Red Lacquer Penang Peranakan @ Jurong Point

I met up with a fellow Malaysian friend at Jurong Point and she had excitedly told me about Red Lacquer Restaurant that serves Penang Peranakan food. Authentic Penang food in Singapore, too good to be missed.

After going through the menu, we settled for fish otak otak, fruit rojak, fried kway teow and prawn noodle soup.

The fish otak otak was wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, just like in Penang.


Tastewise, not too great I must say. The steamed fish otak otak was a little too dry, terribly not spicy at all without any kick. It would have been much better if the fish fillet was served separately from the concoction of chilli, spices, egg and coconut milk. Instead, the fish fillet was minced together with the concoction of spices-coconut milk. Other than that, the obligatory daun kodok which is usually added at the bottom of the banana leave package was missing.

The fruit rojak came with the prawn paste and chopped peanuts. Yummy, there were fruits such as green mango, pineapple, pink guava and cucumber slices dressed up with the prawn paste and chopped peanuts. We enjoyed the fruit rojak. Another lady at another table was enjoying her fruit rojak alone with a cup of coffee, looks like a great idea for lunch for me the next time!

The next dish was the prawn noodle soup. The soup was truly enjoyable, bursting with shrimp flavour, I must say. The portion was just a little too small for me. But then again, if you have eaten in Penang, food portions are very small.

The next dish was the fried kuay teow or rice sticks. I would just rate it 3.5 out of 5. It was just good enough to satisfy the food craving of a Malaysian staying in Singapore. The cockles were too small. The Chinese sausages were sliced so thinly that one could not taste the richness of the sausage. Kudos to the big prawns though.

All in all, it was an enjoyable meal. I am sure there are other great dishes in the menu that warrants a second visit, such as the popiah and the duck with preserved vegetable soup. Not forgeting the nasi lemak which looked great in the menu.

Address: Red Lacquer Penang Peranakan
Jurong Point Shopping Centre
#03-96/ 101 Singapore 648331

Sabar Menanti @ Kandahar Street

I have been meaning to write a little about Sabar Menanti which is in Malay and it means "Have patience waiting". Very nice name for a eatery.

How do we order our food here? Walk up to their food counter, where there is a wide array of ready-cooked dishes to select from. Let the people behind the counter know whether you want to order dishes for 1 or 2 or any number of people that you wish. If the dishes are meant for more than 2, it would be good to let them know that you want to share the dishes.

The special of the day, in which many people were ordering, was the bittergourd dish. I believe that the dish was stir fried with egg and chillies. Absolutely delicious. Even my friend who hates bittergourd was competing with me to finish it. Picture below.

The next dish that I ordered was the "sambal sotong" (or squid with chilli paste). Another winner of the day. The spiciness and sourness of the chilli gravy was so well balanced with the squid and onion. Just thinking of it makes my mouth-water. Picture below.

Another great dish is the "beef rendang" (a type of dry beef curry, Malay-influenced). Picture below.

We ordered a fried egg. Simple dish, it was. However, since it was spiced up with some chopped shallots and sliced chillies drizzled with "kechap manis". It was so appetizing. And it was topped up with a little saucer of sambal, too delicious for words.

Lastly, we have ordered the "ayam percik" (grilled chicken). It was another winner. The chicken was well marinated with spices (in which I have zero idea) and grilled. Again, this dish was drizzled with "kechap manis" and chopped shallots. Very appetizing.

We have also ordered 2 plates of white rice to go with the above-mentioned dishes. The total cost was SG$12 dollars. Pricing is reasonable. Yes, I have said that the food here is extremely yummy, but the food here is a little on the oily and salty side. But it does not bother me.

We have also ordered a dessert called the "chendol". It was very disappointing. I cannot help noticing that the quality of the "chendol" has been dropping consistently over the past 1 to 2 years. It even used to have durian paste in it which kicked up flavours one notch.

Other than the above mentioned dishes, Sabar Menanti also has "perkedil" (potato cutlets or balls), "kuah nangka" (jackfruit curry) and many other fish dishes which are very popular among patrons.

Address:
Sabar Menanti
48, Kandahar Street
Singapore 198899

Niu Che Shui @ Kelana Jaya

I chanced upon this interesting place in Kelana Jaya.

The place consists of mainly little shops or partitions selling mostly knick-knacks and cutesy items, most likely with an international theme.

I have taken a few photos at night using my Samsung Omnia mobile. However, they have turned out less than impressive.

Artificial plants in pots. Cute.

Several areas have displays of paintings. Quite nice, I must say.

Some handmade dolls. Origin unknown as I did not see any sales assistants around.

A shop selling Japanese-related foodstuffs.


A section meant as display and photo-taking based on theme of the movie in which I will revisit later since I am not able to recall the name of the movie in which has Johnny Depp as voiceover.

Clay figurines which are Victorian-inspired.

Ivins Peranakan Restaurant vs Al-Azhar

I could not resist the temptation to place a foot note on Ivins Peranakan Restaurant and Al-Azhar. Sure, this may not be a fair comparison. Ivins serves Peranakan food whilst Al-Azhar serves Malay/ Indian/ Thai/ Chindian food. What can I compare?

