Saturday, July 18, 2009
Food Blog: Victor's Kitchen (Hong Kong Authentic Dim Sum)
When I first heard of a dim sum eatery somewhere near Bugis, I was wondering where it was. Furthermore, when I was told that they have a decent and cheap ones, it was still so unbelieveable. Little did I know..
Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, lays this small and humble shop, Victor's Kitchen. It is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them and squeeze in the small seating area if the crowds get really crazy. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.
There wasnt much people around the day I went. Chose a seat and I was handed a piece of order chits for dim sum & beverage by the staff (who was black-faced -_-) There werent a lot of options available so gotta make do with it!
King Prawn Dumpling
Prawn dumpling or rather, known as har gao, is another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin and the prawns looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.
Phoenix Porridge
The century egg porridge is transformed into phoenix porridge. Even though it's a healthy option, light and non-oily, with a run of the mill watery porridge which I like. I dun think it's worth the $3.50 as the ingredients are pathetic with bits of century eggs and chicken chunk! Then again, I still like it as it was not too over. Oh well..
King Prawn Chee Cheong Fun
I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good. Bite them and you could hear them crunch! Mama miaaa~ But the sauce is kinda salty for me though.
Milky Custard Bun
Rated as one of their signature dish. It's really good, godlike to be exact! Simply love how the rich creamy egg custard blended perfectly with the salted egg yolk - Sweet with a slight tinge of saltiness. So you wont get sick of it. Smart!
Fried prawn beancurd
The fresh and succulent prawns wrapped in beancurd that are not too salty. Very crispy and light. Sinfully good! Vinegar is given but I think chilli sauce is good enough. lol
Summer Ice tea
How can a meal of dim sum without tea? huhur.
Man!!! This cup of tea is SOLID can! Served in a dish filled with ice and water with the cup of tea emerged in the centre. The rational is not to let the ice melt to alter the taste of the tea. Totally fell for the novelty of it being served in this manner and the TEA! GOOOOOOOOOOOODLIKE! Totally felt like in paradise!
Though Victor's Kitchen looked rather "lok kok" with minimal attention paid to its renovation, the food is rather up to value. However, the service was quite bad. They were pretty rude and unfriendly. hahah.
I miss the teaaaaaaa...
Labels: Bencoolen Street, Dim Sum, Food - Chinese, Sunshine Plaza, Victor's Kitchen
1:12 AM
Friday, October 10, 2008
Food Blog: The Magic of Chongqing Hotpot
It was yet another perfect day for food and because the friend was craving for some spicy-kick food, we decided on steamboat. We concluded to try The Magic of Chongqing Steamboat that another friend of mine had been raving bout.
We almost missed the buffet as we headed to the wrong venue. Located on the fourth floor of the musty Tanglin Shopping Centre, the restaurant adopts a Chinese concept which somewhat looks like a Chinese inn. Nevermind the outlook, it's still as attractive.
The manager was very amiable and friendly; briefly explained their history while serving us. Apparently, these guys were the first to bring in Szechuan mala hotpot to Singapore bout 10+ years ago. They claimed they were the authentic ones.
Nonetheless, what sets them apart from the rest of the mala competitiors was their most special and unique emphasis on the three holistic-sounding steps to enjoying spicy hotpot.
Firstly, the manager helped us to prepare a four-flavoured sauce which includes chili sauce, ground sesame sauce, chili and garlic in oil and sesame oil. This combination of chilli-sesame dip is to enchance the flavour of food cooked in the hotpot which I think was quite tasty and exceptional. It's best if the cooked beef was dipped into the sauce. Sugoooi!
Secondly, both sweet and savoury tibits (dim sum and desserts) were served in-between to refresh and cleanse your palate. These are complimentary and included in the buffet but only one serving is available per pax. The first course was the savoury dim sums which included dumplings (xiao long bao) and the pan-fried dumplings. The manager kept asking us to eat while it's hot. I tried the gyoza look alike which I think was quite nice, just that the skin was kinda thick for my liking.
