Xian De Lai (鲜得来) @ JEM

Sillyb has been craving for steamboat, so we thought of visiting Xian De Lai at the new shopping mall, JEM. JEM is located beside Jurong East MRT Station and carries many popular brands such as Lowry's Farm, H&M and Uniqlo. Usually when we go for steamboat, we leave the place with a stench on our clothes. We chose Xian De Lai as the air is 'fresher', and most importantly, they serve fresh, shelled cockles which is sillyb's favourite. Trust me, I left the restaurant smelling fresh that night. (Only applicable in JEM outlet)

Xian De Lai is located on basement 1 of the mall. This outlet is similar to NEX, and different from the Bugis and CCN (Cheong Chin Nam) outlet. NEX and JEM outlets offer exquisitely-designed individual pot where Bugis and CCN offer a regular steamboat with two soup bases, a.k.a. 鸳鸯.

frontage of the restaurant

our individual pot

This outlet offers set menu and buffet option. Set menu costs $18.90 and buffet is $25.90. Drinks are not included in the buffet. I did not have a chance to take some pictures of their ala-carte menu as I was not presented with one. Their can drinks costs around $2.50++ each. Also, they have other china style 麻辣 dishes on their ala-carte menu.

set menu

buffet menu

The buffet selection here is somewhat similar to Bugis outlet. The additional $7 they are charging is probably for the extra selection on side dishes and better dining atmosphere. The selection of the soup is also different. As you can see from the menu, there are 5 types of selection. I was rather disappointed that they did not offer the 辣子鸡 and 辣子虾 soup bases here.

Sillyb's duck soup, quite flavourful.

My tonkotsu soup, light and sweet.

Part of our feast

flower crabs!

prawn wonton and special taste ribs

spicy peanut sauce which goes well with beef, tastes like satay beehoon sauce.

As steamboat selections are pretty much the same everywhere, I shall blog on some special ones. First in the line will be 辣子鸡. This was one of my favourite until I tried the 辣子虾 in Bugis outlet. At bugis, they will serve the chicken in the pot without the soup. After around 5 minutes, they will remove the remaining chicken from the pot and fill it up with spicy chicken soup. The spicy chicken soup is different from the usual 麻辣 soup as there is NO '麻' in it. I dislike the '麻' feeling on my tongue whenever I drink 麻辣 soup. So, this is perfect for me!

辣子鸡!
Craving satisfied and it was complimentary (not on the menu)!!
9.0/10

Side Dish: Drunken Chicken.
7.5/10

Side Dish: Spicy Potato Noodle, served cold.
No 'wow' factor.
5/10

Side Dish: Fried Bacon Balls.
This is something like croquette. The filling is mash potato with bacon bits, tasted peppery. 
6.5/10

Side Dish: Wonton Wrapped Prawn.
Not crispy enough and tasted bland.
5/10



Side Dish: Pepper Salt Chicken
This is the most awful side dish we had that night. The powder they sprinkled on top was not to my liking as it 'tasted indian', and totally not peppery ok! I wonder why they served that in a chinese restaurant. The chicken was dry and cold. 
2.0/10

Buffet menu: Prawn Wonton.
This is different from the Bugis outlet. They used white wonton skin instead of the usual yellow ones. This skin is thicker, so I would prefer the yellow ones instead. :)
6.5/10

Buffet menu: Pork Glue.
You can see from the side that it is quite thick, or in fact, too thick. If you use the usual way to cook fish glue on this, it will probably take ages. So, i gave up and scrapped the 'paste' into the soup. The white bits are water chestnut. Flavouring was pretty strong, tasted some 五香 spices in it, and it's not to my liking too.
3.0/10

Buffet menu: Chicken Noodle.
Basically, it's chicken paste and when you squeeze it, udon-like  paste oozes out and drops into the pot. Lol I know it sounds disgusting, but it was really that case. Flavour wise, lighter than pork glue and tasted some ginger in it. Texture was like...egg white?
5.0/10

My healthy pot of goodness. Yummms!

Like I said, Xian De Lai serves ala-carte dishes as well. Here are some promotions which they are having right now.

