Por Kee dinner with the guys...

Zi char - one of the things I have grown to love when it comes to eating in Singapore.

Maybe because it reminds me of how meals are done in my home in Manila (or in almost every Filipino home, I guess). Maybe because any zi char meal is a great opportunity to hang out with family or friends and have a great time.

I can't remember the first zi char place I went to in Singapore but I do remember some of the goods ones I've been to.

Last night, I invited the guys to dinner at Por Kee Eating House in Tiong Bahru. It's one of my favourite zi char places in the island. They have really good coffee pork ribs but I believe the one dish everyone must try is the homemade beancurd.

It is super!

I'm glad that most of the guys haven't been to Por Kee. It was only Sarge who had a memory of the restau. I'm guessing we ate at the place a loong time ago, possibly during PG Boy days.

When I arrived at the place at 730PM, it was already busy. No, it was extremely busy. It was a good thing that I called a week ago to make reservations. Otherwise, it would've been a disaster for us. Hehe!

The guys enjoyed the food. I enjoyed the food and their company. Too bad Chris and Jin weren't able to join us as they are on holiday in Surabaya.

After dinner, we bought some desserts at Tiong Bahru bakery and took the bus to JB's and Ian's new place at Redhill for dessert, drinks, and more chitchat.

Last night was a gooood Saturday night!

Crispy pata craving on a Saturday night...

Last Saturday, one of my good friends here in SG said he was craving for crispy pata. I dun really know where to get crispy pata in SG except in Lucky Plaza and at Gerry’s Grill in Cuppage.

My friend then suggested we go to the Filipino food place across i12 in Katong. However, I told the pair that that place is no longer (I think).

Somehow, we ended up going to one of my fave zi char places in Singapore - Le Chasseur. Thankfully, the place offered crispy pork knuckles. That alone was enough for the group to decide to go there. PG Boy is not a fan of anything oily and he also avoids pork most of the time. The good thing about Le Chasseur is that they have a lot of other dishes to offer.

In addition to the crispy pork knuckles, we also ordered coffee pork ribs, prawn paste chicken and coffee pork ribs. We initially ordered kangkong with samba but meiyou already. Sad, sad.

Le Chasseur used to be located at New Bridge Road across Clarke Quay Central. Some time last year, it moved to Eunos industrial estate. For what reason, I dunno. The Eunos place is a lot bigger though with no AC. Hehe. Also, I’m not sure if the owners added any staff to be able to serve the number of customers. It took some time for the dishes to come out of the kitchen.

Thankfully, the food is still good and enjoyable. It was also not expensive. There were five of us and each one only had to shell out about $15. Not bad at all.

From Le Chasseur, we headed to a newly-opened drinking place along Guillemard Road near Sunny Spring. The name of the place is Tuckshop and it’s located at the corner of Guillemard and Lorong 36. It was extremely warm that night so we all enjoyed the ice cold beer. Also, we decided to stay there since we weren’t heading anywhere else after. It was okay to be a little sweaty. Haha! The place is actually nice. It has that feel of a pub in Club Street but in this case, it’s tucked in some corner along Guillemard.

Great Saturday night!

The Tuckshop
403 Guillemard Rd S399795
thetuckshop.com.sg

Le Chasseur
27 Eunos Road 2
Singapore 409387

Dinner at Eng Kee Seafood house...

As most of my friends know, I'm a bit difficult to be persuaded to go out on a work night. Make that work night and Sunday nights. Hehe!

It's not because that I don't want to go out. It's because I'm most of the time lazy or because I want to wake up early the following day to go to the gym for class.

However, when the dinner is organised by a friend who is leaving Singapore soon, I forget about the gym. I forget about just wanting to be home after a long day.

And I go to the get-together to see that friend.

Last night, I had dinner with Richie, Mon, Ana, her friend Yumiko, with our Belgian-bound friend Coly.

Coly's last day in Singapore is Tuesday next week (!!!) and I guess she's doing the rounds of meeting friends and eating the local cuisine that she will definitely miss once she's in Belgium.

Our destination last night was Eng Kee Seafood House in Alexandra.

It helped a lot that the place was very close to my office. That definitely made it so much easier for me to go. Haha!

The place specializes in crabs cooked in different styles. I'm not really a fan of crabs as I find the whole process of breaking the shell and all too tedious. Lol! However, the great thing about these zi char places is that there are other fantab dishes served.

Coly ordered black pepper crab and chili crab, coffee pork ribs, prawn paste chicken, homemade beancurd with ground pork, and a vegetable dish.

Everyone enjoyed the dishes that we ordered. I didn't have any of the crab dishes, but I did get a bun just so I can dip it in the sinful sauce of the chili crab that Richie ordered. Haha! It was sooo good!

The dishes were reasonably priced. The place is a clean coffee shop where guests can either go for the kopitiam al fresco style or if you want to be a tourist, then go for the area with AC. Haha! Will definitely visit again soon.

Address:
Keng Eng Kee Seafood
Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1038
Opening Hours:
Daily: 11.30am –2pm, 5pm–11pm

Zi char night...

Richie, Mon and Coly have been going on weekly night walks around the city.

First, it was at the Gardens by the Bay. The following week, it was at the Botanic Gardens. Then it was at the Geylang area.

Tuesday afternoon, Richie called and invited me to go along with them for a Wednesday night walk. With no plan yet and because I've been really meaning to join them in one of their walks, I agreed to go.

The arrangement was to meet at Marina Square at 730PM. From there, we would take a route that they already planned (I think).

Upon reaching Marina Square last night, I had a slight panic because the lights at Richie's workplace were already off and there was no one around.

What happened was Richie and Coly got stuck at Forum and it took them awhile to get to Marina Square. Good thing Mon was already there and we got to hang out and talk until Rich and Coly arrived.

Though we started late, we still went for the walk. We followed the Singapore River and headed to Clarke Quay. From Clarke Quay, we crossed over to Fort Canning and that's where we spent most of the walking time.

The real event of the night was dinner at a zi char place in North Bridge Road. As in the previous night walks, the highlight usually is the post-walk dinner. The walks would conclude with good food, as Richie would post photos. Hehe!

Last night, we decided to go to this zi char place right across Central in Clarke Quay.

A little trivia: zi char refers to the home-style cooking at a Chinese stall. You have a variety of ala-carte dishes and you just choose whatever it is you want.

Le Chasseur is one of the more popular and raved about zi char places based on what I've read. The first time I went to the place was with Pg Boy and his friends ages ago. The food was great. The price was even better. Hehe!

For the dinner last night, we ordered stewed peanuts, kailan, claypot chicken rice, prawn paste chicken, coffee pork ribs and hot plate tofu.

Guess how much the bill was??? It was only $64!

That already includes two extra servings of steamed rice and six glasses of lime juice.

Not bad, eh?!

Apparently, there is a list of the best zi char places in the island. I remember Pg Boy mentioned another zi char place along Siglap Road. Hmm, must try that one as well.

A good Wednesday night indeed.

Le Chasseur
31 New Bridge Road
Tel: +65 6337 7677
Daily: 11am – 11pm