Kowloon Express @ 321 Clementi

For this food review, I went to Kowloon Express which is located at 321 Clementi. The restaurant focuses on cuisines and delicacies from Hong Kong.

Honestly, I am never a fan of dim sums or paus. I was a little skeptical of trying them for a food review. But as I always say before, i'm willing to try new foods from different countries or cultures. You wouldn't know what you like once you tried right?

And I was absolutely right! Kowloon Express is one of my favorite restaurants right now!

The staffs were super polite and organized. She was very efficient in handling orders and assigning seats to customers. Mind you, it was super busy due to full reservation. You know the restaurant serves great food if their reservation is always full!

The salted egg custard pau is to die for! Everything was perfect. It was super fluffy and light, and the custard was creamy. The flavor of the custard was perfect! Since the pau is quite small, I would recommend you to eat it in one bite. I swear, you will feel the pau bursting in your mouth, releasing all the creamy salted egg custard. This is literally food made from heaven.

(I'm literally salivating while typing this.)

However, I really can't differentiate the difference between the Kowloon Express' Barbequed Chicken pau to the other paus that are sold elsewhere. There were no significant or different taste of the barbequed chicken filling.

But! It is super fluffy, and super light. I could eat that all day, everyday.

For the main entree, I ordered the Wanton noodle. I actually wanted to get the Char siew noodles but it is only available during the weekends. When my noodles arrived, I expected my wantons to be fried. But it was not. It was soaked in the soup that came along with the noodles. It will be great to have an option for this.

While the noodles were perfectly cooked and beautifully flavored, the soup was not.

The soup was bland and I had to depend on the noodle's seasonings for the taste. My wantons too, was lacking in flavor, I couldn't taste the fillings of it. It needed a lot more seasonings in the soup in order for the wantons to absorb the flavor. But i really felt it was okay. The dim sums really win it this time! I would surely dine here again.

Atmosphere was great, staffs were incredible. I am actually proud of the owner for making this huge step to bring Hong Kong cuisines nearer to us, in fact, nearer to our taste buds. It will actually be a great honor to have an interview with the owner of Kowloon Express. Such an inspiration! If I were to venture into the Restauranteur industry one day, it will be surely be inspired by this restaurant.

The opening hours of the outlet is as followed:

11am to 10pm (Daily)

Reservations: 6250 0833

So what are you waiting for?! If you dine here, tell me all about it!

And if you have recommendations of any restaurants, do tell me too!

Have fun!

Love, Ally.

Orange Lantern @ IMM Jurong East

Xin Chao! That's how you say Hello in Vietnamese right? Despite learning asian cuisines for 2 years in school, I've never tasted or cooked any Vietnamese cuisines at all. So I decided, why not indulge myself in the Vietnamese world?

 A friend recommended me Orange Lantern, a very quaint, beautiful restaurant that serves authentic Vietnamese cuisines. So i quickly grabbed my phone to reserve my seats. The staffs were super polite by the way!

Like most restaurants in Singapore, the ordering system is now more advanced. No more waving for waiters, no more going to the counters. In Orange Lantern, its just by swiping and clicking pictures of the dishes on their iPad and you're done! This system makes everything super fast and efficient!

For the Muslims, it was the holy month of
Ramadhan where we fast roughly from 7am to 7pm so upon ordering, we were served with dates which was quite impressive. It was super sweet of them almost, to think about the different cultures of customers that dined in.

According to the beliefs of the Muslims, it is auspicious to eat dates before breaking their fast as to follow the steps or Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad.

Our orders arrived right on time. Not too late, and not too early as well. Everything was perfect. The servers were very efficient and alert. 

My set includes a soup, the famous papaya salad, and some Vietnamese appetizers. The papaya salad is absolutely delicious and refreshing. The combination of the different flavors really complimented each other. It was sweet, sour and spicy. It didn't confuse my taste buds at all. 

