Food – Page 6 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Japanese Sesson Grill at Manpuku, Tampines 1

April 29, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless4 Comments

We’ve gone to Manpuku quite a few times, but we still haven’t tried everything the place has to offer. That’s not so much for lack of opportunity, but lack of desire. You see, Manpuku as an establishment has slowly been going downhill.

When Manpuku first opened, the place was packed all the time. It was fresh, it was clean, the decor was awesome and the food was a novelty. Unfortunately, most of the choices weren’t anything to get excited about, especially for the prices they were charging. Most of it is little better than hawker food.

A few months ago, I’m not sure exactly when, Manpuku’s customer base shrunk to the point that they did away with the charge card system. It used to be that when you arrived you would queue up to wait for seating and to get a charge card. You would use the card to pay for the items you wanted from the various booths inside. Then, before leaving you went through a register check-out lane, kinda like in a grocery store. That’s where you settled your bill. Now, you just walk in and pay at the specific booth you want to eat from, either cash or NETS. If you want to use a credit card you still use the original charge card system. I suppose that system became more of a hassle than it was worth in regards to having extra employees just to ring up the bills and the owner realized it would be more cost effective to have individual booth workers handle their own cash payments.

With the lower patronage comes lower standards it seems. The trays are usually covered in a white grime and the eating utensils still have residue on them when you pick them up. It makes me wonder if they even use washing soap or if they just rinse them with water. I’ve also had trouble communicating with some of the employees lately.

Despite these issues, there are still a few gems to be found there. The ramen from Aoba Hokkaido Ramen is pretty good but we wanted to try something different, so we went to Japanese Sesson Grill, which is in the corner near the MRT tracks.

The food is a bit pricey. Individual kabobs were between 2.50 and 3 bucks apiece, which seems expensive given their size. We settled on having a set meal that came with five skewers, rice and miso soup for 13 SGD. It seemed a fair enough price to pay for what we were getting.

One good thing about Manpuku falling out of public favor is that it’s less crowded and you can actually have a quiet sort of meal there. We went to the very corner, overlooking the MRT station area. It was even a bit cozy feeling there.

The food itself was better than I hoped it would be. It’s nothing to get too excited about but I definitely felt that I’d gotten what I paid for and left satisfied.

Kim Garry: Hong Kong Restaurant

April 17, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

The booths looked really comfortable but they were all full. The booths on the other side of the restaurant were roped off, since the restaurant wasn’t that full.

On Wednesday I went to meet my wife for a late lunch and she recommended we try out the Kim Garry restaurant that’s on the basement level of Tampines 1. I’d never had Hong Kong style food before, at least that I know of, so I was willing to give it a shot.

When we were seated by the hostess, she tried to squeeze us into a cramped area along the wall that was already packed with customers, so we went ahead and re-seated ourselves at a stand-alone table where we’d have more room. If I’m going to pay for food at a restaurant I’d rather be comfortable, otherwise I’d just go pay 3 bucks for food at a hawker and squeeze in there.

This is the back of the restaurant. If I remember right, there was a window in that back wall that opened on the kitchen.

The decor of the restaurant is really nice. It had a stylish, modern look to it, but it felt a little incongruous given the types of food.

The borscht soup and the silverware, which was packed in a sealed container.

The food itself was good. We started out with the borsch, which is a traditionally Russian or Polish soup that has a beet and tomato juice base. The borsch we were served had chunks of tomato and cabbage in it as well. I’d never had borsch before, so I have no basis for comparison but it seemed pretty good to me.

Before moving on, one more thing I’d like to point out is how they serve their silverware. You can see it in the picture above. It comes in a sealed container and the utensils were spotless, which is just how I like it.

The sauce was delicious and the serving was generous!

My wife had a dish that I forget the name of, but it had pork chops in garlic sauce over spaghetti noodles. She let me have a bite of the pork chop and it tasted great!

A few pieces of the beef were chewy, and I think I screwed up picking the red wine sauce that’s under the cheese, on the rice, but it was still a good dish.

I went with the beef baked rice with cheese. There was a choice between a white cream sauce with sweet corn and a red wine sauce. I went with the red wine sauce, which I think may have been a mistake. It’s sweetness threw off the whole dish. If I go there again before departing Singapore, I’ll definitely try a baked rice dish with corn next time.

