McDonald's Open Door Kitchen Tour

Went for McDonald's Open Door Kitchen Tour today at the McDonald located at Sun Plaza, Sembawang. You can register for the Open Door Kitchen Tour here. There are limited slots for the tours as each tour is limited to 20 person and is held only once a month, on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

No photography was allowed. Hence, I am unable to have any photos of the kitchen

The Open Door Ambassador (ODA) was the one who conducted the tour, showing us the storage area, crew room and kitchen. He also explained to us how burgers and fries were cooked. Automation seems to play a big role in today's kitchen operations. Even the fries that are dispensed are automated. The duration to cook food, be it fries, patties or even burger bread are automated having a count down timer.The ODA kept emphasizing on hygiene, food safety, quality standard, freshness and best quality ingredients. I am very impressed with the ODA. He certainty did a good job in driving these messages during the tour and did well to engage us.

After the tour, this was given.

Again, it drives the key messages that McDonald wants to send to consumers. Whoever though of this Open Door Kitchen Tour is a genius! What a way to promote their key message and counter 'Super Size Me' without being seen as defensive. Or well, maybe I thought too much, this is not meant to counter the documentary. =)

Food for thought:

1) There are two different stoves. One for cooking only the beef patties, the other for chicken patties. This is to respect those who do not eat beef

2) The stoves for cooking the beef and chicken patties are automated.

3) The beef patties are kept for a maximum of 15 minutes before it is thrown away. This is to ensure that customers get juicy beef patty which are not dry or overcooked.

4) There are 2 sets of gloves. Blue ones for frozen/uncooked food. White ones for cooked food. This is to ensure high hygiene standards.

Conclusion:

I always wonder how McDonald's keep their food standards similar with their high turnover rate in the kitchen and with hiring of youngsters. Now I get it! The answer is due to automation in the kitchen and having count down timers for cooking duration. Moreover, kudos to their training and also supply chain operation which played an important role.

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Song Huat Bak Kut Teh (Rochor)

Song Huat Bak Kut Teh is located at Rochor Centre. Rochor Centre is slated for redevelopment in the next few years to make way for the new North-South Expressway. If you want to try the stalls in Rocher, try it fast before it is gone.

Needless to say, Song Huat Bak Kut Teh specialise in dishing out Bak Kut Teh.

Menu (sorry for unclear picture)

Bak Kut Teh ($5), You Tiao(油条) ($1), Rice ($0.50)

You Tiao(油条) ($1)

The You Tiao (油条) (also known as Dough Fritter) is basically fried dough. It was not crispy, however I like to dip it into the Bak Kut Teh Soup so that it absord the soup. Shiok!

Bak Kut Teh ($5)

The Bak Kut Teh comes with 4 big and long pieces of soft and tender pork rib. I was surprise at how tender the meat was and it was easy to separate the meat from the bone. Perfectly cooked pork ribs. The soup was full of flavour from the spices, garlic, pepper and pork meat. Not too peppery too. Quite a nice, decent bowl of bak kut teh. I was tempted to take my empty bowl and ask for more soup.

If you pass by Bugis, this stall is worth a try before it moves away. I will definitely be back after all it is so near my office.

Song Huat Bak Kut Teh (Rochor)
1 Rochor Road
#01-506 Rochor Centre
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 8am - 10pm
                         Closed: Every Mon (Except Public Holiday)

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Hotel Saravana Bhavan (Chennai, India)

Just back from Hong Kong. First to clear backlog from India. Stay tuned for food to eat in Hong Kong at later posts.

Hotel Saravana Bhavan is a restaurant chain based in Chennai serving South Indian vegetarian cuisine. In India, restaurants are called 'hotels'. Hotel Saravana Bhavan was found in 1981 in Chennai (of course). Today, it has 24 outlets in Chennai and multiple outlets all world wide including UAE, USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, France..many more and even Singapore with 4 outlets. To be honest, I have never seen this restaurant in Singapore.

In Chennai, this hotel (restaurant) is very popular. In fact, my Singaporean friend based in Chennai told me that the coffee here is very good. Hence, since we were nearby, we had to try it.

Entrance

Cashier

This is where you pay.

This is where you make your orders and wait for the food as it is self-service.

Notice the round tables without chairs at the foreground? This is where people can just stand around and drink their coffee or tea. In the background, there are tables and chairs for patrons to eat their meals.

Menu

Look at the variety of items available! So many dishes.

Special Coffee

Special Pure Filter Coffee (INR 24 per cup)

Tata~! 3 cups of Special Pure Filter Coffee! There was another order for a cup of Special Tea. But let's start with the coffee first.

Noticed how the Special Pure Filter Coffee was served. Here's how you are supposed to drink it. Pour the coffee into the metal container holding the metal cup. (Be careful, it is hot as the container is made of metal.) Then pour the coffee from the metal container back into the metal cup. Do it as many times as required to cool it down. Reminds me of Teh Tarik. I just did it once and then tried it. The coffee was very     aromatic. Shiok! You got to try it if you are in India. I certainty want to try the coffee served by the hotel in Singapore. Moreover, it provided a fun experience too!

