PappaRich - Star Vista

Papparich is a Malaysian casual restaurant which serves up affordable local dishes. It's similar to Old Town but has a more extensive menu.

I really loved the steamed bread with kaya - smells really fresh, is cottony soft and fluffy. Sadly the amount of kaya was really paltry, which was a pity since it tasted really good. They're more than generous with the butter - 2 huge slabs of butter, all the better to clog my coronary arteries...

I think the top dish was some prawn noodles - the soup has the nice umami flavour. The thin flat white noodles are very smooth and chewy.

The fried hor fun though not spectacular, was tasty in its own right. Although it didn't have the wok hei taste, it was still better than the regular food court (or Kopitiam). Overall, it's comfort food and prices are very affordable.

Sadly, my dining experience was marred by their terrible service. I ordered 2 cups of iced water (which I was told that I had to pay for) but it took forever to come. When I reminded the waiter, he said that there was a 'queue' for the water glasses and that I had to wait until the water glasses were ready! Completely ridiculous! And on top of that, I never got the water. According to the manager (spoke to him when I was paying up, because again, their service was as slow as a geriatric snail that I went to the counter to pay up). Credit to the manager - he gave us a small discount for the food. I would really want to give this place a better review since the food reminds me of Old Town (which I patronized alot when I'm at work) but the service is really shoddy.

According to the reviews on hungrygowhere, it's not the real Papparich but actually Pappamia? Anyway, I'm not an expert on all these Malaysian brands but whatever it is, the service is lousy (thanks to the new labor laws, they have problem getting staff...). I suppose I would go back for the food - but I'm quite sure that the service will be lousy again and spoil my day. Decisions, decisions... the dilemmas in my life...

PappaRich

1 Vista Exchange Green

#01-43 The Star Vista

Tel: 66843373

Tsukada Nojo - Jidori Chicken Ramen

 Super delayed post - but I'll do Tsukada Nojo injustice if I don't blog about it! I really like the new wing in Plaza Singapura cos there's so many new stores - just went to Hoshinos a few weeks ago...
Apparently they can't bring in Tsukada Nojo's famous brand chicken since AVA bans poultry imports from Japan - but these chickens come from Malaysia.

 Delicious chicken broth which is made from stewing the chickens for many hours. It's supposed to be full of collagen - and I think it's probably true because the texture of the soup is like that of sharks cartilage soup (one of my favourite Chinese style soups ). The soup is slightly murky and has this very nice smooth taste and it feels as if the soup is coating your tongue (essentially like sharks cartilage soup). I can just imagine all the goodness of collagen inside...
The noodles are thin (a bit like mee kia) and I think I could eat a whole bowl of the soup + noodles without any ingredients.

The toppings, which come separately. The chicken is really solid, tender and probably marginally tastier than your regular chicken. I really want to try their dinner menu which has pure collagen chicken soup!

Very specific instructions to eat their famous chicken collagen hot pot. Each hot pot is for 2 people so bring a dining companion down! I'll def blog about this on my return trip to Tsukada Nojo.

Tsukada Nojo
60B Orchard Road
The Atrium-Orchard Level #03-81
Singapore 238891
Tel 6336 5003

Nam Nam

Managed to get a seat inside Nam Nam on my 2nd try at the Raffles City branch. The first time I was there the queue was ridiculously long and snaking.

Their noodles are pretty good - I had the dried lemongrass pork noodles ($7.90) which was packed with fresh herbs, shredded carrots and radish. The pork was well marinated with a sweet, smokey sauce and there were lots of crushed peanuts.

The wagyu beef noodles ($16.90) was slightly fatty and oily but of course, for my fear of prions, I dind't try it.

The banh mi (cold cuts, charsiew and pork pate - $5.90)) on the other hand didn't fare too well - they stuffed jalapenos inside and I felt that the fillings were a bit sparse. I had the I think Saigon Baguette does a better job of the Banh Mi.

After securing a table, you'll have to write out your order on a notepad and then go to the counter and pay for your food, which will be served to you later.  Other than there being a perpetual long queue (unless you go during the unpopular hours), the tables being wedge so close to each other that you'll be smelling the food and hearing every single word from the conversation next door, and no space for shopping (fml had 2 large bags that day),I'll be back for the pork noodles but not the banh mi. And perhaps I'll eat before shopping next time...

Happy Chinese New Year 2013

Bunny being festive - he tried eating the fake peonies

Happy CNY everyone! I hope you all are having fun visiting all your relatives snacking on all the yummy goodies this year. My family is keeping up with their regular CNY tradition of globe trotting so I shall be hibernating at home this CNY and having some me time! :D  Just me and my bak kwa stash in my fridge^v^ And for the first time since I've started contributing to the work force - NO WORK on all 4 days! :O I dislike how all the CNY menus are so overpriced, and all the food prices are jacked up just for CNY. Urgh! I think I shall plan for a CNY holiday next year! 

Chicken Bak Kwa Cookies

 CNY is coming real soon and the kind folks from Prima Deli have sent me some CNY goodies. On top of my usual CNY stash, I have PrimaDeli's Chicken Bak Kwa cookies and pineapple tarts.

I really liked the chicken bak kwa cookies - it's sweet yet savory - crumbly and I devoured nearly the whole top level of it for this review.  My favourite CNY snack is bak kwa! I know that bak kwa is available all year round but it's extra nice and I feel very festive eating it during CNY. (Exceptionally festive, since my family isn't terribly enthusiastic when it comes to CNY celebrations - they are all flying to different parts of the world while I stay in Singapore zzzz)

The cookies comes in 2 separate packs within the the metal tin - so that you wont have soggy cookies (thanks to our humidity). It brings eating bak kwa to a whole new level - since I can eat it in the comfort of my room while playing with my computer, and yet not have to worry about oily bak kwa fingers while I use the keyboard since it's just like a regular cookie, just that there's lots of tasty chicken bak kwa embedded in it. Even my calorie conscious sister has deemed them good enough to spend her daily calorie quota on.

The Chicken Bak Kwa cookies retail at all PrimaDeli outlets for $14.80 per tin till 9th Feb and you can get a 10% discount by buying 2 tins.

Speaking of which, this funny meme on 9gag Singapore is too good not to share!

http://www.facebook.com/sgag.sg?group_id=0

Speaking of feeling festive - nows the time when I steer clear of anything and anywhere near Chinatown, don't cut hair (even though I need to I shall just wait until the CNY surcharge ends) and I shall hibernate at home during the CNY long weekend...