My charity group is gonna have a fund raising drive this coming Dec 14th at the Highlander Coffee and this is great for foodies and coffee addicts like me who would wanna know more about what goes behind our favorite caffeine drinks! Furthermore, doing charity at the same time! Awesome right?
Check out the link below and if you’re keen, do sign up early as each session is limited to 25 pax only. Hope to see you there my foodie friends and maybe this will be our first outing? 😉
Alright I reckon it’s time to write a little more on Suzhou food before I leave this place for good. 🙂 This noodle house was discovered by myself while riding around the secluded areas of this deserted Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). Came here many times already actually, just that never got down to write about them. I reckon they deserve to be recommended as the noodles here are awesome and at the same time, they are at an area where not many people will know due to the lack of public transport facilities. See my comments below the pictures attached.
Noodle house frontCan get very crowded during weekends and lunch hours… interns in front… 🙂Display of all the additional ingredients to go with your noodles… not much left if you’re there after 1pm… like me… 🙁白汤 (White Soup) RMB5 – Typical Suzhou noodles with clear soup. Don’t think they use MSG as I couldn’t detect the usual MSG taste. Soup is nice and thick, I believe was boiled with pork bones among other ingredients for hours/days/weeks/months. You’ll never know. 😉红汤 (Red Soup) RMB5 – Typical Suzhou dark soup noodles. I reckon they added a little of the braised sauce from the braised meat. I prefer the clear one still.Assorted Mushrooms RMB8 – Very nice to go with your noodles.焖肉 (Braised Meat) RMB8 – A typical Suzhou dish to go with the noodles.爆鱼 (Braised Fish) RMB8 – Typical Shanghai/Jaingsu dish where the fish is deep fried and then braised. A little sweet as usual in their cuisine but an excellent source of protein. But the fish from around here are fresh water, hence LOTS OF BONES…A meal like this is around RMB$22 (S$4.50)This is how I slurp up my soup… Trust me, the taste is a lot better than using a spoon.This is how you show your appreciation… by finishing the soup that took many hours to boil!
Rating: 5/5.
Taste: Really awesome… been here like more than 8 times since I came to Suzhou a year ago. Brought my SG interns there as well and they loved it. Noodles are custom made for their 2 outlets, soup base is boiled for many hours and even the accompaniments taste good!
Portion: Above average. I can be filled with only 1 standard bowl of noodles.
Service: Pretty good.
Ambience: Traditional setting. Quite appropriate for a traditional dish of Suzhou.
Price: Really cheap and affordable. I tried one traditional outlet at Shiquan Street, costed me RMB200 for 3 pax! And this is so much better than that ‘popular’ place!
What is a trip to Taiwan without buying any snacks back for your friends and relatives? I know many people would frequent ChiaTe for the favourites like pineapple tarts and perhaps cranberry tarts as well. But I came across this shop in Ximending, not just they make you feel at home with their friendly approach, they are offering free flow sampling as long as you’re in their shop! I seriously dunno if it’s because they know me or found me familiar but I saw other customers sampling as well! Best of all, they actually work with the neighbouring hotels and provide delivery services before your flight back! Reason is that they have some items like cheesecakes and green bean cakes which have to be refrigerated. Hence they will pack ready for you just before your flight in foam boxes with ice packs inside.
The shopping experience in this shop is a hundred times better than that of ChiaTe… they are really damn cocky! I was in their shop for a good 10 mins before realizing that I had to self-serve myself and no tasting! You have to buy a piece to taste it yourself! Worse still, traffic is really bad there and parking is rare. Unlike where 港记 is, parking is ample!
Shop FrontRight side of shopLeft side of shopTaken from inside the shopAwesome Cheesecake!!!They froze it hence it tasted like ice cream!I spotted a familiar face… It’s my friend Chew Chor Meng up on the wall!Free rice for my purchase!
