K.L, Malaysia: Restoran Chee Meng

Chee Meng Chicken Rice has a fairly long history, dating back to 1965 when it first started out as a humble chicken rice and porridge stall at Old Klang Valley. It's most popular chicken rice shop is now located along the famous Bukit Bintang street in Kuala Lumpur. Chee Meng specialises in Hainanese-style chicken rice but I would leave it to the experts to decide if it is truly authentic, or not. Me, I'm just here to enjoy the food :)


What do you look for in your Chicken Rice? Some people say the rice is the deal-breaker, while others point to the chicken or even the chilli that's served with it. If you like your rice a tad drier and less oily, this one from Chee Meng would do well for you.


The Roast Chicken was disappointing because it was a bit too tough and dry for our liking. If only they had some steamed chicken available on the day we were there.


The Sambal Kangkong was not too bad, but would have been better if it was a lot spicier. We like to "torture" ourselves this way you know, go hissing with all the spiciness, keep going for more, and then come out of it commending the sensuous experience. It's an Asian way of life.

Price
About RM16 per person, including drinks. Not cheap by Malaysian standards.

Place
50, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Pictures taken with the Canon EOS 500D.

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice

I may be behind the curve on this one, but I'll be honest and say I've not heard about Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice (yes, that's the name of the place) till my colleagues took me there for one of our lunches. We've been back for quite a few times since then, and because good things are meant to be shared, here's something for you to chew on.


The winner here is really the chicken, and by that I mean the steamed chicken. There's this delicious succulence to it that just outshines its drier and less tender roasted counterpart. The rice itself is admittedly quite oily so I usually stick to a single plate. Less rice but more chicken please :D

Price
Me and my colleagues usually share a large serving of chicken and order a side of stir-fried vegetables as well. It should come up to no more than $7 per person.

Place
Blk 38 Commonwealth Avenue #01-02.

Pictures taken with the Apple iPhone 4.

HCMC, Vietnam: Prima Taste

Fancy an 8USD Hainanese Chicken Rice? Head on then to the Singaporean-owned Prima Taste Restaurant at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport, where you can enjoy a variety of Singaporean fare at well, inflated prices. The rice is flavourful and oily enough, but it would be better if they were a little more generous with the tender slices of steamed chicken. Satisfying yes, but you can easily get it for much cheaper back home.

Service
No one in the restaurant had access to the publicised free wi-fi, but there wasn't any effort by the staff or duty manager to address this.

Place
Tan Son Nhat International Airport,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Pictures taken with the Canon Ixus 80 IS.

Straits Kitchen @ Grand Hyatt Singapore

First and foremost, thank you to the dinner buddy Glenn for his birthday treat to me at Grand Hyatt's Straits Kitchen. It was certainly an apt choice of a venue because this would be the final installment to my mini Grand Hyatt series, having already featured the likes of Mezza9, Mezza9 Deli, Pete's Place and Oasis.


Straits Kitchen features an Asian-themed (more precisely, Singaporean-themed) buffet that has five different sections to it - locally-inspired appetisers, Malay cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Indian cuisine and local desserts. If you are wondering what could be so possibly attractive about this restaurant, I would think that there's two reasons to it: one, it's a showcase of three cuisines under one comfortable setting (perfect for tourists!), and two, it's one of the three Halal-certified hotel buffet venues (with the other two being Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts and Tiffany Cafe at Furama City Centre). Do note that reservations here are a must, as the restaurant operates on a "full-house" on most nights.


The design at Straits Kitchen is chic with an abundance of wood panelling and plush seats. I like the atmosphere of this place and you get the feeling that it somewhat encourages you to just eat, eat, and eat, to pamper yourself silly and to be able to lie there with all the comfort in the world. Service here is excellent too, with some of the most affable and polite waiters around.

Lighting here is quite dim and photography is not allowed actually, but we got permission from Ms Rina (thank you!) who earlier had found out about our Hyatt series and agreed to our request. I couldn't take many pictures anyway because it was getting crowded with people. Still, here's a little walk through the buffet stations that I managed to put together for you!

Local Appetisers


Chinese Rojak


Popiah - Asian Spring Roll


Indonesian Gado-Gado

Malay Cuisine


Satay


Sambal Prawns, Spicy Fish Fillet, Ayam Buah Keluak and Sayur Lodeh


Beef Rendang and Ayam Lemak


Ayam Percik - Spicy Barbecued Chicken

Chinese Cuisine


Roast Duck and Chicken


Chilli Crab


Carrot Cake


Ingredients for Prawn Noodles and Laksa

Indian Cuisine


Briyani Rice and Indian Curries


Butter Chicken (Middle) and Tandoori Dishes (Back)


Indian Fish Head Curry

Local Desserts


Kaya Cake, Grass Jelly and Longan with Almond Jelly


Local Kuehs and Sweets


Local Tarts and Cookies



Assortment of Fresh Fruits

Some of My Plates


I personally liked the tender Roast Duck and Chicken a lot, and they went very well with the fragrant chicken rice. Carrot Cake is something that I adore quite a bit but this rendition by Straits Kitchen was just a bit too sweet for me. The large slices of abalone in the Chap Chye (stir-fried mixed vegetables) were a delight to chew on.