Ivins is a no-frills restaurant in an air-conditioned setting, with very cost-effective pricing for customers. They have a big variety of dishes available, i.e. ayam buah keluak, ayam pongteh, gado gado, bakwan kepiting, pretty authentic. You can get to order ayam buah keluak for a budgetary pricing of about SG$6. Cucumber with sambal is probably at SG$3. Dessert such as my all time favourite, Gula Melaka Sago, is at SG$1.20. The good news is, GST is waived too.

Al-Azhar is a real hangout place. It opens till late at night. I cannot recall how late it opens. It serves anything Malay/ Indian/ Chindian under the sun. You have all sorts of paratha, butter/ cheese/ garlic, naan, panggang fish, North and South Indian curries. On top of that, you even can get Nasi Paprik, Nasi Pattaya and Tom Yum. I spotted a customer eating Chinese style Hokkien Mee. One is spoilt for choices and food is pretty tasty and at pretty affordable prices.

Ivin's wait staff is dressed in their signature (batik) shirt and in other words, they do have a standard code of dressing. They are young, most of them Singaporeans, perhaps one or two are Filipinos. In fact, most of them are students with nice wholesome features. The oldest wait staff was their Manager, definitely the oldest among all. They speak proficient English.

Al-Azhar wait staff are mostly Indians/ Malays and mostly foreigners, (I believe), not really the best-dressed around. However, they do carry PDAs to take your orders. They may not look extremely educated and do speak with a slight twang of slang.

My, my, when it comes to Service, I can't say how badly Ivin's wait staff is trained. The wait staff avoid all possible eye contacts with customers. We waited at least 15 minutes for our orders to be taken down. It was finally taken down when we raised our voice to the waiter. Other customers were facing the same problem too. Definitely such a big disappointment on the attentiveness of the wait staff. Drinks were only served after our meal. The dessert failed to come despite the first reminder.

A-Azhar is completely different. Orders are taken down fast. Mostly importantly, wait staff makes eye contact. Never pretends not to see the customers waving their hands or calling them over.

The basic respect of looking at a person is not even there. Are youngsters nowadays too proud of themselves? What happened to education and proper upbringing? Sure, this may not be applicable to all youngters. But just prepared for the bad and disappointing service at Ivins.

Buy 1 Get 1 Promotion at Tully's Coffee

I was grocery shopping at Cold Storage, West Coast Mall when I passed by Tully's. They were giving away coupons to promote their coffee.

Tully's is having a 1-for-1 promotion until the 28th Feb. Definitely comes in handy during this tough times.

Jusco Bukit Indah @ Johor

It was the weekend again and visiting Johor, which is a Causeway across Singapore sounds good. It was my first time visiting Jusco Bukit Indah and was looking forward to eating and shopping, then eating and shopping again.

This place is certainly not a place to stop your shopping itch. There were a lot of restaurants available though i.e. Secret Recipe, Grand Canyon and many others in which I am not able to recall at the moment.

After searching from the 1st floor till the 3rd floor, we decided to go for Soul Thai. Well, the restaurant's interior looked great and it was the main deciding factor then!

Browsing through the menu, I was a tad disappointed at the lack of variety of authentic Thai dishes available. I decided to have the simple chicken tom yum with tung hoon with a side order of their special seafood salad.

The chicken tom yum soup was unbelievably good. Savoury with the right balance of spiciness and sourness. Irresistible. Despite its fiery soup, it would be difficult not to finish up everything. Chicken and abalone mushrooms do make a good combination. Most importantly, the tom yum soup was served heated and at the end of the meal, there is a feeling of content and satisfaction.

The special seafood salad is nothing to shout about despite it being special. I am sure there are many better versions out there.

This place is worth a visit. I just wish that they will have less of the set meals available and more authentic Thai dishes available.

Tully's Coffee @ West Coast Mall

Upon learning about Tully's Coffee has arrived in Singapore, at West Coast Mall, I squeezed in some time during a weekday lunch of Sushi-Tei to try out their coffee.

Despite drinking a lot of coffee, the unadventurous me, will only drink latte or au lait most of the time, occassionally cappucino or mocha, therefore I got a latte myself. I like the coffee though, smooth and not bitter. Very American-like, coffee is served in paper cups =). I also ordered a raisin scone, if I am not wrong. It was definitely not a scone you will come again for.

Overall, I still prefer Starbucks.. hehe. They have a great selection cakes, sandwiches and pies as an accompaniment to their coffee. It is still nice place though, to soak in the American ambience once in a while.

I did a little research in the Internet for more information about Tully's and learnt the following:

Company History:
Founded in 1992, Tully's Coffee Corporation is the third largest company-owned specialty coffee retailer in the United States. Tully's Coffee currently has 101 locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and the Pacific Rim. Its wholesale division provides Tully's whole bean coffee, related products, and supplies to domestic supermarkets, food services, restaurants, office coffee services, and institutions, as well as to customers through Tully's mail order and Internet sales. licensees.