Boon Tong Kee, Zion Road Riverside Food Centre, Singapore

Hawker food, with alfresco dining by the river and less than a ten minute stroll from where I live, lunch can't get more exciting ....

Zion Road Riverside Food Centre sits across the road from the Great Wall City shopping mall.  It doesn't look like much from the roadside, but it's right by the river and is really quite pleasant looking.

There are a variety of different stalls, selling all sorts of different things.  But it was Boon Tong Kee that caught my eye.  If only because of the neon lit visual 'article clippings' hall of fame that hangs below their signage.  Not being able to read chinese, let alone speak it, unfortunately I couldn't read any of it.

However, the menu is translated into English and the Auntie was very helpful in making sure that I got what I wanted.

I ordered the kway chap, which is a Teochew dish made up of flat rice noodle sheets in a dark soy sauce soup.  It comes with a plate of braised hard-boiled egg, duck meat, beancurd, crispy belly pork, char siew pork and pig intestines covered with a slightly sweet gravy-like sauce.  I decided to forgo the pig intestines as I'm not a big fan of the chewy stuff.  Instead, I asked for extra char siew.

This all cost me the grand total of $3.50.  That would probably only just buy me a cheap, unsatisfying sandwich in the UK.



The rice noodles were silky smooth and the soup had a subtle Chinese herbal flavour.  The various meats were tender and tasty.

Not sure those without a Chinese palate would like or appreciate this dish, but I rather enjoyed it.  Seeing as there are so many other stalls, it's a great place for a casual cheap eat.

Boon Teng Kee

#01-24, Zion Road Riverside Food Centre,  70 Zion Road, Singapore 247792

HOURS

11am-10pm

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The Chicken Rice Ex-press, Singapore

A fast food chicken joint in an old shop house ... you'd be forgiven for thinking that the name of this place sounds more like another regular fast food chicken outlet in similar vain to KFC.

It's clean, airy, and doesn't have that fried chicken odour wafting around the place for a start.  And there's 'alfresco' pavement seating under their big awning.

Chicken Rice Ex-press is self-service, and serves up hainanese and soya chicken with an assortment of other asian dishes.  For $6, you can get their special set which includes chicken, vegetables, soup and a lime juice or barley drink. 

A whole chicken will set you back $25.  Not bad if you can't be bothered to cook at home.  There's char siew or roast pork as well as meat and vegetables with rice on offer. 

The cooked chickens are hung in a glass cabinet with the chef ready to chop the chicken on order.  For those who aren't in-the-know, the pale skinned chicken is hainanese and the dark skinned chicken is soya (soy sauce).

I decided to get a soya chicken breast special set.  It was placed onto a tray fairly quickly and I sat down to eat at the ready.

The chicken was lovely and tender on top of sliced fresh cucumber, the soup was fairly bland though, and the bok choy topped with oyster sauce (which tasted like it had been a little watered down) and fried garlic was a nice addition, if just ever so slightly on the soft side. 

The rice cooked in chicken broth had a subtle flavour and a nice slice of ginger.   

All in all, it wasn't bad considering the price.  I would certainly go back for the chicken, give or take the soup and bok choy.

For $6, it's value for money and I can see why it's popular with the lunch time crowd.

The Chicken Rice Ex-press

107 Killiney Road, Singapore

Tel: +65 6736 1928

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Ryoriya Sangokushi, Robertson Quay, Singapore

Do you often hanker for some casual home-style cooking, but away from home?  I know I do.

Yesterday lunch time was one of those moments.  I wanted something filling, but tasty; close by, but enough for a little stroll; and satisfying enough to walk out feeling full, but not to the point of bursting.

Ryoriya Sangokushi is one of those casual places with home-style cooking set in unpretentious and informal surroundings.  They serve 'Japanese style Taiwan cuisine', which I can only describe as Japanese style Taiwan cuisine.

With bright orange seating outside, communal tables and large booths lined along one corner inside, my partner (Mr. P) and I wandered in towards the latter half of the lunch service.

Having been to this place a couple of times before and ordered from the set lunch menu, for around $11-$15 you get a three dish meal.  There is a good variety to choose from and if you don't fancy a set lunch, you can just order from the normal menu.  A few dishes which are listed against the back wall:

Today, I wanted carb and lots of it, so I ordered the braised pork with rice, lo mein noodles, and pan-fried chive and pork dumplings.  With this comes a mini salad, dressed in a light asian dressing and unlimited iced tea.  What I also like about this place is that you get a little paper napkin.  This really has to be my number one peeve when eating out in this country - see my Take Away Guide to eating out in Singapore.

