Restaurant Name-Twister

It's always sad to hear of the closure of a restaurant.

In this case, however, we're rather glad that Fung Ding Hung Restaurant has ceased operations since December 2015, so that henceforth, there won't be a repeat of the confusion we encountered.

While checking on the outlets that American Express Platinum was tied up with, American Express Customer Service lady merrily told us that their card will get special discounts at "Din Tai Fung" restaurant.

We were so happy!

After a merry go-round where we were unable to get confirmation from Din Tai Fung directly, it appears that she had gotten confused.  It was "Fung Ding Hung" and not "Din Tai Fung" that American Express was tied up with for dining discounts.

Aigoo aigoo! 

Make us happy for nothing.

Loaf of Bread - Subway and other Singapore Bakers

After Food Babe Vani Hari's call to action, Subway stores in USA is to remove the harmful chemical azodicarbonamide in their bread.

This is a synthetic chemical mixed into plastics to make them more pliable.  Subway and many other bakers use it as a bleaching agent to make bread look nice, as well as a dough conditioner for faster bread production.

It could be in your burger buns, garlic bread, hot dog buns, muffin, and in many other retail bread.

We used organic flour to bake our own bread using Breville breadmaker.

However, owing to lack of time, we also patronize outlets ranging from Bengawan Solo, Cedele, Delifrance, Four Leaves and its franchise Peck bakery at Takashimaya, McDonalds, Subway, Sun Moulin at Isetan Scotts, to name a few.

They all taste good but how much azodicarbonamide does a typical bread lover consume here in Singapore?

The Bland Taste of Brand's Essence

Traditionally, around this time of the year, we would order Brand's Essence of Chicken as giveaways.  They have a fantastic range, with options to choose the essence with added ingredients like American Ginseng, Cordycep, Lycium, Tangkwei and Vitamin B Complex.  For corporate giveaways, we generally go for the basic one, taken by many to strengthen to body and help relieve fatique.


This year, however, the first batch of Brand's Essence of Chicken we received (Batch: November 2013) taste diluted, prompting us to halt further orders to clarify the issue with Brand's Customer Service.  They assure us that the extraction method and nutritional values remains the same, and in fact, there were feedback that some people might not like the taste of chicken and actually wanted a blander taste.

If this is the case, it may be better for Brand's to market this lesser-taste form under a sub-category, because our first impression was that the whole stuff was being diluted somehow, somewhere in the manufacturing process.  Whereas before, we were able to add warm water to the original version and still enjoy it, now it already tasted quite close to plain water straight out from the bottle.  Individual taste preference aside, when we wish for chicken soup or broth, we prefer it with the taste of chicken, as that is part of the appreciation process.  It is small consolation to be told that the chicken essence remains as nutritious as before.  While we appreciate its lower cholesterol values as compared to chicken broth which can be oilier even when skin is removed, we aren't ready for tasteless chicken soup when the word 'chicken soup' itself conjures anticipation of good taste with its aroma providing a sense of comfort.

For those who appreciated a brander form of Brand's Essence of Chicken, though, here is an extract from their website -

Quality Chickens from Temperature-Controlled, Contamination-Free FarmsAll BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken products are made with chickens supplied by leading poultry suppliers, reared in a pollution-free, temperature-controlled, and safely enclosed farm closely monitored by computers. Unlike traditional open chicken farms, these chickens are not exposed to other aviary animals, eliminating the risk of contamination.

Each chicken is inspected by a government veterinarian to ensure that it is healthy before it is processed in the GMP, ISO 9001 QMS, HACCP and Halal certified slaughterhouse. Chickens are then rigorously inspected by state-accredited veterinarians before a final check by a BRAND’S® quality assurance personnel to ensure the highest quality and hygiene before it is processed in BRAND’S® factory.

Mid-Autumn Mooncakes

We don't have autumn in Singapore, but we have autumn mooncakes as a consolation prize.

Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese Lunar New Year, 10 & 11 Feb) was just over not too long ago, and time zip by so quickly to bring forth the Autumn Festival.

I didn't realise that mooncakes and lanterns are already out on retail display until I zipped past the corridors of InterContinental Singapore, and a friendly voice called out to me from the booth to try a sample.

In a hurry, I picked just one flavour to try from the wondrous jars on display, and already I like it.  It's a low-sugar version of the traditional white lotus seed paste mooncake. 

This year, they have a new flavour - the Pulot Hitam (black glutinous rice) snowskin mooncake, inspired by the well-loved Peranakan dessert. 

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

Their popular signature treat is back too - the Durian Mooncake with Coconut wrapped in snowskin.

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

 

Couldn't decide?  They cover that too, with their 4-piece combination pack:

- Green Tea Paste with Dragonball

- Pulot Hitam

- White Lotus with Macadamia Nuts

- Sesame Paste with White Sesame Seeds

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

 

But nothing brings back nolstalgia like the traditional ones.. 

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

 Look at that yolk!

The "low sugar" offering caters to the more health-conscious folks.

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

Not forgetting the traditional Red Bean ones.  The skin's quite thin too, unlike those let's-get-fat-together thick skins I've seen before.

Photo Credits: InterContinental Singapore

The packaging tells a story too.  Man Fu Yuan (restaurant of InterContinental) partnered with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in a design competition.  Student Ng Chee Yin's design was chosen from over 100 entries.  His calligraphic interpretation of the ancient Chinese folklore of the mythical Jade Rabbit and the Moon Goddess Chang Er, symbolises reunions, a central theme of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

How not to get fat in Singapore? !

