Chen Li Yuan, Tanjong Pagar

This eatery (72 Tanjong Pagar) does Northern Chinese cuisine. I've been hearing about them from a couple of sources. After a bit of asking around and reading, I decided to do dinner with the family. Even though I had some idea of what to expect from friends whom have eaten at this here, some things turned out pretty unexpected. For one, the restaurant looked a lot older than I had in mind. The heavily accented Chinese spoken by the people running the place was also difficult to understand. There were also hits and misses from the food. We left with a mixed feelings about the restaurant. On the bright side, the prices here were rather affordable. This dinner for seven people came up to just about $97 and the portions aren't too stingy.

fried Mao's pork

I think I got the name of this greasy and spicy pork belly dish right. I had the impression from somewhere that the slices of pork belly would be thicker but these were thinly sliced. Reminded me of bacon. There was also actually much less meat than it looked because most of the plate is filled with onions and chillies. This could have been pretty good with beer from all the flavour but I thought that portions of meat needs to go up. No one orders Mao's pork for the vegetables.

braised lamb ribs

The spiced braised lamb ribs were good. If I come back again, this would be on the re-order list. I couldn't help but compare with a disappointing rendition of lamb ribs which I have had recently. For the record that this one was many times more satisfying than that was. The tender braised meat had enough of the natural lamb flavours which had not been drowned out by the sauces. Meat also easily slid off the bone. Good stuff here not to be missed if you enjoy lamb. There were some sliced egg tofu on the sides which looked oddly out of place. I'm not too sure what to make out of them, but since I do like them, I thought it was good with the sauce from the dish.

fried pumpkin slices in salted yolk

We had some praises for these pumpkin slices. They were sweet, much like sweet potatoes and were great when eaten hot. The only gripe would be that the salted egg yolk lacked flavour and was mostly just salty. I've developed a recent liking for salted yolk things. Having them on fried pumpkin slices was a refreshing change to the usual prawn rendition that everyone is doing. 

marinated duck's tongue

I didn't expect the duck tongue to have bones (the spiny or feeler like things that you see) in them. Was eating them for the first time. The flavour of the marinate was pretty good but as I ate them, I couldn't help myself from thinking that they were tongues and after a while it got kind of creepy. This was especially so when the meat started to get cold. Haha! I'm sure I didn't feel that way about eating gyutan from Kazu and I don't understand why this one did so. I'm probably not going to order them again.

xiao long bao

The xiao long baos here were disappointing. This was probably one of the worst ones that I've ever had. The dumplings were dry and had little or no juice in them. They were also served barely lukewarm. No worries about scalded tongue here. All of us had expected the meat under the skin to be bursting with hot juices. I meant, that's one of the reasons why we eat them too right? They looked pretty good when they were served.

broccoli, egg white, fish and dried scallops

This broccoli and shredded fish dish was nice. Predictably nice. There always seems to be a broccoli and a seafood dish about in most Chinese restaurants and this one definitely looks to be just one of them. I had forgotten to add vinegar and also didn't really taste any of the dried scallops that is supposed to be in the dish. But it was still good the same.

shredded pork with poh piah skin

The shredded pork here were regular shredded stir fried pork. Their sauce was rather flavourful and the chives added flavour and texture. The dish was served with flour skins. What you had to do is to wrap the pork and vegetables in those skins and eat them. Like a fajita if you would.

caramelised apple

One of the highlights of the dinner were this caramelized apples. These apples were battered and deep fried and then coated in hot caramel. Accompanying them were bowls of cold water. What you had to do was to dunk the hot apple slices in to the water to harden the caramel surface which would then form a crispy and sticky shell.

What I liked about it was that the citrus flavour of the fruit was intact and was essential in balancing the sweetness from the caramel on the surface. They had to be eaten fast since the caramel cooled pretty quickly and would stick the apple slices on the plate. The apples remained hot for quite a while and oddly, it came with rainbow sprinkles on the top. Pretty sure they were meant to be purely cosmetic.

red bean snow buns

These "incredible shrinking" puffs of egg white are quite common as Chinese desserts. They're stuffed with red bean paste and are suppose to be light and fluffy. These ones here were unfortunately not so fluffy as the egg white skins were dense and a little heavy. The sugar coated puffs looked huge when they arrived one could literally see them shrink slowly. The taste was otherwise quite the norm.

