Din Tai Fung - The Usual Good Stuff

Can you believe that movie tix for Kungfu Panda was SOLD OUT on a Wednesday night?!
For a moment I thought my ears were playing a trick on me.

Mr HB and me brought our little princess to J8 in anticipation of fulfilling the sorely missed movie (& popcon) lover in us only to be disappointed.
The princess was calmouring for her "big TV' and went into a mini fit when I told her that we have to change plans.

We then make our ways to Din Tai Fung(DTF) for dinner.

Mr HB and the family have a special fondness for their "xiao cai" which comprises of some sea weed and vermicelli. Looks absolutely unappetizing if you ask me. Tastewise, it is a little spicy and has a tinge sweet and sourness to it. I didn't really take to this dish. Mr HB finished most of this by himself.

We ordered a pork chop fried rice for Mr HB, wanton la mian for me, 6pcs of xiao long bao to share and our perennial favourite dessert bao - seasame bao.

The standard of DTF has always been consistent throughout my numerous visit. The pork shop fried rice has generous portion of egg with every rice grain coated with an even amount of egg on the surface. The pork chop is lean and nicely fried.

The la mian has a good bite factor despite that fact that it is relatively tasteless, wanton is generously packed with veggies and meat. A healthy but satisfying dish.

Xiao long bao(XLB) is one of DTF signature's dish and it has been quite pleasant to eat. What I always do is to first poke a hole at the skin of the XLB and drink up the (fat-laden) soup. Then drown the XLB in lots of vinegar and down it in one mouthful. But do make sure that the temperature of the XLB is OK before doing this.

Last but not least, the sesame baos! My princess loved these. She is a very fussy eater and eats things in small bites (usually not more than 5) when u offer food to her (but not without first smelling to accertain that they have the potential to be good tasting).

So the fact that she can eat 1/2 of these bao all by herself say a lot about the taste. The sesame paste is fragrant and sweet, coupled with the bao skin (which can turn hard if u wait too long) is an absolute delight!

Service in DTF is always prompt from serving the food (usually takes abt 10-15 mins despite peak hours) to topping up your tea and clearing your plates.

Din Tai Fung
Bishan Junction 8
Level 1

Yun Yun Nu Rou Mian

We are planning to bring the whole family to Japan next year in February (Feb09) and this brought about a massive ripple effect on the habitual behaviour of our little family, in one word - cost cutting.
A trip to Japan is by no means a cheap holiday so we figured that we need to start saving money in order to achieve our target. Compounded with the effects of inflation, it is inevitable that we reach this conclusion sooner than later.

So instead of having our meals at the regular restaurants, we are cutting them down to the bare minimum (Mr HB's taget is once a month but i think that is highly unrealistic). So now, instead of seeking out good restaurant food, we seek out good hawker fare.

With Old Aiport Food Centre in the vicinity, I can foresee many more trips here in the months to come.
This day, I decided to have beef ball kway teow soup after some walking around and the sky blue signboard with a cow happened to catch my eye.

A bowl of this set me back by $3 which is very decent considering that every other coffee shop have raised their prices (with some even cutting back on their ingredients despite the raise). A handful of soft and chewy kway teow partially immersed in the delightful broth completed with 7 beef balls. This is definately something I will be having again.

Old Airport Road Food Centre

Ma Maison - Good Food Good Decor Good Service

Made plans to meet up with my pal for lunch at Central.
After some fundamental research, it seems like Ma Maison is a pretty good lunch location (I always have a soft spot for Japanese food).

I arrived earlier than the friend so I walked around leisurely for a short while and found that Central seems to be very Japanese-oriented, populated by lots of Japanese restaurant like Waruku, Pasta de Waruku, Tom Ton to name a few.

Soh arrived after a brief 10 min wait and we proceeded to hunt for Ma Maison. Along the way, she got distracted by Coffee Club but I promptly steer her in the "right" direction.

Ma Maison is located in an isolated corner on the 3rd floor and easy to miss if you are not vigilent.
The decor reeks of english cottage feel (read: very woody) and spots a cozy interior.
We were the 1st customers for lunch today and were promptly seated.

2 glasses of water appeared almost simultaneously to the speed in which our butts touch the chair. Truly impressive.
Ma Maison have taken the liberty of deciding that everyone will be having their set lunches because ala carte menu is non-existant during my visit.
After some careful mulling, I ordered the hamburger steak set while my petite pal have the Omu rice set as she is restricted to a non-beef diet.

The soup and small salad came after we placed our orders as part of the set lunch.
The clam chowder is donned with bits of bacon, onion and baby clamps, quite ok.
Salad is as salad as a salad gets. No comments.

The main course arrived after a brief wait, with the omu rice looking really appetizing.
Here, look at the fluffy eggs.



Don't they look delicious?
My petite friend has a petite appetite, I think I polished off 1/4 of this for her on top of my own orders.

The ketchup coated rice was tasty and not at all "ger lat".

My hamburger steak arrived immediately after in a hot plate, with a serving of fries and a plate of sushi rice.
The presentation of the food is always impecable as in most Jap eatery.
The hamburger steak is a little on the salty side. Fries are very munchy and I like them very much (but then again, I almost always like my fried stuff).
The rice is the glistering type of rice you find in your sushi, steamed to a good "doneness". So good that I finished the big serving of rice.

We ended our lunch with lots of gossip and the coffee and tea.


Ma Maison

6 Eu Tong Sen St. @ Central
#03-96 Singapore 059817

Bread Story - A Good Story

Did I mention that I just turned 30?

