Friday, June 26, 2020

Circuit Breaker Takeaway: Birds of a Feather

WHO: Birds of a Feather, modern Sichuan cuisine. I'm a repeat customer. Enuff said. Read more here.

WHAT: Food Bundle Set for 2-4pax ($68) for variety's sake even though. This is definitely good to share among 3. 
Find The Chicken in the Chilis- Flavorsome crispy chicken bits with sesame seed and tons of dried chili and peppercorn. The numbing spice kicks in after a couple of bites so do alternate it with the other dishes. 
Spicy Oriental Bolognaise- the noodles are beehoon like and i do love the pull of the noodles. They also held up well during the delivery and wasn't too dry or clumpy. The chili oil of the tangy, pickled chili bolognaise helped. 
Tender Chicken Grains Bowl- a healthy bowl that is big on flavor. I love the mix of grains which were chewy and sweet. I mistook the chicken for oyster mushrooms at the start because they looked so smooth and boy were they tender too. 
Fried Pig's Intestines- the porky flavor was a bit strong or perhaps i'm not accustomed to it since i haven't eaten this in a while. The dried chili powder helped to mask the gaminess a bit. 
Bird's Brown Sugar Fresh Milk Boba Pearl 
x2- BOBA. That's all. 

WHAT ELSE: I struggled because i really wanted to eat the Baked Eggplant with Fried Mantou ($16). This is one of my favorite dishes at Birds of a Feather. Please order it for my sake. You won't regret it. 

HOW: Order from https://www.birdsofafeather.com.sg/en_SG. Minimum order of $50, $5 delivery fees.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Circuit Breaker Takeaway: Chatterbox & Shisen Hanten

 WHO: Singapore's favorite chicken rice Chatterbox and 2 Michelin Star Shisen Hanten
WHAT: 50% off all items from Mandarin Orchard. Chatterbox's world-famous Hainanese Chicken Rice is only priced at $13.50 now. Features tender-boiled chicken, jasmine rice, and chicken soup, served with homemade chilli, ginger, and dark soya sauce. 

Get yourself a DBS/POSB card and enjoy 1-for-1 deals.
Chatterbox Signature Bento ($34 for 2 sets)- Mandarin Chicken Rice, Braised Bee Tai Mak with Abalone, Tauhu Goreng, and Rojak. The sides change over time. The earlier set we had featured abalone ko lo mee which was fab. My mum had the bee tai mak recently and said it wasn't good. I'd recommend the chicken rice for sure. Oh and get another portion of the refreshing rojak! 
Shisen Hanten Bento  ($34 for 2)- Gave the Chen's Mapo tofu another try in this bento and still did not enjoy it. Too one dimensional with the numbing spice but it wasn't like spicy either. The bento was a lot less satisfying than the Chatterbox one. Give this a miss.
HOW: Place your orders on https://shop-orchard.meritushotels.com/en_SG. Free delivery over $80. Free parking for 30mins if you're taking away. 

Friday, June 19, 2020

Circuit Breaker Takeaway: Basque Kitchen by Aitor

WHO: One Michelin Star restaurant Basque Kitchen by Aitor. Also the best Michelin takeaways that i've had so far (yes better than Burnt Ends)
WHAT: Basque food (from Northern Spain) where they do pintxos and not tapas. 
Sharing Set for 2 ($98)- also the best 98 bucks i've spent on food this CB. 
Whole homemade sourdough bread with smoked French butter- da bomb! This made me soooooo happy. One freaking gorgeous loaf of sourdough that was still warm after a 30min travel home. Such fantastic thin crust with a chewy open crumb and THAT SMOKED BUTTER. We've not finished a loaf so fast (we had it for dinner, breakfast, and lunch) and i'm still rationing the smoked butter. 
Txaka- Sweet Jumbo crab meat with egg and mayonnaise. It's a great addition to the smoked butter on sourdough.
Croquetas de Bayonne ham, Espelette aioli- the thin crust of the balls erupted and released silky creamy center peppered with smoky bits of ham. The engine-red pepper aioli provided just that sufficient hint of spice 
Iberico Pork Ribs- the other highlight of the meal even. It may seem like a small portion but these sticky fork-tender fatty ribs satiated our appetite with its big flavors.
Catch of the day- flaky juicy fish battered with a savory mix. It's a good contrast to the rich ribs.
Classic mash potatoes- smooth and silky as expected.
Basque rice pudding, Japanese rice vanilla- it's lighter than you would think a rice dessert would be and reminded us of a Peruvian rice dessert that we had. Hints of spices and lemon in this. 
Guanaja" chocolate custard, dark chocolate & salted caramel pearls- i liked that the chocolate custard wasn't too sweet and the pops of salty caramel crunch broke the sweetness.
With a min order of $50 and if you pick up your food, you will get a free slice of their Signature Basque Cheesecake worth $16. The Idiazabal cheese provides a slightly more savory note and the cake wasn't that creamy. Jr preferred my version haha. 
HOW: Visit https://basquekitchenbyaitor.oddle.me/en_SG. Pre-order 1 hour in advance. Free Delivery for $100 and above. Surcharge of $3 will apply for eve of and on public holidays.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Circuit Breaker Takeaway- 8Crabs

