Yummy fresh mille crepes at this little pastry shop in Happy Hawker, Jurong East. All price at $6.90 except $9.90 for musang king crepe and $6.50 for vanilla crepe.
The cafe is celebrating their 3rd Anniversary this October with 3 new created rice bowls. One of them is this delightful and yummy MENTAIKO KATSU RICE BOWL ($13) - japanese pearl rice with Crispy Chicken fillet served with onsen egg and greens, finishing off with torched Mentaiko Sauce.
We have Akimitsu’s Signature Tendon set (S$14.90), which is a bowl of rice covered with tempura-battered prawn, white fish, egg, assorted vegetables and seaweed ( I like its batter which was light, crispy without cloyingly oily) and topped over with asakusa original tendon sauce. The set comes with a small tea cup of chawanmushi, miso soup and free-flow pickles (cabbage and bean sprouts).
We also ordered the Mixed Tempura Rice Set (S$16.90) which is a more elaborated display of the tendon set with additional dipping sauce and sesame n matcha salt.
An Alfresco style cafe in a swimming complex. We ordered the much talked about liu sha prata. Actually I was a little sad to see that the prata is about the size of my palm, would have been great if it was bigger for the price. Well, i don't see any significance of sliced pineapple from the can, except the presentation does look slightly "atas" as compared to the other prata we had before.
We sliced the prata open and OOOH the salted egg sauce oozed out from the prata. I must admit I always enjoy such moment, to see the liu-sha or the lava flowing.
Tastewise was surprisingly good. I just have to order another prata as this coin prata was too small to "soak up" the thick salted egg sauce. The sauce was a little milky and powdery but I like it though.
This cafe also serves other zichar dishes, cakes and coffee.
Norwegian salmon steak ($16.50) served with orzo salad, gremolata lemon zest. Good portion and impressive salad, the salmon steak has a well balance of both crispy skin and moist meat. This gonna list into my favourite good list.
We ordered the Gems of 3 States Kopi ($4.60) – a serving of 3 flavours in small jars. The
flavours of kopi are determined by the restaurant. The 3 jars are labeled on a serving tray with 2 gem biscuits and marie alike biscuits, and a glass of water. The flavours of the month are Pulau Pinang, Johor & Melaka. They look different and each has a distinctive aroma. The Johor is light and milky smooth. The Melaka is medium bodied and tads of margarine fragrance. The Pulau Pinang (Penang) is intense and strong. All are good and we each have our own pick. I prefer Pulau Pinang more and such "3 in 1" serving style certainly helps me to choose my kopi in my next visit.
There are 7 types of chicken rice set in the main menu and yes, 13 Stages serves only chicken legs; there is no breast meat option.
We ordered the Samsui, Sesame and Assam Chicken Rice ($8.90 each) and snacks of chwee kueh (4pcs at $2.90) Samsui Chee Cheong Fun with chicken bits ($4.90), the not a bitsa crispy duck wrap ($6.50), a delightful serving of chicken floss wrap($4.90), with a side dish of imperial salad ($5.50). The prices are inclusive of GST and there is no service charge.
The Chicken sets are all served in bamboo baskets and came with a plate of chicken rice and a bowl of soup. Basically they are all steamed chicken top with different sauces, garnishing and gravy. I like the assam more, which came with vegetables and a generous amount of tangy assam gravy. The chicken is very tender and juicy. The assam gravy is slightly sweet and not spicy.
Honolulu Egg Tart ($1.70 each) which goes well with an HK milk tea. The shell is crispy and flaky. I have a soft spot for egg tarts, this one has a strong buttery fragrance on the pastry and the custard was not creamy enough but it is still wobbly yummy when served hot from oven.
Almost a dinnertime at Jin Ho Mia, a cheeky translation from its chinese name 蒸好米, a pretty new restaurant at ARC. They have 3 pots with funny names like the Ah Boy Pot ($33.80) a protein pot of pork balls, bacon, lobster balls, sausages, meatballs, roasted pork and luncheon meat, the Giam Pui (diet) Pot ($28.80) with servings of veggies, tofu and mushroom. We chose Tok Kong Pot ($48.80) means “superb” in Hokkien. This dish satiates our seafood cravings with Alaskan king crabs, tiger prawns flower clams, korean ramyeon, all dipping hot in a pot of flavourful fish broth. We ordered some more protein to add on, the broth turned out as good as a collegen pot. The menu has some side raw dishes ranged from $2 onwards, for you to consider additional food to the boiling pot. We ordered some cooked food like ngoh hiang, fried rice, mantou as preludes but in the end, the pot is ready to eat before the food arrived.
Damasara chilli pan mee ($4), a stall just opened in Malaysia Boleh new extension in Jurong Point. The mee is cooked using timer to achieve an al dente consistency. The serving is small compared to the famous local handmade ban mian. I have also noticed the sprouting of using such cooked egg in new dishes. Yeah,I see it here too, a sous vide egg is added to the bowl after all other ingredients eg chilli, minced meat, ikan bilis, shallots, mushrooms. Taste wise passable, price wise acceptable. Will I come again? yes when there isn't any queue.
Whenever there's mooncake cravings, it is definitely Hong Kong Da Sheng confectionery for us, and how we know Da Sheng is from Hong Kong, and that's from the Cantonese accent of the lady boss. Their pastries have kept us coming back. Besides the wife biscuit 老婆饼， we especially love this 莲蓉咸蛋酥 The flaky pastry is filled with good proportion of lotus paste and succulent salted egg yolk.
This pastry could have been a variation of the famous Mooncake, using same filling coated in a different crust, at a good mouthful size of $2.50 per piece.
Fresh sashimi stacking on the maki, just a look at the dish on the menu already made me salivate. The serving is a good satisfying lot for the price. The taste is truly a hit. We also ordered the pink and red ramen which were pretty rich in taste. We actually plan a comeback for more even before we finished this meal.
