Westlake

Branching out a Kiosk on top of their usual restaurant business in central Singapore, Bukit Timah, Westlake was one of the stalls that remained affixed at its location after few rounds of revamp and relocation in the mall. So I guess the fittest of the survival rule applies here. Having hear good comments of their food from my pals, there is also no surprise that the stall is still there. 

Interior of Westlake

Menu

Mock up food on display

A traditional delicacy from Westlake not to be missed. Fluffy liked bun sandwiched with braised pork that was slowed braised in the unctous sauce,  what a perfect way to enjoy it. On top of that,  though the thought of having it may deemed sinful but its definitely worth your calories. Besides getting it by individual piece, it can be purchased in 5 at $12. Trust me, if you like Kong Bah Pau, this is good!

Braised Pork Bun - $2.50

Skip the thought of Lor Mai Kai (Glutinous Chicken Rice) and replace this with braised pork. Presentation may be a bit unappetising over here as it was totally dressed in dull colors which made the braised meat camouflage but do not judge the book by its cover.

Braised Pork Glutinous Rice - $3

Soup was served in a disposable plastic container and quick to serve with the service staff heating it up. Taste was rather average and wasn't too spicy on the tongue.

Hot & Sour Soup - $2.80

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Westlake
Location: Jurong Point, 1 Jurong West Central 2 #03-85 Singapore 648886

Guang Dong Porridge

Looking for some smooth and delicious Porridge without putting too much pressure on your wallet? Perhaps you should try this porridge located in China Town, GuangDong Porridge.

Guang Dong Porridge

Try out its signature porridge, mix pork porridge, the classic Cantonese style featuring liver, intestine and pork balls which can be rarely seen nowadays.

We opted for another bowl which is their Century Egg & pork Porridge. The stall likes it porridge to go plain and barely without any flavours. However, with additional egg added together with its ingredients,  you can really tell the distinct taste from each ingredients.

Century Egg & Pork Porridge with Egg - $4.50

Having fried fritters (aka "You Tiao") separately served, give diner a choice to mix in or have it alone. You Tiao was deep fried and fresh, crunchy without being too greasy.

You Tiao

For ourselves, we prefer to have them sink into the bowl of porridge.

Self Topping with You Tiao

And then stirred them all in. Ta-Da, enjoy the bowl of porridge! Last but not least, if you still find them plain, you may add in some pepper or soy sauce to suit your taste.

Mix and soften the You Tiao

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Guang Dong Porridge
Location: Henly Huat Drinks Food Court, 122 Neil Road

Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

If you have heard about the famous Bukit Batok Hokkien Prawn in the round market where 2 coffeeshops are, Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle is probably one of them. Being around for a long time and for they had been featured in media over the years, there is no doubt about the queue.

Soon Kee

With such paging system implementation to ease patrons from standing in the queue, it did really help us.

Paging System

Once, the pager alarmed we went straight to the stall and collect our plate of prawn me. With much anticipation, presentation had passed the bench mark. With a good consistency of thick white bee hoon and yellow noodles and ample of seafood topped the dish, it should be good. However, there was an absence of the rich Umami that marks the importance of a plate of good Fried Hokkien Mee.

Unfortunately, the small portion does not come with the Opal Leaf while the medium and big does.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee - $5 (Medium)

So what's the verdict after trying both fried prawn Mee Stalls from Blk 155? Personally I will prefer
Fried Baby Squid Prawn Mee Stall. Why? Apparently  I felt that the stock of Soon Kee lacked the oomph and one ingredient, pork belly was missing from the plate. Could it be the reason why? What's your say?

Ingredients at a closer look

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee
Location: Blk 155, Bukit Batok St 11 Singapore 650155

BWB - Burgers VS Wings + Bar

Over the last quarter I have seen enticing big juicing burgers popping up in my mailbox from Groupon featuring B.W.B. While waiting for my dinner mate and drawing close to meal times, I saw the queues piling up and BWB getting more occupied, thus by the time my dinner mate was there, we need to join the queue. Fortunately the wait wasn't too long.

BWB - Burger VS Wings + Bar

 Following the fighting theme in the restaurant, its quite interesting to see boxing accessories like punching mits, head gears, boxing shorts all around.

Open Concept Kitchen

 But one need not have to worry, there will be no boxing affairs going on during dining.

