Bak Kut Teh

I was happy to see a Filipino stall at Rasapura Masters @ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. I didn't realized that it was a Gerry's Grill (a popular bbq resto here in the Phils.) outlet then. I didn't notice their tiny signage. The stall was carrying Filipino Cuisine as a name. I was glad there's one to represent our own cuisine but I was in no way there to bore myself with my daily home dishes.
It was just another short visit to SG so might as well add more new dishes in my "foodictionary":))

I looked around the classy ( well, it must be. . it's in Marina Bay Sands !! haha ) food court featuring regional street foods and saw a lot of foreign sounding name dishes. Most of them I hadn't tried yet.

Bah Kut Teh was no news to me. But then I realized I haven't tried it yet at all . I only knew it by ears and never yet by tongue. I joined the progressing queue in front of the bah kuh teh stall and got myself a bowl of it for less than $10. I added a small bowl of rice cos the soup looked so bland and boring without anything to go with it.

It's actually a pork ribs soup. Authentic flavors achieved through simmering the ribs with a party of herbs. It looked so bland but actually tasted the opposite. It was so tasty it surprised me. Thu' I thought not strong enough to work well with the rice. Rice in general needs the strength of a flavorful viand to create harmonious flavors. Next time I think I would like it independent of a side dish or maybe I would try noddles with it but never rice again.



I'm definitely unsure if I was in the right place to have bak kut teh initiation, haha. First of all, it was still a food court and we all know how very commercial such place is. By "commercial" I meant we hardly get authenticity of a product. However, it was the best bak kuh teh I ever had. .it was so far the only one I had!! that's why, haha.

Golden Bay

The day after typhoon Basyang (last Wed.) classes were suspended. We met cuz' Che and Bianx at MOA. Disappointed_the whole mall had no electricity.Couldn't believe it, the biggest mall in the country failed to generate power to its commercial tenants. All shops and restos were dark and some were even closed for business. We decided to get out of the mall and find a place to eat outside.



First on the list was to find a resto with electricity. Golden Bay, being the biggest in structure among the dining places in the avenue, caught our attention and we drove right through its gate.




It's huge and hotel like with banquet halls/rooms. We knew this lunch would be a lil' costly than our usual. But the lunch was pre-justified with Che's bday treat debt to us. She had her birthday 4 days ago and hadn't taken us out yet. Actually, she was waiting for my brod Boboy who's going to celebrate his, next week. So this one was counted as initial treat prior to the one coming next week with my brother. hahaha! Am I right Che?



I always like an open kitchen especially when dining in a Chinese restaurant. It assures me of the hygiene of the place+ food. Golden Bay has one of the biggest/longest open kitchens I've seen in the country.



Its aquarium was also ample with high quality live aquatic harvest. Lobsters were huge and really attractive in the eye.




So with the complimentary tea & vinaigrette veggies, we started to hit the menu which looked like a coffee table book



Long minutes passed and we hadn't completed our order. The coffee table menu was confusing with many pages and Chinese characters.



We were not getting happy and our tummies were starting to rant.


A Filipino (there were Chinese reps.) receptionist helped us out and gave us another menu book which was more comprehensive.

On the table :

sio long bao, a siomai filled with soup inside

I made sure Che would have a taste of it. Theirs were tiny versions of sio long bao but delicious, I had it on one of my HK/China trips and they had quite a bigger version as big as the large siopao with lots of soup inside.

chicken feet

Very nice and tender. We love the sauce, not so overpowering like the others.



We also had hakaw (shrimp dumpling), pork and beef siomai. All delighted our condescending palate.

seaweed minus the century egg

One of our favorite cold dishes, sooo loveth !

white chicken & pork bbq

The girls loved the pork over the chicken . The pork was finished in a minute.

winter melon soup

Each took a sip of the soup and that was it. The bowls remained untouched til' the end of the meal.

sweet and sour pork

sweet and sour Lapu-lapu

We also had steamed prawns and some fish I couldn't recall the name.

fresh fruits dessert

There were private/family rooms for more private gatherings.

