Sabar Menanti

"Sabar Menanti", when translated to English, means wait patiently. I've read somewhere that this name came from the long queues that thronged this restaurant since it started out, and one source particularly noted that this place has been around for 74 years. That is a long time indeed, well into the Japanese Occupation.

Sabar Menanti is a "Nasi Padang" haven and has a good range of Malay-Indonesian food. It's definitely one of my favourite places for Nasi Padang (if you're still wondering what it means, it's really rice served with a variety of dishes) because of the tasty food and affordable prices. Long post ahead because I've combined this with two previous posts into a single one. Enjoy! =)

Chicken Curry (top): 4/5 | Ayam Masak Merah (below): 3.25/5


I tried the chicken curry while my sisters had the ayam masak merah. The curry was flavourful and thick as I like it, and the chicken was tender. The latter (directly translated to "chicken cooked red") is a popular Malay dish that resembles the Chinese-type sweet and sour but definitely spicier. My sisters liked this, but I found it just average though. The curry's better.

Ayam Opor: 4.25/5


My mother said this is a more traditional way of cooking ayam lemak, which she felt was an adequate simplication for me because I couldn't understand the different ways of cooking. Ayam opor and ayam lemak both mean chicken in coconut milk, but I think the latter has a more Malaysian sort of background as compared to Opor's Indonesian heritage. The gravy is thick and rich, with a very fragrant smell. Great for those who can't take too spicy dishes, and goes well with white rice. The chicken was tender too. A personal favourite.

Chicken Rendang: 3.5/5


Imagine joining the Ayam Masak Merah with the Ayam Opor, and your end product should be somewhat like a "rendang". Haha, that's too simplistic an explanation but really a "rendang" dish uses coconut milk as does the Opor, is as spicy as the Masak Merah and is drier than the Opor but more gravy-like than the Masak Merah. Confused yet? On taste, the chicken rendang was alright, it wasn't too oily and was spicy enough without being too overwhelming. I think the chicken is fried first though, and the meat felt a tad too dry to me. I don't have a picture of the beef rendang but I found it to be better.

Ayam Percik: 3.25/5


The fourth chicken dish, but of course don't assume I ate all these chicken dishes in one seating! Ayam Percik refers to a Malay style grilled chicken with Malay spices, but I'm having my reservations describing this chicken from Sabar Menanti as such because it differs quite a lot from its more authentic Malaysian counterpart. The lady at the counter did call this "Ayam Percik", but if you look at this recipe from a blog I found, you would realise that it's really very different. Here, the Ayam Percik was tender enough but I have my doubts about it being entirely grilled. The chilli was both sweet and spicy.

Fried Paru: 3.5/5


I have a confession to make. All my life (till minutes ago) I thought "paru" as part of edible chicken inards. For the purpose of this blog I went to check what it actually means, and it's actually... this yummy chewy thing many people add to food like nasi lemak and nasi padang... it's actually beef lungs *gasp* lungs?! Okay, it sounds erm gross, but it's really good. The chilli added flavour to the nicely marinated er... paru.

Ikan Bakar: 4/5


This is charcoal grilled fish with a very spicy black sauce, and is one of Sabar Menanti's main draws. We were lucky to have the last one on sale for the day, eventhough it was only 1.30pm! I would prefer a meatier fish, but this was alright I guess.

Fried Eggs: 3.25/5 | Bergedils: 2.75/5


I'm biased because the bergedils that my mum makes are the best really, because it has more meat fillings and has a lightly crisp outer layer. Here, the bergedil is almost all just potatoes. The eggs though are interesting because they seem to be a cross between fried eggs and otah (spiced fish paste). Quite nice.

Fried Sliced Potatoes: 2.5/5


The potatoes were soft, the anchovies crispy. The problem with this was that it was so cold.

Sambal Petai: 3.5/5


Petai is often known for its smell, and even Wiki has a write up on this, saying too that it really is an acquired taste. Not much smell though, probably nicely masked by the sambal chilli. My parents remarked that this dish was quite good.

Sambal Brinjals: 3/5


Looks very spicy right? It is, very very spicy. Too spicy perhaps.

Chendol: 4.25/5


My parents agreed that this is the authentic and traditional way that chendol should taste, not the common Chinese spinoffs you often find in foodcourts. Green bean jelly in coconut milk, and certainly a great way to wash down the spices with this refreshingly cool dessert/drink.

Service
Very friendly, and they're quick to carry the dishes to you after you've selected it yourself at the food counter.