Interior

Located at the roof of Orchard Central, patrons get a choice over to sit at the roof top gather enjoying the Alfresco Dining Environment.

B.W+B

With ample of lightings, I would say that the ambiance was really comfortable and suitable for people to wind themselves down after a hard day of work.

Alfresco Dining

As I'm more interested in the Boxing accessories, I decided to stay under the air-conditioned environment. Interestingly, table number with big sticker pasted on the center, looks abit retro here with some portions missing.

Table Number

Just flip over the menu and get ready for the food fight!

Food Fight

Smoothing our night, we had these instead of Alcohol that was 1 for 1. The smoothies was not too bad, just that the Honey Orange flavoured drink tasted abit unusual without Orange flavour.

Honey Orange Smoothie & Peach Lychee Smoothie - $6.50 Each

The heavy weight wings was aromatic but at the sight of it, I was expecting something more plump from its name but it did not seem to leave up to its namesake. When I picked them up, they were not heavier than any of the usual wings I had. They were deep fried into crispiness and had its meat pushed upwards revealing its bone at the lower bottom. I felt abit short change for there was more chicken skin than meat.

Heavyweight Wings / Boxing Wings - $14.50

Classic Burgers is one of the Champion Choice with stockyard Angus Beef patty, smoked bacon, chilli con corng, sunny side egg, french mustard, tomato onion, cheddar cheese and sesame brioche bun. The beef patty, if was a little more juicer will be good.

BWB Classic Heavy Weight Burger - $19.90

I have heard abit about their burgers especially their Tyson Burger that comes with nutty bites.Using Stockyard angus beef, streaky bacon, arugula leaves, sunny side egg, cheddear cheese and sun-dried tomato bricohe bun with peanuts spread. Its really a good idea having burgers with such crunchy peanuts spread which give a nutty fragrance and crunchy texture. Though it may be a uncommon combination, it tasted quite good.

Tyson Peanut Butter Burger - $21.90

Matching our lonely burgers, we had topped up $3.80 each for a basket of fries. There were nothing impressive on those two fries just that the Cheese Fries was close to what one of the fast food restaurants was serving but with a firmer fries texture.

Cheese Fries - $3.80

Likewise for the other type of fries, the creation was simple, with fried chopped garlic sprinkled over them.

Garlic & Parsley Fries - $3.80

After having a number of burgers meals recently, BWB Burgers are said to be better than average. However, on the pricing side, I would say its on a high side with all the food above, our bill end up to be $80 over for 2 pax. Still, overall, it was a good experience.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

BWB Restaurant
Location: 181 Orchard Road #11-03/04 Orchard Central Singapore 238896

Portico

Hidden away in Alexandra in the midst of all office building lies a gem of a cafe and its none other than Portico. If not for the invited session, I would have never knew that such place exist. Portico presents a unique concept with an edible herb garden surrounding them. They are creating some innovative comtemporary Western and Eurpoean style cuisines with a taste of home.

Portico Cafe.Restuarant.Bar

Be stunned by this wooden horse structure looking over the entrance of Portico.

Wooden Horse

The outdoor dining area is spacious, with seats up to 100 and is ideal for celebration be it a wedding or a party. In fact, With Portico being surrounded by the sprawling herb and vegetables garden which gave a very relaxing ambiance, especially during the night falls. Do bring some friends over here for a chill out session after a hard day of work.

Alfresco Dining

Spot on! This little corner is awesome. People who come here to chill out or even during the night time over their beer session, they can challenge each other over the table.

Snooker

Moving deep into the restaurant, you can feel the inviting ambiance even in the day time.Settings had given a modern and leisure vibe which let patrons feel as comfortable as home.

Dining Area

Interior may was laid with cement screed ground which gave a industrial concept, however with its lovely furnishing it somewhat gave a casual and relaxing environment to be in. What's more, Portico is a pet friendly cafe, therefore, Pet Owners, you do not have to worry if you are bringing your cat over too.

Interior

Starting off with the sharing sessions, we were welcome by such alluring deep fried wings in the skillet with chilli and lime dip.  The outer layers had a very good crispy texture and as I sink my teeth into it, I felt the succulency in its meat. Not only that, they were well marinated. Making taste perfect, their wings came with a familar taste from the Belachan chilli that I could not resist in more helpings. On a side note, if these yummy wings were to pair with the cooling beer, that would be a bonus.

