Putien introduces the Spring Menu

It is no secret that Putien is one of my favourite restaurants. The flavours and authenticity of the ingredients are quite incredible, and the lengths the chefs take to get this authenticity is unparalleled in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore.

So the spring menu by Putien is no different. The ingredients are air flown in twice weekly from the city of Putian in china. And the preparation is done in the traditional and natural methods and retain the flavours of the ingredients. I went to a tasting of their Spring menu, and was pleased with the food presented.

Broad beans are reaped in Putian in spring, and this process is munual so as to ensure the fragile beans retained their soft texture.

Simply sauteed with just a dash of salt, the dish is very light, delightful flavour.

Putian leeks stir fried with prawn cakes

Very natural tasting. Sweet, quite delicious. The prawn cakes are made just with prawns, no fillers and the taste and texture is very nice.

A slew of bamboo clam dishes were presented. They were all very nice, I particularly loved the omlette and the garlic versions. But here are the photographs of all I sampled. First, just plainly salt baked.

Natural tasting, sweet.

One of my favourites, clams steamed with garlic.

Supremely sweet. Very aromatic fragrance and flavours. The garlic was excellent...I love garlic, so this dish is right up in my alley.

With spring onions

With a wonderful savoury soup

Steamed with rice wine

And deep fried with a light batter

We then had the famous putian beehoon, done Putien style

One of my favourites. The beehoon is finer, more wiry and have a harder and springy texture than the Thai style beehoon we get for example in the ones served as breakfast in many hawker centres.

And for dessert, a loquat flavoured jelly with a preserved loquat. Loquat is plentiful during spring, and have a sourish sweet taste. But this tasting is a bit early in the year for loquat.

Another winning menu by the chefs at Putien. They remain one of the most interesting and authentic tastes in the industry. Highly recommended.

Pu Tien Restaurant
127 Kitchener Raod
67496338

Rocku Yakiniku Restaurant

Rocku is a fun place. Built like a large dining room, each table with its own smokeless charcoal grill. It has been a popular venue for the younger set to have a good meal, and catch up with friends. The venue provides live band entertainment 5 nights a week. And from March, every first Sunday, it turns to be a Cosplay styled venue.

Guests will be entertained by Cosplayers from Singapore, China, Malaysia and Korea. And if you come dressed in a Cosplay costume, you get 50% off their $29.90 Yakiniku buffet.

The discount will be moot if the food is not good...but I was pleasantly surprised that the food is actually very good.

I particularly liked the wagyu beef. The regular buffet features Australian beef, US pork. But we wanted to try the premium wagyu (not part of the buffet)

Nice cuts, no marinade, perhaps just a touch of salt. The beef was nicely marbled, and grilling over the hot, smokeless grills at the table proved to be easy. And made a delicious meal

We also had the seafood platter, which is part of the buffet promotion

Here the marinade is quite well done. Grilling the squid, salmon, mussels and prawns were a treat.

As were the buffet, but to be ordered as a la carte garlic fried rice

Wonderful fragrance. The rice was a bit on the wet and sticky side, but it was nicely aromatic, and tasted very good.

An in addition to the good food, we were entertained by the Cosplayers:

All in the name of a fun evening, good food and drinks, and nice entertainment. Kinda of a different style of establishment as I am used to blog about, but one which I enjoyed all the same.

Rocku Yakiniku
Bugis +
201 Victoria Street
#04-06
6634 3313
www.rocku.com.sg

Fatboy's The Burger Bar

Who doesn't like a good burger? This quintessential of western meals is a favourite, especially amongst the youth and those on the go.

Convieniently packaged, a bun, meat patty, some vegetables, cheese...tastes yum, and easy to eat on the go...except when it comes to premium burgers...where the patty is large and thick, and when assembled, the burger is at the verge of toppling over and collapsing. Most are so large, it is not possible to hold it on one hand, and bite over to get a mouthful of bun plus meat plus veg plus cheese...

But we still do love a good one. I covered &Made and the Landing Point burgers as my reference standard for Singapore. Today, I touch on Fat Boy's Burgers...one of the mainstays of the gourmet burgers in the city...we don't talk about McDonalds or other fast food burgers (yes, I did review Carl's Jr once).

So how is it? The ordering experience is interesting...many options available, on the bun, patty (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), cheese type, vegetables (tomato, pickles, lettuce), sauce, and other additions. I ended up with a cheese burger with all the veg, and a barbecue sauce, with fries and a soft drink.

