Two Chefs Eating Place, Commonwealth

Totally ignored this blog again. My backlog of draft posts is growing, and seriously, consistency is non-existent here. OH WELL. My bad but I was really working my butt off at work before I left for my 10 days break in Japan for my very first hanami!! The sakura was seriously too beautiful. When I finally get around to it, I shall do my travel posts for the places to view sakura in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka!

But anyway, here is one of my super outdated drafts.

To mark the start of the new year and to have an early birthday meal with my mum, we drove to Commonwealth for some zi char on a lazy Sunday evening. My mum found Two Chefs while searching online for zi char places and wanted to try it so we came here. She even took down a list of recommended food items so we knew what we wanted to order even before we sat down. I called to reserve a table for 4 earlier in the week and was quite thankful that I did because there was a crowd even at 5:30 pm. Unbelievable. 

The simple menu.

Drunken cockles ($7) with a dash of soya sauce, chilli slices, garlic bits and spring onions. Very nice and refreshing! This dish was served cold.

Salted egg chicken. I love anything salted egg so it came as no surprise that I was really fond of the flavour of this dish. The chicken was a little on the dry side, though.

Herbal chicken soup. I could not find this on the menu for some reason, or maybe I was just flipping through too quickly. But in any case, the waitress knew what we were talking about when we asked for herbal chicken so I guess it might be one of those off-the-menu special items? The herbal soup was very good though the chicken was also a little on the dry side.

Vegetable with eggs, salted egg and century egg ($8). Simple, homely dish.

Butter Pork Ribs ($8). What sorcery is this! I was totally expecting pork ribs sitting in a plate of thick butter sauce yet we were greeted by this mountain of white powder. I haven't quite figured out whether it was powdered Parmesan cheese or milk powder, but it certainly was not butter. The pork ribs were yummy and well-marinated but I cannot stop wondering where the butter went. 

Beancurd with golden mushroom ($8). Another simple homely dish.

Very simple zi char dishes at an affordable price. I would not say it deserves the large crowd gathered around the store on a weekend and we would not be driving to Commonwealth just for this anytime soon. But if you are staying nearby and would like some comfort zi char food, Two Chefs might just be the place for you. Personally, I also prefer zi char with more wok hei in the Cantonese style which might also be part of the reason I am not super fond of this place. 

 #01-129, 116 Commonwealth Crescent, 140116

Mon: 17:00 - 23:30

Tue - Sun: 11:30 - 14:30

Tue - Sun: 17:00 - 23:30

Closed on Every Last Mon of the Month

+65 64725361

Botanic Gardens and Earth Jar Treasure Herbal Soup, Sin Ming

Went along with my parents to visit the Botanic Gardens one Sunday afternoon. It was so relaxing to walk along winding paths which cut through lots of beautiful greenery, watch families laze on blankets set on the grass, kids kicking a ball around, and happy happy sounds in the large garden. It reminded me of Central Park, just much hotter and way more humid. Free entry into the National Orchid Garden where so many beautiful species of orchids were on display but it was so crowded in there! I prefer the luscious greenery in other parts of the Botanic Gardens instead. 

I don't remember hanging out with my family in Botanic Gardens when I was a kid. It was a lifestyle that we had neither the luxury nor the time to adopt. My growing years were dotted with memories of my dad working long hours to make ends meet and all of us struggling in one way or another. It is heartening that as my brother and I grew up, my parents could take time off to go to places they do not usually go (with me tagging along) and spend time together. 

It was almost dinnertime by the time we were done strolling through the park and my dad suggested heading to Sin Ming for herbal soup and zichar. The Earth Jar Treasure Herbal Soup is a small shop housed in a coffee shop on the ground floor of a long HDB block. They had a wide selection of herbal soup and some zi char dishes. We picked the lotus pork rib soup, stir-fried potato leaves, beansprouts and sambal sotong.

I am a huge fan of herbal soup and the one at Earth Jar was awesome! The ingredients were stuffed inside a porous bag so that they will not drift around in the soup. This solves the problem of having to sieve out the dregs of the soup. So thoughtful! The soup was thick and flavorful. 