I wonder why they are giving promotion exclusively at NEX in JEM outlet. I didn't receive any $10 vouchers though. :/

One thing I would like to comment on will be the service team at Xian De Lai. Be it at Bugis or JEM, there are several similar problems. First, if you ordered 20 items, only 15 will be served. The remaining 5 just disappear or did not show up. You need to remind the staff to check it for you. If lucky, they will serve upon checking. Otherwise, they will ask you to order on the second round. Secondly, the portion they serve is very little. There are pros and cons to this. Serving small portions is probably their solution to food wastage. However, it can be rather frustrating when you have to keep requesting for order chit and ordering your favourite items repeatedly. Usually, we will indicated '1' inside the box, and indicate '2' or '3' for items which we prefer to have more. I realised that even if you indicate '10', they still serve '1' portion. Perhaps they have no qualms about wasting paper, and precious time.

Anyway, Xian De Lai will still be one of my favourite steamboat places as the food they serve are fresh.

As usual, we left the place feeling extremely full and decided not to have steamboat for the next one month.

Here's the contact number of Xian De Lai at JEM. Reservation is recommended.
+65 6339 4366

xoxo, ping.

my 25th birthday weekend

We started off the weekend with lunch at 49 seats. I chanced upon this place on instagram and have been thinking of trying for ages. We went around 1.30pm and there were abundance of seats. Quickly, we ordered our main courses. By the way, we hardly took any pictures throughout the entire weekend, so some pics were taken from Google Image/49 seats. :p

I noticed that the prints on the curtain were hand drawn.

interior of the quaint, humble restaurant. totally my cup of tea.

seated beside this little fish tank. yes, FISH tank. try to spot the fish.

Tom Yum Pasta $14.90

4.25/5.0

Basically, the taste explodes in your mouth. It starts off with a creamy texture, and then the Tom Yum flavours went KABABOOMMM! ok too kua zhang, but the taste really surprises people. Most importantly, it was spicy enough for me.

Sillyb fell in love with this plate of awesomeness. Basically he took the fries and kept dipping into leftover sauce from my pasta. Also, he kept telling me, 'WA the pasta best of the best sia! Cannot stop thinking!'.

Seriously, try it to believe it.

Fish & Chips $12.90

4.0/5.0

I love this fish & chips. Usually I would prefer battered fish to those breaded ones. 49 seats did a good job with the batter, the fish was super tender and the flavour was just right. I could easily finish the whole plate without any sauce. The only complain was probably the fries. Not really complain la, but a bit too normal and does not compliment the awesome fish. I guess it could be better if the fries were chunkier and crispier.

Next stop was Sentosa - Siloso's beach Bikini Bar. Why no Trunks Bar?

Sillyb came to this place several years back and we had to search for it. He was like, 'Eh why don't look like ah?', and after walking a few steps further. 'Eh yayaya is this place!'. OK at least we found it.

A really relaxing place, with multi-racial bikini babes serving you.

Guess this is one of the design feature.

Prices on the menu are nett. We saw large plates of nachos with some beef sauce on most tables, but as we were still full from lunch, we just had beer. 

I was like smiling all the way and he had to ask me what's so funny. It was nothing funny actually. I just felt happy, cox the weather was so nice, the beer was good, the view was relaxing and, the atmosphere was there. I was also observing a bunch of girls who brought at least 10 rolls of toilet paper to the beach. Apparently they were playing games using toilet paper. Am i too old or what?! Then, sillyb insisted on passing me my birthday card.

TADAH! wahahaha cute right!

I request for handmade cards whenever we are celebrating something, be it Valentines Day, Christmas, or birthdays. No presents never mind, must have cards and must be handmade!!! Also I noticed some similarity in his messages. It will always be like, 'Hope to spend the rest of the birthdays/v day/christmas with you.' lolol. 

Next destination was... Moon Hotel! I already guessed there will be a staycation hehehehe. Moon Hotel is located at 23 Dickson Road, just opposite Wanderlust Hotel, where we went to celebrate his 27th birthday last December.

