Food, Lifestyle, Travel & Photography

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Zai Shun 载顺

While we are having so many trending foods and fusion food nowadays, there is still time like this when I miss some stomach-comforting food like porridge and some familiar Chinese dishes. Zai Shun has been around for many years in Jurong East and is also best known for serving reasonably priced fresh steamed fish. While my visit was mostly in the evenings, I made a trip down in the early morning to warm my stomach with some traditional bowl of porridge and some of their dishes.

For the early bird

The spread of dishes available makes diners simply spoilt for choices. These dishes were a good reminiscent of what I had from my younger years.

Choice of Dishes

For porridge dishes, Zai Shun is open daily from 7am to 3pm except on Wednesday. Besides those tray of food to choose from, they also have some prepared dishes on a plate kept in the glass cabinet and is ready to be served once the diner opts for it.

Opening Hours

Warm bowls of Porridge and dishes like these simply cannot go wrong with some braised sauce. We had our meal with 4 dishes at $19.

Breakfast for $19

Sweet & Sour Pork was consistent in its sour taste and evenly coated in the sauce. Meat-wise, it was not too tough.

Sweet & Sour Pork

The traditional fishcakes were best to pair with the hot bowl of porridge. These fishcakes had a springy and bouncy texture. Simply loves its traditional taste.

Fishcake

One of the nostalgic dishes that is rare on the porridge stalls. This packed good memories of what I used to have at home during my younger days.

Beancurd with Leek

The Chap Chye dish is also one of my must order. Cabbages were braised to soften with black fungus, beancurd skin, carrot and Rice Vermicelli.

Chap Chye

I will be back again for more!

Last posted on 14 November 2020

For people who is staying in Jurong area, Zai Shun should be no stranger to you. The place is well known for its freshly cook delicious fish. The settings more make it seems like they are just another Cze Char Stall in the coffeeshop but this isn't it. They have their own unique menu which I would confidently say that dishes were mostly traditionally home cook taste. They operate in 2 sessions, with morning to afternoon selling dishes in economical rice style with porridge. While most of my visits are during the evening, they only offer cook to order dishes.

Zai Shun

The combination of black fungus with egg was simple but delightful. The fungus was soaked to its softness and together with the sweetness of the fried egg, the tasteless black fungus was made a perfect marriage.

Black Fungus with Egg 木耳蛋 - $9

The steamed minced meat was something that I craved for too. The taste was salty and sweet enough for me to pair it with white rice. Another simple meal that is packed full of home cook tastes that reminds us of the food that grandparents used to cook.

Minced Meat with salted egg 咸蛋肉饼 - $9

Fish dishes were their forte and their types of fishes are subjected to daily availability. It always amazed me by how fast they were to serve these dishes up to our table.

HK Style 港式清蒸

There were a few selections for diners on how they want their fish to be prepared. We can get it done in Hong Kong Style with Soy Sauce, in Bean Paste or even in Assam Claypot.

Parrot Fish 青衣 - $32

However, if you are lost and not sure which cooking style is suitable for which fish, you can always seek for their recommend.

Steamed Fish with Bean Paste Sauce 豆酱蒸 - $32

The sauce comprising of fermented soy paste was thinly coated evenly on the surface of the fish topped with fried lard, cut chili and spring onions as garnishing. Such flavor with a tad of spiciness is a good reminiscent of comfort and traditional home cook fish dishes.

One of my Favourite Orders

You can opt for the Fish Curry if you want to skip steam fishes for instance, Zai Shun do also offer them in claypot curry too.

Curry Fish

Prawns roll were fried into golden brown. The rolls were crispy on the outside and tasted quite ordinary.

Fried Prawn Roll 虾枣 - $8

Though bitter, these slices of bitter gourd do serve its health beneficial purposes. It aids in expelling heat away from the body system and also boost immunity. The dish was fried together with scrambled eggs and basically, the marriage of both has struck a good balance bitter the wok taste of sweet eggs and a little bitterness.

Bittergourd with Double Eggs 苦瓜双蛋 - $9

Another restaurant look-alike dishes doles out from the kitchen. Wee! Different types of shrooms were decked up by the rectangular shapes of steam beancurd drenched and accompanied by sweet gravy.

Steamed Beancurd with Mushroom 白灵菇豆腐 - $10

I just cannot stop singing praises to most of Zai Shun's dishes are they were my rated comfort food. Even the herbal chicken was applaudable. It was served in a bag with a good herbal aroma. The meat was tender with a good substantial herbal taste.

Herbal Chicken 药材鸡 - $12

Trust me, if you love savouring down some traditional and delicious steam fish dishes, you will definitely love the way Zai Shun prepares their fish, be it in Assam, Hong Kong Style, Teochew style or even curry. Their standard and quality of dishes have been reputable and consistent all these years.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Zai Shun 载顺
Location: 253 Jurong East Street 24 #01-205 Singapore 600253

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Chin Chin Eating House

Over the years, Chin Chin Eating House has been popular among tourists as well as locals for its Hainanese Cuisine such as their Pork Chop, Mutton Soup as well as Chicken Rice. My last trip to Chin Chin was about 9 years back.

We ordered the Ma Po Beancurd to share among ourselves. The dish tasted homely with fermented beans and not very spicy with minced meat. It was not starchy and was topped up with chopped spring

Ma Po Beancurd 麻婆豆腐 - $8

Another delectable dish we had on the table will be the french beans stir-fried with garlic.

French bean 四季豆 - $10 (Small)

Compared to what I had the other time, it seems like they have altered their recipe as the Pork Chop was no longer breaded coated. Nonetheless, the dish was still served with potato wedges and green peas with a bowl of savoury sauce to drench over the Pork Chop. The meat maintained uniform thickness and tenderness.

