sweet but wasnt a good choice to mix with curry. 

Coffee Chendol  - $3.90

I had a cup of spite in Lychee Syrup added with 2 little lychee.

Lychee with sprite - $2.90

We had their Curry Noodles, one in a bowl with Ramen while the other in Thick Bee Hoon. It came with boiled chicken pieces, half boiled egg, slices of fish cakes as well as lady's fingers. Curry was rather diluted with just enough portion of chicken. We were somehow disappointed with the taste. Moreover the ramen was quite "bloated" in shape and was too soft to bite in my opinion.

On a side note and into the process of making a bowl of the curry noodles. It was prepared with in a healthier manner such that no coconut milk was added.

Curry Ramen - $7.90

 Help yourselves with the sugar gems as well as the cookies over at their cashier counters.

Sugar Gems and Cookies - Free

Ta-da! Here it go! I had scooped mine into the paper cup provided.

Sugar Gems

Perhaps I have set too much expectation on them as I roughly given them a benchmark based on the food in Old Chang Kee's curry puff and its suggestive business name "Curry".  Though it may be a healthier version of curry, it somehow still lack the oomph of what should have in a bowl of curry noodles.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Curry Times
Location: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive #02-08 Singapore 608532 

Tsukada Nojo

Bijin Nabe Bijin Nabe when translated from Japanese "Beauty Pot" seems to be quite popular for a while. We had our colleague birthday celebration in their Westgate outlet on a Thursday evening. Even though we were considered early, we were not the first in queue and had to wait about half an hour before table is ready.

Tsukada Nojo

Seatings were only available inside while their "outdoors" dining were no longer available. We took the time in looking at its premises and

What's up

We were greeted spontaneously by the staffs while we make our way into the restaurant. Interior was of typical Japanese restaurant filled with their culture made of wooden frames and ceilings.

Interior

While waiting for the food to be served, glasses of Iced Lemon Tea and Lemon Green Tea were served.

Ice Lemon Tea & Lemon Green Tea - $3 each

The first sight of the pot of white lumps was like "oh my god" upon looking at those wobbly bean-curd like pudding in the heavy pot.

White Lumps of pudding

These lumps were none other than the collagen and they were concentrated chicken stock. They were make of chicken bones, salt and water, boiled for 8 hours then cooled to become such super rich collagen. When we asked the server if there were any MSG used, she mentioned that there was little MSG added.

Closer look at the collagen

As the induction cooker started to heat up, the pot of goodness starts to melt and slowly dissolve as the clocked ticked.

Bijin Nabe - $25 per pax

Slowly,  those chicken that were buried under the rich collagen were gradually revealed. They were actually Jidori Chicken, a well known brand of chicken in Japan which were raised organically in stringent standards. They were shipped over from Japan by limited farmers thus considering "rare" chicken in such.

How to enjoy the meal was actually a knowledge. Perhaps without the efficient and patient server, we were will lost especially this was our first time dining there.

Chicken Collagen Soup

While the soup was really rich, tasty imported all the way from Japan. The first step was that we were told to enjoy the soup first in sips using the cups.  I couldn't believe my taste buds, they were indeed tasty!

Chicken Soup in Cup

The 2nd Step was that there were 4 different types of  spices available, namely chilli shoyu, Neggi Ginger oil, Yuzu pepper and red chili oil.

For the 3rd step, we stirred the soup followed by grabbing the pieces of chicken and have a taste.

Meanwhile, our side dishes came...

A traditional dish in Miyazaki which brought popularity wide in Japan. These fried chicken came in a pair served with Tsukada Nojo's homemade Tatar sauce and complimented with vegetables drenched with Japanese Sesame Sauce.

Chicken Nanban - $8.50

Comes in a tray of two, these Shumai were big with fillings tasted more like Xiao Long Bao from common chinese restaurant.

Tori Shumai - $5.80

Set for 4 portions were all combined in a serving, making up of vegetables as the majority.

Set with Bijin Nabe

What was most outstanding looking was actually the chicken minced meat that had filled the bamboo. Prawns and this chicken minced meat had make up part of the Bijin Nabe Meal.

Chicken Minced Meat

The sweet and pretty server dressed in her kimono explained that she will be making meat balls out of it and putting them to boil.

Server in Action

Close up of the vegetables

The creation of the server! She had actually placed the items in one by one and arrange them neatly, at the same time introducing the name of the items namely,  zucchini, watermelon radish, wintermelon, black fungus, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, tofu and mushrooms.

