Paradize Dynasty

Probably not the ideal place to have our valentine's day dinner. Ha! BUT! Fulfilling our tummy is much much more important than having a nice romantic place. Ha!

But well, not that the place is too bad. It's actually pretty nice to me. =D A very Chinese place to me.

Okay. Like I said, the environment is not the most important factor. Haha.

Free flow of pu er tea! =D The attentive waitresses/waiters will fill up your cup before you finish the cup. Talk about attentive staffs.

The famous thing of the Paradize group! It's the colorful xiao long bao!!! Woohoo! As to why is there so many colors, it's actually because there's 8 different favors. My advice is to try all of them if it's your first time at the Paradize. After that, pick your favorite one and just order that. You never know until you tried! (For instance, I'm pretty shocked at tasting cheese in a xiao long bao.) The soup in the xiao long bao is really very nice! You definitely taste the favor that you are supposed to taste. In addition, the meat inside was tender and the skin was good. I am ready to boycott Crys**t J*de after tasting them. =D Plus, the xiao long bao was of a good size too. The one-mouth-bite-size.

The cold duck was really tasty. The coldness of the dish was actually a refreshing taste after the piping hot xiao long bao. Love to order them whenever we are at CJ. Meat was tender and not too salty. Done up to my liking!

The soup that was famous for their ramen has to be the pig bone soup. Very fragrant. The noodles was very well done. Not too hard and not too soggy. There's a lot of different types of pork they put in. There's sliced pork, pork chop lookalike etc. I felt that they were pretty generous with the pork serving.

Heh. My favorite dish in restaurants that offers them. Hahaha! It was the best that I have had so far (please tell me where to get even better ones please!) I love the way the chili, oil and the dumplings merge together. I cannot stand it when the dish gets too hot but this was just nice for me. I had to make sure that the entire dumpling is covered with the chili sauce before putting it into my mouth because the sauce tasted real yummy to me. Haha.

Ah. This is the gou bu li bao zi (translated into the dog don't care about the bun). Urm, so, does it mean that even dogs also don't want to eat this? Hahaha. So, I had to order it to see what is this about. I mean, I've heard about this bun since forever, but I had never had a bite of it!

So, it's a bun with loads of meat inside. Hahahaha! Not as salty as the normal meat bun that I buy. Probably, the skin is a little different too. But, I have no real liking towards it because it had not manged to stimulate my taste buds in a way that they love. I prefer the juicy meat buns we buy at coffee shops. (I'm sorry, little buns.)

At the rate we were eating, we were totally bloated beyond words. BUT BUT BUT! The desserts on the menu looks pretty good to me. I have to order them. Haha.

So, this is the aloe vera in osmantus lemon juice. Something like that. The osmantus is really very fragrant! You can find them real in the dessert. It's definitely not just the favoring. Plus, the lemon gave a tinge of sour to the sweet dessert. Aloe vera was crunchy. I LIKE!!

My favorite. Pumpkin slices. From the photo of the menu, I guessed that it's going to be something like grilled pumpkin. Well, I ordered it because I always liked grilled pumpkin when I'm at a Japanese restaurant. But heh, I was pretty shocked when I bite it. It's nothing like just grilled pumpkin AT ALL. Instead, it has the texture of the nian gou or mua chee (that's a little sticky chewy). But the pumpkin smell was not to be mistaken. What's more, the semi-crispy skin was to die for. Haha. It's the combination of crispy on the outside and chewy in the inside. LOL! Top it up with the fact that the dish is warm. My conclusion is that I like warm chewy desserts. =D

I had never gave thumbs up for desserts in a Chinese restaurant before. Ha.

Give it a try! I've really decided that I'm going to boycott CJ from now on. LOL! It's a little pricier than CJ and Ding Tai Feng itself. But, I don't think it deviated a lot from them. Pay a little more for the better food? However, brace yourself for a crowd during meal times. We escaped a queue because we went in earlier (6pm). By the time we came out of it (around 8pm), the usual crowd had gathered in the usually empty ION.

Address: ION Orchard. #04-12A

Por Kee Eating House

I had always enjoyed zi char with a bunch of people because we can always order a lot! And the plus point about it is that we don't have to pay a lot of money for the amount of food we order. (I'm comparing to shopping centers!) But of course, most of the zi char places are not in air-conditioned places. Well, there's nice breeze at times. =D

So, Por Kee eating house. I had no idea what is this and where is this until I was brought there. Haha. One look at the area, I have to say, I think it's probably quite a famous place. Just look at the crowd! My goodness. And the first question that the auntie asked was "did you had a reservation?". Oh wells, it has to be something goooood!

So, we ordered one of my must-order dish - toufu. Most zi char places offers home-made toufu which are really nice. What differentiates them is the way they cook it. I kinda like the way the toufu was cooked. The sauce made the bland toufu into something delicious. And I like to eat the sauce with my rice! Haha.

Another signature dish is the champagne pork ribs. My goodness. It's really good! Tender, flavorful. Yummy! But one sad thing is that, it's not easy to bite it off. So, I almost burned my tongue while trying to eat them up. Hehs.

