Whole Earth

Tried the Whole Earth Thai/Peranakan Resatuarnt at Tanjon Pagar for dinner. 

The dinner started off with a soup, which was pretty unimpressive and unmemorable. A bit too salty for my liking but then again, my salt tolerance is pretty low.

I really liked the olive fried rice (brown rice option), which had a really intense umami taste. Nearly all the other tables around us were having this dish. It was very oily, just like the normal tzechar restaurants. Not sure if they use the whole olives or just the olive vegetable (tastes more like the latter to me), but I really liked the texture of the chewy rice, reminds me of a dry risotto.

Whole Earth - Penang Curry

What was impressive about this was that the 'meat', which is made from mushrooms, actually has the texture of real meat. The curry was very robust - lots of spices and I think there was even banana flower inside? Slightly too spicy for my liking.

I was actually debating between the mushroom kong bak stew (which is one of the highly recommended dishes) or the penang curry, but the server said that the kong bak stew was very oily, so we decided to go for the Penang curry.

Monkey Head Mushroom

My all time favourite dish of the night was the braised monkey head mushrooms with kailan. Though the prices was also astronomical ($25 for a vege dish!). I first tried monkey head mushroom at Li Bai at Sheraton, and I really liked the meatiness and texture of the mushroom. At Whole Earth, the mushroom is braised in a sweet and sour sauce, and has this incredibly interesting texture - which is very similar to meat. I suppose if you're vegetarian and want to eat something that reminds you of meat, then this is the mushroom to eat.

We had the mango pomelo sago for dessert - very underwhelming and I somehow cannot find my photo of this very forgettable dessert. We also tried their enzyme drink (about $10), which actually tastes vaguely like an alcoholic drink (not sure what exactly is inside, but tastes a bit fermented?).

Overall, there were hits and misses - I would definitely come back just for the monkey head mushrooms and the olive fried rice. Generally the prices here are quite steep, and I suppose if you want heavier vegetarian food, this is the place to go  - I found the dishes here to be quite oily, full of spices and chillies. If you're looking for cleaner tasting vegetarian food, I would suggest Real Food or Sunny Choice, where there's lighter, less oiler options. The restaurant was really crowded on a weekday and fortunately, we were early enough to get a seat but it filled up super quickly after. Do make a booking to avoid disappointment.

Tsujiri - Green Tea Desserts that never fail me 

Needed a proper dessert fix after so we hopped over to Tsujiri  at 100am mall for the usual matcha dessert.

Whole Earth
6 Peck Seah Street
Singapore 079331
Tel 6323 3308

Spice Peranakan

I had lots of difficulty trying to eat at Spice Peranakan. Firstly, when I 'discovered' it after searching for peranakan food on hungrygowhere sometime in June, they were about to shift to their new location in Biopolis. Decided to try it again when school started, and after trudging to biopolis, my fellow diners said that it was way too empty (so they refused to eat there). The weekend right after that, dear Wong Ah Yoke wrote a rave review in the Straits times, and that was THE END. The restaurant was booked full during lunch, for quite some time after that. So I've been waiting (for the longest time every) for the frenzy to die down, as well as an opportunity to get out of school for lunch (sadly, I was posted to the far east for a month) and thus, I only got to try it recently.

Ayam Buah Keluak ($13.80++)
An additional buah keluak nut costs a whopping $2 (or was it $2.50 - and that's before taxes)
The chicken was pretty tender, and there were 4 good sized portions of chicken (unlike some places where they chop up the chicken until it's so small and boney). The buah keluak sauce had the smokey bitter buah keluak taste, and wasn't too spicy (perhaps it was because I requested for it to be less spicy?). They only give two small nuts, and it was very unsatisfying. I think they should give at least 4 nuts cos the portion's meant for 4 people? The nut's not stuffed with anyting, so it's just pure tarry black buah keluak paste inside. Sambal Kangkong ($8.80++)

The sambal kangkong was very salty when eaten on its own, but it was great when eaten together with the steamed rice. Could really taste the dried prawns in the kankong.Otah otah ($7.80 for 2 pieces)

One of the most expensive otahs I've eaten so far. Taste wise, it's pretty good, quite light and airy compared to other otahs. Although it's moderatley thick, the middle isn't soggy and doesn't have the 'uncooked' taste. I liked how I could taste the lemongrass in the otah paste. Best of all, it wasn't too spicy or salty. Perhaps they cater to the expat crowd at Biopolis?