The burger is rather big. The bun, with black and white sesame was very fluffy, light, soft, but grilled till there were crisp edges. The patty was a large beef patty, minced meat, but tastes gorgeous. The cheese was provolone. Really a nice burger. Juicy, tasty. Very nice.

The fries

In my view, a bit less successful. They were freshly fried, yes, but they were a bit thick for me. The outside were crisp, but not quite enough...not like the superb fries one gets at L'Entrecot or even their burger place &Made. The potato within was a bit powdery.

But overall, excellent burger experience. In my opinion, better than Burg's, but still below the standards served at &Made. But bear in mind, Fat Boy's is almost half the price of &Made, where they hand chop the pattys, and of course with higher quality meat cuts. So for the price of Carl's Jr, I think this is a better, more tasty and more satisfying experience.

Fatboy's The Burger Bar
Many locations island wide

This meal tasted at
Far East Plaza #01-16
Monday - Thurday: 1600pm - 0000am
Friday - Saturday & PH: 1200pm - 0000am

Whampoa Keng Fish Steamboat Restaurant

Fish Head Steamboat, or yee tau lor is one of the healthier dishes on our staple diet of hawker foods.

And Whampoa Keng is one of the better ones around. The main restaurant is in Balestier, but a little bird told me that their outlet in Rangoon Road is better, so we went to sample the restaurant, and found it to be quite excellent.

Located in a quieter part of Rangoon Road, with quite a few parking spaces available when we arrived for a late dinner at about 10pm, the restaurant was rather large, but almost full when we got there, though most of the diners were at the end of their meals, as we were about to start ours.

We began with the hae cho

This was truly superb. The deep fried prawn/pork/crab/tofu ball wrapped in a thin bean curd skin had no hint of grease, and the skin was supremely crisp. While the inside was succulent, juicy, and wonderfully tasty, with the intermigling of the flavours of the ingredients culmulating in a delicious whole. Ho Chiak!

We also had the har cheong kai, or prawn paste deep fried chicken

Much has been written about this dish in the blogosphere, especially prominent blogger Leslie's recommendation. I found the chicken to be good, but not spectacular. All the ticks are in the right places. Crispy and light, ungreasy batter: check. Nice succulent meat: check. Flavourful chicken: check. But some I found the balance of spices, herbs to be a bit out...only very slightly, mind you...so still a very good and enjoyable, but I think the chef has to seek to find that balance to make it spectacular for me.

And to the piece de resistance, the fish head steamboat

A very traditional steamboat pot, heated with glowing charcoal was served. The fragrance as it landed on our table was superb. The bubbling soup was very good. The broth had a very robust savoury flavour, full of umami, and yet had a light, slight creamy mouthfeel with a touch of spice. Magnificent.

The chunks of garoupa slices, of which there were more than chunks of fish head, despite the name of the dish was truly spectacular.

Very fresh, so the flesh was firm, with a slightly springy texture as one sinks one's teeth into it, with the skin a bit more than the meat. Very sweet, and excellent fish.

Definitely one of the best fish steamboat I have eaten. I at the original store in Balestier some years ago, and left unimpressed, but this visit left me wanting more and yearning to return. Soon.

Whampoa Keng Fish Head Steamboat Restaurant
116/118 Rangoon Road

Halia at The Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel is a one of the Grande Dame hotels, probably in the world. And within the beautiful fascade, are some very good eateries. Amongst them the Long Bar Steakhouse and Halia.

Originally located within the Botanic Gardens, the restaurant has made its name in interesting, and often fusion styled cuisine. Afterall, its name means ginger in Malay. So I had expected a mix of cuisine. I was not disappointed in some, but felt some dishes could be a bit more innovative.

The ambience is excellent, service very good, as is befitting a 5 star hotel.

I had lunch recently at the restaurant, and was well pleased. For starters we had the deep fried calamari, which I found to be nice, but not unusual. But the braised lamb was rather spectacular

The 12 hour braised leg of lamb, beautifully done so that the aroma and fragrance is very well done. Eaten with the very crisp toasted sliced baguettes. Very good.

Their speciality is a spaghettini with a chilli crab sauce

Spaghettini is a thinner version of spaghetti...similar in texture and taste to spaghetti. The sauce is quite interesting. A mildly tangy and spicy with a light flavour of crabs. Some strands of crab were detected. The serving is rather large. Interesting, and lives up the fusion namesake.

But yet, one of the speciality recommended by the chef is the utterly standard steak.