When it came time to pay the bill, we were happy with the cost. The food seemed to be reasonably priced.

Overall, the dining experience was moderate. It’s hard to judge a whole restaurant off of one trip and one dish, but I think this is a restaurant that’s worth going back to at least a few more times to further explore the menu, if only I had the opportunity.

Hygiene Standards at White Sands McDonald’s Are Lacking

April 13, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless4 Comments

I went to the McDonald’s at White Sands Mall in Pasir Ris last night and I was disgusted by the lack of proper hygiene and knowledge of simple concepts of cleanliness I encountered. This was the second time I’d seen the same behavior, so I took the time to send a feedback message to McDonald’s Singapore.

This is that message:

To Whom It May Concern,

I’m concerned about the standards of hygiene that are being implemented in your White Sands, Pasir Ris branch, and possibly all of your branches if this one location is any indication.

Last night I approached the service counter for ice cream and asked the young man behind the counter for a hot fudge sundae. He was polite enough, but when he presented the sundae he set the plastic spoon down on the counter.

This is completely unsanitary as nearly every customer that makes a purchase at this counter puts his or her hands on it, and puts money on it. People’s hands have been in places that I don’t want to think about, and the money they’re handling has also been in many unsanitary locations, including the ground in some cases. For example, I paid 1.50 for that sundae. The 50 cent piece I used to make that purchase came from the floor of Tampines Mall where I found it just prior to leaving and getting on the train to head to Pasir Ris.

To make matters worse, when I told him I didn’t want a spoon that had been placed on the counter, because the counter is dirty, he gave me a new spoon, but immediately afterwards picked up the first spoon from the counter and put it back in the container with the clean spoons. Seriously? I just said I didn’t want it because it was dirty from being on the counter, so why contaminate all of the other spoons? It makes me wonder if the replacement spoon was even clean.

The employees at this branch need some lessons in proper hygiene and proper handling of eating utensils. If this is how they handle utensils then I’d hate to see how they handle the food.

Please. Train your employees. This is McDonald’s in Singapore, not a hut in the middle of a jungle somewhere, where cleanliness and hygiene is an alien concept.

I look forward to your response.

Regards,

Bradley Farless

Update: The manager for the outlet called me on my mobile phone and apologized for the poor service. He said that this is definitely not the standard that McDonald’s Singapore wants to set and told me that corrective action would be taken to ensure that it didn’t happen again. He asked for a description of the employee, and then asked me if there was anything he could do to compensate me for the bad experience. I told him to just make sure it doesn’t happen again. I wasn’t trying to get free stuff out of this. I just want to know that when I go to McDonald’s, the food I’m eating is clean and the utensils are clean. I’m glad to see that McDonald’s takes this issue seriously.

Tampines 1’s Food Court

April 7, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Every mall in Singapore that I’ve been to has a food court that is, in reality, just an indoor hawker. The same basic varieties of food are served in the same basic way. It’s a very convenient way to eat, especially if you’re not willing to spring for an expensive meal in a sit down restaurant. These food courts (and hawkers) in Singapore often have much better prices than what you’d find in a mall food court in the US, making them a very affordable place to eat.

I’d somehow assumed that Tampines 1 was an exception to the rule that every mall has a food court. I’d just never seen it. It’s tucked away in a corner on the top floor, by the pet shop. We happened to see it when we went to the pet shop to browse for travel carriers for our cats.

The food court isn’t bad at all. The air conditioning there is ice cold and it offers glassed walls all the way around, which offer an excellent view of the area around Tampines 1. The iced kacang seemed to be pretty popular, and there was a stall called Kuala Lumpur Roasted I want to try out. I’m sure it’s just the standard chicken rice / roast pork rice / etc. stall, but maybe they have their own twist to the recipe that’s worth experiencing.

The most disappointing thing about the food court is that it’s not designed well. With Tampines 1 being such a new mall, you’d think they’d have put more effort into making the food court look appealing. The food court at Suntec resembles a library. The food court at Vivocity looks like a quaint, village shopping district. The food court at Ion is decked out in gold chrome and white statues of animals. This food court is rather bland. I suppose their reasoning might have been that there are already food courts in the two other malls in the area which also have a bland design, so they didn’t need to put much thought into the one they built for Tampines 1.

