The best food can often be found at the dirtiest alleys.

Still in Changping, there’s an an alley full of little eating outlets about 8 minutes’ walk from our hotel (Hui Hua Hotel).

We went to this outlet called Ah Sheng BBQ (阿胜烧烤 something – their shop names are always so long that I don’t have time to read everything before stepping into the shop).

The Goonfather had eaten there before and couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards. This place was the reason we extended our stay in Changping for two nights. I had a sore throat our first two nights there and couldn’t eat throat-unfriendly food. =P

They cook the food right out in the open and bring it into the dining area for you. There’s a huge array of food for your consideration: All kinds of vegetables, meats and seafoods on skewers. All the food is spiced with interesting Chinese spices including peppercorn and something salty and herby.

You can get Chinese BBQ in Geylang. Lots of little shops there, usually called 羊肉串 (mutton skewers) because that’s probably the main attraction. The ones in Singapore, however, are limited to a few kinds of meat and no veges save for corn.

Check out the stuff we ordered in Ah Sheng!

Mushrooms and mid-joint chicken wings:

Eggplant:

(Look like fish, doesn’t it? Haha.)

Prawns:

(They have the giant ones, like three or four times this size but I didn’t dare order them.)

Enoki mushrooms:

Below the mushrooms are chives:

Shishamo and Taiwanese sausages:

Corn:

Buns:

Quail:

(The item on the menu said Little Bird (小鸟) so I ordered it out of curiosity. It wasn’t so nice, though, and it looked a bit scary.)

The meal was just amazing. It was the first time in my four days in Changping that I overate. You definitely have to try this if you go to China. It’s not only in Changping. Many other cities and towns have them. You’ll find hawkers on the streets (main roads as well as alleys) BBQing in the open.

There was a pretty female singer in Ah Sheng carrying a guitar in her arms and an amp on her back (like a backpack) walking from table to table asking if people wanted a song. Of course, she would put the amp down when singing, but once done, she’d hoist it upon her back again. It’s quite cute!

She has a menu of Chinese song titles and each song costs 10RMB (S$2).

It’s like a mobile jukebox!

There was a table with, like, gangster boss types, that ordered 10 songs in a row, so we got to enjoy lots of free songs, heh.

After she was done there and came to our table, we ordered one song. (Because we only had one 10RMB note among us. The rest of our cash was in big notes.)

After our table no one else ordered anything.

By the way, this was the night we got accosted by the little girls I mentioned in Star Blog this week. It was after dinner while we were walking back to the hotel from this place.

(It didn’t happen in an alleyway, though. It happened out in the open by the main road, which made it more remarkable.)

Anyway, I’m loving Changping despite the pollution and scary little girl predators. Definitely gonna pay another visit soon. =)

I have mixed feelings about this place.

It’s a restaurant where everything you eat is grown in-house, including vegetables, livestock and seafood. The Cantonese-style cooking is superb and you can be sure your food is fresh.

The restaurant is situated in the farm itself, so you can take a tour and see for yourself the vegetables, the animals, the fish… before they are removed to be cooked.

I think it’s read as Hui Li (or Li Hui. I don’t know). That’s the name of the farm-restaurant, or whatever you call it. It’s situated in Tangxia (a very small town in Dongguan, China).

It’s not that you get to pick what you want to eat and they slaughter it on the spot for you. I think the owner allowed us to wander about to visit the animals because he knows Isaiah, our friend who brought us there. (But maybe he allows people to walk around anyway because he seems the friendly, easy-going sort.)

It’s just that it’s a little weird seeing the live counterparts of the animals that you know you’ll be eating later. I feel a bit guilty, even, although I’m not about to get all noble and swear off meat forever.

I still enjoy eating meat. I just don’t really want to pay them visits and grow attached to them just before I eat them, you know?

This goose was playing with a hanging hose. It was rather cute.

I think we had a goose dish at dinner.

We didn’t order chicken.

We saw a bunch of black chickens that had really funky hairstyles. The Goonfather thinks this one looks like Unker Kell:

Running chicken:

We also saw two rabbits along the way.

We rationalised that, since there were only two rabbits in the whole place, they must be pets rather than food.

The pigs were quite smelly. And scary. Because they oinked a lot. And they were enclosed in a rather dark shed.

