Botak's Favourites (Bedok) Lunch

Coconut cooler

Iced coconut drink with coloured syrup. And that syrup, apparently - is flavourless.

I had assumed it to be pandan. Guess I'm wrong.

Hot honey lemon

Nursing a cold that afternoon so I tried this popular remedy drink. A bit of a cliché, I know. But one can't help trying.

Well, they were too liberal with the honey, here. The whole concoction became this thick, gooey and uber sweet drink as a result. Didn't finish it.

Could have asked for a glass of water to dilute it but they used the wrong type of honey (the whitish/opaque type) to start with, so I just didn't bother.

Char-grilled salmon fillet

My colleagues's order. Comes with basil/garlic cream sauce.

I had a small bite and I like it. Seemed like it's cooked with the meat still remaining pink in the center, therefore it still remain moist. And the sauce complement it well.

Most importantly, no fishy smell.

She choose the side salad and fries. Boy are they generous with their fries!

The 'Massive' burger

Seemed like the Botak Jones burger is pretty famous. So I wanna give it a try.

I wanted some cheese so I choose to add on the cheddar slices (2 nos.) for an additional $1. The 'Massive Cheese' burger would have been too much, what with its FOUR slices of cheese.

Maybe I was feeling a lil' guilty for ordering such a large burger so I have veggies for BOTH my side dishes. The side salad and the daily vegetable (french beans + carrot). Those plus the greens in my burger, I feel almost healthy already.

The 'Massive' burger patty

This one here has a 220gm patty and that is reflected its large circumference. The thickness remained constant. I had hoped for that proportion to be reflected in the patty's thickness instead, so that it will be really juicy down the center. Besides, this patty seemed a little too... streamlined, for the 'handmade' look. I had expected something more 'rugged-looking' with that catchy name.

Guess it's no surprise that it does seem a lil' dry... But overall the burger is ok. No patty can be drier than McD, I guess.

Random foods

Roast duck noodles - $5

Once in a while, I do hanker for some duck items. I remember that Enak Rasa Thai Seafood at Bedok Reservoir used to serve it but I don't really see it anymore.

Last time I had duck was the wrap/roll (they supposedly ran out of the cone version, dang!) that's sold at the Geylang Bazaar during the fasting month.

That is, until the first time I stepped into Broadway Eating House - at the ground level of the new Geylang Serai Market. And I saw that Evertop Chicken Rice has set up a stall here.

I saw the roast duck hanging in the display and I knew that I have to get that. Since it's still morning, I deem that having rice would have been too filling, so I settled for the noodles instead.

That sure was a good choice. Their noodles are springy, their given sauce more than suffice and most importantly, they're generous with the duck meat.

The thick slab of duck meat was really tender and doesn't smell gamey. And hell yeah, of course I ate the skin. That's where all the essence lie. Yummeh!

Fried calamari

Came by with my colleague, to New Hawa at City Plaza for some noodles and we can't resist sharing a side dish.

The thinner-than-usual slices of calamari came off as pretty dismal, initially. But those crumbs on the batter makes it more appealing. And taste wise...?

It's pretty good, thankfully. The meat was tender and the batter was nicely seasoned. And those crumb-y part do add some crunch. Nice!

A pleasant round-up to a humble lunch.

Thankfully this place is a merely 10mins drive from my office. Traffic jam, excluding.

Charco's re-visited

Note: 
Charcos has closed their Marine Parade branch and is now at - 
Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 #01-2771 Mr Teh Tarik, 560608
Tel: 6455 3711


Brought my family here this time. We've always wanted to patronise this place since its Ang Mo Kio days. Now that it's nearby, I just took the chance when we were heading for Parkway Parade.

Was surprised when my mum chose the ribs. Then again, she's always been the adventurous eater and must have been intrigued by my constant reviews on them.

Ribs & chips - $12.50

I asked if she wanna have any of the salads and she flatly refused. Guess she's afraid that the ribs portion may be too big for her to have many sides so she settled simply for the chips (fries).

Needless to say, she LOVE them ribs. Kept raving about the marinade sauce and how tender the lamb meat was. And how the meat wasn't that gamey.

Roast beef + 3 salads - $14.50

Roast beef is only available on weekends and public holidays. I went there one Saturday and naturally, I got curious as to how a roast beef taste like and ordered a set.

BIG mistake.

Man, I should have expected it. Usually the whole rump of beef is cooked beforehand and we'll be served slices from that. Since I came late that afternoon, well, not surprisingly, my roast beef was served to me - cold.

If there's one thing I really dislike; it is cooked meat that's already cold.

If the temperature doesn't cheese me off enough, it's a lil' tough to the bite too. And that brown sauce tasted a tad starchy. Geez, now I'm sounding like a bad case of sour grapes.