With this mini tiramisu cake (and my daughter proudly singing her ever favourite "Happy Birthday" song) that we purchased at the local Breadtalk equivalent at Sunway Pyramid, I am pronouced older (and hopefully wiser).

The cake was rather ordinary, not moist enuf for a tiramisu if you ask me but the redeeming factor is that it is not overly sweet thus making it more palatable.
I was responsible for finishing 3/4 of this cake.

This bakery has an range of assorted bread ranging from the modest raisin bun to fancy ones with names like UFO and BreadPig.

I purchased some raisin buns in anticipation of the visit to sunway laggon theme park for the kids in case they get hungry and needed some food.
But they were dis-allowed entry as food and drinks are strictly not allowed. They even set up a counter to check every bag to make sure that this is executed.
I'm sure their revenue and profit margins have increased exponentially since this act is carried out.

So in the end, the raisin buns ended up partially in my kids' but mainly my elastic stomach since Mr HB is not a bread fan.
The buns were soft and scored high on the fluff meter, I would say these are good quality breads.

The next day before departing, I purchased a raisin loaf to take home.


Bread Story
Sunway Pyramid LG2

Four Leaves - Sones, Scones, Scones

Mr HB ought to be very very upset because I found a new love.

And it's none other than scones! Did I get u there? Ok, a pretty lame and corny effort.

I got hooked onto this english snack recently and cannot pass on a chance whenever I can find a place selling scones. But unfortunately (or should it be fortunately), scones are not very readily available in bakery in this little sunny island and they tend to be not cheap.

To date, I think the one that I like most are those found at "Four Leaves".

Little pile of baked flour, sugar and butter that looks very humble and not eye-catching at all but tastes really wonderful.

Here's how it looks after taking a bite.

Soft and buttery on the inside.
Best eaten with a cup of hot tea.

Mr HB doesn't like it. He finds it too dry and it sticks to the roof of the mouth. Some seriously tongue exercise required afterwards.


There's another version that I tried from Swissbake, which is bigger in size. Tastewise, it has got more milk and less butter content.
Guess I prefer more butter to more milk and it tends to be a bit dryer.

Toast Box - Mediocre Fare

The portions served at Pasta De Gohan is rather petite for big eaters like Mr HB and myself, so we adjorned to waffles world for dessert and followed by Toast Box.
My good friend has affectionately termed me as "The Pig" for my voracious appettite.

The toast box here is adjacent to breadtalk, to give you a bigger breadth of the offering.
We ordered

1. Thick toast with butter and peanut butter
The thick toast is not exactly thick as you can see in my picture below.


Toast is spreaded with peanut butter and cut into 9 small cubes for easy consumption.
This toast is quite ordinary, this is not something I'll come back for.

2. Soft bun with butter and kaya
The bun is lightly toasted but not as fluffy as I'd like it to be. It would taste better if they are more generous with the kaya.

3. Kopi
The kopi here is quite aromatic. I do enjoy the cup of coffe, it was creamy and delicious.
Unfortunately my daughter spilled some of it, causing some wastage.




Toast Box
Sunway Pyramid
LG2

Wendy's - A run for Carl's Jr $$

We are supporters of Burgers (Mr HB and I), despite the fact that articles warning about it's artery choking, fatty and unhealthy contents esp those originating from a fast food background.
We spotted this joint during our previous visit, they were doing their opening publicity with ladies spotting red plaits (Wendy's Mascot).

This time round, after having Carl's Jr for 1 meal, we decided to be fair to Wendy's and had lunch over here just before our departure (we also need a morale booster before returning to reality).

It was really crowded. Look at the no. of people wating to have fast food.

We both order the 1/2lbs with cheese. The interesting thing about Wendy's is they have square patties and their slogan is"Our patties are square because we don't cut corners."

Here is Mr HB's hand distributing our burgers. The size of the burgers is slightly smaller compared to Carl's Jr.

Bitting into the burger, I can feel the juice oozing out into my mouth together with the mayonnise(lots of it) and ketchup. Mmm...very nice.

I would rate this as a worthy competitor of Carl's Jr.
Fries are chunky and has a good bite factor.

Wendy's

Sunway Pyramid

LG2

Pasta De Gohan - Novelty Strikes Once

We decided to have our little getaway and make our way to our "fairy-land" once more (albeit a short 2 month absence).

We spotted "Pasta De Gohan" which looks uncanningly like Pasta De Waruku in Singapore.
After further investigation, we realised that it is the M'sia branch by Pasta De Waruku in Singapore.

We had wanted to visit this eatery boasting of Japanese Italian (wafu this, wafu that) food for the longest time, seduced by the many yummy looking display, typical of Japanese restaurants.
So without much consideration, we had lunch here.

We ordered the

1. Squid sphagatti
This was the most outstanding dish in the display and having read quite a bit abt squid ink pasta, I figured I need to at least try it once to see if this is something I will like.

It looks erm....very black and gives a dirty feeling to the dish.

Taste wise, it has got an interesting taste somewhat close to a cream sauce without the heavy feel. I won't mind eating this again.

2. Cabonara pizza
Do you like thin crust pizza?
Look at the thickness of this crust. I think the term "paper-thin" is very apt to discribe this.

Taste wise, the cheese is flavourful and the bacon and egg is a good combi accentuating the taste of the spread. The paper thin crust has practically no taste but adds a good crisp to the pizza.

3. Lemon squash and *can't rmb name*
Lemon squash is very sour and the other drink is quite forgettable.

This is the most expensive meal we had during this visit RM75. The novelty of Japanese Italian is probably worth visiting once but not somewhere I'll be looking forward to visit anytime soon.

Pasta De Gohan

Sunway Pyramid

LG2