However, the soup was too fragrant for me. As you can see, the amount of spring onion is overwhelming. I don't know about you, but I dislike my food to be too fragrant. That's why I use a minimum amount of spring onions/ parsley leaves whenever I'm cooking. But other than that, the flavor of the soup is great!

Now for the main dish! I gotta say, the beef sizzling hotplate killed me! It was amazing. It tasted so much like the Malay dish, Rendang. The beef was so juicy and tender, my jaws were not tired of chewing. Flavor of the sauce was delicious. It was not oily too, just the way I like it.

Wasn't quite familiar with the Vietnamese appetizers but I'm always open to new foods and taste. The one on the left tasted so much like fishcake? But what surprised me about this is that, it wasn't pierced by a stick. It was actually poked through with a small cutting of a sugar cane. It releases a very sugary, sweet juice when you bite on it. So creative!

The Vietnamese rice paper rolls look appetizing but it wasn't to my liking honestly. The rolls consists of lettuce, vermicelli noodles, shrimp and mint leaves. MINT LEAVES. 

Again, it was too fragrant for me. The amount of mint leaves in the rolls were too much for me. It was more than what anyone could eat. Also, I believe mint leaves are mainly for desserts, and NEVER for savory dishes.

After all the amazing, authentic foods, all you need now is a refreshing drink. And what's the best drinking option I'd recommend you? 

Hot Lemongrass Tea with Honey (Also comes in an option of cold)

Not only that this drink is refreshing, it is also a good drink to detox your body. And it's deliciously healthy too!

So far, my dining experience here has been nothing but amazing. I thank all the polite servers for serving us. The ambiance here is incredible, the seats were comfortable, system is efficient. I would surely recommend ya'll to come here. 

Check out their website for the menu, address and contact number.

Book a table to avoid unnecessary disappointments!

Love, ally.

Ally Cooks: Ally's Version Of Eggs Benedict!

Honestly, I don't wake up early in the morning for breakfast. I'm usually not a morning person. But then again, I love the morning sunrise, the morning breeze. But if you are staying in Singapore, getting anywhere in the morning is such a hassle with the morning crowd at the bus or train stations!

This next recipe I'm sharing with ya'll is super fast, easy and simple. I know some of us tend to skip breakfast to reach work/school on time, or earlier to prevent the morning crowd. I promise you, this takes less than 15 minutes!

Ingredients you need:

Eggs

Chicken Patty

Wholemeal bread

Cheese

Thousand Island Dressing

Parsley leaves

Ice Water

First! Pop in your chicken patty into your air-fryer. Not only does air-frying is efficient, it's super healthy too! No oil is needed! But then again, don't fret if you don't have the air-fryer. You can cook it in the oven, and you're done. Leave it on for 10 minutes. While it's cooking, we can move on to the other steps.

I love cheese! So for the base of our eggs Benedict, I made a cheese toast. I recommend ya'll to do exactly the same. The cheese will help to balance out the flavor of the whole dish once we're done. It will be incredible! We're gonna leave our bread to toast for about 10 minutes now.

This is the most important and crucial part of the recipe! You will need ICE-COLD water for this cooking process.

Why? Poaching the eggs in cold-water will help to prevent any bursts or "explosions" while it is cooking inside the microwave. And if the egg explodes, the shape of it will not be perfect as we want it to be. We need the egg yolk to be intact at all time! To prevent any unnecessary mess, this is the safest way to go.

Leave the egg in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. If you want the yolk to be well-done and hard, leave it in for another 10 seconds.

Gently place the egg on top of the chicken patty. The yolk is extremely fragile, so do this step very slowly and carefully.

Instead of pouring over the Hollandaise sauce, I'm doing something efficient, which is the Thousand Island dressing.  

The sourness of the dressing, the flavour of the chicken, the texture of the cheese and the fragrance of the parsley leaves really blended well with the runny and silky egg yolk.

Not only this is an efficient breakfast, but it's super healthy too! Try this out, and tell me all about it!

Have fun!

Ally Cooks: Make Your Own Potato Chips!

