Loong Fatt Tau Sar Piah, 龍發豆沙饼

Indulging in organic produce is a expensive affair, where effects are (supposedly) long term. It's like a far horizon investment. You don't know what exactly you will get at the end of the day, but you know it's good for you.


I am busy now. Very busy. But happy.


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This tau sar piah store had been one of my personal favourites from the list of the eateries that my parents used to frequent. Better document them before they disappear or become overly commercialised. My parents became fast friends with owners of Loong Fatt (龍發) TSP because we used to have a shop just a couple of units down the row. 

And yes, they specialise in TSP, both sweet and salty. What stands out is the buttery pastry shell that the TSP offers. Very fragrant and crumbly when bitten into. They taste great when hot (just out of the oven) and yet, still retains the flavour, texture and shape even after a few days. They usually don't last too long in my house. The sweet filling is smooth and with just the right level of sweetness. It tasted more like lotus paste than tau sar. But who's complaining? The salty filling is very different. Somewhat crumbly, the taste reminds me of salted egg yolk, which goes really well with the crumbly crust. Personally I prefer the sweet version while the wife loves the savoury one. The tsp sells for 70 cents each. (4.75/5)


I see tins of margarine around in the kitchen. Not sure if they used margarine instead of butter in their pastry. 

Don't you just love those chairs? Really rustic feel. Besides TSP, the other highlight for me was the custard puffs (or cream puffs as they called it, but it's custard) was unfortunately sold out. Sugar rolls, mini pies and butter cakes are also available, all at 70 cents. From the rate they fly off the shelves during the time we were there, they should be quite good. The coffee and tea is also great. Perfect company to the pastry snacks.

And here's the woman (left) that holds the fort in the shop. She has a bad leg now and can't stand for too long at one go. But she is still very passionate about her bakes. She now employs quite a number of PRC workers to roll the dough and make the goods while she stands watch with her eagle sharp eyes.


Loong Fatt Tau Sar Piah
639 Balestier Road (Corner Shop)
Singapore 329922
6-253-4584 Read More...

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Wild Honey

Breakfast had always been my favourite meal of the day. And eggs have to be my favourite. They are so versatile, and comes in all forms and shapes. To add to that, they are super nutritious. Mum's half boiled eggs, something you can never replicate, with all those doses of love. Yummmmmms. 


Came across this shop selling NZ organic eggs. Pricey though. Hmm.. I wonder how different organic eggs taste like. Sweet?


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We had been keen to visit Wild Honey for a couple of times, but somehow it never worked out. It is a pity that they do not take reservations, especially important when we wanted to visit for a weekend brunch. All 12 of us. Can't afford to be standing in the long queue, with a baby in toll. Second time, it was overcrowded. Like crazy. And so the wife ended up with her friend at Jones located upstairs.


We were so determined to make it this time round that we woke up especially early, to catch it right at the opening hour. We were pleased to see only 2 tables taken when we arrived at 9:30am. :)


We were greeted by very nice service staff at the door who showed us to our table. We had a choice of the comfy couch or the normal tables and we settled for the tables as the sofa looks too slow to eat our food comfortably. 

Orders and payment are done at the counter where the menu is written on a blackboard. They serve all day breakfasts and they are named by regions, countries or cities. There are 2 ipods at the counter should you need visual guidance. Order, pay and return to your seats and await the arrival of the food!

The drinks tasted fantastic. I ordered Mocha Latte ($7) and the wife had the Caramel Latte ($7). Both were exceedingly fragrant and not overly sweet. You know the sickening after-taste that lingers in your throat if the coffee is over enthused with saccharine? I personally hate that but the lattes we had here had to be one of the best we ever had. Aromatic and mellow. (4.5/5)

They have brown and white sugar cubes on the table. Not that it was needed as the coffee were of the right level of sweetness. Probably for the teas.

Waiting for the food while the wife acts shy in front of the camera. :P

Cheryl has several favourites for breakfast and among them is the bagel. (We had a couple of great bagels in Tokyo, which we will post later.) So she couldn't resist the I Love New York ($24) when she saw it on the menu. Toasted sesame bagel was served with smoked sturgeon, caramelised onions, scrambled eggs and cherry tomatoes. And of course the all important cream cheese. Parts of the scrambled eggs were still runny and is a absolute delight. The smoked sturgeon wasn't outstanding for me as it tasted just like smoked salmon. The bagel was nicely toasted with the sesame adding the nutty crunch to it. Delightful with the cream cheese. (4/5)