Pick me up!

Tiramisu, if your discerning capabilities haven't figured out from the above picture is in some strange ways like chicken rice. Firstly, it has become quite ubiquitous. One can certainly without much difficulty get them it in many places. It is also not too complex to make from instructions but requires a measure of experience to work with the separate ingredients to fine tune. On top of that, the appreciation of the dessert varies in expectations based on its ingredients. Agree, or agree to disagree.

Experience is probably the most important determinant as to whether the dessert comes out as desired or results in a hair ripping disaster. Another deciding factor would be the actual ingredients involved. Some recipes have included whiskey, rum or even Kalua. May be that the best could be marsala wine. It works like credit accumulation. Each ingredient adds a certain amount of points to the making process. The better or more appropriate it is, the more points each of them earns. The skill and experience adds more separate points and the sum of the individual credits should preferably fall within an imaginary boundary for it to become a good tiramisu.

Fortunately when it is done at home, one can always be forgiving. This is one that still requires fine tuning for better results but as it is, was pretty good. Recipe is shared by a secret contributor whom has made anonymous star appearances in this blog several times. Remember, YMMV.

• 1 tub mascarpone cheese
• 1 tub Cool Whip (whipped cream)
• 2 egg yolks
• Sugar (approximately 3-4 teaspoons)
• Espresso coffee
• Port
• Sponge fingers
• Cocoa Powder

1. Prepare coffee and port mixture.
2. Beat 2 egg yolks with sugar (depending on how sweet you like) until creamy, custard like texture.
3. Beat mascarpone cheese for about a minute and add in the beaten egg yolks.
4. Mix them well then add cool whip.
5. Soak sponge fingers in coffee & port (c&p) mixture using the 4 secs rule.
6. Place the fingers nicely in a deep dish casserole or any containers that you can find.
7. Once the first layer is done, spread the mascarpone on top evenly. Sprinkle cocoa powder.
8. Repeat the same for 2nd layer.
9. Chill for at least 3-4 hrs. Some say it is 6hrs.

Now is the time to keep your fingers crossed and hope that it turns out the way you imagine it.

Ben & Jerry...... and Dave??

What in the world has ice cream gotten itself into?! Encore Edition indeed...

Another Kazu visit chronicled...

Guess what? I'm back here again. This must be the fourth time that I'm writing about Kazu and I bet that some of you whom have been following this must be pretty damn tired of hearing me talk about their fantastic charcoal grill. If you're here and reading this, deal with it. This time round, I'll be easing on the incessant chatter on the food since I there are previous mentions done already (1st, 2nd and 3rd previous visit) . I'll be letting the pictures do some their own talking since most of them have been mentioned and the standards here have so far been very consistently good.

home made crab pudding topped with ikura

This cold starter definitely deserves special mention. At the base of the cup was minced crab tofu and it's topped with ikura and some ponzu. Excellent chilled amuse bouche, if you will. Flavour was slightly salty and tangy. Something that awakens the taste buds. This comes highly recommended.

anglerfish liver with vinegar jelly

The anglerfish is back in season for the year. This time round, there was a jelly of ponzu which I thought was awesome. Almost a surrealistic rendition of foie gras in balsamic vinegar glaze. The parallels drew themselves to me. Silently, I had applauded Kazu for wowing me again.

shimeji mushroom wrapped in wagyu

ox tongue (left) and kurobuta with eggplant (right)

asparagus in pork belly (back) and foie gras (front)

scallop and prawn in pork belly strip

salt baked chestnuts

Sadly, this visit would be the first time when I have something negative to say about the food. These chestnuts baked in salt tasted half cooked. The meat in the chestnuts were difficult to extract and had little taste beyond salt. The texture came out very dry and crunchy and I didn't enjoy it one bit.

chicken hearts (back) and apple with fatty pork (front)

lamb chops

oyster in pork belly

miso grilled maguro

grilled squid tentacles

yaki tiramisu

One of the things that changes but doesn't really change is Kazu's tiramisu. Their rendition doesn't taste quite like the Italian version. It's their own. This time round, there were blueberries in them and I recall from the past occasions, the sorbet in the centre was changed once from mango to musk melon.

