My dad had driven pass this joint several times, so I roughly have an idea of its existent. Yet, even after I started working in this area, it never crossed my mine to lunch here. Until one day, while we were hunting for the location of Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh via Google maps, we saw the street view capture of this shop. So we made our way down one fine day, and it made its way into our regular lunch places list.
Everyone loves chicken rice right? Fragrant steamed 'kampong' chicken - the supposed free-range chickens one will imagine to be running freely in a kampong. Of course, these days in Singapore, the term is no longer as imagined. It's simply the same breed of chicken, but most likely kept in cages. Still, it's smaller than the usual fat chickens, and slightly more lean. J insisted that the yellow skin is a trademark of real kampong chicken. I think it's simply a generous use of either yellow ginger or yellow coloring in the cooking process. I don't remember the kampong chicken my mum bought from the market looking so yellow.
Back to their food. Their chicken are done just right. Cooked through, but still tender. The gelatinous jelly-like substance under the skin, I still can't make out what it is. Coagulated chicken fats or artificially added gelatin? Will love it if someone can give me an answer. Their rice is fragrant and flavorful, and goes so well with their yummy chilli. Their soup is a cabbage soup, as opposed to the usual MSG soup. And we love their sambal sweet potato leaves.
This joint is apparently quite popular with the tourists, who come in by the bus loads. Don't expect top notch service though. The Chinese servers pretty much have a can't be bothered attitude.
This is frequent lunch location. We were on our way here when we walked pass Fatty Aunt Yong Tau Foo. If you like roasted meats, this is a great place to go.
I love my roasted duck. Despite my calorie counting that started this year for the sake of my health, I usually wolf down the plate, skin and all. Only thing I do better is I give some of my rice to the guys in a pathetic attempt to cut calories. The duck's skin is roasted to a thin, fragrant, slightly crispy perfection. The rice is drowned in a generous scoop of gravy. Even the cucumber slices given is much more than the usual pathetic 2 slices some hawkers give.
I also love their roasted pork belly (shio bak). My standard order used to be roasted duck plus roasted pork belly rice. But my rising triglyceride levels force me to cut back some of my fats intake so the pork has to go. Theirs are juicy, yet the skin is super crunchy. Love.
I'm not a huge char siew fan but colleagues love their char siew too. From what I heard, theirs is tender and yummy. They used to serve a 3-in-1 (all three meats) plate for $5. But I think the rising food costs forced them to jack up the prices wheverever duck is concerned.
A colleague say they even have roasted suckling pig occasionally. But rarely now. He said its because Uncle has a very high standard, and he won't do it if the suckling pigs at the market aren't good enough quality. As a hawker child myself, I think more likely it's the rising cost of pork that makes it a less profitable portion of the business. Moreover, with age catching up, it's not easy for Uncle and Auntie to deal with all these roasting all by themselves.
Another thing I love love love about this place? Their soup. In Chinese it's called 八宝菜干烫 - 8 treasures dried vegetable soup. It's a rich broth with generous servings of vegetables etc. The best part? Soup is free flow. But to save myself the trip back to the stall and to irritate Auntie less while she's busy with other customers, I usually ask for a bigger bowl up front. But even then, I do refill sometimes because I just love that soup so much.
So if you're craving a good plate of roasted meats, head down to Silat Ave. it's sure to satisfy.
P.s. I refer to the sellers as Uncle and Auntie out of respect. They are in no way related to me. :)
I needed to run some errands at the bank, and since most banks open only during office hours, it meant a lunch visit. After locating a Citibank branch at Great World City, I dragged XP and J there with me for a long lunch.
After glancing through the directory, we decided on trying out Poulet. Apparently their signature dish was their roast chicken, which tempted both J and me. I settled for the regular version, while she opted for the special cranberry version. XP ordered an oxtail stew. Then it was a French onion soup, escargots and sautéed vegetables to share.
The French onion soup was pretty good. Fragrant sautéed onion in rich chicken soup. Warmed our hungry bellies very well. The escargot wasn't impressive. It did, however, have a good bite despite being baked out of the shells. Maybe the tiniest bit too chewy but still acceptable.
When my roast chicken arrived, I was quite happy. First, the gravy smelled amazing. Tasted amazing too. Creamy and rich, without being cloying. I almost wished I had some pasta to coat this sauce on. Second, I liked the leaves scattered around my plate. No idea what they are, but I liked their texture and flavor. Lastly, the chicken was done quite nicely. It was tender and came easily apart with my fork and knife. Flavor was good too. And I can't completely remember correctly, but I think it didn't have the annoying frozen chicken taste that some joints have.
Jj's was the same perfectly done roast chicken, but instead of the cream sauce I had, hers was served on a bed of cranberry sauce. I'm not a very fruity sauce person, so I didn't care for it, but she really enjoyed it.
XP's oxtail stew was aromatic and tender. Only qualm was it was quite big boned, so he struggled a fair bit with his fork and knife but he managed. The sautéed vegetables was an add on order in the midst of our mains, when I felt it was too meaty for our good. Turned out that 'sautéed' vegetables was actually boiled or steamed vegetables. I don't mind, but I think they really should name their items accurately.
