Tim Sum @ Ah Yat Jurong

Ah Hat Seafood Restaurant ~ Celebrating my MIL birthday at Ah Yat Jurong after having heard from friends that the Tim Sum was pretty good and decided to head for a feast.

The service was really friendly and we are bought to sit pretty fast. Promotion for their Tim Sum at 40% was pretty much a bargain.

The Tim sum, frankly is not really nice other then the XLB, fried fish skin, Har kao, siu mai and Chee Chong Fun. The Ee Fu noodles is too salty though the texture of the noodle is not too bad.
Chicken feet other then sweetness of the sauce which is too overpowered.
口水鸡being a cold dish was served warm but only the plate is cold. With texture of the chicken that is tough and dry is not really palatable though the sauce is nicely flavored.

Xiao Long Bao (XLB) was nicely done with thin skin and generous filling, the minced meat is very fine with slight savory taste. I would reccommand this item if only they could have more soup in the XLB.

Diners who have thoughts about visiting them should avoid peak hours as I believed that the quality of the tim sum would be better.

For now my option would be better to leave Ah Yat out unless you have no other choices.

Coy: Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant (Birdpark)
Cost: $179 (after less 40%) ~ $19.89/pax

Seoul Yummy~ So Yummy

Hwan-yeong! Great Korean Food with most of their ingredients brought in from Korea, Seoul Yummy had opened their 4th outlet in Marina Square. With a newer fusion concept of korean delicacy, the design of the outlet is more of the Pop Culture of Korea.

With the well spread sitting arrangements, Diners could enjoy their meal comfortably. Overlooking Marina Boulevard, if you sit by the window,  you
can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the beautiful street view.              
The menu is filled with the pictures of their food which allows diners to make their choosing easier especially seniors like me who prefers to look at pictures than words.We were spoilt for choice thus we decided to go with the recommendations on the menu as everything seems very tempting.

For starters, we ordered Braised Pork Belly, Kimchi Pancake & Spicy Rice Cake.
Main dishes were Ginseng Chicken Soup, Army's Stew, Sindangdong Doekbokki & Andong Jjim Dak. And the meal is not completed without the dessert which we had Korean Patjook & Special Trio Bingsoo.

Another plus point about Seoul Yummy is that their side dishes are FOC and free flow, with the pickles, chilli anchovies, toufu, kimchi, radish & watercress.

Braised Pork Belly ($9.90)

Braised Pork Belly is braised with dark soya sauce with light saltiness which enhanced the sweetness of the pork belly. The layers are clearly distinguished from the skin to the fats and flesh. Cooked nicely till soft which just melts in your mouth. The belly is not too oily but yet fragrance of the pork smells just right.

Kimchi Pancake ($7.90) - Served in hot stone plate, the pancake is pretty crispy that is lightly charred adds on to the experience of this dish. The fillings are of chunky kimchi which is lightly spicy but more of a sourish taste which opens up your taste bud.

Classic dish of Spicy Rice cake ($8.90) is one of my favorite Korean dish especially when it is real spicy. The rice cake is very well done given the fact that it is not "Teeth Sticking", coupled with the chilli sauce, it is a real dish that all visitors should order.Spicy Rice Cake ($8.90)

The service is pretty good which they served the mains only after clearing our starters. 

Andon Jjim Dak ($39.90) - Chicken parts cooked with various vegetables marinated in Korean Soy Sauce, stirred fried with Korean glass noodles which is savoury in taste as it sucked up the sauces giving it great taste and bite feel. It could be improved if the chef could reduce the amount of dark sauce used but I am glad that it wasn't too salty.

The well-known Army's Stew is served with a stove which allows diners to eat direct from the pot. Army's Stew is a dish that was cooked during war time and had been handed down since, the ingredients are all placed in the pot and cooked. This served the soldiers a filling meal as well as helping they to kreb the coldness in the wild. 

Army's Stew ($36.90) has lots of ingredients which includes kimchi, pork belly, Spicy chicken, beef bake beans, vegetables, enoki mushroom, hotdog, luncheon meat and of course Korean instant noodles. The soup is of spicy based and well boiled with the essences of the ingredients. Bringing the pot to boil for about 5mins cooks this dish just nice, soft noodles and tender assorted meat coupled with the great favoured soup which fills your mouth with the aromatic taste.

