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

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

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.

联合本记砂煲饭 Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice

Found it! Great hot claypot rice!! If you are craving for some hot traditional charcoal cooked claypot, this stall will not disappoint! Expect to wait at least half an hour for they cook on the spot and queue is long. Prices start from $8/10/$12 onwards.

The chicken in the claypot was fresh and tender. A generous serving too! They also gave lots of choi-sum vegetables in the claypot which are usually stinge by other stalls. The rice is nicely cooked by the hot charcoal flames and you could also eat the burnt rice scraps off the claypot, if you know what i mean. Deliciously hot!! Add the black soya sauce and oil, the great claypot rice is here! One thing: If the chilli sauce that came with the claypot could be better, it would be perfect! See our dinner..

Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice is at Blk 335, Smith Street, #02-198/199 Chinatown Complex, Singapore. Tel: 6227 2470

Spring Court Restaurant

How did you spend Mother’s Day? Where did you bring mom to?

Spring Court Restaurant is established since 1929. A place renowned for its Cantonese cuisine and fresh seafood, it was originally located at Great World then shifted to Chinatown but they later moved to East Coast before finally relocating back to Chinatown.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we thought this restaurant would an appropriate wonderful place to gather and have some good food together. We were early that Sunday morning so there was not much crowd when we arrived. We had no time to plan in advance, so we were expecting to fall prey to the commercialised efforts of the restaurants in the name of celebrating Mother’s Day. Surprisingly, when we visited the Spring Court Restaurant at Chinatown, it was not what we expected.

Selected dim-sum was available on the menu and price was quite reasonable, ranging from $3.80 to about $5. The usual menu was slightly changed to include some specialties just for mother’s day. Of course, some of the more common cuisines were also excluded.

We started the meal with many dim-sums which were pretty good in my opinion. In particular, I especially liked the crispy Fried Mango Prawn Roll (@ S$3.80) which was served with fruit mayonnaise. The Deep Fried Beancurd Skin Roll (@ S$3.80) was also very crispy. The Beijing-style Dumplings (@ S$3.80) were very delicately made – about 4 pieces of tiny dumplings dipped in vinegar sauce and we were sure pleased to have ordered it. Steamed soft and wonderfully done.

We also had the Roasted Chicken (@ S$28) which was crispy golden yellow and crunchy delicious. The Bamboo Consumme Assorted Vegetarian dish (@ S$28) was Ted’s favourite. It consists of spinach cooked with mushrooms, black moss, bamboo consumme and many other vegetarian ingredients. It was a heavenly mix! To our surprise, we were also treated to a special promotion of a serving of the Beijing Roast Duck @ S$0.80 !! (This is a special promotion due to their 80th anniversary) The duck was real crispy and delicious.

As a finale, we tried the Panfried Hor-fun (@S$22). This one is definitely highly recommended in my opinion. The hor-fun is soft and is covered nicely with the egg and other ingredients such as prawn, vegetables over it. See above snapshots for what we had!

Spring Court Restaurant is at 52-56 Upper Cross Street, Singapore 058348 Tel: 6449 5030.

Foong Kee

Just wanna recommend this stall tucked in the hustle and bustle of the city.. in the laid-back and colourful pre-war shop houses along Keong Siak Steet (near Chinatown).

I have been patronising Foong Kee during lunchtime for the past one year. Usually you will have to wait for at least half an hour during lunch peak hour when its packed with the office crowd. So its best to come early (around 11:30am to 12 noon) just to beat the crowd!

My usual meal is the mixed Char Siew and Roast Pork rice (S$3.50). The Char Siew and Roast Pork is juicy, tender and tastes sweet (probably well marinated with some honey seasoning). Both are well barbequed and served in quite a big chunk with juicy fat. The Pork also blends very well with the delicious specially concocted sourish-chilly sauce (unfortunately only very little of the sauce is served). Side dishes such as brewed soup (like the 'old yellow cucumber' soup, wanton/dumpling soup etc) and vegetables are also available at the stall.

In my opinion, this place serves one of the few good and tantalising Char Siew and Roast Meat in Singapore!