Jemput Jemput Pisang ($7.80++)

Didn't know what this was before I ordered it, but after I saw it, I realized that I've actually cooked it during Home Economics in secondary school - never knew it was a Peranakan dish? I'm quite sure the vanilla ice cream isn't part of the traditional dessert, but it really cools down my numbed tongue. The jemput jemput pisang is a deep fried banana fritter, and the mashed bananas in it was mushy and sweet. The cake was moist and spongy, and really hit the spot after the spicy meal.

Our conclusion is that it's not as good as some of the restaurants in the East (like Charlie's and Peranakan Inn), not as cheap (though it's not the most expensive restaurant around) but for me, I think I won't mind coming back when a Peranakan food craving hits since it's pretty near my house. Perhaps I'll go to Dulukala and try it again one day. Haven't been there for a really long time - missing their cheap value for money dishes.

Make sure you budget for their many additional charges such as 30cents for each wet towel, and steamed rice is $1.80++ per person. Dishes came reasonably fast, but perhaps it was cos we were sitting in the corner, they didn't really refill our iced water.

Spice Peranakan

20 Biopolis Way

#01-01 Centros - Biopolis

Tel: +65 6738 8887
Park in Carpark A, Yellow Zone, B3

Simply Peranakan

Ok alot of people are bugging me to blog - I've been super lazy!

Tried Simply Peranakan at Esplanade cos I was on a peranakan food craze last week. Between the 2 of us, we ordered the set meal for 2 people (it's the first set in the menu, and the only one for 2 people), and an additional plate of ngoh hiang (just cos I was curious to try and see if it was different from the other peranakan restaurants I've tried).Ayam Buah Keluak - the sauce is the watery blackish type, and not the curry kind. The soup was pretty watery. They give quite a good portion of chicken, but I thought that the buah keluak flavour was too mild.

Otah - this is the fat otah. I prefer the skinny kind, but the texture was not too bad cos it was well done and not soggy in the middle. It was mildly spicy, but lacked punch. It didn't have much flavour and was pretty mediocre.

Sambal Kangkong with Cuttlefish. Actually, this dish wasn't in the set - Nonya Chap Chye did, but I don't like that dish. So I topped up another $3 to change the chap chye to Sambal Kangkong with Cuttlefish. The sauce was sweet, tangy and spicy - I think there's a bit of tomato ketchup inside or something. The kang kong was crunchy, and I liked the sprinkling of ground peanuts. Though it can't match up to the one from Peranakan Inn. (Crap I think I am starting to have peranakan inn sambal kangkong cuttlefish cravings again!)

Bakwang Kepiting - I don't particularly like this dish, so no comments for this one. I can't appreciate teh subtle variations between the bakwan kepitings from different restaurants.

Ngoh Hiang - this was very crispy and oily, and there was huge chunks of water chestnuts embedded inside. The ngoh hiang was well packed - it didn't disintegrate all over my plate when I ate it.

Pulut Hitam - the coconut milk was very fragrant and the black rice was cooked long enough to produce a thick starchy paste. Pretty good, though I would have prefered an icy cold dessert to cool my tongue.
One of the things which impressed me was the speed at which the dishes were served. Granted, most of their patrons are people hurrying to catch a show at the Esplanade - but the efficiency that they bring out the dishes is amazing! From the time we ordered, I barely even ate 3 pieces of those fried chip things before the first dish arrived :O I was glad that they were flexible about changing the dishes in the set menu, since I really don't like chap chye.

Things that I don't like: They charge for each serving of archar (they gave us 2), and I think there were some other extra charges (I think some napkin/chips or something) on top of the archar. It's really very pricey for peranakan food - the set for 2 cost $48++, and the ngoh hiang was around $8 (not too sure, but it was near 10).

