Dinner with the boy @ Woori Nara

So the boy and I went exploring around my area one night for food to eat. Usually we would settle either for teochew porridge, the prata store or my all time favourite korean food restaurant in the west. However, I've been dying to try Woori Nara for its Korean Fried Chicken ever since I tried the fried chicken in Korea and at Four Fingers.

We ordered the Fried Chicken Sampler Platter consisting of (3 pieces per flavour):

- Original (The light brown coloured pieces)

- Soy Garlic (The darker brown pieces)

- Spicy (The pieces covered in dark red sauce)

Personally I don't really like the chicken. The original tasted pretty average and instead of raving over the chicken after eating it, all it did was made me yearn more for my authentic Korean fried chicken. The spicy chicken was meant to taste sweet and spicy at the same time but barely after finishing the first slice all it made me felt was "jelat". If I really had to choose a flavour I liked, it would be soy garlic but having said that, I might had gone in with extremely high expectations judging from the chicken I ate in Korea.

We also ordered the Seafood Pancake and instead of being filled with octopus and veggie, it was filled with too much batter and too little seafood. Little words are needed to show how disappointed I felt at that point of time. By the time the Dumpling and Rice Cake Soup we ordered had arrived, I was in no mood at all for pictures and all I wanted was my Mao Shan Wang ice-cream from udders. Sigh. I think I'm suffering from major redrawal symptoms from my Korea trip in August. :(

Dinner with the family @ Chao Shan Cuisine

So my family went for dinner on a weekday since YS was home for the CNY season. YS wanted to go to a Teochew restaurant along Beach Road which was recommended by her friend. The restaurant turned out to be pretty empty despite it being the dinner hour probably most people ended up visting the numerous steamboat/grilled steamboat buffet restaurants nearby.

Pork Jelly

Cold dish consisting of bits of pork trotter solidified in its own collagen. Really yummy! Definately one of the highlight dish that night.

Fried Prawn Balls

This dish is served based on the amount of pieces ordered. (There wasn't any minimum amount to be ordered written in the menu.) Anyways, my family ordered 5 pieces, one for each of us! We have this habit of ordering many dishes but all in small quantities so that we get to "sample" as many items as possible in one place.

Salted Fish with Beansprouts

Not a favourite dish of mine as I've never liked the taste of beansprouts but as YS was rarely home she insisted on ordering this which so happens to be her all-time favourite dish. Did snitch a few pieces of the salted fish which was surprisingly tasty. Maybe the dish will appeal more to those who can fully appreciate its worth.

Cereal Prawns

An all-time favourite dish of mine! However the highlight for me is usually the ending portion when all prawns have been eaten and I'm left with the big plate of cereal crumbs with bits of chilli and my big shiny spoon ever ready to dig in. By the way, does anybody eat the cereal prawn together with its shell? Because I eat the whole thing and I always thought that if the chef was a good cook and the prawns fresh enough this should be the way to consume the dish. Just a thought.



Oyster Omelette

Wasn't a much anticipated dish for us but this tasted really good compared to those bought from hawker centres. It was crispy and wasn't as oily as I had expected plus the oysters were fresh without any fishy taste to it.

   

Yam Paste (Orh Ni)

Despite eating the items above with rice, no meal can be completed without ending it with desserts. We settled for Orh Ni also known as Yam Paste that had a layer of oil on top of it. As unhealthy as it sounds, the oil makes the Yam Paste taste smooth and not dry and lumpy. We were very happy and left with round tummies that were so bloated we had to forfeit the ice-cream session across the street.

Chao Shan Cuisine (潮汕林)
85 Beach Road
Tel: 6336 2390

Timings: 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6pm to 10pm Daily