The Laksa and Chicken Noodle Soup were less impressive, with the laksa being memorably milky. I like my laksa less "creamy" with more chilli for that extra spicy zest. The Steamed Fish was a bit tough on some parts, while the Chilli Crab took a little getting used to because I'm not very familiar with one that is cooked with lemongrass.

For the Chinese Cuisine station there's certainly more items on offer like Fried Rice (adequately moist and tasty), Fried Kway Teow (basic fare), Fried Vegetables (the carnivore in me says no), Fried Diced Chicken (tender) and several others.


Perhaps the dishes here are meant to cater to foreign tastebuds, and so you would probably get a little bit more of sweet than spicy (even so, I overheard a tourist commenting to the waiter that many of the dishes are too spicy for her). This is why even the Satay was a little too sweet for my liking. The Ayam Percik meanwhile was quite good, crisp with a spicy marinate, but the Sambal Prawns and Spicy Fish Fillet were again not as spicy as they should be.


I thought the Indian cuisine fared pretty well, especially the Tandoori meats, be it fish, prawn or chicken. The Naan (both plain and garlic are served here) was delicious too, and you could eat it with any of the gravy or curries. The Fish Head Curry was alright but the fish could have been more tender.


We picked up a few desserts as well, but by then were too full (and lazy) to be taking pictures of everything on the table. Other than the Ice Kachang (shaved ice with jellies and flavoured syrup) and Egg Tarts (a little too flaky on the crust, but lovely egg pudding inside), there's also very simple delights like Muah Chee, which is glutinous rice with grated peanuts. I liked this a lot and certainly ate more of this than I should.


The highlight surely, and as a true testament to the extent of my pure indulgence in sweet desserts (unbeatable I tell you), is the delicious, deep-fried-to-a-golden-brown Goreng Pisang that is paired with cold and creamy Coconut Ice-Cream. The waiter scooping the ice-creams was looking at me puzzled and asked, "Are you sure? Ice-cream with that?" and I could only nod excitedly and say, "You should try it yourself. Hot, juicy and crispy with cold, sweet and smooth". The verdict: excellent. It's like doing a hot crumble with ice-cream, but only more sinful. Who cares, I'm a happy boy.


Overall, I found it was a pleasant experience at Straits Kitchen, but food taste and quality wise I suppose I would stick to Grand Hyatt's other restaurants. You may say we can only get the best Singaporean food at the hawker centres (and to a large extent, that is true) but if you want comfort and variety in one place then Straits Kitchen may still be a good option for you :)

Service
Excellent.

Price
$41++ (lunch) and $45++ (dinner) for both weekdays and weekends.

Place
Grand Hyatt Singapore, Level One.

Additional Comment
The kitchen for Straits Kitchen is certified Halal, and the restaurant is very stringent about this. However, Straits Kitchen as a whole is not certified Halal because it serves alchoholic drinks (like wine) at the request of customers.

Pictures taken with the Canon EOS 500D.

Evertop Hainanese Chicken Rice

I didn't know this particular chicken rice stall is so popular, especially when some people I know actually have some recollection of its old premises in Tanglin Halt. It's now located at Clementi Avenue 2 and covers two whole shop units, and the packed crowds on some evenings should very well be a testament to its continued popularity. And well, it's also because of the crowd that I decided to just lift a picture of the store front from another blog instead of standing right in the middle for a good shot heh.

Steamed Chicken


The steamed chicken is quite fresh and I like the light sauce that comes with the chicken, but the meat could be a little more tender. Nothing really impressive to be honest, and the rice itself was a little too oily for my liking as well. Somehow, if we're comparing Halal-certified chicken rice by Chinese owners, I would be more inclined towards Golden Wings Restaurant at Yew Tee Point.

Fried Kangkong with Sambal


I've eaten a lot of sambal kangkong in a good many places, so this one comes to me as very ordinary. The sambal lacks the kick too.

Fried Ngor Hiang


Crispy, and tasted pretty good with the mayo too. I must admit that I have little idea what goes into this, but at least it's Halal-certified so I can be sure there's no pork in it haha.

Service
Good.

Price
$3 for a serving of chicken rice,
Around $4 for each extra dish we ordered.

Place
Clementi Avenue 2, Blk 354.

Additional Comments
This place is certified Halal.

