Cheok Kee Duck Rice Duck Porridge 作記鴨飯 . 鴨粥

I was kind of surprise when someone suggested to have Braised Duck Rice from East Coast Lagoon Food Village. It's kind of out of the usual days as most of the time I would prefer Satay, Rojak or even the barbecued and grilled food from the food village.

Turning up at the stall myself, the amount of media articles they had had convinced me further that I would not mind lending my stomach space to such local delicacies.

Cheok kee Duck Rice Duck Porridge

Braised Duck Platter for two looked decent with thick sticky type of braised sauce ladled onto them coupled with Tau Gua.Gravy was good and was sweet with herbs taste but it was not too overpowering.

Duck Platter for 2 - $13.50

Comparing to many other braised duck stalls I had in Singapore, this is arguably one of the decent ones and I would say exceptionally good! Duck meat was not too old, easy on the jaws.

Braised Duck

Rice was flavourful and darker than the usual yam rice. Even without the meat, I can easily finish a bowl of it.

Braised Rice

Porridge had a smooth consistency and not totally watery. Their generosity in the "Lor" gravy was something I look upon to. Total satisfaction!

Porridge - $1

For those who can't have braised duck without the chilli, this is good news. The chilli was fragrant packed with fried anchovies taste.

Sambal Chilli

On the other hand, the soup tasted abit herbal and sweet, luckily not on the peppery side.

Soup

Perhaps if you were to ask if I will want to come back again for their duck rice,I would not hesitate and answer yes!

Rating: 4 / 5

Cheok Kee Duck Rice Duck Porridge
Location: East Coast Lagoon Food Village, 1220 East Coast Parkway #01-29 Singapore 468960

Boon Tong Kee 文東記

Chicken Rice Lovers should be very familar with Boon Tong Kee. They started from a small stall in Chinatown since 1979 serving Cantonese Style Chicken Rice. With much emphasis on quality service, founder Mr Thian Boon Hua and his family established their first restaurant in Balestier Road during 1983.

With good comments through media and words of mouths, business soared and following, Boon Tong Kee slowly opened a few outlets. Keeping up with changes and competitions,their business has also been diversified in such a way that they are also selling Cze Char Food items instead of solely chicken rice.

Boon Tong Kee @ Bukit Timah

Having enjoyed their delectable chicken rice from branches like Balestier and East Coast Road, Boon Tong Kee had left me a good impression ever since my first visit.

With guests coming from aboard, we think that the best and simplest food to introduce is none other than our Chicken Rice.

This was my first visit to Cheong Chin Nam branch and it caught me by surprise with their utensils (Fork & Spoon) nicely wrapped in the green sheet of paper.

Utensils Wrapped under the paper

 Braised Peanuts 香料焖花生 - $2

Knowing that we were rushing for time, the lady who served us had handled the situation well in a polite manner. Service was prompt and courteous too.

Wet Tissue

Drinks were served prompting and quenching the thirst during a hot day while waiting for the arrival of our lunch.

Lime Juice 酸柑水 - $2.20 Per Cup

Chicken Rice was fragrant and served in a pyramid shape. Its fluffiness and the well controlled use of oil was something to look upon as you won't have a greasy feel after consumption. In fact, the rice was so good that I can actually finish them without any side dishes.

Chicken Rice 油饭 - $1

With so much raved about their Boiled Chicken, you should never miss this signature dish. Meat was fork tender, gentle on the teeth. It was lightly drench with light soy sauce and was not greasy.

Signature Boiled Chicken 美味白切鸡- $14 (Half Portion)

Sweet & Sour Pork was the hit on the table! Pork was deep fried and coated with sweet & sour sauce. Even though it was coated with sauce, the style of the dish retained the crunchiness and crispiness of the food. Texture was extraordinary and in my opinion better than the jelly type ones we had in Hawkers. What's more, each piece of the cube really contains meat and not solely fats.

Sweet & Sour Pork 酸姜咕噜肉- $12

Egg Plant was not bad either. They were cut into bite size pieces and deep fried. The softness of the egg plant was something we looked out for. Along with the sweet sauce spread on top of the dish and sprinkled with the yummy minced pork meat floss, there was nothing more we could expect.

Egg Plant with Minced Pork 风味茄子- $10

With 4 pieces of prawns, it might sound way expensive but hold on first before you decided to skip this dish away. Prawns used here was generally bigger perhaps one of the reasons why it costs more. Not mentioning that the experience with the dish was pleasant and most importantly we were very happy about the freshness of the prawns and the uniqueness of the cereals used.

Crispy Cereal Prawn 金丝麦片虾 (四只) - $28 (4 pcs)

While most of us were expecting the dry fragrant and crispy flakes loaded onto the fleshy prawns, this dish gave its name a change with its impressive soft and fluffy cereals among the few curry leaves that touched up the overall taste! So if you have the budget, do not miss this out!

Closer View of the Prawns

Overall, Boon Tong Kee not only have delicious poached chicken that is popular among the diners but also a range of delectable Cze Char Dishes that are remarkable. The place is recommended for family dining and even for guests from aboard.

