Chai Chee Pork Porridge 菜市猪肉粥 (85 Fengshan Food Centre)

At 85 Fengshan Food Centre at Blk 85 Bedok North, there are so many stalls that you would likely to to ponder over what to order. This was what happened to us when we travelled to Bedok for Supper. We have heard that the Porridge was quite good, but were wondering if we should waste our calories on porridge for supper. Anyway who eats porridge for supper?! Well, I have to eat my words.. in the end, we ordered 1 bowl of porridge to share. 

Chai Chee Pork Porridge 菜市猪肉粥 is apparently quite a famous and popular porridge stall in the food centre. When we were there, there was a short queue, after ordering, we had to wait for around 10 minutes before our order was served to our table. They serve a variety of porridge, ranging from pork, century egg, fish to chicken porridge. 

Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50

This Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) cost $3. We added an egg for $0.50. The raw egg was placed at the bottom of the bowl before pipping hot porridge was poured over it. The porridge was served with minced pork and lean pork meat, and topped with you tiao and spring onions. 

Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50

Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50

The porridge was surprisingly good. The texture of the porridge was thick and smooth. It was not grainy or watery. Moreover, kudos to the stall owners it was not salty! The decision to add an egg was the icing on the cake as it made the porridge creamier. Wonderful, comforting bowl of porridge. It was simple yet delicious! Though I wish that they were more generous with the pork meat.

Chai Chee Pork Porridge 菜市猪肉粥 (85 Fengshan Food Centre)

Blk 85 Bedok North Street 4 #01-23 

85 Fengshan Food Centre 

Singapore 460085

Opening Hours: Daily 5pm to 2am

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Danro Japanese Hot Pot Buffet (Serangoon NEX)

Being a fan of steamboat cuisines, I just had to check out Danro Japanese Hot Pot Buffet. Danro Japanese Hot Pot Buffet opened by Ministry of Food (MOF). Although Japanese hot pot buffet is not new in Singapore, Danro is the first to offer eight broths (soup base) from different regions of Japan.

The prices range from $17.90++ for weekday lunch to $25.90++ for weekend dinner (for adults).

Left to right: Chicken & Milk Broth, Chicken Spicy Broth

Customers can choose up to 2 different soup base in 1 pot. We chose the Chicken & Milk Broth from Asuka Nabe and Chicken Spicy Broth from Danro Nabe. Now's the best time to taste the original taste of the soup as the refills would dilute your soup base (will explain more on that further down the post).

Handmade Kiritanpo

Danro Japanese Hot Pot comes with handmade Kiritanpo. However, this is limited to one per person. The Kiritanpo, a specialty dish of Akita Prefecture is essentially grilled rice skewer. Japanese cooked rice are pounded until they are mashed before being hand formed into cylinders around wooden skewers. They are then lightly brushed with special sweet sauce or miso for flavour before being toasted over an open fire. The Kiritanpo can either be eaten on its own or dipped into the hot pot.

Soup Refill Station

There was a Soup Refill Station, an innovative way to cut down on the manpower and increase productivity. There were small pots of Chicken or Wafu soup in it which customers could get anytime. These soup were a 'one soup fits all solution'. Since both our soup were chicken broths, we had to use the chicken soup refill. Even when e were to ask a serving for a refill, they used just chicken soup for both our soup bases. The problem with this was that it resulted in a diluted and not as fragrant soup base compared to when we just started.

Hence, our Chicken & Milk Broth became less milky and less fragrant while our Chicken Spicy Broth became less spicy. In addition, there was no attempt to stock up the soup refill station. Midway into our meals, there were no more pots of soup at that station as the were too few staff and these staff were all busy clearing the tables.

Condiments and sauce dips

A wide variety of condiments and sauce dips.

Onsen Egg

The Japanese Onsen Egg in light soy sauce was very well executed. Not only did it looked good, it also tasted good too. I liked it so much that I went for an additional helping of it.

Left to right: Japanese potato salad, Somen with soba sauce

The Japanese potato salad and Somen with soba sauce were quite decent too.

Sushi

There's a wide variety of food available ranging from Sushi, Bak Kut Teh, Japanese Yong Tau Foo, Cooked food and the typical steamboat ingredients such as corn, meat, seafood, vegetables.

Left to right: Bak Kut Teh, Japanese Yong Tau Foo

Left to right: Homemade Hot Dishes and Vegetables

Left to right: Seafood, shabu shabu beef and pork slices

The seafood corner was just average. The clams and prawns were not fresh especially the latter which stuck to its shell and meat was not firm. The shabu shabu beef and pork slices fared much better. We ate so many plates of it.

