Nanjing Impressions Guangzhou China

Nanjing Impressions, or 南京大排档 in Chinese, is located in a modern shopping mall in Guangzhou's busy and up-class Tiyu Xi Lu (体育西路), the country's most busy metro interchange.  The mall is ultra modern, but once you step into Nanjing Impressions, it feels like you have been transported back in time to the era of end of Qing Dynasty, and the beginning of Republic of China. 

The interior design is of the Qin-huai (秦淮) style, after Nanjing's famous Qin-huai River, a go-to place for night entertainment in the early 1900s.  Records of Qin-opera, a form of opera popular in Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, is being played as the background music. 

Braised Duck, CNY29.00

Nanjing is famous for its Xiaochi, small bites.  The concept is like the Spanish tapas, snacks for you to have wide selections of food to enhance your taste buds but not too heavy for the stomach, and perfect as companions for the rice wine. 

The first one that came was braised duck.  It is a cold dish.  The duck drumstick is first braised till tender, then chilled to retain all that collagen.  It is actually crunchy, with a hint of Huadiao, a popular Chinese rice wine. 

Lion's Head, CNY 28.00

 Next was stewed Lion's Head.  Lion's Head?  Are you sure?  Don't worry, it is not the real Lion, nor its head.  Lion's Head is just a name for the dish.  It is actually stewed meat ball, a really big meat ball.  The chef mixes minced pork, fresh mushroom and some other ingredients together and makes it into a giant meat ball.  Then this meat ball is slowly stewed to cooked.  The meat is very tender.  It breaks into small pieces easily in your mouth.  It is a dish that is very suitable for people who have problems with their teeth, and senior citizens. 

家传云斗煮干丝, CNY28.00

The next dish is a bit hard to translate the name into English, but it is their signature dish.  Looking at the picture, you might think that it is vermicelli or noodles in that pot of soup.  No, you are wrong.  It is actually tofu skin sliced into small slices to make it look like vermicelli.  And then it is served with a very thick stock.  The tofu skin is excellent, I must say.  Unlike noodle's softness, or vermicelli's smoothness, the tofu skin offers its unique texture.  It is crunchy, yet the texture is more rough.  It gives sparks upon your tongue.  However, I didn't like the stock, way too salty for my liking. 

We ordered some other dishes, but I am not able to cover them all here.  Overall, it was a very pleasant experience.  Good food, accompanied by that feel of transporting back in time. 

Don't get upset if you think Nanjing Impressions is only available in China, it actually has a branch right in the busy Orchard Road in Singapore.  I have not given it a try yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

Grillmarket Reykjavik Iceland

Grillmarkadurinn, which means Grillmarket in English, is a restaurant located in the center of Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik.  It doesn't have a street front, but behind another restaurant, so you have to walk behind the other restaurant to get to Grillmarket. 

We were there at 5.30pm, when the restaurant just opened for dinner service, as we didn't make a reservation before hand.  The place was quite empty at that time.  The atmosphere of the place was very cosy.  Warm lights dominate the place, very comforting in a cold winter evening. 

As a norm, bread and cheese were served as the 'capitol'.  The cheese was definitely worth mentioning.  They served 3 types of cheese:  cheese with sea salt, cheese with yogurt, and cheese with Iceland's iconic lava salt.  This experience was really unique for me.  First time having cheese with yogurt, which offered a layered sensation to the taste buds.  The black lava salt was less salty than your normal salt.  The waitress was kind to explain to us the difference between the different types of cheese. 

Whale Meat Steak, ~USD69.00

The 'exotic' dish we ordered to share was the whale meat steak.  It looked very much like your normal beef steak, but the texture was quite different.  It was very tender, and the texture was fine and smooth, a quality that beef steaks don't possess.  The cuisine here was a bit of fusion, providing soy sauce and wasabi as condiments.  Personally, I prefer to eat it as is, without any additional foreign taste to the very fine flavor of the whale.  It is a must-try if you visit this restaurant. 

Lamb Fillet, ~USD60.00

Main course was lamb fillet.  Lamb cooked to medium well, and served together with some preserved vegetables.  The fillet was a bit on the tough side for me, and the preserved vegetable was a bit too salty.  Maybe it was due to the local taste and weather. 

The staff there were very friendly and service was prompt.  Overall experience was excellent.  Price-wise it was a bit on the high side, but hey, it is Iceland.

Pura Brasa at Tanjong Pagar Center

Pura Brasa is a new restaurant in the new Tanjong Pagar Center.  New in the sense that it is there for only about a year or so.  The interior is cosy, with all the warm lights around, it is very suitable for a couple of friends to sit down, chit chat over some Spanish food and a pint of beer.

I was there on a Saturday night, about 6pm.  The place was still quite empty, but after around 7.30pm, the place was almost full.  Groups of friends and some big families came here for their weekend gatherings.

Estreella Beer, 1-for-1 at $15.00++

They had this Estrella beer promotion, if you order a pint, you get another pint free.  It was perfect for friends gathering.   The beer was light, and smooth.  Even under Singapore's hot weather, it didn't turn bitter.  Thumbs up for the beer!

Charcoal Rice Paella, $36.00++

We ordered the charcoal rice paella to share for the two of us.  I asked the waitress about the portion, she assured me that portion was meant for two to share.  When the paella came, the portion was really small.  It looked quite a lot from the picture, but the rice was just a thin layer.  Probably the waitress meant was for two small eaters to share, not two pigs like us....haha....

In terms of ingredients, there were 3 prawns, 3 mussels, and some peas, tomatoes slices, etc.  The rice was cooked to the Spanish standard, which means it was wet, but the core of the rice grain was still hard.  I was sure I didn't have a blocked nose that day, but the rice didn't have any seafood smell.  It probably was a good thing.  And it was not salty!  But somehow this paella tasted very plain, but lacked the punch it should have.

If you are going to order many other dishes, then you can just order 1 paella to share for two; otherwise, better get one for one person only, especially for guys.

Grilled Iberico Secreto, $35.00++

On recommendation from some local food blog, we also ordered the grilled Iberico secreto.  The meat is from the armpit area of the pig so it is supposed to be very good.  Indeed, the meat was pretty tender, with lots of juice (fat).  The fragrance of the fat makes this dish almost irresistible.  However, they probably used sea salt as the seasoning for the meat, so it was on the salty side of the taste scale.

Overall, I think the food is decent, but tend to lack of some wow factor.  The beer is good, if I go there again, I will go there for the beer.

By the way, this restaurant is from a Spanish restaurant chain that seems like to be quite well-known.

Best Hotdog in Town Reykjavik Iceland

Hot dog to me is very much part of American culture, so I heard that the best hot dog in the world is from Iceland, I must give it a try.  The hot dog stand is called Baejarins Beztu Pylsur in Icelandic language, which means "Best Hot Dog in Town" in English.

The place is not so easy to find, hidden in the labyrinth of buildings near the harbour area of Reykjavik.  The stand is really small, as you can see from the photo above.  It is just a tiny stall, and some benches and stand-up tables around the stand for people to enjoy the hot dog. 

When we got there, there was a small queue of customers queuing for the food.  And a group of tourists probably on a gourmet tour just arrived and elongated the queue almost immediately. 

We got our hot dog in about 10 minutes, and voila, here it is.  A piece of sausage sandwiched in a piece of bread, covered by 3 types of condiments of ketchup, mustard sauce and remoulade.  Underneath the sausage, there are some chopped onions to provide some sense of spiciness.  Having plenty of sheep in the country, the sausage used is made from lamb, instead of the normal stuff.  It is less salty, more flavors. 

Overall the hot dog is nice to eat, especially in a cold cold place like winter Reykjavik.  However, it is just a hot dog, may be it has some variations and special flavors, but it is still just a hot dog.  I am neither a hot dog expert nor a fan, so I can't really proclaim it is the best, I can only say it is edible food, good for a hungry stomach for sure.  

The Lazy Garden at City Square Mall

The Lazy Garden is a new comer at the City Square Mall dining scene.  Currently it offers a main course 1-for-1 promotion.  You need to order 2 drinks to enjoy this promotion.  There is a 1-for-1 for their dim sum too, but it is only limited to weekdays 2.30pm to 5.30pm.

Hot Chrysanthemum Tea, $3.50+

We ordered two hot chrysanthemum tea to enjoy the 1-for-1 main course promotion.  The tea came with the real dry chrysanthemum, not just some artificial flavoring, it was a surprise to me.  Although the tea was from the tea bag, the real chrysanthemum was a plus point.

Prawn Rice Roll, $4.90+

Crystal Vegetarian Pau, $3.90+

We ordered some dim sum as appetizer as well, although we didn't enjoy the 1-for-1 promotion.  The Crystal vegetarian pau was not bad.  The filling was mostly carrots and radish slices.  It wasn't greasy, and had a pleasant vegetable taste.

The prawn rice roll, or chee cheong fun, was ok, but the portion seemed to be quite small.  The prawns they used most probably were those deep frozen prawns so it wasn't the most fresh you could find.

Unagi Claypot Rice, $18.90+

Unagi claypot rice was our main order.  My friend and I both ordered this as our main, so for this dish, we kind of enjoyed a 50% discount.  The dish was simple, a piece of unagi on top of plain rice.  The unagi piece was thin, and of course can't compared with those from Man Man or Uya.  The whole dish was all right, but tended to be rather plain.

The service was ok, and the dinning environment was cosy, felt a bit like in Malaysia though.

Just in case you were not aware, actually they offer western cuisine such as pasta, steaks, etc.  It is quite a fusion restaurant, not just Chinese.  I didn't try their western dishes, so I can't comment on them.

Dong Po Colonial Cafe

Everything seemed so unreal to me.  I was at Kandahar Street, near Sultan Mosque, the heart of Singapore's Arab and Malay culture, then there was this 'colonial' cafe, isn't cafe part of the western culture?  And the cafe is named after a famous Chinese poet back in the Song Dynasty, Su Dong Po (苏东坡).  So many different culture elements mixed together and reminded me Singapore is such a melting pot of different cultures.

The interior of the cafe is like a living museum.  Advertisement posters from 1930s and 1940s are displayed on the walls.  The tables are doubled as display tables.  Below the glass table-top, items from yester-yester years are on display.

The items are really too old even for my generation.  You have to live in the period before 1970s to have a nostalgic feelings, while for me, it was more like a visit to the museum, as many items are seen first time for me.

A museum it may be, it is still a business.  They have quite a selection of cakes on offer to go with their typical South-East Asia milk tea and coffee.   Some set menus are available too.

We ordered their set, two cakes with a choice of coffee or tea.  Both the butterfly cupcake and the aloe vera cream cake were good.  Not too sweet, perfect companions to the coffee/tea.  And they were very smooth.

When we were there, both locals and tourists streamed in to patronize the cafe.  The place is not very big and with limited seating capacity, so most people just finish and go.

Unagiya Ichinoji at Suntec

Unagiya Ichinoji is said to be a 125-year old restaurant started in Tokyo, with a specialty in grilled eel.  Singaporeans are so lucky that this century-old restaurant started two branches here in Singapore, one in Robertson Quay, while the other at Suntec.

We arrived at the Suntec branch on a Sunday at 11.50am, with our reservation at 12.00pm.  We were repeatedly asked whether we had a reservation and what name the reservation was under, and we were asked thrice for the same question.  Anyway, let's go straight to the food first.

Hitsumabushi (Medium), $32.80++

This restaurant is famous for Hitsumabushi, or eat grilled eel in three ways.  Of course, we ordered the medium Hitsumabushi each.  They let you choose what kind of rice you would like, white rice or mixed-grain rice.  And for the month of October, they have the 2nd Hitsumabushi set at 50% discount promotion.  Somehow, I found out from the internet that this discount seems to be always there.

Their eel was quite meaty, and tender.  As you can see here, it was only slightly charred at the outside.  As this restaurant originated from Tokyo, their eel is more on the tender side, while the Nagoya style of grilled eel is more on the crispy side, with a coated layer of caramel.  Personally I like the Tokyo style more, so the eel here suited me.  However, I found an unpleasant fish taste lingering in my mouth hours after my meal, but I didn't have that experience with the eels from Man Man Unagi or Uya Unagi.  Anyway, the food was quite ok.

Service-wise, I think it definitely is not up to the Japanese standard.  After we arrived, first we were greeted by a female staff, then she asked a skin-head male staff to lead us to our table.  As it was pretty early and many tables were empty, I asked whether we could sit by the window.  The answer was firm no, reason being those tables were reserved for 4-person parties.  I am fine with this if it is true.  As it turned out, it was not.  Many of those tables were later on occupied by 2 persons, not even 3,let alone 4!

After we sat down at our table, we were given an iPad to place our orders, and so I did without any suspicion.  When I wanted to view my bill, an error message popped up.  Surprised, I asked a female staff for help.  What she told me really pissed me off.  She told me that there was a mix-up of table numbers.  Our table and another table shared the same table number, and the other table already placed an order, and our order were added to theirs!  And they knew this mix-up all the time, but they didn't fix it before we placed our order!

When our food was served, the skin-head male staff didn't even bother to ask which order belongs to who, just left the tray and the food on our table, lucky my friend and I were not picky about food, and fine with either white rice or mixed-grain rice.  Then throughout the whole dining experience, only one staff came to refill the tea once.  Nothing else.

Overall, I think the food is ok, but compare with Man Man Unagi and Uya, this restaurant ranks the lowest.

You can see my reviews of Man Man and Uya at the links below:

1. Man Man Unagi
2. Uya Unagi

Din Tai Fung at City Square Mall

Din Tai Fung is a Michelin-star restaurant, and it was rated by New York Times as the world's top 10 restaurants.  Well, it is a bit strange for me that a Chinese restaurant is being rated by a Caucasian newspaper in the US.  Din Tai Fung is originally from Taiwan, and its original restaurant in Taiwan still offers excellent quality of food.  To Singaporeans, we are lucky that we have our BreadTalk group, and it was BreadTalk that brought the good food of Din Tai Fung to Singapore back in 2003.  There are many branches of Din Tai Fung in Singapore, but all of them seem to have long queues in the evening, especially on Fridays and weekends.  We were at Din Tai Fung City Square Mall on early Friday night, and the place was almost full.

Pork Belly with Garlic (蒜泥白肉), $8.30++

We ordered our favorite pork-belly with garlic as one of the appetizers.  We ordered this dish at Xing Hua Lou too.  Here at Din Tai Fung, individual piece of pork-belly wraps around a piece of cucumber, so for every bite, you can enjoy the rich texture of the pork belly, and the freshness of the cucumber, making the fat less greasy.

Duck Roll (葱香鸭卷), $8.00++

Another appetizer we ordered was the duck roll.  It was a deep-fried dish, and I found it to be too oily for my taste.

Xiao Long Bao, $10.30++

Din Tai Fung is famous for their Xiao Long Bao, so we ordered it too.  The skin was thin but tough enough to hold the filling and the soup inside.  Personally I find their Xiao Long Bao in Singapore is not as nice as that in Taiwan.  I suspect the reason is in the ingredients.  In Taiwan, they can have fresh pork, while in Singapore, we can only have chilled pork.  In addition, the pigs in Taiwan are actually of a better species than the ones we have here in Singapore, resulting in the texture of the pork is different, and the Taiwanese pork is more sweet and fragrant.  If you want to have a taste of their best quality Xiao Long Bao, you still have to go to Taiwan.

Fried Rice with Egg, $8.00++

I had fried rice with egg as my main.  It was the first time I ordered a fried rice here in Din Tai Fung and didn't expect much.  However, it surprised me.  Somehow they made it fragrant, and the texture of the rice was very pleasant to chew.  It was not dry, neither watery, just nice.  I will give them a thumbs up for this simple-looking dish.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.  The service was prompt, and the environment was conducive for a relaxing meal after work.

Maria Virgin Chicken at Chinatown Complex Food Center

Maria Virgin Chicken, a famous stall hidden in the Chinatown Complex Food Center.  I decided to give them a try finally, because they came into news again recently.  The lady boss, who is already in his 70s, and would like to retire, now want to sell her secret recipe for her famed soy sauce chicken for $480,000.  Previously she asked for $680,000 but no takers, now she lowers the price hoping for a buyer.

When I arrived, it was still quite early for lunch, and it was a Sunday, a rainy Sunday, so there was no queue yet at the stall.  I ordered a $4.00 soy sauce chicken.

The chicken came with some leafy vegetables and bean sprouts, both covered in a thin layer of oil.  The part of chicken I got was chicken breast.  Oh my, that's the part of the chicken that I think is the most dry and tasteless.  However, this stall's version was actually not bad.  The chicken breast still managed to be tender and even with some juice.  It was pleasant to eat, and you could even have some hint of the freshness of the chicken.

I was happy that I could try this dish before the lady boss retires, and I wish her good health and wealth!

Momo Corner in Thimphu Bhutan

At one un-noticeable corner outside the weekend Farmers' Market in Thimphu, Kingdom of Bhutan, there is this shop called Momo Corner, selling Momo, the native name for Chinese-style dumplings.  Linguists suspect the name is derived from the Chinese name Mo, which actually refers to another kind of food.  Anyway, this is my only venture outside of the tourist establishments for my 7-day Bhutan trip, and truly mixed with the locals.

My guide helped me order a plate of beef momo.  Well, the momo looks just like our Chinese dumpling.  There are many variations to it, but the one I had had very thin skin, a bit similar to our wanton skin.  The fillings were mostly beef, plus some small amount of other ingredients.  The taste was good.  The locals like to eat the momo with some chili sauce too.  I didn't know Bhutanese like chili just as much as Singaporeans. 

I visited the place at around 3.30pm, the place was not crowded and I could easily find a place to sit down in the small shop house.  My guide told me that this place is quite famous among the locals, and once their King came, and the place was so crowded that even the King could only eat the momo standing. 

If you have the opportunity to visit Bhutan, pay them a visit.  It will be a nice experience. 

Xing Hua Lou at Heartland Mall Kovan

Xing Hua Lou is a newly opened restaurant at the humble Heartland Mall at Kovan.  When I dined there on 18 Sep 2018, their credit card POS machine had not even arrived, only cash and NETs payment were available.  The cashier told me that the credit card POS machine would only come the next day.

The interior design is simple but elegant.  The size of the restaurant is quite small, mostly 2 or 4-person tables, with a few big round tables for bigger parties.

Pork Belly with Garlic, $9.90+

We ordered pork belly with garlic as out appetizer.  The way they make this dish is different from others.  You can hardly see any garlic in the plate, but when you pick up a slice of the pork belly, the taste of garlic is obviously there.  I suspect they soak the cooked pork belly into a garlic sauce.  The overall taste of this dish is good, especially if you wrap the pork belly around a slice of cucumber.  Cucumber is fresh and light in taste, matched with the stronger flavored pork belly, in particular the fat portion, it is a pleasant combination.

Spinach in Supreme Soup (Small), $10.90+

The spinach in supreme soup is good too.  The best part of course is the supreme soup.  It is rich in flavor, and importantly, fresh.

Fried Xing Hua Vermicelli (Medium), $16.90+ 

While at Xing Hua Lou, you just can't not to order fried Xing Hua vermicelli.  Xing Hua (兴化) is a small place in the city of Pu Tian in Fujian Province, China.  Their vermicelli is famous for being the thinnest vermicelli, and it is naturally sun-dried, compared with machine-dried.  Once you mention Xing Hua, people naturally will think of Xing Hua vermicelli.

The vermicelli here is fried with a lot of ingredients, including prawns, vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, etc.  The medium portion is actually quite big, even for two guys.  If you order some other dishes, you may consider ordering just a small portion.  The taste is not bad.

Chinese Cabbage with Tofu and Lala Soup, $16.90+

Last but not least, we also ordered a pot of Chinese cabbage with tofu and lala (cockles) soup.  A big pot of milky soup arrived at our table, and the smell spread all around.  I, in general, don't like to have lala, or anything to do with lala, as it might not be fresh, and prone to cause diarrhea or food poisoning.  Luckily, the lalas in this restaurant are mostly fresh.  The soup is super tasty, with the sweetness of the lala, and the Chinese cabbage.

Overall, it is a satisfying meal at a reasonable price. In total we paid $64 for the two of us, with very full stomach.