But they weren’t as smelly as the elephants we visited at the zoo two days later.

These are little black pigs (or something). We ate them. Not them in this picture, specifically, but probably one of their brothers who had already been slaughtered.

Normal pigs:

You don’t see the animals if you just walk into the restaurant and hang around there. (The animals are deeper into the compound.) What you see will be the eating areas, lots of greenery, and tranquil, still waters.

And the food.

Goose:

Vegetables:

Bean curd:

Pork:

Fish:

Since it’s Cantonese-style, nothing is spicy and everything is less salty than the usual Chinese fare we ate most of our trip (mainly Hunan-style and Sichuan-style). But it’s still tasty. You feel a bit healthier eating here.

But I guess I still prefer the spicy food. There’s a Hunan restaurant Isaiah brought us to in Changping which was great but they didn’t allow me to take photos so I can’t share them. But I did take pictures at another Hunan restaurant so I’ll share those another day!

I really believed I wouldn’t fall sick this time, even though I had hung out with three sick people the whole week before, even sharing food and drink with them.

I had already caught the flu bug three or four times this year. I thought I would have developed enough immunities to all the strains flying around Singapore.

Besides, I had felt perfectly fine until after arriving in Changping.

Maybe I had gotten it from the Hong Kong lady who was sitting beside me on the plane, sniffling away into her tissue the entire trip. I was sandwiched between two sick people for more than three hours. (The Goonfather was also still sick at that time. His flu had started about three or four days before.)

Once we arrived in China, I started developing allergic reactions (the fleshy part near my tonsils itch crazily and my lungs feel irritated) from the smog and grime in the city and the sun combined.

That very night, I got a sore throat while sitting in my hotel room blogging.

The next day, full-blown flu. Inflamed painful throat, throbbing head threatening to explode, nose blocked and leaking.

I spent the whole day in bed with my iPad, alternating between playing PvZ and sleeping.

I did step out for lunch and dinner, though.

Lunch was at a Western cafe a minutes’ walk from our hotel. I had to eat something soft because of my throat but I didn’t want porridge so the Goonfather suggested pasta.

What a great suggestion that was. I had the best spaghetti bolognese ever. It was really good. And I’ve never even liked bolognese in the first place.

The sauce was very tasty, just the right amount of saltiness, sweetness and spice. And the spaghetti was a perfect consistency, firm and chewy.

Huge fork and spoon!

The Goonfather had these, which were really good too:

What a surprise find. You wouldn’t think the food’s any good from the outside because it kinda looks like an old-fashioned tourist trap, and it’s dark and quiet inside. We wouldn’t ever have eaten in there if I hadn’t been sick.

There’s a huge department store opposite our hotel.

The whole building is a department store! We had wandered there looking for lunch but didn’t see any eating places other than MacDonald’s, so I just bought some flu medicine and the Goonfather bought mini mooncakes.

They have interesting ingredients in the mini mooncakes like pork floss, roast beef, abalone, sharks fin and assorted fruit flavours.

Unfortuntely, I still can’t eat any because I don’t think my throat will like it.

I ate a peach at 6 pm (this is still yesterday) so I could eat another dose of medication.

The peach is disappointing. A Chinese masseuse had told the Goonfather that this year’s peaches aren’t too sweet because it has been raining too much. Darn. Just like the lousy durians back home now. What’s with the excessive rain these two years?

The woman that sold us these peaches said they were ripe and ready to eat, but they’re hard. Yucks.

Dinner was at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel.

I was dying of pain all over the place and didn’t want to go anywhere further.

I ordered a whole bunch of food that I thought would be kind to my throat.

Plus a california handroll which I forgot to photograph cos that was the first one to arrive.

Yes! That was all mine! Hehe. I didn’t realise I had ordered so much. Obviously, I couldn’t finish everything.

After placing my order, the waitress asked if I wanted a boiled coke with ginger. She said it in Chinese and I had to look to the Goonfather to see if he knew what she was talking about.

He said, “Oh! I hear it’s supposed to be very good for flu.”

So I agreed to try it.

After the waitress left, I asked the Goonfather, “How did she know I’m having flu?”

He said, “Because you look sick. Your eyes are watery and you ordered all the sick people food.”

Dots…..

My ginger coke was a bit nasty. Well, I’m sure you can imagine the taste. The mad sweetness of stale coke combined with the spiciness of ginger.