Restaurants in the US often have a theme to enhance their appeal, but before coming to Singapore I couldn’t have cared less what a food court in a mall looked like, as long as the food was decent. I’ve become accustomed to, and spoiled by, the level of detail Singaporeans put into designing their malls.

Singapore’s French Toast is Not French Toast

April 6, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Singapore is often hailed as a ‘food heaven’, and in some cases that’s true, especially if you have the money to afford the ‘authentic dining’. More often than not, it’s impractical to constantly go to high end restaurants, so I get excited when I see cuisine from ‘home’ that’s listed at an affordable price.

It was with great excitement that I saw French Toast on the menu at a beverage stall in the Tampines 1 food court on the upper level. I could, of course, just make French Toast at home if I wanted to, but when I saw it on the menu and realized how long it’d been since I had it, it seemed the perfect dish to go along with the iced kopi I had ordered.

What I was given was nothing short of the murder of a dish I grew up loving. I was a bit thrown off when the auntie behind the counter asked me if I’d like some kaya to go with my French Toast. I couldn’t figure out how that would go well with a sweet dish that is supposed to be coated in sugar, cinnamon, and syrup.

Well, the answer was simple. This stall’s idea of French Toast was a piece of bread with scrambled egg and butter fried to the sides. There was no sugar, cinnamon, or syrup, which are what make French Toast … French Toast.

While it tasted well enough on its own, this isn’t what I thought I was going to get when I ordered it, and I couldn’t help but be disappointed. The sign shouldn’t list this as French Toast, because it’s definitely not.

Ajisen Ramen @ Tampines Mall

April 5, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless16 Comments

Yesterday afternoon was a little cool out, surprisingly considering Singapore’s typical weather this time of year, so my wife and I were both in the mood for something soupy. Typically, that means a trip to Manpuku for their Aoba Hokkaido Ramen, but our last visit was a little less than appealing, so we decided to try something new. There’s a restaurant on the top floor of Tampines Mall called Ajisen that serves ramen. We’d been by there quite a few times because we typically go to the outlet of Pastamania! that’s right next to it, or passed by it to go to the movies when we lived in Tampines. We’d glanced over the menu a few times but never given it a try, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to give a new (to us) restaurant a chance.

My wife ordered the cha shu ramen, to compare it with what we normally get at Manpuku. I decided to be a little adventurous and went with the scallop ramen. The ramen came as a set, so for our set items we ordered the cuttlefish and California maki. We also ordered a side of dumplings, again for comparison with what we usually got at Manpuku.

The meal as a whole wasn’t that bad at all. The taste was good and it was well worth what we paid for it, which totalled 37 SGD for the two of us. We got quite a bit of food for that amount. It wasn’t a meal that wowed us, and I doubt I’ll be pressuring my wife to go back anytime soon, but it’s a decent meal and a suitable lunch destination.

What really appealed to me about the place was the pleasant appearance of the restaurant and the good service the staff provided. When we initially entered the restaurant we were immediately greeted and seated. When we asked to be moved to a booth, which was more comfortable than where we were initially placed, the staff was more than happy to oblige us. Our servers were very polite, casual and friendly and they always had a smile on their faces. It was a very pleasant experience.

Later, when we got home, I checked HungryGoWhere, a review site for Singapore’s restaurants, and saw that quite a few people had complained about bad service on the part of the staff. I didn’t see it, at all. Perhaps the manager had been reading the reviews there and gave the staff some training, because they did a great job for us. That, more than anything else, would encourage me to want to go back. Nothing makes a meal more enjoyable than proper service from the staff.

So, if you’re in Tampines Mall and you’re looking for a nice ramen meal, Ajisen is a decent place to go.

