Shhh... Secret Recipe

Hey guys, Food King and I have been having so much fun in NZ! :) Our total number of pictures for the Queenstown trip is 2000 pics, haha. It was amazing.

Anyway today's post will be on Secret Recipe, a relatively well-known place in Singapore. I think this will be one of our last posts on Singapore restaurants for the time being.

We went to the outlet in Plaza Singapura for dinner and we had the Christmas Set Meal. It sounded yummy!

For our meal, I chose set 1 and Food King chose set 2.

Both of us had Lobster Bisque for our soup and it was yum :)

They gave a bun as part of the soup.

I chose Secret Recipe's famous Irish Lamb Stew with Mashed Potatoes as my main. Heard this dish won an award and some of my friends rave about it, so I decided to give it a go. The lamb was surprisingly authentic and the meat was tender and delicious. Although they only gave one leg, there was lots of meat and the portion was rather good, as compared to NYDC's pathetic lamb shank.

The mashed potatoes were a horrible disappointment. They were far too hard and had no taste at all. They weren't mashed and although it looks nice in the presentation (and pictures), they were really disgusting.

Food King chose Pan-Grilled Dory Fillet with Lobster Sauce as his main and he was rather satisfied with it. The cream sauce was tasty and it went well with the fish, which was pan-grilled to perfection. The mashed potatoes were the same ones served with my lamb stew so it was also disgusting.

Food King wasn't happy about the fact that when the food was served it wasn't hot; it was warm. Freshly cooked food always taste better, don't you think?

Finally... desserts!

We were interested in the Christmas Set because of the desserts. Secret Recipe is well known for their delicious cakes, such as the Tiramisu, Chocolate Banana and Chocolate Mud Cake. We were hoping that we'd get that as part of our meal. After having our entrees and mains, we ordered our cakes however the manager told us that the 'slice of cake' was only for 4 specific types of cakes and not the entire range. We were quite disappointed because they didn't state that on the main menu/ad for christmas set. Moreover the 4 types of cakes they offered were quite bland and sounded rather boring.

I didn't take down the names of the cake we chose because they didn't taste very nice :( I've got a hitch it was Caramel Cream Cheese and Chilled Strawberry Cheese. Didn't like both of them.

Chilled Strawberry Cheese

Caramel Cream Cheese

Overall I thought the food was not bad but the dessert and mashed potatoes were a huge disappointment. I wouldn't have the Christmas set again, if they ever have it during Christmas period because the overall set meal wasn't worth it, if I only liked the soup and the main course. I'll only order the Irish Lamb Stew again if they improve on the mashed potatoes because lamb stew is never complete without delicious mashed potatoes. Besides, I'm spoiled for choice for lamb stew/shank in NZ :)

They have plenty of outlets, from Changi Airport (Terminal 2 & 3) to Marina Square and Vivocity. Check out their website for more outlets and info at http://www.secretrecipe.com.sg/contactus.asp

Sakuraya

Hello people, Food Queen here. We haven't done japanese for sometime, so I decided to do a post on one of my favourite places in Singapore. I only found out about this place beginning of this year cos my parents just introduced it to me :P Located in Parkway Parade, I guess not many people know about it although it was once quoted in a newspaper, "A 3 star place with 5 star food". I can't remember when or where though :S

It's a small fish mart and it's quite cute, cos you can buy loads of authentic and fresh jap stuff from there; from good quality jap seaweed to fresh seafood!

In a little corner of the place there are a few tables and that's where you're served great food. Although the place doesn't have elaborate decor, I like the ambience because it's cosy and quiet. Plus they don't charge service charge (10%) so that's definitely a thumb's up. I would much rather have this simple design and enjoy delicious food rather than grand ambience and sucky food.



They have a wide variety of fresh fish, pick any you like and they'll cook/serve it to you right on the spot. Prices are a little up market but it's worth it because the quality is just fab.





My parents ordered this, unfornatuly I cannot remember what they ordered. If I correctly remember, there was Yellow Tail, Fish Livers (chopped up stuff on the right), Salmon and another kind of fish. The fish was amazingly fresh and it tasted so good. The servings were quite good although you never can get enough sashimi, can you? I eat quite a lot of salmon sashimi in NZ, so I get pretty sick of the taste nowadays, however I still love all the other raw fishes.

Can't remember the exact price of this platter because they go by weight (I think) of the individual fishes but it was about $60+

Then we had the famous Kaisen Futomaki





8 gigantic rolled up pieces of sushi with servings of 2-3 different kinds of raw fish, squid (I think), egg, cucumber and fish roe. Yummy! These pics were not taken at the same time as after my parents first brought me there, I've been hooked! I like the size of the sushi and it's filling enough to be a meal for others. For me, one plate is not enough; I'll probably order other stuff as well. One of my favourites at Sakuraya, a must try.

