Taste Paradise

We had our Mother's Day dim sum at Taste Paradise - this is a super overdue post - after protracted research on where the most value-for-money dim sum in Singapore was. And we ordered A Lot Of Food.

First up - glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf.
This was pretty good - nice and moist, with a good balance of rice vs meat. Cheong fun with char siew. Loved this - the rolls were soft yet supple.

The 口水鸡 here has to be THE BEST in Singapore. It's a beautiful balance of sesame sauce, chilli oil and some other sugary sauce. Unfortunately the other 口水鸡 I really like is far far away in Beijing.
We had whitebait with sweet chilli sauce - this was ok. Would have been better without the pseudo Thai chilli sauce. Ha Kau - this was good as well, with solid prawn encased in the wrappers. Egg tarts to end off with, which came too early. But they were great!
Char siew sou - not my favourite dim sum dish, but the mother liked it.
$10 XO carrot cake - nice but frankly overrated. Not as nice as our first try at the restaurant 2 years ago. Give me normal market chye tow kuay anytime.
The pork belly was crispy, and not too fatty. Thumbs up.
A close up of the skin.
We had this try-hard dish of tofu with minced century egg, wasabi mayonnaise and tobiko. It was nice but a little too complicated.
http://www.tasteparadise.com.sg/contact.html

Margarita's

I've always loved the original Margarita's at Faber Drive since I was a kid, and it was always a real treat to get to go there since it was at such an out-of-the-way place. I went to the Dempsey outlet once but it wasn't the same.

We were there on a Saturday night and parking was easy to find, although we were glad that we made reservations since the restaurant was rather (but not completely) full. We started with a serve of nachos ($18), which came with generous servings of guacamole, cheese, jalapenos and sour cream.

I think - but am not sure - that this was the Red Enchiladas with Beef in Ranchera Sauce. Someone else had this, obviously.

The Kitchen Sink Burrito ($20)-an amazing compilation of chicken, beef, beans and everything else. I've always ordered this every time we go there. Boring but good.

This was the Mexican Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream sauce, with beef as well. This was pretty similar to the burrito, except that the rice and beans were served separately.

Dinner came up to over $100, excluding drinks - not that expensive for a satisfying and fulfiling meal, but not super affordable either.

108 Faber Dr, Singapore 129418
Tel: 6777 1782

Bistro Du Vin

This was our second time at Bistro Du Vin, and with the same group of friends which included a Frenchman living in Singapore - the fact that he wanted to go back to BDV was a pretty good sign that we had hit on something right.

We started with a charcuterie platter of various fatty but yummy things, with hot crusty bread rolls which they topped up various times, no questions asked.

Including an amazing duck terrine - this was fabulous.Tomato, basil and anchovy salad
This foie gras terrine was good as well, but I found it a bit too rich in the end
Various types of saucission - absolutely fatty, salty and deliciousDidn't try the escargot but it sure smelt good
I had the lamb shank ($33) and this was one huge whopper - the gravy was rich, flavourful and wholesome. I thoroughly enjoyed this.Potatoes on the sideThe husband had a veal blanquette with mushroom & pickled onion ($33) - this was excellent as well. Dessert was a chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream.
It was a really enjoyable meal - both for the food and company, and we'll definitely go back there to try other things on the menu. http://www.lesamis.com.sg/index1.html

Abalone Porridge

Warning for this post: the photos are rather ugly, and this is one of those dishes that taste way better than what is shown in the photos.

I had a can of abalone that was soon expiring, and since we weren't going to do steamboat anytime soon, I decided to cook porridge with it. I also had some dried scallops and dried abalone slices in the fridge, and threw them in as well, after soaking.

I bought chicken breasts and pork ribs, and boiled them with red dates, a carrot and an onion.
After the stock was done, I shredded the meat. I had the rice going in a rice cooker. When the soup was done, I sliced up the dried abalone pieces and mashed up the scallop pieces, and threw everything into one pot to boil. The abalone waiting to be sliced, while the brine was also thrown into the pot.

The final product - the stock was super rich from all the ingredients, and it was even better with chinese parsely.

Hand In Hand 手拉手 at Jalan Besar

We recently discovered this Chinese-run place called 手拉手 along Jalan Besar, just across from the Berseh Food Centre at the junction of Veerasamy Road. We went there on a random whim after reading an internet article just to try it out, and were very very pleasantly surprised that it was of reasonably good quality.

The Chinese Pizza (三鲜合子) was very well done - crispy on the outside, with a little bit of a chewy bite for the pastry on the inside. The pork/veggie filling was nicely balanced.

Close up - this was one of my favourites.

The 炸酱面 was kinda weird, with peanuts in the sauce. It wasn't really spicy or salty. But the noodles were cooked just right so that they were springy.

Dou miao fried in garlic -can't go too far wrong with this.

Their xiaolongbaos are probably among the best in Singapore, I have to say. They tasted similar to the original Crystal Jade at Scotts, and Eastern Kitchen at Centrepoint in the early days. The skin was strong, yet thin enough, with lots of soup in the dumplings. Highly recommended.

Tofu with century egg - this was ok, but it's hard to go wrong with this anyway.

The cold braised beef, which came as a starter. No surprises.

One of my favourite dishes discovered during my China stints - shredded potato with chilli. I really love this dish, and was so glad to find a place in Singapore that did it well. A bit pricy at $12 though.

Another dish that brought me back to the China days - their 饺子 was identical to what I used to eat in China as the 主食.

We ordered another 2 soup noodle dishes, and I can't recall what this was. But it was definitely better than the 炸酱面.
Pork with garlic. We had to pack this, since we were really full.

Beef noodles - this was pretty good.

The entire spread for 7 people.

Szechuan hot and sour soup - this was a bit too sweet, and I didn't quite like it.

Salt and pepper squid - I've had better in Melbourne, but it was decent enough.

The 锅贴 came upside down, with full evidence that it had been property steamed first and then fried on a hot plate. These were as good as the steamed dumplings, and slightly more enjoyable with a slight crisp edge.

For dessert, they also serve sugar-coated apples and sugar coated sweet potato wedges, that come with the melted sugar on top. You dip the pieces in ice water, causing the sugar to harden into a thin and crispy layer. The apples were much nicer than the sweet potato. This was really enjoyable.

It isn't very cheap - the bill came up to around $15-$20 per head, but you do get a decent meal for what you pay, and that's always good to know.

141-143 Jalan Besar

Tel: 62971398