It was easy to control the temperature of the hot pot with the electric induction cooker.

Desserts and cakes

Left to right: Drinks, Soft Serve Ice cream

The DIY Soft Serve Ice Cream was fantastic. Its the same as what you get when you order ice cream dishes in MOF. Even though we were very full, we still went for this and it was oh just so shiok! There's always room for dessert! 

Although there were hits and misses (seafood was not fresh, one size fits all soup for refills, service), Danro Japanese Hot Pot Buffet is really value for money! I certainly enjoyed most of the food here. 

Danro Japanese Hot Pot Buffet (Serangoon NEX)

#02-04/06 Serangoon NEX

23 Serangoon Central

Singapore 556083

Tel: 6634 4608
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri: 11:30 am - 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm - 10:00 pm
                          Sat to Sun: 11:30 am - 3:30 pm, 5:00 pm - 10:30 pm

Facebook

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Joom Zap Hut at Central World (Thailand, Bangkok)

Joom Zap Hut located at level 6 of Central World was located together with Bar B Q Plaza as both restaurant chains belonged to the same company, the only difference was the type of cuisine they offered. Joom Zap Hut specialises in Thai style (mookata) barbecue and steamboat while Bar B Q Plaza offers Mongolian and Japanese style barbecue and steamboat. 

Joom Zap Hut  and Bar B Q Plaza

There were lots of seating capacity at Joom Zap Hut and Bar B Q Plaza. When we visited during dinner time (on a weekday), the restaurant chain was half full.

Menu - Family Sets

Menu - Supreme Sets

Menu - Beverages

Part of the menus; Family Sets, Supreme Sets and Beverages menu. We ordered the Family Pork Set 435 Baht (S$18.13), Economy Beef Set 225 Baht (S$9.38), Garlic Fried Rice 42 Baht (S$1.75) and Soft Drink (Pitcher) 75 Baht ($3.13).

The Dome Shaped Skillet at the center of the table ready to be used by hungry customers.

The container of ice and bill was placed on a metal rack that could easily be pulled out from under the table. A good way to save space as our table was (later) filled to the brim when the food was served.

Lime, chilli, garlic and specially prepared sauce

The specially prepared sauce; a brownish sauce, mixed together with chilli, (chopped) garlic and lime was a superb dipping sauce.

Dome Shaped Skillet

The Dome Shaped Skillet was customised such that the centre could be used for grilling meat while the sides was used for soup. Upon ordering, the waitress would pour some stock broth over the centre and the broth will flow downwards to the sides.

Family Pork Set 435 Baht (S$18.13) (a)

Family Pork Set 435 Baht (S$18.13) (b)

The Family Pork Set cost 435 Baht (S$18.13) was served in two big plates filled with a generous serving of pork, liver, chicken, fish fillet, squid, shrimp, bacon, udon, kamaboko, narutomaki, sliced cabbage, baby corn, carrot and lettuce.

Economy Beef Set 225 Baht (S$9.38)

The Economy Beef Set which cost 225 Baht (S$9.38) consisted of beef slices, udon, sliced cabbage, baby corn, carrot and lettuce. We had practically no space left to put our bowls and plates to eat when these three big plates of food were served. They should consider having bigger tables.

Garlic Fried Rice 42 Baht (S$1.75)

Garlic Fried Rice 42 Baht (S$1.75)

The Garlic Fried Rice served in a small bowl was topped with chopped spring onion and pieces of fried garlic. It decent with a hint of garlic fragrant. If only fried egg was mixed into it.

Before putting any food on the hot metal pan (Dome Shaped Skillet), you would need to grease it with a piece of pork lard so that the meat would not stick to the pan. While grilling the meat on the pan, you should add in the vegetables into the soup broth at the side to enhance the taste (sweetness of the broth).

The beef, pork and chicken sliced perfectly were of great quality. So fresh and tender that it tasted simply delicious even without the dipping sauce. You may have noticed that the meat were not marinated, they were all raw so that customers can taste the original taste of the meat. I thought that the fish fillet tasted slightly fishy, dipping it into the special dipping sauce made a whole world of difference to the taste. The shrimp (prawn) and liver deserved a special mentioned as they were also fresh and tasted so good.

Over time, the oil and juices from meat and pork lard on the grill pan dripped into the soup broth enhancing the sweetness and flavour of the soup. Nothing is wasted! Souperlicious!

