Ah Orh at Sin Ming and Bukit Merah

Having been out of the food scene for a while, it's been a pretty busy time trying to catch up on what I've missed, ranging from just basic hawker fare to more elaborate dishes. After that, there was also the dreariness of sorting out photos left in a mess from a long time ago.

While we were out of action, Ah Orh at Sin Ming closed down. We were thankful that we had the chance to eat there but were rather depressed at the loss of one of our favourite teochew places. We preferred it to the Tiong Bahru outlet- somehow the food had a finer edge to it despite the heartland setting.

Their cold crabs were probably the best in Singapore- full of milt and absolutely succulent.

A close up- check out the super creamy milt

Worth the cholesterol

Super fluffy oyster omelette

Amazingly fresh steamed promfret- every last drop licked up

Standard sambal kang kong

Hae Chor- crispy on the outside and moist on the inside

Compare that with Ah Orh at Tiong Bahru where the presentation is different. Crabs very decent but the Sin Ming one was just somehow more special. 

Their oyster omelette was a lot wetter

Braised duck and pork- decent but not mind boggling

Hae chor and ngoh Hiang- decent

Hokkien Mee- not sure why a teochew restaurant sells this

Yam basket- a pretty good one, in my opinion

Pork trotter with Thai sweet chilli

Fish maw soup

Orh nee

Kok Sen Coffeeshop - reprise

I headed to Kok Sen Coffeeshop at Keong Saik Rd one evening in late Sept with a couple of colleagues for a very enjoyable zi char dinner. It's a steady, dependable coffeeshop where the food is consistently of good quality. Writing this post now makes me really want to get back there to gobble down a hot steaming bowl of white rice, with all the yummy dishes.

Between 3 girls, we ate 4 dishes including sambal kangkung, which was cooked just right. The stems were firm and crunchy. 

I've always loved the bittergourd cooked with fish head in black bean sauce.

The home-style tofu is also a winner, especially on top of white rice

And the ha cheong kai is so good you can even eat it on its own. 

It's at 30 Keong Saik Rd. One of the best zi char places in the Tanjong Pagar area. 

Kok Sen Coffeeshop, Keong Saik Road

My new favourite zichar shop for lunch is this super crowded coffeeshop along Keong Saik Road which has really amazing food - just the thing to look forward to on a busy workday.

Yong tau fu, served in a claypot

Three egg spinach

Fu Yong Omelette

Har Cheong Kai - this was divinely crispy

三杯鸡 - think the har cheong gai is probably the better of the two

Bittergourd with fried fish head in black bean sauce - my favourite dish

Their noodle dishes are pretty good too. The prawn bee hoon is spicy, full of flavour and crave-worthy.

It's at 30 Keong Saik Road, and it's open for lunch and dinner everyday.

Tonny Restaurant 利宝饭店

I had heard about Tonny Restaurant from a number of sources but had no impetus to visit the place until 2 of my foodie friends made plans to go. It's at the first storey of 2 shophouses and has the feel of an old school chinese restaurant serving zi char food. Eating with foodie friends is both good and bad - you know they're prepared to spend money ordering whatever, but you also have to eat things you wouldn't normally want to order.

One of Tonny's signature dishes is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ($8 each), described on the menu as "Medley of Lobstero (?) Egg White and Dried Scallop". It came in something like a wanton skin bowl. I thought this was nice but slighty overrated, since Imperial Treasure also has a really nice egg white and scallop dish with pepper and vinegar that costs about one and a half times with twice the amount.
Yam with truffle oil - shredded yam strips deep fried and topped with truffle oil. I can't remember how much this cost, but it really wasn't that exciting either. Interesting but not sure that I'd order it again if I was looking for something special.

Another dish that I wouldn't have ordered normally was the poached sliced beef with golden mushroom ($18). It was very ordinary.

Things started looking brighter when the "Double Egg Spanish (?) with Chicken Broth" ($12) arrived. This was very yummy - we drank up every last bit of the broth.

