Delicious laksa @ the original 328 Katong Laksa, Singapore

Greetings from Kaohsiung! We have been here since Saturday morning, and we fly back to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon! We love this southern Taiwanese city, with so many friendly people with smiling faces, and the bike-friendly attitude. We've been having fun exploring Kaohsiung on bicycles and stuffing ourselves silly with all the Taiwanese food, snacks and drinks. I have so many photos to show-and-tell, but that will have to wait until I'm back home. For now, here is the final post from our trip to Singapore not too long ago.

We are big fans of all the varieties of laksa (spicy noodle soup), and hubby particularly likes the coconut-based laksa lemak, a type of curry laksa with a rich coconut gravy. Katong Laksa is a type of laksa lemak from Katong that we first encountered at a Singaporean restaurant in HK named after this district in Singapore. We paid a visit to the original 328 Katong Laksa which is considered by many locals to serve the best laksa in Singapore.

Small air-conditioned dining room; there were more tables outside:

We only ordered one bowl of laksa because we were still full from eating Nonya cakes and dumplings. Regardless of how full my tummy was, I could still enjoy the richly-scented coconut curry with the generous portion of peeled prawns. It was really good! I found myself wanting more with each bite, but my stomach was pleading for me to stop! The noodles were cut so that the whole bowl could be eaten using only a spoon.

This bowl of laksa was well worth the trip out to the east coast of Singapore:

That was the epitome of delicious in one bowl.

328 Katong Laksa
No 51 East Coast Road
Singapore 428770

Nonya cakes and dumplings @ Kim Choo Kueh Chang, Singapore

One of my fond childhood foodie memories when I growing up as a young girl in Malaysia is eating the delicious and colourful Nonya kueh - sweet snacks that come in the form of cakes, pudding and dumplings. There are so many varieties of Nonya kueh that it is quite possible that I haven't tried them all, and I always get confused about the names! As the culture, language, history and food of the Nonya-Baba (aka Peranakan) are integrations of the Chinese and Malays, many of the Nonya kueh are also native to the Chinese and Malay cultures. Basically, the Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese immigrants who settled in Malacca, Penang, Indonesia and Singapore, and they intermarried with the local Malays. My maternal grandma is a Nonya from Malacca, and when I was a little girl, I was told of the cool possibility that we may be descendants of Hang Li Po, a Chinese princess who was married to the Sultan of Malacca in the 15th century. Of course, it's also entirely possible that our ancestry could have humbler beginnings, tracing back to one of the handmaidens who intermarried the local Malays, but let's not shatter the fantasy. I digress. Singapore has its own Peranakan community within Katong, and here we paid a visit to Kim Choo Kueh Chang. I had intentions of only buying some snacks to taste, but I got a bit carried away in my excitement.

Kim Choo Kueh Chang shopfront, with colourful kueh, snacks and bak chang (savoury meat dumplings):

Beautiful assortments of sweet cakes and savoury snacks, and bottles of Nonya kaya (coconut egg jam) were also available for sale:

There were also chiffon cakes and chocolate muffin (top), various kueh sprinkled with dessicated coconut (middle), and ang ku kueh too (right):

Another of my childhood favourite food: bak chang - savoury glutinous rice dumplings with delicious savoury meat fillings. Other filling ingredients also added, depending on type. I got two different types, the Nonya Chang (minced pork, wintermelon cubes and Nonya spices, wrapped in pandan leaves) and the Salty Chang (five-spice-flavoured glutinous rice dumplings with pork, shiitake mushrooms and roasted chestnuts, wrapped in bamboo leaves):

One of the chang, unwrapped:

The glutinous rice dumplings were hefty, and only one would have proved too much for myself. Delicious stuff:

The packet of assorted kueh we bought, still wrapped up:

Kueh Lapis (layered cake) - I love peeling off each layer. This had a subtle overlying taste that didn't belong, and I couldn't figure out where it could have come from - perhaps it came from the food colouring? Hubby thought it tasted fine:

Kueh Dadar (pandan crepe stuffed with coconut and gula melaka) - we really enjoyed this one. :

The crepe was chewy and the coconut filling was moist and not too sweet:

This kueh was like Kueh Talam, but I think the guy said the yellow part was yellow mung beans. Another good choice:

The two bak chang we bought were good and substantial to be lunch material, and the kueh were mostly good. We especially liked the kueh dadar.

