Island Penang

Island Penang which is located at Sago Street next to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum had moved into the West. Situated in front of the big openspace car park right beside West Coast Community Centre, its quite convenient for diners who drive too.

Island Penang Kitchen

Orders can be make manually by indicating on the slip of paper or can be made via the helpful assistants around.

Ordering

Interior was spacious with good walking spaces in between tables. Renovations with foreceiling lights and L-Box had made the place well lited. Adding on to the penang atmosphere will be the articles of buildings and decors from Penang Streets.

Interior

What are the staples of Penang Cuisine? The most common dishes that I would order is perhaps their Asam Laksa as well as their Char Kway Teow. Let's check out individual dishes taste.

Our Mains

Prawn Noodle was soup based but did not have any umami taste. Pork, lean meat, prawns and kungkang were thrown in, making up a usual bowl of prawn noodle that you can probably get from the hawkers.

Prawn Noodle - $5

Assam Laksa had rock my socks off. Appetizing with generous chunks of fish meat and smell was potent. Noodle used here was thicker and plum, lavished with shredded lettuce on top of the dish. Spicy level was bearable and Assam gravy was a total addiction which made me enjoy every mouthful of it.

Assam Laksa - $5

Tom Yam Noodle came with a couple of seafood and mushrooms. Taste was a bit bland in my opinion and can be improved by adding more spices.

Tom Yam Noodle - $6

Thin width Kway Teow over the wok were packed of smoky flavours in their dish. It was not too bad either, better than average and not too oily. Amount of chinese sausages were considered generous with spring onions, eggs as well as beansprouts making part of the dish.

Penang Fried Kway Teow - $6

Cuttlefish Kangkung was lacking of the usual taste which I most expected. Nevertheless, amount of kangkung was generously given, likewise for the cuttlefish with handful of chopped peanuts covering up the dish.

Cuttlefish Kangkung - $6

Let's Mix

Last but not least, one of us had ordered a cup of ice Bandung and was pretty satisfied with its taste.

Ice Bundung - $2

With Penang Tourism being so popular among my clicks and friends, Penang Food over here is up in trend. Even though it had moved from Central where crowd is, Island Penang is reputable and had made enough marketing efforts to gain its awareness among consumers, thus the full house seen. With so many offices around the estate, the lunch crowd is always there, also there are outdoors seating too.


Rating: 3.25 / 5

Island Penang
Location: 721 Clementi West St 2 #01-126 Singapore 120721

The Assembly Ground

The Assembly Ground is located at the first level of the Cathay suitable, an ideal place for coffee lovers to gather or even those who enjoy gathering over craft beers too.

The Assembly Ground

Interior was industrial themed with wooden tables furnishing giving a classic cafe vibe in  a hippie atmosphere with bicycles hanging on the wall and LED lightings hanging down from the cable tray.

Environment

While waiting for all members of the group to be present on our gathering. We started to chat among ourselves over their appetizers. There were not much choice for appetizers and  Straight Cut Fries were Served with Parmesan and tartar sauce.

Truffle Fries - $12

These bite sized chicken tenders were bigger than what we had in the fast food chains. Crispy and served with spicy mayo.

Popcorn Chicken - $9.50

Having the best of its meat and crispy fish skin salad with Parmesan fries and Wasabi Aioli.

Fish and Chips - $17

Pasta was kind of overdone and soggy. It was served with slices of chicken sausage with bacon, chilli, basil in white wine as well as garlic.

Spicy Sausage & Bacon - $18

One of us termed this as "vegetarian" burger as it was mostly vegetables without meat. Created with U.S Portobello, mushroom jery, mozzarella, cheddar, cheery tomato, chutney and arugula.

Grilled Portobello - $20

Burger View

The staple dish that almost every table ordered was none other than their Brunch set, Assembly Brunch.  The platter was served on a wooden board with scrmbled eggs, wiener sausage, sauteed mushrooms, potato gratin, roasted cherry tomatoes, toast, choice of smoked salmon or bacon.

Assembly Brunch - $19.50

Pizza was the best order of the night, thin crust filled with ingredients like baked ham, sauteed mushrooms & truffle oil. What made this special was the runny egg in the centre.

Ham, Mushrooms & Egg - $19

Overall, the service at Assembly Ground was friendly and efficient. I won't mind being back for gathering again.