Rating: 4 / 5

Boon Tong Kee 文東記
Location: 18 Cheong Chin Nam Road Singapore 599742
Website

Adrift

Adrift is a 4,000 sqft restaurant-bar located in the hotel Tower 2 lobby of Marina Bay Sands, offering a good range of dishes that incorporate Southeast Asian Flavours and Californian flair by Celebrity Chef David Myers, also, not forgetting the list of cocktails created by Sam Ross, a famous New York-based bartender.

Adrift

With restaurant week, i managed to secure a booking slot for their 3 courses meal through the online system. Booking was a breeze and coupled with a few phone calls reminder from the restaurant nearing the date.

Interior

Interior was superb, comfortably arrange to suit the modern taste of diners, creating a unique dinning scene.

Dining Environment

On my table

Welcoming us, the chef had given every table a plate of rice crisp as a compliment to his guests. It was a kind gesture as it gave customers some time to settle down and feel comfortable in the environment while enjoying the rice crisp dipping into the Wasabi flavoured mayonnaise.

Complimentary

Something to Start

Kicking off our 3 courses meal with Edamame Soup which never failed to impress. We detected hints of pleasant  favour from the Edamame  and vanilla soy milk emulsion elevated the presentation among the pool of velvety soup. Despite its thickness, it was not too overwhelming and we managed to polish off everything including its tomato confit and peas from the edamame.

Edamame soup

An intriguing dish with ginger seaweed vinaigrette & kinome. It packs a mouthful of flavour and both the citrus as well as sourly taste left my stomach welcoming more food.

Heirloom Tomato and cucumber salad

Larger Plates

Their Wagyu Cheeseburger is strongly advocate for! Medium done Wagyu beef patty was better than what I could ask for.With the just right fat marbling, its juiciness along with the melting gruyere cheese were such an awesome combination as well as with pickled jalapeno and rocket leaves topping up the taste of the cheeseburger.

Wagyu cheeseburger

Shaved cheese scattered all over the tomato jam that were generously spread on the toasted bun and were yummy!

On usual occasion, this burger would cost about $25.

Cheese over tomato jam

Sake marinated salmon were topped with poached broccoli flowers. Despite having lemon vinaigrette on the seared salmon, the man who tasted my food still find it tasted a little on the fishy side and felt that the meat was with medium done-ness. Given a choice over the two mains, I would prefer the burger.

Sake-marinated salmon

Soft Brocooli

Dessert

Finally to the 3rd and also the last course of our lunch. We have both their desserts stated on the menu and Calamansi threw a surprise on the table. Dessert is cooling and made up of Creme Fraiche (meaning Fresh Cream) and also creamsicle.

Thinking about it now, it's making me drools. The seperate thin layer of sweet crisp was topped with shredded calamansi zest which gave a sweet, sour and bitter combination among the chilling dessert.

Calamansi

Not to mention their caramel french toast whereby Toast was thick, decorated with zig zag kopi syrup and topped with a scoop of coconut sorbet, giving both a warm and cold moments in this dish.

Caramel french toast

We had another round of complimentary items by Adrift as soon as we paid our bills and they were special packaged popcorns. It was a nice guesture to end our meal, also leaving a good impression to diners like me.

Popcorns in Package

Talking about Professionalism in their service, that is definite, not mentioning their food that was never fail to amaze me throughout. This is a great place to hangout if you are looking for a better environment and have abit more to stretch on your wallets.

Rating: 4 / 5

Adrift
Location: Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Avenue (Tower 2 Hotel Lobby)  Singapore 018970

Teo's Noodle

Taking the weekend mornings, we headed into the East of Singapore and into Bedok Hawker Center to check out what they have. I was amazed by the number of stalls closing on a Saturday morning and like the usual scene of a Hawker Centre, it was still packed with people.

After making a few rounds in the Hawker Centre, I decided to join Teo's Noodle Queue, hoping that the choice that majority made will be a great one.

Teo's Noodles

It took us about 20 - 30 minutes of wait before we could get our 2 bowls of noodles. Teo's noodles is special in the sense that if you are ordering big bowls of noodles from them, you are entitled to a few clams. The clams are from New Moon brand where quality is definitely assured by this reputable company.

The smaller portion of the Bak Chor Mee is pretty average, however the amount of ingredients we had on the bowl of soup includes button mushrooms, orange and original fishcakes, fishball, meat ball with a substantial amount of minced meat sinking to the bottom of the soup.

If you want to add clams, you can upgrade the small portion into the medium at $4 per bowl.

Bak Chor Mee - $3 (Small)

The bigger portion looked more promising and of course with a higher price paid. Generally the noodles were covered up by the good use of minced pork with a few clams making my $5 worth.

Bak Chor Mee with Clams - $5 (Big)

The difference in size and ingredients were visually spell out when compared to the default bowl of noodles.

Big Portion

The soup that comes with the bigger portion has 1 more meat ball and perhaps a few more slices of fish cakes.

Big Portion of Soup

Overall, the style of the noodles may be a little different but still worth the one-off experience I had. I would not rate it as the best Bak Chor Mee I had but I still think its a bowl of simple and comforting food to the heartlanders.