And how can we miss out on the eggs benedict? Even though there was the very enticing Japanese and Canadian (meals) on the menu. Check out the menu here. So the European ($18), which is the eggs benedict was chosen. The poached eggs and prosciutto came on a thick slice of country bread. I am a sucker for prosciutto, makes me feel less guilty than when I have the usual bacon. The hollandaise sauce was ok with the right tartness from the lemon juice and the right consistency. I would had liked it a bit warmer though. The bread was a delight! Fluffy and sweet. And although it looks small, it is absolutely filling because of it's thickness. Don't under-estimate it. The poached eggs were disappointing though. Both of the eggs came with the egg yolks cooked through. No runny yolks for eggs ben? :( (3.75/5)


As we finish our meal, customers were starting to stream in. Overall it was a good meal with the coffee saving the day. A tad pricey as we spent $65.91 for brunch, but a return visit is on the cards. 

Wild Honey
333A Orchard Road #03-02
Mandarin Gallery


6-235-3900


www.wildhoney.com.sg Read More...

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Tokyo Journey: Kaiseki!

And yes, our journey in Tokyo continues in Hakone! The place to see Mt Fuji in her full glory. And of course the various hot springs in the region. There is a lot more to see in the region but we had a very packed schedule to follow and thus didn't venture further east, which had quite a number of interesting things to see.


And here we begin. After a soak at the in-house hotspring at the ryokan, we proceeded back to our room, eagerly awaiting for our dinner.

This is actually the welcome drink when we first checked in. It was served with some Japanese dessert. What a start to the stay! Nice and frothy and this is a bowl. Not a cup. Wonderful.

And presenting the menu for the nigtht. It was a pity that I do not take beef. If not, I am sure the menu would include some form of Kobe and Wagyu beef. And somehow they got the idea that both of us do not take beef when we were trying very hard to tell them only one serving should be beef-less. But nevertheless, it was a great meal. :)

The pre-dinner drink came in the form of homemade plum wine (梅酒). It was fantastico. Very light in alcohol content and wonderfully flavoured with the refreshing and sweet taste of plum. Totally whet our appetite for the courses to come. And ths is the lady that served us. The counter staff referred to her as "room service". Ha. Very very very nice lady and our communications is mainly based on hand gestures as she do not speak nor understand English. Interestingly we could figure out most of the stuff she was telling us. Haha. Imagine machine-gun Japanese and her animated hand gestures. :) I miss her already.

And yes, this is the spread. 

Starters with prawn sushi, sesame tofu and eel I think, served with marinated duck breast. All of the ingredients were super fresh. Special mention got to go to the duck breast. Nicely marinated with shoyu and pepper, it is very tender. Braised to perfection. The cod fish on the right is lightly charred on the skin and just sprinkled with a little salt to lift the flavour. Mmmmm... the lovely fatty fish simply melts in your mouth.

Cold dishes with some kind of seaweed served with mackerel (saba fish) and cold tofu. Refreshing. Clears the palate before the main dishes.

 Cold noodle with some vegetables. This tasted normal.

The chawamushi is nothing like what we had before. It had this very fresh taste of eggs and it is slightly favoured with the mushrooms and little bits of local pork in it. Very very very delightful. The vegetables tempura were just normal.

And yah, there is this matcha salt that came as a set. We think it's for the tempura. Ha. Well, it goes well with the fried veggies, so we are happy. The rice is steamed with mushrooms. Nice forest taste and smell in it, although we thought it wasn't entirely necessary as Japanese rice already taste so good to us. :)

Oh yes. Preserved Japanese vegetables. And soup. Light. Didn't recognise some of the veg used.

And how can we forget sashimi. Tuna, cuttlefish and yellowtail. In Japan you only expect the freshest catch and juiciest sashimi and this is exactly what we got. Absolutely superb. Great start of many sashimi meals that we will eventually have in the later part of the trip.

And we hardly able to finish it. Super full by the end of the meal.

And to finish it off, we had the matcha ice cream! Some green tea ice cream we previously had taste bitter due to the amount or quality of the matcha powder used. This was entirely different. It was... sweet. Not sugar sweet but the green tea kind of sweet. Very nice. And we polished this off.

And to wash down everything with this ocha. Nice and mellow. Very much like our pu'er tea. Yay to kaiseki dinner. At this point the service lady was fretting over us and asking us how come we drank so little water from the water pot. Haha. We just smiled at her and she was still muttering that we should drink more water as she exit the room. SOooo nice. :)


And so we turned in after resisting the temptation to order more of the plum wine. And man, were we pleasantly surprised by the breakfast set. Shall share more in the next post. :) Read More...