Vittles, Sembawang Cottage

I first visited this place (369 Sembawang Road, #01-05 Sembawang Cottage) some time back for their Moo Moo Burger. Came back for dinner just to check out other things on the menu. Even though after that first visit, I didn't think much of them.

In retrospect, my feelings about Vittles hasn't changed. Have mixed feelings about them. I'm thinking that I probably wouldn't come back.

I ordered the pistachio herb crusted lamb rack. Looked impressive. Left me unsatisfied. A few things come to mind. Firstly it was quite difficult to eat with a fork and knife. Meat didn't come off the bone easily and they didn't have the correct the knife for it

The crust of the lamb was mostly breadcrumbs. I thought "pistachio herb crusted" was misleading. Didn't taste any pistachios or herbs.

The meat was well done for most parts. Doneness was somewhat inconsistent. I ended up having to use my hands after sawing between the ribs which made it messy. Not impressed.

I initially thought the Emperor Oriental Chix Salad to be gimmicky but I ended up liking it. The salad was filled with crackers, bits of lettuce, strips of radishes and carrots with ground peanuts. It was served chilled with plum sauce. The only gripe I had was the description from the menu which mentioned 'succulent chix breast'. It's just shreds of chicken meat and the portions were pathetic.


Calamari was run of the mill and chewier than I like them. Just plain old breaded calamari.


In spite of the way it looked drenched in that boring looking brown sauce, their ribeye actually turned out to be better than I had imagined. They managed to do a proper medium rare. The brown sauce according to the menu was a red wine sauce. Not bad tasting. For what they charged, this could give Aston's a run for their money. Wouldn't mind eating this if I came back but from the way things look, I don't think I'm likely to.

Borgo, Bukit Timah

Did I say that I liked this place? This probably means that at some time in the future, I'd like to come back again because the food's pretty good. Well maybe there was just a little thing about the difficulty in getting the attention of the wait staff when the restaurant was crowded. Borgo (789 Bukit Timah Road) embodies a character of Italian food that I admire. A character which is starting to creep into scarcity. Good old fashioned heartiness. The prices here are "atypical" of most decent Italian restaurants here. No painfully kind to the wallet but a fair amount to pay for and reasonable for what you get. I hear that this place does excellent pizza too but I've not had the opportunity to try them. This first visit was promising and boded well for re-visits.


The bread here was quite a bore. Understandably, that wouldn't be the only yardstick to measure the restaurant.

Scamorza Dello Chef

Scamorza cheese - had a chewy texture like mozzarella. The ones here are the smoked variety and hence tasted like a smokey mozzarella. The scamoza dello chef was essentially baked scamorza topped with sauteed mushrooms and chopped.....well, greens. What it was, was a flavour bomb of smoke, salty milkiness and mushroom. I thought this was pretty good.

Gnocchi with pumpkin sauce

The gnocchi here looked hand made. The sizes weren't consistent. These soft potato and flour nuggets were coated with a thick sweet pumpkin sauce. They also appeared pretty small compared to previous ones that I've had. I liked it with the shaven cheese and bits of bacon that created a contrast from the sweetness. Does anyone think that those look like corn kernels?

Bistecca Alla Fiorentina

This steak was nice. At $58, it was a hefty 700g serving with a side of sliced roasted potatoes. And some salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Didn't really think so much of the rosemary which tends to be a little overwhelming but the meat was pretty good. The striploin side was noticeably more chewy than the tenderloin section which I personally preferred. I had thought that the striploins were suppose to be more flavourful but the differences between that and the tenderloin was barely discernible to me. Steak was done medium rare with a nice char on the exterior. I thought this to be pretty good even if it didn't quite score well with juiciness.

Lava cake

I had originally thought this to be one of those ubiquitous molten chocolate cakes that everyone out there is doing. It turned out to be a little different. And a little gimmicky. Cake gets doused with Grand Marnier and is then flambéed on the table. The aftermath left a soft, warm and rich creamy cake...... that had a surprisingly weak chocolate flavour. That, I did not expect. I was hoping for a full bodied chocolate thingy, this didn't do it for me.