LokKee 樂記

Cousin and I had been eyeing this restaurant for a while. We saw many interesting posts on Instagram and good reviews about their food. We made a reservation and headed down on a Friday evening. Sometimes I feel that cousin and I behave like Michelin judges. Haha!

The egg was very tender in the egg drop soup. Crab meat was chunky and corn was sweet making the soup tasty.

Lokkee Egg Drop Soup $6

This fish fries had no trace of spiciness. I had to eat it with the peppercorns to give it more kick.

Sichuan “Mala” Fish Fries $14

The egg yolk look-alike are actually mango puree meant to extinguish the fiery spiciness in your mouth from eating the chicken. The mango puree was good. Eat it as a whole and the mango juice burst inside your mouth leaving a sweet cooling sensation. However I found it unnecessary as there was no flames in my mouth, not even a spark. Again, I had to pick up the peppercorns to eat with the chicken.

We saw a couple at the next table dipping the chicken into the mango puree. -_-” Perhaps the serving staff may like to let their customers knew about the mango puree.

For any customers who ordered some spicy dishes, the serving staff would recommend them order some cool icy beverages or beer. Luckily we didn’t. Nothing was near spicy.

Firecracker Chicken Nest $24

This uni pasta was a total disappointment. The noodles were slightly hard and though the sauce was creamy, the uni flavour was too faint. Where was the umami that it was supposed to have? The lonely piece of uni on top of the pasta was cooked and lost its creamy sea flavour.

Uni Pasta $24

Cousin was crazy over this flaming pineapple beef. No doubt it was spectacular seeing it on fire, beef was infused with pineapple fragrance and very tender and the pineapple balls sweet, there was no “wow” factor in this dish.

Awesome Flaming Pineapple Beef $28

Our dessert was served when we were eating our mains. We already requested it to be served after our mains. So they brought it back into the kitchen. When we finally finished our mains and asked for our dessert, guess what? They brought out the same dessert which they put into the freezer just now!! Hence the buns were frozen! Firstly, would you serve dessert to your customers while they are eating their mains? Secondly, does it make sense to serve the dessert with frozen mantou when it should be piping hot? Hence, cousin asked for the dessert to be replaced.

We got the mantou hot but the ice-cream melted very quickly. I would have preferred not to have the caramel sauce as it made it too sweet. The mantou was slightly too hard.

Fried Mantou with Vanilla Ice-Cream $8

After eating is to wipe our mouths with wet tissue. Is this packaging even relevant?

This bottle of chilli sauce was put on our table before our dishes came. Then it was removed. We had wanted to try this chilli sauce. But look at the bottle label, it seems to be Vietnamese chilli sauce? I am really confused by this restaurant’s identity.

Overall, food was tasty but nothing special. Being one of the higher end restaurants, we expected much more flavour from them. Not forgetting to mention, service staff need more training.

Menu: http://lokkee.com.sg/wp-content/themes/lokkee/pdf/menu.pdf

Wet towels are complimentary. Prices exclude 10% service charge and 7% GST. Reservations are recommended.

Restaurant: LokKee 樂記
Address: 68 Orchard Road, #03-01 Plaza Singapura, Singapore 238839
Tel: 6884 4566
Website: http://lokkee.com.sg/

Home-cooked Heng Hua Pa-Mee (兴化打面)

My mum’s version of Heng Hua pa-mee that she adapted from our neighbour many years back. The broth contains all the sweetness from the venus clams (la-la) that gives the dish its distinct flavour. Absolutely delicious!

Ingredients: (Vary amounts according to your liking)

1. Pa-mee 1 kg (feeds 8 people)
2. Wong Bok (chinese cabbage)
3. Prawns 300 g
4. Venus clams 1 kg (soak and wash sand away)
5. Pork belly 100 g
6. Lean meat 200 g
7. Flat taupok 5 pieces
8. One chicken breast

Method:

