Temple Street Cookware Shops - Sin Huat/Lau Choy Sing

After finish my bowl of Lor Mee, it is time to move on to my next destination in my Foodie Trek that is cookware shops along Temple Street as I looking for some unique cookware to showcase my culinary creation.

The first cookware shop we set foot is Sin Huat. Sin Huat houses a wide assortment of cookwares as well as F&B industrial appliances ranging from blender to griller/oven. It is like mecca for all culinary artists irregardless if you are professional or amateur. I was deeply in trance when I step in the first level that houses the F&B appliances, pots/pans, glassware which is quite bizarre and not sold at your average supermarket or departmental store.  

I have no idea there is a second level at Sin Huat. So I happily prance up to the second level to find unique dining ware arrange in 4 rows of glass shelf. Some of the dinning ware shown below is even used in famous restaurant like Taste Paradise. But I didn't manage to find the dinning ware I wanted, so I proceed to Lau Choy Sing further down. Lau Choy Sing was bustling with customer therefore, I cut my trip short. However, I manage to find a cheaply price unqiue ceramic ware at Moderne shop across Temple Street.

New Sauce & Cooking Condiments Discovery

I'm always searching for new cooking condiments and sauces that will aid cooking various meal from different continent. Since it is deepavali long weekend, I decide it is high time I update my personal cooking condiment database. I struck goldmine at Mediya Japanese Supermarket at Liang Court Basement as they import quite a lot of new condiments and sauce

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop on my list is gourmet supermarket 360 Degrees at Orchard ION, I'm surprise to see the famous Tabasco Sauce Company - Mc Ilhenny Co came out their own special sauce fusion ranging from spicy ketchup to spicy teriyaki sauce giving those culinary artist more creation avenue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adult Themed Burger King - BK Whopper Bar (Clarke Quay)

After having a hearty lunch at Bismillah Biryani, we decide to go jalan jalan in the search of new food haunts. After traversing through Suntec City, we finally set foot at Clarke Quay and surprise to find a BK Whopper Bar that differs from the regular BK outlets.

Upon stepping into the BK Whopper Bar, we thought we enter a night joint as the interior is dimly lit with rolls of plush leather seats on one side (Link1) and round top tables and chair on the other side (Link2).    

As we move those the cavernous passageway, we are greeted with BK flash menu. You won't find your average BK Rendang or BK Fish Burger here. BK Whopper Bar had revamp their menu (Link) and even give you to option to customise your own burger with topping of your choice. The most significant difference you find in Whopper Bar is alchoholic beverage (Tiger & Heinenken Beer) is available making it a more adult theme fast food outlet and first of it kind in Singapore.   

One of the BK Whopper Bar menu offering caught my eye, Angry Whopper - jalapenos, onions with a splash of Angry Sauce. I'm a fan of hot sauce therefore I proceed to order Double Angry Whopper meal set with 500ml Heinenken Beer priced at $15.90. The burger was made fresh in big open kitchen behind the cashier counter giving me a visual eye candy.

When I take my first bite into Angry Double Whopper, my first impression is BK Whopper Bar beef patties are significantly thicker than other outlets. The Angry Sauce wasn't that tantalizing as the spicy level is not up to my mark yet but the jalapenos do pack a bit of punch. The major displeasure I had with Angry Whopper is the burger bun start to disintegrate as I take further bites as a result my hands are both drenched with the sauce. Luckily, the restroom is just next door for me to do a quick clean up. Overall, it is a valiant effort for BK to revamp their product line. But BK Whopper Bar need to do a lot more if they plan to compete with local and oversea burger house that are offering freshly baked (non-disintegrating) buns and localize flavour meat patties like tandoori chicken.       

Arguable Healthiest Biryani - Bismillah Biryani

I already plan to cook Hyderbadi Chicken Biryani on Sunday to celebrate Deepavali long weekend holiday. I'm no stranger to Dum Biryani. I had tried Biryani Xpress's Dum Chicken Biryani (which uses rose water to cook their biryani) at Geylang Serai Market. After reading ieatshootipost post on Bismillah Dum Biryani, I gather my 2 food kakis and decide to give it a go this Saturday and hopefully Bismillah Biryani can titillate our tastebuds.  

Boarding the MRT with my kakis, we start to worry if Bismillah will be open on Deepavali and whether it will be packed with customers. Thanks our lucky star, Bismillah Biryani is open for business.Contrary to what we believed, business was pretty brisk at Bismillah with just a tourist couple chowing down mutton biryani at one corner. Bismillah is a biryani shop without frills, so don't complain the sweltering afternoon heat if you cannot stand dining without air conditioning.

We proceeded to order 3 Dum Mutton Biryani since it is highly recomended by ieatishootipost. It took a while before the mutton biryanis were served to us. The mutton biryani served to us totally differ from the ieatishootipost's post (link). We are slightly disappointed as Bismillah serving is not consistent to what ieatishootipost post on their blog. The photos were taken with a PSP camera, therefore it might not be able to reflect Bismallah Biryani in it's full glory since ieatishootipost uses professional DSLR camera. However, I believe it is adequate for me since all my blog photos were taken with PSP camera.