Tingkat Meals

For small eaters, tingkat meal can often substitute as the main meal of the day.  For bigger families, or those with bigger appetites, tingkat delivered meals makes for a good complement to home-cooked meals, especially if your home cooking resources (and that includes time to cook and outings to shop for groceries) are limited.

We tried this in 2008, and since then, the options are much much more; the playing field in food delivery (in Singapore) now becoming more competitive than before.  Guess there is money in it to be made.  Other than tingkat meal delivery, there are now also vendors specialising in restaurant and food outlet delivery.

In Tingkat delivery, the food is delivered to the doorstep in tall metal containers of various tiers (tiffin carriers, called tingkats in Malay, meaning "level / floor / rank").  There is an option to have it delivered in microwave-safe plastic containers, at an extra charge.

During the various trials offered by the caterers (trials are for 5-day to 10-day food delivery), most of the caterers deliver the food in microwave-safe plastic containers instead of in tingkat (tiffins).

User review of Tingkat delivery food (3 Dishes+1 Soup / or 4 Dishes /for 2 persons):

2008: Jessie Catering

Friendly, good service.

However, once a week, we get what we called "dud" meals, where the food is not up to expectations.

2008: Select Catering

Food is not as nice as when they catered for it in town.

We also get "dud" meals once too often.

The chicken was one tough goner.

2012: Kim's Kitchen

Portion was small because their trial run for 5 days is the cheapest @ S$40 for 2 persons.

Hopefully, portion improves in size during actual runs.

Taste is full of flavour, so for those who like food this way, it is good.

2012: Neo Gardens

Portion during trial was the largest, but they charged S$116.60 for 10 days.

Taste is pleasant, some may find it plain but for daily meals, some like it light in flavour.

This is the one we picked for the actual run (S$288.90 for 20 days).

However, disappointed to find the portion seems to have shrunk in the actual run.

Food still taste pleasant.

In the trial run, our tingkat was delivered to the wrong address.

It ended up being delivered by a neighbour after 8 p.m., hours after it was hung on the door at 3.30 p.m.  The food was cold, not as fresh.

The manager promised an add-on dish as compensation.

But didn't get that extra dish?!

Now in the actual run, our tingkat was again delivered to the wrong address. This despite alerting during order. We did received a tingkat this time, but the label address shows it belongs to someone else.  Unfortunately, we didn't know that and had already opened all the tiers.

Not very good, this wrong delivery, as other folks may likewise have opened it up to "view".

The other surprise was that while they allow customers to choose "no seafood / no spice / etc.", we cannot request for "no pork" as it is a "meat dish", according to the CS.  A disappointment as there are folks who do not consume pork due to religious or health reasons, and wish for it to be replaced with another non-pork dish, vegetables or otherwise.

A bit of flexibility would have been appreciated.

2012:  Hilltop KB

This was highly recommended by someone in one of the Singapore forum boards.

So we enrolled for the trial, S$110 for 10 days of 4 dishes (no soup this time as all the soup dish in the trial runs are laden with MSG).

Oh, yucks, we knew we were done for during the 1st day itself.

That first dish tasted like something a volunteer cook at a temple used to whip up - and I think that tasted better.  There was just something in the oil used - one smell and we were done for.

They wouldn't allow a refund, but did accord us a smaller mercy of reducing the 10-day agony to 5-days.  In one of the tiers in the first day, was a fish dish which was the kind of "dory" fish which we hate (the melted kind, that is a poor cousin of the real dory fish).  For the real stuff, head for Fish & Co.  We were shocked to find this agony extended during the next 5-days, when we received the same "melted" fish not once but twice more.  Most caterers make it a point not to repeat the dish in the same week.  When we called in to prevent the same fish popping up during the last and the fifth day, we were told it was our mistake not to request for a "no-fish" tingkat.  But how?  We love fish!  Just didn't expected fish to ever turn out this way.  We were also convinced that the fish was prepared different way, and that our eyes, our tongues, our hearts was deceiving us into thinking it was prepared the same way.  Oh mercy, we must be more pathetic creatures than the fish.

2012: Four Seasons (name seems to have changed to Gourmet City)

Food is okay.

Chicken was old chicken, tough.

We prefer Neo Gardens / Kim's Kitchen more.

2012: Mom's Cooking

Their price is double that of other tingkat caterers.

We keep hearing their food tastes better.  However, we skip the trial run as it appears from the menu that they have a lot of pork dishes.

If you love pork, it may be worth a try.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Enjoy Life!

 

Popeyes The Chicky

Was busy rushing work when boy-boy asks for delivery from Popeyes.

Quickly yahoo-ed "Popeye" and clicked "popeye.com" in error.  Out pops good ole Popeye-the-Sailer-man.  Hey hello there, haven't seen him in quite a while.  "Spinach is healthier," reminded Popeye.

"Aiyo.  Use google is better." boy-boy said.

I clicked the next link "popeyes.com", and out pops the chicken site.

"What's with the Coupon tab?" I asked.

"Aiyo, that's the USA site!   You gotta click .com.sg!" boy-boy said.

Aiyo-yo.  Next link, please.

At last!
See the cute Singapore flag emblem on the right side of the website.

We actually ordered Fish & Calamari, rather than Chicken.

Delivery of $4.50 waived up to 31st October 2012.