Hainanese Pork Chop 海南猪扒 - $10 (Medium)

The star on the table is none other than their popular poached chicken. We ordered half a chicken with their fragrant chicken rice for $1 each. The rice was worthy to mention for it was grainy and whet our appetite for more. Poached Chicken was fragrant and tender in its seasonings with an above-average standard but not the best I had from the hawkers.

Chicken (Half) 半只鸡 - $16

The Sweet Sour Pork is most of our all-time favourite dishes from the Cze Char Menu. The pork was deep fried and very well consistently coated in its sweet sour sauce accompanied by cucumber, onions, green pepper, tomato as well as pineapples.

Sweet Sour Pork 菠萝咕噜肉 - $12

The strong aromatic Prawn Paste Chicken was crispy on the exterior and delicious. However, these are not the best we ever had.

Prawn Paste Chicken 虾酱鸡 - $10 (Small)

The local ambience of the coffee shop and the heart-warming service from the servers make diners comfortable on top of their yummy dishes. Price on the other hand is reasonable too.

Posted 8th November 2013

Situated along the shophouses of Purvis Street, Chin Chin Eating House facade is one of the most humble looking among her neighbouring modern eateries. Astounded by the crowd during dinner time, we walked into the eating place and tried to grab a seat. Lo and behold, there was a table for 2, just nice!

Chin Chin Eating House Facade

Besides having good pork chop, they do sell Haianese Chicken Rice, Claypot Mutton Soup which I believe had been drawing the hordes thus its full house on a saturday night. The restaurant interior was simple and decent with hanging ceiling fans at each sector above. Chinese Lanterns were seen hanging from the florescent lights too.

The Crowd

Haianese Pork Chop, being one of its Must Try on their Menu had been awarded for its Best Food for 2011 and 2012.

Green Book Awards for Best Food 2011/2012

It's not quite frequent we come across this dish on the menu moreover it had won the award. Having prepared a similar dish, I would say that it was quite good but not really what I would expect. The dish was served with few potato wedges and boiled green peas with a bowl of tomato gravy.

Hainanese Pork Chop with sauce - $6

The piece of lean meat was fried to golden brown with crumbs coated evenly at its exterior. It was cut into smaller portions equally and was served.

Hainanese Pork Chop

We pour the bowl of diluted tomato ketchup all over the sauce and enjoyed this Haianese fare.

Braised Ee Mee tasted better than average. It's black braised sauce was aromatic and noodles was generously drenched, a little more would have the gravy overflowed.

Braised Ee Mee - $6

Having tried only 2 dishes, I would definitely be back for more when chance come!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chin Chin Eating House

Location: 19 Purvis Street Singapore 188598

Monday, December 12, 2022

Arteastiq DePatio Plaza Sing

Being spoilt for food choices in Plaza Singapura, we finally settle ourselves in Arteastiq depatio after running an errand.

Arteastiq depatio

The menu was featured outside the restaurant in a standee form. We are able to glance through the items on the menu before walking into the restaurant.

The area was brightly lited in a comfortable setting. Though it is located indoors, the environment was like dining in an outdoor setting with a wooden table and paved ground.

Interior Setting

Both House Brewed Drinks are rather refreshing in taste with the soda water.

House Brewed Ginger Ale & House Brewed Salted Lemon - $6.80

The Pork Belly had a thick crispy crust with succulent meat. The dish was served with sauerkraut, mustard, spices and herbs.

Pancetta Roast Pork Belly - $15

During 4-8pm, Fresh Oysters will be priced at $2 per piece instead of the usual $3.50. However, this promotion will only be limited to 1 dozen per table only. The Oysters are served with lemon and onion red wine vinegar to pair along.

Fresh Oysters - $2 / Pcs

230g Black Angus Rib eye served with sauteed spinach, fries and garlic butter. The meat was tender enough and cook to the right doneness as requested.

French Affection Ribeye - $34

The Cod Fish and Chips were not greasy and were served with shoestring fries, horseradish mayo, lemon pepper and mushy peas.

Cod Fish & Chips - $20

A different kind of execution for a classic Tiramisu is to remove the film surrounding the dessert and let the layered smooth mascarpone cheese collapse into the sponge finger with brewed black coffee. Not too bad, at least we had a satisfying ending with the meal.

Classic Tiramisu - $16

Food overall was standard fare.

Rating: 3 / 5

Arteastiq DePatio Plaza Sing
Location: Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road #03-70/72 Singapore 238839

Friday, December 9, 2022

Chen's Mapo Tofu

Recently, I have been seeing too many posts of Chen's Mapo tofu on social media and was wondering what the hype is. Moreover this dish Mapo Tofu is what I have been craving for a while.

Chen's Mapo Tofu

We went to the outlet in Star Vista which is just a few minutes walk away from the MRT station. The Interior was rather outstanding with its modern theme in red and yellow colour.

Counter of Chen's Mapo Tofu

Interior

We ordered a set and side dishes for sharing. The set meal comes with a choice of drink in a bottle and we had Calamansi.

Drinks

The Kombu Mien is one of their popular mains. We had the Kurobuta Tonkatsu with Kombu Mien and it was served with vegetables and onsen egg.

Kurobuta Tonkatsu with Kombu Mien - $20 (Set)

Let's try out their award-winning Mapo Tofu! It's known for its spiciness, fragrance and super tastiness. You can even select the spicy level from 1 to 3 but do think twice before you ordered level 3. Their Tofu is soft and silky with a good consistency in the taste of the sauce.