This particular room is suited a party of 12 pax. Nice one next time.



Cheers to the bday girl with a huge heart and body too !! hahaha! Luv ya cuzin!!

Wah Sun Cantonese

This post has been sitting on my drafts for weeks now. More because of my mixed feelings towards the place. The restaurant to me was exactly like that _ mixed, there was something strange about it.




I had experienced our country's China Town when I worked in a bank located inside Ongpin for a whole year but I had never been here until this day. I went out with my brother to buy his electrical merchandise in Quapo. Later we met up cousin Che for dinner. We decided not to go far and left the parked car in Quapo (traffic was difficult and parking was not friendly in this area). We took a quite huge tricycle ( roomy for us-3 adults & a kid) for P50 to Binondo. We were supposed to go to one of the restos inside Ongpin but the driver said he knew an authentic one in Florentino Street..

Wah Sun Cantonese is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in our country. It has been nestling in Florentino St., Binondo for more than 50 years now.




Strange. Two pot bellied, black Vietnamese pigs laid on the entrance of the resto. Initially, one would ask : are they for lechon roast- to- order, you know like in a chinese seafood restos where you could choose fresh seafoods from the aquarium and send to the kitchen for cooking.



Blame me not, one of the pigs , was located exactly at the bottom of this display rack with some pork dishes like ham and pork innards. Very suggestive of pig resourced recipes.

I had to ask the first person at the door, the security guard. He informed us that no ! the pigs were not for made-to-order dishes. They were for good luck as the Chinese owners belief. Haaay, we recovered our heart beat.

We entered the place and the humidity was overpowering us. A waitress suggested the third level which was airconditioned. We went up through the narrow stairs and had to pass the second floor with some staffs sleeping, t-shirts- less, on top of the not in used tables and chairs. There were even laundry clothes hanging in between. At this point, my appetite started to get into very confused stage.




We reached the third level and passed through this mini indoor zoo. The bird cages looked good in this angle but they smelled not as good.

some dirt leakages turned me off

And then, we entered a narrower passage approaching the door of the main dining room. Before the door, there were four aquariums containing more heart beats stopper animals.

Crocodile. Omg! In a glassed aquarium? I was quite not into this. .

Snake. Ah-uh !

No problem with Arowana

And the little turtles . .

Finally, few steps from these creatures we set foot to the dining room.

Picture pretty in red.

We took a table and asked for the menu.

The age of the resto was very obvious with their menu / brochure. It looked like 50+ old and like had been flipped by more than 50+ million customers. It was dirty and not customer friendly. The list was printed smallest and contained gazillion names of dishes . Brother said it was like a karaoke songs menu.


The menu was confusing to the max and not helping us with our food choices. We tried to order for some exotic dishes but the waiter replied us the same line : it's not available at this time.

I glanced at the other only one table occupied apart from us and suggested to brod and cuz' to just order the same. Quick and easy !

While waiting , we took the chance to observe around. The interior was quite interesting.

chinese ornament hanged on the wall

as well as media mentioned articles

this vintage baby chair was a catch

italian figurines added to my confusions that had been rising every minute

Dinner was served . . .





. . . sent me to the maximum level of confusion. The colors were the same, the sauce were the same ! Even tasted so similarly boring !

We ordered their specialty- pancit canton, pork innards, beef asado, and scallops with broccoli.



This plate really set me off ! ! look how the sauce was dripping in bad taste , looked like food for the pigs !

My 8 year old niece lost her appetite and settled for a glass of cold choco drink

We hardly finished each plate, even the choco drink didn't pass Bianx kiddie taste

and urgh ! Even the leche plan was odd ! It was sour and with a very distinct rum or some chinese wine taste. We didn't finish it either !

I am sorry but it was a flop for us. We left still hungry and very unsatisfied !

Exiting the same road, we glanced across the road where the wife? resto_ Ambus Mundos , serving Spanish cuisine, was located.

Also with same concept of a pair of lucky pig sleeping at the entrance.

The pig obviously did not work on us !