Kim Choo Kueh Chang
111 E Coast Rd,
Singapore 428801
Tel. +65 6741 2125

Kaya toast breakfast @ Ya Kun (Bugis Junction), Singapore

A popular breakfast and snack item for both Malaysians and Singaporeans is the kaya toast. Kaya is a sweet and creamy coconut egg jam that is usually enjoyed with bread or cream crackers, and I grew up on this delicious stuff. There are two types of kaya - Nonya kaya is green due to the use of pandan leaves, and whereas Hainanese kaya is orange or brown colour because the sugar is caramalised first. We could get jars of kaya in the oriental shops in Australia, but I had to go without kaya for the four years we were in Japan. Imagine my delight when I found both types of kaya at the supermarkets in Hong Kong shortly after we moved from Japan! Kaya toast is somewhat of a Singaporean cultural icon, and I naturally felt I had to have kaya toast during our few days stay in Singapore recently (never mind the fact that I already eat the stuff at home). Although we had a pretty good breakfast buffet included with our room rate at our hotel, I gave up my breakfast pass one day to my sister's boyfriend, and joined her for a kaya toast breakfast. It worked out well, because he wasn't interested in having kaya toast (his paleo diet also doesn't allow him to have bread), and it was better value for him to have the buffet as he eats a lot of protein and he can eat far more than I. Hubby and son stayed behind for the breakfast buffet, and yes, I did worry a little about what hubby would feed the kid, but it helped that I had eaten the buffet on the first morning and could show hubby what I usually give the boy for brekkie (hubby did a great job, by the way).

A straightforward set-up at Ya Kun Kaya Toast:

Although there are many kopitiam (Malay for "coffee shop") in Singapore serving kaya toast, Ya Kun Kaya Toast is the most accessible with over 30 outlets in Singapore. It was easy to find a Ya Kun store near our hotel, and my sis and I eagerly set out for some local breakfast. The store at Bugis Junction was crowded, but we arrived just as someone was leaving so we got a table quite easily. There were a few varieties of toast to choose from: Kaya Toast with Butter, Kaya Peanut Toast, Butter Sugar Toast, Cheese Toast with Kaya, Cheesy French Toast with Kaya and French Toast with Kaya, which can be ordered a-la-carte or in a value set meal. We both ordered got the Kaya Toast Set (around S$4), which included two soft-boiled eggs and a drink. Ordering was fairly straightforward - we placed our orders and paid at the counter, waited for our trays of eggs and drinks, sat down at our table with the trays while the kaya toast was being prepared, and the kaya toasts were served to our tables. It was a fairly simple meal with relatively high protein and carbs that kept me going until lunch time. Our only complaint was the overly-sweet drinks, which is the standard way to have them here in Malaysia and Singapore, but I don't generally add sugar to my hot drinks. Both my Milo and my sister's Horlicks drinks were too sweet for us to finish, and we agreed that the next time we order these drinks in Singapore, to request for less or no sugar.

The super-sweet Milo drink:

The soft-boiled eggs were more like the Japanese-style onsen tamago (hot spring eggs) where the yolks were firm but retained the colour and texture of uncooked yolk, and the whites were runny:

The Kaya Toast with Butter - two slices of bread, each sliced into half, and slathered with kaya and a slab of butter in between each halves. I don't like butter, so I removed the still-firm butter squares; my sister, who loves her greasy foods and butter, ate hers with the butter but said that it got a bit too rich for her after awhile:

The Kaya Toast Set:

Ya Kun Kaya Toast is popular for a good reason - the sugary-sweet drinks, buttery kaya toast and the soft-boiled eggs gives good sustenance to break an overnight fast, and it is also a tasty snack. Do give the local breakfast a try next time you're in Singapore.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast
#B1-11
Bugis Junction
230 Victoria Street
Singapore 188024
Tel. +65 6238 8904

