Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

18th Mar 2010

Famous chicken rice stall in Maxwell Market - Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, now open a branch/shop in Joo Chiat! Branded and upgraded to a air-conditioned restaurant with uniformed staffs. I discovered them when I was lunching at Everything with fries last week. This is one of my favourite chicken rice stall in Singapore. When I was working near Maxwell road years ago, I ate Tian Tian chicken rice at least 2-3 times a month for years. Really miss them and have not been eating it since I changed job, simply everything are nice from the rice, chicken, sauce to the chilli.

The last times I ate at the stall was almost 6 years ago but I'm glad that the standard still maintain. No GST and service charge but the prices are almost 30% more at the shop than at the hawker stall which is understandable with better dining ambiance and higher overheads. Business is surprisingly still very good even at a new location with not much publicity. With 3 other colleagues, total bill for 4 was S$36.00 so was about S$9.00 per pax.

The rice (@ S$0.80 per plate) was very fragrant and not too oily. A perfect match in heaven to eat it with the chicken and the chilli. Yum...

Half Chicken - S$14.00

So succulent and tender! The sauce was excellent too, specially blended by the boss and not simply just sesame oil and soya sauce.

Crystal Chicken Claws - S$4.00

Chicken Spare parts - S$3.00

Beansprout with Cuttlefish - S$4.00

Other than Chicken rice, they also served some zi char dishes. Just stick to chicken rice and you will never go wrong. All of us enjoyed our lunch very much. Indeed was our best work lunch for the month of Mar 2010.




Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
443 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427656
Tel: 6345 9443
Opening hour:
10.30am to 10.30pm daily
(closed on Mon)

Aunt's Cooking - Mar 2010 #Week 4

Monday - 22 Mar 2010
Claypot Chicken Rice (Rice cooker method)
Smoked Duck Salad




Tuesday - 23 Mar 2010
Deep Fried Golden Pomfret with Crispy Chilli
Mixed Vegetables with Dried Shrimp Topping




Wednesday - 24 Mar 2010
Szechuan Vegetables with Shredded Pork
Milk Fish Soup




Thursday - 25 Mar 2010
Stir Fry French Bean with Crispy Shrimps & Minced Raddish
Sambal Sotong & Mussel

Tao's Restaurant

16th Mar 2010

"One Price, One Menu, Many Selections" - An unique dining concept that serve creative modern Fusion cuisines presented with a touch of Zen and many dishes are served in “Tao-Ci” pottery plates. That's the name Tao's come from. We (5 of us) got to try almost all the items on the menu. The food didn't really wow us but their services were definitely impressive. Very friendly, attentive, accommodating and yet not too intruding. For the service and variety of food offer, a 7 course dinner @ S$29.80++ is definitely value for money! Though there were some hits and misses but I think I don't mind to revisit if they launch new menu occasionally.

I was there on a weekday evening with my uncle's family to celebrate Aunt's Peggy Birthday again! Though we had celebrated with her already over the weekends but that day then was the actual day and she wanted to give us a treat back. Sorry for the lousy photos. I was using my uncle DSLR, I didn't set the lighting mode properly so all photos turned out horrible with a shade of yellow. I edited it and the result was what you see now, like pictures taken in the 60's. Personally I think it looked better this way! lol!

Menu
Lunch - 6 Course Set Meal ($19.80++ per person)
Dinner - 7 Course Set Meal ($29.80++ per person)

1. Starters
Bacon & mushroom gratin served with toast

All of us like the cheesy, creamy and mushroomy gratin that go so well with the toast. However, try not to finish all as this was only the 1st course. The serving staff kept asking whether do we want extra toast. Really very attentive.

2. Only for dinner
Mango Sorbet & Grilled Mushroom

These were only for dinner. The sobet tasted like syrup drink and the grilled mushroom was quite nice.

3. Salads
Salad prawn roll with pork floss / Crab meat & fruit salad / Huai san / Farm boy splendor / Smoked salmon salad

All the salads were very ordinary that can do without it. If really have to choose one, then I will recommend the Huai San. Quite special to eat it chilled and dipped with wasabi soya sauce, very refreshing indeed. Love the presentation too.

4. Soups
Shark-fin melon herbal soup / Cream of mushroom / Cream of pumpkin / Fish soup

The clear soup were all quite nice but both the cream soup were too thick and creamy for my liking.

5. Main Entrees
Slow cooked pork back ribs

One of their award wining dish and portion was big. It's flavourful, juicy, fleshy and tender. But too much will find it a bit "jilard".

Tao's oven roasted steak

Though it was not cooked to medium rare but the steak was still very tender, almost has a melt in the mouth texture quite amazing. Quite nicely done up but the sauce was a bit too creamy for my liking.

Spicy stingray

Another one of their popular dish and again portion was big too. One big chunk of moist and meaty stingray top with a rather nice sambal sauce. Very satisfying.

Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese

Thumb down for this as compared to the rest. All you can taste was the cheese and the fish was quite bland.

Tao's grilled chicken

Not bad according to my uncle, flavourful and juicy.

6. Desserts
Creme brulee / Tiramisu / Brownie with ice cream / Cheesecake / Yangsheng poached pear / Green tea ice cream

Their specialities were not on dessert so we didn't have much expectation but the brownie and tiramisu were surprisingly quite nice. Also thank them for serving us all the desserts on the menu that day even though we can only have 5.

7. Beverages
Ice summer peach tea / Ice rose apple tea / Lavender tea

End the meal with a pot of refreshing tea, perfect in cleansing our palates after a heavy 7 course meal.