Foreground: Special Tea (INR 24 per cup)

The Special Tea arrived much later. Did not try it. Looks normal. I am glad I tried the coffee instead.

I got to check out it's outlets in Singapore one day and see if they serve such a coffee here. Good coffee with fun experience! Who knows, the food might be fantastic too.

Outlets in Singapore

Outlets in Chennai

Hotel Saravana Bhavan (Chennai, India)
Website 

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Starbucks Singapore (12 days of gifting)

A short post before I leave for Hong Kong for 1 week.

I purchased a Blue Star Tumbler 12 (oz) today (as shared on the Facebook page).

Today (6th Dec 2011) is Day 6 of Starbucks Singapore 12 Days of Gifting. The Blue Star Tumbler can be purchased for just $11.90 instead of a usual price of $16.90. That is close to 30% discount.

Blue Star Tumbler with coupon to redeem Starbucks Beverage

To my surprise, as I was purchasing the Blue Star Tumbler, I was informed that it comes along with a 12fl oz Starbucks beverage which I could get immediately or redeem at a later date. Wow. This is one great deal! Blue Star Tumbler at 30% discount along with a Starbucks drink for just $11.90! I am not too sure if this will be the same for the rest of the tumbler sales on Day 8 and 10. But you could try asking as this deal is value for money.

By the way, buy 1 get 1 free drink will be on 12th December the last day of the 12 Days of gifting campaign. I will be arriving in Changi airport on that day and will most likely purchase it at airport. (looks like the marketing promotion works for Starbucks)

Chong Qing (Original) Steamboat 重庆正宗老火锅

Albert Cafeteria, Chong Qing (Original) Steamboat is located along beach road. It is at the end of Liang Seah Street opposite Shaw Towers. Located among many other steamboat / hotpot outlets around Liang Seah street, competition is fierce and its price is competitive.


Chong Qing (Original) Steamboat specialises in Chinese steamboat, Si Chuan style. It has been around for a long time. went there on a Friday evening and the place was packed. In fact, most of the other steamboat outlets along Liang Seah Street was similarly crowded.

Price: Adult: $20, Children: $8 for its steamboat buffet. It includes free flow of drinks.

Soup Base

6 types of soup base for patrons to choose. We chose Herbal Soup and Tom Yam soup for each half of the pot.

Lots of variety of ingredients to choose for the steamboat buffet. Ranging from vegetables, eggs, mushrooms, fish balls, meat balls, chicken, pork, fish, squid, flower crab, potato, winter melon, toufu, prawns, clams, mussels, hot dogs and more! The ingredients were quite fresh and there were about 8 different types of dip sauce such as peanut, sesame and soya beancurd.

For $20 flat per adult, this is one steamboat worth going for. Cheap and good. But the service can be quite bad at times - It can be hard to the attention of the staff.

Chong Qing (Original) Steamboat Hotpot 重庆正宗老火锅
#01-02 Chye Sing Building
87 Beach road

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Traditional Queen Street Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (Albert Centre Market Food Centre)

Traditional Queen Street Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is located at Albert Centre Market Food Centre, in Bugis.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee $4.00

There was a short queue of about 4 people. I ordered the Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee. It was disappointing. Not fragrant enough, no hint of wok-hei. Moreover, prawns were not fresh. Am not going to waste my calories on this again. Having said that, do not be mistaken that there's no good food at Albert Centre Market Food Centre. There are, just that I did not have the time to queue for the good food.

Traditional Queen Street Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (Albert Centre Market Food Centre)
270 Queen Street
#01-61 Albert Centre Market & Food Centre
Opening Hours: Mon to Sat 9am - 830pm

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Twelve Cupcakes (Millenia Walk) (2nd post)

*Edited 7 July 2012* Recently (2 days ago), Twelve Cupcakes owners Daniel Ong and Jamie Teo got themselves into a tussle over copyright issues for reproducing the SPH contents. The owners claimed that the amount in question is nearly $3,000 including $214 investigation cost. Read all about it here. 

My 2nd post on Twelve Cupcakes. The first post can be found here.

In a short time span of 7days, I have eaten cupcakes twice! Both occasions from Twelve Cupcakes. Cupcakes are addictive! Take a look at this article.

Twelve Cupcakes (Millenia Walk)

Take a look at it's ceiling!

Not a lot of variety left.

Menu

Menu (Price)

From the left: Chocolate Vanilla, PB Chocolate, Cookies N Cream

 Ordered 3 cupcakes. That would be $9.00

Chocolate Vanilla $3.00

The Chocolate Vanilla had a layer of chocolate cream cheese on top of vanilla cupcake.  Was average. Nothing to fantastic.

PB Chocolate $3.00

PB Chocolate... you maybe asking what does PB means? Well... it is Peanut Butter!! Peanute Butter on top of moist chocolate cupcake. This is delicious. What an idea. Definitely the best out of the three that was bought. I was tempted to just open a bottle of peanut butter and add more of it on top of this chocolate cake.

Cookies N Cream $3.00

Cookies and Cream on top of moist chocolate cupcake. The cookies and cream flavour was not strong enough. Else it would have been a deadly combination. Disappointing.