Rating: 5/5
Taste: Must buys are the cheesecake, green bean cake, sun cake (lovely milky taste to it), crispy paper pork, pineapple tarts. I find the stuff here taste better than ChiaTe’s… You guys gotta try it yourself to know!
Portion: Standard
Price: Cheaper than ChiaTe’s!
RTE: Yes definitely will be back to buy more supplies!
Location: 台北市漢中街6號之2. Tel: 02-2375-1967. Opens daily from 09:30 – 22:00. They have 2 more outlets, check out their website for more info http://www.twkongkee.com.tw.
This is gonna be something new in my blog… No, not about writing for popular restaurants or cafe, but more about condemning them. I mean, come on, you’ve come so far, grown so big, franchised your business, cross nations, etc… at least provide your customers with the standards you portray or even close to it. Apparently, for this coffee bistro joint, it was so bad, that it spurred me to write this blog post!
I was waiting to watch my movie at level 6 of MBK (as usual) and would wanna have a good coffee to keep myself awake throughout the show. So I’ve decided to check out Black Canyon for it’s coffee and what looks like damn nice White Chocolate Cake.
Shop Front
I sat down, no one attended to me, had to put up my huge hands to catch the attention of the almost dying waiter… well he seems like that. So I placed my order of Ice Latte and White Chocolate Cake. The cake came, it was Oreo Cookies Cake. I told the waiter I ordered the White Chocolate Cake, so he changed it. The cake came, still with all the plastic wrappers around it, unwraped it, took a pic, felt the weight of the cake, and I knew I would not like it. True enough, the whole cake was very light, full of cream, and the white chocolate is only the shavings on top! It was really disappointing!
Disappointing ‘White Chocolate’ Cake
After a while, my coffee came. From the colour of the Ice Latte, I knew it would not taste good. True enough, there was no coffee taste, milk inside was bland, I was like, WTF happened to Black Canyon??? The coffee tasted like overnight coffee, mixed with more than 3/4 of water and skimmed milk. It was really bad and disappointing. It was so bad, I had ate the cakey and white chocolate parts of the cake minus the cream, and left behind half glass of the Ice Latte.
My advise to aspiring franchisors, if you cannot maintain your standards, maybe it’s a better idea for you to hold your expansion plans and work out a more detailed and extensive SOP and franchise plan.
Rating: 1/5
Taste: Horrible
Portion: Average
Price: Above Average
RTE: Are you kidding?
Location: Seriously you wanna know? Alright MBK Level 6.
Was brought to this place by my friends in Macau, which I don’t think I would try in the first place. I would have come across this place as it is situated at the 手信街 of Macau City, but I might not have gone into the place and try the food because I would have thought it’s just another claypot rice place. But there are a lot more stuff than claypot rice. Nested in the middle of the old alley, the eatery has a lot of history behind that place… I was told that that street used to be a place for prostitutes during the olden days and the ladies would try to attract the men from the windows of the 2nd storey. Ha!
手信街... they close this street on Sundays so no vehicles can come in and people can walk freely.Spotted an art shop doing artistic spray painting... very nice traditional architecture. The restaurant... They cook the claypot rice in front of you.Menu... for the rice only...Cooking on the spot after order is placed. Rice is a mix of 3 different rice and all semi-cooked.When the semi-cooked rice is about to be cooked, ingredients will be added to cooked together. They give a lot of ingredients... maybe because my friends are regulars. ;PGround floor was full hence we had to sit upstairs... very very steep and narrow flight of stairs...We were seated in the middle... to my left is one big table and 2 smaller tables... behind is the toilet which I heard is yucky... More menu is on the wallsOn my right is one big table shared with 2-3 families...First up was sharks fin chicken soup. I didn't eat the sharks fin 'cos of protecting the sharks reason... but had the soup instead. The soup really don't look appetizing at one glance... but the taste is so good, you definitely want a 2nd helping!Sesame oil chicken... nice.Abalone veg and mushroom... lovely...Salted fish minced meat kai lan... nice...Pork Rib Claypot Rice... Ok... must put more sauce.My number 1 choice... beef egg calypot rice... very nice.My 2nd choice. Very common in SG. Chicken mushroom and chinese sausage... they didn't use salted fish which I thought would taste better with it. But still good nevertheless.Eel Claypot Rice. Don't really fancy eels like that other than in teriyaki sauce... But, the eel is fresh and quite tasty actually.