Rating: 3 / 5

The Assembly Ground
Location: The Cathay, 2 Handy Road #01-23 Singapore 229233

Condensed Milk Cotton Cake

Recently I have seen a number of posts on Condensed Milk Cotton Cake and decided to give it a try. The outcome I had achived was a non cracked top layer of the cake with soft and cottony texture. The taste is light and is a good alternative to cheese cake.

Ingredients:

A:
3 Egg Yolks (Preferably 60g each)
30g beaten egg

B:
35g Salted Butter (SCS Brand)
50g cake flour (Sieved)
50g Condensed Milk (Lady General Brand)

C:
3 Egg whites
40g fine sugar

Ingredients

Directions: 

1. Place a baking paper at the base of the 6" cake mould
2. Mix A & put them aside.
   
   

   

   Egg Yolks & Beaten Egg (A)

3. Heat the butter over the stove till you see little bubbles.

Heating the Butter

4. Pour the flour into the hot melted butter & fold it with spatula.

Flour into melted butter

5. Add in the condensed milk and mix them.

Adding in Condensed Milk

6. Continue to mix evenly with Condensed Milk

Condensed Milk Mixture

7. It will become lumpy like this. (Mixture B)

After Condensed Milk was Mixed (B)

8.  Add mixture B into A from step 2 and mix again, then set aside. 

Adding into Egg Mixture

Mixture - Yolk Batter

C:

9. Take the egg whites and beat them till frothy for about 30 seconds

Egg Whites

10. Add in the sugar in 3 batches and continue beating at medium high speed. Beat till the meringue         is almost reaching the siff peak stage.

Adding Sugar in Batches

Meringue is formed

11. Scoop 1 / 3 of the meringue into the yolk batter at Step 8 and fold in .

1/3 Meringue Used

12. Then pour this back into the remaining 2/3 meringue and fold again to achieve a smooth batter.

Pouring back into 2/3 of Meringue

13. Once done, pour this into the 6" round mould. Lightly drop the mould or hit it a few times to               remove trapped air bubbles in this batter. As my mould is removable base, i have wrapped it with       a layer of aluminium fold to prevent water from seeping in.

Pouring Batter into Mould

All into the mould

14. Place the mould into 1 cm deep hot water bath. Bake it at preheated temperature of 170 degree 

      Celsius with upper heating coil for 40 minutes at the lower rack of the oven.

     After 40 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 150 degree Celsius with both Upper & Lower     Heating Coil turn on and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes.

Baking with Water Bath

 15. Once the time is up, remove the cake from the water bath and drop the mould from about 5cm            about 3 times to prevent cake from shrinking when it cools down.

16. Let it cools on the cooling rack for about 15 - 20 minutes or when the cake slightly shrink from           wall of the mould. Run your spatula along the circumference of the cake to detach it from the             mould. Thereafter, cool them down on the cooling rack so as to prevent moisture trap at the base         of the cake.

Finished 

 17. Enjoy your cottony condensed milk cotton cake.

Cottony Cake

Cat & the Fiddle

I came to know of Cat & the Fiddle through one of my friends who loves cheese cake. We had some plans last year to order and share among ourselves but this plan has been at the back of our mind for very long but has not been initiated. And once in a while when we see articles or even Cat & the Fiddle delivery vans, we will take a shot and send to each other to remind ourselves about it. :)

Let's talk about Cat & the Fiddle:

If you don't know, Chef Daniel Tay is the one who is behind this online cheese cake specialist shop. He was trained in the art of classical French pastry and dessert making and has worked with the legendary gourmet food retailer Fauchon of Paris. While in Singapore, if you have heard of Les Amis, he was the Pastry Chef of this famous French restaurant.

The online cheese cake has made ordering at ease in a few clicks, giving an option to self collect on the day itself or delivery at the next day at additional $9.90.