I don’t know if spicy was the right word, but the drink was very spicy. And hot, since it’s boiled.

But I managed to finish it and I think it did make me feel better.

At first, I was drinking it by the spoonful cos it was hot and I could never manage more than four spoons at once (cos of the spiciness).

But once it turned lukewarm, I was gulping it down. Just to get it over and done with.

I’m sure it works even better than the lousy flu pills I bough. The pills didn’t seem to do shit for me.

Oh, then, after that, I asked the waitress whether I could eat my flu medicine after drinking the coke. She said it was okay, and then added that I shouldn’t eat eggs while having the flu.

Why didn’t she tell me earlier? I ordered so many egg dishes because I thought they were safe.

I took a very hot shower after dinner and went to bed. There was still a lot of pain in the head and throat and nose so I flitted in and out of sleep all night.

But by the time I woke up in the morning and blew out my nose, I felt a lot better!

I managed to wake up early enough to have the complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel. I ordered another ginger coke. Luckily, it was a small cup this time!

Looks like ginger coke is such a common drink in China (and I think Hong Kong) that you can probably order it at any eating places. The Goonfather has seen it once on the menu of a Hong Kong cafe in China.

I feel a lot better now after my second dose!

Throat still hurts a bit but it’s bearable now. Headache seems to be gone. Yay. But nose is still a bit runny.

I had more sick people food for breakfast.

No eggs, boohoo.

The porridge was very good, though. The preserved bean curd here is sooooo good. It tastes a lot better than the ones we get from the supermarket back home. I’m gonna eat more tomorrow!

I feel well enough to do some sightseeing today but it’s a rainy day, so I don’t know how fun it would be to visit a theme park in this kind of weather.

Yesterday was nice and sunny and I was in bed all day.

Oh, we’ve decided to extend our stay in Changping for two more nights because the Goonfather deems me not well enough to make the three-hour bus ride back to Zhuhai (supposedly tomorrow).

Yay!! I get to stay in this cheap and good hotel suite for two more days! =D

It was that huge statue in a cheap suit of armor that first got us curious about The King Louis Grill & Bar at VivoCity.

The statue was standing in a rather prominent spot in VivoCity, holding a sword and accompany a large poster detailing the merits of the restaurant it was endorsing.

The food in the pictures looked really good. Meat. Thick slabs of juicy, tantalising meat. Loads of meat.

And there was a 3-for-2 beer promo which decided the boys.

So up we went to The King Louis.

It is supposedly a restaurant serving medieval English royalty cuisine.

The menu looks good enough. There are royal banquet sets for knights and queens, as well as individual ala carte items.

But I’m sure medieval royalty had dishes a lot more creative than what we saw on the menu. They probably had dishes along the lines of Honey-coated Roast Rabbit Stuffed With Exotic Pear and Aged Cheese.

Still, I am generally quite happy sticking to commoner dishes like Just A Regular Rib-Eye Steak, so it didn’t bother me too much that The King Louis didn’t quite deliver its promise of feeding us like medieval royalty.

The decor is a little cheesy if you want my opinion. The furniture looks more Western Cowboy Tavern than Medieval England Court to me. The only things that vaguely pass off as medieval are the fake knights wearing plates of cheap, hammered steel.

And there are TV monitors surrounding the restaurant.

“Oh, look! Medieval TV!” said Unker Kell.

He pointed at one particular TV in a corner. The screen was doing funny stuff, alternating between colourful fuzz and techno-funk lines performing synchronised dance.

Impressive.

But despite questionable decor and misleading advertisements, we found the food pretty decent. Three of us shared a Knight’s Banquet at a reasonable price of $45.90.

For an additional $10, we could receive two soups, two drinks and dessert.

I mean, the meats weren’t to-die-for or anything, but they were tasty enough that I wouldn’t mind going back there again. I love mixed platters where you get all kinds of meat.

Only the pork was disappointing because it was overcooked, too tough and dry. The beef and chicken were reasonably good. The potato wedges were crispy and tasty. The pineapple and apple slices were inedible, being quite bland. All their juices must have seeped out during the cooking.

The meal was just enough for the three of us.

I particularly liked the very large fork that come sitting on the platter.