Exterior

Lobby / Reception / Breakfast area

Deluxe Room Artist Impression

Bath Tub Artist Impression

my Instagram pic of the bed lol.

I guess you could see the difference between artist impression and my Instagram of the product. Basically, the room is about 22sqm. It has no windows and this fact was concealed nicely by a curtain beside the bed. Only deluxe rooms have bath tub, and the one and only suite room has an outdoor pool. Unfortunately, it was fully booked. 

The design is minimalist, and its impressive how they fully utilize the small space without us feeling compressed. The bath tub area is kind of exposed, meaning you can look in through the glass from the bed and vanity area. Oh, the bed is super comfy!! We rested on our feet for awhile and headed out for second half of the day. Yes, so much stuff and only first half.

We went to Fortune Seafood Restaurant at 887 Bukit Timah Road for crabs. I have been craving for crabs and it's like finally!!

Salted Egg Yolk Crab 4.0/5.0

Cereal Prawns 3.0/5.0

Baby Kailan 4.25/5.0

The crab is fresh. I guessed it was coated with flour and fried, and then stir fried with the salted egg yolk sauce - there was some crispy stuff sticking onto the crab shell and it was my favourite part of the crab. The taste and flavour was there, with a hint of lemon grass which is supposed to make the dish less 'jelak'. But, the lemon grass didn't seem to help. Having craving for crabs, I found it tedious to finish the dish.

The prawns were also fresh, but the cereal part was bland. We were guessing if the guess forgot to put salt and sugar into the dish. It was a pity as the cereal was really fragrant and the prawns were fried to perfection (I ate the whole prawn including the crispy head n shell). 

The baby kailan was one of the best I have ever had. It is weird that such a simple dish could leave a deeper impression as compared to the seafood. I guess Fortune Restaurant emphasizes on the freshness of their ingredients. The baby kailan was crisp, nicely cooked (not too hard or soft), and the light gravy complimented the greens very well.

If you are interested in the crabs, maybe you could try black pepper which should be less jelak. They serve Indonesian crabs at $48/kg and Sri Lankan crabs at $58/kg.

Last stop of the day was Marina Square before we headed back to the hotel. We went for some shopping, followed by HangOver 3 at GV.

3.0/5.0

The movie was average for a regular movie, but disappointing as a Hangover sequel. The first 2 sequel was so damn funny because it's mostly flashbacks of how they got wasted and shit that they did. Part 3 was averagely funny, averagely exciting. However, the ending redeemed itself. It ended with the gang in the presidential suite again, all messed up, and Stu with tits. The whole theatre LOL ok. Anyway such sequel is not to be missed. I hope there will be a Part 4 if it isn't really 'The End'.

Day 2 started off with breakfast in the hotel, followed by more sleep till check out at 12pm. We walked to Iluma for lunch (food again) and ended up with Sukiya steamboat. But before that, we went to take a portrait shot in a photo booth. After lunch was movie again. I have issues with watching cartoon, so it would usually be my last option. But because sillyb was nagging, we watched 'Epic'. 

my face looks so bloated :/ when will the fats ever go away?! *ROARS*

Variety 2.5/5.0

Taste 3.25/5.0

Value 3.0/5.0

Lunch at Sukiya costs $18.90++/pax. They serve very limited and typical steamboat items, mainly balls, vegetables and noodles. The free flow of beef and pork is probably the highlight. There is also no seafood. My favourites were basically the cheese meatball, cheese tofu and meat. Their sauce and condiments were also weird - their soya sauce has vinegar in it? We stuffed ourselves with the food anyway hahaha.

Epic was interesting, or maybe I have not watched a cartoon for ages. Probably give it 3.5/5.0?

We went for shopping at Suntec City hoping it would aid in digestion of the massive lunch we had. I went home empty handed and sillyb bought 3 T-shirts! By the time we finished shopping, I was way too tired and we decided to end the weekend by heading home for some rest. In the end, sillyb was the one snoring away on the sofa while I was wide awake.

Loving the quality time spent with him over this birthday weekend.

Thank you sillyb. ♥