Tarik Upih Game

‘Upih’ here is the opeh leaf which we are using for our hokkien mee and hor fun but it is also used by Malaysians(in kampongs) to play a simple game where a team which consists of a person seating on the leaf-sheath and another person pulling the leaf, races with others to the finishing line. Anyway, it just amazes me what people can do in the past with things they found in the nature.

Ok if you’re wondering, that definitely has no connection to why we find food being served on opeh leaf tastes better. Opeh leaf in it’s original form is actually quite hard so it needs to be processed using chemicals to soften it and as well as removing all unwanted foreign particles that have been fused to the leaf-sheath.

Ah Wok(owned by BreadTalk group) is a mini restaurant at Food Opera(ION Orchard) selling cze char food like Fried Bee Hoon, Chilli Crab and many other foods that you can find at a cze char stall. Apparently, they have several ‘DIE DIE MUST TRY‘ signature dishes like Assam Fish head, Chilli Crab, some other ‘home-made’ items and Opeh Leaf Hor Fun.

Ah Wok Opeh Leaf Hor Fun $9

At $9, this can easily be considered to be quite steep with bare minimum ingredients such as 2 pieces of prawn, 2 pieces of sliced fish, some squid pieces and some straw mushrooms. But if you think about having this in a food court, or an air conditioned place for that matter, where a bowl of Laksa can cost you up to $5 already, then $9 is reasonable.

The wok hei flavour is very strong here. As a matter of fact, 6 hours after eating it, I was still burping the wok hei flavour. Clearly the fire was ‘right’ under the wok and it is definitely on par with Fei Lao’s version.

The gravy was not bad though it could be better if it can be that bit wetter. A splash of red wine was added to enhance the flavour but it was visible at the bottom of the hor fun(certain part of the gravy is red color) so it really looked like they poured a bit of the wine on the opeh leaf before letting the hor fun sit on it. It would probably be more interesting if they had added the red wine to the gravy in the wok like how Chinese wines are used normally.

Eating this hor fun gives me the feeling that it is a ‘restaurant hor fun’ in disguise of an opeh leaf version. Well one may argue that since it is served on opeh leaf then it should be classified as an opeh leaf version but somehow the ‘limited’ gravy and the ingredients(no sea cucumber) used just didn’t quite hit the right note for me. I guess the only thing outstanding in this Opeh Leaf Hor Fun is really only the wok hei flavour. A bit of tweaking may produce a very outstanding plate but I guess it didn’t fare too badly too considering paying only $9 in the heart of Orchard Road.

Hor Fun with ‘Wok Hei’

Price: $9 (+60 cents for GST)

Conclusion: Cheap taking into account the location and ambience but ingredients and gravy can do better. On par with Fei Lao for wokheiness but the red wine added didn’t do any wonders. Not enough for 2 mouths but will do okay as a ’side staple’ to a cze char meal. Will buy this again if I’m nearby and need a wok hei fix. Don’t seems to justify travelling time/cost + ERP + parking charges otherwise.

Likes: Wok hei is good. Belacan served. Cheap in an aircon place.

Dislikes: Ingredients were meager. Wetness no enough.

Address		Overall Rating
Ah Wok Restaurant 2 Orchard Turn #B4-03/04 ION Orchard Food Opera Monday – Thursday: 8am to 10pm Friday, Saturday, Eve of Public Holiday: 8am to 11pm Sunday: 10am to 10pm		Ingredients: 6.5/10   Gravy: 7/10   Wok Hei: 9/10   Authenticity: 8.5/10   Value: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Yet really and truly, business is all about making money. If you’re the boss of a business and an opportunity crops up where you can grow your earnings exponentially, wouldn’t you say YES? And the thing is that it is a real challenge to expand any food business and maintaining the ’same standard’ at the same time. Yet at times, in food business it is not even essential to maintain the same quality while you grow your business. Growth of any food business can seriously thrives on craze alone. The key is to strike hard and long before the novelty wears off and when the dust finally settles, you have a system that runs on auto pilot and makes you money, nevermind the quality of the food by then. We all know the story of Singapore’s KFC, enough said.

