Chakey's Salted-Baked Chicken

 

I have seen many of these boxes hung outside a stall in the basement of Hougang Mall. This stall sells Tea Eggs, Corn Cup and Dumplings. Besides that, the stall also sells Chakey's Baked Chicken.

When you visit the stall and see the box, you may be intrigue by the phrase "Salted-Baked Chicken". You cannot see the chicken as it is wrapped up like a mummy and placed in the food warmer. I have given it a miss as the box does not look attractive, and the way they wrap the chicken is not appealing to me. However, I was informed by one of my friends that Chakey's Salted-Baked Chicken is very famous. In Junction 8, it will be sold out by late evening. This leads me to try buying one from the Hougang Mall. 

This is how the chicken looks like when I removed the wrapper. It is still warm, and it does smell good. It seems to me that the chicken has been cooked for a long time, and just a little pull, you would be able to remove the wings and drumsticks for consumption. You can basically tear the chicken apart without much effort. 

After taking a bite, I was surprised that this chicken is well-cooked. The meat is tender and soft. The gravy is trapped in the meat, and you would find the meat delicious and juicy. It has a light herbal taste and not really salty at all. I would say that the chef making this dish puts in just the right amount of ingredients and spices to perfect the taste. 

I would recommend any foodies who likes to eat soft and tender chicken meat to try out this dish. It costs less than $20 and a good dish to be served during your meals. 

Forget about going to Bishan Junction 8 basement to buy this chicken. Come to Hougang Mall basement and you can find the shop next to the escalator. The lesson I learnt here is "Don''t judge a chicken by its box".  

Next, I would share with you my favourite pizza at a very special pizza restaurant. Do come back for it. 

Yu Zhen Xiao Chu @ Hougang Mall

Yu Zhen Xiao Chu is a new addition to the line of restaurants in Hougang Mall. It is situated on the 2nd level in between Pizza Hut and Ichiban Sushi. As usual, my curiosity led me to try 2 of the dishes shown in their menu. 

The Hokkien Fried Noodles tasted rather simple and demure. It is not like this Hokkien Mee that you have tasted in the coffee shop where the taste of the prawns and sotongs are very strong. This Hokkien Mee tasted like those plain noodles fried with light sauce. The chef is very considerate to have removed the shell of prawns for easy consumption. I would say nothing really special about this Hokkien Mee. I have tasted something better. 

This is my main course, Chilly Crab. As you know, I do not like spicy food and thus I gave the chef an unreasonable request. That is to have a not so spicy chilly crab. Initially the waitress taking the order almost looked stunned. It is almost like order Chicken Rice without the Chicken or Char Kway Teow without the Kway Teow! Well, following the principle that the customer is always right, she passed the instruction to the chef. Together with the chilly crab, I have ordered 10 small deep fried buns. These fried buns are commonly found in all restaurants that sell chilly crab.

The chilly crab is really GOOD! It has the taste of the chilly crab and yet not too spicy. I will give many thumbs up for this dish. I believe if he can control the spiciness for me; he is able to cook to your liking. The crab is also delicious and fresh. I will recommend all of you to try out the chilly crab if you are a crab lover. The price is about $30 to $35 for a crab. You can also choose to cook the crab using a different method. The restaurant has eight or more methods of cooking the crab!

For the dessert, I have ordered the Mango Pudding, but sadly they forget to give it to me. So I would be going back to eat the pudding next time. So far, the best mango pudding that I have tasted is from Crystal Jade Kitchen.

It is too early to conclude whether Yu Zhen Xiao Chu is a worth to visit the restaurant or not as I have not tasted their heavily publicized BBQ seafood. Currently, they have a promotion till 31 Jan 2013 where you will get a 10% discount, no 7% GST and a 1 for 1 dessert promotion. Do come down to the newly open Yu Zhen Xiao Chu at Hougang Mall and try out their food. Do share your feedback with me using the comment link below.

Coming soon, I will introduce all of you to a very special chicken that is well loved by a lot of people. You may need to go early to buy the chicken. Do come back for the review soon.

AMBUSH at Junction 8 Singapore

Yesterday, I have visited the AMBUSH restaurant in Bishan Junction 8 restaurant. It has been a long time since I have visited Junction 8.

To my pleasant surprise, there is a new European restaurant on the 2nd level of Junction 8 shopping center. I have tried a few dishes, and I would like to share them with you.  

This is a starter that you must try. This is the mouth watering Mussel Pot. The chef used white wine and other interesting spices to cook the delicious mussels. As you can see from the picture, the restaurant is not stingy with their mussels. Initially, you would think that it is just one of those mussels that make you feel disturbed after consuming a few. Also, you would either expect the sauce to be salty or just some mussel soup. To my surprise, the mussels are big and juicy. When you munch on it, you can feel the tasty juice of the fresh mussels exploding in your mouth. The juice tasted just like the sauce in the pot, and you can imagine that the mussels much have been cooked with the sauce for hours for the mussels to have soaked with so much of the sauce.

2 big pieces of garlic breads come with the Mussels Pot. You can also choose between Fries and Salad. Personally, I would recommend you to dip a small piece of the garlic bread with sauce in the Mussel Pot and consume it. It is a heavenly taste. The sauce is smooth and addictive. You would find yourself uncontrollably dipping another piece of garlic bread into the pot again. You can also drink the sauce like the soup. Do not just finish the mussels and throw away the sauce. You would have missed the essence of the whole dish.

For the main course, if you are undecided what you like to eat, you can order the mixed platter and have a taste of everything. The portion looks manageable, and you can get to sample all the different dishes featured in their menu. Do not forget the salty vegetables beside the smashed potato after eating a few pieces of the well-cooked meat. It will tentatively relief you from the meaty feeling. Overall this dish is well cooked and delicious. If you are a meat lover, you will love this dish. There is no need to dip the meat in any other sauces and just enjoy the meat as it is.

After the main course, you would like to have some dessert to end this wonderful meal. This is the best Tiramisu that I have ever tasted. It looks quite simple, and one would have expected it to taste like any other Tiramisu sold in other restaurant. Nope, this is another beautiful must try dish in the AMBUSH restaurant. I was mesmerized by the taste and texture of the Tiramisu. It is very tasty. Not too sweet, very smooth texture and every spoonful of Tiramisu will just melt heavenly in your mouth. One will think that it is so creamy that you would feel like stopping after a few mouthful of it. You are wrong! You will surrender to the AMBUSH Tiramisu and let it just sweeten all your taste buds.

Being a dessert lover, I have tried another wonderful dessert from the restaurant. It is Chocolate softie. I really cannot remember how to spell it. If you are a chocolate lover, you would not want to miss this dessert. The short clip will show you that the small little chocolate cake below the vanilla ice-cream is bursting with chocolate lava. The chocolate is not too sweet, and it tasted just nice with the vanilla ice cream. Really wonderful!!!!!

On the whole, my visit to the AMBUSH in Junction 8 was a pleasant one. If you have a craving for some European food, do come down to Junction 8 to be AMBUSHED by the above delicious food. Below is the address for your reference:

Ambush (Junction 8)

9 Bishan Place

#02-19/20/27 Junction 8 Shopping Centre

Tel: 63533960

 Do come back for more good food. See ya.