The second course was the sweet desserts which was made up of a trio of water chestnut jelly, fried mantou and egg-coated glutinous square. I like the water chestnut jelly as it was yummy and cooling, great help in aleviating the effects caused by the mala soup. The glutinous square was too sticky though and I heart the fried mantou. It was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and it goes reasonably delicious with the condensed milk! Sweet tooth!
Thirdly, they will recommend their Eight Treasures Tea to help restore the yin yang balance in your body after consuming the spicy broth. It's served either hot or cold. It is highly recommended and I think it's worth the $4, refillable. The friend even suggested that making a trip down only to drink the tea instead of the hotpot. So the whole time while we were eating, we were thinking of ways to refilling the drinks into our bottles. lol. However, the more we drink, the more we were filled up!
Furthermore, they still use the antique and classy kettle with hyper long spouts. A pity that I din have a photo of it.
The steamboat has three choices of soup bases. Namely, the mala base, the chicken broth base, and a szechuan base. The chicken soup base is extremely delicious (thumbs up) and for those who are more adventurous, the mala soup base provides a very spicy challenge. However, I think the mala soup has been toned down to suit local tastebuds. It doesnt have the tongue-maiming and lip-numbing sensation and not oily.
The lunch buffet came with an appetiser of Edamame (S$2) too. The manager gave us a starter set which we could decline any ingredients we dun like to begin while we peruse the menu for further orders.
Serving us again
Starter set
The ingredients were all prepared meticulously such that each ingredient took the shortest time to be cooked, which means that the meat were served in thin slices. But as it's a buffet, it doesnt matter if you order for example, 50 plates of sliced beef.
I'm glad I've tried this on such a beautiful day. lol. Super-filling from the appetisers to the hotpot to the beverage to the desserts, so much so that I skipped dinner and ended up having prata for supper =/ I wouldnt mind going back again for the lunch buffet and the staffs were pretty polite and efficient in topping up the drinks and orders.
Labels: Food - Chinese, Orchard, Steamboat, Tanglin Shopping Centre
11:31 PM
Monday, September 08, 2008
Food Blog: Of the School & Carls Jr
Went back school (not purposedly) and I had my favourite handmade noodles - ban mian! I missed it quite alot. Furthermore, it's one of those must have for me in school! Everytime I have cravings for the noodles, I will seek from those coffee shops which I find it incomparable to the school's
The soup base is still as tasty and flavoursome which is addictive! Cant help but to finish the whole bowl. They have the tom yum flavour too which I have not try till date and different kinds of handmade noodles! I find the stack of flours with reasonable bite size and al dente; wouldnt get too sick of eating it. However, that stack of flours kinda stick together this time round. Nevertheless, the soup base rocks big time
And I had Carls Jr for dinner. Is it me or what, I think the menu is quite hard to decipher and I stood there for a good ten minutes to understand and pick what I wanted. Because I suddenly feel like having mushrooms, I bought the Portobello Mushroom Combo as the burger itself wasnt worth the price. The combo comes with free refills which is rare in Singapore and also little number tags for the burger which will serve later, just like Mos Burger.
The burger was huge and it tasted not bad. I prefer Burger King's Double Mushroom Swiss though, with tender meat and juicier mushrooms. I wolfed it down nonetheless. The only downer for me was the fact that my favourite fries was a bit cold.
I have the perception that they’re pretty much just an overpriced fast food outlet with the standard fare now. And all their combos are at least $10 which I think I can have a good ol' piping hot and filling ramen somewhere which is oiishi and sugoi!