Sometime ago Astons came onto the Western Food’s market and created a storm. They did something that nobody else have ever done. Delivering quality food at extremely affordable price. It excited a lot of Western Food lovers and they were doing a lot of things right.

Astons has long won over the hearts of many Singaporeans as far good quality’s western food is concerned. From a single successful store, they expanded aggressively to take full advantage of the situation and their action is something that can be considered as capitalising on the ‘Bandwagon Effect’. Now I’ve eaten at many Astons Express and I must mention that I was very very very impressed at the beginning. My first Astons meal was simply overwhelming. It was very delicious and there were serious value for some food that cost you as cheap as $5.90. But of late, the script that we’re all very familiar with in regard to mass produced food seems to have that sorry same in the end. In Astons, the repercussions of large scale expansion seems to take it’s toll(or at least that seems to be the case for me).

Not contented with food delivered at Astons Express anymore, me and a few friends headed for the newly opened Astons Prime at Centerpoint. Astons Prime at Centerpoint is interesting. By their bold move to shift to the city, it’s a clear sign that they’re ready to compete with the very best in the market. The design of the restaurant is outstanding and it seemed that they have decided to ‘upgrade’ themselves. Something that is also very interesting is that the price you see on the menu is net price. Our receipt later showed that there are no charges for service and GST is already included in the price in the menu. At first look, that sounded like a GREAT thing but after looking at the price difference between Astons Specialties, Express and Prime for the item that I ordered which is in excess of $7.90, I doubt so LOL !

The menu at Astons Prime is 70 to 80% different from the Astons Express menu I know all along. I’m not sure if the original menu at Astons Prime Joo Chiat branch was like that too but it certainly disappoints to an extent because one of our friends came here on my recommendation that Astons have superb chargrill chicken. If you are a non-beef eater and you only had one choice in the menu for Chicken, you would also feel the same. We ordered the Angus Ribeye, Ribeye X Cut and Chicken with Apple Sausage.

Chicken and Apple Sausage

The first to arrive was Chicken with Apple Sausage. It came with that all familiar Astons mushroom sauce with something that looked like enoki mushrooms on the chicken. Being a virgin Astons eater, my friend commented that it is good(as expected). I tasted a bit of the sausage and it was indeed quite good with flavours that’s distinct to german sausages if you know what I mean. However that’s about it. It was good but not great, and I am not too sure if I can’t buy a pack of sausages with the same level of ‘deliciousness’ for a couple of dollars from Giant or Cold Storage. There were cubes of apples hidden in the sausage though it definitely did not taste any better than any sausages I’ve eaten without apples. But for $16.90, this must be considered cheap in any restaurants and indeed it is one of the cheapest main course items on the menu. This dish is not on Astons Specialties’ or Express’s menu though over there, they have a Chicken and Sausage Combo which would cost you around $10ish. The appearance of the chicken did looked a far cry from my usual Chargrill Chicken I had at Express though the portion looked huge, not sure if it’s an illusion whereby it’s been enlarged by the gigantic plate that it came on. The skin on the chicken wasn’t charred enough. The chargill chicken I always had beats this chicken hands down.

Rib Eye X Cut 300G

Our Ribeyes arrived and it was beautifully presented. I must also mention that my favourite Astons side dish which is the Potato Salad is not on the menu at Astons Prime. And when I asked the waitress whether the fries has the cajun seasoning on it, she didn’t understand what I was talking about. She clearly hasn’t dined at Astons Express. My friend was praising her medium rare Ribeye steak from the first bite to the last bite though I must say that by now, I’m too familiar with all this ‘Virgin Astons Eater’s’ syndrome because all the people whom I have recommended to eat at Astons had all gave thumbs up like how I did too when I first ate.

