Tea Valley (茶食坊) - Authentic Taiwanese cuisine? Far from it!

• Operating Hours: 11 AM to 10 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road #02-110, S168732
• Food I had: Honey Milk Tea, Minced Pork Noodle (炸醬麵), Honey Chicken Rice (蜜汁雞扒飯), Crispy Chicken Wrap (鹽酥雞蔥抓餅)

Was recommended to try out this restaurant as they house food that you will usually see in Taiwan like the oyster mee sua (蠔仔麵線), braised pork rice (滷肉飯), fried chicken chop (雞扒), and bubble tea (泡泡茶). This got me interested in trying it out.

We arrived during weekday dinner hours and the crowd was acceptable. We need not wait for seats as the waiter immediately offered a table for us.

These are the items that we ordered, we were told to pay for the items over the cashier first.

The honey milk tea was very unique but not in a good way, as I feel that the taste of the honey and milk tea did not blend together. I even tried to mix it up on my own again; but somehow, the taste was so separate that honey is honey, milk tea is milk tea, the taste just does not blend together, so do not compare this to any Milk Tea that is sold at other places.

The first dish that came was this honey roasted chicken chop rice (蜜汁雞扒飯). The rice was put on with some sauce, similar to eating braised pork rice. My first bite was totally not pleasant, the braised pork had that strong porky taste which I dislike very much. It was not sweet nor salty in any way, it was just plain pork taste rushed up to your taste bud. And the rice was not well cooked as it was mushy and sticky. Next is this honey roasted chicken: when I used a fork to pick a piece, I knew that it won't be nice. One look on the chicken, I realized that it was glazed more with oil rather than honey itself, and it was not crispy at all. This whole dish is totally not a Taiwanese dish.

Next dish is minced pork noodle (炸醬麵). First look at it, i see that braised pork sauce, on top of the noodles and thin slices vegetables. Somehow, there wasn't any porky taste 

, but still, overall the taste was just plain, it does not have any of the 炸醬 sauce taste at all. The noodle they used was the kuay tiao (粿條) commonly used in instant noodle. This dish overall does not fare well, not any better than the honey chicken chop rice.

The last dish that came was the salted fried chicken wrap (鹽酥雞蔥抓餅). The first bite of it was still alright as the wrap was cripsy. It tasted almost like our roti prata added with spring onion (葱).

As for the chicken, it was cripsy on outside but dry on the inside. They had used chicken breast meat for every piece of chicken in the wrap, which I felt that it was abit tough for me. This taste of this dish overall was still acceptable, but it is something different from taiwan; as usually for taiwan version, they would spread this dish with sweet sauce which will definitely improve this dish.

Overall if you have not been to taiwan before and after trying all these dishes, you might think taiwan cuisine are not nice. The food they serve here totally does not do any justice for the real taiwan cuisine.

I will probably not return anymore; or rather, I will return only if anyone said that they have improved on their food quality.

Three Little Pigs - Pork lover haven in Tiong Bahru!

• Operating Hours: Mon to Thu (11.30 AM to 10 PM), Fri to Sun (11 AM to 10 PM)
• Address: Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road #01-106, S168732
• Food I had: Root Beer Float, Cheesy Pork Fries 
• Total Cost: $17.50

We were not full, so decided to have some small bites and we came across this three little pigs, and some tempting is their fries and main dishes, we decided to go in to have a try.

It was dinner hour and there were plenty of seats still available, we were given iPad to do the ordering.

After we placed the order, in less than 1 min a waitress came and clipped the order on our table. Very fast service!

Root beer float came and it was surprisingly bigger than I have expected.

If you ever had a certain fast food restaurant that is no longer present in Singapore, you will sure order this, and it tastes very similar to that! The root beer is the same but the ice cream is somewhat more on a sweeter side. But overall a good refreshment! 

Next came is one of the recommended - Cheesy Pork Fries. The portion of the shoestring fries was very generous! A bucket full of fries! But something lacking is the amount of nacho cheese sauce, good to have more so every fries will have a share of the sauce. 

Initially, I thought that the pork on top is minced pork, but when using a fork to grab it, it comes as a whole piece! So we need to tear it up to be able to consume it, the taste was good! It was marinated with sweet sauce very similar to Korean cuisine bulgogi style, and the meat was tender in a point I thought I was eating thigh meat. In my opinion, the meat and fries do not seem to pair up nicely, I would put the meat aside to eat the fries and vice versa, so if it was minced meat, it's a very good combination with every bite of fries with the meat. 

We asked for chili sauce and this plate of a smiley face with 3 stretches of the sauce was presented to us, it lifted our mood a bit, a good gesture from the restaurant.

Would I return? Of course! I will come back for their main courses definitely! 

Sin Heng Claypot Bak Koot Teh (新興肉骨茶) - Rare herbal version Bak Kut Teh in Singapore

• Operating Hours: 7.30 AM to 4 AM
• Operating Days: Closed On Monday
• Address: 439 Joo Chiat Road S427652
• Food I had: Claypot Bak Koot Teh, You Tiao, Stir Fried Tang Hoon, Sesame Oil Chicken

Teochew style peppery Bak Kut Teh is more popular in Singapore but there is a significant number who are looking for the herbal version. In Joo Chiat next to a famous Chicken Rice shop.

You can search around on the internet for the best Bak Kut Teh in Singapore, this will be the top 10 Bak Kut Teh Place in Singapore. Founded in 1983, Sin Heng serves the Hokkien herbal version of Bak Kut Teh. 

Parking can be tricky, if you're lucky you'll find a parking slot available in their private car park, or if not try going in the afternoon when it's not so crowded.

No air-conditioning in this restaurant but they do have lots of fans operating, so it's still quite cooling.

Their signature is definitely Special Bak Kut Teh. Served on a Clay Pot, which many believe enhance the flavors, the Special Bak Kut Teh contains pork spare ribs, innards, vegetables, mushrooms, etc.  Serve this dish with rice or you tiao 油條. This time we ordered only with just the spare bone ribs and sesame oil chicken.

The stall offers a huge variety of zi char dishes and You tiao not on the menu but they have it.

Really love how generous they are with their red cut chilies, with two to choose from: the large ones and the chili padi.

The soup had a mild herbal taste but it was flavourful but not in the way I would like it to be compared to those I've had in Malaysia.

Their meat was very tender too which easily separate-able from the bone.

And definitely must have whenever you had Bak Kut Teh soup, you tiao (fried dough), put it in the soup and take a bite, you tiao was not crispy though, it was soft which I believed left in their container for quite some time.

Next was their stir fried tang hoon, it was very flavorful, the tenderness of the tang hoon and taste of wok hei makes it a good sides to go if you not into rice. 

The next vegetable dish was a disappointment, the vegetable was only stir fry with garlic bits with oyster sauce which I could barely taste. Only good thing from it, it was not cooked till it's soft. It was still crunchy enough.

The last item we had is the sesame oil chicken, it does have a slight taste of the Chinese wine (花雕酒). And the sauce is starchy and more of the sweet side, which is very good to pair it with the rice. 

All the meat were chicken wings that were chopped into half, so it was quite an eased to just eat it without using your hands to eat the meat. Overall it was recommended for me to order it whenever you visit this restaurant.

Either a peppery clear soup Bak Kut Teh guy or prefers Herbal Soup Bak Kut Teh and I don't think it's fair to compare Sin Heng with other famous pepper Bak Kut Teh name. Nevertheless, Sin Heng delivers an amazing Herbal Bak Kut Teh.

Do not forget it is closed Mondays to avoid disappointment.