The stir-fried dishes had good wok hei and I love their sambal!

Truth be told, the selection of stir-fried dishes was limited and there was not much to choose from. But the thick soup, hearty stir-fried dishes and homely taste more than made up for the lack of choice. After all, what is the use of variety if nothing hits the mark right?

We went over to Udders where I hopped off and bought some ice cream for my parents and myself! It was a good good Sunday :)

It was not easy to get here and I can foresee that I won't be back unless I get a car or someone offers to drive me. But if you stay in the area, do visit!

#01-244 77 Eating House
22 Sin Min Road
9383 1864

New Ubin Seafood, Sin Ming

I heard loads of good stuff about New Ubin Seafood from many people at work and I decided that I just have to try this for myself. Located in the industrial estate along Sin Ming Road, this place was rather inaccessible and I was waiting for the opportune moment when I could hitch a ride to New Ubin. Eventually, I decided to create this opportunity when my brother's and dad's birthdays were around the corner and I suggested that we have dinner at New Ubin Seafood.

I called to make a reservation on Saturday morning and was told that they were fully booked on Sunday except for a slot at 8 pm. Might be a good idea to call earlier in advance so that you could have an earlier dinner. I made plans for a late lunch with my parents so that a late dinner would not make us too hungry. 

When we arrived at 8 pm, the place was crowded. All the tables were full and kids were running about while families were chatting exuberantly. We settled down at our table and flipped through the menu quickly.

For our daily dose of veggies, we ordered the Stir Fried Garlic Dou Miao ($10). This was ordinary, nothing spectacular. Crunchy dou miao fried with chopped garlic.

Har Cheong Kai ($14) was a recommended item on the menu so we went with it. This was good, crispy skin, juicy chicken meat, and the shrimp paste was so fragrant!

The Salted Egg Squid ($14) was another recommended item on the menu so yes we ordered it too! I really liked this dish. The squid was soft and not overcooked, the salted egg sauce was just so thick! I could taste chunks of real salted egg in the thick sauce which coated the squid evenly. I would recommend this dish if you are at New Ubin.

The Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle ($12) was highly recommended by my friend at work who could not stop raving about it. But I have to admit, this was solid and totally worthy of an incessant amount of praise. The broth tasted of fresh sweet prawns and it was just bliss swallowing mouthfuls of noodles coated with that delicious sauce. I was not paying too much attention on the assorted seafood since the main attraction in the Hokkien Mee was definitely the broth. 

Oyster Omelette with Sambal Blachan ($16). This was average, just normal fried egg with oysters and sambal tossed on top. I would give it a miss if I return. 

The Back Ribs were also highly recommended by my friend so we ordered half a rack ($38). Unfortunately, the Back Ribs left us sorely disappointed. The ribs were not well-marinated and tasted like the chef merely grilled them and smeared some sauce on top. It was also not tender enough, and required quite a bit of chewing to get the meat off the bone. Overall this was one sad dish.

Large Barbecued Tiger Prawns ($45). The prawns were overcooked and lacked the juicy texture I expected. They were generally quite fresh and easy to peel off from the shell. Unfortunately, the tough texture of the prawns meant that this dish was not really enjoyable. I would much prefer juicy crunchy prawns as compared to tough overcooked prawns.

Perhaps all the good stuff that I heard about New Ubin meant that my expectations were naturally very high. The food was generally ok, with some items exceeding my expectations while others falling short. It was overall a good hearty meal but I doubt I would be excitedly planning my next trip to New Ubin unless I have a craving for their Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle.

Block 27 Sin Ming Road, Sin Ming Industrial Estate Sector A
#01-174
64669558
Daily 11:30 to 14:30; 17:30 to 22:30

Macau Fong Cheng Cuisine, Chinatown, Smith Street

Say hello to another awesome zi char find! I love zi char because they are affordable, easily accessible, completely unpretentious, and often possess fantastic wok hei. I am especially fond of the Cantonese style of zi char because they serve delicious double-boiled soups! Slurps.

