Cheap Thrills

With Taiwan opening up their borders, many of you may be flying there for holidays. But for those of you peasants like me whose either out of money or out of annual leaves, this may be a good option for you!

The mee sua and lu rou fan were pretty basic and nothing out of the norm but the sides and bubble tea were what attracted me most. The Marinated Oyster Mushroom, albeit plain looking, was anything but. Savoury and tasty, they were pretty addictive and had me popping them into my mouth in quick successions. The Salted Chicken was fried to a crisp golden brown and spots a light crunch with every bite. The batter weren’t too thick either, with a decent chunk of meat with ar h mouthful.

Simply quote 8DU10 to get 10% off your total bill for island wide delivery by 8 Degree via their 8degrees.oddle.me page!

Apart from lokloks, they do have other items such as rice bowls, noodles and other sides on their menu as well. I got the Flower Enoki and it was hella addictive! Seasoned generously like the lokloks, it was neither overly greasy nor soggy, beautifully crisp and fried to perfection!

Being the mountain tortoise that I am, this is my first time having loklok 🤣 while I’ve never tried the famous ones in JB, the food here was certainly great and I sure had a jolly good time, after all; what’s better than loklok with beer 🍻

Offering a wide range of ingredients - from the basic ones like cheese tofu, seaweed chicken and crab stick to premium items like baby abalone and scallops, you can enjoy most of them at $1 per stick in Malaysian Fry Style or top up $8 to enjoy them hotpot style! The soup base comes in Classic, Mala, Satay or Laksa and you’ll find yourself spoiled for choice.

They also offer 7 different sauces at no additional charges, so go crazy and dip your loklok with your preferred pairing! My personal favourite is the Thai Seafood Chili Sauce, go give it a try!

📣PROMO: If you can find it in yourself to finish 58 sticks (for the record I was full after 9 sticks 😂) you can now simply pay $50 instead of the usual $58! Applicable to non-premium sticks only! Complete the meal with their Happy Hour that’s available from Tuesday to Thursday, 3pm to 7pm. You’d get 2 pints for $18 (instead of $24) so grab a friend along and challenge yourself to 58 sticks while winding down with a glass of ice cold beer 🍻

The noodles were equally amazing too, neither dry and clumpy nor soggy despite having travelled for a while to my place. It was the right level of springy and I added my own sambal for an added shiok-ness to go with the char siew! I'm not a big fan of roast duck but theirs is definitely better than what my family usually gets, with my brother announcing that this shall be the new place he gets his roast duck fix from now on 😉 Wash all that grease down with their complimentary soup of the day which they rotate on a daily basis!

True to my Cantonese roots, I only enjoy Char Siew made the Cantonese way - thick, sweet, sticky and striking a balance between fats and meat though I love it when I spot those heart cloggingly fatty ones with lesser meat HAHA 😂 the typical thinly sliced ones from wanton noodles pales in comparison to this - juicy on the inside with lovely charred and crusty bits on the outside.

Taro Dumplings, also known as "Wu Gok" in cantonese, are made from mashed taro and stuffed with other ingredients, such as pork in this case, before being fried to a crispy golden brown. Understandably, when they arrived at my place it was no longer as crispy but all you gotta do is throw it into the airfryer or toaster and you'd get back the crispiness. Biting into it reveals an incredibly smooth and lightly sweet yam paste, that paired well with the savoury pork. I understand what all the hype is about now!

Rempah Udang was an absolute delight as well! "Everything is machine made these days, they don't make it like they used to anymore" is my dad's standard response when he buys and eats non-impressive kuehs from random neighbourhood stalls. That was not the case with the kuehs here, evident from him finishing all and leaving me with just one for tasting purposes?!? Throwing them in the steamer for a better experience, you'd find the delicious haebi packed snugly within a wall of warm glutinous rice, which was really soft and sticky to say the least. I love how the aroma of haebi comes through with every bite and the spice provided a mild kick that made it all the more delightful!

Not only did the pandan extract give this Kueh Dadar its green hue, the sweet pandan fragrance was also prominent on every bite of the soft, almost crepe-like skin. It's fragrance was further elevated by the dessicated coconut steeped in gula melaka within the kueh, where the sweetness level was pretty well balanced.

Many of you should have heard of them, where they are famous for their handmade fried fishcakes, fishballs, taro dumplings and many other finger food that are freshly made every single day.

The Fishcakes and Fishballs here in general were all super Q and bouncy, without any hint of fishy scent and I love how juicy it can be, especially the Otah Fishcake. My favourite of all here, it had a good amount of spice and every bite spots the fragrance that's synonymous with otah itself. My only qualm was that it can be rather oily but hey, this is fried food yeah?

Been eyeing this AKK for the longest time, in fact, since CB last year so I'm really glad I finally got my hands on this. Skin was chewy and thin just like how it should be and they were really generous with the fillings as well. But it takes a few out of the ordinary ingredients to bring a traditional pastry like the AKK from potentially boring to memorable and in this case, it was the Hazelnut and their Pistachio which stood out for me.

The Hazelnut tasted faintly like a Ferraro Rocher, with the sugar within bringing out the nutty aroma of the hazelnut, where neither element overpowered the other. Pistachio would be a hit with all pistachios lover, with the distinct pistachio fragrance permeating through with every bite. Though they were rather pricey, I'd purchase them again cause they were worth both the money and the calories.

The main highlight on the menu should be the Chicken Chop, with almost every other table ordering it. This was done up the local-hawker style of western food, where a huge piece of tender and succulent chicken chop was drowning in a pool of brown sauce. Utterly flavourful and boasting a slight char, I can see myself coming back for this again if I am ever craving for local coffeeshop style chicken chop, rivalling the ah beng western at Hougang (if you know, you know). This also comes with a side of soggy french fries and mashed potato topped with bacon bits, which was unimpressive but hey, I blame the chicken chop for stealing the limelight.

Given how inaccessible this place is, the thought of dining here had never crossed my mind, till my friend suggested this place. Located in Marina Country Club, the restaurant faces the Punggol waterfront, where various boats were seen parked there, seemingly for water activities in the day such as wakeboarding. With both indoor and alfresco dining, we opt for alfresco for a better ambience since the weather was nice and breezy that day, that is until it started to drizzle at night.

Food wise, they serve typical dishes seen in any other zi char restaurants. Ordered the usual Sambal Kang Kong, Claypot Tofu and Salted Egg Chicken which were tasty but nothing much to shout about as they were pretty much like any other run off the mill zi char restaurants.

Would I come back again, probably not any time soon as I can get the same dishes at places nearer my house.