The other signature dish is the "Full Cream Crab Congee" ($8 per 100 g), or crab porridge. Now, this I found to be extremely amazing. Words cannot describe how rich, how good, how tasty, how heartwarming, how delicious the crab congee was. The milt of the crab was stirred into the porridge, resulting in a glorious blend of crab and congee.

They removed the crabs before dishing out the congee into separate bowls. There was a lot of crab : )

I have no idea what grains went into this congee, but boy was it good.

We also had the roasted spring chicken ($20), which was pretty good.

Dessert was Osmanthus Jelly with Wolfberries, which was nice but not outstanding.

Dinner for 3 persons cost a total of $150. We thought this was extremely reasonable given the crab and the volume of food, which the waitresses had initially discouraged.

Tonny Restaurant

325/327 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore 427582

Tel: 63489298

HP: 98152113

Open daily from 11.30am–2.30pm, 6pm–10.30pm

Lu Tian Seafood

I just got back from lunch today and was so excited I had to publish this immediately back at my desk. I had a great plate of seafood hor fun at Amoy St Food Centre from Lu Tian Seafood at Stall 02-119.

The serving cost $3.50, and consisted of squid, prawns, fish slices and veggies on top of the horfun.

The horfun was great...it was tasty with a chewy texture, and came with the wok hei aroma.

Our friendly serving lady posing for the camera. Best thing about this shop is that they actually bring the food to your table so you can sit down and wait instead of waste your lunch hour standing in line.

Lu Tian Seafood

Stall 02-119 Amoy Street Food Centre

Open until after lunch

Two Chefs

My father-in-law's favorite dinner venue for 2008-2009 is Two Chefs. We're either always eating here, or buying take out from them and eating at home. Lately, we've been buying back food more often because it's almost impossible to get a seat at peak hour. The photo below was taken at 8pm on a Sunday evening while we were waiting for a table.

According to newspaper reports, the stall was started by 2 young Malaysian chefs. Their fame grew after KF Seetoh featured them on Makansutra 1 to 2 years ago.

We ordered a few dishes to share with steamed rice. First up was assam seafood served in a claypot. I thought it was too sweet, but the FIL liked it.

Herbak chicken, which is always delicious. I think they only serve this on weekends. If I could, I would have drank up every last drop.

My husband's family loves veggies plain boiled without sauce, salt or oil.

The cereal prawns are pretty good.

The dish I always look forward to is the butter pork ribs. I'm not sure about the butter, but they cook the ribs with milk powder and curry leaves....and it goes great with rice.

Blk 116 Commonwealth Drive

#01-129
Tel: 6472 5361

Open 7 days from 11.30am-2.30pm and from 5.30pm onwards for dinner.

Ka Soh

Went to Ka-Soh at Amoy Street for lunch to celebrate a colleague's birthday. Amoy St is full of these great local restaurants that offer good food at decent prices - besides Ka-Soh, there's also Beng Hiang, Lao Hock Kian and Huat Kee, although Huat Kee is slightly more upmarket.

They're pretty generous with the chilli and the all-important pork lard.

The achar is pretty good too.

Cereal prawns. We stared at the dish for a while trying to figure out how come the prawns looked so round...like prawn balls.

They coat the prawn in batter before dipping it into the cereal...hence the round shape. Looked kind of like the KFC crispy chicken pieces.

Prawn paste chicken (har cheong kai). My favourite dish.

Sambal kangkong

Bee hoon soup with fish slices

Close up of the noodles

Since there were only 4 of us, we had to be pretty selective what we ordered. The 排骨王, or pai guat wong is quite good - they fry the marinated pork rib pieces, and serve it with a sweet dipping sauce. The seafood tofu is nice, and so is the yam ring. If you're interested in how the shop got its name, check out their website.

Swee Kee Fish Head Noodles (better known as Ka Soh)

96 Amoy Street

Website: http://www.ka-soh.com.sg/
Tel: 6224 9920

Open 7 days from 11:45 - 14:30 and 17:30 - 22:45.