For your information, this stall was featured in Singapore Sunday Times newspaper a few years back for being one of the best Wanton Noodle in the country. The owner of the stall is an ex-shoe salesman who had several years of experience as a kitchen helper. He found his niche and perfected his skills in roasting char siew/roast meat through trial and error. Definitely worth a try!

Foong Kee is at 6 Keong Siak Street, Singapore. Opens: 11.30am to 8pm, closed on Sundays.

Soup Restaurant

My stomach was not feeling as good these few days. Wondering if its gastric that I had gotten beause of all the irregular hours of dining due to work. Ted says maybe I should get a good remedy through drinking some nice hot nourishing soup. I thought maybe too.. because my stomach seem to have lost its sense of hunger and wasnt capable of absorbing or feeling for solid food anymore.

With that in mind, we headed for Soup Restaurant. Some nourishing soup to cure my stomach or gastric hopefully! A pleasant nice ambience with bamboo settings at the exterior of the restaurant welcomed us.

Soup Restaurant. The House of Chinatown Heritage Cuisine. The cuisines offered at the restaurant were simple dishes which used to be the staple food of the Chinese Samsui women in Singapore's Chinatown. (Some history for your information, Samsui women are the Chinese Hakka and Cantonese female immigrants from China who used to work as construction workers during the olden days. Wearing red headgear and in blue uniforms, these strong women were called the "Samsui women" because of their place of origin, the Sam Sui district of Sanshui county. Samsui means "three water", a reference to three rivers that flow there, namely the West River, North River and Sui River which are branches of the river Zhu Jian.) The simple pleasures are cleverly delivered at the restaurants as fine Chinese cuisines. Chinese herbal soups, in particular are what this restaurant boosts of. And you will know why the Chinese is so good at it! The soup really sizzles! It is also precisely the reason why Ted and me went there for! SOUP!

We surveyed the brown environmental friendly paper menu. We decided upon the Boiled Soup of the Day for two - which was the Winter Gourd with Lean Meat Soup. There were also many other delicious Chinese herbal soup such as Scallop with herbal Black Chicken, Lingzhi Chicken Soup, Herbs with Snakehead Fish Soup etc etc. Each soup is to remedy a specific cause, for example, some is to remedy fatigue, combat insomnia, for strengthening the body or just simply to supplement the lungs. That is how amazing the Chinese soup can be!

Steamed Minced Pork with Water Chestnut

The recommended dish at the restaurant was actually the "Samsui Ginger Chicken" but we decided to give it a miss as my stomach was not too good. To a foodie like me, its very sad when you are sick and dont feel for food anymore... Just to complete the dinner, we also ordered the Steamed Minced Pork with Water Chestnut and the staple Ah Por (in Chinese meaning "Grandmother's") tapioca leaves. I feel bad that because of my state, Teddy had to endure and have these simple dishes for dinner with me. But fortunately the cuisines turn out simply great!! And Ted has no complaints about it. He even surprised by saying that we should go to this place more often to have more healthy and nourishing meals!

Boiled Soup of the Day - Winter Gourd with Lean Meat Soup & Peanut appetiser

Despite my failing stomach, I could feel for the hot and delicious Winter Gourd with Lean Meat Soup. It came served in a hot Chinese herbal pot. It must have been boiled for hours because the natural goodness of the meat and the gourd just blends so well into the soup. Making it such a wonderful remedy to my stomach. Thank you! It was such a nice warm feeling.

The other 2 cuisines we ordered though simple, were well cooked too. Maybe the cooking sauce is the key to the great taste. My taste buds did not fail me and I could still savour the tantalising food. I am sure anyone looking for simple satisying meal will not be disappointed at The Soup Restaurant. You should try it too! And dont forget to try those steamed peanuts served as appetisers before the meal. They were simply unforgettably good!

Soup Restaurant has 13 outlets located over Singapore, in places like Changi Airport, Jurong, Ang Mo Kio, Bras Basah, Suntec City, Novena, Orchard, Scotts, Somerset, Tampines, Woodlands and Sengkang. The one we visited was at 19 Hougang Ave 10 #02-21 Hougang Mall, Singapore 583766 Tel: 6386 6188.