I ordered it medium/medium rare inside, and charred outside. But delivered as above. Not quite what I ordered. But the steak turned out rather nice. The meat, an Irish angus rib eye, was tender, though I had a tendon running through the side, and a sliver of fat which was too rich to be eaten. But the lean meat was nicely flavourful, good beef taste, and very tender. The fries were standard offering, nothing special.

For dessert, we shared a sticky toffee pudding

This was heavenly, as desserts often are. The blend of sweet, salty and the hot and cold was masterfully done, and it was rather nice. In case some of you are wondering, the watch was the business at hand, as this was a business lunch for Vulcain to re-introduce the alarm mechanical watch to the market with their new distributors: Melchers.

Overall, Halia kind of lives to its expectation being in a 5 star hotel, and a name which suggests fusion cusine. I recommend this restaurant.

Halia Restaurant
Raffles Hotel
Open daily

Lam's Prawn and Crab noodle

I love prawn noodles. And have cravings to eat the dish every once in a while.

My gold standard is Wah Kee at Cambridge Road, but the queues are too long. I often eat at Khoon Kee at Bukit Merah, which is close, but not quite the same level. But there is another which is also very good, though a different style, and not directly comparable. This is Lam's Prawn and Crab Noodles.

Tucked in a coffee shop in Rangoon Road, this little stall is quite interesting. It offers not only regular prawn noodles, but also large prawns. And also offers the customers to add scallop and crab to their noodles. I have not tried those specials, bu thave eaten the regular and large prawns a few times.

The regular prawn noodles is rather nice, though I found the prawns to be crumbly and powdery in texture. The prawns were also not sweet enough, but the soup was very good. And the more one drinks the soup, the more satisfying it is.

The $5 portion comes with 6 fairly large prawns.

I also tried the large prawns version, only 3 very large prawns were served.

The prawns were altogether different. The prawns were very large, measuring perhaps 3 inches in diameter. And the prawns were quite fresh. The flesh is firm and very sweet. The noodles were ordered dry, and came with a magnificent sauce, which is savoury and very tasty.

Mildly addictive soup, magnificent large prawns. Recommended, but certainly does not dethrone Wah Kee as my reference prawn noodle.

Lam's Prawn and Crab Noodles
137 Rangoon Road
63963289
9am - 9pm(Closed on Tue)

Heng Heng Fish Soup

Fish soup, nutritious, tasty, and well, just good for you.

I normally prefer the deep fried fish slices with deep fried eggs...but that's of course, not healthy...but this is. Sliced fish, boiled in a soup. But my friends Jason and Sherron highly recommended this stall, and went ahead to queue before I arrived, so we do not miss the fish head which tends to get sold out by 10am.

The fish is very fresh, smooth meat, clean tasting. Very nice. The bowl shown below is the fish head, which my friends love, but which I am too lazy to eat...lol...I prefer sliced fish.

The fish stock is wonderful, very light flavours. But very nice. The sambal chilli is also superb. Wonderful belachan flavours, and packs a punch.

The fish slices are nice thick chunks. Very nicely done, and testament to the freshness of the fish, is wonderfully firm but tender on the palate, and leaves a sweet aftertaste. Very nice. Definitely and positively so.

Definitely one of the better fish soups in town.

Heng Heng Cooked Food
Blk 505 Jurong West Street 52
#01-186 Jurong West Food Centre
S(640505)

Food for Thought

Good food and give to a social cause at the same time. Sounds like a good idea to me. And Food For Thought delivers this.

Currently with 3 outlets, of which I have tried two. I have tried the one at Botanic Gardens and found it to be a bit pedestrian. But recently I tried their outlet at The National Museum. Was a great experience. Good food, good service. So I went back again to see if it was a one off...and it turns out the place is really good. So what did I eat? We had the breakfast stuff and pancakes the first visit: awesome. As was the risotto, which we tried again the second time around.

Labelled their laksa risotto...I am not sure where the laksa starts or ends, but this is a good risotto. Nice flavours, if I were to nitpick, the rice could be a little firmer, and the dish served a bit warmer. But the flavours, reminiscent of lemongrass was fabulous. The mushrooms were excellent. Very good.

We also tried what the menu described as crispy chicken curry.

A huge serving of a breaded chicken cutlet, deep fried to very crisp outside, and nice, tender and juicy inside. And generously sprinkled with a curry powder. The curry was similar to the mild powder one finds in curry wurst in Germany. A bit sweetish, fragrant, and very mild, almost non existent bite. The buttered fries had a kind of salsa vinegar sauce drizzled over it, and that had bits of chilli padi which packed a punch. The salad on the side was also nice and fresh.