Rating: 3 / 5

Teo's Noodle
Location: Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, 208B New Upper Changi Road #01-26 Singapore 460208

Pin Wei Seafood

Passing by Pin Wei Seafood uncountable times, I was so glad that we had finally came into conclusion to visit this Cze Char Place under the estate housing of Toh Yi Drive.

With a closer look onto the walls at Pin Wei Seafood, I had realized that they were actually one of the recommended stall for Cze Char and was being featured in one of the Television Programs "Where the queue starts".

Pin Wei Seafood

The serving of bean curd was surprising. The bean curd topped with braised minced meat was as big as my palm size. Utterly decadent with its fried crisp exterior and wobbly soft interior which tasted of egg and Tofu. Pairing with the braised minced meat and greens, it not only complete the presentation but also elevates the healthy contents in the dish! It's a must try!

Braised Meat Sauce Beancurd - $10 (Small)

San Bei Ji or the Taiwan Style Wine Chicken was better than the average in my opinion. The curry scent which had infused from the used of curry leaves were pleasant. Chicken cubes were tender and sweet in the wine.

Taiwan Style Wine Chicken - $10 (Small)

Ee Mian is one of the common noodle that I would most probably order when I visit any Cze Char Stall. Frying with pork lard, there are no doubts about the fragrance level. A good thing to note that even though pork lards were used, it was not as oily as I had thought.

Assorted Fried Ee Mian - $6 (Medium)

Overall, Pin Wei Seafood had given me a very good experience. Even though dishes ordered were limited due to that we were dining in a pair, I believe their reputation is there thus they were being featured on the TV.

Rating: 4 / 5

Pin Wei Seafood
Location: 19 Toh Yi Drive Singapore 590019

Sky on 57

With the Restaurant Week, we have seized the opportunity to visit Sky on 57 on a 3 Course Meal by Celebrity Chef at $40++. Ever since we visited STREATS and met Chef Justin Quek in person, we decided that we should gave Sky on 57 a visit.

We took the lift directly to Sky on 57 and experienced the amount of pressure in our ears during the 30 seconds of vertically challenge ride.

Up to the Restaurant

We were welcome by the friendly receptionists as we entered into the restaurants and waited at the holding area in front of the stylish bar counter.

Bar Counter

Weather was not at our side during the day of visit thus there was no panoramic skyline even though we were at height. All we could see were perhaps the cloudy and blurred out view due to the haze.

View among the hazy weather

Shortly, we were ushered to our table with a beautiful pot of purple flowers on our table.

Decorations

Surroundings were comfortable and modernly designed. Since we had the earlier reservation slots, the restaurant was not packed yet.

Environment

Chandelier 

Soon after our orders, complimentary breads were served up to our table. They were refillable and were served with butter slices. A range of breads were available at your choice and they were, baguette, bread topped with cheese, herbs etc.

Complimentary Breads

 Having tasted what they have, I like the cheese flavoured the most. It was pillow soft and fragrant.

Types of Bread

Starter

A wonderful combination of sauteed prawns, lobster & tomato fondue together to "kurobuta" (highly priced pork in Japan) that never fail to impress. With savoury gravy accompanied by sweet peas and cabbages, rest assure that you have to whet your appetite for more!

Kurobuta Wanton

Main Course

The chicken thigh was impressive! Meat was fork tender and moderately done up with the use of Shao Xing Wine Sauce. Combination was cleverly executed, striking a great balance of fusion on the plate. Sakura Chicken was served on top of diced sauteed mushrooms and a yummy small island of potato mousseline.

Sakura Chicken

Another View of Sakura Chicken

Dessert

Justin Quek (JQ)'s Signature dessert was aesthetically eye pleasing served on an elegant dark grey stone plate. Apple tart came in a long form with flaky pastry that gave a strong hit of buttery
fragrance rather than the conventional ones we had in 2 Dimensional form. Special as it seems to be paried with a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream at its side attached with some little cinnamon powder.

JQ's signature

At Additional Cost...

Being foodies, we shared the same sentiments that a trip to Sky on 57 would have been a waste if we were to leave the place without a taste of their Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao.

Coming in a tray of 5 where each XLB costs $5 each, we were kind of excited to have a taste.

Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao - $25

The XLB itself did cradle a substantial amount of soup in its skin around the fillings but bursting effects did not take place during the first bite. Luckily, soup was not piping hot and did not scald our tongue.

Xiao Long Bao (XLB)

We were not sure if it was made of 18 folds like the usual XLB we had in Din Tai Fong but I would say they were nicely done up with a pleat. Fillings were not too bad with strong taste of Foie Gras, however we were a little disappointed with the thick skin they have, perhaps this is one of their characteristics.

Dipping them into vinegar

Experience was indeed pleasant, minus away the bad water that took away the skylines. It would be great to dine in the midst of beautiful skylines for special occasion or with guest from abroad. Frankly speaking, I will like to make a trip there again.

Rating: 4.25 / 5

Sky on 57
Location: Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Ave (Level 57) Singapore 018956
Website