Review: Hei Sushi @ Downtown East

April 3, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless4 Comments

After having a great time watching Clash of the Titans my wife and I walked down to the lower level of Downtown East to look around and decide on dinner. We hadn’t eaten at Hei Sushi before and the conveyor belt full of sushi looked pretty appealing, so we got in line and waited to be seated.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hei Sushi but the entire experience was more than a little under-whelming. There’s a restaurant by the pool and gym in Tampines (that I can’t remember the name of) that sells sushi off a conveyor belt and their selection is impressive. The taste and quality is impressive as well. I’d expected the same thing from Hei Sushi. We’d eaten a heavy lunch and we weren’t that hungry so the idea of just getting a few items from the conveyor belt is what roped us in. The place also has an interesting method for ordering items: an interactive computer screen complete with an optical mouse on your table. I was excited to play with it!

The table we were seated at was near the front of one of the conveyor belts, so I was sure we’d get the best pick from the items coming out of the kitchen. That would have been true, I’m sure, but no items were actually being added to the conveyor belt the entire 30 minutes we sat there. Not that I could tell anyway. Plates with the same, six or seven varieties, of sad looking pieces of sushi with wilted fish kept going round and round.

We initially took a few plates to try them, but after sitting for 30 minutes and realizing that they weren’t going to add anything new, we turned to the menu in disappointment. After looking through the menu for a while we settled on an item we could both enjoy, the ika teriyaki (squid). So, my wife took the mouse and tried to place the order. She couldn’t get it to work, so I tried it. The screen was frozen. Left click, right click, it all resulted in no click.

At this point we were both disappointed with the place and decided to leave. A meal is supposed to be a relaxing experience. I shouldn’t have to face technical difficulties after already being disappointed by the small selection of choices on the conveyor belt, which, by the way, were barely a fraction of what their menu said was supposed to be available. We were supposed to call for our bill by clicking a button on the computer screen, but that didn’t work so I had to flag down a waitress who seemed rather surprised that we were leaving after only eating 6 plates from the conveyor belt.

Speaking of those plates, they’re also overpriced. That restaurant by the pool (wish I knew it’s name) had set the price at 1 dollar for two pieces of sushi on a plate. Hei Sushi had the price set at 2.18 per plate, not including GST.

Now for my final complaint. We were charged a 10% service fee. 10%! And for what? Being shown to a table? Being presented with our bill? We were never given any service to have to pay for it. We picked up everything ourselves off of the conveyor belt. I understand the concept behind a service fee, and I’m willing to pay it, but only when I’ve received service, and good service at that. Hei Sushi’s service staff were pleasant, but they didn’t actually do anything for us to warrant a 10% service charge.

Hei Sushi isn’t a terrible place by any means, but we won’t be returning simply because there are better options where we can get better food at a better value.

Yamazaki @ Tampines 1 Mall

March 29, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

With all of the times we’ve walked right by this place I can’t imagine why we never poked our head in to look around. I guess it was the really fancy cakes they had in the display cases facing out towards the mall walkway. Tampines 1 isn’t really the place I’d think of when I want good, but reasonably priced, baked goods.

However, with my time in Singapore fast coming to an end, I got curious and looked around inside. I was surprised to see great prices and a great variety of sweet baked items. There were things with chocolate cream, custard fillings and apple pies and it was all completely affordable.

We quickly loaded up a tray to take home with us. We’re gonna have to go on some long runs this week to burn off these calories, but they were definitely worth it!

The custard was better than I’d hoped, the waffle was sweet and tasted like it’d go great in a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and the apple pie my wife picked out was incredible!

If you’re looking for some good quality pastry type items for a good price, I recommend this place. You can even get some Japanese milk tea or cafe au lait from the cooler to wash down your pastry.

Tapa King in Singapore

March 23, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

Tapa King is a restaurant that serves a popular Filipino dish called tapsilog. The restaurant is very popular in the Philippines and has finally opened branches here in Singapore at Lau Pa Sat (same place as where the only Wendy’s in Singapore is) and one at Century Square in Tampines. There may be other branches but those are the only two I’m aware of.

Anyhow, my wife found out about it because of a person handing out flyers by the Tampines MRT station. She was a little disappointed at first but then realized she should check the food court. It wouldn’t make sense for them to hand out flyers there otherwise. Sure enough, Century Square had a Tapa King outlet:

She was so excited she couldn’t wait to share the experience with me, and I mean that literally. She went there for lunch and then told me in great detail about how good it was. Tapa King’s reputation is well known to Filipinos and many of them were lined up, along with curious locals, to get a taste of this great Filipino dish.