When it was time for us to receive our dessert, I was excited to discover what “King Louis Assorted Pastries” we were going to get.

Turned out it was this:

I asked our server, “THIS is assorted pastries?”

She smiled without any hint of irony and said brightly, “Yes.”

Oh, well, at least the staff was cheerful and friendly.

The staff was made up of young ladies dressed in black t-shirts and black pants with very common-looking aprons and — get this — wearing cheap tiaras on their heads with their hair unceremoniously tied up.

It was wrong on two counts.

Firstly, tiaras should go with gowns, not lousy tshirts and pants with cheap aprons.

Secondly, tiaras are supposed to belong on princesses, and princesses are not waitresses, period.

It would be a better experience for diners if the waitresses are dressed like medieval serving wenches. You can easily get these costumes at costume shops.

Although you’d have to dirty them up a bit to make them look more realistic. I mean the dresses, not the wenches. Although I can imagine serving wenches being quite grimy after hours of serving food.

For a themed restaurant, overall, not enough effort has been made to stay faithful to the theme. Foodwise, it’s reasonable. The cheesecake was actually really good. Secret Recipe standard.

Just don’t order beer.

Our boys got the “3 beers for the price of 2″ promo, right? It turned out that their three beers cost $40. Each pint of Stella Artois goes for $20 there.

According to the boys, $40 is a normal price to pay for three pints of beer at most drinking places, anyway. Some promotion that was.

We’d still go back, though. We want to try the meat+seafood banquet, next. And I’m still hoping the wait staff uniforms will get better.

The King Louis Grill & Bar is at #03-07A VivoCity (beside Daiso).

I think food reviews are one of the easiest to write since I can just post a whole bunch of pictures and people will be happy (lol), so here’s a food post today!

I’ve been really busy recently, which explains the lack of updates the past few days. Lots of assignments have come in and I have tons of meetings and events to attend.

So, on with it!

Two weeks ago, we went to Sunshine Plaza to eat Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee but got seduced by this little eatery, instead!

Old Kim Guan serves a small variety of local delights that somehow evoke memories of my childhood. You know how there are dishes you used to eat when you were younger which you can never seem to find now?

The BBQ chicken wings at Old Kim Guan reminded me of the chicken wings I loved to eat at birthday parties or beach picnics when I was a kid. My mum and aunts used to cook them a lot and they were always accompanied by beehoon and fried fish balls.

Of course, the wings at Old Kim Guan are better because you get them fresh off the stove (or whatever it is they’re cooked in) when they’re still hot, juicy and crispy.

The chilli sauce is really good. It’s like the ones you get with regular BBQ chicken wings at hawker centres but with a unique twist. I can’t describe it because I can’t remember the taste exactly. Haha. But, you know what, the chicken wings are so good on their own you’d hardly need the chilli sauce.

The wings are a bit pricey at $1.50 each (cheaper if you order more) but I think the quality is well worth the price. The other dishes are decently priced at around $3-$5 per dish.

Curry chicken:

This was only so-so. I thought the curry was a bit too thick for my liking, but maybe some people like it that way. The taste also wasn’t up to my standard. I think not coconuty enough or something.

Pig’s trotter:

I don’t normally like eating stewed pig’s trotter but I quite liked this one and couldn’t stop reaching for more. The vinegar taste was not overpowering like some others I’ve tried. It was actually pleasant in a way that enhanced the entire dish. The trotters were also cooked really well and quite melt-in-your-mouth.

Chye Poh Minced Meat:

The most humble of dishes but most enjoyable. This dish disappeared into our bellies the fastest of all. The meat was tender and tasted just right.

Pig stomach soup:

This is a soup dish that I used to enjoy as a kid but haven’t been able to find good ones for a long time. This one was good. The soup is really tasty and the ingredients are fresh!

Some noodle dish:

I can’t remember what this was called. I didn’t try it because I wasn’t in a noodle mood that night. I think it was alright but not fantastic. It’s so much better to order a variety of dishes with rice. You know how some dishes taste better when you eat them with rice? I think all the dishes at Old Kim Guan were chosen for their compatibility with rice.

Except the chicken wings. Those are great on their own.

Old Kim Guan is at #01-55 Sunshine Plaza (91 Bencoolen Street). Go try it out. The service is good and friendly. :)

Okay, end of post! And a mandatory camwhore pic.