DOEKBOKKI ($39.90) to my surprise this is a snack item rather than a main dish according to Koreans. This is a specialty dish in SINDANGDONG if you visit Korea that is a common "snack". Bean paste taste liked is used to add savoury taste to the snack. Topped with marinated sliced beef, rice cake, dumplings, hard boiled egg, assorted vegetables & Korean noodles. Served on a stove for the diners to enjoy a piping hot meal. The beef is nice when boiled in the broth, the rice cake is as good as the starter. The soup is slightly too salty for me and a lesson learnt is that once the noodle is cooked, stop the flame, as it causes the soup to be thicken pretty fast and the ingredients gets soggy after leaving the flame on. 

Dessert is a spoilt for choice for us. Everything seems so yummy but we decided on a Hot & a Cold item to end our day.

Pat Jook (Red Bean) ($7.90) is served with mushmellow which you are supposed to dip into the red bean paste to add sweetness to it. The paste itself is not a really sweet "Sweet" dessert like our local chinese. It is lightly sweeten with the green tea mochi. 2 different kinds of red bean in terms of their different texture, 1 is cooked till soft like our chinese redbean while the other is cooked but not till overly soft. The combination gives you a different experience on the dessert will palatability of softness and bite feel texture makes this dessert enjoyable.

 6 Turns of Yogurt Mango Ice Cream is served with fruits and nata de-coco sitting on ice with syrup, just like our Ice Kacang.
Korean Special Trio Bingsoo ($7.90) tasted real good the smooth texture of the ice cream with the fruity taste of different fruits gave a grand finale to the dinner.

The whole visit to Seoul Yummy is totally wonderful especially having to try their new items where other outlets had yet to served. Do pay them a visit if you want to try some fusion Korean delicacy.

You can visit them at www.seoulyummy.com or facebook them at Seoulyummy

Their outlets are located at

Marina Square
6 Raffles Boulevard, #02-202, 
Singapore 039594

Reservation Number: +65 6337 3730

Square 2
10, Sinaran Drive,#03-68, 
Singapore 307506

Reservation Number: +65 6397 6939

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 11.30am – 10pm. 

The Central
6, Eu Tong Sen Street, 03-92, 
Singapore 059817

Reservation Number: +65 6227 8802

Bugis+
201 Victoria Street, #04-11, 
Singapore 188067

Reservation Number: +65 6509 6900

Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday 11.30am – 10pm.  Friday, Saturday, eve of PH and PH 11.30am – 10.30pm.

   

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Seng's Wan Ton Mee @ Bedok South Blk16

Seng's Wan Ton Noodles (阿成云吞面) expands its network from Joo Chiat(Dunman Food Centre) to Bedok South BLK 16 Hawker Centre. The usual night business in Dunman remains while Mr. Seng runs the daytime stall in Bedok South.

Relatively new setup but it sure create a queue in the centre. Same familiar taste of the mixture and chewy texture egg noodles is any WTM could die for. Savoury taste of the sauces and lightly heated chilli brings your taste bud to cloud nine. The normal chilli is not too hot but extra request would be great for chilli lovers. Coupled with normal cha sio and few greens adds color to the dish.

The wan ton is decently filled with marinaded minced pork which is finely minced. Refers to my photo.

Ah Seng WTM is loved by my family and my in-laws. We used to have it for supper at least two nights a week ,until the Dunman stall is close for sometime due some reason, before we managed to kick the addiction.

Both the outlets are in operations so WTM lovers can visit both location at different time of the day.

Coy: Seng's WanTon Noodles
Address: Blk 16 Bedok South #01-64 & Dunman food centre 271 Onan Rd #02-13
Cost: $3 ~ $4

Soi 19 (十九街) Wan Ton Mee at AMK

Greetings from the land of smile, Thailand, in Singapore ~ Many locals are familiar with Thailand and many had been there not only once. Especially in Bangkok which attracts many to shop and dine there, typically to a very famous dish of Wan Ton Mee 云吞面.

Soi 19 (十九街）is one of the fav place, 10 mins from the shopping belt of Bangkok near Platinum Fashion Mall.

Soi 19 in SG

Now lovers, for this simple Chinese delicacy, no long have to fly to Bangkok just to have their craving cured.

Located in Blk 151 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5, the distinguished signage will catch your attention and of course with the long queue.

I finally decided to visit them today after missing them on my last visit on Monday.

Queue was long with about 20 other diners before me while i overheard some saying that they had queued for 1 hour just to have their share of this dish. As i waited patiently for my turn, I had decided to go for the big serving & I would have 2 Big servings! (my past experience with the original Thailand outlet, their serving is damn small. even my 9 years old daughter says:"1 mouth Noodles")

Greeted by a very friendly & apologetic auntie taking order, I ordered what I had in mind and proceed to scooping their MUST eat crispy pork lard! This item is a signature to the noodles and with the aromatic smell & taste which will totally lift up the WTM. They have free flow of chilli powder, green chilli, cloves of fresh baby garlic in skin as well as the vinegar soaked baby garlic which allows diners to add to their likings.