Tao's Restaurant
1 Selegie Road
PoMo (Formerly known as Paradiz Centre)
#B1-19 Singapore 188306
For reservations - 6339 8858
Opening hours: 11.30am – 10.00pm daily

Everything With Fries

16th Mar 2010

A friend picked me up at my workplace for lunch. We drove to Joo Chiat to hunt for food and landed ourselves at Everything With Fries. A pretty new cafe but already read quite a few average rating reviews so wish to try it myself and dragged my friend in as she was not very keen.

One Egg Soup

This was shared. Creamy chicken soup top with a fluffy omelette. Very creative and I like it very much but my friend think ok only. The omelette complimented the soup well.

Garlic & Herbs Fries / Sour Cream & Onion Fries
Caesar Salad / Coleslaw




The mains came with 2 sides, a fries and a salad. We get to choose between different flavours of fries and type of salad. We had high expectation for the fries since they named the cafe after it but the fries didn't wow us in fact was a bit dry for our liking. The salad was alright and we like the coleslaw.

Grilled Pork Chop

The pork chop was juicy with a nice smokey flavour.

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

The ham and cheese sandwich was a total disaster. The toast tasted weird and oily. My friend only manage to finish a piece. I asked her not to waste at least finish off the ham.

Nutella Tart

Many rave about this tart so we ordered one too. However, this was not our cup of tea too. Too sweet for our liking and not chocolatery enough though it looked so rich. The only thing I like was the oreo biscuit base.

To conclude, not a satisfactory lunch though the pork chop and soup were not too bad. We expect something better than that and total bill for 2 was S$43.00. It's not very expensive but was not exactly cheap too.

Everything With Fries
458 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427671
Tel: 6345 5034
Opening hour:
Tues - Sun
12noon - 10pm

Happy Birthday to Aunt Peggy!

14th Mar 2010

My cousin bought a durian cake from Savoury Fare for her mum. This was the dessert after lunch at Seafood International.

Durian Cake - S$54.00

Fresh peeled durian(D24) is cooked with fresh coconut milk, and then sandwiched between vanilla sponge cake.

Verdict: Probably was overnight so it's not very fresh and a bit dry. I think Emicakes or Angie's The Choice make a better one.

Savoury Fare

164 East Coast Road

Singapore 428870

Tel: 6441 1333 / 6241 1332

Fax: 6241 1332

The Seafood International Market & Restaurant

14th Mar 2010

Celebrated Aunt's Peggy birthday at Seafood International. Though they were being rated rather low in "Hungrygowhere" reviews but my family still decided to give it a try since they have launched a new set of menu this month. The menu on the website looks so tempting and scrumptious but the actual was not so... I think there are more misses than hits but with the kind of pricing we also can't complain much.

There are 40 dishes to choose from and 12 of them are limited to only one serving. Dessert is self service at the buffet table. Out of the 40, we tried 28 of them. As most of them we asked for small serving so we were able to try more dishes. Those dishes that I find it nice are marked with "***". The restaurant ambience is rather comfortable and cosy. Service was surprisingly very good and attentive even though the restaurant was quite crowded that day. Let my photos parade you through the buffet.

All You Can Eat Ala Carte Buffet Lunch
(40 Scrumptious Dishes)

Limited to only one serving (12 of 40 dishes)

1. Braised Mini Whole Abalone with Oyster Sauce (per serving) ***

2. Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat (per serving)
3. Deep Fried Sea Bass with Soya Sauce ***


4. Black Pepper Crayfish
5. Drunken Prawn with Herbal Soup
6. Steamed Tilapia with Garlic Chilli Sauce


7. Braised Sea Cucumber with Black Mushroom ***
8. Sauteed Scallop with Asparagus ***
9. Sirloin beef Steak with BBQ Sauce


10. Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Garlic and Seven Spices Salt
11. Crispy Parrot Fish Fillet with Pattaya Sauce
12. Cheese Baked Green Mussel ***


All you can eat:

13. Prawn with Green Salad ***
14. Fried Mussel with Sambal Sauce
15. Fried Assorted Mushroom with Baby Kai Lan
16. Sauteed Mixed Vegetable


17. Deep Fried Calamari with Garlic Powder
18. Roasted Duck with Hot Sesame & Garlic Sauce ***
19. Deep Fried Chicken Mid Joint with Prawn Paste
20. Crispy Roasted Chicken


21. Seafood Tom Yum Soup ***
22. Stewed Seafood Vermicelli with Fish Gravy ***
23. Stewed E-Fu Noodles with Chinves
24. Crabmeat Fried Rice ***


25. Steamed Chicken "Siu Mai" Dumpling
26. Steamed Crystal Prawn Dumpling
27. Pan Fried Prawn Meat Beancurb Sheet Roll
28. Steamed BBQ Chicken Bun

The buffet offers a small selection of dim sum but none were really nice so please give this a miss if you happen to be lunching there.

Dessert Corner

Dessert includes some fresh fruits, nonya kueh, mini cakes and tong sui.

Ala Carte Buffet Lunch
Mon - Fri:
S$22.80++ (Adult) S$16.80++ (Child)
Weekends, Eve of PH & PH:
S$24.80++ (Adult) S$16.80++ (Child)




The Seafood International Market & Restaurant
902 East Coast Parkway
Blk A #01-01
Playground @ Big Splash
Singapore 449874

Opening Hours:
Lunch : 11.30am –2.30pm (Last order 2.00pm)
Dinner: 5.00pm –12mn
Tel: 6345 1211