Table For Two

Table for two on the terrace with a view of the sun setting behind the mountain ranges. I don’t know of any restaurant around here that offers such a view.

When we are not dining out, Roger and I take turns to cook simple meals. We eat simply, usually cooking something that is not too much trouble – something simple but healthy. We are not foodies.

We have our dinners on the balcony, or terrace, as some would call it. This way, we get to enjoy and watch the sun set behind the mountain ranges while we eat.

These were some of the dishes I prepared. I am not a good cook. However, thanks to the advance in gourmet science, there are ready-made sauces. Just mix the sauce into whatever you are cooking and viola, you have a nice dish. They certainly make light work of preparing the ingredients from scratch.

Chicken curry

Stir fry asparagus with prawns and carrots.

Stir fried broccoli with carrots

Stir fry eggplant

‘Bak Kut Teh’ – literally translates to 'pork ribs tea'. It is actually pork ribs in herbal soup.

Green Curry

Black pepper chicken

Simple, healthy dishes - usually, one meat dish, one vegetable dish and some eggs or another vegetable dish, and some rice.

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"The Soup Restaurnt"

Last Saturday, I met up with some friends for dinner at ‘The Soup Restaurant’ to celebrate a birthday in the group.

‘The soup restaurant’ is a home-grown, mid-level chain of restaurants known for its family recipes and traditional home-cooked style dishes.

We had the set menu for seven. These were the dishes.

Crab meat seafood soup.

Samsui ginger Chicken
Samsui Ginger Chicken is their signature dish featuring gently steamed, tender chicken served with a fragrant minced ginger sauce. It is typically eaten by wrapping the chicken and a spoonful of the savoury ginger sauce inside a crisp lettuce leaf, creating a refreshing contrast in texture and flavour.

Diced thick mushroom with beancurd skin and broccoli.

Pumpkin steamed rice with sakura prawns.

Honey truffle pork chop. This is nice

Sweet soya prawn.

Doubled-boiled peach gum with snow pear and red dates.

This is the 'Eight Treasure' tea

The steamed samsui chicken was very nice. The honey truffle pork chop was not too bad. The dessert was refreshing. The other dishes are nothing to write home about. Maybe the others will disagree with me.

We brought a birthday cake – a cheese cake.

The branch that we went to – in ‘Vivo city’, had just recently opened and they were offering a 35% discount on their menus. Needless to say, with it being newly opened and having special offers, they were very busy. Luckily, we had booked a table.

Customers were allowed one and half hours to finish their meal and leave. There was ample time to finish the meal in one and half hours, but we did not have the luxury of staying behind after the meal for a drink and a chat. Anyway, we were able to move on to another place for that.

A view from inside the restaurant.

The mall was very busy. There were queues everywhere. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Anyway, we all had a pleasant evening.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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My Most Expensive Meal

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I had my most expensive meal in my lifetime the other day. As they say, there is a first for everything.

The 23rd of February was the seventh day of the first lunar month this year. In the Chinese Calendar, it is also called Renri (人日), or "Human Day". The day is celebrated as the common birthday of all human beings. It is a traditional day for celebrating life, humanity, and growth.

Coincidentally, a group of my friends and I decided to gather for a meal on that day. It was sort of our ‘reunion dinner’ – a meeting of long time friends, some of them from overseas who were back for the Chinese New Year. Because it was a ‘Human day', most restaurants were fully booked. We managed to find one who has a table for us – the Peach Garden Chinese restaurant.

We were recommended, and got sold on the restaurant’s Chinese New Year set menu - $168++ per person. Together with the bits and pieces, the total bill for eight diners came to $1733.35. Divide that by eight, each person paid about $220/-. Ouch!

These were the dishes

Signature Yu Sheng with Salmon and Golden Abalone – a raw fish (salmon and abalone) salad

Peach Garden Nine Treasures Thick Soup. This consists of Superior Shark’s Fin, Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw, Sliced Abalone, Braised Mushroom, Bamboo Pith, Bamboo Shoots, Compoy and Black Fungus

Steamed Fillet of Sea Perch with Superior Soya Sauce

Pan-fried Pork Chop with Black Truffle Sesame Sauce

Stewed Ee-fu Noodle with Baby Lobster and Garlic in Superior Stock

I forgot to take photos of the desserts.

Peanut Glutinous Rice Ball with Peach Gum and Red Date. The one we had was a slight variation of the one in the photo.

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Black Glutinous Rice Nian Gao The Nian Gao was similar to the one in the photo

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Nian gao (年糕) is a traditional, sticky, and sweet Chinese glutinous rice cake, often called ‘New Year Cake or ‘Year Cake’. It is primarily consumed during the Lunar New Year as a symbol of prosperity, as its name sounds like "higher year" (年高), signifying growth, improvement, and success.