Pot of vegetables

For those who feel that the above was just too little. Noodles come at a later part when we had finished up with the vegetables. Although there were 4 portions / pax, we were only allowed to choose one type of noodle and share among ourselves.

Thick Mochi Noodles

Tsukada Nojo had deliberately decorated the additional seasame paste in heart shape form for everyone of us. The paste is to added into the noodles for extra taste.

Sesame Paste

Every ingredient adding a slight sweetness to the soup, like most of the steamboat / hotpots, the  flavorful base that was just too addictive! On a side note, the first refill of collagen is complimentary and subsequent ones are chargeable)

Prawns in Sticks

The most "powerful" flavored items for the last and that's these fresh prawns which were pierced right through its length.

Prawns

It's hard to bid goodbye after so much of fun and goodness. To get customers returning, Tsukada Nojo comes out with a witty marketing method by issuing everyone of its customer with an Assistant Manager name card for first timer. And for those who those with repeated visits, they get their promotions into Vice President, CEO and so on. All we need to do is to write down our name on the given name card and get it stamped during the next visit.

Assistant Manager

Thanks to the staff of Tsukada Nojo, these were being served as the desserts (mango pudding in cubes) illustrated by a girl with cake to celebrate my colleague's belated birthday.

Special Made

It was a delighting experience in Tsukada Nojo with good service from the servers. We spent about $150 for 4 pax (including taxes) which I felt was a tad expensive for Hot Pot items. However taking into consideration of the Rare chicken and "bean curd" puddings from Japan, it is still worth to visit once in a blue moon perhaps.

Rating: 3/ 5

Tsukada Nojo
Location: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive #03-04 Singapore 608532

Yi Jia Ting Seafood Restaurant

Seafood Restaurant is located at one corner of the food court, a common sight where all the Zi Char Stalls will be at most coffeeshops / food centres. Business is rather competitive in the area as patrons are spoilt with choices given that 3 malls were just nearby within walking distance.

This humble stall has a kitchen curtain to block out partial of its view inside.

Yi Jia Ting Seafood Restaurant

The lady was quite fast to react when we got our seats nearby her stall. She was ready with her plastic laminated menu and placed it onto our tables.

Though I had my meal ordered at the same time with my table of friends, the plate of noodles only came when my friend had finished her meal.

Noodles was generously ladled with sweet black sauce and cooked to soften with garlic permeates into the seafood Ee Mee, also aids in reducing the "fishy"seafood taste if any. Aroma was given another level up with the help of cripsy pork lard added. Overall its a pretty decent dish over a lunch.

EE Mee - $3.80

Rating: 3 / 5

Yi Jia Ting
Location: Fu Chan Food Paradise, Blk 134 Jurong Gateway Rd Singapore 600134

Ming Ji Shao La

I chanced upon this roasted delights stall when I was on job in Jurong IBP (International Business Park) when one of their lunch buses will fetch the white collars over to the nearby coffeeshop for lunch in Toh Guan Road. It was one of their favourite "hotspot" for Roasted Meat during then.

Ming Ji Shao La

Many years past and I had revisited this place recently at their non peak hours on a Sunday evening yet I'm still recalling those scenes where long queues lined up beside the stall.

The facade and stall location seemed to be what I had seen few years ago and nothing had changed, perhaps the ambiance was little more than what I had expected. Songs in the 80s were heard playing in the background creating a relaxing place to dine and slowing down the pace on a Sunday.

3 Combinations of meat

Roasted meat with Char Siew had been placed on a plate. Sweet sticky black sauce was scooped and covered the top portion of those thinly sliced barbaecued meat, the texture was inviting and was not too hard to bite on. What I like best about these meat was that they were not that oily.

Combination Platter

We had the drums portion from the roasted duck. The meat was not too "old" and the layer of roasted skin was indeed very tasty. Yums!

Roasted Duck

They were very generous with the sauce and had given us an extra bowl to drench the roasted meats as well as our pure white rice.

Sweet Gravy

Another bonus dining at Ming Ji Shao La is its soup which compliment the meal well. Pork ribs was given and soup was boiled to taste with herbs as well as dates, thus adding sweetness.

Herbal Soup

For additional kick, remember to dab the meat on the fragrant and spicy chilli.

Chilli

And here's the meal for two!

