Mr Avocado V.S. King Avocado - Which taste better?

Anything that contains Avocado will taste yummy and at the same time Avocado has many benefits to your body as well.

If you happen to be at Alexandra Village for the famous Avocado Milkshake, you may have difficulty deciding in which stall to get, especially when both stalls are so close to one another. It happened to us too, so we decided to get both of them and compare the taste on the spot.

The avocado milkshake from both stalls are very similar - which is the blended mixture of avocado, together with fresh milk and evaporated milk.

Now, the way we differentiate these 2 stalls are the head gears worn by the avocado displayed on their signboard.

• Mr Avocado
• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 7 PM
• Address: #01-19, Alexandra Village Food centre, 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1

Mr Avocado has a stall logo with Sombrero, a Mexican hat on top of a Avocado mascot. This stall has been around since 1990. There was a significant longer queue seen at this stall when we visit. The avocado milkshake here is creamier, thicker with a distinctive taste of avocado with some taste of Gula Melaka. Their colour is slightly brownier than their competitor stall.

• King Avocado
• Operating Days: Closed on Wednesdays
• Operating Time: 8 AM to 10 PM
• Address: #01-17, Alexandra Village Food centre, 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1

The King Avocado stall has the mascot of a avocado with a crown. The colour of their avocado milkshake has a brighter green. While the queue was not as long as Mr Avocado, the owner was still seen giving every customer a bright smile. It was something that the stall owner at Mr Avocado did not give, and in fact, I personally saw some of Mr Avocado's customers in front of me being scolded for can’t deciding what to order when it was their turn to order.

This is a side by side picture of the Avocado milkshake from both stalls. After tasting both of them, I think that Mr Avocado (The logo with Mexican Hat) has a stronger taste of condensed milk, which also mean it is very much on a sweeter side as compared to the other. It is a little too sweet for my liking to be honest, and I had to wait for all the ice in the cup to melt and dilute the sweetness before I could finish drinking the rest of it.

On the other hand, Kind Avocado is not as sweet as Mr Avocado's version, and has a stronger avocado taste. The overall texture was also smoother.

Comparing both, I would prefer King Avocado, as it was not as sweet as Mr Avocado and had a less milky taste. If you prefer a sweeter version with a stronger milk taste, then Mr Avocado will definitely be a better choice. Do share with us your view after you have tried!

Yi Jia Seafood 億家海鮮 - Restaurant at a quiet corner for good Seafood!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: According to their locations
• Address: Multiple Locations
• Facebook Page

In Singapore, there is a zi char stall named Yi Jia Village Seafood Restaurant, and just across the custom in Johor Bahru, they have a similar restaurant called the Yi Jia Seafood restaurant 億家海鮮. Currently, they are 4 restaurants outlets in Johor Bahru. Each of them has their own unique decoration. We went to this new restaurant at Permas Jaya.

The restaurant is just a 20 mins drive from the custom, located in a quiet neighbourhood block. Plenty of parking lots available (which are shared among other restaurants along the stretch) and most importantly, did I forget to mention that parking is free?

The exterior of the restaurant looks new and good. When we were there at dinner time, there was quite a bit of crowd and we were a little worried that we have to wait for some time for our food to be served. We were lucky that the waitress saw us and quickly allocate a table to us in less than a minute. 

People who came after we had to wait for a bit before they were seated.

Their "aquarium" displaying different types of live seafood.

The menu was presented to us almost immediately after we were seated.

This company has won many prestigious awards as indicated on the menu.

The Yi Jia Crispy Chicken 扁扁鸡 seemed to be a famous choice around other tables and so we decided to order a small portion to try it.

A must order dish if you are eating at a seafood is, of course, the crabs! They have 3 types of cooking using crab - Golden Egg Yolk, Honey Sauce or Otak. We went for Golden Egg Yolk as recommended by the waitress.

They have different operating hours at each outlet, be sure to check the timing if you are heading down.

First came was their signature dish, the crisp flattened chicken, 扁扁鸡. It is quite a unique dish as we did not see any similar dishes before in other restaurants.

