Imperial Treasure Noodle House Sentosa

We just had a great meal of noodles and Xiao long bao (Chinese meat dumplings) at this outlet at ResortsWorld Sentosa. We crave for their simple Yang Choon La Mian (杨春拉面）noodles @ S$6 which is springy noodles cooked in a bowl of delicious hot soup! Or you can order the chicken noodles which is just as good but slightly costlier at around $11 and served with an additional bowl of chicken soup. The noodles are QQ and real chewy. Soup is light and tasty. Eaten together with a plate of spinach @ around $11-$13 and some hot steamy Xiao long bao (小笼包）Chinese meat dumplings @ $6, this is really satisfying!

A picture speaks a thousand words. Our meal in summary:

Imperial Treasure Noodle House is at ResortWorld Sentosa Food Gallery, 26 Sentosa Gateway, Basement 1 (#B1-202), Singapore 098138 Tel: 66862922

FOOD RATING: 4 / 5

PRICE: $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 3 / 5

Original Chiew Kee Noodle House

No Singaporean would not know of the Chiew Kee Noodle House located at Upper Cross Street for their traditional famous yummy juicy soya sauce chicken noodles! This little coffee stall just beside the road and in front of the bus stop has been selling soya sauce chicken since I was young. This stall is hailed by the younger brother while there is another Chiew Kee Eating House further down the road also serving soya sauce chicken owned by the elder sister. 

We just had our plate of delicious soya sauce chicken noodle here in Chinatiwn. The famous soya sauce chicken noodle house in Singapore Chinatown! It's so delicious I gobble down everything and forgot to take a photo of it! The soya sauce chicken is dark brown in colour having been cooked with soya sauce over many hours. The meat is tender and juicy. The skin is not very oily but has just enough fat for you to chew on. The noodles are springy and chewy. They also serve chicken rice. Delicious! See I ate it all up ... And even forgot my photo! You have to try it too.. 

Chiew Kee Noodle House is at 32 Upper Cross Street, Singapore.

FOOD RATING: 3 / 5

PRICE: $ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 3 / 5

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice

This food stall is the one you cannot miss if you visit the Tiong Bahru pre-war house estate! It's been there since 1946. Always long queues during meal times. They only open half the day (8am-2pm). By the late afternoon, all the food would be sold out.. It has been a long time since we ate here at the famous Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice. 

The food stall had shifted from their old time coffee shop at the junction directly facing the Tiong Bahru market to this new coffee shop just 2 streets down the road. Ask around for Hainanese Curry Rice stall if you can't find it.. And people will be able to direct you there.

Rave reviews found on their shop front..

Look what a local Hainanese curry rice feast both of us had! This meal we had are the non-spicy dish menu..  

Well cooked delicious local delight that are so home cooked and representative of Singaporean food on the table! Need I say more, everything is great on the menu. Full stop. 

If you visit them, you cannot miss their Hainanese pork chop, curry chicken, sambal prawn and sotong (squids)! And also their assam fish slices and stew pork in dark soya sauce and cabbages!! The spicy and fried sinful stuff but they are the die die must try!! 

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice is at Blk 71 Seng Poh Road, #01-49 Singapore 160071. Tel: 6225 3762. Open Mon-Sun 8am-2pm. Closed on alt Thursdays. 

FOOD RATING: 4 / 5

PRICE: $ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 4 / 5 (local coffee shop delight!) 

Luk Yu Teahouse and Restaurant

Luk Yu an unusual Chinese name for a restaurant. Its the name of a Guangdong dim sum Chinese restaurant which I believe started a branch here in Singapore. They have restaurants in Hong Kong and China so we must try. We visited the restaurant at Chinatown Point for dinner. 

The Chinese cuisines are generally good. At least for my tastebuds. We ordered the Daily Soup - which was arrow root cooked with pork ribs. Each serving was $6 per bowl. It was well boiled and delicious. Soup base was not too thick. Just nice. 

Next we had the Homemade Tofu cooked with Spinach Soup. Each piece is served at $4. It was cooked chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. Great one!

Then we had the spinach cooked with 3 coloured eggs (that is; egg, salted egg and century egg). Nice and soupy! But quite the usual. 

I had to compliment the last surprise we ordered - which is the garoupa fish fillets dish! It came served on top of soft tofu and the dish was a delight ! The dish was pretty tasteful and the gravy could have used brewed soup as the base. Hence bringing out the flavor. The fillets were soft and chewy. A bite with the tofu blends very well together. Innovative!

