18 Feb 2012 - Zhou's Kitchen high tea buffet

Wanted to sleep in this rainy day, but got nagged at to go out. For "fresh air".

Went to Zhou's Kitchen at Novena Square2 for their high tea buffet, $16.80++ per person. Had a refillable pot of pu'er tea for $2.40++ too.

Fried crab rolls - crispy, but insides tasted more doughy than crabby. Perhaps crab meat is too delicate to be done this way, reminded him of the "fiery balls of crab" at Joe's Crab Shack during his stay in Dallas in 2011.


Fried dory fish fillet done Thai-style. Many people like tender dory fish, and it was made better with the sweet and slightly spicy sauce.


Prawn salad has always been his favourite. Succulent prawns, sweet melons and nata de coco topped with mayonnaise, just can't go wrong with this.


Pan-fried turnip cake with Chinese sausage. This did not taste overtly oily, he liked that the sausage bits lent contrast to the soft cake. She felt that dried shrimps were not sufficiently used though.


Cold dish of Drunken Chicken in spicy garlic sauce. Notice that this was cut out like ham? No bones.


Century egg porridge for her. He had a few spoonfuls, and thought that the broth tasted a little out. She found nothing wrong though.


Had difficulty removing the shrimp dumpling to his mouth, the skin was just too sticky. Crystal Jade did a better rendition of this.


Braised "phoenix" claws...


Steamed pork dumplings in spicy sauce. Suspected that this was "guo tie" that was steamed instead of being pan-fried.


Pork ribs with black bean paste, with no black beans to be found. Meat was succulent.


These were the weirdest siew mai they had ever tasted. The orange topping of fish roe seem to have all burst, the dumpling was overwhelmed with mushroom flavour, and the overall texture was a bit dry and hard. The first time he did not enjoy siew mai.


Sour and spicy soup to regain some appetite.


Pan-fried dumpling (guo tie), with pork floss and salad dressing. Warm, crispy and tasty. Nice.
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Finally, desserts to signal the end of the show. Herbal jelly that she complained about not being bitter enough.


He liked the sweet and cool almond jelly with mixed fruit.

09 Jan 2011 - Dim Sum and Dessert

Woke up at noon today and she wanted to go for brunch of dim sum at Esplanade Xchange. He took his shower, finished up chapter 6 of PMP and then prepared to go out.

The name of the eatery that they had visited before, Xing Cha Lou,the receipt suggested that it's part of Banquet.


It was easy to get seats as it was empty except for one couple, perhaps because of their bad eating timings.


Then the procurement process started, and the constraint was that the payment was cash terms when he was hoping that it could be paid by credit...

Steamed pork ribs that had tender meat, though the sauce they were in was a little too oily. He is still wondering how they keep the meat tender, as the pork ribs he uses to make soup always turn out to be tough.


Her bowl of steamed mixed meat rice, comprising of rice topped with chicken and pork. Good blend of colors huh.


Soup dumplings (xiao long bao) that were served in cake cups. He's probably mentioned this before, good for catching soup that spill out of the dumplings.


Pork dumplings (siew mai) that had succulent prawns and topped with fish roe. These were different from the usual pork mince dumplings in that the pork used were chunky resulting in a firmer bite.


Close up of the roe, each one is a flavourful burst when you bite into it.


"Claws of the Phoenix" - chicken claws actually, again, stuff that both of them like. Somehow the shin part was omitted.


Next up on the list... she remembered that the dessert shop Ji De Chi was too crowded the other day after they dined at Lai Lai Family Restaurant, and suggested that they head there to try their luck. Arriving at Liang Seah Street...


He had read off a blog about a certain green tea mango dessert and flipped through the menu in an attempt to find it. The green tea roll consisted of the mango fruit and glutinous rice as fillings.


Let's take you closer to the fillings part, mango chunk and glutinous rice within the green tea roll.


Not one to resist the durian temptation, the snowy ice durian dessert also arrived at their table. This is not your regular ice shaving, it was layered in sheets and the ice was really snowy soft, without the irregular ice bits that you have to bite with your molars. Served with refreshing lychee pearls and pomelo pulp.


Close up on the sheets of "snow"...


The damage that left him with 50 cents that you partially see on the left...

Food splurge - 13 Nov 2010

had agreed that they would go take photographs instead of the usual shopping at the same malls, same shops every weekend. alighted at dhoby gaut to finalise booking for their cruise first. once that was done, they randomly walked along bras basah road until she claimed to be hungry (which was an understatement, you'll see why later). kopitiam was too crowded, so they continued their walk.

crossed the junction and walked across chijmes. cosafe is still standing, but the other pubs seem to have long gone. with raffles city in sight, and his sweat tap at full blast, they decided to beat the heat and humidity in the shopping mall.

unfortunately, (fortunately to some), the shops she likes are here, there, everywhere. not much of choice but to let her browse till her heart's content, which didn't really happened. it was hijacked halfway through when she remembered that she was hungry. walked around the basement and the big banner of sliders pulled her into The Hand Burger.


sharpening the utensils while waiting


she declared that she wanted to have all four different sliders, and that's what they ordered. available during tea time from 3pm-6.30pm. 1 for $3 and 4 for ~$10.80


the original beef - got grabbed by her.


bacon wrapped chicken - his choice of poultry anyway


dory fish - somehow it tasted like fish cake, liked the spicy flavour though.


pulled pork - she didn't like the barbecue sauce, too sourish for her. so he gladly finished it up.


next up, she wanted some dessert... and they went to j.co for some donuts. horror, horror, 6 donuts ordered. couldn't find the almond one he had the other time, so he let her take her pick.


more sinfully glazed and cream filled stuff


eating the donuts were a mess and they had to visit the washroom again to clean the hands. walking out from the nicely lit aisle led them to Shokudo, a Marche-styled Japanese food bazaar. had some pickled seaweed and braised shellfish. $10++ for these 2 small bowls.


finally could exit from an enclosed area and get some fresh air, walked across the war memorial park. entered the new part of citilink mall through the esplanade exit E for more scares.

her tummy is a bottomless pit, even more bottomless than his! at the right of exit E was a dim sum shop, and she had them seated at a table in no time. total cost came up to $10.40

xiao long bao in baking cups, interesting


teochew siew mai, green and topped with fish roe, first time trying this


sichuan style chicken feet - spicy but she still finished it all


had a hard time nursing the sick stomach back to health, but...we'll see what happens next