It's All About TASTE @ Ibis Hotel Bencoolen, Singapore

After a whole day out at Sentosa, we were pretty knackered by the time we got back to the hotel in the evening. It was almost bedtime for the boy, so hubby and I decided to eat dinner at our hotel's restaurant rather than venture out. My younger sister and her boyfriend joined us for dinner after the heavy rain foiled their plans for a romantic Valentine's day dinner. TASTE is the flagship restaurant and bar of the Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen, and the food "is about simply trying everything". The restaurant serves an international and local menu between 12pm and 10:30pm, and it includes an innovative tapas-style menu of around 20 iconic Singaporean dishes served in mini portions so that you can indeed try a bit of everything. TASTE also serves a decent buffet breakfast from 6:30am to 10am, which we know because our check-in guy gave us a nice little upgrade on our room rate to include daily breakfast (he probably felt sorry for us that the three of us had to squeeze on a queen bed, which wasn't actually too bad, but it's not something we can do for much longer because our son is already 4.5 years old and not getting smaller). From the list of 20 local specialties, we could choose three, four or five dishes for S$15, S$18 and S$22 respectively (service charge and taxes were extra). This was pricey considering that we could get full portions of the real deal less than two blocks away at the Bugis Street market, but we needed dinner that didn't result in getting wet and a later bedtime for our son so we willingly paid for the convenience. And we were still pretty full from our lunch so the small portions weren't unwelcomed. The food was pretty good, and I don't think anyone had any complaints (except the carrot cake came out not quite what we expected - more on that later).

Fish & Salad (instead of Chips), which seemed like the safest option for our boy who suffers from multiple allergies. We swapped the salad for the fries that came with my sister's boyfriend's burger set because potatoes are not allowed in his paleo diet. The fish strips were real fish that looked like they were cut, breaded and fried in the kitchen, and was a good non-Asian choice:

The Cheeseburger with Fries. My sister's boyfriend removed the buns and didn't touch the fries (the paleo diet is helping him cope with his IBS issues), but nothing was wasted as we used the buns for the curry below, and there was no shortage of people wanting the fries:

The rest of us opted to share five tapas-style local dishes, and it was hard to pick only five from a list of 20! There was even Chili Crab and Pepper Crab on the list (which we didn't order because of the potential mess factor). This would be a nice way to introduce overseas guests to the local food, in air-conditioned comfort and small serving sizes.

Wok-Fried Vegetables, Roasted Duck, and Carrot Cake, which we'd presumed to be chai tau kueh but it arrived looking more like an omelette. I wished for a bigger serving of vegetables as it was our only vegetable intake for the day and also the cheapest thing to buy and cook. However all the three dishes were tasty and enjoyable to eat:

Fish Curry with Roti Prata - a delicious choice. Bread goes hand-in-hand with curry, and the sesame bun was no exception:

Beef Hor Fun - a very good version with tender strips of beef and flavourful egg sauce:

For a real local experience, go out to the nearby New Bugis Food Village and try the local dishes in a hawker environment. However, if you happen to stay at the Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen, and it's raining with a 4-year-old to be put to bed real soon, the TASTE restaurant is a good albeit more expensive option for a small meal.

TASTE Restaurant
Ibis Hotel Bencoolen
170 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189657
Tel: +65 6593 2886

Revisit: Singaporean/Malaysian @ Katong (Elements), Hong Kong

We have found a decent place to get our Malaysian food fix in Hong Kong, and it's in our backyard! (By 'backyard', I only mean the mall downstairs.) This is quite a great find after four years in Japan where Malaysian restaurants are rare and expensive, and disappointing food experiences in HK where Malaysian restaurants are more numerous and affordable but poor in quality. We never realised how much we took for granted the abundance of good Malaysian food in Perth, until we left. We'd been to Katong once before, shortly after it opened, but that was during lunch when there was only a limited menu available. We revisited Katong recently for dinner to try out their other dishes, and we are happy to report that the food was delicious. It was fairly busy in the restaurant that evening, so the staff weren't as careful about separating the peanuts from the Nasi Goreng (fried rice) as they were last time, and it was just as well that the boy wasn't interested in eating very much that night anyway. In classic Expat Gourmand-style, I ordered way too much food for two people, but we did pretty well to finish all but a few spoonfuls of char kuey teow (which we asked to be put in a takeaway container to take home - we hate wasting food, especially when it's good food).