Pictures taken with the Canon Ixus 80 IS.

It's All About Taste @ Ibis Hotel

It's past midnight but I'm just about game to start typing on this potentially long post about my recent dinner at It's All About Taste, an Asian-cuisine restaurant located at Ibis Hotel along Bencoolen Street. On quieter nights like these, it's my blog that keeps me company as my fingers race across the keyboard... Type, type, type. It does gets me hungry though.


It's All About Taste features some of the most popular local delights all under one roof, and if you're thinking where you can give your friends from overseas a quick run-through of the "must-eats" in Singapore, this could just be the place. Note that I'm not suggesting the food here is the standard, for I'm sure it would take you all around the island to find the "best" (subjective, subjective) rendition of each dish on It's All About Taste's menu.


So as the name and tagline of this place suggests, it's really more about "simply trying everything" that Singapore could offer. A good introduction surely, and especially one that is endorsed by celebrity food guru KF Seetoh of Makansutra. I heard he helped to develop the recipes and design the menu, so you can imagine that I had some measure of heightened expectations for dinner.


Just a shot of a small part of the dining area, which is quite large, well-lit and fairly comfortable as a mid-range restaurant would be. This is after all within the premises of a budget hotel (albeit part of a well-known international chain) so don't expect much fine-dining here. Service however is tops, you feel very welcomed here amidst the smiles and polite service crew.


A glimpse of the menu, recognise many local dishes yes? It's All About Taste goes by "set meals" where you choose three, four or five dishes for $15++, $18++ and $22++ respectively. I applied for the DBS Platinum Visa Card and got a one-for-one voucher, so it made a visit here all the more worthwhile. Do check your cards to see if there's any promotions.


Finally, food here is served "tapas" style, so don't be too alarmed about ordering three to five main courses in a single sitting. Smaller portions of course, but the larger the group you come with, the more variety you get :)

Char Kway Teow: 2.75/5


We'll start with the char kway teow since it's the first dish on the menu. This serving of fried noodles turned out to be a disappointment as it tasted quite bland, and even despite the rather generous amount of ingredients.

Chilli Crab: 4.25/5


Probably the best dish of the night, though I wished I didn't leave it to turn cold. It looked almost too simple, just a small mantou bread with a similarly small crab pincer, but underneath the thick, sweet gravy was an unexpected amount of yummy crabmeat. All there without having the need to pry open any shells. If there is a "full" version of this dish, I would love to come back for more.

Chicken Rice: 3.75/5


Yeap, chicken rice can definitely come cheaper elsewhere but I had a sudden craving for it then. It turned out better than expected, the rice was fragrant and flavourful while the chicken was tender and fresh. I liked this.

Popiah: 3/5


The springroll looked quite big when it arrived, but on closer look it was only because the popiah "skin" was wrapped around the fillings quite a number of times, making it a bit too thick for my friend's liking.

Carrot Cake: 2.5/5


This was edible, and so was... passable. Thing is, it was really just the radish cake with fried egg, and was devoid of the crunchy "chye poh" (salted radish) that is a quintessential ingredient to any decent carrot cake. Quite bland too.

Wok-Fried Beef: 3.5/5


Pretty tasty, tender slices of beef. Not the most filling dish to order though, but good as a side.

Sweet and Sour Prawns: 4.25/5


Very satisfying dish, and we really should have ordered more of these. Crunchy prawns in a crisp batter, cooked with a sweet lip-smacking sauce. Yums.

Nasi Lemak: 3.75/5


Here's a small sample of one of our favourite breakfast dishes. Delicious rice with delicious fried chicken. My friend enjoyed this more than she thought she would.

Barbecue Stingray: 2.25/5


Ah, the stingray, I've no idea where to start. This has got to be the worst barbecue sambal stingray that I've ever eaten. The meat was so tough and dry that I actually thought it was the cartilege, while the sambal chilli was too clumpy, cold and paste-like. Eeks.

Beef Hor Fun: 4/5


As you can tell, there's hits and misses at It's All about Taste, but at least hits like the beef hor fun here (or the chilli crab and sweet and sour prawns) still make it a fairly decent and filling dinner overall. The stir-fried noodles here had a slight "wok hei" flavour, which can be quite difficult for most hotel restaurant kitchens to achieve. I like the thickness of the gravy and how it went well with the soft noodles and tender beef.

And there you have it! Not the best pictures I know, they were all taken in record time, but I hope you enjoyed the review. It's 1.30am now and I'm hungry, hungry, hungry! More food posts lined up, stay tuned :)

Service
Excellent.

Price
$15++ for three dishes,
$18++ for four dishes,
$22++ for five dishes.

Place
Ibis Hotel, Bencoolen Street.

Pictures taken with the Canon EOS 500D.