MIX Restaurant & Bar

Voted consecutively  3 years as Thailand's Best Restuarant, we were all tempted to give Mix Restaurant a try.

MIX Restaurant & Bar

Restaurant settings was bold and attention seeking. MIX lives up to its name offering a mixture of cuisines from a different culture, countries etc.

Environment

Counter for food from kitchen

We took sometime to read at the menu while laughing away as there were some language error which led to jokes. Also, there was not much pictures on the menu that can give u an overview of the dishes, thus we have to read line by line on its English translations.

Menu

Since its was our last meal before returning back to Singapore, we decided to "expand" our stomach and ordered as much as we could.

Consist of a wholesome of goodness from blueberry, raspberry and strawberry, the smoothies was elegantly presented a tall glass in its lavender color accompanied by Singapore National Flower, Vanda 'Miss Joaquim' (Orchid). Despite of having all berries mix, it tasted sweet more than sour.

Mix Berry Smoothies - 95 Baht

While this smoothie was lighter in color, it tasted just as great as Mix Berry Smoothies. The not so strong Banana Fragrant and sour taste from the blueberry told me straight off that fresh fruits was used and no artificial fruit essence were added.

Blueberry, Banana and Honey Smoothies - 95 Baht

Stir fried rice noodle was wrapped up by the golden fried egg with peanuts and beansprouts tucked by the side of the plate but the one that stole the scene was none other than the blue river prawn starring its long and sharp antenna surrounding the entire egg rice noodle.

Stir-fried rice noodle with blue river prawn (Thai style) - 199 Baht

Blue River Prawn

Thumbs up to flavours of the Hot and spicy Tom Yum Soup. Its packed full of tangy flavours from assam, lemon grass and lime leaves, featuring Thai's cuisine. Likewise, blue prawn river was also part of the ingredient and was fresh.

Hot Spicy soup with Blue River Prawn - 199 Baht

Though the dish was a tad spicy, it brought out the Thai flavours using the familiar brinja and pepper corn used in the thai dishes. Razor Clam shells was included and these clams were fresh.

Stir Fried Razor Clam with herb and spicy - 195 Baht

Finally, we had their deep fried grouper! It was well fried and has its meat detached from the bone, served in portion which allow easy consumption for the diners. Chilli sauce was sweeter than spicy.

Deep-fried Grouper or Sea-Bass in Sweet Chilli Sauce  - 350 / 285 Baht

Last but not least the dish that require a minimum 20 minutes of waiting time for its grilled chicken or pork - Satay, this is what Singaporeans & Malaysians known them as.

Grilled Chicken or Pork with curry Sauce - 145 Baht

Grilled meat was pierced through a stick and these stick was placed vertically with the help of rice in glass cup. Grains were fluffy and yellow colored with curry dips and appetizers to pair with.

Grilled Meat and Rice

I find that MIX Restaurant & Bar was rather interesting and dishes presentation were creative. If I were to go back to Bangkok again, I dont really mind dining there again!

Rating: 4 / 5

MIX Restaurant & Bar

Location: 5 Floor Terminal21 Department Store Asoke Intersection, Bangkok, Thailand 10110
BTS: Asoke

Tel.: +66 2-2540799

Saigon Saturday

Through my trip in Johor, we noticed an interesting restuarant, Saigon Saturday which is just within walkin distance from KSL Shopping Mall. From the look at its business name and mascot with Vietnamese style conical hat, I felt a strong sense of magnetic force drawing me towards its shop. Having been so many times to Johor, this is one of the rare time I get to see Vietnamese cuisine around, thus I decided we should make it a must to visit this place by hook or by crook.

Saigon Saturday

Saigon Saturday is a family restaurant owned by the lady boss who is a Vietnamese. When we queried about why Saigon Saturday instead of Monday or even Sunday, what we got from the explanation is that Saturday is a good timing where family gets to spend time together for a meal, that's how it comes about.

Menu

Environment was spacious in cement screed and there were ratten swinging chairs somewhere near the kitchen. Their assistants are mostly Vietnamese which speaks little English.

Environment

Pho is what I cannot do without in a Vietnamese cuisine. Judge the pho from its broth especially with its herbs and vegetables garnishes.

Vietnamese Beef Noodle - Rm 9.90

Broth is clear with tender briskets.

Beef Briskets

With herbs and vegetables separately placed, the helpful server showed his concern as he saw the blank looks from our faces. He was so kind and began in demonstrating the typical Vietnamese way of having the garnishing with the bowl of pho. His sincerity touched us and as he served the incoming orders, he would ensure that the right garnishing or sauce were used by highlighting that to us. Communications were done by actions as the guy speaks little or no English.