The taste of the chicken was not bad in our opinion, however, the portion is considered small even for just 2 people. It cost 9 RM for this 8 small pieces of chicken.

Next is pork ribs 排骨王 (15 RM), this is one dish that does not appeal to me as the skin of the pork ribs presented were too soft. The meat was also too hard to my liking. It would be better if the chef can pre-fry the pork ribs to brown at the side, before mixing them together with the usual sweet and sour sauce. The overall taste was normal.

Next was potato leaves with sambal sauce (10 RM). I like how their sambal sauce, not as oily as others with mild sambal taste did not overpower the original taste of the potato leaves, preserving the crunchiness on the stem. One of the recommended dishes here.

Next came was the Fuyong fried egg 芙蓉蛋 (8 RM). Difficult not to love, it is one of the most popular dishes commonly found in a typical Chinese restaurant in both Malaysia and Singapore. The egg here was mixed with ingredients such as char siew, shrimps and plenty of spring onions, and pan-fried to golden brown, on the whole, ending with a crispy side around. Definitely, one of the best dishes to go with rice.

The finale, golden egg yolk crab came after a short wait. Priced at 1kg for 120 RM, the price was reasonable and worth the money. Most importantly, the meat was sweet, tender and very fresh!

Unlike the usual dry salted egg crab dishes, we were quite surprised to see the generous portion of salted egg yolk sauce given! We even scooped the sauce onto our plain rice! We like the sauce so much that we decided to order mantou 馒头 (fried buns) just to soak up all the sauces of the dish and ate it. Really a must order when you are here!

The price isn't the cheapest you could get in JB, but at least it's a decent eating environment with quality food. And they accept credit card payment as well if you have not enough cash on hand.

If you are a lover of seafood, you should try out Yi Jia seafood as the seafood they serve there is of a higher quality as compared to the usual zi char stalls in JB. Though they are not the cheapest you can find, it is still worth visiting if you are around the Permas Jaya area. 

Sanuk Kitchen 大福小厨 - A hidden stall situated at outskirt of CBD area

• Operating Hours: 11 AM - 8 PM
• Operating Days: Daily (Closed on Alternate Mondays)
• Address: 5 Jalan Minyak, #01-328, S 161005
• Facebook Page
• Foodpanda Page
• Advanced Order / Reservation No. : 98331678

The word “Sanuk” is a Thai word which means to "have fun and enjoy" and that is what Chef Erik of Sanuk Kitchen hopes to achieve from all his customer. Sanuk Kitchen is just a few month old stall which is located in a coffee shop at a quiet corner of Jalan Minyak. Having interest in cooking and inventing new recipes, Chef Erik started his humble culinary journey from Kuala Lumpur to Vietnam, before coming back to Singapore to start his current food business.

They have special dishes displayed at their stall, which we heard are quite popular amongst their pool of regulars. 

To ensure the freshest ingredients used in every dish, you will need to call the owner for advance order prior going down. 

From the menu, you can see what they served at Sanuk kitchen are mainly Chinese and Thai cuisine. They are open to take in any special requests if the items you would like to have is not on their menu. We have seen some chef who doesn’t take in slight amendment to their dishes (as little as requesting for less salt & less oil), so it is good to know that they allows alteration to their dishes to suit customer’s taste.

The first dish came was spring onion beef hor fun. We were surprised by the generous amount of beef slices given to our plate of hor fun. The beef slices were fresh and not hard at all. 

Other than the mild charred taste, we also realized that the hor fun they used here is pale in colour. Unlike the usual hor fun where the chef will prior stir fry with dark sauce, the hor fun here does retain its original taste, which is something not common. It goes well with the thick and very flavourful sauce, however it was more on the salty side for me. Perhaps the plate of beef hor fun was cooked using KL style, where their dishes are more on a stronger and flavorful side. If you are someone who doesn’t take salty food, you can request for less salt option during your order. At Sanuk, each plate of hor fun is cooked from scratch upon order, and that makes it different from most of the zi char stalls whereby the hor fun will be pre-fried and placed aside.