The advantage of the Dome Shaped Skillet was that one could have the best of both worlds; being able to grill the meat or shabu shabu it by dipping the meat into the soup. In addition, customers are able to cook the meat according to how cooked (well done / medium / rare) or charred they prefered.

The disadvantage would be that the cooking process was too slow for us although we tried squeezing in as many pieces of meat as possible on the grill pan.

The total bill was 777 Baht (S$32.38). There was no service charge or any other additional charges. The prices shown on the menu were all nett. The service at Joom Zap Hut was excellent! Every time when we required something, the staff seemed to have anticipated it and would approach us. There was no need for me to turn my head to look for a staff or wave my hands in the air frantically (exaggerating) to get attention.

Overall, I would say that I doubt I will be back anytime soon. Somehow we were not satisfied - did not felt full. Not because the food was lousy, but more of that the cooking process was too slow for us (maybe because the grill heat was not switched to the highest? or maybe we were used to steamboat where more food could be cooked at anyone time).

For fans of Thai style steamboat (mookata), overall the food here are of great quality. The dipping sauce is superb and the service is top notch. In addition, for the quality of food, it is value for money especially if you come from a country with high cost of living (e.g. Singapore). For me, I would rather go for other restaurant / street food.

Joom Zap Hut at Central World (Thailand, Bangkok)

Joom Zap Hut / Bar B Q Plaza

Level 6, Atrium Zone , A616 
CentralWorld 999/9 Rama 1 Road
Patumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand 
Website

View FoodieFC's Thailand Map in a larger map

Pork Knuckle Lunch and Lake Titisee (Germany, Titisee)

After leaving Nancy (France), we opted to visit Titisee (Germany). All I can say is that we made the right decision as the view there was magnificent and it was snowing! 

The breath-taking scenery while we were on the way to Titisee. It was quite cool that when we left France for Germany, we did not even need to step down and show our passport.

Titisee

When we arrived at Titisee, it was not snowing. The wind (as seen on the right) was howling furiously and it was just so freezing cold. If we thought that the temperature was cold at France.. this was another test for us and also a preparation of what was to come in Switzerland.

At Titisee, we first visited the Drubba which is a Cuckoo Clock maker and seller. Besides that the shop also sells a variety of branded watches, jewelries, wallets and accessories.

Drubba Cuckoo Clocks

The Cuckoo Clocks are made from scratch. Beautiful handicrafts! After that we headed for a Pork Knuckle lunch at the restaurant above Drubba. The restaurant name is called Hochfirst. It is a new restaurant in the existing Zur Mühle Restaurant. Hochfirst is located at the first floor while Zur Mühle is located at the ground floor. I believe that both restaurants are run by the same management. 

The view at the restaurant was amazing. They offer a panoramic view of the backdrop of the adjacent Black Forest. As the snow fell from the sky, it enhanced the beauty of the scenery. The restaurant was less than half full at the time of visit. A possible reason could be because it was already 2pm. 

A tip to share with everyone. This restaurant provides free wifi! You can approach the waitress and ask her for the password. Awesome right? 

Soup

We were first served a small bowl of vegetable soup which was quite salty. 

Fries

Fries for sharing. 

Rice

Rice for sharing too. We hardly touched it as there was too much carbo and meat. 

Pork Knuckle

Huge Pork Knuckle. It was memorable for the wrong reasons. Dry, hard, tough and it still had lots of (visible) hair.. I just zoom straight in for the meat and did not eat the exterior. Pretty tasteless. Mixing the sauce with the meat did help to enhance the taste.

Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake was quite good. But would be better if there was less cream. 

Ice Wine

Lastly, Ice Wine before we headed out to play in the snow (sounds like we are children!). It starting snowing after our meal. Perfect timing!

You can click on all photos to enlarge.

Lake Titisee

Lake Titisee which looks misty as it was snowing. The lake takes a long time to freeze as the wind is strong. You can notice the water surface moving.

Snowflakes

I have heard of the term snowflake before. But this was the first time I noticed that the snow that landed onto us was literally shaped like a snowflake. Cool! The previous few occasions where I experience snowing, the snow was just circular or round in shape. In the above picture, you can spot two similar shape snowflakes. We saw several other types of snowflakes that day. It was the only occasion we witness snowflakes throughout our stay in Europe although it was snowing in Switzerland.

Pork Knuckle Lunch and Lake Titisee (Germany, Titisee) 

Seestraße 37 - 41 

79822 Titisee-Neustadt, Germany

Tel: +49 7651 981200

View FoodieFC's Europe Map in a larger map