She didn’t want me to miss out on the experience so she sent me a copy of the menu so I could choose something for her to bring home with her:

Tapa King:

Tender beef strips marinated in a savory sauce cooked over a griddle, served with fried egg, chopped tomato and garlic fried rice.

Tapa Queen

Tender beef strips marinated in a spicy sweetish sauce cooked over a griddle, served with fried egg, chopped tomato and garlic fried rice.

Tapa Prince

Tender beef strips marinated in sweetish sauce cooked over a griddle, served with fried egg, chopped tomato and garlic fried rice.

Tapa Joe

Tender beef strips cut in small pieces marinated in herbs and spices cooked over a griddle, served with fried egg, chopped tomato and garlic.

They all sounded pretty good, but I went ahead and asked for the Tapa King. The tapa dishes are their specialty so we didn’t bother with the other dishes. My wife says the Spicy Tuyo is good, but it’s dried fish and she figured I wouldn’t like that. Crispy Liempo is a piece of pork, if you’re wondering.

When she got home I eagerly opened the box, ready to dig in:

When I took the first bite, I knew I’d found a new favorite dish. I literally found myself scraping the container to get the last few bits of garlic rice and wished I’d had a second helping available. I’m excited to try the other versions the next time I’m in Tampines.

If you’re interested in trying some Filipino cuisine in Singapore, then I highly recommend Tapa King. You definitely won’t be disappointed!

Discovering What Halal Really Means

March 12, 2010 Bradley Farless24 Comments

I recently came across an article about an ongoing problem in a town called Colne in the UK. According to the article, the KFC there has switched to serving halal foods as part of a trial. A KFC representative said this was done because there have been quite a few requests in the UK for halal restaurants.

So… what does that mean? The article explained that halal meat is meat that has been prayed over and blessed by a Muslim cleric at the point of slaughter. Also, for a restaurant to have a halal rating, all food products served in the establishment must be halal, and the establishment can also no longer serve pork products, which were on KFC’s menu previous to this trial.

This has angered a lot of non-Muslim local residents who don’t appreciate having food blessed by another religion forced on them.

The first time I ever ate something that was ‘halal’ was at a Hardee’s on a US military installation in Kuwait. When I saw the phrase ‘halal certified’ on the outside of the restaurant I thought it was amusing, but didn’t give it a lot of thought. I assumed that it just had something to do with how the food was prepared but I had no idea that it was being blessed by a Muslim cleric. Thinking about it now, I suppose that was set up to cater to the Muslim foreign workers that were employed on the camp.

I’ve been living in Singapore for almost two years now and I’ve never given much thought to halal food at all. I always figured that hey… halal, kosher, whatever. It’s just prepared a special way and not mixed with what those people find ‘unclean’ right?

Now that I understand the true significance behind the meaning of food being halal… I suppose I still don’t really care all that much. It does bother me a bit that the food is being blessed by another religion, because it reminds me so much of the rite of Communion, which is considered holy and something only Christians should take part in. On the other hand, if I’m right and they’re wrong then the blessing isn’t going to amount to anything in the long run, is it? Besides, halal or not it’s still just a piece of chicken. A fried chicken leg isn’t going to jump off my plate and try to convert me.

I feel bad for the people in Colne, though, because in switching over the restaurant to halal to suit the needs of the Muslim minority, they’ve effectively alienated the Christian (minority?) who may not want to bend their religious principles to eat food blessed by another religion. Depending on the size of the town, those people may have just lost their only KFC. I also feel bad for them because people are labeling them as bigots just for standing up for their religious beliefs. People from one religion not wanting to eat food blessed or ritually killed by another religion is nothing new. According to AsianCook.co.uk, sikhs will not eat kosher or halal foods either.

What’s most interesting about the situation to me, though, is KFC’s religious insensitivity in the matter. When confronted about the issue, they replied that the food they’re serving is “still made from the same great ingredients”, effectively dodging the primary issue.

[Note: Keep in mind that I don’t personally know the people in Colne that are protesting this. All I know is what’s in the article I read. They may certainly be bigots that are using this as a platform for grandstanding. Regardless, I believe in letting people believe in whatever they want, without putting undue restrictions on their religious rights, insomuch that it doesn’t cause harm to others.]