Astons Prime @ Joo Chiat

I've tried Astons Specialties several times and found it not too bad, especially in terms of value-for-money, but Astons Prime is a whole new league altogether. I think Astons Prime serves the best steaks in Singapore, and I thoroughly enjoyed their Porterhouse Steak (500g of beef @ around $45). This has got to be the most delicious steak I've ever tasted!

Prices here are significantly higher than Astons Specialties. But that's because you pay for the ambience, the service, and of course the higher quality and standard of food served. Something interesting about Astons Prime - you MUST be patient. Each steak takes about 45 min to prepare so by the time your food arrives, you will either be complaining of 'poor service', gastric pain or hunger, or you will be singing praises about the pleasant service staff, the juicy tender beef... that it was all worth the wait. I had no complaints because I had good company, and we ordered some starters (like the wild mushroom soup @ $5.00 and complimentary bread) to keep our mouths busy for a while.

Nothing here (or anywhere else for that matter) beats the Porterhouse Steak. Especially the guys... if you are a meat lover, feeling extremely hungry, and don't mind spending a bit more $$$, don't hesitate to feast on Astons Porterhouse Steak. You won't regret it!

Overall, I give this restaurant 8 stars out of 10, and 9 stars for the Porterhouse Steak! I will definitely come back here again, but not too often or I'll burn a hole in my pocket!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Astons, click here.
To check out other reviews of Astons Prime, click here, here, and here.

Address: 467 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427678
Contact: 63442447, Operating Hours: 11.30am - 11.00pm (closed on 1st Tuesday of each month)

Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant @ Joo Chiat

Have you heard of "Rabbit Brand"? All that I can think of initially is the famous chewy sweet where the transparent plastic covering it is also edible.

Who would have thought that "Rabbit Brand" is also the name of a seafood restaurant along Joo Chiat Road! I only came to know about it when a Jason told me that it served delicious chinese food at value-for-money prices, especially after 10pm. Indeed, when I arrived here at around 9.45pm for a late dinner with Francesca and my sister, prices were still 'normal' until 10pm, when suddenly, everything became half price!

The ambience was good, with nice sofa seats and bright lights, and they serve a wide variety of food. They recommended us to try their soups like the Buddha Jump Over the Wall and the Shark's Fin Soup, especially after 10pm since it was only going for half price. Seriously, where else can you get such delicacies at around $10?

But I was more tempted to try their specialty fish (if I'm not mistaken it is called the Steamed Patin Fish in Nonya Style) which was a real delight...

The fish was superb. It was rather spicy and very tasty and only costs us around $15! The interesting ingredients which comprised of chopped bits of garlic and maybe peanut (?) complimented the fish very well. We also ordered the Mapo Toufu, which they served a huge portion for a mere $5-6... a lovely dish too.

We ordered quite a number of other dishes, like their black pepper beef and some vegetables (which weren't very fantastic)... I can't really recall what the rest were. Anyway, all I can say about this place is that this is the perfect supper venue for anyone living in the east! Next time, I'll want to try their Chilli Crab, Handmade Fried Buns, Homemade Spinach Beancurd with Tobiko, and of course one of their soups. Oh, I also ordered a can of their Bird's Nest drink, and I thought it gave a nice finishing touch to my meal.

Overall, I give this restaurant 6.5 stars out of 10, and highly recommend this place for supper (after 10pm). The Patin Fish here rocks, and its my most favourite dish here.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant, click here and here.
To check out other reviews, click here and here.

Address: 325/327 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427582
Contact: 63488772, Operating Hours: 6pm - 3am

FCAS Movie Nite: Ratatouille & Pepper Lunch

Many 'foodie' movies were released on theatres recently, and we decided to organise an FCAS Movie Nite to watch "Ratatouille". This movie received rave reviews, and even got a 5/5 rating by Ong Sor Fern, our local movie critic who gives really strict reviews. I enjoy watching animation too, and having food as the subject was a definite plus point. I was surprised that so many of our FCAS members turned up for the dinner and movie. Lots of new members showed up, including Leslie, Andrew, Viola and Robin. Welcome to FCAS!

We had dinner at a small DIY fast food steakhouse at the basement of Dhoby Ghaut MRT station called "Pepper Lunch". I enjoy eating here because you get the chance to 'cook' your food under the sizzling hot plate they provide, and they provide this really delicious 'honey brown sauce' to go with your dish. I usually put lots of the 'honey brown sauce' into my mixture to fry, and it tastes absolutely delicious! The food they serve here is Japanese, and they are quite well known for their Beef Pepper Rice @ $8.50 (the cheapest on their menu), and probably their Pepper Steak @ $14.90. As for the ambience, you can expect something similar to that of a fast food outlet like MOS Burger or McDonalds, but prices here are more expensive. It used to be slightly cheaper until they raised it by about $1-2 recently.