Rating: 5/5.
Taste: Food is really good. You can see the rice is really of good quality also.
Portion: Slightly above average.
Price: Didn’t pay for it but claypot rice is like HK$35-$45 and the soup is like HK$80. So you see, it’s pretty affordable.
RTE: Yes I will provided I have stomach space. 😉
Location: 手信街 of Macau City. Please note there’s another 手信街 in Taipa. So must be specific when you tell the cab driver.
Usually I don’t write twice about a place but because of the upcoming Chinese New Year, and since I’m gonna miss it in my home country Singapore, I’ve decided to write about traditional new year cakes eaten in HK and some can be found in Singapore as well.
I was served a big slice each of each cake for me to try at the shop at Lok Ma Chau MTR Station and I dug in! 🙂
Carrot Cake or Lor Pak Kou... This carrot cake typically in HK is always filled with loads of white radish, dried shrimps, chinese sausage and dried scallops. This was served steamed but if served pan fried with XO sauce, it would be nicer. 🙂Yam Cake or Wu Tao Kou. The ones in HK has a lot of yam and the same ingredients as those of the carrot cake. This one is yammy yummy.New Year Cake Or Nin Kou. The difference between HK and SG ones are that HK ones have some coconut flavouring inside. It gives it a nicer aroma definitely. Not very sweet this one and is nice, soft and chewy.Water Chestnut Cake or Ma Tai Gou. Nice soft and refreshing. I didn't really like it cos I still prefer it cold. This was served hot. Mango Pomelo Dessert Cake or Yong Chi Kam Lou Kou. A famous dessert made into a pudding cake. I still prefer their drink version instead of this although this cost more than the 4 items above.Takeaway pack which was made in a hard container which you can recycle for keeping food. Not a bad idea after all.
Rating: 4.5/5. Service is tops!
Taste: Overall pretty good! Love the use of ingredients and loads of it. Of course the prices comes with it as well. 😉
Portion:Average.
Price: They sell in slabs. HKD$65 for all except the Mango Dessert which cost HKD$85 or soemthing like that. Other than the bpx……..xzXC
RTE: Only good for CNY period so I bought 3 slabs of yam and carrot ones for personal consumption. 🙂
Ok this is the follow up from the previous blog. Had this with my friends in CGG and hence the portion had to be big. Lou Wong don’t open for lunch and commence business from like 5pm till the wee hours in the morning. So we went there on our last 2nd night there for our dinner. Everyone loved it. Check out the pics:
Located at a very nice corner wih ample parking space.Smooth and tender chickenThe fat and juicy bean sprouts!Fish and meat balls... quite different from Onn Kee's... 'Cos the fishball is flat! Very nice and springy!Dry Ipoh Hor Fun... I tell you, this one is so good I had 2 bowls and would have taken the 3rd bowl if not for limited stomach space! It's a lot more springy than Onn Kee's... maybe different supplier or cooking method.
Rating: 5/5. Service is better than Onn Kee’s.
Taste: The chicken is tastier and hor fun is of better eating sensation than Onn Kee’s. The texture makes a lot of difference. Well I guess 50 years of tradtion speaks for itself!
Portion: Average.
Price: RM$120 for 11 persons and portion x 2 from the pics above.
RTE: Hell yeah!!! I may make Ipoh my annual food retreat and organise groups of friends to go up together and to also pay a visit to the homes we have visited before as well. 🙂
Location: Same thing, everyone knows. Just ask!
00
Share this:
Foodophile Who Blogs & Vlogs To Help Small Businesses