Portico Chicken Wings

Make your Saturdays fruitful! Head over to Portico on Saturday afternoons for special activities. The sessions at Portico not only draw a closer relationship with food, it also let us enjoy the sharing demo sessions by the chefs.

Head Chef, Nixon Low was featured as a Top Local Chef in Singapore 2014 by SG Magazine Online. It was such a pleasure to have him leading the session with plating of Portico's Signature Tomato Salad.

Plating Demostration by Head Chef, Nixon Low

Plating might seems easy but it required some skills in order to achieved such beautiful output. The meticulous and professional inputs by Head Chef Nixon were very helpful.

Plating of Salad of Vine-Ripened Tomato - Product of Chef Nixon Low - $17

We felt the pressure! We were given the ingredients and was told to recall the plating demonstration procedures done by Chef Nixon earlier on. Fortunately, the instruction was very clear and ingredients were all laid out neatly by the hospitable staff on duty.

Ingredients include, organic quinoa, honey melon dressing, plum dressing, tomato, herds and jamon serrrano slices.

Ingredients

Ta-da! The session by Chef Nixon was came in handy and I had done up my first plating ever. Besides the colors that made it attractive, the blanched skinless Vine-ripened tomato was a total scene stealer. Munch on it and let the bursting effect of its juice tell you more!

My First Plating

Latte Art Demo Class was another session that I looked forward to. As a non coffee lover, I never learn to enjoy a simple cup until I went through the process to appreciate such art done by a Barista.

Add caption

 Fill the roasted coffee powder on the portafilter and getting prepared for the process!

Roasted Coffee Powder

 We are almost done with the latte art demonstration, keep your hands steady!

Demonstration

Demonstrated Cup

Steaming of milk under the active steam pressure marked the importance. It has to be of significance temperature and as the temperature increase, it can be felt by our hands.

And here comes the formation of latte art. If you heat the milk much beyond a certain temperature you are at the risk of ruining the beautiful texture.

The rolling effect was both very exciting as we need to tilt both the milk and the cup as we pour them into each other.

Rolling Effect

I thought there was a tendency of overflowing but with the steady guidance of the staff, I manage to get it done in no time.

My Latte Art

The 3rd Part the of session we had was the sharing session by Pollen Nation, Singapore's only Bee Hive and Bee Swarm Relocation Service. Many people see Bee Hive as pests but their school of thought is totally different. They believe that bees play an important role in the urban Eco-system by upholding the main role of pollination and all thanks to their beliefs we get to taste our LOCAL Raw Honey. Since these honeys were rather exclusive, they are not commonly seen on the shelves. And interestingly, there are some R&D going on with Portico. Look forward to something new on their Menu soon.

Give the bees another chance of survival

To avoid disappointment, it is better to check on their website or call in to find out more on the demonstration classes.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Portico
Location: 991B Alexandra Road #01-10 Singapore 119964
Operating Hours: Lunch: 1130 – 1500 (Mon-Sat)
                                Dinner: 1730 – 2330 (Mon-Thurs), 1730 – 0030 (Fri-Sat)
Website

Chang Soon (Charcoal) HK Style Roasted

 People were raving about the HK Style Roasted meat in Neil Road and its always very crowded during the weekdays lunch hours.

Chang Soon

 One of the weekends, we visited Chang Soon (Charcoal) HK Style Roasted, though it was quite late for lunch, the seating was still rather pack. Luckily there was no queue and our order was a breeze.

Trio Platter with Braised Egg - $12.50

Trio Platter with Braised Egg - $12.50

Having ordered the Trio Platter with Roast Duck, Char Siew and Sio Bak, I find that it turned out to be good, within expectation.Roast Duck was beautifully prepared with crispy skin, where smokey flavours went in deep into the meat yet maintaining the tenderness and tantalizing treat. Char Siew was not too bad too, not too fatty but with a decent amount of fats and grease whereas Sio Bak was pretty decent, hard on its top squarish crackling skin with defined layers of meat. The platter was topped with a braised egg to pair with our white rice.

Gravy

Roasted Meat

Another noteworthy item will be the bowl of soup. They did not just give us a plain bowl of clear soup, instead the soup was made up of salted vegetables duck soup and was definitely tasty to the palettes, whipping our appetite for more. However, just take note that the soup is on a peppery side.

Soup

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chang Soon (Charcoal) HK Style Roasted
Location: 120/122 Neil Road, Kuan Food Court Singapore 088855