Another unique dish at Sanuk Kitchen is their Seafood Mui Fun. Instead of the usual white rice covered with gluey gravy, they use fried rice instead. It is something different as compared to the usual Mui Fan we see at other zi char stalls.

All their seafood in this dish (fish, sotong, prawn) were all fresh. Sotong is cut using Criss cut strokes which made them very springy after cooked!

The fried rice has a little peppery taste, but it does not make the rice too overwhelmed with pepper taste. The hardness of the rice was also just right.

Next came was the seafood Hong Kong noodle. The noodle was more on the hard side and yet springy, which was just right for us (I prefer hard noodles). It does look a little dry but overall it was very flavorful, just the right amount of taste we expected from a bowl of Hong Kong noodle.

One of the signature dish here - Deep fried sea bass with special sugar and vinegar 糖醋 sauce.

Other than using the sugar and vinegar (糖醋) as a base, they also mixed other condiments in it which they didn’t reveal much. 

We were told that the usual price for this dish is $25 for smaller sized fish and $35 for bigger ones, but if you use the “Waitrr”app to order, you can get it at $18 and $25 respectively. The Deep fried sea bass goes well with the sauce, and it is best to go with white rice! This is a dish you can try if you are a fan of fried fish.

They emphasize quite a lot on homemade sauce, and the sauce used on this plate of salted egg was a creation by them as well. Other than pairing the salted egg sauce with prawns, many of their regulars love to order salted egg chicken chop as well.

Fan of Malaysian food will definitely be familiar with the term “Kam Heong”. Dishes cooked with the “Kam Heong” style is usually on a dry side with the strong fragrance usually lingers in your tastebud even if you have only taken a bite. Dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and good amount of garlic is commonly used to create the Kam Heong sauce. Personally, we felt that anything cooked using Kam Heong method will make me eat another bowl of rice without hesitation.

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Sanuk kitchen is a place you can visit if you are around Chinatown / Clarke Quay area and want to find a quiet corner to have your meal. Unlike a typical zi char stall with many chefs and their assistants, the ingredients are all prepared by the chef himself daily. It is a place not to miss if you like to have your lunch at a quiet area with minimum disturbance.

Hai Tian Lao 海天撈自助火锅 - Yes! It's 天, not 底 steamboat buffet restaurant

• Operating Hours: 4.30 PM - 4 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 27 Jalan Bestari 1/5, Taman Nusa Bestari, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
• Facebook Page

Singapore have Hai Di Lao 海底捞, and now across the custom in Johor Bahru they have 海天捞. Yes! 海天捞, but is it the same in terms their service, quality and variety of food?

20 minutes drive from custom, about 50 RM per pax, you could choose your choice of soup and free flow of all the food offers, what's different here is they offer barbeque items like Sotong, Lala clam, prawn and even Stingray! They have fried Chicken Wing and Man Tou ready to eat too! Last but not least, they do provide fruits and Ice cream!
You could purchase canned drinks from them but they do have other drinks for you included with the buffet, even real watermelon juice!

So for a start, you get to choose between 6 type of soups - Big Bone, Sichuan Mala, Mushroom, Thai Tom Yum, Taiwanese Mala and Tomato Soup. We chose Tom Yum and Tomato soup.

For those who have visited 海底捞, does this pot looks very similar? The soup is nice by itself, but not as tasteful as Hai Di Lao, but it was comparable with any other steamboat of the same price range, good amount of spices in each soup.

Even before we go and collect the items to cook, the Barbeque item came presented to us, first was the prawns, they were really fresh and easy to peel off the shell, I was expecting just prawns with simple sambal sauce but they used ladies finger and onions with sambal sauce to mix them up. Do not worry about getting your hands dirty, there were basin for you to wash your hands after you deshelled the prawns.

Next was stingray, they used normal chili sauce to cook this, the stingray they gave was really fleshly! It won't lose out to any barbeque shop outside.