For the 3 side salads, I picked my favourite, Caesar. Ordered the chicken avocado my colleague had previously, but this time I was served more of the farfalle pasta instead of the chicken. The seafood salad is alright but the big chunks of surimi-'crabmeat' pieces got a tad cloying after a while. Love the fresh prawns, though.

Sampler plate - $15.60

I was recommending this and that to my hubby and he remained quiet until the point of ordering.

When he ordered the sampler platter, I can't help remarking, "Wise guy." It's smart of him to order this, for his first time here, at a place selling most of his favourite foods.

This platter has 1/2 the portion of lamb ribs, 1/4 Charcos (herb) chicken & 1/4 Portugese (spicy) chicken. It's supposed to come with their creamy potato side dish but that ran out so I have the option to choose for him; 2 different salads instead of just 1. Got him his favourite coleslaw + egg salad.

Finally got to try the Portuguese roasted chicken and it does have some spicy kick to it, though a tad subtle. The skin, as you can see, is roasted till it's slightly crispy.

Chicken Kebab + 3 salads - $10.50

My dad seemed disinterested and simply asked for chicken kebab. Maybe he knows that grandchild (my baby) of his may make him unable to focus on his food.

The kebab seemed a lil' on the... thin side. Could do with a lil' more meat, me thinks.

Ordered for him the 3 salads that I've ordered previously. Caesar, Greek & potato. I think he find the latter to be a tad bland and left behind almost half of it. :P
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Now I know what I should avoid ordering when I'm here. I also saw someone from the next table ordering the fish & chips and it looked really enticing. I also want to know what the chicken schnitzel is like. Or the creamy potato.

But I sure don't mind their lamb ribs!

My baby boi's mini party

I didn't really plan to have a party for my son's 1 year-old birthday. Logically, the baby knows absolutely nothing about this celebration held in his honour so what's the point, right?

Then I think that I may need to get my family involved, seeing it's their first & only grandchild, after all. And my bro wanna see his only nephew cutting his 1st birthday cake.

So I thought of ordering pizza and some fried chicken. Until, my dad informed me that my dear aunt, the 'aspiring confectioner', wanna 'sponsor' some buns for the celebrations. Oh, wow!

We often bring my baby to her place, so she totally adore him. Guess it's his blessing, then. :)))

The spread

'Pizza' buns

My in-laws all remarked that this bun looks 'professionally done' and not like it's from the hands of an amateur.

With chicken hot dogs.

Mini pizzaz

Fist time I saw her making these. Maybe she got inspired by stuff offered in the various Halal bakeries at Jusco Tebrau City (JB).

With chicken ham.

Raisin buns

Looking at these, maybe I wanna encourage her to try making cinnamon rolls. Hmm...

Cheese buns

My favourite amongst all. Yum!

Looking at all these buns makes me wanna troop down to the nearest bakery, pronto. I just can't get enough!

Fried chicken drumsticks

My mum made no mention about bringing fried chicken so I had called up Arnold's Fried Chicken and have them deliver their Party Combo or something. However, they had suspended deliveries at that time, due to bad weather.

I was disappointed initially, for I know just how many fried chicken lovers will be in attendance. Image how relieved I was when I saw these. Relieved also that the delivery order fell through. Imagine the abundance of fried chicken! Guess things happen for a reason, eh?

These store-bought, pre-marinated & battered drumsticks are ingeniously butterflied so that the meat can be cooked through.

Oxtail soup

I miss eating this. She had casually mentioned it before and I never thought that she'll really prepare this. She came with a rather big pot of this, actually. It was quite a hit amongst the others. Piping hot soup filled with potatoes, tomatoes, succulent beef chunks.... Dip some french loaf into this, on that rainy evening... Shiok!

...Guess she felt the need to contribute something for her first and only (currently) grandchild.

Fruit 'cocktail'

To me, a party doesn't feel complete without a bowl of this. Add on some longans/lychees and even sea coconut (a hit with the elders), squeeze some calamansi and dump in the ice.

Voila! The modern fruit punch (literally).

So there you have it. My son's birthday party, which turned out to be a tad 'grander' than initially anticipated. Many thanks to all involved. Fatimah, if you're reading this, tell your mum that I can never thank her enough! :)

My son turns 1!

The birthday cake

Pirates Ahoy!

Ordered the 1.5kg ice-cream cake from Swensen's. "Pirates Ahoy" from their Cooline Design selection. It was such a headache, choosing the designs.

I eventually realise that my 1 year old knows NUTS about whatever is on the cake (he hardly look at it, even) so I chose a design that I personally like. I thought that those cute lil' bits on the cake are toys that I can distribute to the other kids. Turns out, they are actually icing. PIPED icing. :P

I chose the ever popular Sticky Chewy Chocolate and the Cookies n Cream flavour to go along. Reminds me of their Mudpie actually.