Meal for 2

Considering the price that we had paid for, they were relatively reasonable. Giving such portion with a drum portion of the roasted duck, it could easily cost more than $15 if we were dining else where. If your expectation isnt that high, this could simply fit one's bill for its price and portion.

Rating: 3.5 / 5


Ming Ji Shao La
Location: Toh Guan Food & Drink Centre, Blk 282A, Toh Guan Road Singapore 601282

Daisy's Dream Kitchen

My interest of peranakan food had increased ever since the Xiao Niang Re show went viral past few years back. The combination of chinese & malay cuisine into a uniquely blend has drawn Pernakan Cuisine as one of my top favourites.

Ambience was pretty neat and clean with purple as its theme color. Sofa seating PVC covers are dark purple while ceiling is painted in light purple. The cashier counter table seems pleasant and orientated.

This five spice meat balls are sufficiently tasty especially with a light tap of sweet sauce. Decorated with the chinese parsley in the bowl of 6 meat balls makes an outstanding dish out of the browish balls. Chunks of chestnut bites can be felt as we bite through the minced pork/fish meat balls. A total indulgence from Peranakan Cuisine.

Ngoh Hiang - $8

Daisy's mum winning recipe, the squid ink sotong. Freshly cook in squid ink, the sotong were tender and tasted good. Portion was generous with sotong ladled with viscous black sauce.

Squid Ink Sotong - $12

One of the staples in Peranakan Cuisine that we cannot leave the place without is their Babi Buah Keluak, the indonesian black nut dish that tasted like black bean paste. The dish has a noticeable thickness and married well with the keluak. What's more the meat was tender, what a mouth watering dish! We added more nuts to cater to our share and Daisy's Dream Kitchen had actually did a good job by cracking it open and leaving a big opening for us to insert the spetula and consume them.

Babi Buah Keluak - $12

Another dish recommended by Daisy's Kitchen was their Sayur Lodeh. A lontong replica lessing out the rice cakes. Savoury Goodness.

Sayur Lodeh

Asam chicken was inviting! Love its thick and rich gravy which has a good sense of sweet, sour and spiciness in it.

Asam Chicken

In Peranakan Cuisine, servings are small but every dish takes long hours to be prepared. The food from them tasted more than average with reasonable price. Service wise, they were very attentive to customer needs. I will be back again for more!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Daisy's Dream Kitchen
Location: Blk 517, West Coast Road, #01-571 Singapore 120517

Guang Tai

I came across Guang Tai during one of the dinners in Jurong area on a Sunday evening. It was rather quiet as most of the stalls were closed for the day or not operating on a Sunday. Guang Tai signboard was a little different from the rest with his red and blue lightings.

Guang Tai

Guang Tai bowl of Lor Mee was fully filled almost to the top with its gravy and ingredients with the usuer ingredients like Ngoh Hiong, Fish cakes, braised belly meats. It was a pleasant surprise to have tasted such a special bowl of Lor Mee in Jurong as their "Lor Chap" (gravy) was infused with herbs. Not only that the braised meats were nicely prepared and flavourful.

Lor Mee - $4 (Big)

 
All along I would have thought that Lor Mee in Hawker Centre was pretty ordinary, with salty dark brown gravy, having not much of braised taste but this bowl from Guang Tai had given me a different view instead.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Guang Tai
Location: Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre, Blk 347 Jurong East Ave 1 #01-189 Singapore 600347

Hai Tong Noodle House

I had a bowl of Shredded Chicken Hor Fun over lunch. It was just another ordinary looking bowl of noodles to fill my stomach on most of the days.

Hai Tong Noodle House

Stall is manned by 2 ladies and one of them is quite friendly,  ensuring that utensils like spoons and chopsticks were placed on the tray before self service take place. My hands were rather occupied and the lady was worried that it might topple and fell off, thus asking where I seat and offered to carry them for me.

Shredded Chicken Hor Fun

Given the slim and sexy Kway Teow, it made the dining experience more pleasant as they were easier to handle and placed into the mouth. The noodles was added with big thick braised mushrooms were taken out from the slow cooker placed by the side of the stall. Besides adding these braised mushrooms to the shredded chicken, some portion of cabbages included. Though chilli version was added, it was not that spicy for me.

Shredded Chicken Hor Fun with soup - $2.50

This portion comes in $2.50 and $3.

Rating: 3 / 5

Hai Tong Noodle House
Location: Blk 726 Clementi West Street 2, #01-174 Singapore 120726