Mellben Seafood at Toa Payoh

It's been a family tradition to go to Jumbo Seafood in East Coast for chili crab whenever one of us visits home. But my dear aunt Judy wanted to treat us to a nice meal a little closer to home. She also knew that I've been dying to try the crab bee hoon, so she recommended this place.



Nice and spicy sambal kang kong.



The chili crab was sweet and fresh.



The fried man tous are good but I miss the white crustless bread they used to serve at those pongol seafood places.



Cereal prawns were very big!



Some kind of fried tofu. Not a fan.



The crab bee hoon was very buttery and had a slight herb taste to it. I like the bee hoon. Not sure if I'm sold on the taste though. But very glad I tried it.

Mellben Seafood
Blk 211,
Lorong 8 Toa Payoh
#01-11-15
Tel: 6353-3120

~Ray

Vivo City Food Court

This hokkien mee really hit the spot.



These BBQ chicken wings look so good, but in fact, are rather bland. Very disappointing.



The duck rice was even worse. The gravy was too sweet and the duck was tough. Felt like I wasted calories on bad food.

~Ray

Food at Thomson Plaza

It was a long day, and we didn't want to travel too far to eat. Dinner at Thomson Plaza's food court is not bad--not great, but not bad.



My first real laksa in over a year.



Fish ball soup



Bak chor mee



Mee goreng



Ice kachang!

~Ray

The Chicken Rice Blog

Since hubby got to start his trip with his favorite meal, it's natural that I got my turn during lunchtime. I love, love, love chicken rice. And I've always enjoyed the one at Far East Plaza.



Although I have always preferred roasted chicken, I will change my mind by the end of the trip (stay tune to find out why).



Look at how beautiful and succulent the chicken is.



A good iron boost!

~Ray

The Prata Blog

My husband LOVES prata. He is obsessed with it. In LA, he has prata practically every weekend. My mom happens to live in Upper Thomson Road and the first thing we did after we arrived in Singapore was head to The Roti Prata House.



The Teh Tarik was perfection.



The mutton curry was sweet, savory, spicy, and delicious.



Cheese prata



I love my Milo Dinosaur



Total count: 4 crispy prata, 1 cheese prata, 1 paper prata, 1 mutton curry, 1 teh tarik, and 1 milo dinosaur.

It was a good start to our one-week vacation.

~Ray

Graduation Day

Tonight is the final exam and the day we (hopefully) receive our cooking certificate. This was a scary one for most of us. Could we actually pull off creating dishes without the help of recipes? Will our hollandaise sauce break? Will we burn our steak? Well, here are the answers:



Did my sauce break? Hell ya, it did. I dumped the first batch of "scrambled" eggs and started all over again. Hollandaise is a very delicate sauce. One wrong move and it's over. Making hollandaise is my personal hell. It was hot, stressful, and tedious.



Even though it turned out fine, this is probably the last time I'll ever make this again.



I was one of the last ones to pick a steak, and I ended up with an enormous piece. I was worried how long it would take to cook this monster.



Steak with red wine reduction and roasted vegetables.



I swear I cooked this for a good 30 minutes, and it still turned out rare!



I don't know what this dessert is called.



All done! Time to pop the champagne.



Class of April 08!

~Ray

Wonton on Steroids!

My co-worked E and I often sit around and talk about our favorite Asian food. Once we get a certain dish in mind, we're on a one-track mission to consume it. This week, it's wontons. E mentioned a place her dad took her to where they served gigantic wontons. I immediately knew which restaurant she's talking about: Wonton Time in Alhambra.



HUGE, huh? The wontons are stuffed with whole shrimps.



You get a choice of thin rice noodles, flat rice noodles, and egg noodles. You also get to pick between wontons, fish balls, and sliced beef. For a whopping $6, you can get all three. It's so yummy--the soup's light and tasty, the noodles are QQ (I think that means springy), and the wontons are succulent.

Wonton Time
19 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-293-3366