Labels: Carls JR, Food - Chinese, Food - Fast Food, SIM
11:17 PM
Friday, September 05, 2008
Photo Blog: Food + F1 + Mooncakes
Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango or commonly known as F4) The Movie is the continuation from their dramas though some parts are draggy, it's not bad and pretty humourous too, with the not so handsome flowers! And I thought Makino was very cute when she's angry with Domyoji. heh
Moreover, there's this quote in the movie that's so true - 'Sharing all bad things make it half as bad, while sharing the good things makes it twice as good'
My Mum's Crusine next at Paragon because there was no queues. Fast enough to fill our empty tummies. However, food served was so average which later caused me a major diarrhoea later on -_- I think it's the oysters! It tasted raw and fishy!! Hawker centres ones are so much better and the plain rice was kinda dry too! tssssk
After all the inputs, I straight away had outputs. My friends always say I superb waste money. lol
Walked around and withnessed the hype on 2008 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix. It's going to be the most anticipated event in local history and also the first night racing in F1 grandpix history. A whopping 100,000 people are expected to turn out for this 61 laps, 300km extravaganza. The practices will be held on the 26th Sept; qualifying on the 27th and the actual race on the 28th. Because the ticket prices were too much for commoners like us to take it, we gotta watch these world’s most technically sophisticated cars in action on television unless Dad got free tickets. heheheh
Hopped to Isetan Orchard because the friend wanted to see if there's any cheap bargains at the DKNY sales. Oh well, we made a conclusion that we are not fated to have any good bargains from these type of sales because the crowds were too overwhelming for us and we were kinda lazy to jostle with the rest. So I suggested to go over to Takashimaya.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is just round the corner, 14th Sept to be exact and I'm not a big fan of mooncakes. I think they are horrible especially those traditional types on top. I was offered a mini snowskin lychee-tini mooncake (lychee martini, white lotus seed paste and a chocolate truffle centre) from Ritz-Carlton at my uncle's house. I couldnt really taste the chocolate as the lotus paste was too strong but the lychee martini was refreshing. So if anybody who wants to get chocolate mooncakes, it's a no no.
Greentea ones shouldnt be that bad though. But the mooncake agar-agars rock big time! I heart the lychees and kiwis. Damn shiok I tell you! Maybe I should ask my mother to improvise her recipe like adding martini into the lychees and make strawberries one? hurhur
I cant wait for the weekend. There's a couple of big matches with the Reds hosting the Devils and Chelsea paying a visit to Man City. I think Man City is going to be a dark horse after a takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG), which means they have a bottomless cash pit and are ready to bankroll on Europe's top talents. It's gonna take awhile I guess since they neither top EPL nor in the Champion League, though Robinho's move to City shellshocked everyone when he was thought to be going to Chelsea.
Nuff said, it's also the time to create some havoc at the canal again. Let's all gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, eat moon cakes and pomeloes together and burn some lanterns and sparkers too! In conjuction with the festival, the Chinese Garden will put up beautiful lightings of Sanrio's popular icon - Hello Kitty Go Races! in this Lantern Fantasy 2008.
Hopefully, there's fireworks display this year too! =D
Labels: F1, Food - Chinese, Food - Mooncakes, Mid-Autumn, Movies, Paragon
11:45 PM
Monday, September 01, 2008
Food + Photo Blog: Ice's 21st birthday
After Lucas's intervention over the weekends, it was a therapeutic escape with a reunite PGG to celebrate Ice's belated birthday at BB. Jane and I were the first to reach because she has the Singaporean spirit of kiasu =/
While waiting for the rest, we withnessed the heartlanders' Formula 1 and kids nowadays are sly, right Missy?
When one of our member came, we proceeded to the Zhi Char store that we used to patronise during secondary school days. The gathering was damn nostalgic and it has been awhile since I saw Ice, Joy and Renee's sister. Soon, it was indulging in some finger-licking good food.
And before that, Missy Jane made some comments during the orders on a couple of food which left us flabbergasted and burst out laughing afterwhich. Click onto the photos (hotplate toufu, chilli crabs and the buns) if you guys are interested bout the small conversation between the waitress and herself by our petite commentator.
We headed to Joy's house for durians next because the playground was packed. Before stepping into her house, Jane and I kept reminding her to keep her gi-nomous and overweight cats away because both of us were scared though I had to admit Garlic (I assumed because the other one is called Ginger) was cute. Totally looks like d cat from Shrek
My favourite photo!
We were chockablock! I sweared I burp and fart durians! lol. And more photo-takings after the whole episode of food stuffing.
- End
Food was especially good when accompanied by great people, whose kinky conversations throughout the whole evening made it even more enjoyable. Thanks organiser. heh
Labels: Birthday - Friends, Bukit Batok, Food - Chinese, Food - Durian, PGG
11:08 PM