For the prices, I'd rather have a feast at either Peranakan Inn or Charlie's Peranakin. Of course, the ambience here is much better - nicely lit and very clean and new. I suppose that if I were really desperate for Peranakan food, I'll come here, but the dishes don't have enough aroma and taste.

Simply Peranakan

8 Raffles Avenue

#02-12 Esplanade Mall

Tel: 6333 9382

(Opposite Ichiban Boshi)

Peranakan Inn

Haiz! I'm salivating and getting hungry at freaking 12.04am cos I'm looking at the photo above! It's the sambal kangkong with cuttlefish (I can't remember the price, but I think it's around $6?) which is super yummy! The kangkong is fresh and crunchy, the cuttle fish is springy, and the sambal sauce is absolutely delicious. I've never been so blown over by sambal kangkong before I ate this dish. Perhaps I shouldn't rave too much or not everyone will have super high standards and tell me 'cheay this isn't the best sambal kangkong around'... The sauce is slightly wet, and looks a bit blackish, but it's a perfect balance between the dried prawn, saltiness and sweetness. The ayam buah keluak ($6.50, comes with 3 nuts) comes right off the stove in a clay pot, and is extremely aromatic. Although the sauce looks red and firey hot, it's not that spicy - pretty manageable by my very low-chilli-tolerance standard. Compared to Charlie's Peranakan, the sauce base is more robust. Also, it's more similar to the kind that my family eats (at Peranakan restaurants, since I'm v sadly not peranakan) - Charlie's Peranakan ayam buah keluak has a thicker, blacker sauce, while Peranakin Inn's one looks more like curry.
Babi Kepiting - Minced pork balls in clear soup with sliced bamboo shoots. This isn't one of my favourite dishes, but the pork balls were very soft and tasty, and didn't have any porcine smell. The soup was flavoured with deep fried shallots, parsley and spring onions.I like the skinny otah here - although it looks rather pale and sickly, it's bursting with flavour and since it's a skinny otah, the middle isn't a bit soggy (I don't really like fat otahs cos the middle is usually a bit soggier than the outside). I don't know why the leaves were so wet - I didn't want to find out if it's oil or whatnot. If I'm not mistaken, it's $2.50 per piece. I think I can easily eat 5 pieces cos it's so delicious and not very spicy!

Ngoh Hiang ($4.50)- minced meat with water chest nuts, shredded carrots, wrapped in beancurd skin and deep fried. This was served with the yellow sweet sauce (I prefer yellow sweet sauce compared to the black one). The skin outside is nice and crispy.

The place is very old-school, and I think they probably haven't renovated for very long. But just as long as this keeps the prices down, I'm fine with it! :) Just that this place looks very dingy and dim (but it's clean! - cleanliness is very important!) - even though there are lots of lights on the ceiling, the place still looks so dim. The entrance is also very inconspicuous - I would have very easily walked right past it without knowing that there's a hidden gem inside. The service is pretty fast - my friends were all very amused at the indian waiter who was very efficiently serving the rice and food, and he also announced the names of every dish that he served. Iced water here is self service, which is great cos I invariably end up drinking alot of water even if the food is mildly spicy.

Overall, I think that I prefer the food here than at Charlie's - though if Peranakin Inn were full, I'll just go over to Charlie's. The difference isn't that big, just that I really like the sambal kangkong here (even though I haven't tried sambal kangkong at Charlie's). But if I were to bring people to eat at a Peranakan restaurant, I'll probably bring them to Charlie's cos the ambience is much nicer -you're not wedged up against the next table, and have to squeeze through tiny gaps to get out from your seat. I think I must go back soon to try more dishes!

Do call and make a reservation if you're going to Peranakan Inn, especially during weekends - it was so insanely crowded on the Saturday evening I went, that there were so many people crammed into the restaurant, and a more people waiting to get in. And don't be like me - make sure you call after 6pm - for some unfathomable reason, the lady refuses to take any reservations till the restaurant opens o_O

Peranakan Inn and Lounge

210 East Coast Road

Tel: 6440 6195

Opening Hours: Daily 11am - 3pm, 6pm - 10pm

Alright, as you can probably tell, I'm going thorugh a Peranakan food phase now - crap I'm going on holiday soon and I forsee myself suffering from withdrawel symptoms...