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The French Stall @ Macpherson

"Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. " Very nice words. I took it off my friend's facebook page. (I am sure he copied from somewhere.) But yes, they do speak volumes.


The French Stall had been around for some years now. It was first opened at 544 Serangoon Road (near Boon Keng) and subsequently another branch (very near my place) sprouted out near Kovan. They shifted the branch after a couple of years and now this one at Macpherson Lane is here. It is near a very good kway chup place which will be featured here sooner than later. 


Anyway, after hearing all the hype and good reviews from friends and blog-o-sphere alike, (yes, Mr Sailor SMS did help the decision)the Pancakes finally found time to visit it. (It was not easy to ignore the kway chup and head straight to the French Stall.... :( aww.... i can see the bubbling of the braising liquid... )


We were presently surprised to find the stall at the heart of the neighbourhood. They combined three shop fronts, you can sit in the shop or sit here! (spot Mrs Pancakes.)

And yes, many of the patrons chose to sit outside rather than in the shop. There was a nice breeze going on there and the weather's not hot and humid like what it is nowadays. So we were all set for dinner.

The French Onion soup (SGD 5.80) came served with the usual bread and cheese topping. And yes, the cheese as you can see in the picture was in the state of awkardness of half-melted form. The waiter also didn't know what is the base of the soup used, but we suspect it's chicken stock. Nevertheless the soup tasted decent and the bread could be just a little bit crust-ier. (3.5/5) Soup of the day (SGD 4.80) was pumpkin and carrot soup. Nothing to shout about. I tasted very little of the pumpkin. (3/5) I suspect that they do not use cream and that's why the soup was a tad bit watery. No complaints though, save some work in the gym. 

Next comes the mains. Mrs Pancakes ordered the Braised duck leg with pan-fried foie gras on stewed lentils with bacon and red wine sauce (SGD 25.80). Not exactly confit but tasted good. The foie gras was cooked to perfection with just that little bit of salt to perk up the creamy liver. The duck leg was somehow crispy (it's braised) with very tender meat. The lentils were a great accompan-iant to the meat and Mrs Pancakes really loved it. (3.75/5)

Mr Pancakes had the Grilled Duck Breast with Orange sauce and Risotto (SGD 22.80). The duck breast was well marinated and grilled to the order. (well-done, medium rare is available). Do you know that the breast of a fowl (chicken or duck...) is known as white meat while the legs are known as red meat? Interesting. And yes, to continue, the duck breast was tender and has that nice, very slight, gamely smelll. Very tasty. The risotto was however disappointing. As you can see, it is overcooked and mushy. Flavoured nicely with chicken stock but it lacks the punch of the cheese that all risotto dishes deserved. The sauce suspiciously tasted like what was served with the duck leg, even though they are supposedly different as stated on the menu. Tart, with the taste of red wine. (3.75/5)

The servings were rather small and we ordered one dessert each. Usually we share one serving of  appertiser/soup and one serving of dessert but this time round we orderd a full set each. The chocolate souffle (SGD 7.20) was decent but tasted very similar to what Mrs Pancakes made at home previously, unlike those that blows you away at Max Brenner or some other chocolatier. (3.25/5). And the Pancakes can never resist tiramisu (SGD 7.20). The presentation of the tiramisu is.... simply ugly. Taste-wise we didn't like it as it didn't have neither the ommph of the coffee nor the alcohol. The fingers just tasted wet and the cheese... flat. (3.25/5)


Overall, an average experience. Pricey for a place in the heartlands, with small servings and disappointing desserts. Stick to the mains if you going. And they do have a nice listing of beer and wine.

The French Stall
83 Macpherson Lane
#01-263
S(360083)


67460183 Read More...

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Tokyo Journey: Of Black Eggs, Ramen and Mt Fuji

And so the journey continues. Day 2 and 3 were at Hakone. A very picturesque location with the chance to see Mt Fuji, or ふじさん in her full glory. After an early check-out at our hotel, the Pancakes decided to settle breakfast by getting three (yes, you guessed it.) onigiris from one of the many shops at the train station.

