Swee Choon Dim Sum Restaurant

Bubi brought me to Swee Choon almost 4 years back when it occupied 2 shop lots. The Swee Choon today occupies 4 shop lots and the entire back alley. There is only 1 shop lot left Swee Choon has yet to occupy. When we went last night the last remaining corner shop was closed at 8pm. My guess is Swee Choon has just conquered the entire row of shop houses!

So they have this new queuing system where you key in the number persons you want for the table, whether if you need a baby chair and if your prefer indoor or outdoor seating, your mobile number and voila the system sends a SMS to your mobile phone and tells you your queue number. When your table is ready, you get a call and a guy comes and tells you your table number. Cool. Very cool.

We visit Swee Choon once a month and we usually order the same things. Yes we are boring like that. Haha.

Menu 

Service is very prompt and there is a bell on every table to call for service. Food is delivered fast. The servers are usually very nice and attentive.I ordered yam paste to be served later but was too full and cancelled my order. They were very nice about it and confirmed with me twice they have cancelled it. One of the many reasons we keep going back. Thumbs up!

Chilled chicken in spicy bean paste $6.50 - My favourite dish actually. It taste the best when it is really cold.

Char siew bao $2 - I do not have a thingy for csb generally but Bubi loves it.

Chicken claw $3  - Comes in 4s but I ate 2 already. :p

Shrimp hor fun in creamy egg sauce $6- Looked nicer before we mixed it up but it is really delicious.

Crispy egg plant with meat floss $3.50 - Another one of my favourites. Always perfectly deep fried and hot when served.

Red bean paste pancake $4.80 - Bubi loves this as well.

Fried Dou Miao with garlic $6 - Ok we ordered this dish pretending we are trying to be healthy. 

Address
191 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208882
Tel: 62257788
Opening Hours: 6pm to 6am

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant

A year ago Bubi introduced to me this little vietnamese restaurant in the east. Now the only vietnamese food I have eaten up till then was Pho Hoa at Holland Village because I used to work around the vicinity. So when Bubi raved and ranted about this restaurant I brushed it off as one of his "The restaurant is so good so good" talk because every other cafe/zhi char/restaurant was so good and famous to him.

One will be able to find the shop immediately when driving through Joo Chiat as there is usually a queue of 5-10 people outside the shop that spills onto the pavement. Do not worry as the turnover is very fast. We never had to queue more than 10 minutes.

Once inside, you will feel like you are in Vietnam because the patrons themselves are mostly vietnamese. The wait staff are ALL vietnamese and immediately you will feel a sense of authenticity in the food that you are about to have soon. Apparently Long Phung is where the local vietnamese endorse.

I went on a weekday and on after a long day at work I wanted some comfort food. I ordered my usual dry noodles with fried pork and fried spring roll with their special sauce. It is my favourite of all the pho as it has a bit of everything. Bubi had his usual pho soup with beef meat and beef balls. We tried something new we well! Steam prawns in coconut water which I thought was quite good but Bubi commented that the prawns were too bland. I quite like it actually. The prawns were fresh and the coconut water was light.

The other must haves are member chicken (haha) which are deep fried bit sized chicken and also their steam clams. Thumbs up!

Will update with more pictures when I go again.

 Steamed prawns in coconut water

Pho with fried pork and deep fried spring roll

Beef soup pho with beef balls

Address:

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant
159 Joo Chiat Road Singapore 427436
Tel: 9105 8519

Omakase at Teppei

I have heard so many good reviews about Teppei from friends and online reviews seemed equally good so I was really interested to try it out myself.

It is a real pain trying to get seat at Teppei for their dinner omakase. Their lines open up 4 times a year to book for the next 3 months. During open lines day, you can either queue at the shop or try calling their phone. The last time their lines opened was on the 3rd August 8am. I dialed in more than 30 times over a few hours and I still could not get through. There were people who queued since 7am at the shop to book. It is insane I know.

So one fine day, Twink messaged the Lzbs chat group and said her friends had seats to let go on a Friday night, who wants to go? Me, me, pick me!

There are 2 seatings a night 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm and we got the latter! 5 Lzbs and 1 Bubi! Yeah!

Teppei has $60 or $80 omakase choice. The Lzbs choose $60. Bubi and I of course choose the $80 menu. So difficult to get a seat, might as well go all the way.

Warning - Many photos ahead.