WHO: 8Crabs. Chinese tzechar with their specialty AAA premium Sri Lankan sourced wild crabs. Apparently they said that they are the only restaurant selling this grade of crabs. 
WHAT: BIG, JUICY, and MEATY crabs that are caught, flown, prepared and delivered to you within 12 hours plus you get your crabs delivered an hour after ordering. 
Award-Winning Chilli Crab ($68- 125)- We had the extra large which is about 900g-1kg at $88. The pincers were HUGE and the meat was really fresh and sweet. My MIL thought it was better than Jumbo Restaurant's. 8Crabs may be right about that triple A guarantee. However the sauce was a little on the sweeter side. 
WHAT ELSE: 
Signature Coffee Pork Ribs ($15-28)- I was surprised that the meat was boneless because that wasn't how it was presented online, but i didn't mind it at all. The meat was very tender and juicy with a smoky coffee flavor. 
Mee Goreng ($6-18)- thicker flat yellow noodles were used instead of what was shown online (again). This Chinese style mee goreng has more spices and is more savory compared to the Indian ones. I'm no mee goreng expert given how little i eat them but Jr on the other hand prefers Jumbo's though. I didn't mind this though.
Yang Zhou Fried Rice ($6-16)- quite regular. Small portion is good for 2 full portions or 3 slightly smaller portions. 
HOW: Visit https://8crabs.com/ to order. Free delivery above $120. 

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Circuit Breaker Takeaway: Miss Vanda by Labyrinth

WHO: Miss Vanda by One Michelin Star Labyrinth
WHAT: Expensive local food but ok we pay because there are some hot favorites from Labyrinth that is Mod-Sin.
Weekly Family Set Menu for 2 ($88) includes:
Har Cheong Wings- these arrived crispy still and i loved how it's deboned and the juiciness could be fully enjoyed. Super pungent (in a good way) and that sambal belachan is woah! Love this too.
Laksa- if you want a good bowl of laksa, go to Katong 328 (according to Jr). This was more like a seafood curry noodles with unfortunately mushy prawns, plus mussels, her giao and tau pok.
Wagyu Rendang- this super tender and intense rendang would have you reaching for a pot of plain rice, especially with the lumps of buah keluak in it. It's our favorite dish of the lot but we couldn't finish it as the rest of the dishes were all too big on flavors. 
Ang Mo Claypot Chicken Rice- this is chicken rice on crack. Try it on its own before you drench it with the mushroom sauce which i thought was a condensed Japanese Chicken ramen soup. I thought the rice was too mushy actually and together with the soupy sauce, it reminded me more of chicken baked rice. Tad too salty as well. 
HOW: Visit missvanda.sg, drive through pick up at Esplanade. Minimum order of $50 with a $10 island-wide delivery fee. Free delivery above $150. 

Monday, June 1, 2020

Circuit Breaker Delivery: BoBo Fish Balls SG

WHO: BoBo Fish Balls Singapore aka your trusty steamboat supplier. If you didn't know about their wide variety of steamboat products, well now you do. 
WHAT: A mad variety of seafood products (i portioned them for a 2 pax steamboat)
Cheese meatballs/ Salted egg chicken meatballs, Cheese tofu- my absolute favorites and must have in any steamboat. Let them boil and bob around till afloat and be extremely cautious when biting into these scalding hot balls. 
Fresh fish balls, Fuzhou fish balls with chicken filling- bouncy things. I love that they are savory and do not have any overly fishy flavors to them. The Fuzhou fish balls has a fragrant sesame-oil flavored center. 
Fish Dumplings- another must-have. Slipper morsels with salty meat fillings.  
Big Fried Tau Kee- a new steamboat favorite for me! Pop them into the toaster/air fryer to reheat and crisp further. Generous layers of fishcake and beancurd skin. SO DAMN GOOD.