The Famous Happy Chef Western Food

Just an short Introduction of Happy Chef. Founded by Mr Teo and Madam Peck. They have returned from Sydney where they used to run a restaurant which was once voted Sydney's top 10 by *Sydney Morning Heralds (*An old published newspaper in Australia). The couple was there initially for their children's studies but after they have graduated, the couple have decided to come back to their motherland and continue their interests in Hainanese Western Food.

Happy Chef was featured in Mediacorp Channel 5 - Meat and Greed in 2012.

With those reviews, Mr Mint and Ms Berry went to try it out that night before they leave for their Genting Get-away. It was on a Sunday evening with huge crowds at the Coffee shop with 80% of them eating Happy Chef. Remarkable achievement for a hawker stall.

Mr Mint had this Chicken Schnitzel Cutlet. Nicely deep fried though a little oily, but the Crisp on the outside and tender inside of this chicken cutlet has compensated it. It comes with the sweet and Savory self-made  sauce to dip with. The sauce reminds me more of BBQ sauce as it more on the savory side though with a tangy of sweet lingering aftertaste. Nice combination and indeed a uniquely Hainanese western fare. Reasonably price at SGD $6.00 - Worth the try but not die die must try.

My dear Ms Berry had her usual safety food which is Chicken Chop. Undeniably the aroma of the chicken chop really fill the whole coffee shop as they were cooking it. Nicely done on the preface with slightly burnt to enhance the taste. Packed with side dishes of Potato salad and fries.

What Ms Berry Likes: 1) The potato salad uses baby potato and is nicely cut size and nicely marinated with the cream sauce 

2) The chicken meat was a little raw at certain sides perhaps due to the crowds in the evening. Rushed cooking standards over high flames but least it is well marinated and nice at most of the parts.

2) The sauce taste was a little too bland as compare to what was mentioned in the video but perhaps too strong will cover the chicken taste.

3) They uses good size fries unlike usual western hawker which use toothpick fries. But the fries were over fried which were too dried. What a waste as it will really be a restaurant standard if all were done well.

Afterall

Reasonably price at SGD $6.00 - Worth the try but not die die must try.

Address:

Happy Chef Western Food (Crawford Lane) 

Blk 466 Crawford Lane #01-12 Tai Hwa Eating House 

Tel: 6398 0773 

Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 1030pm

Afterall, we will still recommend you to go for a try as the overall plus points of this Happy Chef is indeed very interesting and nice. Perhaps we went at the wrong time. We will still revisit this place and shall review it once again when we returned. Till then, enjoy and don't flame us if you got burnt. :P

Beach Road Scissor-Cut Curry Rice

Seriously, I wonder what's so nice about this curry rice at Beach Road not until I tried it...

See? Generously spread of the curry gravy. It is thick and starchy but not too spicy. It tasted more like savory sweet spicy curry gravy. Reminds me of Mcdonald's curry sauce. *slurp* I guess the twist to it was adding the braised black sauce together with the curry gravy. 

Perhaps I could da pao the curry and dip my McNuggets into it? 

I don't usually eat cabbages with teochew porridge or economical rice because I find that cabbage has some kind of raw taste but this well-cooked cabbages blended well with the curry rice, easy to swallow too. The fried pork chop is neither too thick nor too thin to chew with it's tender meat. They really like using braised black sauce for their dishes. Even the sunny-side-up is toppled with it! 

This should satisfy people who have cravings for curry in the middle of the night.


Beach Road Scissor-Cut Curry Rice
229 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208905

Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun, 11am to 3.30am

Block 85 Fengshan Food Centre

Which Singaporean doesn't know or have not heard of "Bedok Block 85 Market"? Or some call "Fengshan Food Centre". What's famous about there is the Bak Chor Mee, BBQ Chicken Wings, Stingrays, Pork Porridge, etc. I for one, lived in the west of Singapore, had already heard of it. What's the big hoo-ha about this place? You will never know if you've not been there. And so we went to explore.

This is not my first time to Fengshan market but occasionally, we would head there for a meal. 

Nothing much has changed ever since the upgrading last year (2012), just that it is now cleaner and not so smokey.

