Chicken Pot 鸡公煲

I was first introduced to Chicken Pot at the basement of Temasek Tower by my colleague, who was (and still is) expecting her first child. She was craving it quite badly, and when we got there, we saw another expectant colleague queuing up for chicken pot too. It's a franchise apparently brought in from China - Chongqing, I think - I've tried both branches (they have one at Novena Square 2) and both are quite identical. I'm not expecting, but I absolutely LOVE chicken pot.

The lunchtime crowd at Temasek Tower

They have fresh veggies that you can add to the hot pots (different plates cost different amounts), and they also top up chicken stock for you once the pot gets a bit dry.

This was the chicken pot - a bit of ma la spice.

The prawn hot pot has a tom yum flavour. They give you limes to squeeze over, and you can find fresh lemongrass stems at the base of the pot. I love the prawn as well - it comes with spiced french fries.

The set for 3-4 people costs almost $40. But it comes with rice, and is substantial enough for 4 people to feel pretty full after.

Spicy chicken on hot steamed rice...YUMS!

Chicken Hot Pot Branches:

1. Temasek Tower, 8 Shenton Way #B1-21 Tel: 6220 8040

2. Novena Square 2, 10 Sinaran Drive #04-02 Tel: 6397 7175

Post-note: The Temasek Tower outlet has closed down, so you'll have to go to Novena to get your chicken pot fix.

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin

I was having a meeting at one of the hotels near Orchard Road, and was looking for a quick dinner with the husband after that. It was our virgin experience at Ion Orchard and we thought that the food court prices were simply not worth it. After walking for a bit more, we found this tonkatsu place which was a big like a fast food outlet but the key thing was that they had empty seats.

I had the rosu katsu set for just over $13. The miso soup was delicious, with burdock root and daikon.

The katsu was really good - crispy, moist and non-oily.

The husband had the katsu don set. Think it was about $13+ as well. He liked it.

2 Orchard Turn
#B4-39/40
ION Orchard
Tel: 6509 8101

Riders Cafe

This was a post I started working on 2 weeks ago, and never had time to complete because I was swamped with office stuff. The nightmare is over, the aliens that landed have left, and life is almost back to normal.

Thinking of where to go for breakfast on a sunny sunday morning after picking my husband up from work was a bit of a challenge since the boy was tired, sleepy and grumpy after a sleepless night. We decided to try out Riders Cafe, located near Green Fairways off Eng Neo Avenue.

The photo below isn't one photo - it's 2 put together showing the entrance and side of the building.

The place was packed. We were told that we needed to vacate our table in an hour, which was fine by us.

I thought this was really thoughtful - the jug had a napkin below (I've been to places where the table ends up in a wet mess), and coasters - with horsehoes, no less.

Cafe lattes just the way my husband likes it. He was starting to look a bit happier.

The thirsty boy had a strawberry milkshake as well. This was really good.

His Norwegian Benedict ($14) consisting smoked salmon, asparagus spears and breakfast potatoes. This was really delicious.

My Riders breakfast ($13) with 2 sunny-side up eggs, bacon (not in picture), baked beans, potatoes, and grapes (??!). Generally okay on the whole, but certainly not as exciting as the Norwegian breakfast.

View from the restaurant

Riders Cafe

51 Fairways Drive

Tel: 64669819

Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 8am to 10.30pm/11pm (Fri and Sat).

The First Non-Food Related Post

This hungry greedy hippo can't believe how Singapore ripped off the most amazing ad (in this hippo's opinion), with no less than a national day song!



My favourite ad of all time (which can still inspire mildly patriotic feelings for the country I spent one quarter of my life in before starting work)



What happened to intellectual property, Singapore?

Australia 1, Singapore 0

Satsuma at Gallery Hotel

I had a pretty busy week last week, and the gorgeous husband decided to bring me to Robertson Quay for some good Japanese food and beer to cheer me up. He had in mind Aburiya Tei, but after we drove past Gallery Hotel, I remembered Satsuma. It's located at one of the three round pods behind Gallery Hotel, and having been there a couple of times (none with the husband), I thought it would be a better place for a chill-out evening.

We got there around 6.30pm on Friday, and were only left with counter seats at the bar downstairs. Which was fine, because the bar was still pretty empty giving us a nice and quiet setting.
The appetisers of fresh veggies and miso dip. These were probably better than Aburiya Tei's. I have no idea if these were on the house, or if we were charged for them.