Currently, there are 2 types of Biryani cooking style Pukka & Kaccha (link). For Pukka cooking style, the rice and meat is cook separately and layer during serving. It is predominantly popular in Muslim style biryani in Geylang Serai Market. As for Kaccha cooking style, the rice and meat is cook together which is predominate in Indian Biryani. Bismillah Biryani cooking style falls under Kaccha. Therefore, their basmati rice have a very strong infusion spices as it is cook on top of the marinated mutton. My first impression of Bismillah Biryani, it is the most healthiest biryani I ever eaten as you don't feel the over-powering ghee or butter that is predominant in Biryani. The mutton is very tender and not oily at all which surprising as it is first time I've eaten a biryani that don't feel jerlat (over-powering).

However the downside of Kaccha style, the basmati rice is drier than Pakka style which is reaffirms further after I tasted Bismillah & Biryani Xpress. For those prefer moisture content higher biryani, you might prefer Pakka style more. The rassa given by Bismillah wasn't enough to moisture the dry basmati rice. Most biryani, the mutton is heavily seasoned which you don't find it at Bismillah. For those who like strongly seasoned meat, you might want to avoid Bismillah as their mutton is lightly season. The tenderness of mutton is actually the saving grace for Bismillah. If the mutton is dry and hard coupled with the their pretty dry basmati rice, I will avoid Bismillah entirely.          

City Square Mall Revisit

After persistent badgering from my friend who wanted to go City Square Mall (since he got wind of the mall opening from Today papers), I decided to accompany him since he never set his foot on Little India before. After waiting for 10 mins at Farrer Park MRT, he finally arrive and we set off to City Square Mall. As we cross the road to City Square Mall, we are greeted by white wash Bread Talk Spin-off franchise - Toast Box. Toast Box seem to be severely lacking in customer if you compare to other popular outlet in Orchard road.

I have no idea City Square Mall got 2 basement level until my friend reported to me after he cannot find a freaking POSB/DBS ATM to draw money. So after we have KFC for lunch, we proceed to explore City Square Mall B2 further. When we reach B2, we surpised to find another foodcourt - Banquet operating there. City Square Mall can be consider as the only Mall to have the most foodcourt prior to the one I saw at Level 4. There is alot of shop spaces vacant, so we decide to end the trip early and proceed to Mustafa Centre.

As we cross the road we notice a strange procession across the road. We thought there is Thailand Red Shirt uprising(Link) in Little India as you see a group of people in red drag. But the majority difference is the guys are in red sexy lingerie or dress outfit remind me of the movie Priscilla, Queen of Desert LOL. We have no idea what statement this procession is trying to put through to the public. Seeing the participants so gungho especially the guys wearing sexy lingerie outfit is fairly sporty of them as I cannot anticipate myself doing that in the public. After the procession have passed, we move to Mustafa Centre and did some shopping and end the excursion by having dinner in Juz Acia Doby Ghaut.

New VS Old - City Square Mall VS Mustafa Centre

It been quite a while since I visited Mustafa Centre to acquire unique indian spices, so I decide to made a trip today so as not to waste the hard to come by long holiday weekend. I decide to bring my PSP camera along to take some shots of my trip. I decided to take the MRT despite it is longer route to Mustafa as I prefer constantly under "aircon". The MRT trip didn't took that long about 15 - 20mins and I drop off at Farrer Park and exit at Serangoon Road.

As I walked out of the MRT station, I'm surprised to see a new Shopping Mall (City Square Mall) is greeting me on the left as I've no idea a mall is in the midst of construction since my last visit to Mustafa. In the year of recession, it seem like new Shopping Malls is popping up all over Singapore and I wonder what this mall have to offer and decide to deviate my itinerary a bit to see what this new mall have to offer to shoppers.

City Square Mall is a mall that market heavily on being "Eco-friendly" with Metro as their major tenant. You will find adequate fashion house, consumer electronics and F&B evenly distribute on each level. As usual, I'm more interested in the F&B so I took the trouble to capture (Link1,Link2,Link3) the F&Bs that will be gracing this mall.Due to most of the retail space not taken up, I decide to cut short my trip in City Square and proceed to Mustafa Centre.

As usual, Mustafa Centre are still bustling with shoppers. It is only of shopping centre in Singapore to house the most products one could imagine from clothings, medicals, electronics, jeweleries to foodstuffs despite limited floorspace. Therefore, navigating thought the level could be daunting for first time shoppers.

The foodstuff section is the most popular section in Mustafa Centre. This is the only photo I manage to capture as the section is so pack with people any moment you get shove or push to one corner. For Indian culinary artist, you be awe by the type of spices sold in Mustafa Centre. It is a mecca for spices, you can find basically any spices needed for Indian cuisine here. For this trip, I bought saffron, curry leaves powder and mustard powder as I got some recipes need this few spices. It still early to say if City Square Mall will poise a threat to Mustafa Centre as both of them are catering for different market segment with City Square Mall targeting up market while Mustafa Centre targeting general populace.