25 Sep 2011 - The Eastern Restaurant

As part of the "Eat-at-a-yet-to-visit-place" campaign, they visited The Eastern Restaurant. He had chanced upon some blogs that wrote about it.

Being located in Centrepoint sounded convenient, but they had a bit of trouble finding it in the mall. He frequented the fast food restaurants in the mall, but never knew the existence of The Eastern Restaurant. It was way back in the mall, with other restaurants like Ichiban Boshi and Lerk Thai.

The menu, immediately implying a basket of steamed pork dumplings....


Starter of spiced beef shank, $6.50++. Cold and nicely seasoned to prepare you for the feast.


Basket of four pork dumplings (xiao long bao) served on a piece of cabbage, $4++. Upon lifting the cover, the smell of cabbage wafted out. Some may like it, some may not. Nevertheless, it was an interesting way to serve the pork dumplings, other than in bases of cloth or tin.


Plate of three pan-fried pork dumpings (guo tie) for $3.80++. Liked it that the skin did not have the doughy smell, had a bit of broth within the dumplings too, tasty.


Stewed beef brisket noodles, $8.80++.
Noodles were hand-pulled, but he isn't sure if that contributed to the nice springy texture of the noodles. He had ordered 1 serving to share, and had to get the waitress' help to cut the noodles. That's because the noodles were really long, possibly the whole bundle was just a single strand of noodle.
Beef brisket looked dry, but they were deceived. It was actually tender and full of flavor.
Soup was touted to have collagen added, good for the skin. Liked the fact that it was not salty, providing reassurance to finish up the soup.


Special Furong Egg, $10.80++. This is scrambled egg white with crab meat. Not too sure if the brown shreds sprinkled on top were crab meat or conpoy, but they were crispy and tasty. In it were also bits of processed crabsticks and peas. What do you do with the raw egg yolk in the middle?


Add black vinegar and pepper, then beat up the mixture. They enjoyed this smooth and savoury dish. By the way, this portion is probably right for 4 persons, unless you really like eggs.


Serving of 5 dumplings in chilli oil, $6++. Reminded him of May 2010 in Taiwan's Shihlin Market, and he would later place orders of an additional 2 servings. The skin was moist and smooth, and the mixture of fried garlic, chilli oil and vinegar together titillated the senses.


Basket of three steamed custard buns for $4.50++. Tasted good enough, right mix of sweetness and saltiness, but the custard was not as full as expected. Still enjoyed this anyhow.

16 May 2010 in Taiwan

egg with runny yolk - comfort food to him


onion cookies - the taste grows on you


bonus - a view from the window

ultra yummy pork ribs rice 11 Feb 2010

pork ribs rice - special braised pork ribs, egg halves and rice topped with japanese seasoning. work of the inspired wife demonstrating the skill of using available ingredients for a good meal.

last dinner of 2009

he took a shower and slept after reaching home from the office. suddenly, he was rudely awoken by a frantic sounding wife. got up and went with her to see what happened. turned out to be dinner time, and some of it were ready to eat. happiness.

egg wrap (omelette) rice - wife special fried rice with curry-flavor chinese-style sausage. she refused to disclose the recipe, but it contained some dried shrimps. very fragrantly done. the egg wrap? she made him help her with frying some egg, and he just went ahead with frying his regular eggs, that's why you see it's not really that wrapped. maybe it should be called "egg covered rice" instead.


close up of the content


"hi tiger bye ox soup" - 100 grams of beef brisket, chicken essence cube, some star anise, ginger chunks, rice vermicelli. not too bad, but maybe the star anise made it a little weird. name of the soup is such to welcome the year of the tiger while the ox takes its break. sounds a little malicious though, when there's beef in the soup and she and he are born in the years of tiger and ox respectively.

over another weekend - sumo house amk and hokkaido men-ya kaiko

nobody cooked at home on friday, so she suggested heading to sumo house for dinner.

as usual, she ordered teriyako salmon bento, and he ordered tempura udon.

other side-dishes were shishamo and e-tako.

fried shishamo - 5 for $2


tempura udon - naruto, anyone? $4.90


total damage was around $18 dollars.


then on saturday, it seemed that badminton was cancelled. headed out to town, and was reminded of ws' recommendation of "true hokkaido ramen". to finishing quoting him, "food from small stall at restaurant price". hokkaido men-ya kaiko.

ordered pork ramen with red miso. $16.80. had wanted to order the chicken with white ramen, but she was against it. 2 or 3 large slices of pork in it, noodles were springy, and the soup was flavourful without being too salty.


sides, sides! skipped the large-as-thumb corn, but ordered the seasoned egg. similar to braised egg, but this was really well-flavoured throughout. $1.


total damage including other charges amounted to $20.95. a bowl of noodles. just for once, not for returns.

it seemed the japanese chef was coaching filipina service staff, probably to take over the manning in future for lesser running costs. the lady cashier wasn't too nice to them, however this "emil" waiter was really considerate, smilingly volunteered to bring them another set of eating utensils and bowl when he saw that they had only ordered a bowl of ramen.