The cafe/restaurant itself is right smack inside the museum. Beautifully decorated, though still maintaining a cafe or canteen like atmosphere. Nice. Service was prompt, polite. Servings huge. I recommend the place. Good food.

Food for Thought
National Museum

Le Le Wanton Mee

I am a big fan of wanton mee. I can eat it almost everyday. And there are so many variants, varieties...some of them so different from each other that they can qualify as another dish.

I dropped by this little stall in Serangoon Gardens Food Centre (not Chomp Chomp, the other one) to sample this WTM as it had gained some goo reviews from the blogosphere.

The noodles are the thin, Singapore styled factory standard. This contrasts to those we get in KL, where the noodle is a bit thicker, but slightly flattened, so the sectional cut is more an oblong than a circle.

The noodle is very springy, quite nice. The char siew is thinly sliced, and quite savoury. The deep fried wantons are also made from thin pastry which are also factory made. But when deep fried, it is very crisp, and very light, not oily at all. The sauce is a darkish sauce, with a good umami feel, and the chilli is quite extraordinary. Not super spicy, but with a wonderful umami and long after taste...a bit spicy, a light bite from the chilli, but a smooth, very satisfying taste.

The wantons in the soup is made differently than the deep fried one, having a tinge of the flatfish within. The meat filling was a little small, though. But the skin in the broth is very light, and almost transluscent.

Very nice WTM, and another on my list of must eats, along with Eng's and Dajie's.

Le Le Wanton Mee
#01-11, Serangoon Garden Market and Food Centre
49A Serangoon Garden Way

Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh is a labourer's meal...filling, with requisite proteins and carbohydrates. And one of my favourites.

Two broad styles are available. The Singapore style where the soup is clear and peppery, and the Klang style with herbal and often dark soup. I love both. And this rather new place in Simpang Bedok, also well known because it is part of the Yellow Ribbon Project...the shop is owned and operated by ex-offenders trying to make a good living. The owner taught himself how to cook, and opened this shop.

The style offered, was interestingly kind of a mix between the two main styles. It is pepppery, but with a light herbal flavour, with a hint of dong guai - a root known in traditional Chinese medicine to fight fatigue, anemea and high blood pressure. It has a bitter and strong fragrance, and this perfumed the broth.

And like some of the more traditional bak kut teh, the chef has included pork liver and some slivers of pork stomache. Very nicely flavoured. The meat was tender, the nice.

But the star of the show for me was the dry bak kut teh

I figure the BKT is cooked till the broth is much reduced...but also added in the ingredient mix is some very flavourful cuttlefish. Quite magnificent. This is the only place I know of to eat this style of dry BKT, now that Blissful Cafe is closed.

Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh
302 Bedok Road
+65 62733338
https://www.facebook.com/soonhuatbakkutteh
11:00 am – 10:00 pm

Chui Xiang Kitchen lobster porridge

Lobster! Sounds expensive...much alike wagyu or abalone. And a favourite of Kin's.

One of my friends recommend this restaurant, in Commonwealth, in a row of shophouses just beside the now defunct bowling alley. So, as it was close to where we lived, we went to try.

The waitress recommended 2 lobsters for the two of us, each weighing about 200g.

The porridge was more like rice in a beautiful, sweet tasting, very aromatic broth. The broth was not overpowering, and the rice was soaking within just long enough to absorb some of the flavours, but not so long as to be mushy. Each grain was still intact. The broth was quite nice.

The lobsters were smallish, but very fresh, probably live. As usual, lobster is a misnomer, this was rather crayfish. The meat was firm, very nicely flavoured, and succulent. Very nice as well.

We also had the spinach in 3 types of egg. Very nice as well. The broth is excellent. The egg cracked over the near boiling soup is quite nice. The century egg and salted duck egg adding to the richness and excellent taste.

Very nice little place. As we ate, we spied the table next to us having sang yee mien...crispy noodles with king prawns in a thick savoury sauce...hmm..to try next time.

Chui Xiang Kitchen (醉香小厨)
38 Commonwealth Avenue
#01-03

Sate Kajang in the North South Highway

Doing a road trip sometimes allows one to eat well. Perhaps in the US, or maybe in France, and certainly on rail in Japan. But often, travelling by road on the PLUS North South Highway in Malaysia is not a culinary highlight.

the rest stops are quite well spaced along the road, but may sometimes be very crowded during holidays where there are a lot of people travelling. And often the meals are just to survive or to keep awake.