 The noodles is of a very unique taste & texture which is chewy but yet soft bite feel when you sink your teeth into it. Coupled with the light fish sauce, lard and fried garlic mixture, the overall taste of the noodles is lifted. The aroma of the different ingredients are clear distinguished. The noodles is served with boiled wan ton in soup as well as fried wanton. The stuffings is packed full with marinated minced pork, which is lightly salted, gives your taste bud a brand new view of the wanton. Char Sio is of a rather generous serving, with the lightly charred appearance and smell. Chinese sausage (Lup Cheong) is added to give you the taste of another rare add-ons to WTM, the firm texture of the sausage & flavours from the spices gives you a different experience when its eaten together with the noodles.

        
The speciality of this stall is in the quality of the noodles which tasted exactly as the original Bangkok outlet.

The passion that the stall owner could be felt with the taste & quality of this dish which seems simple but massive backend preparations just to present to the diners with original experience as in the Land of Smile.

Diners who are keen to visit them could pop-by Soi 19 @ SG to experience this Bangkok experience.

Coy: Soi 19 (十九街）
Address: Blk 151 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 CoffeeShop
Opening: Thursday to Sunday 9am~3pm.
Cost: SGD$3.50/bowl ~ SGD$5/bowl with extra ingredients.

Follow me on my Instagram @@whatsfood for my food walk.

If you are visiting Bangkok in the near future, They location is at click here for walking direction

SabX2 Pratunam Wanton Noodles
4/32-33 Soi Petchburi 19, Pratunam, Bangkok, Thailand, Tel +66 2 653 9618
Opening Hours: 9am – 4pm Daily

肉骨茶Bak Kut Teh ~ Teo Chew Style

佳園 Kai Juan is an old corner shop selling traditional "Teo Chew" Bak Kut Teh. Right opposite 1 of the famous chicken rice outlet, easily unnoticed by passersby, is a humble vintage looking stall with some tables & chairs with a Small stove next to most of the tables. Business has been running for the past 3 decades by the 67years old owner selling only BKT. Some of their dish includes the  braised pork trotter, cai busy (菜尾), Tao Pok & Tao kee & of cos Bak Kut Teh (BKT). Kai Juan is one of the few early startups selling this local delicacy cooked in simplicity yet a hard skill to master. Teo Chew cooking style with heavily seasoned with white pepper and alots of whole garlics with salt added to taste. Seems simple but experience is much needed to ensure soft texture of the pork ribs is retained while the flavors retains in the ribs. 

In the early days, where China immigrants grows their roots in Singapore, meat are a rare dedelicacy which few could really afford. With the limited spices & cheap ingredients, the Teo Chew uses pig bones with little meat to cook soup and sell to the people whom mostly are the coolies. BKT used to be a breakfast choice for many who will coupled the breakfast with Chinese tea to enhance the flavors of the meat as well as a habit to enjoy tea. 

KaiJuan's BKT is nicely cooked till perfection with the tenderness of the ribs which falls apart when you sink your teeth into it. The juicy stock from the meat fills your taste bud with savoury, peppery & sweet taste of the ribs, While you add on the enjoyment with spoon full of white rice.

The add on is the salted vegetables (cai buay ) which is stewed with some pork lard that wrapped the salted vegetables with some lingering smell of lard fragrance.
Braised trotter is soft and tender with the smell of spices like anistar & cinnamon couple with the beanny dark soy sauce taste. The sauce of the trotter is often added to the white rice to enhance sweetness of the rice while adding a beautiful contrast of black & white within the grains.
Small serving of cutter Chinese cruller (You Tiao) is an add on to allow diners ,who loves the alternate carbo intake, to soak it into the soup and watch the cruller sucking up the soup and growing into twice it's size before settling the cruller into the mouth.

Traditional food has evolved over the years and BKT is no longer a breakfast choice but an all day long food to many. The enthusiasm of the stall owners has been reduced largely over the years when many of the chefs passed-on and commercialization takes over. Commercial interest in the business has lost the human touch & lack of understanding in the root of the dish often done by machines or foreigners. The chattiness between the business owners and the patrons is no longer linked unlike in the past where the stall owners would know what the diners wanted when they walked into the shop.

As globalization kicks in, the old traditional business model makes way to money spinner. Do give it a try before the human touch & passion cooking losses to money making opportunity.

Coy: Kai Juan (佳園）
Add: 395 Balestier Road (towards Thomson Medical)
Cost: $25 for 2pax.

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