Breadtalk 面包物语 - 碰碰糕 Pong Pong Cake Salted Egg Filling fluffy Cake (Promo Over)

If you’ve not tried Singapore’s latest food. Pong Pong Cake is an old school style sponge cake with a gooey layer of salted egg yolk filling.

Unlike other sponge cake in size, they were given in square shaped, and it's enough for a person to eat finish by yourself.

The soft and fluffy cake is complemented by a rich salted egg filling to offer the combination of sweet and savoury. This delectable treat is no frills with its light texture, balanced flavours, and authentic egg aroma fresh out of the oven in stores. I would go for other sponge fluffy cake than this as this is much sweeter for my taste buds and the salted egg filling is quite powdery to me.

A simple comforting snack for all anytime. The Pong Pong Cake is available ($8.80 each, $15 for 2) at the following stores now: Chinatown Point, Novena Square, Toa Payoh HDB Hub, Westgate.

Yi Jia Village Seafood Restaurant (億家村海鮮館) - Head Chef moved from 一 to 億

• Operating Hours: 3 PM to 12 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 20 Toa Payoh Lorong 7, #01-298, S310020
• Food I had: Herbal Chicken (药材鸡), Fried Tofu (家乡豆腐), Spare Pork Ribs (排骨王), Melon Prawn Balls (蜜瓜虾球), Fried Lotus with Long Bean (炸莲藕炒长豆), Fried Man Tou (炸馒头), Chilli Crab (辣椒螃蟹)

If you stay around Toa Payoh, "一家南村海鮮館" might sound a little familiar to you. A few years ago,  一家南村海鮮館 was featured in Channel 8's  variety show - 煮炒来咯 featuring Pornsak and Lee Teng. Since then, this zi char stall has been very famous, with many people coming down to this little heartland during weekends / special occasion. 

Very soon, the coffee shop owner decided to increase their rental over and over again, till one day, the owner of 一家南村海鮮館 decided to shift their business to another coffee shop within the same area. Business has continued to be good, and very soon, a small coffee shop was not able to accommodate the crowd. Many tables were occupied at the open area outside the coffee shop, and the owner had received several summons from the authority for breaching the rule, such as blocking the passageway etc. The owner had finally decided that they want to start up a restaurant themselves, and that was how they shifted out of Toa Payoh Lorong 7 to Macpherson. The main chef from 一家南村海鮮館, however, decided that he wants to be his own boss, did not go over with the owner. He has since then become the owner of the new 億家村海鲜馆 and being the owner and the chef himself, the taste of the dishes served at this zi char stall was 100% the original taste previously.

Look at the crowd, it was already full house when we reached there at 6:50 pm. The server had to open a table for us without shelter when we arrived. We were lucky that it did not rain during our visit. 

There were many people waiting for tables. Lucky we did not have to wait for too long!

The herbal chicken was actually recommended by the server and so we decided to try. The sauce was slightly thicker, similar to the texture of the gravy from hor fun, and it was infused with herbs-- from dang gui to ginseng- was very well-cooked. The chicken was also tender and easy to peel, it is a dish that is suitable for all ages to try. 

My personal favorite dish from this stall is definitely their 家乡豆腐！Special type of tofu is used in this dish, which they are imported in daily from Malaysia. The tofu is smooth and soft, and I really like the way how soft and silky it is as compared to other tofu. This tofu is somewhat similar to egg tofu, but it is definitely smoother than that. It is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside - mixed with the sweet brown sauce with abundant of spring onion and 菜圃, this dish is a must try dish if you visit them! 

The next dish served to us was the 排骨王. A dish that is commonly seen at every zi char stall, it is another dish you may want to try when you visit them! Unlike other 排骨王，the meat they used had no bones, and is slightly softer as compared to other places.

Next came was the Melon shrimp ball, which was also recommended by the waitress. It was supposedly the highly raved dish since it was featured on Channel 8's variety show 煮炒来咯. I would say nothing to shout about tastewise, the shrimp ball does not have any melon taste, and luckily it does not have any, it might not even taste any good if it is.It is pretty much a decent dish, but I preferred their cereal prawn ball (麦片虾球) than this.

Another dish recommended by the waitress was the fried lotus with the long bean. Well, the Lotus was very crispy as it was sliced until very thin, and it just tastes like fried tapioca chips! it was very delicious in my view, but the Lotus and long bean did not compliment each other and I think it can be made into a separate dish.

Fried mantou arrived before chili crab, the skin of the bun was not that very crispy, however, it does still preserve the fluffiness of the bun inside. I will totally love this fried mantou if it's served with condensed milk, but this time it was meant to be served with chili crab. 

If you are looking for the most typical and enjoyable dish during your trip in Singapore, it is hard to look past chili crab. Basically, chili crab is a seafood dish where stir-fried crab is coated with sweet, savory and spicy tomato based sauce. The gravy is an impeccable combination of spiciness, sweetness, and saltiness, complementing perfectly with mantou. The crab was absolutely fresh, and the perfect combination of the sweetness of its flesh to the spicy and sweet tomato sauce is really.... "HOLY CRAB!" 

Will I return to this place? Of course! It has not disappointed me when I'm here every visit and their service was usually quite fast even on a dinner peak. But there is something to take note - do consider carefully if you want to take the waitress recommendations, as their recommendation might not be as nice as they've claimed.

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.