Bak Chor Mee in soup. ($3)

You seldom see Bak Chor Mee in soup but in Bedok Block 85 food centre, they only have one type of cooking method, one type of noodle for the Bak Chor Mee that they are selling. There are actually two stalls selling the same food and their stalls are side by side. It is better to ask about the waiting time before you order as they have ridiculous queue and waiting time in the night! I actually waited for about 45 minutes for a bowl of Bak Chor Mee.

To be frank, the differences isn't that big between both stalls. 

Notice the minced meat (bak chor) in the soup? I guess that's what differs them from the common Bak Chor Mee you get from other places. The soup is rich with pork bones broth with bouncy meatballs. To top it off, I would suggest putting the cut chills into the soup to make it more flavourful. 

Fried Carrot Cake. ($3)

I can't say for more because this fried carrot cake is truly one of the best I ever had. It is not too salty and the dark soy sauce used to cook is just nice. Cubes of soft bouncy carrot cakes are well blended with the egg. The size of the carrot cake is just nice, not too big and not too small to even bite anything. You know how some places gave you like 5% of egg in the whole plate and if you request for more eggs, they go "50 cents more. You want?". The fact is that there is not ever a well-balanced of it in that plate of carrot cake! *roll eyes*

Fried Hokkien Mee. ($4)

Balanced gravy? Checked. Chilli? Checked. Most importantly, Wok-hei (Cantonese saying. It means "essence" imparted by a wok during stir-frying)? Checked.  

Bedok 85 Market (Fengshan Food Centre)
Blk 85 Bedok North Street 4
Singapore 460085

Soon Li Whitley Food Centre Porridge

There isn't much of a big hoo-haa about this place nor it is oblivious to people passing by this ordinary coffeeshop. For the past few times that I've been there, I have not try the porridge yet. Most people will go there for the famous Hoe Nam Prawn noodles or the Ngoh Hiang stall which has great cripsy prawn fritters. 

For once, I decided to try the Soon Li (Whitley Food Centre) pork porridge. I'm a sucker for porridge. :D

Pork Porridge ($3.50)

It's texture was smooth, not too thick and not too watery. The aroma of the porridge was nicely blend with lean pork meat, liver, spring onions, egg, fried onions, pepper. I thought it tasted better than the one at Clementi. And it does not taste/feel oily too! 

If you want some healthy food for supper around MacPherson area, I would recommend this pork porridge. 


Soon Li Whitley Food Centre
Address: Lao Zhong Zhong Eating House
                29 Tai Thong Crescent

Chye Seng Huat Hardware - Coffee For You?

First impression when I heard of Chye Seng Huat Hardware was that "huh? chilling out with a cup of coffee at HARDWARE shop???". Apparently, I was deceived by its name. It is indeed a place to chill out with friends, lovers, families over a cup of freshly brewed coffee. 

Located at Tyrwhitt Road, near Jalan Besar Stadium, lies an isolated white colour building which is where Chye Seng Huat Hardware is. If I'm driving pass or walking pass, I don't think I will ever notice it. 

Interior.

You could just sit around the bar top seats and enjoy watching baristas making coffee and people-watch. 

The menu.

The banana cake compliments well with the coffee.

Cakes with raisins and nuts are simply awesome combination. However, this taste ordinary and it's a bit dry for my liking.

Did I mention that I found out that my secondary school friend used to work for CSHH? She was a baker pastry chef whom came up with some of the recipes for some cakes at CSHH! So proud of her. Hahaha! 

Anyway, I would say that this is a nice place to chill out as the overall ambiance feels spaciously comfortable. I have not got the chance to try out the main dish so I can't give comments on that. The cakes were nice (example, banana cake) except for some. The highlight: Coffee. Perhaps I am not a very coffee kind of person... i don't really know how to appreciate the coffee but the aroma of coffee really smells good. 


Chye Seng Huat Hardware
150 Tyrwhitt Road
Singapore 207563

Opening Hours: 
Tue-Fri, 9am-7pm
Sat-Sun, 9am-10pm
(Kitchen closes at 5pm)

Website: http://www.cshhcoffee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChyeSengHuatHardware