Wang Lai Bakery

CNY is around the corner, have you stocked up the CNY goodies at home or even plan to send some of them to your loved ones? Try ordering these truly homemade goodies online from Wang Lai Bakery and get them delivered free to your doorstep for orders above $100.

CNY Goodies fromWang Lai Bakery

Wang Lai Bakery follows a traditional recipe passed down for four generations by the family and their goodies have no preservatives added. It is started in 1968 and this household name is popular and well-loved especially if your family makes a trip to Chinatown during the Chinese New Year period. This is voted number 1 by many food connoisseurs and loved by more than 50,000. 

They also provide tasting and sampling at their address.

CNY Goodies from Wang Lai Bakery

Fans of Nutella may want to try these Melt in your Mouth Nutella Tarts. The melty tarts will simply disintegrate at the slightest pressure when you place them in your mouth. 

Weight: 400g

Melt in your mouth Nutella Tarts - $20.90

One of the Chinese New year must-haves Premium Prawn Rolls. The fillings of premium sambal Hae Bi Hiam is addictive and smell potent. Not forgetting its spiciness, one word, "SHIOK".

Weight: 330g

Premium Prawn Rolls - $15.90

Salted Egg lovers, here's a call for you. A flavourful tub of Premium Salted Egg Crab Stick rich in salted egg taste and smell good with the curry leaves. These crab sticks were generously coated with salted egg powder. I bet you will get hooked to it.

Weight: 350g

Premium Salted Egg Crab Stick

The creamy soft texture with a milky taste from these Premium Cranberry Pumpkin Snowy Cubes resembles nougats. It is a hot favourite among CNY cookies.

Weight: 300g

Premium Cranberry Pumpkin Snowy Cube - $16.90

One of the favourites tarts during Chinese New Year. Wang Lai Bakery offers both open and encased pineapple tarts. Their Melt in Your Mouth Pineapple Tarts fillings are tangy and sweet under the fragrant layer of soft melty crust. The consistency is good and strikes a good balance of sweetness. Beware, you may not stop at just one after popping into your mouth.

Weight: 500g approximately

Melt in your Mouth Pineapple Tarts - $19.90

Another Melting goodness to savour. These Melt in Your Mouth Almond Cookies are made with premium almond flour and baked to perfection.

While the Premium Melt in Your Mouth Kuih Bangkit, they are made with premium tapioca flour and similarly baked to perfection for the melting texture too.

Weight: 335g each

Melt in your mouth Almond Cookies - $16.90
Melt in your mouth Kuih Bangkit - $15.90

Enjoy these Premium Chocolate Waffle Love Letters that cradle chocolate in them. 

Weight: 250g

Premium Chocolate Waffle Love Letter

Since these goodies have no preservatives, they can be kept up to 6 weeks but are advised to be consumed within 4 weeks.

Thank you Qaisara and CNY Goodies Singapore for the media drop.

Wang Lai Bakery
Location: 20 Sin Ming Lane, Midview City, #03-58 Singapore 573968

Website

Ann Chin Poh Piah

While the last visit was 8 years back, I'm glad to see that Ann Chin Popiah is being featured in the Michelin Guide. Not only that, their stalls have multiplied quite a fair bit over the years.

Stall of Ann Chin Popiah in Chinatown

Their menu has more items now as compared to the past with Popiah, Kueh Pie Tee, Handmade Popiah Skin, Handmade Yam Roll, Handmade Spring Roll and Handmade Curry Spring Roll.

Price of the Popiah has increased 20 cents from 8 years ago.

Popiah - $1.80 Per Roll

The standard remains the same with fillings skillfully wrapped and tightly encased by the thin layer of homemade Popiah skin.

Ingredients of the fillings are quite standard with eggs, turnips, crispy bits, bean sprouts etc. With delivery options available for most hawkers nowadays, Ann Chin Popiah can be ordered online too. If you are planning food for the party, there is food available online via Ann Chin's Website.

Fillings of the Popiah

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Posted 29th January 2014

Ann Chin Poh Piah is known for its handmade delicacies - Poh Piah and had quite a long history.

Ann Chin (Since 1958)

Its hard to come across hawkers that are going through the long process producing the thin layer of Poh Piah skin painstakingly by hand on their searing hot pan. I was quite lucky to see that Ann Chin's helper was in the process of making the skins.

Poh Piah Skin Making in Process

The exterior was freshly made. Its soft, thin and chewy nature had shown a big difference as compared to those machine-made ones. Generously stuff with boiled "mang kuang" (turnips) and deliciously combined with eggs, lettuce, peanuts and beansprouts. Though such ingredients were moist and would often soften or even had the Poh Piah skin torn, Ann Chin's fragile skin was not affected. In fact, fillings were well retained and a bite of it let off the flavourful juicy Mang Kuang. Yums!

$1.60 per Poh Piah

Cross Section of Poh Piah

 

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Ann Chin
Location: Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith St #02-112, Singapore 050335

Website

Chang Ji Gourmet

After about 8 years, I revisited the place to realise that the price of the items they are selling has slightly increased. From $1 to $1.20 for all listed items on the board. Nothing much has been changed and the consistency of the food is still the same.

Chang Ji Gourmet Stall 

With a simple plate of plain fried economical Bee Hoon to kick start the morning.

Economical Bee Hoon - $1.20

Followed by a hearty bowl of fish and peanut porridge that warms up the stomach.

Fish & Peanut Porridge - $1.20

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Posted on 30 January 2014

Fish & Peanut Porridge, the simplest meal over breakfast and well-liked by the folks. I took a look at every table around me, I can nearly see that almost everyone was having a green bowl on their hand, sipping down the hot porridge carefully.

Chang Ji Gourmet

Having ordered a bowl of Fish and peanut porridge and expected it to be plain without much taste as it was only a dollar from the pocket. It was quite good with tiny bits of fish and peanuts were boiled till soften which explained why it was so popular among the seniors' citizens. The taste had given me a little surprise. All in all, it was really value for money as most of the fish porridge won't be sold at such pricing. Love such a bowl of comforting food!

Fish and peanut porridge- $1

Rating: 4 / 5

Chang Ji Gourmet 昌记美食
Location: Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith St, Singapore 050335

Teochew Cuisine Restaurant

Teochew Cuisine Restaurant serves one of the best Fish Head Steamboat and is known to open 24 hours. They are located in Toa Payoh as well as Bukit Batok. Though the 2 Teochew Cuisine Restaurants are located among the HDB estate, they have been reputable over the years for their Teochew dishes like Kway Chap, Fish porridge, Fish Heads Steamboat and more.

Teochew Cuisine Restaurant

The menu is different for each outlet and is extensive with every dish illustrated. 

Menu

Teochew Ee Fu Noodles is my all-time favourite whenever it comes to a Teochew Cuisine. The dish is well-executed and straightforward without any fanciful elaborations to the dish. Simple ingredients like eggs and scallions are good enough to make the dish tasty. If you want something more flavourful, you can order the seafood version of their noodle.

Teochew Ee Fu Noodle 潮州炒伊面 - $15 (Large)

Besides Ee Fu Noodles, you can choose among other options like Bee Hoon, Kway Teow or even Mee Sua.

Individual Portion of Ee Fu Noodle

The expected star of the dinner should be this long-awaited Roasted Suckling Pig dish. Prior to ordering this dish, a physical reservation is needed. We have to make a trip down to pay the deposit at least 3 days in advance. 

The suckling pig was roasted and elegantly placed on a golden plate, plated with slices of tomatoes and cucumber on the pig's perimeter. Unfortunately, the only stuff that I had enjoyed out of the plate will be their mini spring rolls that were wrapped with the meat. 

While everyone's focus was that glistering crackling top roasted layer of the pork, I would say that this was a total let-down. The roasting was overdone and it was simply too tough to bite on, not elderly friendly at all.

Roasted Suckling Pig (Reservation Required)  烧乳猪 （需预定/内附饼皮) - $280

We had the Teochew Oyster Omelette, it was on the oilier side but still better than the average ones we had.

Teochew Oyster Omelette 潮州蚝煎 - $18

In ancient days, an ancient technique is used for decorating metalworks objects with coloured material is referred to as Cloisonne. 

To maintain its authenticity and tradition, Cloisonne steamboat pot is used here. Moreover, methods like having the steamboat heated up with charcoal funnelled in the main heating chamber was adopted, covered by a top lid.