Seaweed salad

Lotus root with chicken broth

Jelly something

Beancurd skin with a light touch of wasabi

Grilled Japanese green peas

Assorted sashimi - I love this dish. The clam was so crunchy.

Chawanmushi - Nice and light

Fried salmon

Tuna handroll - This is delicious. There were crunchy bits inside and the tuna was finely minced. Oishi!

Very blur photo of the tuna handroll.

 Prawn tempura.

Some fish brain with cheese

Tuna

Stewed prawn with radish

Quail eggs 

Deep fried Japanese grasshopper - I know right, ewwww. It took me a while before I popped this into my mouth.

Pickle

Deep fried rooster crown - They really do not waste food huh.

 Cannot remember what is this - Food amenesia

Kobe beef

Sashimi on rice - The yellow one is sea urchin. First time for me. It is an acquired taste.

Ice cream

Oh and we were teasing Ahfat continuously that it is her birthday and she should pay for this dinner .The chef really thought it was her birthday and made her a sashimi rice cake! The amount of sashimi was like free.:)

Teppei san (infront) and his fellow Japanese chef pretending to take our photo but did a selfie instead. Jokers!

It was a great experience especially when dinning in a big group and making a fool of ourselves and laughing away. Bubi totally enjoyed the experience and we were all totally stuffed. Oh yes, we will be back!

Teppei

#01-18

Orchid Hotel

1 Tras Link

Opening hours 

12 pm - 2.30 pm - No booking for lunch. Set meals no omakase

6 pm - 10.30 pm - Booking only - Watch their FB page for updates.

Butter Steamed Alaskan Crab Legs

Bubi and I were window shopping at Jurong Point and saw this no frills shop that was selling frozen seafood - Song Fish Dealer. They are only there until the end of September. Do check out their main outlet at 16 Fishery Port Road.  

There were rows and rows of freezers with all sorts of fish and seafood. What caught my eye was this huge bag of flash frozen Alaskan crab legs. Which if I do not remember wrongly it costs $65 per kg. We bought a bag which costs us $70. What you see below is almost 40% of the bag.

I cooked butter steamed alaskan crab legs for a Saturday breakfast! I know it sounds decadent and sinful for breakfast but it was what I had in my fridge and I decided to make some scrambled eggs to go with it. I will probably post on how to scramble eggs later on since I do it quite often.

Ingredients

1. Alaskan crab legs - 500 grams 
2. Butter - 1/3 of the block of butter - I use unsalted butter.
3. Salt - 1 tablespoon

How to cook

The alaskan crab legs are flash frozen, a process where the crabs are caught and frozen immediately way below the freezing point to keep its freshness. 

1. Thaw the frozen crab overnight in the fridge. Again, I have read many articles online that this is the best way to thaw frozen crab to keep its sweetness.
2. After thawing, bring a pot of water to boil and add the tablespoon of salt and steam the crab for 15 minutes.
3. Take the crab out and drain the excess water.
4. Heat a pan with butter and add the crab and stir fry the crab for another 7 minutes continuously coating the crab with the butter.
5. Cover the pan with the lid and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes on low heat.
6. Remove and serve immediately.

I steamed another batch of crab legs with salt water. I prepared melted butter as a dip and Bubi said he preferred the steamed crab better for it's pure sweetness. Funny thing is the crab also tasted salty at the same time. Not sure if it was the taste of the sea or the salt water steam. Either way it was still yumz.

Pince and Pints - No queue at 5.15pm on a Friday!

So I met Twink for an afternoon of R&R on a Friday afternoon, we decided to do dinner at 5.15pm on a whim at Pince and Pints and also because this place is notorious for having a long queue and no reservation.

Here we are and there are only 3 items on the menu but to me it is 4 because for the whole lobster there is the Steam and Grilled option which taste totally different. Ok I have to confess, the menu came as a wire cage of some sort which you lobsters are caught in and I was wondering where are the food options on this piece of wire. Took me a while to find the options. All lobster options were prices at $48.

Did not take photo of the menu - Dang!

At 5pm, there was no queue and the restaurant was more than 50% empty which was perfect for us. Staff were attentive at that time and they attempted to explain to us what was on the menu.

Twink suggested one steam and one grilled whole lobster and we share the dishes. It was an excellent choice as we tasted the lobster meat in its pure form. The grilled version had a nice smoky taste and juicy.....mmmmmhmm.

Grilled whole lobster

Steamed whole lobster - over salted water

Both came with salad, shoe string fries and also a herbed butter sauce. The herbed butter sauce was really thick, no way you can pour it out but I enjoyed it anyway.