A direct translation for this will be 3 cups chicken. Not that they used 3 cups of chicken, but more of the 3 different types of spices. My parents tried explaining to me what the 3 cups were. I'm so sorry. I really cannot understand all the chinese words that they are bombarding me with. Hahahaha! Well, the dish is nice, but I find it a little too oily for my liking. Hmmm.

Woah. My favorite vegetable. Haha. Okay. Not that the vegetable is my favorite. It's more of the way the vegetable was cooked is my favourite! They actually used fermented beancurd to cook it! I haven't really ate this kinda vegetable before! My mama told me that we cannot cook it at home because our stove is not hot enough to cook it nice. The waitress auntie agreed so whole-heartedly that I have to believe it and not try it at home. Haha! Aiya. Just go there and order it okay? Haha.

Har cheong gai. Too oily for my liking. Maybe it would be better if we didn't ate it so quickly. I had an instant sore throat following it.

I wouldn't really use my life to endorse this place. Yes, there are dishes that are really good. But, I don't think that I would want to wait that long and travel that far just to have that few dishes that are really nice. It's somewhere tucked in the middle of Tiong Bahru. Plus, it's not as cheap as most of the zi char places you can find around. But of course, it's way better than most of the cheap cheap zi char stalls you find around Singapore. I have to say, even though it's not too difficult to find nice and cheap zi char stalls, it's equally easy to find a lousy or a mediocre one. Don't waste your calories on them!

Address: 69 Seng Poh Lane #01-02

Qi Ji

I always like Qi Ji's Poh Piah. (Please note that the photos are pretty lousy because I erm, did not have my camera at that time! ARGH!)

In case you have not heard of poh piah, it's actually a Chinese snack with a thin flour skin (aka poh piah skin) wrapped with cooked turnip, peanuts, beansprout, vegetable and THE sauce. I used to only like the skin but recently, I have took a liking towards eating the entire thing!

Well, for a poh piah to be deemed as nice, I would think that it have to be wrapped tightly enough. There are people who is unable to do that and thus the entire poh piah will just fall apart and you are just eating all the constituents individually. Well, I'm sure you are not asking for that kind of experience if you are actually eating poh piah!

For Qi Ji, I think they did it pretty well. There's this crispy thing inside that add to the overall attractiveness of it. Another place that contains this crispy thing is at the Whampo hawker center. I had this once upon a time (girls, let's go and eat it someday).

And of course, the sauce and the turnip was cooked nicely. I loveee it!

Another thing that I like from Qi Ji is the nasi lemak! Nice chicken, nice rice! Yum yum!! I like!!

This one is pretty easy to find because they have quite a few branches all over Singapore. =D

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak II

Well, I paid another visit to our supper place again! So, haha, can I just show off the photos I took with my Nexy?

I always find this place amazing. They called it nasi lemak. Well, it still look like Chinese food to me. No? Lol. But I guess, it's the rice that gave the name! Haha. It's not common to have Chinese cooking really nice nasi lemak. However, I think this place did it well enough. I was scooping spoons and spoons of rice into my mouth. LOL!

The chicken wings will never fail you. Hehs. It's oh-so-nice! Even though it was supposed to be my bedtime, I erm, cannot stand the smell and taste and temptations.

This has to be one of my top favorite too! They called it the mermaid. Urm, for what reason, I have no idea. But this is crispy and cooked with the sweet and hot sauce. A little spicy, but I LOVE IT!

We have to eat vegetables!

The typical Chinese nasi lemak/ fry been hoon selection.

This is the culprit. Ha. It was super fragrant! Once again, I was sniffing and sniffing the air for the chicken wing's fragrant the entire journey back home. Ha! Lovely. And it was still crispy when we ate it at home. =D

I haven't get the chance to try all the other dishes because I really love the things I order all the time. And, I don't get to go down to the place that often! LOL! But heys, getting hungry in the middle of the night is no longer a terrible thing. We get to eat yummy food!!

Address: 447 Sembawang Road
Tel: +65 6756 0048
Open: 5pm – 7 am

Ghim Moh Hawker Center

It's been really long since we last went there for lunch. Oh, it's still as yum yum as possible. Should I just let the picutres do the talking??

They are the reasons why hawker centers never get extinct no matter how bad the hygiene gets at time. With just a bit of money, you get to enjoy such yummy food. My gooooodness. Hehs. You know, I'm a more hawker type of person...... Hehs.

Crystal Jade Versus Ding Tai Feng

Whatever Crystal Jade offers, Ding Tai Feng seems to offer it too. And it's same vice versa. So, which is better? Haha. Well, I actually went Ding Tai Feng a few days before I went over to Crystal Jade for almost the same thing. So, I can do a little comparison here! Ha!

(But I'm sorry that I did not have any photos for the Ding Tai Feng version. I take photos according to who I dine with. Ha!)

So first. Dan Dan Mian. Ha! This was introduced to me by Newsha and I think I have to try it because she seem to use her whole life to recommend it. Ha. I'm serious. Please look at her lighted face when she talk about this. Hahahaha!