On another occasion on the same week..

From the left: Red Velvet, Lemon (special)

Vanilla cream cheese on red velvet cupcake was delicious. No wonder this is their bestseller. The vanilla cream was addictive.

Lemon (special) $3.50

Lemon cheese cream on top of vanilla cupcake was average. Did not quite like the lemon flavour on the cream.

Overall, I can now change my top favourites to PB Chocolate followed by Red Velvet and Chocolate Chocolate! I am quite curious on how the cream are made as they are quite delicious and complement the cupcakes well. In addition, notice that chocolate cupcakes are better than vanilla cupcakes. 

Twelve Cupcakes (Millenia Walk) 
9 Raffles Boulevard
#01-52 Millennia Walk
Website
Facebook

Twelve Cupcakes (United Square) 
101 Thomson Road
#B1-60 United Square
Tel: 6256 8130
Opening Hours: Daily 11am - 9pm

Other locations

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Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)

Victor's Kitchen located at level one of Sunshine Plaza specialises in serving authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. I am sure that when Dim Sum is mentioned most of you would be thinking of the likes of Peach Garden, Peony Jade, Lei Garden, Red Star or East Ocean. What's the difference you may ask? Well, to me the Dim Sum at Victor's Kitchen is cheap and good!

Victor's Kitchen 

Arrived at 1pm on a Saturday. Victor's Kitchen was packed! Luckily, the turnover is quite fast, found a table within 5minutes. Do expect to be seated next to strangers with narrow passage ways.

Drinks Menu 

Dim Sum Menu (a)

Dim Sum Menu (b)

To order, you will need to get the order slip(menu) from the counter along with a pencil and tick the items along with the quantity you want. After you are done, pass it to one of the helpers and then wait. Can't help but comment, look at the disclaimer 'we serve the best foods, but not fast food'. Well, for good food, you have got to wait.

H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang (Mix CoffeeW/Tea) $3.00

The H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang comes with ice surrounding the cup of ying yang (also known as yuanyang; coffee with tea) . This way, the drink is kept chilled without diluting the the taste of the drink.

Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice $4.00

I am not a fan of glutinous rice and in most places, most of the glutinous rice was hard. But we had to order it as we were starving and needed carbohydrate. When the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice arrived, my first (negative) thought was 'Wa, so plain'. But well, this is amazing sticky, soft and fragrant. I was totally won over by this dish. The best glutinous rice I have ate! What a great start to my meal.

Char Siew Cheong Fun $4.00

The Char Siew Cheong Fun was smooth and thin with pieces of char siew in it of course. It was average.

Phoenix Porridge $3.50

I was not fast enough in taking a photo of the Phoneix Porridge. This is what is left after the 3 of us too our portions. Phoneix Porridge consist of century eggs and chicken. It was quite plain tasting. For those who want a strongly flavour, can add pepper and light soy sauce. I quite like the fact that it was plain tasting as it complement the other dishes. Moreover, thought that it was cooked well as it was not watery. Remind me of Teochew style porridge.

Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai $3.50

My first time trying such a Siew Mai; Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai.It consist of egg quail on top and  vegetable at the bottom. This is one dish that I dislike. Weird combination of taste that did not appeal to me. Moreover, thought that the meat had a weird after taste.

Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws $3.50

I am the only one among us who knows how to eat this dish; Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws. Lucky me, because it was yummy. A must order!

Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun $4.00

The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun (liu sha bao / custard bun) is another must order! Be careful when eating it. As inside, it is full of buttery runny custard that is sweet, salty and sinful! Shiok!

Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun $3.50

There was just 2 pieces of Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun which was filled with sweet and tender meat. After having the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, this was really just average.

Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce $4.00 (+$0.50 for adding XO Sauce)

The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce was fantastic! I have never eaten something like this before. The carrot cake was soft and mashy (like mashed potato) soaked in their home-made XO sauce. Somehow, we could not detect any XO taste in it, it was more like soy sauce. Nevertheless, this dish wow us so much that we had to order an addition serving of this.

$0.50 for adding XO Sauce

This time we were determined to find out the exact taste of the XO Sauce. Hence, we added 50cents for the above. And well, we were truely shocked. I really have no idea what this is. Its like preserved vegetable soaked in oil? Anyone knows?

Yutiao Cheong Fun $3.50

The Yutiao Cheong Fun was soaked in thick black sauce. Personally thought that it would taste better if it was soaked in soy sauce. Most online reviews have raved about how good this dish was. Well, I beg to defer, this dish did not appeal to me at all.

Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine $3.00

Well, the Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine was our last dish. The chicken was tender and fragrant having been soaked and steam in the chinese wine. Quite a normal and common dim sum dish.

Overall, the dim sum served here is really good and value for money. It was so good that we ordered 3 times in total, adding some dishes and ordering some dishes twice! In the end we over-ordered. I will definitely be back for more. If you have never been here, time to give it a try. Or you will never know what you are missing!

Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)
91 Bencoolen Street
#01-21 Sunshine Plaza
Tel: 9838 2851
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 1030am to 8pm
                         Closed on Mon
Location

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