Anyway, the Chinatown Complex Market at Smith Street is truly a gem. They serve the best yam cake, the best ikan bilis yong tau foo (Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Foo), the best clay pot rice (Lian He Ben Ji), and some of the best zi char ever. I grew up eating these yummy food and I used to come here rather often when I was younger. Back then, I still had time to follow my mum to People's Park and Chinatown to buy stuff. Nowadays I leave the shopping in her good hands even though I still tag along every now and then. 

My family wanted to try New Ubin Seafood tonight but we could not get a reservation for 6:30 pm. So we decided to make a trip to Chinatown for zi char. My mum recommended Macau Fong Cheng Cuisine so that was what we had. 

Chicken Feet and Peanut Soup. This is one power-pack soup. Thick and robust traditional double boiled soup which smelled great and tasted even better. 

Stir-fried chicken in salt. The wok hei in this dish is incredible. The chicken was well-fried on the outside yet extremely tender within. Very tasty dish.

I have no idea what this vegetable is called in English. We call this Yao Men in Cantonese (some pretty poor translation there). We had this vegetable fried with fermented bean curd and it was really yummy. Crunchy veggies in a delicious sauce. 

Sour plum boneless pork ribs. This was interesting - pork ribs coated with a tangy sweet and sour sauce. It was good but I would not rave about it.

Eggplant and fish stew in black pepper. This was wonderful. The fish and eggplant absorbed the delicious black pepper sauce and went very well with white rice.

Rice was free! We had a refill and it was also free! Fantastic. I know I sound really auntie but hey, who doesn't like free rice right? We paid a total of $40 for all the dishes. Such a good deal! Even the substandard zi char near my place costs more than this and the food is not even comparable. This is a really good zi char for the price we paid. 

The Chinatown Complex is pretty big so take your time to walk around and see if anything catches your eye. If nothing catches your eye, drop by Macau Fong Cheng Cuisine. Or if the queue at Lian He Ben Ji Clay Pot Rice is too frightening, drop by Macau Fong Cheng Cuisine. 

Update: October 2015 - No more free rice refill when I went back recently. While it was a nice gesture to have free rice refill, I don't really mind so much that they are now charging for rice (everybody is). Plus standard of the dishes was still very good!

Blk 335 Smith Street

#02-211 Chinatown Complex Market

Char Restaurant, Guillemard Road

The first time I walked past Char (also known as Ch叉r) was en route to The Tuckshop for drinks with Stef and Sim Yee after a huge meal at Old Airport Hawker Centre. That was the meal when I somehow convinced them to overload on chicken wings and I had indigestion afterwards and could not finish my moscato. By the way, speaking about hawker centres, I love Old Airport Hawker Centre. There are just so so so many delicious food there and I am always spoiled for choice whenever I visit. Maybe I will do a post on Old Airport Hawker Centre but I just don't know where to start actually.

Back to Char. Sim Yee suggested coming to Char for our feast one evening after work and we agreed excitedly. I have to say this was the perfect place for a homely delicious meal! It was very crowded when we arrived but we managed to snag a small table in a corner and started flipping through the menu excitedly.

Char is well-known for their roasted meats so that was one item we definitely had to order. We chose the Triple Roast ($20.50) which allowed us to order 3 different types of roast meat. Sim Yee and I each had a Soup of the Day ($3) which was Duck with Salted Vegetable Soup. We also ordered a Minced Pork with Aubergine in Casserole ($14) and Sambal Spinach ($10).

The Duck with Salted Vegetable Soup ($3) was delicious. I love boiled soup and this bowl was really awesome! The soup was not too salty with a slightly sour aftertaste from the tomatoes. The duck was super tender. Ah I wish to have another bowl right now.  

The Triple Roast ($20.50) was served pretty quickly. We picked char siew, crispy pork belly, and roast duck. The char siew was truly legendary. Extremely well-grilled and tender, drenched in a delicious sweet sauce, the char siew melted in my mouth! The roast duck was pretty nice too, though I would take the duck in the soup any day since the roasted duck was understandably harder. The crispy pork belly was a disappointment though. Too many fatty parts which did not melt in my mouth and it was not sufficiently crispy. I would say give the crispy pork belly a miss and spend your calories on more char siew.