Box

Fickle Feline is the ultimate hit to most of us as we get to enjoy a variety of cheese cakes in one purchase. There are 10 slicles of cheese cake in here, each representing a great flavour of its kind with a funky name. They are namely:

1. Maneki Neko (Yuzu, Lemon and Lime)
2. Modern Duke's Pudding (Oreo)
3. Over the Moon (Classic New York)
4. Queen of Hearts (Strawberry)
5. Paws of Fury (Yuan Yang)
6. Sweet & Smokey Taffy (Salted Caramel)
7. Sicilian Wild Cats (Tiramisu)
8. Caribbean Surfari (Pina Colada)
9. Russian Whiskers (Mango and Vodka)
10. Emperor Romance (Lychee and Martini)

Fickle Feline - $38.90

For Coffee and tea lover, Paws of Fury will be a perfect choice. The creation from traditional yuan-yang (coffee and tea mix) with 3 parts made of Espresso and 7 parts made up of Hong Kong Style Milk Tea. Yummilicious!

Paws of Fury

Resembling the tropical flavours and style from Pina Colada, the cake has a rich blend of coconut cheese cream with juicy pineapple and rum. An exotic taste whetting your appetite for more.

Caribbean Surfari

Inspired by the cocktail Lychee Martini, the Emperor's Romance is cottony soft, which kind of integrates in the mouth at a slightest pressure. It is made up of tropical lychee & raspberries blended with martini. Do take note that it contains alcohol.

Emperor Romance

The smoothness of the cheese cake together and the texture of the oreo cookies crumbs that topped the cheesecake was simply awesome. It kind of give us riots of texture between the crumbs and the creamy smooth cheese cake.

Modern Duke's Puddin

This piece of Maneki Neko cake is packed of citrus flavors, making up of blended yuzu, lemon and lime. Its tangy and refreshing taste hit a impressive note at the first bite. Since Maneki Neko is a common Japanese Cat Figurine which is believed to bring good luck, I guess who have taken this will be blessed with good luck.

Maneki Neko (Yuzu, Lemon and Lime)

A combination of Toffee-sweetness and sea-saltiness for caramel lovers! With an oreo biscuit crust that is crunchy, I would say the trio blends in well togethe. What a pleasant creation.

Sweet & Smokey Taffy

Having tried its assorted cheese cake, Fickle Feline had given me a rough idea of which flavour of cheese cake to order next. Some of their flavours were unique and interesting. Quality and taste was better than average. As for pricing, it is consider reasonable. Cheese flavours are generally mild which is good as I do not feel "jelat" after trying. It is best to keep the cakes chilled as it tends to collapse shortly after putting on the table even in an air-conditioned environment. 

Do Share your calories around!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Cat & the Fiddle
Location: (Delivery Only)

Website

Guan Guan Seafood

We spotted Yuan Yuan (Guan Guan Seafood) housed in Guan Kim Restaurant sometimes back when we were exploring hawker centre food in the old school estate and decided that we should give the local Zi Char a try when we were back in Commonwealth again.

We were back again and coincidentally the late night supper stalls in the Hawker Centre were not in operations on a public holiday and we decided to try out the Zi Char.

Guan Kim Restaurant 

I kind of like the old school style of coffee shop as it reminds me of the earlier days like what is shown on the TV. Perhaps such scene may be gone in a few years time whereby you see old iron metal grills, abit rundown interior of the coffeeshop that used to be in those earlier days.

Blk 47 Commonwealth

Since its an old estate, we get to see old folks more than teenagers loitering around the area late at night.

This neighbourhood Zi Char do have some Chef's special and one of it is their Marmite Chicken. Chicken was deep fried and well coated with Marmite paste and sesame seeds.

Marmite Chicken - $8 (Small)

 Omlette was fluffy and minced meat was well filled in between the layers of egg. The texture was excellent. It was not too oily and from a bite, you could even tell that the egg had the trace of being cooked by a good wok fire.

Omlette - $5

 Fried Rice was not really that good as it lacked the kind of burnt taste over the wok. It tasted rather bland and simple though eggs, peppers, Char Siew Meat and crab meat were added.

Fried Rice - $4 (Small)

 Braised Ee Fu Noodle on the other hand was not within my expectation. It tasted more like of an ordinary plate of noodles without the soft and QQ texture of what a Ee Fu Noodles supposed to be. The beansprouts at some parts may taste a little raw for some of us. Other than that, sweet sauce on the noodles were pretty consistent.

Braised Ee Fu Noodles - $4.50 (Small)

Guan Guan Seafood may not be a place where you expect food that will give you some WOW Factor but rather a place to ease your groaning tummy.

Rating: 3 / 5

Guan Guan Seafood
Location: 47 Tanglin Halt Road #01-311 Singapore 141047