But after eating at Astons for almost 20 times, I now know that these are all old tricks. If ever there is one thing that I think Astons is doing it all wrong, it is the same sauce that they’re using for everything on their menu. Granted I haven’t tried everything on the menu but so far, everything that I ordered, it all came with that mushroom sauce which tasted delicious at first but ‘factory made’ after 20 times. The sauce is good but I believe there is an overkill effect to the point where it almost doesn’t matter what I order because I’ll get the same taste afterall. My Ribeye X Cut was nothing short of what I expected. The same sauce I had on my steak is also the same sauce that was poured on my mashed potatoes and it’s all that same sauce I’ve always eaten at Aston. I say again, this sauce is good and I love it but I seriously believe one day I’m going to get sick of it. I mean if you eat sharksfin everyday, you’ll also get sick of it one day right?

The famous mushroom sauce they use for everything.

Fries with cajun seasoning.

The fact is my Ribeye was still quite delicious though when I thought about the same thing can be had at an Astons Express stall just 5 mins down the road from where I stay, it does make me look silly coming all the way here to pay $7 more, not forgetting the cost of petrol and parking.

Our ‘Virgin Astons Eaters’ commented that the meal was good though there was no surprise for me unfortunately. The taste is exactly the same as what I know and if anything, the plate they served our food on is seriously gigantic but otherwise there are no reasons for me next time to drive all the way to Centerpoint when I can get $7 discount for driving 5 mins from my place to an Astons Express.

Rib Eye X Cut 300G

Mashed Potatoes with the famous mushroms sauce.

And lastly my steak was ‘well done’ with sufficient juiciness to form the deliciousness and yes my fries did came with cajun seasoning.

Price: $14.90 and above

Recommendation: Ribeye X Cut ( without X Cut is 200gram while X Cut is 300gram, therefore you’re paying $3 more for 100gram!)

Conclusion: My Rib Eye was good though not any better than any meals I had at Astons Express. Our bill was clearly ‘upgraded’ for the ambience and nothing else. If anything I feel that the menu at Express has a better variety though there are appetizers and entre at Prime.

Likes: Beef is juicy and flavour is appetising.

Dislikes: Uses the same mushroom sauce on everything means eaters can get bored one day. From memory, a Diners Burger I had in the past also had the same sauce. Heck it even looked like the same piece of chargill chicken in my burger. Astons does have a habit in reusing ingredients in many dishes and that could be a real stumbling block in sustaining eater’s interest in the long term.

Address		Overall Rating
Astons Prime at Centerpoint ASTONS PRIME 176 Orchard Road Centrepoint #03-45/46/47 Tel: 62350556		Food: 8/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.5/10

That kept me wonder, why can’t delicious Dim Sums be sold in coffeeshops in Singapore? We definitely have no shortage of Dim Sum stalls opening up in kopitiams but yet for those that I’ve ate, the standards are pathetic, to put it mildly. To be fair, I’ve even came across some really ambitious Dim Sum sellers in kopitiam doing business on a large scale trying to create some kind of Dim Sum mania but yet it never really went on to WOW the people and then the scripts ending are always the same, they can’t finish selling, so they kept it for the next day, then it wasn’t fresh, so customers didn’t find it outstanding and never come back again, blah blah blah. That is a clear sign that the market for Dim Sum in kopitiams has not yet mature, agree?

Unfortunately in Singapore, Dim Sum is one of those food that you have to go to a good restaurant for a satisfying fix. This reminds me of other exotic food like Tapas or Kebabs where it is a downright street food in the place of origin and where you can eat terrific ones for a few dimes but yet in singapore, you really need to go to some high end restaurants for it. Well but I can understand especially when ingredients for those food can be expensive since most ingredients used need to be imported and with that, sellers may need a high markup to compensate for slower flow of customers and so selling from a high end restaurant is the logical thing to do. But how can the same script be written for Dim Sum, has anyone the wisdom to enlighten?