It was a great meal - fast to cook, and good to eat! Not only did I enjoy the food here, the concept was also unique and refreshing. Overall, I give this restaurant 7 stars out of 10, and I won't mind coming back here again for a quick bite, especially when I'm in a hurry!

After watching the movie "Ratatouille", especially when Remy (the rat) prepared the dish "ratatouille" (a very humble traditional stewed vegetable dish) for Ego (the demanding food critic), I began craving immensely for this! Where can I find good ratatouille in Singapore? I can only think of one place at the moment - Stewhaus Restaurant along Siglap, but that will have to wait some other time for review.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Pepper Lunch Restaurant, click here and here.

To find out more about the movie "Ratatouille", click here.

Address: 11 Orchard Road #B1-12 Dhoby Gaut MRT Station

Contact: 63386165, Operating Hours: 11am - 10pm

Pot Luck & BBQ @ Francesca's House

Francesca organised a pot luck cum BBQ party at her house today, and she invited a few of our FCAS members to join her group of ex-colleagues from the YMCA. As there were about 20 of us present, and each of us brought our own dish, there was a sumptuous spread of food! Many of these were specially home-cooked personal recipes, which made the 'buffet' particularly delectable. I really enjoyed the beef-stew prepared by Suzie... the gravy was fragrant, and the meat was so tender. It absolutely hit the right spot in terms of taste!

However, there were some 'hiccups' during the party which made it all the more memorable. Firstly, we encountered a power failure for about 15 minutes... and that started almost immediately after we said grace over the food! We then wandered around in darkness trying to find the for the source of the short-circuit, and soon realised that it was the dusty, old-looking extension cord connected to the electric BBQ set that caused the power failure. The thing was faulty and so after we got rid of it and reconnected the electric BBQ set to a different power socket, everything went back to normal.

Next, I mistakenly agreed wth Raymond to buy Cadbury chocolate with almond nuts for our chocolate fondue machine. The little fountain is unable to process nuts and these might even cause the mechanism inside it to be jammed. Hence, we spent about 30 minutes trying to filter-off those little chunks of nuts from the heated chocolate (mixed with milk). Unfortunately, after pouring the chocolate into the machine, to our horror, one of the gadgets inside it exploded, sending it flying into mid-air, and the whole machine cap-sized! It was a pathetic sight and everyone became frantic. There were some casualties in this accident, like our poor Suzie whose pants were drenched with sticky chocolate! The floor was all dirty, and the curtains were stained badly... poor Francesca became extremely frantic! We quickly tried our best to help clean up the mess. Thankfully, most people helped to clean-up, and by the time Francesca's parents returned, everything looked as good as new again.

Did we give up on the chocolate fondue in the end? Well, NO! There were still some leftover chocolate pieces in the fridge, so we heated it up in a little pot and dipped our fruits and marshmellows using the POT rather than the condemned FOUNTAIN. Haha!

Overall, the party was fun and I got to catch up with my buddies from FCAS. Oh, if you don't know yet, 2 of our members: Zhizhong and Qiuling have set up a Mind-Mapping & Tuition Centre recently called "Beautyful Minds". You might be interested to check them out at http://www.beautyfulminds.com/. I must really commend Zhizhong for his talent and creativity in website designing and FLASH!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To learn how to make chocolate fondue, click here.

To check out some interesting beef stew recipes, click here.

Davyd's 24th Birthday Celebration at Brewerks

Brewerkz is an excellent place for birthday celebrations. Not only does it have an excellent location (along the river at Riverside Point), it also serves delicious food and great beer! The beers here are 'original' homebrewed, which makes them all the more unique and tasty. They have a wide variety of different beers, like the Golden Ale and the India Pale Ale (IPA). Notably, the most popular beer is the IPA, which is intensely hopped and full-bodied. We ordered a Tower (4000 ml) of Ale, so that all of us could drink to our hearts delight!

As for the type of food served, they provide Western-American style food e.g. steaks, meats, sausages etc. I ordered the Braised Lamb Fore-Shank for myself, and found it absolutely delectable! The meat was tender, the gravy was tasty, and was especially delightful with the Ale. The rest ordered other dishes like the BBQ meats and the Pizzas, which were not bad too. However, the steaks here looked rather pathetic. They were small and expensive, which left our big hunky Derek hungry hungry after dinner. For the price paid per steak here, I would rather dine at Jack's Place which tastes far better.

Indeed, food prices at Brewerkz were not cheap, ranging from $19.99 - $41.99 per main course, so if you are on a tight budget, it is advisable for you not to dine here. I came here several times with my parents and friends, and they too found the prices rather steep. Other than this, the ambience was great, the beer rocked, and the FCAS company made all the difference - a big thank you to all of you who could make it for my party!