The Sambal Spinach ($10) was decent. Nothing to scream about, but pretty decent stir-fried vegetables with tasty sambal.

The Minced Pork with Aubergine in Casserole ($14) was another yummy dish! I love this casserole with soft mushy eggplant and minced pork in a light tasty sauce. This casserole went fantastically well with white rice and I would definitely recommend this if you visit Char.

Char is not a place where you could sit back and relax after your dinner for a nice chat over drinks. They started clearing up pretty early and we felt like we should probably head somewhere else to hang out once we were done with our food. We eventually settled down at The Hideout near Old Airport Road Hawker Centre for some ice cream before heading home that night.

We took Bus 197 from our office to Char and alighted along Guillemard Road. Char was a short walk from the bus stop.

68427759
Tue - Thur: 11:00 - 22:00
Fri - Sat: 11:00 - 00:00
Sun: 11:00 - 22:00
Closed on Monday

Sik Bao Sin Eating House, Geylang - Good Zi Char

We live near Geylang which makes the nearby Sik Wai Sin the perfect option if we crave for good, traditional zi char dishes. We read that Sik Wai Sin only served 4 dishes now as the younger son and former head chef of the family, Desmond Chia, decided to strike out on his own. As Desmond did the wok-fried dishes at Sik Wai Sin, his departure meant that Sik Wai Sin is left with the usual steamed dishes such as the iconic Steamed Fish Head with Bean Paste and the double-boiled soups.

Desmond Chia's new place is known as Sik Bao Sin, which means eat fully first in Cantonese. Sik Bao Sin is located between Lorong 34 and 36 along Geylang Road, a few bus stops from the flagship Sik Wai Sin. We reached Sik Bao Sin on a Sunday evening and found a table in the brightly-lit eating house. The menu reflected many dishes which were similar to that in Sik Wai Sin previously.

This used to be one of the family's favourite. We fell hopelessly in love with the Steamed Fish Head at Sik Wai Sin and decided to order it again at Sik Bao Sin. However, this version was sorely lacking. The fish was slightly overcooked which caused it to be quite tough. The bean paste sauce also lacked the fragrance found in Sik Wai Sin's version. If you want the authentic version of this dish, I would strongly recommend that you return to Sik Wai Sin for it. 

The Watercress Soup was ordinary. It was clear and light, with chunks of pork ribs and watercress. Nothing to shout home about but it was pretty all right.

Thank goodness the wok-fried dishes were still superb! Little wonder that Desmond was the chef in charge of the wok-fried dishes in Sik Wai Sin. His skills were definitely still remarkable and the standard of the wok-fried dishes were consistent with those found in Sik Wai Sin previously. The wok-hei was still fantastic and the fragrance of the oil was amazing. The greens were crunchy and tasty.

The Braised Tofu and Prawns came next. The tofu was well-fried and the prawns were fresh and crunchy. The sauce was robust and thick, which went very well with the tofu and prawns. 

The Ginger Chicken was the last dish that arrived. The wok-hei in this dish was good and I really like it as well! The chicken cubes were slightly crispy on the outside and very tender within. The ginger cubes were really awesome too. I don't usually pop ginger into my mouth when it appears in a dish but I decided to do so this time since my mother strongly recommended that I try. I did not regret it. The ginger cubes were exceptionally sweet with a spicy after taste. 

The wok-fried dishes at Sik Bao Sin is definitely worth the trip down Geylang Road. I would not say the same about the steamed dishes, which taste like a weak imitation of the ones at Sik Wai Sin. However, wok-hei is Sik Bao Sin's winning trademark and will definitely continue to draw crowds to this eating house.