And we saved it till we got to our destination at Hakone Yumoto before we had our breakfast (9plus?). Why? Cause we were too shy to eat on the train! (which we later found out that we were actually allowed to... after seeing some Japanese eating.) Never mind, we learn something new everyday! And while savouring our breakfast at the bus stop waiting for the bus to Hakone-cho station, we learnt how to "undress" the onigiri properly! (note the numbers on the plastic wrappings). Ha. The Pancakes were quite amused. And yah. These train station food (also sold in supermarkets) are good. (3.75/5)

So after we settled in and walked around our ryokan, we decided to have lunch (2pm?) while waiting for the bus. And we saw some other tourists eating at this little ramen eatery inside the shop at Hakone-cho bus station. Well, it is a vending machine type of shop where you pay via the vending machine and pass the ticket to the おばあさん (auntie) and they will cook. It is bad by Japanese standards. Almost the same level as some of the bad ramen I had back in Singapore. When you go Japan, you at least expect something better or at least normal. The soup base was super salty and the ramen were slightly overcooked. (1/5) Simply not worth the JPY700 we paid for it. Which goes to prove that not all Japanese food outlets are good or at least normal.


And so we continue our journey, going through the ropeways, cable-car and bus rides of Hakone. And we reach... Owakudani! The place to view Mt Fuji... and to have black eggs! So we bought our black eggs, sold in a packet of fives for JPY1000.

The authentic paper bag that the eggs came in. As you can see from the photo, we went out of the shop and sat down on a bench, with Mt Fuji at a distance. What a view. But it was a tad too cold.

TADA! Behold the black egg! They are cooked in the volcanic waters in the region and the black colour is due to the minerals in the water. It is touted for longevity and ahem... potency. 

And when peeled, it is just a normal hardboiled egg! Well, it did tasted of a hint of sulphur, other than that, it is just a hardboiled egg. A overcooked one, note the gray parts around the yolk. But with the promise of a longer life and whatever other benefits, we gamely gobbled down  all five of the eggs (they were small, and expensive eggs) between the two of us, with the remaining onigiri that we had. 

And... only at our second last egg did we find a packet of salt in the paper bag!!! I don't think its some volcanic salt or something with magical powers to add on to the already very potent eggs, but it did lift the taste of the eggs. (especially after you gobbled down 3 already). (3/5 without salt, 3.5/5 with salt).


So we continue on our journey, often distracted by the lure of food, but we held on, with the promise of a kaiseki (かいせき) dinner back at the ryokan.

But nothing could stop us the missus from having the soft cone just before we proceed back to our ryokan.

An amazing array of flavours they carry. I think there were like 20 odd flavours if I am not wrong. Trust the Japanese to come up with all the artificial flavours which we so love. Ha.

We got the Japanese Sweet Potato (JPY 300) and my, was it good. And a very happy missus as you can see from the photo. We took a walk around the bus station (Hakone-cho) and the nearby residences while savouring the soft cone before we trotted back to the ryokan. (4/5)


Needless to say, the next entry will be on the kaiseki dinner we had. You will salivate reading that one.


Till then, I shall leave you with our snack view at Owakudani. Imagine having hot hardboiled eggs with splendid onigiri in the cold crisp air of Japan and looking at this.... magical.

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Tokyo Journey: Onigiri & Sweet Paradise

This post will be the start of the series of the Pancakes culinary adventure in Tokyo, Hakone and Yokohama where we went for one of our honeymoon(s) in December 2009. Mr ねい just went over for his two years course in Sep 09 and Mr Pancakes' cousin is (reportedly) ending her employment there soon so which is why the Pancakes decided to visit Japan again. Plus we enjoyed ourselves so much during the 2007 trip. This time though we were on OTOT or F&E which allowed us to decide where to eat.


Well, with much anticipation and excitement, the first day was quite a (culinary) disaster, plus Mrs Pancakes dropped her camera. Lucky we had Mr Chocolate Chips LX3 with us. If not this trip would not had been so well documented. (we took 2000+ photos over 10 days?)

Missing out on the onigiri (おにぎり) while on the Narita Express and super craving for food led us to visit this shop along Aoyoma-dori. We were walking from Harajuka to Shibuya. We were like only 5 minutes away from Shibuya. And this is where we suspect Mrs Pancakes dropped her camera. Business was brisk at 7pm, and we ordered the tuna-mayo (4/5) onigiri. It was warm (and comforting for the cold weather) and a very nice pre-dinner treat indeed for the Pancakes. It cost JPY150 or there abouts. There are various other fillings but all were in Japanese. We just pointed to what we wanted could recognised.

This is the plastic bag given by the shop if it helps. We take-out because we were meeting Mr ねい and his parents for dinner. You can sit in to eat in the shop too. It says omusubi on the plastic bag which essentially means Japanese rice balls or onigiri.