Lots of variety of vegetables offered for you, they all were stocked up quite fast when they were empty.

They have beef, pork, chicken and lamb, all not marinated in a chiller. Sadly when we were there at 9PM+ they already out of stock for beef, but I managed to grab hold of a plate of beef!

Other ingredients at another chiller - hotdogs, meatballs, crabstick, luncheon meats and fishcakes.

Overall, I would not compare this to Hai Di Lao as they were of different standard, if compared to any other steamboat buffet restaurant at this price range, they were on a much higher standard in terms of the quality and variety of items. 

Total for the price of $198.85 for 4 pax. It was quite value for money. Do visit them if you are looking for some Steamboat buffet but please do visit them early to avoid disappointment of any out of stock item.

Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 - A Traditional Chinese Dessert Stall with Korean Bingsu inspired desserts?!

• Operating Hours: 10 AM - 8 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: People's Park Centre, #02-48/58, 101 Upper Cross Street, S 058357
• Webpage

The hot weather in Singapore gets even hotter these few weeks! Happened to chance upon Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 while we were running errands at People's Park Centre, so we decided to give this stall a try, as well as to seize the chance to enjoy the aircon in People's Park Centre.

A "mother-daughter" team established Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 in the year 2004 to share their passion in making Chinese traditional desserts with all the like-minded individuals. As time goes by, the owner has introduced new flavours and items to be added to their menu, to improvise their desserts and also to keep up with the market trends. 

There is another dessert stall right beside Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 that sell similar desserts, but you can't miss Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 as they have expanded their business space by buying over the area directly opposite their stall.

These are the hot and cold dessert they have.

We decided to go for their Oreo Kakigori (Shaved ice in Japanese), Milo Kakigori and Tau Suan.

The Oreo Kakigori came first and taking the first look at it, it is 90% similar to a bowl of Korean Oreo Bingsu! A good amount of crushed Oreo used, topping up with condensed milk; the only difference between the Oreo Kakigori and Korean Oreo Bingsu is probably the price. $4.80 for this bowl of goodness, seriously?

The amount of condensed milk used was just right for us. Though we all have sweet tooth, we can't really take desserts that are too sweet/rich, and very often we would stop eating halfway. The Oreo Kakigori here was what we are looking for - generous amount of Oreo powder used, topped up with the right amount of condensed milk on a bowl of snowflake ice that literally melts in your mouth. Perfect!

We were surprised to see a small piece of Oreo Cheesecake hidden in the middle of the bowl. To Oreo fans- this is a bowl of dessert you should go for. Highly recommended!

Next came was the Tau Suan. Priced slightly on a higher side ($2.20), the Tau Suan served here is actually a healthier version (as compared to the regular hawker stall), which is less sweet. 

The last item came was the Milo Kakigori. This was actually the additional order (as we really like the Oreo version) so we were having high expectation on this as well. Similar to Oreo Kakigori, a generous amount of Milo Powder was given, topped up with condensed milk and marshmallow bits. The condensed milk given in the bowl of ice was significantly lesser, not sure if it is due to the marshmallow bits are given - as it will definitely affect the overall sweetness level of this bowl of dessert. 

Instead of the Oreo cheesecake, a small piece of the brownie was given instead. The brownie was slightly dry but overall it does taste good as well when you pair it with the ice. Personally, we felt that the Milo Kakigori is a fusion dessert (Milo powder - Singapore, Kakigori ice - Japan and Bingsu look alike - Korea) whichyou can try if you are a fan of these three countries like us.

All in all, the dessert served at Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 are generally on a healthier side as it is not as sweet as compared to the desserts served at a regular dessert stall. Though we did not try many of their traditional desserts while we were there, we have seen many patrons ordering their hot desserts despite the hot weather. Being in the market for more than 15 years selling traditional Chinese desserts, we like how the owner improvised their menu to keep up with the current trend, opening up the new market with potential to attract a younger crowd to patronize their stall. Do give it a try and share with us how you feel after visiting!