Garnishing

The plate of fried rice was well surrounded by slices of cucumbers. Together with the color combinations, it's hard not to add some marks to it. Fried rice was fragrant and comes with chinese lup cheong, chicken dices and mixed vegetables. When it comes to Thai or Viet Cuisine, their fried rice uses fish sauce which spelt out a stark difference to the chinese "Yang Zhou" fried rice.

Vietnamese Fried Rice - Rm 9.30

The seafood spring rolls looked totally different from the illustrations in its menu. Nevertheless, these deep fried spring rolls were served in its best condition. It's so hot and crispy, added with 3 different sauces.

Seafood Spring Roll - Rm 9.30

While the sweet and sour pork ribs are ordinary with green peppers, chilli, tomatoes, pineapples as well as garnishing like coriander leaves and spring onions.

Sweet and sour pork ribs - Rm 9.50

With so many recommended dishes ordered, I had a pleasant experience from Saigon Saturday. The Chicken Stew was the last dish that came to us. It was quite appetizing with chicken meat, yellow onions, soften potatoes and carrots. 

Chicken Stew - Rm 11.90

Sour sop smoothie was smooth and not too sweet.

Sour-sop Smoothie - Rm 6.90

While the Ice Coffee was loaded with ice and we were given a spoon to mix the coffee well.

Vietnamese Coffee Cold - Rm 4.90

Dont judge the book by its cover, its not a cup of Super "DRY" Asahi. Instead its a complimentary tea for diners. It was served chilled and very soothing.

Tea

During my visit, there was a little commotions from a table, causing some ruckus in the environment. They threw their temper and commented about the speed of serving, comparing themselves with another table who came later, ordering Banh Mi (Vietnamese Bread / Sandwiches) while what they ordered was mostly fried stuff. Situation was ugly with the words used from the diners which make the diners (us) felt rather uncomfortable. Nevertheless, they handled the situation professionally and even told us that they will make improvement on the speed.

In my opinion, though they might be quite slow to some, I'm quite comfortable at the rate of serving and perhaps as a diner I am quite use to accommodating the culture differences, at least the wait did not gone overboard. :) 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Saigon Saturday
Location: 25, Jalan Beruang, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru Malaysia

Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory

Learning about the traditional box of banana cake that was hand delivered from Johor into Singapore, I finally got the chance to take a look at its source. Out into the streets of an old cultural street in JB Sentral, there were alot of interesting shops, run down yet pack full of crowd. Follow the huge chinese gate as a landmark to visit Hiap Joo Bakery as they are just along the stretch of shop houses.

Do note that parking is never easy there.

How to find Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory

Facade of Hiap Joo Bakery was run down with fire woods stacked nicely on the racks. The bakery menu and price was well indicated near the start of the queue.

Menu

Besides that, you can see one of the assistants busying preparing the plastic boxes for the cakes. Be prepared to queue as they are quite popular and customers like us will grab more than 5 boxes per visit.

Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory

As I entered the bakery, my attention was totally drawn to the gigantic black furnace used for baking. The man who was handling the food items into the furnace has to stand a step down into the small confine area as he shoved them into the charcoal hot place.

Furnace

Every box of banana cake was freshly baked and taken out of the traditional charcoal oven since year 1919.

Side bench

Boxes were left open so that moisture from these freshly baked would not be trapped within it.

Arranging 

Boxes of banana cake was precisely cut into equal portions by hand. These moist, pack full of fragrant banana cakes has a great scent of smokey flavour in combination with the natural fragrance of the banana. 

Box off Banana Cake - 9 Rm per box

Every piece of cake was simple and heartwarming, literally melts in the mouth as you press them down. They are spongy and at a closer look into the moist cake, you will get to see the fibres from the banana. The fragrant was so strong that its so hard to resist taking one piece before snapping a shot.

Drawing Closer to the banana cakes

The butter sugar bun had melted when I was ready to eat them. Buns were soft and fluffy. What I like about them was the top layer of saltiness cradling the sweet savoury taste as well as the fragrance from the little sesame seeds. It would be perfect if it was paired with hotdog. :)

Butter Sugar Bun - 3.50 Rm for 2

These buns looked dry and feel like stones to me. However, the traditional innocent looking buns triggered my interests in them. The charred top area was indeed very hard and required some force to tear them apart, unlike our modern buns, fluffy and get disintegrates effortlessly.