Nasi Goreng, served in a similar style to last time, except the satay sticks were placed on the plate sans peanut sauce, and we found some peanuts on the other side of the mound of rice (we'd specifically requested no nuts, soy or sesame on the plate). When I pointed this out to one of the waitstaff, the manager was about to whisk the plate back to the kitchen, but we didn't want them to throw out perfectly good food so we said we would just separate out the parts not touching the peanuts for our son. He didn't end up eating much of the food anyway, so I was glad we kept the plate:

Beef Rendang - tender meat in a delicious sauce. This rendang was about 100 times better than the one we tried at another place in HK:

Kangkung Belacan, my all-time favourite leafy greens. This version was not too spicy and not too pungent, perfect for HK people's tastebuds and sufficient for mine:

One of the dishes hubby was hanging out to try - Char kuey teow. This version was tasty with plenty of prawns to go around and many slices of lap cheong (Chinese sausage), to hubby's delight. There were even a couple of pieces of salty see ham (blood cockles), to my delight. The only thing missing was that complex charry wok hei flavour, which hubby thought was just fine without:

A relatively good rendition of one of my childhood favourite - Chai tau kueh. The cubes of radish cake were cut into the right size for the amount of sauce, and the texture was just right - not too firm and not too squishy:

Amazingly, hubby was so full that he didn't want dessert (that hardly happens!). Katong may be a bit more expensive than other Singaporean/Malaysian restaurants around, but that is perfectly justified, given the level of service, hygiene and food quality compared to the cheaper places.

Katong
Shop 2100A
2nd Fl, Elements
1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2196 8086

Good Singaporean/Malaysian @ Katong (Elements), Hong Kong

Running a restaurant business must be tough, as we saw a few restaurants in the mall downstairs close up shop in the past year that we have lived here. On the up-side, it means getting to try out the new restaurants that open up in the place of the not-so-successful ones. When I first walked past Katong a couple of weeks ago and had a quick look at their menu, I was kinda excited to discover that they served Singaporean/Malaysian food - literally in our backyard (figuratively speaking, of course). At the same time I didn't want to set my hopes too high given a rather mediocre experience at another Malaysian restaurant, supposedly where you can find the best South-east Asian food in Hong Kong (according to the HK Time Out Magazine). I'm happy to report that the food at Katong wasn't as disappointing, although it would be even better if the restaurant could consider making their full a-la-carte menu available at lunch time rather than limiting the luncher's choice to the small - but affordably priced - lunch menu.

Katong restaurant, popular for lunch on the weekend:

The decor and the timber louvered "windows" were reminiscent of the Peranakan-style housing found in various parts of Malaysia and Singapore (including Katong, the Singaporean neighbourhood which the restaurant is a namesake of), and it was comfortable enough for a mall restaurant. Service was friendly, and we appreciated the staff's efforts to accommodate our son's allergies, which we know must be a pain especially when soy, nuts, sesame and coconut are used prolifically in this cuisine. The set lunch menu only contained seven choices, which I must admit had initially deterred us from wanting to lunch at Katong, However we decided to stay, and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food.