Place
48 Kandahar Street, near Sultan Mosque.
Nearest MRT should be Bugis.

Noor Jannah's Kitchen

I've read a lot about Noor Jannah's from IeatIshootIpost and Camemberu, who if you ask me are like the King and Queen of food bloggers here in Singapore. They post really great reviews and awesome pictures (DSLR cameras do wonders), and much of my inspiration to start a food blog came from them actually.


The one thing that everyone seems to be ordering around us is the bone steak hor fun, if not it's the oxtail hor fun. "Hor fun", if you're just heard about it, refers to flat rice noodles cooked in gravy. Oftentimes it reminds me of a corny punchline of a joke that I read long, long ago: What do you get in a Chinese brothel? Go figure. But, I digress. The hor fun is wrapped in "opeh" (from a type of palm tree) leaves, and is believed to add flavour to the food wrapped in it, otherwise it's also useful to keep the aroma intact. My parents mentioned that these leaves were a common form of food wrap many many years ago.


And there you see what an impact a food blooger has on the local food industry. Not only are his pictures on so many menus, he also had a hand in creating or improving on some of the restaurants' specialties like Vittles. Other dishes on offer here at Noor Jannah's include chilli crab, mee goreng, prawn paste chicken and cereal prawns.

Bone Steak Hor Fun: 7.9/10


The hor fun was really good, and I'm quite sure the bones added flavour to the gravy and noodles. Still, it was just bones, and this dish could do with some real meat. All of my family members agreed that this tasted good, yums.

Punggol Mee Goreng: 7.5/10


If you want tasty fried yellow noodles, Malay-style, this is it. Sorry for the blur shot, maybe all I wanted was to put my fork right in haha. I would prefer it with just a little bit more moisture though.

Chicken and Beef Satay: 7.7/10


I chuckled when I saw their Chinese staff gingerly turning the satay from time to time. Yes, it's kinda like a multi-racial picture at this shop - Malay, Chinese and Indians all working together in this humble little eatery. Of course, what matters is the meat and marinate, which was very good. The meat was tender and did not have the sort of "rubbery", tough feeling that poorly cooked satay has.

Butter Naan: 7/10


We kinda just shared this because I was curious how this would taste like. Somehow or another they did not serve me any curry or gravy to go along with this, but I went ahead and ate this plainly. It wasn't too bad, quite evenly cooked and adequately soft.

Milo Dinosaur


I was coughing actually, and should be staying away from drinks like these. Still, I wanted to show my dear readers what I mean by this drink that has no relation to the dinosaurs whatsoever, but features an iced chocolate drink (iced milo) topped, no, make that heaped, with spoonfuls of milo powder. It's a popular drink among youths, but it's really very sweet.

Service
Pretty alright, but their Indian waiter (I think he's new), can be quite slow and blur at times. Oh well, give him time to learn then!

Price
$8 for the bone steak hor fun
$4 for the punggol mee goreng
$12 for 20 sticks of satay
$1.50 for a butter naan

Place
2 Jalan Masjid
Near Kembangan MRT Station
Note: There's a basement carpark just opposite Noor Jannah's. Many people don't really see the small sign pointing in and choose instead to park along the double yellow lines, which could really make your meal more expensive than it should be.

Additional Comments
My sisters had a fried rice and another ginger chicken with rice ($4 each). The latter was found to be too salty, but the fried rice tasted quite good actually. It didn't have much ingredients though, so it would be good if it's accompanied by other side dishes.

Koufu @ Sentosa's Pahlawan Beach

If you don't intend to splurge at any of the pricey restaurants on Sentosa, there's always Koufu foodcourt at Pahlawan Beach, just a five-minute walk away from the Beach Station. Sentosa's really quiet during the weekdays, especially now when the school holidays have ended. I only say this because the hawkers at Koufu seem utterly bored, and I have to admit it makes you wonder if they've got any mood to cook at all haha.

Other than the Indian-Muslim stall you see above, they also have a seafood stall, some Chinese noodles, Chinese claypot dishes and chicken rice. There's a vegetarian stall as well.

Chicken Fried Rice: 8/10


When the rest of my friends saw this, everyone agreed that it looked really good. And it did taste great as well! It was just a bit spicy as I asked it to be, and the chicken, while tender on the inside, had a very crispy battered skin on the outside. Yums! Quite a generous portion too, this filled me up nicely.

Service
Friendly.

Price
$5.50

Place
Koufu Foodcourt
Pahlawan Beach, Sentosa

Additional Comment
Quite a few staff ordered the stall's "roti john", and it looked very appetising indeed!