Since I can be quite a big eater, buffet style of Dim Sum is always the preferred choice. Fortunate Restaurant or 幸福饮茶 at International Building in Orchard is one of those Dim Sum places that offers you quite an authentic spread of Dim Sum selection. The good thing about this buffet is that you will have 2 menus, a Dim Sum menu and other main dishes menu. Both of which will give you a combined list of about 50 items. For $16.80 that is a terrific value considering the fact that most of the items have succulent prawns as ingredients though on this occasion some of Dim Sum items we ordered seemed to have something that taste like carrots and it does looked like a cost cutting measure but most of the items were still quite good.

These are the Dim Sum’s we ate.

Black Bean Sauce Chicken Feet – Flavour was good, texture can be softer.
Food: 6/10  

Haw Gow – Retrieved from the cart and didn’t taste like what it was in the past.
Food: 6/10  

Pai Kuat – Very good flavour and meat fell off bones easily as you suck it.
Food: 8/10  

Steamed Beancurd Roll - This is one item that can give me an intense umami hit. The flavoursome ingredients(pork and prawns) wrapped with soft beancurd skin and steamed in some kind of delicious broth is one of those things I won’t get tired of eating.
Food: 8/10  

Redbean & Banana Pancake – The star of the afternoon. So delicious that I ordered it again and again. This is no ordinary pancake. Seriously authentic, extra crispy on the outside with an interesting twist to the normal redbean paste. They added slices of banana to it and I can’t help but had about a dozen of it.
Food: 9/10  

Fried Beancurd Roll – A little oily though the ingredients inside were quite good.
Food: 7/10  

Fried Prawn Roll - One of my all time favourite Dim Sum item. Quite good here though there seems to be some carrots added to it this time round.
Food: 8/10  

Carrot Cake – Texture was almost perfect though it didn’t came hot enough. Reckon would be better if it was served from kitchen instead of the cart.
Food: 6.5/10  

Guo Tie – Didn’t tried this though my partner said it was quite good.
Food: 7/10  

Paper Chicken – Absolutely delicious! The authentic ginger flavour was so strong that I wouldn’t be surprise if the chicken had been marinated for a few weeks!
Food: 8/10  

Stir Fried Seasonal Vegetables with Abalone Mushrooms – Sauce was good though the spinach was a little bitter. Luckily there was abalone mushroom to make this special.
Food: 7.5/10  

Prawns Cheong Fan – Retrieved cold and a little harden from the carts. This was my first time eating cheong fan here that tasted like that.
Food: 6/10  

Scallops Cheong Fan – Was good and a lot of scallops were used.
Food: 7.5/10  

Scallops Har Gow – Outstanding though by this time, little space in our tummy was left.
Food: 8/10  

XO Pau – Superb Pau that has all the wonderful ingredients you can ask for. I reckon if I can just eat 10 of this in my next trip, I would had recouped my $16.80.
Food: 9/10  

Ordered some other dishes from the main dish menu like pig’s organ soup and many repeated orders of dessert.

It was an excellent meal though the customer service was quite bad especially when it got really busy. In the past, all the items are to be ordered and they’ll cook it in the kitchen before they’ll bring it to the table. But on this occasion they seem to have changed their serving style a little with several carts going around the tables. The good thing about push carts is that you don’t have to wait for them to cook it but then it can also mean that the food you retrieve from the carts are cooked long time ago and some of the items we got from the cart definitely did tasted like that. For that reason, push carts at Dim Sum places are not exactly desirable(at least for me).

Price: $16.80++ ($18.80++ for weekends) After 3pm is $1.99 per item.

Recommendation: XO Pau, all scallop items, pai kuat, paper chicken and many others. For desserts, the must try item is red bean and banana pancake!

Conclusion: Good value considering some items are pretty authentic. The customer service here isn’t the best though it only get real messy when it’s really crowded. For value, this earn top marks from me but if you’re more into things like customer service other than the taste of the food then this might score lesser.

Likes: Some items are authentic.

Dislikes: Sign of carrots used in some items. This affects the quality in some cases.Here

Address		Overall Rating
Fortunate Restaurant 幸福饮茶 #02-01, 360 Orchard Road S(238869), International Building, Orchard Tel: 6262 1717		Food: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 6/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.5/10