Now about these ice-cream cakes.

I opt for the 2-5pm delivery slot and request that it be delivered closer to 5pm. They called me to say that they can't abide my request and that the cake can last up to 6hr after its packing, i.e. at 1pm.

Upon confirmation, they called again to say that the cake need to be removed from its cooler box 1-1.5 hr prior to cutting.

I tot' of having the ceremony at 7.30pm, so I took it out of the foam box (with the dry ice-layer on top) at 6pm. There are some bits of dry ice at the bottom tray. Should have removed that one, too (more on that later).

Due to some slight hiccups, the cake-cutting was eventually done at 8pm. Oh, did I mention that I can't seem to find any knife? Guess, Swensen's didn't give any, eh? Yeah, 2 hours of thawing, rite? And yet the centre of the cake still remain a block of hard, frozen cream. The first 1-2cm was nicely soft, all right. But that centre portion seemed almost impenetrable!

I eventually got a real kitchen knife and gave a supposedly strong man (b'dae boy's dad) the task of carving the cake out for distribution. Even then, it still took him some effort.

Despite all that, the cake's texture felt pretty good on the tongue, actually. Everyone else gave the thumbs up. However, I should have moved it into a tray or a platter. For it start to melt rapidly afterwards and dripped into a pool of milkshake. An expensive milkshake at that.

If you ask me, whether I'll ever order an ice-cream cake again? Err... Maybe just small one. Not for kiddos. Or dine in and order the birthday surprise. Or simply get the mud pie.

Yeah... Something like that.

Durian Puffs

This post is long overdue. I thought I've already posted this. Guess I haven't. Gah!

I've long been tempted to try the durian schtuffs sold from this simple confectionery. They have durian puffs, durian rolls (ala swiss rolls with durian cream) & durian crepes.

Durian puffs - $3.90 for 6pcs

Look at how generously-filled each puff is! And the sweet scent of durian permeates the air as I opened the packaging.

Not that very sweet. Not exactly 100% durian meat but good enough. Any more, you might as well eat the actual fruit.

The shop

They prepare bulk orders for any occasions.

Also have the mango version of the rolls and crepes. There are cheesecakes, brownies and pies too.

'Eyeball' puffs

I playfully placed a blueberry on the puff and realised that these look good for Halloween. Reminds me of Monsters Inc.

...Boo!

PS: Talk about durian puff, I'm very much curious by the popular, supposedly (very) good and pricey durian goodies from Deli @ Goodwood Park Hotel. They also have Durian Strudel, I hear?

Bubur Merah Putih

Literally translated as: Red/White Porridge

A popular culture within the Malay (initially the Javanese) community, to commemorate one’s birthday with this nice treat.

The red/brown portion is sweet due to gula melaka (palm sugar), while the white one is salty (doused with salted coconut milk). Maybe there’s some kinda’ significance, as to the colour and contrasting tastes but I have no idea what it is.

This bowl here is for my son’s 1st birthday, according to the Islamic Hijrah calendar - on New Year, 1 Muharram.

Noodles

Bee Hoon Hong Kong

Nowadays, I've seemed to have gotten over my fascination for kway tiao (flat rice noodles) and moved on to the very humble bee hoon (rice vermicelli) .

From Sinar Bahru Muslim Seafood. Save for the fact that this is one of the (not many) eateries near my office, I wouldn't always frequent this place. Food's mediocre. And the standard has pretty much dropped. Besides, I can't understand how anyone can cook squids till' the consistency of rubber. Seriously.

Bah!

Fried Fish Noodle

After my bad experience with this dish previously, I was very careful when making my order this time.

This is a totally different stall. Although this was also at a Banquet outlet, this one here at the Raffles Hospital branch prepare a version that I much prefer. With deep fried egg, no bittergourd and we can choose our preferred noodles.

I instantly said, "Fried fish noodles, with mee sua. I want egg AND milk."

The lady curtly told me, "There's already egg inside." Okayy... how would I know? Different place, different versions, mah!

I love mee sua. It's just like bee hoon but more starchy. And pretty chewy to the bite.

The Fried Fish Noodles sold here is still one of my favourite. The stock is tastier. The fish taste fresher and the fish type is better (i think it's seabass??).

Plus, that fried egg is a clear winner.

Sibu Island Resort

Tell me why I shouldn't start to miss this place already...

Food was ok. It was a full-board accommodation so ALL meals are provided by the resort (buffet). Some hits & misses but enjoyable.

Sorry no pics. I was too busy with the kiddo' and my too-hungry belly to take food shots. Besides, 'this side' of the family ain't too aware of my food blog. ;P