Imperial Garoupa Steamboat  石斑 - $85 (Medium)

We ordered a  medium size imperial steamboat to share among ourselves. Though the pot may be narrow, the ingredients are never less. They are very generous with fried Garoupa and these fishes were already soaking in the fish broth with Yam cubes as well as sour plums. These items show what we can actually find in parts and parcels of a Teochew Cuisine.

Ingredients in the Pot

These ingredients gave the soup a robust taste and added the milky flavours as well as colour to the broth. Staff are attentive and polite with frequent soup refills. Refills are not just water but with fish broth and we can taste that these refills were not diluted broth, thus the quality is there.

Fried Garoupa in the Broth

If we were to talk about the quality, these slices of raw fish were fresh too.

Raw Slices for the Steamboat

Other than the additional plate of raw fish for the Imperial Steamboat, we have another plate with greens, enoki mushrooms as well as my favourite fried egg white.

Vegetables and Fried Egg White

The Yam Blocks are new stuff to me, these are the specialities of the Teochew delicacies. Yam blocks were slightly fried then coated with sugar and sprinkled with spring onions.

Teochew Yam Block in Sandy Sugar 潮州返沙芋 - $16 (Small)

Though coated in sugar, the combination of the softened yam blocks and sugar blends well. It is not overly sweet.

Yam Blocks

A trip to a Teochew Restaurant would not be completed without having "Orh Ni" aka Yam Paste. Having the not too sweet Yam Paste paired with the naturally sweet flavours from the pumpkin, it's a perfect dessert to end off the night.

Yam Paste with Pumpkin 金瓜芋泥 - $4

If you are craving some food to fix your Teochew Cuisine cravings, Teochew Cuisine Restaurant cannot go wrong as their menu features the Teochew Staples food.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Teochew Cuisine Restaurant
Location: 

Bukit Batok
Blk 132 Bukit Batok West Ave 6 #01-300 Singapore 650132

Toa Payoh
Blk 212 Toa Payoh Lorong 8 #01-53 Singapore 310212

Website

Millennium Glutinous Rice

While the food trend now focuses on "Old School" taste and food,  I bet this stall best fits in the trend category. The stall sells nothing but just glutinous rice. This glutinous rice is a hertiage dish and such a dish has become rare in Singapore. 

Stall of Millennium Glutinous Rice

The Glutinous Rice comes in 2 variations, sweet or salty. We had ordered the mixed version that is not shown on the menu. I'm not a glutinous rice lover but the first bite had sold me away. It was savoury and definitely rich in flavours. It was addictive and I had mouth after mouth of it for both the sweet as well as the salty portion. 

The fried shallots were charred and its oil elevated the taste of the sweet and salty glutinous rice. Not forgetting those plain peanuts that gave a distinctive texture among the bites. The peanuts were firm on the outside but soft on the inside. Though it's simple and made up of just Glutinous Rice, Peanuts and Fried Shallots, the processes in the kitchen may be tedious especially to get the glutinous rice at the perfect texture.

Glutinous Rice - $2

The queue was long in the morning and when we had finished our breakfast, I saw that they have already done with the business for the day with their roller shutter rolled down.

Closed for the day

Rating: 4 / 5

Milleniunium Glutinous Rice 
Location: Chinatown Complex Food Centre, 335 Smith Street #02-092 Singapore 050335

Nesuto

Walking along the stretch of Shophouses with a mixture of commercial shops and offices, I tend to overlook the interesting cafes and eateries around till I saw that there are people queuing up outside the cafes or even by words of mouth then I realise their existence. 

Nesuto

Especially without any decorations, I would have never realised that Nesuto is a popular place selling Japanese-French Inspired Desserts. In fact, there are many times I passed by this place without knowing.

Nesuto

The interior was elegant and the seats were rather limited. As there was no dining time limit, the turnover timing varies. Looking through the glass shelves where these dainty looking cakes are kept, it was quite tough making choices for our order, thus we ended up ordering more than an individual portion.

