Kin Wah Kopi Tiam 锦华咖啡店 @ Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bharu

Kin Wah Kopi Tiam 锦华咖啡店 @ Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bharu

Few months after my first visit to Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, I revisited this full-with-Chinese-heritage street in Johor Bahru. The kopitiam--Restoran Kin Hua, located at the entrance of Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, catch people's attention with its sharp red coloured wall. This is the place which is crowded all the times, no matter for breakfast, lunch or high tea, I decided to check out the hidden "magnetic factor" which attracts the crowd. 

Kin Wah Kopitiam is a typical Chinese kopitiam, which offers good coffee tea and roti bakar. Surprisingly, the kopitiam is not only famous among Chinese, but also attracts some others ethnics' friends. Apparently, besides Chinese foods, there is also a stall in the kopitiam providing Malay mixed rice, operated by Muslim.

Kopi 咖啡 RM1.50 / Kopi - O 咖啡乌  RM1.20

I especially like the nostalgic coffee cup, full with traditional elements. Over the years, this kind of traditional Chinese breakfast still remains on the top of my list, not because I am Chinese, but the fragrance of Nanyang coffee is really irresistible good.

Nasi Rendang Chicken  仁当鸡椰浆饭  RM6

When I was in Kin Wah around 11am, I found that the Malay mixed rice stall has been set up and ready with various good and spicy food, made me drooling! The rice and dishes are contained in a bamboo basket with a layer of oil paper. I got rendang chicken, sambal long bean and curry potatoes on the top of my rice. To make it better, I prefer the rice be flooded with "kuah kari", heavenly good. The rendang chicken is very savoury, the meat itself is very tender. The potatoes are cooked till very soft yet won't be overcooked, still good in shape, good to taste and also good to see.

After the mixed rice, we also have the traditional roti bakar, this is the normal version of butter kaya, where the roti is coated with a crispy layer on the outside. I like the feel of melting the cold butter in mouth.

Toast  土司  RM1.30 per piece

This is the version butter sugar, which is less favourable to my tastebud, it is dull and monotonous to have butter only. Butter must be good friend with kaya!

I further found that the Malay stall actually offers also mee rebus and nasi lemak during tea time. Hopefully I have the chance to taste it in future!

Address : Kin Wah Kopi Tiam 锦华咖啡店

39-67 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee

Bandar Johor Bahru, 

80000 Johor Bahru, Johor

GPS : N01 27.411'  E103 45.863'

Business Hour : 7am – 6pm

Tel : 016- 748 4262

Singapore Cable Car @ Mount Faber Park, Singapore

Singapore Cable Car @ Mount Faber Road, Singapore

I have heard the name of Mount Faber in Singapore for quite some times, but I never know there are angry birds nearby! We were so excited for the new discovery. Are you ready to visit angry birds together with us?

EXPERIENCE 5 ATTRACTIONS IN A SINGLE RIDE!

An iconic attraction in itself, the Singapore Cable Car presents bird's eye view of Singapore's city skyline, the harbour, and Sentosa. Photo opportunities are abundant with the cabin’s 360° panoramic windows - making it the best ride with the best view to Sentosa. The new cabins have also been enhanced to offer guests a World-leading experience in terms of comfort, design and technology.

Double the pleasure as our ticket gains us admission into Sentosa, as well as Asia’s First Cable Car Museum. Alight at Mount Faber Station, to visit Mount Faber Park, one of the oldest hilltop parks in Singapore and a popular tourist destination. Take a stroll through this haven of greenery and drop by The Jewel Box, fondly known as Singapore’s Iconic Hilltop Destination, a scenic place to have a meal, or a few drinks to end the day on a high note!

 Beside that, I get my change to rice on the World's First Angry Birds Cable Car. 

 Singapore Cable Car cabins features the following:

• 8 - seater
• Stylish metallic black and chrome design
• Large panoramic windows
• Flip-up seats
• Level walk-in concept for easy access for wheelchairs and baby prams
• Interior and exterior ambient lights
• Removable table with cup-holder for Sky-Dining™

Address : Singapore Cable Car

109 Mount Faber Road

Singapore 099203

Website : http://www.singaporecablecar.com.sg/

Tel : +65 6377 9688

Operating Time : Mon - Sun 08:45 - 22:00

Price range : $10 - $30

Soup Restaurant 三盅两件 @ Paragon, Orchard Road

Soup Restaurant 三盅两件 @ Paragon, Orchard Road

"Soup Restaurant" operates a chain of restaurant outlets under the name of "Soup Restaurant" and "Dian Xiao Er" in Singapore. Most of their dishes originate from family recipes and are distinctive and traditional. "Soup Restaurant" aims to offer to their customers delectable cuisines that are prepared in home-cooked style. Besides, Soup Restaurant, as its name says, is specializing in Herbal Soups, provides an opportunity to young professionals, who have limited access to home-cooked food and nutritious double-boiled soup. 

After the Hainanese feast as our lunch, Soup Restaurant is our next destination for dinner. The place is well decorated with antique vases and traditional wooden furniture, build up a very good atmosphere for family dinner. 

清蒸生鱼片  Steamed Fish

Our first dish is my favourite steamed fish. Freshly cut fish slice lightly steamed and topped with special sauce, is a very typical Chinatown family dish.

Venison with Ginger and Scallion  姜葱鹿肉

Singapore left me an impression that game animal like venison would not be served on the dining table, yet the appearance of venison on the menu definitely surprises me. It is simply made with ginger and scallion, but successfully remove the gamey taste of the venison, not too bad!

Poached Baby Spinach with Conpoy in century & salted egg stock
瑶柱金银蛋苋菜苗  $12.90

This is one of the newbies being introduced in the menu. Perhaps just to reflects the element of "home-cooked", no much decoration has been done on the dish and presentation is not the emphasis. It looks so simple yet involves various ingredients to make the spinach outstanding, the spinach is accompanied by some taste from the sea by adding in conpoy. The stock beneath is made from century and salted egg, flavourful indeed.

Claypot Taufu  砂煲豆腐

"Samsui Ginger Chicken" 三水鸡

Samsui Ginger Chicken is the signature dish in Soup Restaurant. The whole chicken is cooked for a predetermined duration and temperature, thus maintaining its rich chicken aroma and taste. The art of consuming "Samsui Ginger Chicken" is by dipping the chicken into the ginger sauce and wrapping them with fresh lettuce. The ginger sauce is a fragrant and tasty compliment to the chicken. Traditionally, ginger has been used for prevention of "cold" and relief of the "wind" in the body.

Steamed Hand chopped Minced Pork with Salted Egg  咸蛋肉饼

Painstakingly "hand chopped" and they were only able to prepare 30 servings a day. I like they make it in the traditional way. Credited to the hand-chopped, the biting texture of the meat remains. Anyway, this dish is not only popular among Singaporean, but also in Malaysia, I can always wallop a whole bowl of white rice just with this simple yet super appetizing dish.

Fried Shrimp with Chef-made Salad   沙律虾

Soup Restaurant alleges that only fresh prawns are used, The prawns are coated with a thin layer of flour and egg, which makes it looks golden brown in colour. The crispiness makes me can't help myself to get for more, the chef-made salad stimulate the appetite too.

Wok Fried Sweet Potato Leave  炒番薯叶

Potato leave used to be one of my favourite vegetable, because of its soft and smooth texture. Sweet Potato Leave won't taste nice without sambal belacan, the familiar cooking style is adopted here in Soup Restaurant too. 

A family photo of all the good dishes from Soup Restaurant. Anyway, having a round table dining in Singapore is not cheap, this meal costed a bomb but once in a while gather for a family dinner in the foreign country, the expense is unavoidable. At the similar price, we can actually have better dishes in Malaysia, perhaps I know by now why Singaporean comes in JB for meals during weekends.

Address : Soup Restaurant 三盅两件

290, Orchard Road #B1-07

Paragon Singapore 238859

Tel: 6333 6228

Bussiness Hour : Mon - Sun: 11.30 am – 10 pm

Website : http://www.souprestaurant.com.sg

Hainanese Delicacy Chicken Rice 海南美味佳肴 @ Far East Plaza, Scott Road

Hainanese Delicacy Chicken Rice @ Far East Plaza

My family visited me in Singapore during the festive season of Christmas and New Year, so this post and the following posts will be the FUNS and FOODS in Singapore. So are you ready to turn the small island over together with me? One of the tourism spot is Orchard Road, the paradise of shopping in Singapore. Orchard Road is one of the must-visit-place during festive season, the street decoration always amazing especially at night. After a short window shopping, we went to look for some local and typical delicacy.

Singapore is always famous with its Hainanese Chicken Rice. Remember the "food fight" between Singaporean and Malaysian? Hainanese chicken rice happens to be one of the subject of the food ownership debate. Anyhow, is my humble opinion that such argument is not so constructive, even Singapore and Malaysia are both famous with Hainanese chicken rice, the tastes are definitely different in certain aspects to suit the local taste bud. I am familiar with Malaysian chicken rice, so I am going to check the Singaporean chicken rice out this time!

Found a restaurant that offers Hainanese delicacy in Far East Plaza, I am not too sure if they offer any other Hainanese delicacies besides chicken rice, but this visit is surely to hunt for their chicken rice. Distinguished from the chicken rice shop in Malaysia that not only offers chicken, but also char siew, roasted pork and etc, chicken rice shop in Singapore is quite loyal and specific to chicken rice only. There are two types of chicken, the steamed chicken and the roasted chicken. 

FYI, the chicken rice in Singapore is normally served with de-boned chicken, for the eater's convenience. So we can maintain our image while eating the chicken, without fighting the fork and spoon just to get rid of the bone. Lol. 

A set of chicken rice  SGD 5

The time control always plays a very essential role in determining the good of steamed chicken, the one we had is not too bad. Even though steamed chicken taste lighter, but the meat is silky smooth and juicy! Season it with a little bit of light soy sauce will be sufficient to make it taste heavenly good.

The roasted version comes with its inviting golden brown outer layer. The skin of roasted chicken is always something I won't miss out, the best part of roasted chicken. Please don't tell me it is fattening (*deaf*). It taste more flavourful as it was marinated with spices before roasted. If you are not looking for the natural taste of chicken, the roasted chicken rice would be a better option. 

The rice itself is very important too, cooked with pandan leaves,ginger and lemongrass, make it super fragrant.

Overall, their chicken rice is not too bad and deserve its position as one of the best food in Singapore. As compared to other delicacies e.g Bak Kut Teh, the taste of chicken rice in Singapore is quite close to our taste, so if you are not so adventurous during your tour in Singapore, chicken rice will always be the secured choice.

Address : Hainanese Delicacy 海南美味佳肴

Hainanese Specialist Boneless Chicken Rice

14, Scotts Road , Far East Plaza #05-116

Tel: 6734 0639

Bussiness Hour :  Mondays - Wednesdays  12 noon to 8pm

Thursdays  11am to 2pm; and 7pm to 9pm

Fridays 11am to 8pm

Monsta Cafe @ Taman Nusa Bestari, Skudai, Johor

Monsta Cafe @  Taman Nusa Bestari, Skudai, Johor

We were looking for a dinner place, after a short walk in Mutiara Rini Park nearby. I have been Johor for months, yet I didn't see any boutique cafe or themed cafe like Garden or Full House here, possibly lack of market demand, it is our perception that boutique cafe is only nice to look, but not necessary nice to eat! Monsta Cafe is going to prove me wrong! Monsta Cafe is established in the new hot spot in Johor Bahru--Bukit Indah, a place surrounded by a lot of Iskandar development. So if you ever pay a visit to Legoland or Hello Kitty City, this will be a good place for a good meal.

Monsta Cafe located at the roadside and occupies a corner lot, a strategic location where you could easily attracted by its cartoonish billboard. Anyway, how scary can a pinkish monster be? It is rather cute I would say. The red antique racing car reminds me of Full House, do you have the same feel too? The view and the out look will be better without the obstruction of coconut tree and the bonsai. :p  

The cafe is demarcated into two, the front part is main for their specialized coffee and bakery, which infused with British concept of casualty. You can either pick up a tall seats infront of the bar, to witness the process of making your cup of coffee, or choose a seat next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, spend an enjoyable afternoon with a cup of good coffee and a nice book. 

The second part of the cafe is for dining, the interior design is very welcome and inviting with its colourful and  delighting furnitures and wall tiles. The cafe provides different types of dining tables, vary from wooden-made tables-chair to cushion sofa seats and coffee table, so you can have a walk and look around for a table that suits you the best. However, the cafe located at a business and commercial area, the only view you can get through from the windows are still commercial shoplots and vehicles, I bet this would be the only flaw.

Dark Chocolate Mocha 黑巧克力摩卡 RM8.50

Since the coffee lovers are more demanding now, the emphasis on the coffee is no longer about the taste, but also its presentation and arts.There are various types of patterns you can choose from the menu to make your coffee more interesting. As Christmas is approaching, a cute snowman was displayed on the top of our coffee. A little star cookies placed at the side of the coffee matches well with the coffee, love it!

Mocha Frappe 摩卡冰沙  RM9.90

Not to forget a icey mocha frappe during the hot evening. The mocha is topped with sinful cold whipping cream, with its smooth texture, it tastes more like ice cream which melts in mouth immediately. If you realize, I really like mocha very much, it tastes rather sweet with some chocolate to neutral the bitterness of coffee, yet it still smells good.

Chicken Baked Rice 鸡肉焗饭 RM12.90

The rice was first stir-fried with egg until fragrant, topped with marinated chicken and generous portion of cheese before baking. The portion was not very big, but is very filling. Be cautious when you put into mouth to avoid being scalded, the cheese on top locks the temperature inside, so it's extremely hot.

The chicken was marinated well till very flavourful, the baking time was just right, retain the tenderness of the chicken. The excellent also credited to the melting and wet cheese on top, as we know, a pizza wouldn't taste good with dried and cold cheese, the same theory of cheesy pizza applies here.

Good food always looks sinful >.< and I started to look for excuse and mumble to myself: I only had it once in a while, it won't cause too much cholesterol, right? :p

Balsamic BBQ Chicken 黑醋烧烤鸡扒 RM15.90

The lovely presentation lights up my day, I am so surprise that a normal cafe can come up with a Michelin fine dining style of presentation. I would consider to have my valentine here too? 

Distinguished from the normal chicken chop I had, the thickness of this chicken chop is rather more, make the biting texture better. The out layer of the chicken is grilled until fine and little bit crispy, while juicy and tender on the inside. The balsamic was used to enhance the chicken, gives some sourness to the chicken, make it taste refreshing and less oily.

The long canteen table is placed in the middle of the cafe, I am quite impressed with the daring and adventurous design and play with the colour contrast, I bet no much people will appreciate the long table? But if I go with a bunch of friends, I perhaps will prefer this long table for a chit chat.

Our high tea cum dinner ends with a glance to the owner's antique sport car! By the way, despite the cafe is given the name of "monsta", there is no monster, or even a doll of monster inside, I should raise my doubt to their waiter during next visit!

Address : Monsta Cafe

157, Jalan Bestari 1/5,

Taman Nusa Bestari 

81300 Skudai, Johor

GPS : N01 29.531'  E103 39.545'

Bussiness Hour : 11am - 1am

FB : Monsta Cafe