Rarely does one find a gem. But recently, while driving from Penang to Singapore, along a rest stop called Dengkil, along the southbound road, I found this little satay shop, curiously with the name spelt out as Sate, which I understand is the common Indonesian spelling.

Hungry, we stopped for some.

Costing some RM0.80 per stick, we ordered 10 beef and 10 chicken. The beef was rather tender, being well seasoned. The flavouring from the spices were quite nice. The chicken was tender as well, but with the lean meat interspersed with chicken fat, was a bit greasy for my tastes. The gravy was interesting that it was a nice, creamy texture, with a lots of crushed peanuts, but was very mild. Chilli was served in a separate small bowl, and can be added as per one's tastes.

The satay were broilled on a gas stove, and therefore lacked the charcoal flavour that makes satay so alluring.

We also had teh tarik...pulled tea. This was rather nice, thick milk tea, with a beautiful foamy head.

Overall, not bad for a food joint in the middle of the highway not known for culinary delights. Recommended.

Sate Kajang Hj Samururi

R&R Dengkil Southbound

PLUS North South Highway

Malaysia

Status: apologies for delay in postings

Quick status update...sorry guys have neglected HoChiak a bit these few weeks...trying to get traction on my new website, at Deployant.com. We hit 13000 page views in about 10 days, and 1000+ Facebook likes and still growing very strongly. But a lot more work to be done. And HoChiak will be back. Soon.

Fu Lin Tou Fu Yuen Yong Tau Foo

One of my close friends love a good yong tau foo...so whenever I eat with her, YTF is the go to food, and Fu Lin Tou Fu Yuen is one of the favourites.

A huge selection is available, pick and choose. From boiled stuff to deep fried ones. Fish balls, meat balls, vegetables, etc.

Served at the table, a mix of deep fried, and boiled..

The deep fried ones are very crisply done. Very flavourful. The sauce is quite special, both the sweet sauce and chilli sauce is rather good.

The noodles are the thick bee hoon, with a nice lor sauce laced with minced chicken.

Highly recommended.

Fu Lin Tou Fu Yuen
721 East Coast Road
64462363
8.30am to 8.30pm

Lion D'or in Geneva

I have written about my experiences at the 1 Michelin starred Lion D'Or in Geneva once. Actually I eat there almost every year, and am constantly delighted with the quality of the cooking as well as the excellent service.

As it is SIHH season again, I had the opportunity to dine there again. I started with a lobster dish, Lobster “à la plancha”, medley of autumn vegetables artichoke fritters, roquette salsa

At first taste, I wanted to rise to my feet and applause the chef. The lobster was truly excellent. The flesh nice tender, but not so tender as it melts in your mouth. It has a nice, firm feel to the bite...I suppose al dente is the correct description. But yielding with pressure, and releasing a wonderful aroman and flavour. Very sweet meat. Magnificent. The vegetables served well as supporting cast, but the lobster was certainly the star.

My dining companion had the cannelloni with black truffles.

As the dish was presented to the table, I could already breath in the wonderful aroma of the fresh black truffles. Shaved in thick slices, and placed over the rolls of canneloni...the pasta, was of course cooked perfectly. And the simplicity of the dish made it all the more excellent. I tried one canneloni piece with a slice of truffle. Heavenly....unless you don't like truffles...but otherwise, highly recommended, despite the high price of CHF95+++ for the dish.

I had the whole sole from Brittany, sauteed in a butter mixed with meat sauce potato mousseline and wild mushroom enhanced with crispy sage petals

Also very good...though just short of the supreme excellence of the lobster and truffle pasta dishes. The sole fish was superbly fresh, and perfectly cooked, with the butter sauce permeating and embuing the meat with a wonderful mouthfeel and flavour.

For dessert, I had the souffle.

Ultra light, warm qunce souffle with a walnut biscuit and quince sherbert. Again quite excellent. The souffle was a bit smaller than I had expected, being used to the huge, airy soufles in Paris, but it was nonetheless very light, very tasty. The light quince flavour permeated nicely, and ably supported by the sherbert, which gave a more accute and sharp taste of the quince.

Overall, excellent plus plus restaurant and great cooking. A bit pricey as Michelin starred restaurants tend to be. Highly recommended if budget permits.

Lion D'or
chefs: Dupont & Byrne
Place P. Gautier 5
CH-1223 Cologny
+41 (0)22 736 44 32