French onion soup
Escargots
Roast chicken with cranberry sauce
Signature roast chicken with mushroom chardonnay sauce
Oxtail stew
Sauteed vegetables
Overall I thought it was ok, but wasn't impressive. The service was good though. We took away a sandwich for HY but I didn't get her feedback on how it was. Lynn been to another branch on a separate occasion and she raved about the fries and a dessert. Tiramisu maybe?
My 100th post. And it has to be a negative post, one that made me so unhappy I decided to cut my queue of unblogged entries to talk about this one first. It's Mother's Day dinner. We were throwing around some ideas of restaurants to try, and the first few were either veto-ed by some, or the restaurant doesn't accept reservations. In the end, after surfing through some of the Mother's Day promotions on Chope, we decided on trying out Parco Caffe. The promo was a free meal for mum, with at least 2 main courses ordered. There are 8 of us, so more than easy to hit the requirements. The menu looked great, so we were quite excited to try it out.
Our reservation was at 6.30pm. The ambience was actually pretty nice. Granted, some of us were late and orders were only placed at 7pm, but still didn't justify some of the service problems we encountered. No bread was served, in an Italian restaurant. I didn't see any on the menu either, but there was olive oil and balsamic vinegar provided on the table. So we asked, and was told yes, they serve bread, do we want? Hey, you're supposed to serve it whether we want or not, or at least ask before I ask you! Even then, no bread was served, and eventually two plates of pasta fritta (fried pasta) was served with some vague excuse about bread not yet ready. In an Italian restaurant! Oh my....
Drinks refill rate was horrible, even after several polite reminders from us. Generally we were being served by three servers, one was slightly smiley, one was a little of a poker face but still cordial, the last is a really dark faced guy. The kind of face that makes you feel you owe him something. That's the guy who asked if we wanted bread after we raised the question. And the thing that irritated us the most, is the rate of food service. By 8pm, 3 out of the 8 main courses never made it to our table, including the promotional mum's meal. Seriously, I would have thought that the promotional meal is the most ready item in their kitchen, given it's what attract many to the restaurant in the first place!
Now about the food. Food-wise, it's overall ok. Hits and misses, like most places. Their pizzas are thin crusted, which is something I like, but some people may find it not quite filling for the tummy. I'm not huge on Parma ham, so I ate Pizza Parco without much feelings or thoughts. The Herbal Chicken smelled fantastic when it was set down. An entire spring chicken bathed in a rich cocktail of Chinese herbs. It was pretty yummy. Only downside was the 'vegetables' mentioned in the menu seems to be limited to two pieces of lettuce at the bottom of the plate.
Last slice of Pizza Parco
Chef Jet's Herbal Chicken
I didn't try the lamb cutlet, but father-in-law seemed to enjoy it. For someone with his small appetite, he managed to finish the entire plate of 3 cutlets. Photo was only remembered after he polished off one. The foie gras was a miss. It didn't melt in my mouth, it wasn't full of livery goodness. Basically it just wasn't blissful. It was, however, considered cheap. $24 for 2 slabs of liver. Pity it wasn't tasty but I guess you get what you pay for. For that price, I'll rather go to Saveur's. Oh wait, why was I having foie gras in an Italian restaurant?
Parco Costine D’ Agnello - Lamb cutlet
Fegato - foie gras
Their version of Caprese was served with Parma Ham, which I requested to be on the side, so that the hubby can eat. It was two huge slices of Parma ham. I ate one slice. Still no love. Call me poor taste if you will, but I think I prefer good old bacon. The tomato slices are grilled slightly, which sets it apart from the usual Caprese. The final dish that made it to the table was the baked salmon. Wrapped in a packet of greaseproof paper, it was torn open in front of us by the server. This revealed a nicely done piece of fish, alongside some potatoes, and horrors, unopened clams. So we brought it up to the waiter, who (??) offered to open it for us. She attempted with M's fork and knife, and failed. L managed to open his, and found it sandy. So in the end, most of the clams were left uneaten.
Mozzarella Caprese e Parma
Salmone al Cartoccio - baked salmon
The kitchen apparently was ill-prepared for the Mother's Day crowded. We initially wanted Vongole Pasta, and was told it wasn't available. Ok, maybe not enough fresh clams that day. Our order of 24-hours cooked Kurobuta Pork rib had to be cancelled, also because it wasn't available. And what's more irritating is that I saw the table behind us, who came later, was brought a loaf of bread. After the hour long wait, we decided to cancel the last three dishes and go elsewhere for the three of us to eat. We called for the bill and I was charged full amount. I demanded a discount of the supposed free meal that never came. In the end, the manager came and gave me a goodwill discount of 30%.
Truth be told, the manager was very nice about it. If not for him, my impression of this restaurant will be totally down in the drains. I did see him in the kitchen trying to make things right before I cancelled our order, and I respect him for it. But it still doesn't justify how a restaurant failed to prepare for a big day, even after putting up a promotion. He said the kitchen was jammed from the crowd, and actually it's our table that jammed it. Seriously, I reserved last week. No excuse that you didn't know a table of eight is coming. As M put it "it's Mother's Day and my mother didn't get to eat!"
(Off Spottiswoode Park Road) 10 Raeburn Park Block A #01-28 Singapore 088702 Tel: 6223 6338