First up: enoki mushroom rolled in pork, and pork and leek.

Close up of the pork and leek.

Tebasaki, or chicken wings. These were quite good; crispy skin on the outside but the meat was still moist on the inside.

Okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake. We got a bit of a surprise when it came in the guise of takoyaki, but after biting right in, we found the cabbage strips and everything tasted right in the end.

Prawns wrapped in bacon and shiso leaf, and oysters wrapped in pork. The oysters were GOOD.

Onigiri came in the form of a maize-like skewer. It was a bit too salty for my liking.

Black Angus beef, with both sticks done to different degrees to suit our respective tastes.

Nankotsu, or chicken cartilege. The Aburiya Tei version is better. These birds were real skinny.

Garlic wrapped in pork.

Garlic fried rice. The waitress had the initiative to ask if we wanted the serving divided into 2 bowls so we could share. I really appreciated that...good service is so hard to come by these days.

The service was pretty good, although because we were sitting at the bar counter, we were constantly interrupted by the serving staff coming from behind and placing the food in between both of us. It would have been better to have actually used the counter (instead of decorating it with shochu bottles) to serve customers from the front instead. But that's a small gripe directed at the management....the serving staff were very pleasant and attentive.

Most of the pork skewers were $5 for 2 sticks, while the Black Angus was $13 for 2. We also ordered a 300ml bottle of junmai ginjyo, which cost us $29. All in, dinner came up to just over $120...dinner for the whole of this week will either be home-cooked or at a hawker centre : )

Porridge for Breakfast

Maxwell hawker centre has a number of pretty good stalls open at breakfast time. My favourite porridge stall there is 诚记 (no English name available) at no. 91, facing Fairfield Methodist Church. I find the porridge nice and light (unlike Zhen Zhen which is seriously thick), and they also have watercress available, which adds a nice crunch.

They serve the usual porridge menu like preserved egg and pork, fish slices, chicken, and they also have fish stomach - not that I've tried it, but I've seen many other people waiting patiently for their serve.

This was a $2.50 serve.

Doing some digging to unearth the cuttlefish and watercress.

I love the mixture of raw fish, lime and sesame oil. A great way to start the day.

Cheng Ji Porridge
Stall 91, Maxwell Road Food Centre

Open for breakfast and lunch seven days.

Hokkien Mee

I love the Tanjong Pagar Market. There is a section on the 2nd storey dedicated to all the unhealthy food - char kuey teow, chai tow kueh and hokkien mee (only missing orh luak). The hokkien mee shop named Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle at #02-49 is really good for a midday indulgence - it comes with sinful pieces of pork lard and pork belly strips, and the sambal is pretty good too.

Chinese dinner banquet

Once in a while, we get taken out by our Chinese partners to really obiang places with private KTV rooms and gold-guilded decorations. For dinner on our second night, we went to a Cantonese restaurant in a 3-star hotel near to our hotel.


The appetisers came. I think this was meant to look like grass in a garden (what's up with the jam butterfly?!). The seaweed was actually quite tasty.

Some small oily fish.
Jellyfish with vinegar and sesame oil. This was yummy.

Snow peas with fish lips (鱼唇). The fish lips were quite spongy...I had initially thought that it was fish maw. This was quite nice.

Herbal soup served dobinmushi style. Different herbs for men and women.

Thinly-sliced pork with vegetables

Crab and prawns...nowhere near as excessive as the previous evening's seafood.

Some flatfish cooked in dark sauce...this was good.

Top shell with peppers.

They ordered some blended corn drink...this was served warm. Nice but filling.

Fish steamed with soy sauce.

foie gras fried tempura-style

Sliced pork. This was very nicely done, as the pieces had a bit of fat in them.

Fried mushroom-like thing

Sea cucumber

The best part of the meal came at the end. First, we were each served a pancake (烧饼) - as if there wasn't enough food on the table already. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I left it on my plate.

Then things became clearer when they put a huge claypot in front of everyone.

The buddha-jump-over-the-wall was probably the highlight of my trip. The stock was amazingly rich and sweet, and the ingredients - sea cucumber, fish maw, shark's fin, abalone - were plentiful. I savoured every bite, and licked up every last drop of the soup. I tore up the pancake into small bits, and threw it into the stock. It went really well with the rich liquid, surprisingly.

Can't wait to go back to China.