Nasi Lemak

This Nasi Lemak stall used to be very popular among my clicks for its fragrant fluffy green rice over a piece of banana leaf.

Having ordered its, Otah, fried chicken, fish cakes and fried fried fillet, I recalled about someone giving feedbacks on the stall's price hike. Indeed it was quite expensive.

Chilli tasted average, less the fragrant from the fried anchovies.Fried Items like chicken looked unappealing and dry at its exterior and with the fish fillet tasted standard too.

Nasi Lemak - $5.80

Rating: 3 / 5

Nasi Lemak
Location: Best Coffee Pte Ltd, Blk 959 Jurong West Street 92, Stall 6 Singapore 640959

338 (Wanton Noodle)

Though I have been residing in Jurong West for many many years, visiting the far end of Jurong has never been in my mind. Perhaps the last time that I ever visit this place was like 2 years back and back in my head, I remember that Best Coffee Pte Ltd is known for its Wanton Mee and Nasi Lemak.

Having remembering so, I had decided for Wanton Mee as my dinner. Dinner crowd was inevitable in the coffeeshop environment and it takes a while to grab a table. However, I notice that the crowd for the stall was no longer what I saw as before. Nevertheless, I continued to order.

Wanton Mee - $3.30

What's makes up the dish are all the commonly seen, with a few pieces of Char Siew Meat, blanched vegetables with noodles doused in black sauce, accompanied by a bowl of 3 wantons soup. There was nothing impressive in particular, perhaps the Char Siew Meat was lean and soup was tasty. Other than that I find that the noodles were greasy yet sticking together as a lump.

Close up on Wanton Mee

Sighs, it's no longer the Wanton Noodle stall I used to know.


Rating: 3 / 5

338 (Wanton Noodle)
Location: Best Coffee Pte Ltd, Blk 959 Jurong West Street 92, Stall 3A Singapore 640959

Al-Ameen Eating House

My last visit to Al-Ameen was in 2013 for dinner. And now it marks my second visit in the bright day light hoping to get a taste of breakfast. Just like usual, parking over there has never been easy and it really depends on luck but this time round we managed to obtain a lot in less than 5 minutes.

Though car parks were fully occupied, the eating house was not packed and there were only a few tables being occupied. We had a cup of ice Milo and a cup of Teh Tarik to start our meal.

Milo Ice - $1.80 & Teh Tarik - $1

With pratas ordered as our breakfast, the default curry was served in a stainless steel bowl, bright orange with a layer of oil above filled with curry leaves as well as herbs and spices.

Curry

The masculine had 3 prata altogether comprises of 1 Kosong (Plain) and 2 egg plaster pratas. Plaster Prata is another variation of egg prata just that the egg is sticked to the prata itself instead of being beat up together with the prata dough. It has runny egg yolks like sunny side up egg. Plaster prata was well cooked in such that the prata was still as cripsy.

Plaster Prata - $1.50 and Plain Prata - $1

Telur Bawang (Egg Onion) Prata is one of my favourites, made in square shape the chopped onions and egg were revealed as i peel the top crispy layer. Prata that wasn't plain / kosong were already good, let alone those original plain ones that was flaky and crispy.

Egg Prata with Onion - $1.40

Though its a little far from my place, I still find that Al-Ameen Eating House is a good place for prata fix!

Rating: 4 / 5

Al-Ameen Eating House
Location: Bamboo Grove Park, 5 Chu Lin Road, Singapore 669893

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore is known for serving quality Italian food at affordable pricing. Having their own factory in Pandan Loop head office, their pastas, sauces and ingredients were freshly made daily. Having said that, they are also catering products to major F & B outlets besides producing them for their own use.

Following the culture in most Italian Restaurant, breads were served to the patrons while waiting for the courses to come. We were given a basket of herb infused bread initially.

Bread

Bread

 Slices of fresh beef tenderloin stacked onto the bed of rocket salad and topped with shaved parmesan and lemon dressing. The taste of raw red meat was inevitable and you can actually overcome it by having them with the parmesa or the rocket salad.

Carpaccio Di Manzo - $21.50

 Linguine Pasta was cooked to al dente texture lavished in crab meat with lobster pink sauce.

Linguine Polpa - $23.50

 For the Baked Classics, the homemade pasta sheets layered with Bolognese sauce, Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese baked with Bashamel sauce. Look at the the burnt area at its side, its totally inviting!

Classic Lasagna - $22.50

 A classic Italian cream pudding with amaretto liqueur and vanilla. Wobbly Panna Cotta was adorned with pure white fresh cream and some cherry sauce and zig-zag chocolate sauce. Panna Cotta was silky soft and not too sweet while the chocolate sauce gave a tad bitterness to the dessert.

Panna Cotta - $10.30

Thanks to my pal who had treated me a lovely meal for my birthday in April. Overall, i find that the ambiance was nice and service was polite. With drinks and the dishes, it cost us about $100 plus for 2 pax which I think that its a good to have once in a blue moon.

Rating: 3 / 5

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore
Location: Rochester Mall, 39 Rochester Drive, #01-08 Singapore 138641 

Quan Lai

I chanced upon the stretch of shop houses when we were deciding to have some Bak Kut Teh in Macpherson area but later learned that the shop had relocated to Woodlands area. There were a number of shops along the shop houses and as a braised duck lover, the look of prepared braised ducks hanging at Quan Lai had totally caught my attention. At a closer look, they have pleasant comments from the news media supported with newspaper articles in the past years. Thus, it makes no sense if I'm walking away from them without trying.

