Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

It was one of those days when I was craving peanut butter toast that I made my friends come here for dessert / supper :)

I'm a big mango fan so could not resist ordering the Mango Snow Ice $6.90++ -


This dessert had all my favourite things - mango, ice cream and shaved ice... but it's a Herculean task to finish it by youself so definitely order to share.

Of course I had to order Peanut Butter Toast $3.90++ -


It was pretty good - had a fair amount of peanut butter and the bread was soft and fluffy. HK Kim Gary is still cheaper though...

We noticed the other table having a fried bun thing and after scouring the menu, ordered what sounded closest to what they had : Deep Fried Custard Bun $2.50++ -


Not quite we expected coz when it said custard, we thought it would be the kind of custard that's more, erm, wobbly. It was a pretty solid consistency, but went quite well with the deep fried bun.

The decor was a bit too glaring and the place just a bit too noisy for me - crap, is that a sign that I'm getting old or what?? But it's a great alternative when you're craving cha chan teng (hongkong-style cafe) food in the middle of the night (it's open 24 hours on weekends). Will probably come back to try more of their extensive menu...


Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe
8 Grange Road
#02-11 Cineleisure Orchard
Tel : 6235 6480

HK Kim Gary Restaurant

Was craving peanut butter toast and read some pretty good reviews of this place so I decided to check it out. This is my sixth post on eating places in Vivocity :)

I nearly always order anything that's spicy so the Hot and Spicy Noodles with Wanton $6.90+ was a total shoo-in for my choice of a main course -


It looks really spicy but it was quite bearable - well, for me at least... and it's a humungous bowl, even I could not finish it.

The other thing that's always a must-try at HongKong-style cafes is baked rice so we ordered Baked Rice with Chicken Chop in Twin Sauce $8.90+ -


The twin sauces on the baked rice are spaghetti sauce and cream sauce. Looks kinda gross but for me, anything that has that much cheese in it is sure to taste good :)

And since it was the main reason why I came here, of course I had to have the Condensed Milk with Peanut Butter Toast $1.80+ -


Still not as much peanut butter as I would have liked but probably one of the better ones you can find in Singapore. And at $1.80+, it's super cheap! Despite the fact that I already had a bowl of noodles, I still managed to eat quite a lot of the toast, to the amazement of the strangers sitting at the next table (I swear they were watching me eat!).


HK Kim Gary Restaurant
1 Harbourfront Walk
#02-128 Vivocity
Tel : 6376 8183

Central

Ever since my day trip to JB and having tried the decadent peanut butter toast there, I’ve been trying various local cha chan tengs (Hong Kong-style cafes) to see if the peanut butter toast is as good…Which is how I ended up having lunch here when I was at Parkway Parade one weekend.

Here’s the Peanut Butter Toast $3.50++ -

Hardly any peanut butter on it at all! Sigh… but the bread itself was nice enough – I love thick pillow-soft toast surrounded in a not-too-tough crust. But it could have done with much much more peanut butter – like the one I had in JB…

I love mushrooms, in particular enoki mushrooms (also known as golden mushrooms) so I was exceedingly pleased when the Beef Mushroom Noodle Soup $6.50++ came with a bunch of enoki mushrooms –

Enoki mushrooms and beef go really well – another of my favourite dishes is enoki mushrooms wrapped with beef (which I last had at Mushroom Pot). This was a bit tasteless – not much flavour in the soup but that’s expected of most Hong Kong-style soup noodles... still, the presence of enoki mushrooms made me a happy camper :)

Also had the HK Polo Bun $2.50++ -

I used to love the Polo-Char Siew Bun from the Crystal Jade Bakery… hmm, come to think of it I haven’t had it in quite a while. Anyway, I digress… “Polo Buns” is so-called as “polo” is the Cantonese word for pineapple and the surface of the bun (kinda?) looks like that of pineapple. But really it’s just sugar, butter, egg, milk and flour.

Didn’t manage to satisfy my peanut butter craving – still on the hunt for good peanut butter toast…


Central Restaurant
Basement of Parkway Parade and Ngee Ann City

Causeway Bay Cafe

Noticed this place on my way to Mario Kitchen a few weeks ago... and then I saw a mention of it in 8days as being opened by the owners of Thye Hong (my fav Hokkien Mee stall at Gluttons Bay and Food Republic)... and was going to be in the Bugis area for some shopping... so decided to check out this place.

One of my must-eat dishes when I'm in Hong Kong is Beef Brisket Noodles. I always go back to this dodgy, alley-way stall in Mongkok for the yummiest Beef Brisket Noodles and Wanton Mee. What I love about Hong Kong-style noodles is the tougher, springier(?) texture... so I was quite disappointed when the noodles in the Beef Brisket Noodles ($6.50) at this place was so over-cooked that it became really soft. The beef was tender enough though, and the soup just barely decent...

I didn't taste the Seafood Baked Rice ($8) but seeing how the person eating it didn't have any comments I'll assume it's nothing to scream about either...

The Deep Fried Squid ($8) was ok but I thought the portion of squid was a bit small for that price... and they tried to disguise the small portion with potato wedges!



So my conclusion is, most of the places along Liang Seah Street are mostly Uni students hang-outs - i.e. places that sell cheap food of low quality. Hmm, will likely avoid eating around this area except for the tong shui places... Still craving for some good cha chan tang food though...

Causeway Bay Cafe
32 Liang Seah St
Tel : 6338 4148