Good Morning Nanyang Cafe 早安南洋 (Sembawang)

*Been busy lately and am going overseas for work for 1 week. Next post is likely at least 1.5 weeks later* =)

First ate at Good Morning Nanyang Cafe at its Chinatown’s outlet. Back then there was only that outlet and I have not started this blog. The Chinatown outlet was too far for me to visit frequently. I was thrilled when I heard that they have recently opened another outlet at Sembawang Shopping Centre. I have been craving for their Orange Ciabatta Toast for sometimes!

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe is similar to Yakun, Killiney and Toast Box seling breakfast sets such as Kaya Toast, half boiled eggs, coffee/tea. Their differentiation point is their kaya(which is home-made) and Orange Ciabatta Toast.

Decided to visit this place for late lunch (230pm) on a Sunday.

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe seems to have undergone some changes. The signage has changed. The menu has changed with some new items. The price has also changed. One thing I must mention is that their location at Sembawang Shopping Centre is a prime location! It is located Just along the main entrance of the shopping centre. With the glass walls, anyone who walks into the shopping centre will definitely see Good Morning Nanyang Cafe!

Moreover, noticed that the shop was quite crowded (230pm to 4pm). More than Fish & Co next door which was virtually empty except for one customer.

Notice the sink hidden at the left? Now you can crack your half boiled eggs and eat your toast with ease without the need to walk to the toilets to wash your hands.

Menu

Menu: Toast Sets and Local Delights

Tea

The tea was too sweet. Should have ordered their coffee instead since everyone (online)  has been praising about its coffee.

Queue Number Tag

Queue number tag for the rest of the orders (Orange Ciabatta, Laksa and Mee Rebus).

Laksa $4.00

Surprisingly, the Laksa was served faster than the Orange Ciabatta. There were pieces of dried toufu, fish cakes, hums, 1 whole piece of hard boiled egg, a piece of prawn accompanied by thick bee hoon. The prawn was firm and has been de-shelled, it was fresh. The laksa gravy was slightly spicy. As a whole, it was not lousy nor was it fantastic. Felt it could have been more fragrant and that more dried shrimps could be added. For now, I would still prefer 928 Yishun Laksa (have been almost 1 year since my last visit there).

Mee Rebus $3.60

I am not an expert in eating Mee Rebus (can’t comment much). The sauce was not bad accompanied by yellow noodles, beansprouts,  toufu, 1 whole hard boiled egg, 1 piece of lime and pieces of green chilli.

Orange Ciabatta Toast $2.80

Ciabatta is an Italian white bread made with yeast and wheat flour.

The Orange Ciabatta is unlike the tradition toast you get in Yakun and is much softer.   It is baked with orange peel served with butter and kaya spread. It arrived warm and came slightly later than Laksa! (though that Laksa would come later as some cooking is required. Much effort has been done to make this Ciabatta.) Oh yes, did I mention that the kaya is home-made. The Kaya tasted different from Yakun’s and was much more fragrance (not overly sweet) with a hint of coconut. I can eat this everyday! Yummy!

The Orange Ciabatta is a must try! Because of this item, I would rate this as a ‘die die must try!’ store.

Shuttle Bus Schedule

The good news is that there is free shuttle bus to Sembawang Shopping Centre for residents living in Yishun, Sembawang and Woodlands. The bus service is quite frequent. Operating hours of the bus service is stated in the flyer above.

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe 早安南洋 (Sembawang)
604 Sembawang Road
#01-01 Sembawang Shopping Centre
Tel: 8133 1882
Opening Hours: Mon–Fri 9am – 9pm
Sat–Sun & PH  8.30am – 9pm

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe 早安南洋 ( Hong Lim Green Community Centre)
20, Upper Pickering Street Singapore

Tel: 8133 1882

Opening Hours: Mon–Fri 730am – 730pm 

                          Sat, Sun & PH 830am – 530pm

 Good Morning Nanyang Cafe 早安南洋 (Shenton Way)
108 Robinson Road #01-00
Tel: 8133 1882
Opening Hours: Mon–Fri  7.30am – 7pm 
                                 (Closed on Sat–Sun)

 

Cafe Helo Helo Restaurant (Bintan)

Wondering what to eat or what to do in Bintan? Especially when you are in Nirwana Resort Hotel. Well, in earlier posts, I have mentioned for food you must go try Kelong Restaurant at least once. Well, if you have been there and done that, can try going to Pasar Oleh Oleh for some shopping and for food.

Shuttle Bus Schedule

There is a Pasar Oleh Oleh shuttle bus from that has stops at several resorts including Nirwana Resort Hotel. The pass allows unlimited rides for that day at a cost of $5.00 per Adult and $3.00 per Child.

The Pasar Oleh Oleh shuttle bus at the right.

Pasar Oleh Oleh

Pasar Oleh Oleh is a cluster of village huts on slits. In Pasar Oleh Oleh, you can find about 3 eateries, and shops that sells clothes, bags, snacks, BBQ stuffs, drinks, local Indonesian delicacies such as keropok and kueh lapis. In fact they have 2 shops that are like our supermarket selling almost everything and anything. Pasar Oleh Oleh is actually quite a small place, in total its length is about 150metres. If you have anything to buy (drinks, snacks, cup noodles) buying here or in Singapore will be cheaper compared to the resort. Opposite Pasar Oleh Oleh is Kampong  Lagoi.

Cafe Helo Helo Restaurant

If you look closely, in the background there is another separate compartment with round tables for bigger groups.

