Thursday, July 28, 2016

Chatterbox, Mandarin Orchard

Chatterbox, Mandarin Orchard

So here's Chatterbox (Level 5, 333 Orchard, tel : +65 6831 6288), the place described as the home of the legendary Mandarin chicken rice. I just realized that they've been in operation since 1971! And look at those wide eyed chickens spacing out in the presence of their slaughtered kin. 

Chatterbox, lobster laksa

We had lobster laksa. Man, this was actually pretty good. The luscious gravy was rich and fragrant with the aroma of hae bi. Rather refined without excessive oil, a light heat from the spices and there was quite a few chunk of lobster meat. It's about ten times the price of a regular bowl of laksa though. Rice noodles were a little soft and the tau pok from Ah Heng Curry Chicken was more delicious and tender than the ones in this bowl - but what the heck. I think we may just have found our replacement for the crayfish rendition that Island Cafe used to do quite well.

Chatterbox, abalone kolo mee

There was a limited time abalone kolo mee on a limited time menu so we had a bowl of it. Noodles were wiry and with bite. Nicely done if I might say and we expected no less. Those portions were probably about twice what one usually gets from the regular kolo mee stalls. We were kinda hoping for something outstanding from the minced meat sauce since it barely costed less than the lobster laksa. The chilli vinegar on the side added a zesty zing to the noodles. Wantons that came in the accompanying bowl of soup was big, fat and had coriander! Soup tasted like a weaker version of the kind found in Hong Kong styled wanton noodles.

Chatterbox, tau suan

This was a $9 tau suan. Decent but also very expensive for tau suan. I suppose the only thing that they did that was an extra effort was making sure that the dough fritters were nicely crisp.

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