1. Stir-fry minced garlic and shallots together with sliced pork belly till fragrant or light brown.
2. Add water (about 8 big soup bowls) and chicken breast. Simmer till broth is slightly creamy (about 1 to 1.5 hours). (Add ikan billis if you like.)
3. Use a strainer to remove residue in the broth.
4. In another pot of water, cook the venus clams till they are cooked (opened). Discard those that did not open. Let this water stand for about 30 minutes so that any residual sand can sink to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise, use a fine mesh strainer.
5. Add this water to the broth and bring to boil.
6. Cook the noodles in another pot of water so that the excess starch does not go into the broth.
7. Slice up all other ingredients. Add ingredients and noodles into broth. Mix in the venus clams.
8. Season with salt.
9. Garnish with coriander, spring onions, fried shallots and serve hot.
10. Mince some garlic and chilli to make a garlic-chilli dip. This goes very well with the noodles.

Mookata Traditional Thai BBQ

Mum suggested going to Mookata for lunch today! Ah, finally something different! So I Googled for Mookata and this place was one of the few that opens for lunch. Most Mookatas are only opened from 5pm or 6pm. I wonder why.

The restaurant was surprisingly not crowded at 1pm. It was clean and aircon was chilling. And fume hoods to minimise the smelly smoke from the cooking. The mookata pot was huge. It was placed on a metal tray.

Flaming hot charcoal burns underneath the pot. I was quite scared that the sparks might hit my face or eyes. Luckily it didn’t happen.

We ordered the set for four people. It is a combination of marinated chicken (thigh), pork (collar), prawns, squid, suriyaki, streaky bacon, pork belly, fishball, meatball, crabsticks, otah fishcake, round cabbage, chinese cabbage, kang kong, xiao bai cai, corn, golden mushroom, eggs, tung hoon and tofu, for $68.90. IT WAS EXPENSIVE! Dad was all disappointed with the portion. However, the marinate of the meat was tasty and mum enjoyed it very much. We even ordered an additional 200g of the yummy chicken thigh ($7.50). Needless to say, the soup was very yummy and I liked that it wasn’t too salty.

The chilli came in three levels – mild, spicy and hot. I tried all three and yes, they were really different. The hot was still not too hot but had a punch! The chilli dip was good!

The bbq area was made too round, mum kept complaining about the food sliding off. The pot became charred very quickly. This set for four didn’t really fill our stomachs.

Will I visit this place again? Yes, the place was comfortable and food was fresh and tasty. They were much more tasty than other steamboat or mookata food that I have eaten. No, food was on the pricey side.

Rice is at 90 cents per bowl. Plain water is complimentary. Prices exclude 10% service charge and 7% GST.

Restaurant: Mookata Traditional Thai BBQ
Address: 103/105 East Coast Road, Singapore 428797
Tel: 6344 2985
Opening Hours: Mon – Wed 5pm to 12am; Thur – Fri 5pm to 1am; Sat – Sun 12pm to 12am
Website: http://mookata.com/en/index.php?id_cms=8&controller=cms&id_lang=1

Home-cooked Basil Pesto Sauce

During one orchestra rehearsal, a chorister made pesto sauce and spread it over cream crackers as a break-snack. It was so good I couldn’t forget the taste and had an urge to make it! I went to ask her about the making process and googled and youtubed.

So I went to buy the ingredients one day after work. Boy, basil leaves are expensive! It cost about $3.50 for just 30g! Pine nuts were expensive too!!! That packet cost me $11.50! Other ingredients include garlic, olive oil and cheese.

I washed the basil leaves, strained them and throw them into the blender together with the rest of the ingredients. Add in some pepper and salt.

Here’s my pesto sauce – less than 100g of basil leaves makes just a little sauce.

This is the pesto sauce spreaded on cream crackers by the chorister.

Though I had good reviews from my relatives, I am not satisfied with it. It didn’t taste the same as what I ate! I posted on FaceBook and many friends gave me comments on what I could improve on. I will make some adjustments and test it out again soon.

Comments:
– roast the pine nuts… more garlic….more basil
– use Parmesan cheese
– Use Parmesan, and roast the pine nuts in a pan first until a bit golden brown or when you see the oil or smell it. Add some salt and pepper to taste

Home-cooked Fried Rice

I was craving for fried rice and this day I finally had the chance to fry my own rice! I love to add big onions into my fried rice. So coincidentally, there were big onions in my house and I sliced them up immediately. They add a lovely sweetness and fragrance to the rice!