Menu (a)

Menu (b)

Mie Goreng S$3.50

Mie Goreng (Mee Goreng) was delicious! Despite it being on the salty end, I finished it and would certainty have ordered another plate if it was not so salty. It was fried to perfection and each strand of noodle was coated with the gravy.

Bihun Goreng S$3.50

Bihun Goreng (fried bee hoon) was so so. It was not salty, but in terms of taste of the dish as a whole, something seems to be lacking. Not that it was bad, maybe the Mie Goreng was too good.

Stir Fried Tofu & Seafood S$14

Before we order the Stir Fried Tofu & Seafood, I was wondering why would this dish cost $14 when the Mee Goreng cost only $3.50. If there was a mark up, then the Mee Goreng should have been marked up too.
When the Stir Fried Tofu & Seafood was served I knew why it was so expensive. Look at the amount of ingredients! The gravy was also filled to the beam and was flowing out as the table legs was not even.  They were very generous with their ingredients. Besides fried tofu, there was prawns, squids, broccoli, fishballs and even pieces of fried eggs (like those you get in some fish soups). The ingredients were fresh but the gravy was on the salty end. The fried egg was good, but they were soak with gravy. Hence, we were pretty thirsty after the meal.

Overall, Cafe Helo Helo Restaurant’s food are reasonably priced and much nicer compared to elsewhere especially when you compare it to the restaurants in Nirawana Resort Hotel itself. But it might be a hassle going to Pasar Oleh Oleh.

Oleh Oleh Restaurant???

Saw this sign in Cafe Helo Helo. It dawn on me much later that Oleh when spelled backwards is Helo!

Cafe Helo Helo Restaurant (Bintan)
Pasar Oleh Oleh, Kota Sebung
Tel: (62) 770 692 488 

Tetsu (Ramen Champion @ Iluma)

By now you might have heard that there is an ‘Ultimate Ramen Champion Competition‘ happening in Singapore. Six of the best Ramen restaurants from Japan have set up shop in Iluma (Bugis) selling their signature dishes. They will be here for 1 year (1st July 2011 – 30th June 2012) and are competing to be the Ultimate Ramen Champion. 

The six Ramen restaurants here are:
1.IROHA from Toyama
2.BARIO from Tokyo
3.GANTETSU from Sapporo
4.TETSU from Tokyo
5.IKKOSHA from Hakata
6.TAI SHO KEN from Tokyo

Like Marche, a card is given to every singe person who enters. This card is used to pay for your orders at the different stalls. There are 3 cashiers located at the exit and that is where you pay the bill. If you lose the card, you will need to pay $200.

Inside, its free sitting. There are lots of seats available. During lunch time (weekday), it can be quite crowded. There is a queue at almost every stalls. Surprising, it was when we were exiting that had the longest queue. With 3 cashiers (max capacity) operating, the queue was still slow moving.

With 6 different stalls, it is hard to decide what to eat. But no worries, they are here for 1 year. I am sure I will try the rest soon enough. Queues at  Ikkosha, Bario and Iroha were too long. As I was feeling hungry, I decide to go for Tetsu which had a slightly shorter queue.

Tetsu is a Tsukemen stall from Tokyo and was listed as best Tsukeman Ramen by Tokyo Times. It’s concept is to serve the ramen and soup separately. The ramen is then dipped into into the soup. Having been around for 5 years, it has expanded to 15 outlets.

Tetsu Menu (1)

Tetsu Menu (2a)

Tetsu Menu (2b) - Tsukemen

You might have noticed that there are numbers in the Tetsu Menu (2a) and Tetsu Menu (2b). When you order, you can just say the numbers. I ordered (2) + (9) which is Very Rich!Special Paitan Tsukemen  + Flavoured Boiled Egg. In total (queue and wait my food), I waited for 15 minutes.

(2) Very Rich!Special Paitan Tsukemen $12.50 + (9) Flavoured Boiled Egg $2.00

This is the soup for the Very Rich!Special Paitan Tsukemen. Its pork, chicken and seafood broth. If you notice from this picture, there is a thick layer of oil on top of the soup! As the menu states, this is a Very Rich soup do not attempt to drink it as if you are drinking soup. Try a sip first as it is very salty. Could not taste any flavour from the pork, chicken or seafood which was definitely overwhelmed by the saltiness of the soup.

There’s leek, bamboo shoot and a slice of chashu in the soup. Nothing fantastic about the cha shu.

Ramen

On it’s own, the ramen is dry and tasteless. You can dip the noodles into the soup. For me, I scooped some of the soup into my ramen and mixed it. It was surprisingly delicious. There’s quite a large amount of noodles. Towards the last few mouthful, I felt thirsty due to the saltiness.

Flavored Boiled Egg $2.00

The Flavored Boiled Egg cost $2.00! It was disappointing. Unlike in the menu which shows that the egg yolk was runny, this was way overcooked!

Overall, I find this meal on the high end. There are certainty other places that sells great Japanese food at similar or cheaper price. In this case, the only item that was nice was the ramen. Soup and egg was disappointing. For the soup, it was too salty, maybe this suits the taste bud of the japanese.

Well despite this, I believe I will be back to try the other 5 stalls! After all, I am a foodie! If you have tried any of the stalls and like it do let me know!

Tetsu (Ramen Champion @ Iluma)
201 Victoria Street
#04-08/09/10 Iluma (Bugis)
Tel: 6238 1011
Opening Hours: Daily 1130 am to 1030 pm
Website: http://www.ramenchampion.com.sg/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theultimateramenchampion2011