There's always a day when you don't feel lazy and you really want to do something productive. As for me, it's kinda rare to have that day (lol) but when the day comes, I'll always cook or bake. Haha! Even for something I can get at the stores, I'll just want to make them from scratch.

So I decided to make potato chips! From scratch! *put my paws up*

Ingredients you need:

Potatoes/sweet potatoes

Canola Oil

Salt

I know, simple right?!

First of all! Peel off the skin of the potatoes. This is exceptional, you can leave it on for more texture and flavor. Place them in a bowl of water after that.

Place a damp cloth under your chopping board for safety reasons so that your board won't slip while you're chopping. Believe it or not, I got scolded once by my chef because of that. Lame, I know right? Okay! Make sure your knife is sharp too. Chopping with a blunt knife is annoying and quite dangerous too.

I would recommend you to slice your potatoes very thinly, so that your chips will be crispy and crunchy! I know slicing them thinly is quite a hassle, but it will be worth it. I promise.

As you can see, I did not slice them thinly. I had to persuade and motivate myself to re-slice them. See? That's self motivation ya'lls. Hahaha.. Once you get that desired, thin slices of potatoes, leave them in a bowl of water. While at that, time to heat up your pot of oil.

After the oil heats up, fry all your potatoes. We are doing a double-fry method. This way, your chips will be crunchy and crispy. That's the goal that we are aiming for. I mean who wants to eat a soggy potato chip?

Once they are half-cooked, place them aside to cool down. After a few minutes, heat up the oil again and re-fry the cool potatoes for a second time. I know what ya'll are thinking. Double fry?! Isn't that unhealthy?! 

Chill people. The potato slices are too thin, only a minimal amount of oil will be absorbed by the potato. But then again, since when potato chips are healthy?

After double-frying them, place them on a sheet of tissue paper to drain out the oil. After that, dispose the tissue paper, and sprinkle some salt on the chips, mix them around, and you are done!

You got yourself your own homemade potato chips! Congratulations!

Xoxo, ally.

Street Food In Singapore! (Jurong Point's Pasar Malam)

Pasar malam basically means night market in malay. But then again, it's not a market at all. It's like a pop-up store for cheap clothings, cheap food, cheap furnitures, cheap handphone accessories, cheap everything! But I came here for one thing and one thing only; I came for the food!

I found this gem right here! BananaNCheese sells Banana fritters topped with cheese, and also a choice of chocolate sauce. Other than that, they are also selling all varieties of satays: Mutton, chicken and beef. They're all my favorite food, oh my god!

Their satays were amazing! The packaging was super cute. It's perfect for people who are too busy walking and doesn't have any time to eat (me). I swear I have never seen anyone come up of this idea, and for that, I believe this is a good business idea and also very creative! So efficient and innovative. Wait, I sound like a businessman now. Should I open up a business-related blog? AllyDanielEats turns into AllyDanielWorks? Hahahaha kidding.

The satay tasted fresh, you can taste it by the flavor and texture once you bite it. It was a little cold by the time I got it, causing the beef to harden a bit. But i'm fine. Why would I blame the nature for blowing wind to my food? But I swear, this is must-get item when you're out at the pasar malam.

Oh my god. The iconic Banana Fritters with Cheese! Believe it or not, days after eating this, I am still craving for it now. The banana fritters here are so crispy! I have no idea how they made it. Throughout my 21 years of life, I have tasted a lot of crispy banana fritters but not as crispy and crunchy as these! And the insides were so soft and smooth. It melts in my mouth literally. And with the cheese? Heaven madness! 

*bangs my head on my laptop*

I have no idea when does the pasar malam ends. But! Ya'll can follow them for more updates on Instagram (@BananaNCheese). While at that, follow me too (@Ally.Daniel) for those who have not!

Citrus By The Pool @ Woodlands Swimming Complex

I love food (duh) and I'll love it even more if the restaurant is affordable, family-friendly and has easy access! Hehe. This next restaurant I dined at was recommended by a friend. So I decided to pull my sister and her husband along to my food review! Access to this restaurant is pretty straight-forward: Once you alight the MRT, you're there in just one bus stop away.