The food arrived pretty quickly.  Salad first, followed by the braised mince pork rice, followed by the lo mein noodles, and then a little wait for the pan-fried dumplings.  The little wait being only a few minutes. 

The braised pork was a little fatty, but I actually didn't mind this as the pork was diced into really small pieces.  It was beautifully tender and had just a slight hint of savoury sweetness.  There was a little chopped pickled cabbage underneath the pork which gave this rice bowl a bit of a tangy twist. 

The ramen noodles were delicious, with a hint of chinese five spice, a few leaves of bok choy and half a hard boiled egg. 

Three little chive and pork dumplings arrived soon after with a shredded ginger in vinegar/soy dipping sauce.

Service was pretty quick, but the place was only half full when we arrived and most people were already eating.  

For a quick home-style lunch, this place isn't bad at all.  I have been here during the busy noon to one o'clock lunch hour and it was packed to the rafters.  Service didn't seem to suffer though.

This place is on my 'regular lunch spots to go to' list when I don't want anything fancy and in need of a casual place to eat close by.  I have heard that it's popular with the expat Japanese crowd, which in my book has to be good sign ....

Ryoriya Sangokushi
Robertson Quay, #01-03 Riverside View, Singapore
Tel: +65 6238 8962

HOURS
Daily: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 10.30pm
(Closed during lunch on Mondays)

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Stacked, Robertson Quay, Singapore

Being a Sunday, I decided that dim sum would be the lunch choice of the day.  I love my dim sum, especially as it is in my heritage.

I was excited to be going to this place and when I got to Stacked Dim Sum Bar just after one o'clock in the afternoon, I was a bit stunned to find that we were the first in. 

This place is only open from one o'clock on Sundays which in my opinion is not a good start.  Traditional dim sum places start service early and it is not uncommon to find a good dim sum restaurant packed before midday.

The menu here isn't vast.  The traditional dim sums are $5.90 each, the special fusion dim sums are $8.90 each and if you get a stack of 3 traditional dim sums, you pay $15 rather than $17.70.

OK, so we went for the traditional dim sums rather than any fusion ones.  Why?  Because all the fusion ones that I have ever tried in the past have been pretty disastrous.  This place may be different, but I didn't want to risk it.

So I decided to play it safe and opted for the traditional steamed har gau (prawn dumplings); steamed siew mai (pork and prawn dumplings); pan fried chive dumplings and pan fried carrot cake.

Har gau are steamed prawn in translucent starchy rice wrap dumplings.  The rice wrappers on these were rather sticky and starchy though, in fact a little bit too much.  The dumplings themselves didn't impart much flavour either.

Siew mai dumplings are steamed minced pork and prawn, put together into yellow wonton wrappers.  These ones came out looking nice and plump, but unfortunately the wrappers were a little bit too dry and the bottoms stuck a little too much to the paper.

Onto the pan fried carrot cake, it wasn't greasy, but they weren't particularly amazing.  They were pretty average.

The pan fried chive dumplings turned out to be minced prawn with chopped chives.  They didn't look very attractive and I'm sure that these had just been quickly tossed in a wok to get a bit of colouring on the edges.  Pan fried, I'm not convinced. 

The dishes were a little bland and a real let down to what dim sum can be.  The fact that this place didn't fill more than three tables in the two and half hours I was there must be a sign that this place isn't quite what it is 'stacked' up to be.  Is it a bar, is it a dim sum place?!   I'm not sure even the owners know. 

Neverless, service made up for the lacklustre food.  But unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make me want to go back.  It's a great concept, just badly executed. 

STACKED

60 Robertson Quay, #01-13 The Quayside, Singapore

Tel: +65 9677 8281

HOURS

Mon-Thu: 3.30pm-11.30pm

Fri: 3.30pm-1am

Sat: 1pm–1am
Sun: 1pm-11.30pm

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Singapore Chom Chom, Melbourne

Lunch today was at a place in the CBD called Singapore Chom Chom.  This place certainly isn't anything special inside.  The tables and chairs are basic, and the wall decor is thin.  Still, it's always full of office workers at lunch.

I have eaten here twice before.  Both times I had the Chicken Kapitan with rice.  The first time with spicy eggplant and the second with spicy green beans.  The second visit was so much better than the first - the chicken wasn't so dry and the green beans were spicy as opposed to bland.  Inconsistency may be the word here, and I am guessing it depends on who the chef of the day is.

The menu is vast and one could, if one wanted to that is, spend a good ten or so minutes going through it.  I decided to go for 'Ban Mian with spicy beef' ($9.50).  Ban Mian is a Hokkien style egg noodle soup. 