Father and son occupying their time with some very simple origami while waiting for the food:

All the lunch sets included barley water or a daily special drink (lime tea), both can be requested hot or iced. We ordered barley water, both hot (in the mug) and iced (in the glass), and iced lime tea. I wonder where the restaurant sourced these cool jar glass. I preferred the barley drink as the iced tea was too sweet for me (hubby was quite happy to take the tea as he doesn't quite see the appeal of barley water). Drinking hot barley water and eating the soft boiled grains at the bottom made me feel nostalgic as I remember having this drink whenever my family ate out during my childhood time in Malaysia:

The boy got the Nasi Goreng with Chicken Soup (HK$78), requesting the satay to be served on the side rather than with the rice, and minus the ingredients he's allergic to. The fried rice was flavourful, the satay was delicious, and I loved the pickled vegetables:

Closer look at the nasi goreng, which contained bits of chicken meat as well as beaten egg in addition to the fried egg on top of the rice mound:

Hubby got the Chicken Rice and Laksa Special with Vegetable of the Day (HK$108), which were quite generous in size, making me wonder just how big the full-size portions are!

The chicken rice part of the set. Hubby thought this was okay, which is normal because he isn't a big fan of Hainanese chicken rice. Hubby and I swapped plates halfway through and I started with the veg. Unfortunately I didn't get past the choy sum because I found something that looked a little like a strand of hair (but it was too coarse and rough to be hair, so it could very well be some stray grass that didn't get washed away). I wanted to make sure it wasn't hair, so I pointed it out to a staff, who immediately apologised, promptly removed the whole tray to the kitchen and said we will not be charged for the dish. I felt sad wasting all that food, especially when both the chicken rice and laksa looked promising:

Close-up of the laksa, which hubby said was yummy, but would have preferred the flat kuey teow instead of the thick rice vermicelli. Unfortunately I didn't get around to tasting it (see above for reason), but I trust my husband's taste as he can be quite picky about laksa:

I got the Grilled Sambal Stingray with Chicken Soup and Rice (HK$98). This was my first time having stingray, which must be a Singaporean dish as I'm not familiar with it. The sambal was delicious - just a touch sweet and mildly spicy (if my mum was here, she'd have requested for extra chili). It was interesting eating the stingray, which had a tender texture like fish, but with cartilage instead of bones. The soup (not shown) was pretty good, with chunks of daikon in it, and rice was good with the sambal stingray:

We were pretty happy with this meal - happy to find a decent place that serves this type of food, and happy that it's so close to home! I'm not terribly fussed about the "hair" incident; besides, the staff handled it very well. We would love to try out their full menu, so we will be back. Hopefully this new restaurant will continue to be a popular choice, if not with the high end shoppers who come to this mall for the brands, then with us humble residential folks who live upstairs.

Katong
Shop 2100A
2nd Fl, Elements
1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2196 8086

Big Family Dinner @ Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab, Sydney

What do you do with a family who gathers in one place for the first time in years? Have a large banquet, of course! As anyone with a Chinese background or knowledge would tell you, no reunion is complete until the family shares in a large banquet-style meal. The Japanese dinner we had to celebrate my mum's 60th was delicious, but taking a dainty piece of sushi, sashimi or tempura to your plate isn't quite the same as tucking in messily to several large dishes of Chinese-style food. One of my Sydneysider sisters suggested Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab, and this was where our big family group went for our final dinner together before my little family flew to Brisbane the following morning.

Large live mud crabs greet customers near the upstairs entrance. Hand courtesy of brother, who was glad to provide a scale reference:

The restaurant looks like any other Chinese restaurants, except with a more tacky outdated decor. Service was good enough - there are certainly other Chinese restaurants around with worse service (but I can ignore bad service if the food is good enough). Harry's seems like a popular place for corporate dinners, and there was a large group of collar-shirted men feasting on chili crabs when we arrived for dinner. The scene was slightly amusing because these men had donned the disposable apron that the restaurant provides to protect clothing from the messy affair of eating chilli crab. Don't get me wrong - I myself would rather risk looking ridiculous than staining an expensive top that requires expensive dry cleaning. Note that this is not a cheap restaurant. Let's just say that the dinner bill would be a better fit for a corporate's pocket than the average Joe. With that said, you do get what you pay for; we would all have felt ripped-off otherwise. The 2kg mud crabs cost about AU$120 each, and we'd ordered three - but you should've heard the silence that fell upon the table when everyone dug into the crabs with the busy-eating-can't-talk mode on. It's hard - and messy - work cracking shells, extracting the flesh and then finally savouring the crabmeat. The non-crab menu is also quite expensive, so unless you have your heart set on chilli crab, you'd be better off at one of the many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

Singapore Roti, which was supposed to be eaten with the chilli crab sauce, but it had been brought out at least 10 minutes before the crab dishes showed up:

Sambal Kangkung - my favourite green leafy veg, but talk about overpriced! This plate was almost AU$16!

