Another 'celebratory' dinner for my mum's birthday (it's her 60th, after all). This time my brother insist on taking the tab.
I remember that we were really ravenous that day. Suggestions were asked around, on what to have. My dad mentioned 'Western' food and we eventually saw ourselves headed for Changi Village. I had NO idea what our destination was until my bro mentioned that my parents want to try out the food at Olivye Cafe.Gelato… Ahh…
But… but they were closed! Huhu. They were having a Christmas Party at the level above (how can I forget that it's Christmas??!). I was disheartened to see that my parents were disappointed. Sigh…
Then I suddenly recall a certain anonymous comment on my blog entry on Teh Tarik Eating House next door (you know who you are!). So I told my parents about a certain someone's comment that the seafood is pretty good. If they don't mind having seafood, that is.
The eatery seemed a wee bit more vacant that I expect. It's a holiday after all, right? Then again, the next day is a working day. One noticeable thing was that there seem to be a shortage of staff, too. Many tables still had soiled crockery left uncleared and there was only a lone staff doing the clearing. We were later told that the place was packed-out during lunch.
My bro and I went over to the stall to check out their menu. I remember that the Yam Basket was recommended so I made sure that was in the list. Also choose the Har Cheong Kai and other favourites. The staff who attend to us seemed like a newbie and as we were about to head back to our table, she came by to inform us that the Yam Basket & Har Cheong Kai were unavailable that day. Huhu.
And the cute thing was; when we mentioned that we chose the Har Cheong Kai because we want to have fried chicken, she recommend that we order from the fried chicken stall instead. Her boss might just knock her head for doing that! Hee.
Eventually settled for Thai Style Chicken (just a gamble) and hotplate tofu to replace the Yam Basket (almost similar, no?).
The picture sequences are as how the dishes arrive at our table:
Thai-Style chicken
This was the first dish to arrive. I end up impressed. Maybe because I had lowered my expectations as I wasn't sure what the dish is really like.
The deep-fried chicken fillets were crispy and the Thai sauce was a nice balance of sweet, sour, salty & spicy. Reminds me a lot like the Thai-style chicken feet from most chicken rice places. This surely is my new favourite dish!
Kiddo was really hungry by then and asked for some chicken. I had to suck some the sauce away before letting him have some.
I remember that we were really ravenous that day. Suggestions were asked around, on what to have. My dad mentioned 'Western' food and we eventually saw ourselves headed for Changi Village. I had NO idea what our destination was until my bro mentioned that my parents want to try out the food at Olivye Cafe.Gelato… Ahh…
But… but they were closed! Huhu. They were having a Christmas Party at the level above (how can I forget that it's Christmas??!). I was disheartened to see that my parents were disappointed. Sigh…
Then I suddenly recall a certain anonymous comment on my blog entry on Teh Tarik Eating House next door (you know who you are!). So I told my parents about a certain someone's comment that the seafood is pretty good. If they don't mind having seafood, that is.
The eatery seemed a wee bit more vacant that I expect. It's a holiday after all, right? Then again, the next day is a working day. One noticeable thing was that there seem to be a shortage of staff, too. Many tables still had soiled crockery left uncleared and there was only a lone staff doing the clearing. We were later told that the place was packed-out during lunch.
My bro and I went over to the stall to check out their menu. I remember that the Yam Basket was recommended so I made sure that was in the list. Also choose the Har Cheong Kai and other favourites. The staff who attend to us seemed like a newbie and as we were about to head back to our table, she came by to inform us that the Yam Basket & Har Cheong Kai were unavailable that day. Huhu.
And the cute thing was; when we mentioned that we chose the Har Cheong Kai because we want to have fried chicken, she recommend that we order from the fried chicken stall instead. Her boss might just knock her head for doing that! Hee.
Eventually settled for Thai Style Chicken (just a gamble) and hotplate tofu to replace the Yam Basket (almost similar, no?).
The picture sequences are as how the dishes arrive at our table:
Thai-Style chicken
This was the first dish to arrive. I end up impressed. Maybe because I had lowered my expectations as I wasn't sure what the dish is really like.
The deep-fried chicken fillets were crispy and the Thai sauce was a nice balance of sweet, sour, salty & spicy. Reminds me a lot like the Thai-style chicken feet from most chicken rice places. This surely is my new favourite dish!
Kiddo was really hungry by then and asked for some chicken. I had to suck some the sauce away before letting him have some.
Hot-plate tofu
Surprisingly, the dishes that were meant to replace the unavailable orders, came first.
This dish was more suited for kiddo. Non-spicy with nice tofu, fish cakes and egg for him. But he much preferred the Thai-style chicken!
Salted egg-yolk prawns
Ahhh… The star of the day. The large tiger prawns were fried simply, with not much of a batter. And that sauce, my goodness, that sauce!
Easy said, it was soo good that my dad literally scooped the sauce into his mouth. Like soup. And he isn't the sort who's too eager about foods but this sauce really got him. A bit of a warning about those bits of chili padi (birds-eye chillies) though. Killer spicy!
Will come back here for this dish when any sort of yearning kicks in, seriously.
Sweet & sour fish (fillets)
I don't know why I ordered this. Maybe for nostalgia's sake? It's like, our family hardly ever skipped on ordering this most times.
Luckily I chose the fillets instead of the whole fish, cos' it seemed that we may have over-ordered! There was in fact, another fish order (which came last). Thankfully, the sauce taste good. So this dish was still enjoyable. One can hardly go wrong with this sauce, right?
Cereal squid
I ordered this because I remember that my hubby loves fried squid. And the fact that I can't eat at a Zhi Char place without ordering anything with 'cereal'. A must-have to me, personally.
I like that they squid came in rings, instead of those rectangular pieces I see elsewhere.
Basically an omelette with many ingredients inside. Ordered this for kiddo but at the rate that it came out so late, kiddo almost totally ignore it when it arrived. I thought that such a simple dish would be prepared first… NOT!
Then again, I should have cancelled this order when we got the hotplate tofu.
Grilled sambal stingray
When this arrived, I was like, "Did we order this?" My bro cleared his throat and owned up to making the order.
At this point, my belly really can't take in any more food. So I had a taste of the sambal sauce. It carried a strong taste of dried shrimps and was very spicy. Fiery hot kind of spicy. Whoa!
End up, we doggy-bagged this as everyone had surrendered. No more food, please! Guess we really over-ordered. My mum remarked that we should have skipped the hot-plate tofu & sweet & sour fish because they had become 'too common'. Guess she enjoyed discovering new foods with much more interesting/complex flavours (cue the salted egg yolk and Thai sauce).
Thank you 'Anonymous', whoever you are- for this recommendation. Now we have another Zhi Char option for my family when we come by Changi Village. Aside from our other favourite, Ah Nam BBQ Seafood.
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