The noodles are quite doughy and are usually handmade.  The bowl arrived bubblingly steaming hot and was carried with careful precision (so as not to spill any liquid) by a daring young waitress. 

The bowl also contained a boiled egg, choi sum (chinese vegetable) and slices of spring onion (scallions or green onions).  Although the beef chunks were tender, they weren't spicy in the slightest.  In fact, it wasn't a spicy dish at all.  Did they forget to add any chilli?! 

Seeing as I am used to eating chilli on a regular basis and having inherited a partially Thai palate, I am probably not the best judge.  I can only guess that mortals with regular palates would find it spicy. 

Nevertheless it was extremely hot, in the temperature sense of the word and as you can see, the steam was literally bubbling out of it in the picture below. 

The bowl looked huge and I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it all.  Thankfully, there wasn't a huge abundance of noodles as these ones were pretty doughy and heavy.  All in all, it was OK - not great, but not terrible either.  Perhaps a little bland for my palate...I have had better though and I can safely say that this Ban Main isn't one that I would come back in a hurry for. 

My lunch companion had the 'Chicken Kapitan with noodles' ($9.50).  The Kapitan looked good with plenty of sauce, a handful of steamed choi sum and a very generous amount of noodles. 

You're not going to get a gastronomic meal here, but then I don't think that is the intention.

Singapore Chom Chom is a quick service, cheap lunch - with huge portions, and free tea or water.  If you need just one meal in the day, come here and you'll be sure to fill up for the rest of the day.

Singapore Chom Chom

188 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Tel: +61 (0)3 9663 3778


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The Noodle House, CBD, Melbourne

Having watched this place being constructed over the past few months, I was very excited to discover that it had finally opened.

The Noodle House is a new addition to the Southbank row of restaurants on the East side of Queensbridge Street. Being less than a five minute walk from home, I was eager to try it out.

Since it was raining for most of the evening yesterday, I decided that I didn't want to go too far. The Noodle House seemed the perfect destination for an easy supper option.

My companion and I arrived for an early six o'clock sitting. There were a couple of outside tables already taken. Since it was warm enough to sit out, we also opted to take a table under the rain proof awning. The whole terrace is under cover, which makes it fully versatile for the variable Melbourne weather conditions.

On the terrace are glass topped wicker tables with cushion seated wicker dining chairs.  The logistical placing of the chairs was well thought out since they don't squash tables so close to one another. 

Inside, there are a couple high tables with stools which are great fun for groups of up to eight friends, wooden benched tables and a few booth-like tables around the edges.  There's also an open kitchen which always makes for great viewing.

The food menu is like a notebook whereby all the options are neatly laid out on just one page.  There are two pencils in the pencil holder at the top and diners just tick off what they want. The waitress then comes along, tears the top one off (yours) and takes it to the kitchen.

The menu is clearly separated into sections - Appetizers, Dim Sum, Wet Noodles & Soups, Wok Fried Noodles, House Favourites, Specialities, Wok Side Dishes & Vegetables and Desserts. 

For certain dishes, there are clear symbols indicating levels of spicyness, vegetarian, healthy options and those that contain nuts

 

We decided to share a couple of mains.  My choice of 'Lamb Redang Curry' and 'Singaporean Black Pepper Beef' with a side of plain steamed rice to share. 

The serving dishes themselves are large rimmed, crisp white china plates.  It must be said that they do take up a lot of room on the table.  Considering the food itself actually only fits into about half the diameter of the full size of each serving plate, if there were four of us, it might have turned into a juggling act.  This isn't a criticism as such, more an observation. 

Still, the Singaporean black pepper beef was well presented.  Made with fresh ingredients and the most tender beef, it was absolutely delightful.  Being a healthy option, we felt rather smug about devouring a 'healthy' stir fry.  It had no film of grease on the top which made a nice change from the usual Cantonese stir fry.  However on a spicy note, with two chilli peppers indicating 'very spicy' next to this dish on the menu, neither of us thought it spicy at all. 

The Lamb redang curry was also good.  The lamb was beautifully tender and, the curry sauce was delicious.  However, in terms of chilli hot, it was in my book, mild rather than the 'very spicy' that is indicated on the menu.  Everyone is different though and some people may find these dishes quite spicy.  As mentioned before, I do have an inherited South East asian palate... 

Service here is polite, friendly and attentive.  The food is fresh, tasty and well presented.  The décor is modern and light, with lots of clean lines.  There isn't anything on the menu that I wouldn't eat.  So with solid conviction, I can safely say that "I will definitely be visiting The Noodle House again." 

The Noodle House

1 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank, VIC 3006

Tel: +61 (0)3 9682 1200

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