Sauce

Unagi Temaki ($3-$4, can't remember exact price), California Temaki ($3 per piece)

Needless to say, it was very good indeed. Love the quality and pretty prompt service.

I haven't had time to try the other sushi rolls such as California Maki ($7) or Futomaki ($8) but would love to try once I arrive back in Singapore.

You can see more of their dishes at www.sakuraya.com.sg although they mostly only state the takeaway menu and you don't get to see the other stuff served there.

Fish Mart Sakuraya
80 Marine Parade Rd
#B1-83D Parkway Parade
Singapore 449269
Phone: 63454714

A 24 hour restaurant named... "126"

Hi all,

Food King is back again*!~*!~ Food Queen and I sincerely apologised for the late food entry. We just came back from Queenstown and it was awesome. Will do a very nice post on that one later.

Today's entry will be on a restaurant that sells dim sum at Geylang. In Singapore, Geylang is well known for both food and prostitution. In this entry, we will be talking about food and not the latter!!

Geylang is a well known and legalised red light district (prostitution area) in Singapore. For your info, the legalised prostitutes are those that can be found in a house and those prostitutes found along the road are illegal.


In geylang, the streets (lorong) are divided into odd and even numbers. You can usually find good food along the odd numbered streets (lorong) but if you are looking for entertainment (prostitution) they are usually found at the even numbered streets. Interesting right?


This restaurant is located in between Geylang Lorong 15 and Geylang Lorong 17. It is called "126" or "wan tou sek" in cantonese. Weird name, huh?

We had brewed crysanthemum tea and it was served in a plastic container @ $2.



It was sweet and soothing for the throat. They also have other drinks such as barley and honey lemon. All of them are nice :)


The dish on the left is called Fried Prawn Roll @ $3.80.
The dish on the right is called "Zhao Pai Tou Fu" (Specialty Bean Curd) @$5.00.



Fried Prawn Roll is prawn paste wrapped in beancurd skin and fried until crispy. It is nice when eaten with mayonnaise.

Specialty Beancurd is basically fried beancurd with the outer layer being slightly crispy and the insides soft. There is a layer of sauce on the fried beancurd and it contains mango and corn. Surprisingly this dish tasted quite nice with the combination of mango and corn found in the sauce.



This dish is called "Yu Jiao" (Yam Dumpling) @ 3.50.



Yam Balls filled with Char Siew (Barbeque Pork). This is one of my favourites as I like the soft yam that complements the sweet barbeque pork.


Century Egg Porridge @ $3.00.







Century egg is a preserved egg and it is a delicacy in asian countries and enjoyed by asians around the world. The egg may have a smell that is not appreciated by westerners and it was even used in the show Fear Factor.

Food Queen and I love this porridge and when she was in Singapore, we had this almost every night as a 'snack' or for supper. It is usually served with minced pork and spring onions.


Siew Mai (Minced Pork Dumpling) @ 2.50.





This is a common dish that you can find at all dim sum restaurants. Although the Siew Mai didn't look presentable here, it still tasted good. You can have a more presentable picture of Siew Mai at this link --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaomai My favourite is the ones served at Crystal Jade Palace.


Har Kau Wang (Big Steamed Prawn Dumpling) @ $4.50



This dish is made by steaming the prawns wrapped in a dumpling skin and steamed till the skin become translucent. It looks beautiful and it tastes really nice! We ordered Har Kau Wang and the word "wang" in chinese means king. In this case, it simply means a bigger dumpling. The prawn is of a larger portion and it is also more expensive than the normal Har Kau.


This dish is called Chee Cheong Fun (Steamed Rice Noodle Roll) @ $3.50
--> Choice of Char Siew (Barbeque Pork), Prawn and Crab Meat.





This dish is called Chee Cheong Fun which also means steamed rice noodle roll. It is filled with either a choice of Barbeque Pork, Prawn or Crab Meat. This dish is quite common in Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurants. The rice roll in this restaurant is unique as they used a different sauce as compared to the other restaurants. In my opinion, it tasted like oyster sauce.




Before we finish this blog entry, Food Queen and I found quite a number of spelling errors in the menu and we decide to share it with you!!! Have a good laugh*!~

Hope that you can spot the mistakes!*~*!~ Cuttie Fish!!! Haha. I don't think that I can bear to eat cuttie fish... :P

Overall I find the food quite tasty if you don't mind the ambience, surrounding and location. We tend to go after 12am because it is usually so crowded that there is no parking space outside. All the dishes are in chinese so it's hard to decide what dishes you want but the good thing is that there are pictures of every single dish in the menu. Initially it may be quite hard to find the restaurant but once you're familiar with the eating area in Geylang, it's quite easy. The place is open 24/7 and is pretty popular with Singaporeans.