592 Geylang Road (between Lorong 34 and 36)

67443757

Opening Hours:

11:45 - 12:30

17:45 - 21:30

Kok Sen Restaurant, Keong Saik

Dinner with the girls one day after a particularly tiring day at work and we decided to drop by Kok Sen Restaurant along Keong Saik Road. I had dinner at Taratata Bistrot the first time I visited Keong Saik Road after it received a hippie face lift. The restaurants in the area seemed very exciting but it was not until last week that I visited Keong Saik again. 

We wanted to have zi char so we settled for Kok Sen Restaurant. We arrived slightly past 7 pm and all the tables were occupied. After loitering around for awhile, we spotted a family getting up to leave and swooped over to claim the table as ours.

We ordered Prawn Paste Chicken and Spinach with 3 Eggs (egg, salted egg, and preserved egg). We also asked for some recommendations and settled for the Braised Yong Tofu in Claypot and the Crispy Noodles with Prawns.

The Prawn Paste Chicken was not too bad. Nicely fried and crispy with pungent prawn paste. However, Kok Sen probably used frozen chicken because the chicken was quite dry and lacked the usual juicy texture that would make Prawn Paste Chicken a delicious treat. 

The Braised Yong Tofu in Claypot was not bad too. The Yong Tofu items were stuffed with meat and cooked in a thick brown stew. It was quite tasty but not incredibly mind-blowing.

The Crispy Noodle with Prawns was apparently one of Kok Sen's specialties. This dish had the potential to be fantastic. The noodles were crispy, the tangy sauce with eggs was sweet and spicy, the prawns were very fresh and juicy. But one thing spoiled it all - the oil that was used to fry the noodles. The oil was not fresh and had a very weird after taste. This caused the noodles to taste like smelly overused oil. What a bummer.

The Spinach with 3 Eggs was good! Clear tasty soup, fresh spinach, and a generous serving of eggs. This was the one dish I really enjoyed.

Would I come back to Kok Sen Restaurant again? Perhaps, but only if they use better oil for their Crispy Noodle with Prawns.

30B Keong Saik Road
62232005
Opening hours: Daily, 11:30 - 22:30

Sik Wai Sin Eating House

Living near Geylang has its perks. I've been wanting to try Sik Wai Sin for a very long time but did not have the opportunity to do so until last week when my parents messaged to ask if I was keen to take a walk to Geylang after work. They wanted to try Sik Wai Sin too and my dad assured me that it was not too long a walk for my high heels. So we went.

It was further away from Kallang MRT than Lorong 9 Frog Leg Porridge and we had to walk on the main road most of the time as the pedestrian pavement was either full of tables, chairs or various objects. When we reached Sik Wai Sin, a couple of tables were already filled and the place was bustling with activity.

Sik Wai Sin is basically a modest zi char store which serves superb food. There is no menu here and the only way you know what to order is by listening to an elderly lady rattle on a list of yummy food. The eating area is linked to the kitchen so you can smell the delicious aroma of food being cooked at the back while you wait patiently for your food.

The elderly lady recommended several dishes and we went ahead with her recommendations. The Steamed Fish Head with Bean Paste was served first and it was so awesome. The fish was fresh and very tender, drenched in fragrant bean paste. 

Fried vegetables with prawns. The wok hei in this dish was incredible! Oh my, I love my zi char cooked over  very hot fire as the wok hei gives food an extra punch. It certainly takes a lot of skill to achieve this standard.

The last dish we ordered was Braised Pork Ribs with Bitter Gourd. The pork ribs were meaty and tender, absorbing the essence of the sauce completely. The thick slices of bitter gourd were not bitter at all and had this nice salty aftertaste. Yummy!

I figured the secret to the success of Sik Wai Sin zi char was not only the wok hei but also the lard used in all the dishes. I know, i know. Lard is unhealthy, clogs my arteries and puts all my hours in the gym to waste. But hey, none of the other types of oils can give your zi char this unique fragrance that only lard is able to achieve!

We ordered everything above without knowing the prices at all as there is no price list anywhere and the elderly lady was unlikely to list the prices verbally as well. So we only got to know the total bill when we paid for our meal. It was roughly $60 for 3 of us, 3 dishes and many bowls of rice. Quite reasonable for the large portions!

287 Geylang Road