The other ingredients were crab meat, chicken patty and egg. The seasonings include salt, pepper and mushroom powder.

This is the version that my dad likes: shallots instead of big onions.

YUMS!

Will add on pictures when I fry them with different ingredients such as spam and ginger!

Hoshino Coffee 星乃珈琲店

The new extension of Plaza Singapura was opened a while ago. A colleague recommended me to visit this place for their parfait.

The curry rice contained bits of beef, a sausage and an egg. It was quite yummy but got a little gelah after a while. I would have preferred if the beef bits come in bigger slices. Otherwise I felt I was eating rice with the curry gravy every mouthful of it.

Curry Rice $15

The iced cafe latte was served in a golden colour thermal cup (meant to keep the coffee remain chilled longer) was fragrant.

Iced Cafe Latte $7.50

The fruits parfait was refreshing. Within the cold ice-cream, there were crunchy cereals, banana, strawberry, peach and a fragrant piece of sesame biscuit.

Fruits Parfait $12

They do not have much variety in their menu but there was a long queue when I left the restaurant. The prices are a little steep. Nonetheless, it’s worth a try.

7 Jun 2013

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Updated: 2 Dec 2015

Second visit to Hoshino Coffee is more than two years later! I found the variety of food has increased and taste has become better! My orchestra friends and I met up for lunch at the new Suntec outlet and we ordered their lunch sets that comes with a free drink.

Browse through their menu here.

Iced Coffee

Look at the cute tiny metal cups that contain milk and syrup. I just can’t resist miniatures!

The wasabi was only put on top of the salmon. I thought it was a wasabi infused cream sauce. No, it wasn’t, sadly. I wished there was more salmon.

Salmon with Wasabi Cream Sauce Spaghetti (Set) $16

Not cheesy. It was just normal spaghetti with tomato cream sauce.

Shrimp, Avocado, Mozzarella with Tomato Cream Sauce Spaghetti (Set) $15

Pescatora with Tomato Cream Sauce Spaghetti (Set) $15

Hoshino Pot-Baked Curry Rice (Set) $15

Curry was slight sweet and thick. The tonkatsu was nice!

Tonkatsu Curry Rice (Set) $17

Lobster bisque was not bad though it could contain more seafood flavour.

Lobster Bisque Soup Spaghetti (Set) $16

The top caramelised layer didn’t have the “cracking” sound. The creme was not bad but it was short of that vanilla kick. The ice cream went well with the creme brulee.

Creme Brulee with Ice-Cream $9.80

 

This pancake souffle was very soft and I love it! However I would order this for breakfast rather than as a dessert.

Double Pancake Souffle Style $12

Not bad but it was quite moist inside, wonder if it was caused by the chocolate sauce that we poured over.

Vanilla Souffle with Chocolate Sauce $10.80

This french toast with maple syrup couldn’t go any wrong. 🙂

French Toast with Sugar and Cream $9.80

Prices exclude 7% GST and 10% service charges.

Restaurant: Hoshino Coffee 星乃珈琲店
Addresses:
68 Orchard Road, #03-84, Plaza Singapura, Singapore 238839
3 Temasek Boulevard, #01-651, Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983
Opening Hours: Weekdays: 0800 – 2200; Weekends: 10oo – 2200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hoshinocoffee/

JPOT Steamboat

Steamboat in the comfort of aircon and individual hygienic pot! No more arguing over the type of soup base or busy cooking and serving others in the same table. If you want to eat, you better cook on your own!

Choose your soup base from a choice of: JPOT Superior Broth, Bak Kut Teh, Herbal, Laksa, Silky Porridge, Tom Yum and Vegetarian. Top up a few dollars for free-flow of drinks!

One of my favourites is ordering this crispy tau kee and fish skin.

Though slightly pricey, you are sure that the food you are eating is of quality. The seafood are fresh and beef is very sweet. The fish paste noodles and dim sum are tasty. There is a good variety of meat balls, seafood, vegetables and comfort carbohydrates.

Prices exclude 10% service charge and 7% GST. Jumbo membership rewards available!