Red Bean Buns - 4 for 4 Rm

Having such buns was like travelling back into those days with a time machine. It brought back memories of childhood from its thick crusted top, the charred but not "Chao Tah" fragrance and having bites of traditional red beans within. As compare to now, most of the red bean buns only comes in paste form.

Inside the red bean buns

Hiap Joo Bakery was really a gem and we can hardly find bakery using traditional methods - furnace nowadays. There was specialties like coffee and butter cakes which is only available on Thursday, I would like to try them out but its hard as we hardly go into JB during weekdays. Hopefully when time comes. :) 

Hiap Joo Bakery
Location: 13, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, 80000 Johor Bahru

Auntie Jessie Rojak

Rojak stall was manned by an elderly couple with the female handling the rojak mixture and the male taking orders from patrons. Accomodating the structures and theme of Vivocity's Food Republic, the stall is portrayed as rundown as the environment even though in reality it was not.

Auntie Jessie Rojak Stall appeared to be in a wooden car, just like the olden days how the food peddlers do their business.

Auntie Jessie Rojak

We went ahead to order their traditional plate of Rojak and indeed they were ordinary. Common Rojak mixture includes beansprouts, "You Tiao" (fried fritters), turnips, toasted Tao Pok, cucumber and peanut garnishing over the sticky brown prawn paste.

Traditional Rojak - $3

There was not much to rave on such simple plate as there was nothing much in particular that will give the kind of "wow" factor.

Rojak, anyone?

All in all, though the plate of light snack was pretty average, I would say that service was seen awesome, with friendly and polite gesture from the service staff. Thus I guess I won't mind going back again for other kinds of rojak stated on their menu.

Rating: 3 / 5

Auntie Jessie Rojak
Location: Vivo City, 1 Harbourfront Walk #03-01 Singapore 098585 

Honguo

Having pass by Hong Guo so many times when I was travelling to Bugis, I have finally actualize the visit. When it comes to Hong Guo, all I can remember is their Signature "Crossing Bridge Noodle" that left me a big impression since day one I passed by their restaurant.

Hong Guo

How did the crossing bridge noodles come about? It was believed that there was once a scholar who was studying hard for his imperial exam on a small island and his wife would bring him food across the bridge but by the time when she reached there, the soup was already cold and noodles were already soggy. Thereafter, she load the boiling soup in a large earthen pot with a thick layer of oil on top so as to act as an insulation in keeping the broth warm. While noodles and ingredients were kept in separate containers. Thus when she arrived, she will mix the ingredients together with noodles added with warm soup. Likewise, in Honguo, bowl of soup still remains warm even after sometime.

Menu

Beside the origins of their signature vermicelli / noodle, if you do notice the walls, you will learn more about the chinese myths, especially on the 18 Oddities in Yunan or sometimes they called it 18 wonders of Yuna.

Eighteen Oddities in Yunan

Shanghai Dumplings did strike on the right notes. Marinated minced meat was fine and wrapped by the skin. It was fragrant and perfect on the go with a dab on the ginger and vinegar. It tasted so good that you wont believe you are having Dumplings as they tasted more like XLB (Xiao Long Bao).

Shanghai Dumplings - $5.80

Cross Bridge Noodles is also known as Zhuang Yuan Mi Xian with 15 items (Yunan Rice Noodles, Quail Eggs, Chives, Beancurd Thread, Dried Shrimp, Fried Meat, Spring Onion, Fish, Dou Miao, Sze Chuan Vegetables, Mushrooms, Button Mushroom, Ham, Prawn, Fried Peanuts and Squid).

Crossing Bridge Noodles - $9.50

Their soup is double boiled for hours with selected duck, chicken and pork thus the tasty and flavorful broth.

Broth

How to eat? When everything arrive with boiling soup, just put those items that required more time to cook into it like Seafood, meat and quail eggs, followed by the vegetables.

Broth with ingredient added

Finally, with the chopsticks, pour in the noodles.

Noodles

And enjoy while its hot. It is an excellent choice for anyone looking for nourishing food like this.

When you mix everything in

The Black Pepper Beef Fried Noodle was overpowering in taste especially with its black pepper. It was very oily too, perhaps not suitable to the locals here in Singapore. It was such strong that our throats were at its mercy. However, it's featuring the spiciness of what a Sze Chuan dish should be.

Black Pepper Beef Fried Noodle - $9.50

In Summary, the food that we had ordered was better than average perhaps only the last dish that did have a taste close to our heart. Service was efficient with servers promptly clearing away used trays and dishes away. Overall Honguo is a good choice if you want to have something less than $10 a dish in a cooling environment.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Hong Guo
Location: