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.