Restaurant: JPOT
Address: 10 Tampines Central 1, Tampines 1 #03-16, Singapore 529536
Website: http://www.jpot.com.sg/index.html

Lao Beijing

Cousin and I wanted to visit Lokkee but it was closed for a company event. Disappointed, we walked into Lao Beijing. It was a small restaurant but was comfortable as we got a big table with just the two of us. The crowd at Plaza Singapura was not normal. Probably because of the school holidays, people are all out travelling.

It was small bowl of seafood soup that was not worth this $8. The seafood consisted of a piece of squid, fish, prawn and half a slice of scallop. The soup was not spicy nor sour.

Hot and Sour Seafood Soup $8

This wanton in vinegarette was good. A whole prawn was wrapped inside with fungus that gave it an additional crunch. But it wasn’t spicy or sour.

Wanton in Vinegar Chilli $8

This sliced fish was the most value for money as it was not some cheap dory fish. The pepper taste was not very significant. It was more garlicky that being pepperish.

Salt and Pepper Deep-Fried Fish Fillet $10

We ordered this beef brisket requesting for it to be more spicy and numbing. However the waitress said the soup had already been prepared and there was no way they could alter it. When this bowl of noodles was served, the first thing I did was to drink the soup. The first thing I told my cousin, “How come it isn’t spicy or numbing? Did they give us the braised version instead?” Cousin asked the waitress and the waitress said it was correct. There was a layer of oil which the braised version would not have. It took four or five sips of soup before I could taste that faint tint of spiciness. It was not numbing at all. On a good note, the beef was tender and noodles were al dente.

Beef Brisket Noodle $11.80

Fried rice was cousin’s favourite food. It was quite ok but it was supposed to be XO sauce right? I couldn’t taste any of it. However I was quite glad I could bite some small cubes of prawns.

Fried Rice in XO Sauce $14

This was the worst custard buns I’ve ever eaten. The custard didn’t flow and it was a solid mash of salty custard. The skin was dry and a tad too hard. Cousin said maybe it was not meant to flow. Lol!

Creamy Custard Bun $5

Although food was palatable, they didn’t taste like what they should have been. Food was under-seasoned and didn’t taste anything like Beijing. Please level up, up, UP, the spices!!! We don’t want to eat kids’ food! Paradise Dynasty does a MUCH better job.

Prices exclude 7% GST and 10% service charges.

Restaurant: Lao Beijing
Address: 68 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura, #03-01/02, Singapore 238839
Tel: 67387207
Website: http://www.laobeijing.com.sg/

Manzoku Japanese Restaurant

My colleague has been raving to me about this affordable and delicious sashimi rice bowl and brought my friends here for a birthday dinner. It was fully packed and luckily we had made a reservation. The interior was not big and the table to table space was very small. You can hear the next table’s conversation easily.

Food was not bad and grill items were priced cheaper than other Japanese restaurants. As for the sashimi rice bowl (chirashi don), the sashimi were thickly-sliced and was value for money.

Chawanmushi $5

Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce $10

I would have preferred the fish skin not to be drizzled with the savoury sauce.

Salmon Fish Skin

Grilled Squid with Teriyaki Sauce $15 

Tendon $14

Chirashi Don $25

Reservations recommended. Prices exclude 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Restaurant: Manzoku Japanese Restaurant
Address: 18 Purvis St, Singapore 188597
Tel: 6734 4436
Opening Hours:  11:30 AM – 3:00 PM, 6:00 – 10:00 PM

Tomo Izakaya

This is undeniably the BEST sashimi bowl rice I have EVER eaten. It is not cheap and I can’t exactly remember how much it cost. I think it was $48? But it was worth every cent of it as every slice of the sashimi was thick and fresh and almost overflowed the bowl.

The waiting time was very very long, about an hour or so, but every anger evaporated when I put the fresh slices into my mouth. Mmmmm!

Restaurant: Tomo Izakaya
Address: 8 Raffles Avenue, #01-09 Esplanade Art Centre, Singapore
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun: 12pm-2.30pm; Sun-Thu: 5pm-11pm; Fri, Sat: 6pm-1am
Tel: 63330012