Bedok Simpang

Many of my friends have mentioned this supper place before, but since it's in the east side of Singapore (even if Singapore isn't that big a country in the first place) I haven't got the chance to visit it. Well, not until I was at a friend's place in Tampines and managed to persuade him to take me there.


To be honest, it didn't exactly feel like Singapore when we stepped in the area. Don't ask me for similarities, even if I could name a few right now. True, there's quite a lot of people (mostly groups of at least six) having dinner here, but the overall environment seemed to be a little too... old and rundown.


And the problem (some may love the attention) is that once you're seated, you've got about five waiters from five different stalls putting the menu on the table and waiting for your order. They continued standing there with a nod even after I told them to "come back later" while we pour through the food on offer, and they did look irritated when I was trying to take pictures of the menus. At least the stalls do not offer the same thing, so you really do have a smorgasbord of Malay, Indian, Western, bit of Chinese and even Mediterranean (no idea if it really hits the authentic spot though) cuisines.

Nasi Goreng Ikan Bilis: 7.2/10


This was what I had for my dinner, and it was quite good actually. "Nasi goreng" is fried rice in Malay, while "ikan bilis" refers to anchovies. The ikan bilis were really crispy and went very well with the hot, peppery rice.

Mee Goreng Pattaya: 5/10


Looks good, but if you ask me, this was just... edible. It's fried egg noodles wrapped in an omelette, but they were too generous with the ketchup in the noodles that the dish turned out to be far too sweet for us.

Maggi Mee Goreng: 6/10


Whoops, another miss here. Siying had this, and she couldn't finish it because it was too spicy. Too much pepper! It tastes okay, just too overwhelmed with pepper, especially the smell.

Mediterranean Chicken with Pita Bread


Gerald insisted this was quite good, though I didn't really try much of it, just a forkful.

Roti John: 7.5/10


Long story on how this "roti" (bread( got its name. As one of the versions go, a homesick Caucasian (colonial officials?) asked a Malay hawker if he could cook up something resembling a pizza with a baguette. No surprise what the name of the official was, heh.

On taste, it tasted good, but once again there was too much of something. This time, it wasn't ketchup or pepper, but mustard. Still Siying enjoyed this way more than her peppered noodles haha.

Egg Roti Prata: 6.8/10


So far, the food was nothing impressive, so it left me wondering how this could be so popular with supper foodies. I decided to try a common supper item, prata, only to find it pretty much the same as almost everywhere else. At least it came nice and hot, so it was good enough for me.

Service
As I mentioned, a few waiters of different stalls will swarm to your table and wait for you to place your orders. They're not the friendliest of people, but neither are they hostile too. Quite emotionless if you ask me.

Price
This blog post was pretty delayed and I can't give an accurate breakdown of the prices. The noodles and my fried rice averaged around $4, while Gerald's chicken was about $7. The Roti John should cost around $3.

Place
Bedok Simpang. Taxis know this place pretty well.

DJAS & Family Muslim Food

Me and Daphne were headed to the Singapore Science Centre to relive our childhood memories (haha) and also because we're running out of places to entertain and amuse ourselves in Singapore. Since the Science Centre is within walking distance from the Jurong East MRT Interchange, I had the chance to eat one of my favourite Malay chicken rice for lunch.

Chicken Rice: 7.8/10


I like the Malay-type chicken rice for its fragrant and flavourful rice, and this stall does it pretty well. The chicken is also marinated nicely, making this dish a simple but satisfying one. Add in a bergedil (fried potato ball) like I always do!

Price
About $3.20.

Place
Varinice Foodcourt in Jurong East
Near the Jurong Regional Library, Jurong East.

Adam Road Food Centre

A couple of stalls were closed in the previous time that I was here with my friends, but this time round all were open as I brought my family here for dinner on a Sunday evening. We arrived at 6pm, so there wasn't much of a crowd yet. Adam Road Food Centre has just been renovated, it's been a month or so already actually, and looks like a miniature version of East Coast or Newton Circus food centres.

Nasi Lemak: 8.5/10


This is probably one of the best nasi lemak I've ever tried in Singapore. It explains why this stall has the longest queue in Adam Road (the queue for prawn noodles is also another long one) and for me, it was well worth the wait.


I chose the "Royal Flush" set, which consists of a fried chicken wing, otah otah (grilled fish paste), begedil (fried mashed potatoes), egg and anchovies. The chicken wing was really tasty and fried to a golden crisp, while the smabal chilli was spicily good! The best part of the dish, and often neglected by others, is the rice, which wasn't too soft nor too hard, was very fragrant and piping hot. Great stuff, went well with everything.