After the discovery of the loss of camera and searching in vain for it, we finally met up with Mr ねい and his parents. The initial plan was to eat at Midori at Shibuya but since the parents don't really take raw fish, we decided to go to Sweet Paradise, after seaching for recommendations on a website. The cousin was to meet us but decided not to when we told her of our new plans. (which we will find out why later in the evening.)

Sweet Paradise serves a spread of buffet at JPY1480 per pax and each is given 90mins to enjoy the buffet. However the ticket shown above showed otherwise. We arrived at 20:10 and suppose to end dinner at 21:23(?) as indicated on the ticket. Not sure why but we did not ask as the waiting staff do not speak English.

The spread was decent with the salad bar the most outstanding. It was well stocked with all the Japanese veggies that you had ever seen with cherry tomatoes and corn nibblets. And of course the 8 kinds of salad dressings, ranging from the normal western ones (caesar, thousand island...) and the Japanese ones (sesame, yuzu...) (3.25/5). Mr Pancakes loves the sesame dressing.

The mains were however disappointing. There were some pasta and baked stuff, very italian but with Japanese influence. It did not suit Mr Pancakes palate at all. The best dish had to be the curry (with no meat) and Japanese rice (3.25/5) which Mr Pancakes had several servings of to satisfy the growling stomach.


The dessert bar had a very wide spread but were generally disappointing and Mr Pancakes did not even bother to take pictures of. And this is why the cousin pulled out. (without warning us!). With the kind of price we paid, we could had dined at somewhere which may not had served free flow food but definitely better food as we found out along our trip.


But to be fair, the Sweet Paradise chain is catered for youngsters (we were the oldest there, the rest of the customers were mainly teenagers of 14-15 years old).


Definitely a no-return if you are on a culinary adventure.

Sweet Paradise
Various outlets. Read More...

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Watami @ Orchard Ion

The need to re-focus on important things really geared Mr Pancakes into action. Let's just say that actions often bring reactions and Mr Pancakes is kinda sad that he got snubbed but at the same time happy that at least it pushes him in the right direction. Things happen for a reason and we often reap what we sow. And best of all, Mr Pancakes is enjoying his whole new routine. And it's only the first day!
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The Pancakes visited Watami after reading all the hype about it. Mixed reviews all round and we just had to go and find out ourselves. And of course it helps that it is in the vicinity of the classroom and so there we go.

The cream croquette with crab and scallop ($5.80) had received rave reviews. It was served hot and creamy and makes a great appetiser calming the growling stomachs of the Pancakes. However, you can hardly find crab or scallops and when a small piece of scallop was found, it was disappointedly rubbery. A rating of 3/5 for this dish.

The Watami Salad ($7.80) comes with pieces of chicken breast and a generous helping of tuna in mayonaise. The greens were crisp and fresh. The dressing was served separately in the form of Japanese sesame dressing. Note to all, add the dressing sparingly. The Pancakes just dumped the whole saucer tray of it and the result, a fairly salty salad. And to add to that the tuna mayonaise is already salty on its own. Otherwise it is a good dish to order to provide your daily intake of greens. 3.75/5.

Mrs Pancakes had a craving for pizzas and so we ordered The Wafu Pizza ($7.80) which is essentially teriyaki chicken pizza. The pizza was cut into six pieces and there were EXACTLY six pieces of chicken breasts. It didn't help that the chicken breast slices were the same as those found in the Watami Salad served earlier, and it wasn't grilled with teriyaki sauce as what the Pancakes expected. Instead, the teriyaki sauce was drizzled all over the pizza. Taste-wise it was accepted, though the toppings of the pizza were a litte scarce. Or under-topped. 3.5/5.

Usually the Pancakes do not order drinks unless, it's something special. Well, this drink looked special on the menu but is nothing short of horrendous. The green tea with coconut milk shake ($6.80) was totally crap. The coconut milk tasted like it was from the supermarket packet-ed type and totally overpowered the whole drink. There was NOT a hint of taste of the green tea NOR the azuki beans. Horrible. You would expect something much more better with that kind of price. 0/5.

The other main besides the pizza we ordered was the Sushi Grandeur which is six pieces of sushi with scallop, unagi and salmon topping. No complains for the unagi, although the scallops and salmon tasted somewhat fishy. Could be the time of day (5pm) that we were having dinner. Generally ok tasting but did not totally enjoy it. 3/5.


Other than the drink that totally fail, the Pancakes had a filling dinner for $45.90 (for two). Casual dining and the food was simply average. Well, to be fair, at this kind of price, it is tough to serve quality Japanese fare.

Watami Singapore
B3-23 (near Burger King)
Ion Orchard


Tel: 6509-9366 Read More...

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