I will just be reviewing the dishes that I ordered, plus all the desserts we had. 

I ordered the Tom Yum Seafood Pasta (above).

I love Tom yum, and I love pasta. I feel that this a great combination! Pasta was cooked perfectly. The gravy was thick and flavorful. Just the right taste for me! The sourness and acidity was almost perfect even though my sister felt that it was too sour. The gravy was creamy too, it was beautiful. 

The only problem I had was the insufficient amount of seafood that was added into the dish. Only ONE prawn was placed on top of my dish. I understand that it was for presentation purpose, but if it was really for that motive, a bigger prawn should be placed. While the baby clams were cooked beautifully, the size of it was super small. When I opened the shell, the insides of it was as small as half of my pinky nail. 

Other than that, this is magnificent dish and ya'll should get this while dining here!

I ordered the cheesecake. Why? Because I love cheese!

Firstly, I love the presentation! It looks classy and beautiful. It's great to see your food being served with effort. Marbling on the cheesecake was beautiful. 

The cheesecake's flavor was amazing. It felt rich and wasn't too sweet for my liking. While it was dense, it also tasted very light and airy. However, I feel that the ice-cream was a little too much. Just the cheesecake alone is fine for a dessert. It wasn't a good combination with the ice cream. They're both amazing but when you mix them together, it's just too much.

I always liked ordering Lava cakes! I love the excitement and anticipation of cutting through the cake, to see the chocolate lava pouring out beautifully.

And it exactly did that! This shows that the cake is baked at just the right time, so that the insides of it doesn't fully cook. I was amazed. Good job chef! The lava cake wasn't super sweet, and it tasted bitter. I am totally fine with that! The banana, ice-cream and strawberries really helps to balance out the flavor and acidity of the dish. Lava cake was bitter, banana was sweet, strawberries were sweety-sour and the ice cream helped to just blend all the flavors together. It was amazing.

Always save the best for the last! I love waffles! And of course, I would order waffles for dessert! Not only that it's great for breakfast, it's actually great anytime! These waffles were amazing. It was crispy on the outside, but very fluffy and airy on the inside. Chocolate sauce was bitter, but the maple syrup which is sweet, combines well with the chocolate to create a very mouth-watering sensation. And the ice-cream? Stunning. I feel that ice-creams have that special power to just elevate all kinds of dessert. From a boo to a woo hoo!

If you've dined here before, tell me all about it!

Xoxo, ally.

Wahad Muslim Satay @ Clementi

Hello everyone! As I said before, I love steaks. But other than that perfect food from heaven, I love satays too! I am so obsessed with meats obviously. I am more than glad to tell you alls that my good friend has her own satay stall! I am super proud of her.

She is living my fantasy right now. She is literally the most hardworking 19 year old I have ever seen in my whole entire life. I have been wanting to open up a stall or an eatery of my own too but maybe next time. Maybe never, but never say never. We will see!

So I ordered all the varieties of satay, which includes beef, mutton and chicken. There's a choice of babat, but I didn't order it since I'm not a fan of it.

I won't lie. The satays here were amazing! From the photos, you can see how tender the meat on the satay is. It was full of flavor and the juice pouring out of the satay was beyond beautiful. Rice cakes were cooked to perfection, it wasn't dry. It tasted very light and delicious. I don't just recommend you to come but I urge everyone to have delicious satays here.

Each satays are selling for 60 cents per stick. And if you're in the mood for a gathering or a barbeque, you can also get frozen satays here for only 50 cents per stick! How wonderful is that?

Besides the satays, Wahad Muslim Satay also offers other malay savory dishes such as Mee Siam, Mee Rebus, Mee Soto and lots more. 

Wahad Muslim Satay

Clementi Market & Food Centre

Clementi Ave 3 Blk 448 #01-06

Tel: 97777596/9181 6335

You know how important this is when I typed out the address! 

If you've dined here before, tell me all about it. (And if you haven't, you should really think hard about it.)