Boon Tong Kee @ MOA

I stumbled upon Boon Tong Kee at Mall of Asia last Friday while looking for a place to eat after a tiring rounds at Phil. Travel Expo (SMX). It was relatively still a Valentine's Day, a Friday dinner and payday (15th)  at that_meant full houses restos around MOA. When I saw this resto with only 2-3 tables occupied, I knew we didn't have to look further.




The place used to be the one occupied by Red Mango, so it's not that spacious. Gladly, it has an open kitchen which is for me suggestive of fresh hygiene.



my v date, one of my best girlfriends

At the door, I easily had placed that Boon Tong Kee's origin is Singapore. Not that I had it already in Singapore, this was the first time I came to know about it,  but they had some menu teaser poster at the door with chicken rice. No brainer, I know right.

We didn't bother to stress ourselves with the menu. We were too hungry for that. We ordered their season (CNY & Valentine) set meal of chicken rice. Comprised of  hainanese chicken and rice, sambal kangkong and a soup. The chicken was just sufficiently tasty. Nothing to rave about. I'd say I already had  better version of  hainanese chicken in Sg & Malaysia.

Plus we ordered another set meal with the same side dishes but with pork which tasted like our local tocino.
  The sambal kangkong was allright.




The soup was actually surprisingly good. In a set meal, I never expected a soup not to be bland. But this one kindah tasty. It was like adapted to our pinoy palate cos it's nearly tasted like our local tinola soup.
For some reasons I always find Sg dishes very filling. My friend thought the same. We only had those two set meals, yet we didn't finish everything. We finished just half of everything.
Value for money was good. The set meal was heavy in the tummy but light in the wallet. I don't know about regular menu thu'.




We had dessert outside,  in a coffee shop.

Belated Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

At last I was able to try the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice during my most recent  (last week)  S'pore trip. At Maxwell Food Centre, I chanced upon a tolerable queue in front of Tian Tian and took it as a sign that it was about time. The reason for the doable queue was the holiday, some stalls were even closed for business. The rare times ( I think this was only the 3rd) that I got to eat at this hawkers center, Tian Tian always got the box office hit queue of customers. As a tourist, of course I don't usually have spare time to linger in a place.

The first photo was actually the queue for placing/paying your order. After which you have to go through another queue to claim your order. That's why there are two stalls occupied by Tian Tian. The two are actually inter connected. Can you spot that girl in the queue with a bowl, scooping iced dessert?

That's my daughter. she had to replace me in the queue cos I had to buy her other meal plate. She had enough of white chicken rice for this trip. The huge white man? We didn't know him, haha. He might be as curious as I was about Anthony Bourdain's claim that this particular chicken rice is the best.

No, this is not the one. It's a duck rice plate. I got it from another stall (forgot the name). This was for daughter. She hadn't tasted duck meat yet so I got it for her. The vendor suggested to add the egg for 50 cents. I did. I bought this meal set for less than sg$4, I think same price as the meal plate at Tian Tian.

This is the one! Compare it to above's duck rice plate. See how fresher and neater it looked. You can also notice the rice obviously of more expensive variant than the other plate above. Both came with soup.



Now we taste!  Compare to the past chicken rice I had tried ( here, here, here, here, here, and in many other eateries at Sg I had been too lazy to shoot) around Singapore, I thought Tian Tian's chicken was meaty, tender and especially fresh. The rice was definitely of quality rising above the others. I couldn't tell much about the chili cos daughter didn't get any. She took the sweet black sauce instead, which when you dip the chicken, it takes away the genuine taste of the dish. Overall, yes so far_ I would prefer Tian Tian's chicken rice than the others.

Discovery Food Court

At UStudios, SG, we were at The Lost World area  when the clock stroked near mid noon. Lunch time!



Right across the Jurassic Park with the same theme was the Discovery Food Court which offered  Singapore’s best selection of laksa, chicken rice and other local delights.

The building was exactly like the one featured in the movie Jurassic Park with the giant dino fossil.The fear of anticipation for raptors attacking you was inevitable. haha.

Good thing we went in a tad earlier ( which made a heavenly difference) before the queue became horrible.

It was our 4th day in SG and would you believe, we hadn't eaten a single plate of chicken rice yet. So at this point, we were actually already salivating for it.

I still preferred the one without skin. Loveth!

They want theirs with browned skin.

Each set meal came with a soy pudding. Not my type. I like our taho better, haha.



Gotta get out from here before a velociraptor finds me, hahaha. Yummy lunch!

Kowloon Food Express

Kowloon Food Express is located after the exit of Underwater World.in Sentosa, Singapore.  Just the right place to take a leisure meal and get refresh after the tour under the sea and get re- energize before taking another action with the pink dolphins.



Local and international cuisines are offered here. For a tourist like me, I couldn't resist another plate of chicken noodle.

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is an award-winning restaurant of Taiwanese origin, specializing in xiaolongbao (small steamed buns, marketed as "dumplings" in the West). Outside its native Taiwan. Din Tai Fung also has its restaurant chains all over the world, and ofcourse in Singapore, where Jay and I had to wait for some time, just to be able to get a table.


There's a transparent kitchen, allowing one to see more than 36 chefs at work.



And you thought I got over "chicken rice" fever hah.. no-oh.. This is one of the best chicken rice I had thu', over my short visit (but with lots of chicken rice plates).

Singapore Chicken Rice

If there's one dish in my recent Singapore trip that I had overly feasted upon it would be the chicken rice. There are many variations of Chicken Rice; Hainanese steamed white chicken, soy sauced chicken, roasted chicken, deep-fried chicken, the list goes on.








To describe it simply_ it's fillet of chicken meat on top of a cup of rice.



=> my chicken rice at the Hawkers











Not much of a rice eater, on my next chicken rice grapple, I went for the noodle option which was to replace the rice portion.


















=> my chicken rice/noodle at Sentosa


After the first day of chicken, I thrived to duck rice/noodle on the next Singapore days.

==> my duck rice/noodle at Night Safari



Chicken Rice is unofficially voted the Singapore National Dish; the other dishes up for the poll were Chilli Crab, Char Kway Teow, Laksa among others.


















The prices range from S$5 to S$15, depends on the place where you savor this favorite dish.