Dining Area of Nesuto

I'm sold at the first bite. The Yuzu Raspberry cake consists of 4 important layers with the top layer as Ruby Milk Ganache adorn with dollops of cream at its side. Vanilla Souffle Sponge made up the cake in alternating layers with light Yuzu Mousse and Raspberry Bits. This combination makes the cake refreshing indeed. The Menu had suggested it best paired well with either Sakari Yuzu Sake or Peach Oolong and I had the latter.

Yuzu Raspberry

Another good choice will be this Chestnut-Vanilla Brandy Gateau. It is made up of 5 portions where the top comes with the Candied Chestnut decked by Chestnut Puree. Refreshing light Vanilla Chantilly Cream makes up the top white portion of the cake. The cake layers are alternated between Light Cocoa Sponge with French Brandy and Chestnut Mousse. 

The Menu recommends this cake best paired with Prosecco or Lychee Oolong Tea.
 

Chestnut-Vanilla Brandy Gateau

I thought the safest choice will be the Chocolate cake thus we ordered this Decadent Dark Chocolate Cake. The first chocolate layer was made up of Valrhona Ariga Noire 66% Ganache coating drizzle with Valrhona Dulcey Chocolate followed by Moist Chocolate Sponge (Dark Brown) while the lightest brown portion was made up of Valrhona Abinao 85% whipped Ganache. Personally, I find that if you prefer something richer, you can skip the cake.

Nevertheless, if you still want to give it a try, it is paired with Sweet Rose Wine or Earl Grey Blue Flower Tea.

Decadent Dark Chocolate

The taste has aesthetically gained our attention for its colour and its presentation. We have the coconut Meringue topped with coconut flakes while the yellow portion was make up of Valrhona inspired Passionfruit Bavaroise Mousse. This layer had encased the Banana Compote and Coconut Malibu Creme. The above was supported by the Coconut Sablee as a base.

Summer Passion

We spotted this Tiramisu that is not stated in the Menu. The dessert is kept in a container with chocolate toppings. The ladyfinger is soaked well with espresso but we find that the wine was a tad overpowering. On the other hand, the cream could do with a bit more sweetness though.

Tiramisu - $11.80

Upon looking at the menu, the first thought that came to my mind was that it was a milk tea but the server highlighted that the Tea does not come with milk. Instead, this transparent tea has a faint milky fragrance within. Interesting and water is refillable.

Milky Oolong - $5

Overall, many of my friends swear by their cakes are the best among other cafes. Well, to a certain extent, I do agree their cakes are indeed the better ones out in the market. What do you think?

Rating: 4 / 5

Nesuto
Location: 53 Tras St, #01-01, Singapore 078992
Nearest Station: Tanjong Pagar (EW15)
Website

Young Sin Restaurant [Closed]

Young Sin Restaurant is an old school coffee shop that is situated among the HDB blocks of old Bukit Batok Estate. The Interior looks quite run down as compared to many neighbourhood coffee shops, in which many have already undergone renovations.

Young Sin Restaurant

Unlike the neat and clean coffee shop under the estates nowadays with varieties of food and selection, Young Sin only sell noodles and economical rice. The vibe of the coffee shop is lively as it has lively and old school music played in the background.  It feels as though you have travelled back in time to the 80s.

Stall of Young Sin Restaurant

The bowl of Kway Teow Soup has always been my comfort food and my usual order when I visit Young Sin Restaurant. 

I don't normally take cut chilli but theirs are exceptional. It is special with fish sauce, mixed with lime juice.

Kway Teow Soup 粿条汤 - $3.50 (Small)

Ingredients are slightly different from the Bak Chor Mee (BCM) we have, it includes, meatball, fishball, minced meat, lean meat, lettuce as well as Kway Teow. The type of Kway Teow used are Kway Teow Kia or what we are so used to, "Ipoh Hor Fun".

Comforting Bowl of Hot Soup with Kway Teow.

If you prefer to have the dry noodle version, they do come with Mee Pok, Mee Sua, Mee Kia, Thick Bee Hoon as well as Yellow Noodle. You can get them with chilli, ketchup or even both.

Mee Pok Dry 面薄干 - $4 (Small)

Besides Kway Teow Soup, they do sell others like Fishball Soup, fish porridge, seafood soup as well as bitter gourd soup with rice/noodle.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Young Sin Restaurant
Location: Blk 132 Bukit Batok West Ave 6 Singapore 650132