Place


Elera Rasa Nasi Lemak

Price
$4.50. A little on the high side, but worth it.

Fried Kway Teow: 5/10


In contrast to my nasi lemak, the fried noodles paled terribly in comparison. Lack of flavour, non spicy and ordinary, this dish could not impress anyone on the table.

Place


Unit #01-22. This stall is not the one with the longer prawn noodles queue by the way. It also claims to have "no pork, no lard", which is why my parents bought from this stall.

Price
$3.00. At least it was cheap.

Fried Oyster Omelette: 7.3/10


I'm not exactly a fan of fried oyster omelettes, but this came out to be a bit too oily and not crispy enough. I liked the way it was served though, in a small boat-like dish haha.

Place


Same as the above, Unit #01-22.

Price
$5.00.

Bee Hoon Goreng: 7.7/10


"Goreng" is a Malay word for "fried" actually. When used by an Indian stall like the case we have here, what you would get is fried (noodles) in tomato sauce, with egg, vegetables and mutton. The portion here came out to be pretty large, and it tasted good as well. Smelled so good that my mum found three pairs of chopsticks reaching for her noodles within seconds that it arrived.

Place


Naina Mohamed. I couldn't get a proper shot and had to zoom with my camera phone as well.

Price
$3.50.

Grilled Stingray: 6/10


Contrary to WanHua's rave comments, this turned out to be disappointing. After talking to her about it, I realised that she prefers her stingray with a sweeter chilli taste, which is what this stall from Adam Road offers. I prefer mine extra spicy with that sambal kick, like the ones you would find at East Coast. Taste is subjective, it always is. Perhaps this stall is trying to cater to the expats who frequent this place and would go for the less spicy options. Good that we ordered a smaller portion.

Place


Adam Seafood BBQ. Closed on Mondays.

Price
$6.00.

Mutton Murtabak: 8/10


If you aren't sure what murtabak is, you can see it as stuffed roti prata, cooked with an egg and onion filling with (usually) chicken or mutton. I like this one from Adam Road because it was very crispy and they weren't very stingy on the mutton bits. The curry was good too and went very well with the murtabak, which probably explains why I see quite a few people sharing murtabaks or having at least roti pratas as dessert, not willing to miss it while on a visit here.

Place


Adam's Delights.

Price
$4.00.

Overall
Food Quality
Generally fine, and it's quite clear that the nasi lemak is the best selling item here. I would of course recommend the Indian food as well, which is quite good.

Place
Adam Road Food Centre
Located at the junction of Dunearn Road and Adam Road,
Near Serene Centre.

Qi Ji

I've always wanted to eat at Qi Ji for quite some time already, but somehow Daphne was usually not in the mood for nasi lemak for either lunch or dinner. This time, when she already had lunch at home, I figured it was the best chance for me to have lunch at Qi Ji. She was staring at me, at the boards, and at people throughout lunch, and then after our movie, asked if we could have dinner there haha. So cute la. I was completely fine with that, and ate the exact same thing as I ate for lunch.

Nasi Lemak Set 3: 7.7/10


I chose this set because I wanted the chicken wing and not the little fried fish, and I wanted otah too. The rice wasn't too moist nor was it too dry, while the sambal was so spicy! I still like it quite a lot (which explains why I didn't mind eating it twice within a few hours) and oh yes, the peanuts and anchovies are very crispy too, which makes it all the more yummylicious.

Laksa: 7/10


Daphne misses her laksa so she ordered this. She liked it spicy, though I felt that it had a slightly bit more curry flavour to it than laksa. I'm very discerning when it comes to laksa, trust me. You can tell from the colour too. I prefer mine with a reddish hue rather than the curry orange.

Ice Lemon Tea: 4/10
Iced Milk Tea: 8.3/10


They didn't have thai iced tea haha, so I settled back for Singapore's teh peng! Very thick, sweet and good, though Daphne found her ice lemon tea to be too sour with an odd after taste. Iced tea yums!

Service
Fast.

Price
Around $3.50 each.
Some other combinations of Nasi Lemak could go up to $4.80, if you choose ingredients like chicken cutlet or fried fish tempura.

Place
Marina Square
Level One #01-06
Also available: Marina Square Food Loft

Additional Comments
1. Certified Halal.
2. You should try the Mee Rebus and Popiah which are pretty popular here.