Nam Nam Singapore review: Vietnamese delights and one tasty little vanilla pudding.

Nam Nam, a shining light in the Singapore market of restaurants overcharging for something with little substance. Expected perhaps considering it is under the Les Amis brand, the 86^th best restaurant in the world (review here) that transferred their standards here. The restaurant is very conveniently located in Wheelock Place (under the escalators) on Orchard Road, 5 minutes walk from Orchard station in the comfort of Ion’s air conditioning.

Vietnamese is my favourite SE Asian cuisine alongside Japanese and for the very reasonable price you pay at Nam Nam, I feel the standard is very good. The Pho, a beef broth simmered for likely over 24 hours is packed with meaty flavour  and lifted by the fresh herbs and whilst never as good as a true Vietnamese pho this is more than acceptable, we get the beef slices pho ($8.90).

Special Shanghai guotie and Tong Heng egg tart review Singapore

If you do happen to be at Maxwell Food Centre to try the famous chicken rice there is all a favourite of ours nearby, Special Shanghai Tim Sum. We order guotie ($4 for 8) which are fried dumplings served alongside vinegar and chilli sauce and are filled with moist meat contrasting the crispy exterior, very nice and well worth a try.

Guotie, fried dumplings

Another popular place just down the road from the food centre is Tong Heng bakery that specializes in Chinese baked treats. We only tried the egg tarts ($1.40 each) which they are famous for and are supposedly the best in SG. Diamond shape with a smooth soft set custard they look nice. The pastry however was a little bit too crumbly and went everywhere and for me and Louise the taste of egg was too strong. This may be just not too our taste as they are called “egg tart” after all but our previous experience with Portuguese egg tarts in Macau was far better. These have a crisped sugar skin and therefore more sweetness to mask the egg flavour.

Egg tarts (they were bounced around a little bit during transport)

Anyway these were not to our taste and therefore perhaps also to other westerners.

Rating: Special Shanghai= 8/10, Tong Heng: 4/10
Expect to pay: $4 for guotie and $1.40 each egg tart
Would we go back: Special Shanghai yes, Tong Heng no
Any freebies: No

Special Shanghai Tim Sum

Stall 92

Maxwell Food Centre

Chinatown MRT

Tong Heng Confectionary

285 South Bridge Road

Singapore

Tel: 058833

Beautiful but hot day in Chinatown

Tong Heng confectionary

Tian Tian vs Ah Tai chicken rice: Maxwell Food Centre Singapore Review

Chicken rice, the dish every tourist and local must have whilst in Singapore. Anthony Bourdain loves the stuff and whilst Singaporeans will tell you it is not their most tasty dish, it is their most popular. Unfortunately, I don’t see why, and despite the cheap price fail to be wowed by it every time I have eaten it. And yet, it is a dish that you will crave on the most random of occasions, purely for its simplicity.

Tian Tian

Poached chicken, rice cooked in that chicken broth, slices of cucumber, glue like thick soy sauce and fragrant chilli sauce…that is it.

Simple Pad Thai at home recipe and adventures in Thailand

Pad Thai in Thailand is seriously good and recreating the same flavour at home is not easy, getting close however could not be simpler.

Every tourist who has been to Thailand will tell you of the street food joys the country has, though not necessarily the after effects...and I have been fortunate to spend a few weeks there. One friend who travelled with me during New Years Eve ate pad Thai for nearly every meal for an entire week and this says nothing for the heavenly curries.

Pad Thai and tea

Blue Diamond Indian restaurant Singapore review: Dum good briyani

Walk out of Little India station, the smell of rose water lingering on the air, past crates of fresh produce and bright colour’s and you will reach Blue Diamond Indian restaurant. Considered makers of one of the better briyani’s on the island, as Rick Stein once said, “when you crave a curry, nothing else will do”.

Indian spread

51 Mingfa wanton egg noodles Kovan SG review: Good broth

Wanton mee is one of the most popular hawker foods in Singapore and can be found at every food centre. 

A Cantonese dish based upon thin egg noodles, small dumplings, leafy vegetables and a hot broth with the addition of char siu pork in Singapore.

The aim is to get al dente noodles with a nice broth that isn’t too strong to overpower the other flavors.

One of the popular hawkers of this dish is 51 Mingfa at Kovan food centre. We arrived at 1pm on a Sunday and there was a queue of about 10 people and by 1.30pm the stall had already closed suggesting its popularity.

  

We ordered both the dry and the soup version, with the dry version having a bowl of broth and dumplings separately. Despite ordering the spicy version I think the auntie thought the white guy could not handle it hot, despite that we enjoyed the food.

Nakhon thai restaurant Singapore review: Thai classics served whilst being screamed at.

Anybody that has been to Thailand, or loves the cuisine, knows the food they serve is often some of the most interesting in the world, with its expert balance of sweet, salty, spicy, sour and bitter the key to a good dish. When I was in Thailand I did a cooking class in Chiang Mai that opened my eyes to the depth of flavour you can create with their ingredients and the David Thompson of Nahm green curry I made was fantastic even without some of the more local ingredients.

My green Thai curry

We have a particular favourite in Singapore on Orchard Road (which we will review later) but on this occasion, with one of our friends leaving the country, she wanted us to try Nakhon, about 5 minutes walk away from Kovan MRT.

Ippudo Ramen Singapore review

Hey folks!

After living in Singapore for over a year you soon come to realize it is not that easy to get a decent meal at a good price unless you really look hard. Food is at a premium away from the hawker centers but sometimes it can be worth the hunt.

Ippudo is a Japanese ramen joint that has number of outlets on the island however Mandarin Gallery is where we chose this time. We ate on a Saturday night and were seated immediately by the friendly staff however other reviews seem to suggest it can get very busy and indeed the staff did seem used to a faster pace.