Oh, I would also like to add that there were other problems. We were given a long table by the river outside the restaurant (which I booked), but when it started raining, the staff did not seem to have any backup plans in mind. Only when it started pouring did they start hurriedly clearing and moving our tables, but we were still left 'stranded' for quite some time before being allocated a table in the restaurant. For big groups like us, it would be problematic trying to fit us into their already packed 'indoor' restaurant. Brewerkz should try to resolve this problem - perhaps expanding their restaurant, or providing some form of shelter for their 'outdoor' customers?
Finally, it is worth noting that Brewerkz has won several awards. Readers of IS Magazine in November 1997 voted Brewerkz as Singapore's Best New Bar. It also clinched the Singapore Tourism Board's Tourism Award 1999 for "Best Dining Experience". Recently, in the Association of Brewers (AOB) World Beer Cup 2004, it clinched the Gold Medal. This is a global beer competition that evaluates beers from around the globe and recognizes the most outstanding beers being produced in the world today.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Brewerkz Singapore, click here.
To check out Brewerkz's menu, click here.

Address: 30 Merchant Road #01-05/06 Riverside Point, Singapore 058282
Contact: 64387438, Operating Hours: 12pm - Midnight

FCAS Christmas Party 2006!

We had a huge feast at the Christmas Party held at my house today. Not only did we have lots of wine, we also had a sumptuous spread of delicious homecooked food and the usual turkey and beef (no ham!). I personally cooked 2 dishes (with some help from my mum) - Mexican Tomato Rice and Beer Chicken! I got the recipes online (making some modifications on my own) and cooked them during my stay in London. My housemates in London really loved these dishes, which they claimed tasted somewhat 'exotic', so I thought I should give FCAS a taste of some of my cooking.



The party was great! We had lots of fun, and we even played the latest boardgame which I purchased online called 'War on Terror'. This game was lots of fun, but later we realised that it was almost impossible to complete (especially when about 6 of us were playing it), and after playing for about 4-6 hours, we got tired of it. Lesson learnt - the War on Terror can never end!

We also had some new members - Jun Heng and Wan Ling who attended our celebration today, making this occasion more interesting. I hope that they felt welcomed and comfortable with all of us, and that they will continue to attend all our subsequent activities. We strive to make new members feel at home in our society, and I hope that it will continue to grow in numbers!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To learn how to cook Tomato Rice, click here.
To learn how to cook Beer Chicken, click here.
To find out more about the boardgame 'War on Terror', click here.

Davyd's Review on AIWO Restaurant

I had lunch at AIWO Restaurant again today (my second visit), but this time with Francesca, as she wanted to try the food here since she was absent in the recent FCAS Food Trip to this place. The last time I came here, I ordered the OMEGA TREAT Set Meal, which I really loved it to bits! This time, AIWO is having a 1-For-1 Lunch Promotion... all the better!

As I was extremely hungry, instead of having 1 main course per person, we ordered double the portion - that means 4 main courses! We ordered 1 Atlantic Seabass, 1 Cod Steak marinated with sea salt, lemon parsley and olive oil, 1 Lemon Chicken Tenders and Rosemary with Crunchy Iceberg, Peppers and Sesame Dressing (Crepe), and 1 Stuffed Chicken Marinated with Lemon, Rosemary and Grilled. Man, was I so full after eating all of that!

Francesca absolutely loved the food. I was very impressd with the quality of the food served - the fish meat was especially tender, and although healthy ingredients were used to prepare the food (which supposedly means less tasty?), the flavours were not compromised at all. However, I didn't really fancy the Crepe dish (not much of a fan), and the chicken used to fill the Crepe was chicken breast meat (I'm more of a drummer). As for the pricing, it is good value if you go now during their 1-for-1 Lunch Promotion, but rather steep if you're thinking of having a feast. AIWO should reduce its prices for its Set Menu, and drop its prices for its A-La-Carte Menu by a few dollars, to make it better value for money.

From this experience, I am of the opinion that AIWO does its fish dishes exceptionally well, and I will recommend anyone who comes here to try them. Overall, I will give this restaurant 7.5 stars out of 10, and I will definitely come back here again. Well done!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about AIWO Restaurant, click here.
For another review by AsiaOne Wine & Dine, click here.

Address: Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, #02-20
Contact: 67377597, Operating Hours: 11.30am - 2.30pm (Lunch) & 5.30pm - 10.00pm (Dinner)

Chalet cum BBQ @ Costa Sands, Downtown East

Today, we organised a chalet cum BBQ at Costa Sands, Downtown East. I was very pleased with the event as we saw the largest turn-out for FCAS so far of about 18 people, and almost everyone was involved in helping out with the BBQ.

Anqi, Shuling, and Shuqin helped to buy, marinate, and bring the chicken wings. Zhizhong and Qiuling helped to buy the disposable cups and plates, sausages, and hot dog buns. Angeline and Ian helped to buy the BBQ netting and charcoal, and Ian single-handedly set up a whole BBQ pit himself! Angeline also helped collect the money from almost everyone. Shawn and Clara even added some variety to the food by buying marshmallows to BBQ! Indeed, everyone played a part in making this event possible - all of you contributed in one way or another.

We even had our very own informal Awards Presentation Ceremony! These Certificates of Membership were personally designed and printed by me, and the nice paper was selected by Francesca. I hope all of you liked it! Here are some pictures taken at the BBQ:

Although nobody stayed overnight at the chalet (as most had to work or attend class the next day), it was indeed a memorable and heartwarming night as all of us caught up and got to know one another better. We even played some games like 'Grabble' and 'Settlers'! May FCAS continue to grow, relationships within the society continue to blossom, and may future events be as successful as this one!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To view more photos for this occasion, click here.
To learn how to play 'Grabble', click here.
To learn how to play 'Settlers of Catan', click here.

Singapore's Mega World Food Fair 2006

Singapore's Mega World Food Fair 2006 was held from the 6th - 10th September 2006, at the Singapore Expo, Hall 5. Organised by Eastern Directories Ptd Ltd, the 5 days showcased an extensive line-up of the latest food and beverage products from all over the world, ranging from Asian food to Japanese, Thai, German and our very own local favourites! There were more than 150 stalls present at the gala event, and it sure was a 'gastronomical adventure' for both Francesca and I.

However, we felt that the quality of food served were not up to our expectations, and most of the food we tasted were disappointing. Take for example, our local favourite "Sharks' Fin Soup"; stalls promoting this delicacy had it served filled with "glue" rather than sharks' fin (or at least crab meat!). There were also huge queues for this meat filled "Man Tou", which I didn't even think was fantastic at all. We also waited about half an hour for deep fried chicken drumstick from the same stall, where the staff cooked extremely slowly, taking their own sweet time. Many people seemed rather annoyed, and we suspect that it was a deliberate attempt by the stall to create a long queue.

I attend such Food Fairs almost every year, but was so disappointed as I could not find my favourite "Malaysian Otah"! This Otah is fried with onions on a hot pan, tastes really spicy hot, and is served on banana leaf, but all I saw there today were the usual Otah which could be found almost anywhere along the roadside. But special commendation goes to the stall "Chun Man Yuan", whose Chicken Satays and Otah were delectably good, and which we subsequently catered for our BBQ later on at night. Everyone agreed that the food was superb!

Overall, this year's Food Fair was rather disappointing, and I feel that the Hall was flooded with more stalls serving healthy living foods, ginseng, tit-bits, desserts, and wheat grass (though I did enjoy drinking it). The organisers should invite more restaurants and hawker centres to showcase their foods, and restrict the number of stalls serving packaged products.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

For more information on the event, click here.

To cater food from Chun Man Yuan Food Industries Pte Ltd, click here.

China Food at Geylang?

Geylang is mainly known for 2 things- being the red light district of Singapore and having lots of good food. Here's a 'foodie' recommendation:

Location: Geylang Lor 8 Opposite You Tiao Da Wang (Yong He Dou Jiang) - Next to the restaurant selling Frog's Legs Porridge. By the way, the Frog's Legs Porridge are famous and tastes superb too!

Name of restaurant: Zhong Hua Mei Shi Guan (I think that's how you pronounce it).

Type of food: Original Chinese Food from different parts of China.

Specialty:
1. The Original Chinese 'Kebabs', Yang Rou Chuan, and the BBQed corn 'chao yu mi'.
2. The Dong Gu Rou Shi Chao Mian (i.e. mushroom fried noodles).
3. The soups are good too.
4. Imported Beer that you hardly find anywhere else - Harbin Beer @ $6 per Big bottle which is really cheap for beer that size. I don't usually like beer, but Harbin is quite light, so I like it.

Price range: A little more expensive than your coffeeshop's wanton mee or chicken rice but definitely cheaper than GRAZE (which we went previously)! $6-$10 depending on whether there's beer. The soft drinks are expensive, I usually buy my drinks from the nearby 7/11.

Customer Service: Good. they cater to your every need.

Ambience: Your standard coffeeshop ambience. You know Geylang, so lower your standards when you dine here! There're no rats or cockroaches scurrying around, but don't expect much.

I've brought about 8 people there to eat, and ALL of them have good comments/feedback. If you've been to China and you miss the food there, this is almost the real thing. The cooks, waiters and waitresses are all from China.

Article written by Daniel Ho.

To find out what others have to say about Good Food in Geylang, click here.
To find out more about Harbin Beer, click here and here.
For some insider tips on Geylang by Virtual Tourist, click here.