BBQ Box 串烧工坊 at Bugis, Singapore

BBQ Box serves North-Eastern Chinese barbeque, and it has received raving reviews from the native chinese community here, complimenting them for the authentic food and ambience. 

We went BBQ Box for lunch one day and it was pretty good. Basically all the ingredients seemed to be grilled the same way with the same spices.

Despite that, we love chinese grilled food. When I was in Shanghai, we used to order these mutton/ chicken sticks (imagine satay chinese style) and eat them hot during winter/ spring.

I would recommend ordering chinese tea to go with the food (and to be liberal in asking for refill) as their dishes tend to be (very) oily.

Refillable pot of tea at $6 (Tie-Guanyin):

Sweet Potatoes at $2 (I love these... grilling brings out the sweetness in them):

Assorted meat(chicken, beef, mutton, and pork) at $1 each (Highlight of the day, love it!):

Grilled French Beans at $1:

Grilled Enoki Mushrooms at $1.20:

Grilled Eggplants:

Grilled Scallops (these were good, but slightly overpriced at $5.90):

Grilled Squid (We didn't like this dish. It was average but too overpriced at $16.80 for this standard):

Grilled Pomfret (The fish was tender, and the skin was crisp. Worth the 20 minutes wait for $16.80):

Chinese Dumplings, 10 for $6:

There are 2 outlets in total:

Main Branch at 101/103 Geylang Road, SG (389212)

Reservations 9234-8659

21 Tan Quee Lan Street, SG (188108)

Reservations 6835-7456

Opens 1400-0200hrs daily.

[After-note] This place has officially become my favourite haunt to satisfy my chinese BBQ cravings! Tried a few other places but they were just sub-standard compared to this place.

Relax and Lepak at Tea Chapter along Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar

Tea Chapter is an established teahouse in Singapore. Started as a small joint venture by 13 tea enthusiasts on 1 October 1989, it has came a long way. One of their most notable guests was Queen Elizabeth II. Other famous guests were President Tony Tan, Former President S.R. Nathan, and PM Lee Hsien Loong.

They have since expanded and now holds the title of being the biggest teahouse in the island, selling everything from tea leaves to tea wares and even tea books. They also provide workshops to all who are interested to learn more about the oriental art.

Located at one of the many shophouses under Singapore's conservation project, this tea house provides exactly what chinese tea lovers would love -- the peace and tranquility for a few hours, be it for a quiet moment to communicate with your inner self, or for a relaxing moment with fellow tea lovers.

One thing to note though, if you are heading over during the weekends, be warned that the topmost level may be a tad noisy. In view of that, we opted for the second level (which requires a top-up amount of SGD5) when we pop by for the second time. 

I remembered Tea Chapter serving their own mooncakes with tea last year. While chatting with the staff there, he told us that though the festive set was popular, they decided to discontinue with it this year. However, they do sell the mooncakes separately at SGD14 each.

We ordered Superior Grade Dragon Well Tea (特级龙井 teji-longjing tea), and the staff patiently taught us how to make a pot of good tea and how to appreciate it. I subsequently bought a box (50g at SGD40) for Mid-Autumn Festival. 

Of course, what's good tea without good food? :D

We ordered a variety of food to go with the longjing tea:

Tea-Egg 茶叶蛋 

As compared to the tea-eggs you buy from random stalls in shopping malls and pasar malam, the Tea-egg here was much more flavourful and fragrant. As you bite into it, you can see that the richness of the tea and spices has seeped entirely into the egg.

Tea-Jellies:

Eight Treasures Tea Jelly (八宝茶冻):

Essentially the jelly version of the Eight Treasures Tea, there were bits of goodness in this jelly: red dates, longans, wolfberries etc. It is good on its own.

Red Bean Tea Jelly (红豆茶冻):

The orange bits on it were refreshing, but i think that this particular jelly is too sweet and strong flavoured to go with chinese tea. It overpowers and covers the tea it was supposed to complement.

Osmanthus Tea Jelly (桂花茶冻):

I like this flavour for the fact that it is not too sweet. Osmanthus has a light fragrance and this tea-jelly has captured the essence of it.

Chapter 7 Cookies (精选香酥):

I personally think that this is a little too filling and a little too dry, so I wouldn't recommend this. it has 7 different flavours, but both the man and I cannot determine all of them. We managed to taste almond, pistachio, rose and that's about it).

View from our seat:

Tea Chapter is located at 9 Neil Road, SG (088808).

You can make reservations by calling +65-6226-1175.

Sundays to Thursdays - 11:00am - 10:30pm

Fridays and Saturdays - 11:00am to 11:00pm

Next up, I think i will give Yixing Xuan Teahouse (怡心轩) a try.

Canton-i at City Square, JB, Malaysia

We went to Johor-Bahru one Saturday for a quick day trip.

It was actually my first trip to City Square (JB) and it actually feels very much like a Singapore mall with a much bigger space.

First stop of the day was dim-sum for brunch!

Well, we chose this place because they have this really cute looking piggy bao:

It tasted normal, but being cute, it kind of overrides anything.

We ordered a whole long list of food:

Jasmine Fairy floral tea:

Crispy fish skin:

Fish and lean meat (pork) porridge:

Chee Cheong Fun (with prawns):

Fried carrot cake:

This was a huge disappointment though. The egg, beansprouts, and carrot cake, were cooked separately and combined together thereafter it seems. It was lacking in the fragrance and sweetness that could be brought out by "wok-frying" the ingredients together.

On the overall, it was much more affordable as compared to a dim-sum restaurant of similar standards in Singapore. After all that food we ordered, it cost 125MYR (~50SGD) for 5 pax (only 10SGD per pax for all that goodness!)