So, I tried it. And, I was reallllllly happy about it. Thanks for the recommendation!

Well, basically, Dan Dan Mian is a peanut soup based noodles. The soup is a little spicy. But when I had it over at Ding Tai Feng (Let's just say DTF), it wasn't spicy at all! So, for the people who hates spicy stuffs, you can (1) have it at DTF (2) skip it (3) bear with the spiciness and eat it at Crystal Jade (CJ).

And, I chose option number 3. Hahahaha! Seriously, I wasn't prepared for the spiciness at all. But then, why did I continued eating was because of the rich rich peanut taste from the soup. My goodness. I was like "Ding!" when I drank the first spoonful. Haha. And the very next reaction was "OMG! Lai lai lai!" (That means spicy in Chinese.) LOL!

I prefer the CJ version for the peanut taste. Seriously, Dan dan mian is all for the peanut taste, no?

I never had this Hong You Chao Shou in my entire life until someone ordered for me for my dinner at Taiwan. (Thank you for the great choice! Haha!) From then on, I decided that this is a really nice thing and I have to order this whenever possible. And so I did. Haha.

I thought the ones at DTF were really good. But my man told me that the ones at CJ were better. I do not believe entirely. Ha! Come on, it was really good there! Haha. But okay, I swallowed my words when I tried the ones at CJ. I totally accepted the phrase "I told you so!". Haha.

Not only that it is bigger, the sauce was better, the meat was juicer. My goodness. This is good. But spicy of course. Ha! And oh, oily? It's the chili oil.

And, the biggest battle and the biggest selling product of both. Xiao. Long. Bao...!

Haha. I always had the ones at CJ. I had it at DTF long time ago but I have already forgot the taste. I just rmb that I said that it's not very nice. Well, tried it again recently and still, I think, it's just pretty normal. Hehs.

BUT!!!! When we had it at CJ. WoooooHOOOOOO! Yummy. The soup, the filling, the skin texture was so much better! And the ginger they gave was finer and I like it that way.

 

My man always order this cha jiang mian. So of course, it's on our must order list. Lol. Urm, nothing too special over at DTF, but I see that he enjoyed this over at CJ. Haha. Need I say anymore?

The biggest difference between the 2 is definitely the portion size. Everything. From noodles to the xiao long bao. CJ is so much bigger. We were not full from the noodles from DTF but we cannot finish our noodles over at CJ. And you know, somethings are better when it's bigger. I need my mouth full of them. Haha.

So, I guess, I still prefer CJ over DTF. =D

(Oh, maybe it's because of the different branches? I had my DTF outside Universal Studio while I had my CJ at Ngee Ann City.)

So, what's your verdict?

Jumbo @ East Coast Park

Yet another seafood place. Well, when we are real stuck for Chinese restaurants (all the time when I bring my parents out), we have to head somewhere like this.

So, here we go.

The only thing that I picked! Hooray! I love baby squids!!! Yum yum. I love it. The sweet and spicy sauce and the crispy bbq squid. I think not everyone like it as much as I do, because I ate most them. Haha.

The pork floss toufu is not too bad too! I like the crispy skin and the sweet and spicy sauce that was below the toufu (more spicy than the baby squid). Yum yum. The pork floss did not bland very well with the toufu though. (Please note that we should have 9 pieces on the plate. Food was taken away before I can snap my photo!!!!)

Duck was pretty soft but I find the meat a little rough. Not something that I would expect from the thigh. Apparently, not the entire thigh was that rough. Pick properly! The sauce was good. I'm scared of mushrooms now. Haha.

Oh, the BBQ fish was great! Everyone was singing praises of it!! Nicely BBQ and the taste that went into the fish was great. It was the best dish as practically nothing was left at the end of the dinner. Haha.

Salted egg crab. My impression is that there should be more pork floss around. No? Hmm. Taste was not bad but the crab was not fresh enough. Ok, it was fresh but still, it sticks to the shell. Not something that I would expect from the amount of money I paid for. Ha.

This was the vegetable tempura that came with the crab. Oh, it reminds me of the Kan Eang at Phuket. The Phuket one was much better. This just tasted like a normal fried flour?

Chili crab with the bun at a distant. The crab was really fresh. I would say it is nice if I had not ate the ones at Auntie's place. There's not enough sweetness (tomato sauce I guess) and too much chili for this recipe. It's was a little disappointing for me. But the freshness of the big big crab made up a little of course.

Overall, I am not going to return unless I run out of Chinese restaurants again. But seriously, we do have quite a lot of places like Pu Tien that is so much better. I cannot say I did not enjoy the dinner because I did like the food albeit it was not fantastic. And the cost dimmed the entire thing by ALOT ALOT! I think I do not enjoy seafood as much as before now. Ha.

Address: East Coast Seafood Centre Blk 1206 East Coast Parkway #01-07/08, East Coast Seafood Centre, Singapore 449883
Tel: 6442-3435, Fax: 6444-5373
Opening hours: Monday to Sat (5pm to 1145pm last order at 1115pm) Sunday and PH (12pm to 12am last order at 1115pm)