Charlie's Peranakan

Ayam Buah Keluak ($12)
This is my must-have dish whenever I visit a Peranakan restaurant. I like ordering this dish when I'm with my family, since none of them eat the buah keluak nuts, so I can have it all to myself! Especially since most restaurnants give about 4 nuts per portion of curry. This ayam buah keluak is pretty different from the ones that I've eaten so far, because the buah keluak forms the sauce, instead of the normal curry gravy. The tarry black sauce (which is an acquired taste) tastes best when eaten with steaming white rice, and as I'm writing this, I'm salivating. The Ayam Buah Keluak comes with 5 nuts, stuffed with minced pork. I'm definitely going back soon to get more of this! Maybe I'll takeaway a portion home too, to make my journey more worthwhile :)

Chap Chye ($6)
This isn't one of my more favourite dishes, so I don't think I will be commenting on it. I somehow have this misconception that it's always cooked with fatty pork. I think when I was younger I ate some chap chye which had so much fatty pork, and the vegetables in Chap Chye cooked till they acquire the same colour as the fatty pork. My friends, however, liked this so it was eaten up quite quickly.

I can't remember the name of this curry, but I think it's the Penang Gulai fish ($12). The curry is incredibly tasty, not very spicy, and the eggplants are cooked perfectly.

Sotong Hitam ($8 nett)

Squid cried in squid ink - I don't particularly like squid, but I found this dish pretty good. The squid was not overly chewy and pretty tender.

Ngoh Hiang ($10 nett)

Huge portion of ngoh hiang - probably one of the biggest ngoh hiang I've eaten. I thought it tasted quite alright, especially when it's eaten with the sweet sauce, but my friends didn't like it - just as well - I get to eat more :P The ngoh hiang is quite crumbly cos it's so huge, and the skin isn't very crispy, but I quite liked the meat and prawn stuffing.

I really like Charlie's Peranakan cos the food isn't spicy. So I can taste the full flavour of the spices since my tongue isn't numb and thobbing and having allydonia. If it was nearer, and I don't have to trudge through the AYE/ECP jam, I'll definitely have this somewhere on the top of my dining list.

Although the restaurant charges 50 cents for water, I don't feel as cheated as I do when I'm charged for water at other restaurants, since Charlie's Peranakan doesn't have additional service charge or GST. Prices in the menu are nett, so you won't exceed your budget. Not too sure if they charge for the achar starter tho!

Charlie's Peranakan

205 East Coast Road

Tel: 6344 8824

After dinner, we went to play mj. And look at the st benard (I don't know how to spell its name) and Chocolate the shar pei.

Dulukala Peranakan Restaurant

I'm pretty sure I wrote a review for this restaurant, but somehow, I really can't find it on my blog! Must have accidentally deleted it :( I really like Peranakan food, but the problem is that I can't take spicy food (without burning my tongue and then having allydonia for the rest of the meal where everything is spicy, hot and tateless).

Unlike the very famous Ivins, Dulukala is a small humble eatery tucked away on the top level of Beauty World. It's a family run business, and the prices are very affordable.

My most favourite peranakan dish - the Ayam Buah Keluak ($6.50, comes with 4 nuts, additional keluak at $1/piece, max 2 pieces). Everytime I go to a peranakan restaurant, I'll confirm order this :D I've only discovered the nut around a year ago after I watched this Asian food show on TV.

Apparently it's really hard to prepare this nut, cos it's very dirrrrrrrty. The keluak here doesn't come stuffed with pork and prawn. I had great fun scraping out the black gold inside all 4 keluaks (since no one else wanted them) and eating it with my rice. Extremely yummy!

Udang Chilli Garam ($10) - prawns in spicy sauce. The prawns aren't the bicarbonated kind, and although it's not the freshest I've tasted, it's still pretty good.
The Ikan Assam Pedas ($12) which is batang fish in a sweetish sourish tamarind sauce (I think the thing is tamarind but I'm not too sure - am I correct Annalisa?)