The other 2 options were Chili lobster and Lobster roll. They both looked great while we spied at the other tables when they were served. I read on other blogs that the lobster roll was heavenly. Maybe next time I will order the lobster roll.

The bill came up to $121 for 2 lobster dishes and 1 non-alcoholic cocktail. Not cheap but nice otherwise. Will I come go back? Maybe.

One question we had, were the lobsters fresh or frozen?

Pince and Pints
32/33 Duxton Road
Singapore 089496
No Reservations
Opening hours - 5pm to 11pm

Baked eggs with button mushrooms, bacon and broccoli.

Got back to work after my surgery 2 years ago and lost all track of time. Many things happened in the last 2 years and I forgot all about this blog. I forgot how cooking and eating what I cooked gave me a sense of satisfaction and a smile on those faces whom I cooked for.

So here I am experimenting with everyday ingredients again! I shop mostly at NTUC, Cold Storage, Giant and the wet market across my place. The food I cook is not picture perfect nor difficult to replicate. The food I cook is what I can attempt in a short amount of time with the least fuss. Amateur average auntie cooking. AAAC. hahaha....

So I have been going a bit gaga over eggs recipes, both baked and pan. This is today's effort.

Tadaahh .......Baked eggs with button mushrooms, bacon and broccoli! And extra cheese sausages!

I baked hem in individual plates for easy washing after. You can find the plates at Daiso. I have tons of plates from Daiso and I cannot get enough of them. Everything at SGD2! Remember to check the stickers at the back of the plates for oven safe use.


Enough for 2 persons and depends on how much you want to eat. I change the amount to whatever I want.

Ingredients

1. 5 eggs
2. 5 cheese sausages - Kelly's $7.60 for 2 packets on sale at Giant.There are 5 sausages in 1 packet.
3. 6 slices of bacon - Also on sale at Giant. Hmm $7.95 for 2 packets? 500 grams.
4. Half can of button mushrooms
5. 1 small head of broccoli - 200 grams

How to cook

1. Preheat oven to 225 degree celsius for 10 mins
2. Line plates with bacon. You can line at the base or around the sides of the plates. Put plates into oven for 7 minutes at 200 degree celsius.
3. Put sausages into another plate in as well.
4. Take plate with bacon out and line plate with broccoli and mushroom and back in oven for another 4 minutes.
5. Take plate out of oven and crack eggs over and back in oven for another 5 minutes or whatever doneness you want the eggs to be. I prefer mine a little runny.
6. A pinch of black pepper over the eggs when done,

If you prefer your bacon to be crispier then just keep the temperature at 225 degrees celsius when you first pop the bacon in. You will get the extra crunch but be careful of burning the bacon.

Last week I made the same thing except instead of broccoli I had asparagus and added baked beans. Pretty eh? I bought my Pyrex dish at TOTT years back and put it to good use. You can also use a baking pan but Bubi says we will scratch the baking pan when we scope and eat with our forks so I went with the Pyrex. And seriously Pyrex has that nicer look.

I used 4 eggs instead of 5 last week so really it is up to how much you want to eat that day and adjust the amount.

Ramly Burger at Geylang Serai

It's going to be Hari Raya soon and during this time of the year there will always be a huge pasar malam at Geylang Serai and since Bubi and I love pasar malams we went there to kaypoh.

We reached there almost closed to midnight and the place was crowded! Bubi almost forgot what time it was because he wanted to put a parking coupon and I reminded him it's already past 10pm. The place looked vibrant and busy like it was 8pm.

Ramly burger stores were everywhere, there were at least 10 stalls and every stail had a queue. I always ate Ramly burgers with my family when we visited Malaysia. I will have them in Jb and also when the coaches stop at Yong Peng. Not to mention all those times I go diving in Malaysia I would definitely order a Ramly at Mersing. I want one too now!

I asked Bubi to get me a chicken burger and we gobbled it down in 2 mins. There is something about this burger with a patty wrapped in a flat omelet drizzled with ketchup and mayonnaise and "kiap" between 2 slices of oily buns. Simply sedap.

I bought 10 sticks of otah which were oh so spicy and delicious which Bubi could not handle the heat. Good more for me! And after walking around for another hour weaving through the hundreds of stalls I lost Bubi and lo and behold where did I find him? At a nearby Ramly stall ordering the beef version!

What can I say? Bubi loves Ramly too :)

HAPPY 47th BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!