All in we spent about $70-$80. Simple earnest and delicious dishes. Reasonable for 5 person. I have yet to try their afternoon dim sum tea buffet. Heard its good. Let me know if you try them too. 

Luk Yu Teahouse and restaurant is at Chinatown Point #01-41/42, Singapore. Tel: 6262 1717  (http:// www.lukyu.sg)

RATING: 3 / 5

PRICE: $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 2 / 5

Tablescape @ Movenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa

Fancy a quiet day out at Sentosa? We escaped to the Movenpick Heritage Hotel at Sentosa. There at the lobby, we found Tablescape. Entered the restaurant for tea..

We enjoyed the free flow of delicious oat bread!

And tried their All Day breakfast set which is not too bad..

Not highly recommended but passable. 

You can go for their Movenpick ice-cream (Swiss chocolate) at $6.50 which is frozen cold and delicious!!

Tablescape is within the Movenpick Heritage Hotel located just opposite the Sentosa Express (Imbiah Station) on Sentosa Island. 

FOOD RATING: 3 / 5

PRICE: $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 3 / 5

Ippudo Mandarin Gallery

Yearning for a bowl of piping hot ramen while shopping around Orchard? Look no further than Ippudo at Mandarin Gallery. The restaurant serves reasonably priced chewy hot ramen! At $16 per bowl. It's quite a good deal. But do note the price excludes the add ons like $3 for bamboo shoots, egg/tamago and $2 for extra noodles. 

The restaurant is cosy and hip. Slightly noisy with the chatting of the customers in a relaxed atmosphere. Occasional shouts of the staff in Japanese screaming ramen is ready. It's enjoyable having your ramen in this restaurant. A good bowl of piping hot chewy noodles cooked in super delicious pork broth. Let the photos do the talking below. Recommended. 

The recommended Ippudo original Tonkontsu Shiromaru Motoaji ramen ($16). Classic Hakata-style ramen. This is the original Tonkontsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, cabbage, black fungus and spring onions. You can choose your noodles cooked in soft, medium or hard style. I chose mine in medium. 

Miso Tonkontsu ramen ($16). Original Tonkontsu broth mixed with blended quality miso. Served with cabbage, Japanese leek, spring onions, pork belly chashu and flavored egg. 

Creamy potato salad. Slightly spiced with curry powder.

Ippudo SG is at 333A Orchard Road #04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery, Singapore 238897 Tel: 6235 2797

RATING: 3 / 5

PRICE: $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 3 / 5

PasarBella at The Grandstand

Long time haven't been to Turf City at Turf Club Road near Dunearn Road/ Bukit Timah Road. The place have changed a great deal with more eateries and children schools! It's even been named as "The Grandstand" now! Though the change in name, the basics never change.. The restaurants like: 

Owen Seafood restaurant, 

Unique Seafood Restaurant, 

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant and 

Restaurant Hoshigaoka still stands there!

There is a new PasarBella market place gathering food delights from various cities and housing interesting little knick knack and organic shops inside. Curio decor and comfortable setting makes it an enjoyable stroll through it.. Very much like Marche Restaurant concept, if you know what I mean. 

Interesting eateries like a homemade Russian cake shop caught my eye! Red ruby glittery cake made with pomegranate seeds melted me away! 

SideNote:- from Pasarbelle Online (http://www.pasarbella.com), it says "One of our best selling cakes in PasarBella - Home made Russian Pomegranate Cake! This moist sponge cake is infused with pomegranate and hibiscus juice. Coated with fresh cream and the generous amount of juicy fresh pomegranate fruits, this cake is a must-try! Recommended Shelf Life : 4 days. Keep in refrigerated condition".

There was also a gigantic seafood Paella prepared in "grande" style.. Everyone was blown away ! See this.. 

PasarBella an interesting new concept eating marketplace inside "The Grandstand" is a delightful experience! True to its slogan, out of town, in to life!

PasarBella @ The Grandstand Bukit Timah 

Address:

200 Turf Club Road Singapore 287994

Opening Hours

Stalls : 9.30am to 7pm

Restaurants: 10am to 10pm

RATING: 4 / 5

PRICE: $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 3 / 5

Marutama Japanese Dining at Kiliney

Ramen News cutting review of Marutama ramen - white chicken soup is the hero of the new ramen era!

Just tasted the best white chicken soup (tori-paitan) ramen at Marutama Japanese Dining @ Killiney. This quaint Marutama outlet is one of their four restaurants in Singapore reputed to be serving the best white chicken soup ramen. Located at the corner Shophouse between the junction of Killiney Road and Dublin Road, you will find this little restaurant. Marutama is opened by a Japanese called Tetsuya Kudou who had painstakingly created this white chicken soup recipe for the ramen base and by chance, now made a success of his soup / noodles in Tokyo and now in Southeast Asia. 