Overall, the meal was nice enough, but not so nice that I tell myself I need to have them again.

What do you think? Is the meal worth $220/- SGD ($170 USD)? For someone who eats to live, this is an extravagance I don’t need.

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Brotzeit German Bar and Restaurant

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On my Special Day this year, the ‘Motely Crew’ treated me to dinner at Westgate Brotzeit.

Westgate is a lifestyle and family shopping mall in the Eastern part of Singapore.

Brotzeit is a chain of casual dining restaurants based in Singapore. The chain serves Bavarian cuisine like Schweinshaxe (pork knuckles), Brezeln (pretzels), and German beer. They also serve their own proprietary sausages.

The chain’s first outlet was opened in 2006. Now, they have three other outlets in Singapore and franchised restaurants in eleven markets in the Asia-Pacific region. They market themselves as that “warm, friendly, and fuzzy vibe” that you get when a place feels just right.

This is our first time dining with the restaurant. The food was good; the service was good. The company was excellent. We had a very pleasant time catching up as we devoured our food.

Here are some of the items we had.

Signature Brotzeitplatte platter
This is one of their iconic creations, and is suitable for sharing with 4-6 people. The dish comprises pork knuckle, honey-glazed pork ribs, pork schnitzels, a premium sausage selection, potato salad and sauerkraut. For meat, pork and sausage lovers, this is simply a feast to die for.

Schweinshaxn Fladen
Crispy Pork Knuckle, Horseradish, Mustard Sauce

Nordsee Salat
Farmed Greens, Hard Boiled Eggs, Smoked Salmon and Poached Prawns, White Balsamic Dressing.

Superfood Salat
Farmed Greens, Baby Spinach Avocado, Guta Cheese, Berries White Balsamic Dressing.

Gemischter Brotkorb
Artisan Bread Selection

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‘Bao Fa Cha Chaan Teng’ – ‘包發茶餐廳’ – A Dim Sum Restaurant

Dim Sum meals, for me, are few and far in between. I do enjoy the occasional meal of Dim Sum, but they are quite rich and filling and it is not the kind of meal one takes often – not for me anyway. There may well be people who like Dim Sum every day. Anyway, coincidentally, I had three Dim Sum meals in a month recently, at friends’ suggestion.

The latest Dim Sum lunch was with my ‘Motley crew’ of friends to celebrate a birthday in the group. Someone in the group suggested Dim Sum at ‘Bao Fa Cha Chaan Teng’. Since all of us in the group are quite easy going, we generally go with what was suggested.

Suz, in the group, had dined at Bao Fa Cha Chaan Teng recently and she highly recommended we all give it a try.

‘Bao Fa Cha Chaan Teng’ restaurant is nestled in a row of shop houses along Upper Paya Lebar Road, an industrial area. It is helmed by a Hong Kong chef and offers a variety of classic home-made Hong Kong style Dim Sum dishes and also a small selection of Western fare and local dishes.

The food was good. They are fresh and don’t have a lot of seasoning that we find in mass, factory produced items. Unfortunately, the place was not air conditioned. However, there is a constant breeze from the many fans in the shop. Price wise, I feel it is a bit high for such a location and not air-conditioned place. The restaurant is also not very big and it feels kind of cramped. But Dim Sum dishes are known to be a bit pricier and considering the food are hand-made in the shop and the chef is from Hong Kong, I guess the dearer price can be overlooked.

These were what we had. Most Dim Sum dishes have three portions. Since there were seven of us, we ordered three sets per dish. The good thing about Dim Sum with a group is that we can try many dishes on the menu. If the dish is good, we can always order more. 'Siew mai', or 'siu mai' are pork and prawn dumplings.

Prawn dumplings

Prawn 'cheong fun' rolls. 'Cheong fun' is broad rice noodles.

Fried prawn dumpling

Fried seaweed beancurd roll

Spinach prawn crystal dumpling

Steamed carrot cake

Chicken claws

A plate of yellow noodles, as a substitute for longevity noodles. Some people believe a birthday meal should always have longevity noodles. But since it is a Dim Sum restaurant, they do not have that dish. So, they had to improvise.

For dessert, we tried the crispy durian recommended by the restaurant owner.

Some had the custurd bun

A sample of their menu

‘Bao Fa Cha Chaan Teng’
Operating Hours: Daily, 8am – 8pm
119 Upp Paya Lebar, Singapore 534835

They are five minutes walk from ‘Ta Seng’ MRT Station which is rather convenient.

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