Quan Lai Stall Front

The duck platter was rather interesting as I have never come across any Kway Chap meal with pineapple as add on. This gives me a total experience in the enjoyment of such delicacies as I find that the unique taste was not too bad afterall. Besides that the platter consists of duck meat, braised egg, braised pig intestines and Tau Gua. Pig Intestine was well clean without any smell while on the other hand duck meat was rather tough on the jaws. There was nothing remarkable about the dish as it lacked the herbal and braised punches.

Ingredient - $13

Fat and broad noodle rice sheets has always been my favourite since young. The bowl of noodles soup has a good herbal note unlike most place where the dark brown broth was either diluted with soy sauce or has none.

$0.50 Per Bowl

Juding from the platter to the bowl of Kway, I would say that there are better platters out there if you are looking for something herbal infused. The only catch that draws me towards them may be its bowl of Kway with the herbal taste, otherwise I would just give them a miss.

Rating: 3 / 5

Quan Lai 
Location: Sin Fong Coffeeshop, 560 MacPherson Road Singapore 368233

Imakatsu

April treats had started and special thanks to my pals / colleagues for treating me to sumptuous meals celebrating my birthday.

I have suggested a convenience place for meal which is Imakatsu located at 1st floor of Star Vista. Imaktasu looked pretty new to me as I never know of their existence till one day I pass them by.

Imakatsu

Can you read? "Imakatsu"

Environment was calm and quiet, featuring an authentic modern Japanese dining atmosphere with lanterns lamp and wooden grids fore ceiling above. While service staff remains smiley and friendly, leaving us a very comfortable and professional impression.

Dining Ambiance

Imakatsu special set menu comes with the main course, a drink and a dessert. There are only 6 drinks to choose from: Coca-Cola, Coca-cola(Light), Orange Juice, Brown Tea(Free Flow), Green Tea and Oolong Tea.  Since it mentioned that Orange Juice was 100%, we gave it a try. The juice was quite fresh and tasted like those you can buy off the chillers on the super marts.

Orange Juice

Such place reminded me of Saboten and Tonkatsu Ma Maison which has similar practice of unlimited serving of sides like rice and cabbages with your own serving of sauce.

Sauce for the meal and sesame dressing for the cabbages

Cabbages are best to go with roasted sesame in the white pot and for those who likes vegetables, the cabbages are of unlimited refill if you have ordered their set meal.

Cabbages (Unlimited filling)

The name PIYO PIYO had prompted me further into my childhood memories which I can vividly recall that a cute cartoon character which has the same name. It was a plump lovely duck if you can recalled.

PIYOPIYO is as large as the size of an XL egg, deep fried with crispy crumps on its exterior and what's lie underneath is a layer of minced meat to be revealed later on. Although it might be a tad expensive at $9.80, i would say it required few processes in order to get it done.

PIYOPIYO Minced Meat Cutlet - $9.80

This appetizer came along with some Japanese Soya Sauce. It was presented in a black dish with a bed of shredded cabbages.

Close up on PIYO PIYO

Look what's in its core! Onsen Egg! To think about it, it was quite tedious to have its layer of minced meat deep fried without getting the egg cooked entirely. At least now I can relate the dish to the PIYO PIYO character.

Look what's inside!

Breaded deep fried pork dish has always been my comfort food when it comes to Japanese Cuisine.  This special pork set includes Premium Lion, Pork Fillet, Minced meat, pumpkin, sweet potato that was fried to golden perfection.

Special Pork Set - $29.80

Though by nature, biting pork are on a tougher side for the teeth, I would say that the quality of Tonkatsu from Imakatsu was good with the meat being tender.

Close up on the Pork

We had the Special Chicken Set too which consist of assorted chicken parts like chicken fillet, chicken thigh and chicken breast.

Special Chicken Set - $25.80

Just like the Special Pork Set, we were given a spat of mustard sauce on the side of the plate. Personally I felt "shiok" dabbing those Tonkatsu onto them as it gave a sudden spike on the tongue. Surprisingly, chicken was tender too.

Close up on the Chicken

For those who has smaller appetite, you can go for those non-set meal which excludes the drink and the dessert. If you prefer chicken and tender meat, you can go for their chicken culet ZEN (thigh).

Chicken Cutlet ZEN (Thigh) - $14.80

Chicken Thigh

Rounding up the meal, we had our cups of Matcha Ice Cream with Azuki beans as our desserts. Such refreshing treat was sweet with the savoury azuki bean paste.

Green Tea Ice Cream

If you enjoy Tonkatsu as much as I do, I believe you will like Imakatsu too. Head down to Imakatsu and have a try :).


Rating: 3.25 / 5

Imakatsu
Location: The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green #01-17 Singapore 138617

Pondok Abang

Queues during lunch time piling up at hawker centre is an usual scene normally but somehow the never ending queue from Pondok Abang was so special that caught my attention. With a festive and lucky green signage hanging above their stall attached with delicious photos illustrating the signature Muslim dishes they are selling which includes Ayam Penyet, Bur Bur Ayam, Rojak Bandung Etc. Besides that, what caught my attention was the moving slides on the LCD screen featured on the stall signage.

Pondok Abang

We ordered one of the sides, Tauhu Goreng after our main meals and shared among ourselves.
Tauhu goreng was generously lavished with peanuts in sticky sauce. Do not under estimate such savoury sauce as it contains chilli and the spice will start kicking in soon after having them. Part of the dish was made up of garlic and fried onions, enhancing its fragrance.

Tauhu Goreng - $3.50

Exterior texture was deep fried to the crispy layer as per expectation accompanied by raw beansprouts & slices of cucumber topped with a piece of fish cracker.

Tauhu Goreng - $3.50

With such above average taste of Tauhu Goreng, there is no reason why not to patronize them once more, some more the prices are rather reasonable too.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Pondok Abanag
Location: Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3 #01-03 Singapore 120448