This outlet at Killiney is the only one which also serves Japanese rice set / bentos apart from their usual ramen. Set in a casual warm typical Japanese dining ambience, you can enjoy your bowl of piping hot ramen at ease. The rice bentos are also highly recommended. All reasonably priced around $15-$20. The grilled beef set is the most popular. Did not get a chance to try though. The grilled pork hamburg rice set also looks very appetizing. The manager in charge here is a Japanese lady and occasionally you hear her in spouts of Japanese taking orders from the many Japanese visiting this outlet. 

The Marutama ramen in white chicken soup is the recommended dish for all diners. You simply cannot miss this! The soup is so rich and it contains lots of collagen from the chicken brewed in the soup for long hours. Perfect for ladies who want to have good skin complexion! The ramen comes with a slice of soft and tender char-Shu, heaps of seaweed and spring onions. Top up $1.50 for a delicious half-boiled egg. Other additional toppings are at extra nominal charges. 

Our order of Marutama ramen (white chicken soup base $11), cold tofu with grated yam ($6), and potato salad ($6).

We topped it with a homemade tiramisu ($4.80). See below!

Our verdict : simply heavenly ramen and other Japanese appetizers / desserts thoroughly enjoyed in a cosy and warm Japanese ambience! We give it 4 stars out of 5! Tell us what you think!

RATING : 4 / 5

PRICE : $$ / $$$$

AMBIENCE: 4 / 5

Happy National 49th Day to Singapore

Strawberry Moments wishes Singapore Happy 49th National Day!! 

Cheers to 49 years of nation building ! 

TCS Channel 8 Community Chest Charity Care & Share show 《爱分享，分享 爱》

Got tickets to watch the Community Chest Charity show《爱分享，分享爱》at Sentosa Resorts World Theatre last evening. The program was telecast live at 7pm on Channel 8! What a spectacular show! Roving cameras were hanging in the air recording the show live! It was a great experience to be in a live show! And the audience were a great bunch of enthusiastic crowd too! 

The show had an incredible lined up of TCS artistes for the night like 向云，陈莉萍，Kym Ng 钟琴，Bryan Wong 黄禄冮, 㓋慧芳，陈丽贞，Rebecca Lim 林慧玲，张振環，Prescilia Chan 曾诗梅，奇慧，徐彬，杨伟烈，方伟杰，冯伟衷 among many others.. The masters of ceremony were 郭亮，权怡凤 and 有㦤。

Then there was the special guest star of the night - guess who ? It was Emil Chau 周华健 ! Long time no see! He always have great rapport with the audience and such great songs he delivers! From Hong Kong, there was 陈洁灵 and  Charlie Yeung 杨采妮. Also from Taiwan hails Valen Hsu 许茹芸。Great voices and good line up of the performing stars for the night! All of them with a heart to come here to Singapore to help raise funds for Community Chest ! What philanthropic move ! Definitely have to support them! Thumbs up !

It was a great evening of songs and performance. The TCS artistes had painstakingly practiced drums and also gave a performance using spoons, pots and pans ! Really innovative! Emil Chau 周华健 sang 3 songs that was worth all my wait for the night - including my favorite 爱相随 and 花心。Wish he could croon more!

Thoroughly enjoyed myself going through a live TV show recording! The atmosphere was great and the sound effects were overwhelming. Really can't imagine watching in front of the boring TV box I have at home anymore. What excitement and fun I have with the production crew screaming out during every TV ad break to remind you of your needed toilet breaks! Haha! And of course not forgetting why we were there for - to call the hotline Tel: 1900-112-8828  for a donation of $28 to Community Chest to help those in need.

The night closed with a total amount of $6.2 million funds garnered altogether by the performers and with generous donations poured in from the many kind corporate sponsors. Great job everyone! The show finally closed with a blast by Education Minister Heng Swee Keat. Good bye and good night ! Thanks Mediacorp Channel 8 ! And thanks to all artistes for the lovely memories for the night.. 