Harry's Black Pepper Beef. Tender and tasty with salty black beans:

Dining at a Chinese restaurant with my brother anywhere will ensure that Peking Spare Ribs will be on the table. Actually, I think this dish is a family favourite because the sisters and hubby have ordered this dish without my brother around:

A decent version of Char Kuey Teow, but overpriced:

Crispy Chicken - not too dissimilar to salt-and-pepper squid. Son loved it (obviously after I checked that it didn't contain any of the ingredients he's allergic to):

Finally came the three large plates of Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab. I can't lie - these were good! Even the sauce was finger-licking good:

The table after all the food had arrived. Apologies for the skewy shot - I was very eager to get back to eating! My mum suggested I take an "after" shot too, which I did, but empty dirty plates aren't very great-looking, so it's not going up on my blog.

Hubby got one of the large claws, which he enjoyed very much!

That was a feast. An expensive one, but a satisfying one.

Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab
Level 1, 198 Elizabeth Street
Sydney NSW 2010
Australia
Tel. +61 2 9281 5565

Disappointing Singaporean @ Cafe Singapura, Tokyo

We're not usually so readily dismissive of a restaurant on the first visit, but you know it's bad when even their o-susume (recommended) dishes sucked. I considered not reviewing this restaurant as we had a rather disappointing experience, but I thought that perhaps I could save another person (perhaps a Singaporean food lover) from making the mistake of dining there. Singaporean cuisine is not very well represented in Tokyo, but there are a smattering of Singaporean restaurants around Tokyo, and Cafe Singapura is one located in Roppongi. Service was good (I've yet to be disappointed with the always courteous Japanese service), and it seems to be quite a popular restaurant with the Japanese people. I guess most of the patrons wouldn't have any inkling of what good Singaporean food is.

We ordered Coconut Milk drink (500yen), which was actually coconut cream mixed with coconut juice and some coconut flesh. I've never had coconut cream in a drink before, and it was pretty good in this combination.

Coconut Milk:


The beef in the Beef Rendang (1200yen) was fall-apart tender, like it should be, but the gravy was disappointing - I couldn't taste much coconut in it, and it wasn't spicy at all. And the serving size was disappointingly small, especially for a 1200yen dish - only three and a half chunks of meat in the dish. This was one of the restaurant's recommended dishes. We also got Pepper Prawns (1100yen), which was perhaps the only dish that was decent. I enjoyed the fresh and juicy prawns, but the plate could do with more prawns and a lot more pepper.

Beef Rendang; and Pepper Prawns:


The biggest disappointment was reserved for last - the Charkueyteow (1050yen), which was another of the restaurant's recommended dishes. CKT is Rob's standard dish for comparison between restaurants serving Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine, but what we had was not even fit to be called charkueyteow. This dish failed on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. For one thing, most of the noodles on the plate weren't even the flat rice ones, but the usual yellow wheat variety. Secondly, the pieces of what we thought were lap cheong (aka Chinese sausage) tasted like hotdog sausage - definitely not the flavourful, fatty, sweet-salty ones. Thirdly, it was seriously lacking in any wok hei (wok "flavour") - in fact, it was lacking in any flavour other than soy sauce. It was very salty and not very enjoyable to eat. I have never been so disappointed with a charkueyteow dish before this one.

Disappointing Charkueyteow:


To add insult to the injury, we were charged a table charge simply for dining at the restaurant. There are far too many crosses marked against this restaurant for us to consider a revisit. The food at Hainan Chifan, whilst not the best Singaporean we've had, is more reliable and nearby (see my previous reviews on Hainan Chifan).