Steamed rice costs only 50 cents per plate! Really affordable. It's what some hawker stalls charge now.Sweet potato leaf with sambal ($7) By the time the veggies came my tongue was so hot that I could hardly taste anything.Chendol to cool my poor tongue. I can't remember how much this cost but it's pretty cheap.
Lots of fresh chilli laid out for drying.

The decor is very simple, but the restaurant is not cramped. The service was pretty good (despite what the internet reviews said) but then again, they weren't really packed. The food here is good and affordable. Do note that they only accept cash or nets for payment. I was pretty impressed when I made a phone call to reserve a table, and the lady who answered the phone was very helpful and even offered to let me reserve the Ayam Buah Keluak cos I asked if it was available that day. It's a pity that I only discovered this restaurant so late!

Dulukala Peranakan Restaurant

144 Upper Bukit Timah Road

#04-04 Beauty World Centre

Tel: 6465 2036

Monday -Friday Dinner 6-9.30pm

Saturday and Sunday

Lunch 12-2.30pm

Dinner 6-9.30pm

Last order 9pm

Closed on Wednesdays

Baba Inn

Peranakan is probably one of the Chinese foods that I really enjoy, but then again it's not purely Chinese. I'll happily eat all the curries and chillied dishes, and douse my buring tastebuds with lots of water since I can't take spicy food. I love the strong tastes and fragrant aromas from all the spices, which amazingly can be tasted even though the chilli numbs my tastebuds.

We went to Baba Inn on a weekday evening, and it was empty, save a table where an elderly couple were sharing a huge claypot fish head curry. The delicious aroma from the still warm claypot warfted about the whole restaurant, and did nothing to help our growling stomachs.

The 4 of us ordered the dinner set menu for 4 ($78++), which comes with any 1 of 2 choices each of Fish (Sambal/assam/nanas white promfret or snapper curry fish head), Prawn (Sambal/Assam/Nanas Udang), Ayam Buah Keluak, Nonya Chap Chye or Long Beans Sambal, Bakwan Kepeting Soup with Crabshell, and Dessert. Ayam Buah Keluak is my one of my most favourite dishes. I really love the bitterness of the tarry innards of the buah keluak. Everytime I go to a Nonya restaurant, I will definitely order this dish. I've been told that this dish is really hard to prepare, cos the buah keluak is very 'dirty' and takes very long to clean - plus, on this cooking show, they mentioned that you require quite a bit of buah keluak to make the stuffing. This dish came with 3 buah keluak, which were stuffed (probably with pork and prawns). I had lots of fun digging out the yummy stuffing. Deliciousness!

Tiger Prawns with Nanas Udang, which were big juicy and fresh. It was a hot favourite and needless to say, the small dish of 6 prawns were wiped out in a jiffy.

Nonya Chap Chye came in a nice claypot, and had lots of black fungus, cabbage, beancurd skin (and other various ingredients) and it went very well with the rice.

Bakwan Kepeting Soup with Crabshell was clear, light and tasty. It was served in individual portions, with a crabshell stuffed with minced pork.
Sambal White Pomfret - although the sambal sauce looks firey red, it wasn't that spicy (thankfully). The thick sauce went very well with the crispy fried fish.
D:<
At least it isn't curly, like the one in my Curry from Banana Leaf. That was really gross - cos I didnt' know if it came from someone who had curly hair, or whether was it pubes.
Pulot Hitam was the dessert of the day, and it came prettily decorated in individual bowls. It was a bit too sweet for my liking, but nevertheless, it was something sweet to wash down the extremely delicious, satisfying dinner. It would have been even better if they had served a cold dessert, cos my tastebuds were pretty tingly from all that chilli.

I really liked the affordable food from Baba Inn, it's much more value for money than True Blue (which I like too! But somehow, I find the staircase of Perenakan displays very creepy - plus their decorated toilet makes me very uneasy).

Baba Inn
Frankel Estate #01-103
103 Frankel Avenue (S) 458225