Chinatown Fresh herbs

Fresh Herbs in Singapore is a rare find. Little did I know there is a gem in Chinatown food centre basement - market! There are 2 stalls by the name of Chinatown Fresh Herbs which sells these. Example of the herbs they sell: yellow tumeric, Sabah snake grass (优顿草），黑面将军，满天星，臭草 etc. most of which are Chinese herbs used for treating ailments like cancer, diabetes, heatiness, liver hardening etc. The popular herb is the Sabah snake grass (优顿草）which are kept in a big box for sale. See photo above! This herb has been reputed to aid in treating stomach cancer and cervical cancer.  If you or your friends/ family have an illness and looking for some fresh Chinese herbs, you probably can find them and some good advise here! There is another stall next door #B1-157 also selling herbs and operated by a different boss. Find out more before you buy the herbs. Check it out at Blk 335, #B1-158, #B1-161 Chinatown Complex, Smith Street, Singapore.

NHK World Dining with the Chef

Never knew preparing authentic Japanese cuisine for a meal could be this easy. Just tuned in to the NHK World "Dining with the Chef" series by Chef Rika Yukimasa and Patrick Harlan and found enticing recipes to follow! Its on every Monday 830pm-9pm and 1230pm-1pm Starhub channel 148. Today's Tokyo meal was:

1. Gyoza (Japanese style pot stickers)

2. Chinese chives and nori seaweed salad

3. Clams and burdock root soup

Thought they look so easy to prepare! Or is it Chef Rika that makes it look easy? You try it and see. I thought i have to share this with everyone! You simply can't miss these pleasing Tokyo cuisine recipes and more at this link http://www.nhk.or.jp/dwc ! I can't say more than I am going to try out these recipes soon!

Our Cai Xin is growing!

Look at the Cai Xin (菜心) vegetable growing in our gardens! Organically grown and definitely with no pesticide. This is the fruit of labour of my dad who has laboriously been planting the seeds and watering these plants day and night. 

So! we can actually grow our vegetables here in sunny Singapore! This is our first piece of evidence. Unfortunately it hasn't been raining for a month now since Chinese new year ended in January. Its becoming a drought now and we really have to take the vegetables out before they turn bad and burnt by the hot scorching sun. And what with the haze due to the Indonesian forest fires and volcanic eruption .. Global warming ouch!

And look at our avocado too! I wonder if this can be grown here under our tropical weather. Let's see if we can reap any fruits... I have recently received an email blaster selling small avocado trees starting from $288! But see, perhaps we can trying planting some ourselves .. or maybe our government can consider planting some avocado trees .. hmmm

2013 memoirs

I am into healthy organic food this days. Was taken seriously ill the whole of last year - ovarian cancer and am now in remission. 2013 was the year that went quietly by. I had wished for it to go by faster. I am so glad now that its over. 

Many lessons to learn in 2013. One of which is diet and lifestyle. This could have been the cause of the major breakdown of my body last year.. I am picking up healthy food and tips from people around me, through reading and researching daily now and will try to share as I go along ..

Family, friends, relatives and social support was also a big pillar of strength and support for me during my illness. This was one area where I thought I still didn't fail too badly.. Many many people, friends and relatives rallied by .. Thanks to my illness, it even brought some closeness to our relationships!! Aww.. Really appreciate all those angels that helped and encouraged me during the difficult year! Big thank you!

I also learnt that Exercise is one aspect that you can't afford to neglect if you dont want to fall sick. I have since picked up Guo Lin qigong  (郭林气功) now and have been practicing daily. This is the exercise that has been reputed to save the lives of many cancer patients. 

Emotions and stress is another area you have to put under control. Typically as with all working adults, we fail badly in this area as we work late and put ourselves through heavy workload. Back home, we have our family chores and responsibilities to fulfill making us more susceptible to stress. That said, exercise can help to relieve this and food still plays a big part to your body's nutrition and overall well being.. 

So if I may, lets go forward in life to do our best in whatever our endeavours without compromising our health! And join me as i would be searching for more healthy and organic food joints.. Cheers to good health and newfound wisdom ! 

Two Cooks and a Pan

Chanced upon this great western food stall at Botanic Gardens food canopy, located just beside NParks HQ, Raffles Building.

I only tried their side dish - Mash Potato @ $2.50 and am already very convinced that the food they serve are fresh from the kitchen! Spoke to the chef and I was right! The mash potato are made by the chefs themselves! It tastes so natural and slightly creamy cheesy that its such a delight! The chef explained that many of their customers could not understand why the wait for their food, and thats because its freshly prepared after the order! There is evidence of what he say - this freshly made potato still contains small chunks of potato not well mashed up.. ! But it suits me fine as this retains its natural texture. I simply love it hence it deserves recommendation! I suppose the other dishes would be worth the wait too!  If you are near botanic gardens, check this stall out ! 

2 cooks and a pan is located at Botanic Gardens Food Canopy (beside NParks HQ Raffles building, near Nassim Gate entrance), Singapore.