Before I left for my trip, a friend of mine told me one must-do for a real visitor is a trip out to the east coast of Singapore and indulge in the famous Singaporean Chilli Crab. Thankfully the east coast is not too far from the city, and because it’s generally devoid of the more popular tourist attractions, is more filled with locals riding bikes and rollerblading along the paths on the “beach”-front. A quick survey of the area showed me that plenty of places appear to serve the famous crab but I decided on going to Roland’s Restaurant that came recommended by the Lonely Planet.

This restaurant is supposedly a bit of an institution for this dish but at first glance appeared to me as mostly a big tourist trap with their big neon signs claiming they invented the now famous “Singaporean Chilli Crab” dish. Thankfully the insides of the restaurant look no different from any other Chinese restaurant and I was relieved to see the absence of the tourist groups that I imagined being driven here. Instead, a large number of locals filled a number of the other tables and appeared to be enjoying their lunch.

Leafing through their menu, I admit that a number of their other dishes looked enticing but since I had come for the crab I didn’t want to waste what appetite I had on other fillers, so I simply ordered the Sri-Lankan crab with Chilli Sauce. While the restaurant prepared the crab, attendants automatically give you pickles and fill up your tea, though they will bill you for both items at the end of your meal.

The crab arrived in a decent amount of time along with a finger bowl, a plate seating a crab hammer and crab cracker (though I’m not sure that’s what they’re properly named), and two pieces of fried bread to help soak all the sauce.

I looked incredibly spoilt with a whole crab to myself but I will admit I cared not since I had not indulged for some time and the crab looked extremely tasty smothered in its crimson red sauce. I found the chilli sauce not especially hot but had enough kick that complemented the delicately sweet flesh of the crab. The sauce also appeared to contain a variation of scrambled egg (as if there wasn’t enough protein in the dish!) continuing to heighten the entire dish by giving it a velvety smooth texture.

As with eating shelled crab of any sort, it took me a while to get through the entire crab. I was fortunate enough that the attendants gave me a spoon and fork though I found chopsticks quite useful for pulling out the stringy flesh out of hard to reach places. Surprisingly I found the bread a great accompaniment for soaking up the sauce and eaten with the crab but two pieces was enough when I had a whole crab to myself.

Details: Roland Restaurant
Found On: Block 89, Parade Central #06-750 Singapore 440089
Contactable On: +65 6440 8205
Highlights: Not excessively touristy and at least a quality place that you can really get messy without walking out like you had just eaten crab. Lots of other interesting things on the menu
Improvements: This restaurant does charge for everything (pickles you don’t eat or ask for, the wet towel you use at the end) and admiteddly you can easily eat this national dish at other places for cheaper.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

After an exhausting day of walking all over Singapore and ending up at one end of Orchard Road, I thought I’d head over to Nagano, a Japanese restaurant this time pointed out by Aroma Cookery. Though I walked to Valley Point Shopping Centre, you can circumvent the hills and lengthy walk by a taxi if you want. You will find the Valley Point Shopping Centre at the bottom of a large residential building that appears what I imagine the rest of suburb Singapore to look like away from the crowded touristy streets.

Nagano appears to be quite authentic from the traditional hanging banner at its entrance as well as the standard ‘irrashaimase’ (Welcome to my place!) greeting that staff shouts at you as you enter. This restaurant has a large number of tables, most of which were empty this night but probably because I was having dinner very late. I found staff extremely attentive, continually topping up the complimentary tea as I perused the menu offering a wide variety of great sushi and standard Japanese meals.

In the end I ordered the Katsu Curry Set accompanied by my latest most favourite type of sushi, the Unagi (Eel) one. The sushi arrived first, presented very nicely and accompanied by the standard pickled ginger, wasabi paste and soy sauce. As you can see from the picture, the eel refreshingly overshadowed the rice (the first time I’ve seen that) and was deliciously moist and saucy. If not for the oncoming meal I most definitely could have consumed more of this.

It wasn’t too long before the Katsu Curry set arrived and came on a platter including a Miso soup and a small fruit bowl. The soup was delicious, and filled with cubes of tofu, but I took surprise to the curry actually sitting next to the katsu for once. It at least guaranteed a crispy cutlet. The curry sauce was a little bit more watery than what I am used to but was still flavoursome and cutlet still juicy.

Nagano is a good restaurant to visit if you’re a local but I’m not sure if it is worth making a trip out of your way as a visitor to the island. The sushi is definitely something I could recommend more of, but I am sure there are better places closer to more popular roads. Though I can’t remember exactly how much I paid (I think it was S$9) I was surprised at how cheap it was.

Details: Nagano Japanese Restaurant
Found On: Shop #01-07 Valley Point Shopping Centre, 491 River Valley Road, Singapore
Contactable On: 67332152
Highlights: Authentic Japanese food at great prices. Great service that ensured a continual flow of free steaming hot green tea!
Improvements: Location is a little inconvenient for most visitors, but since it’s a short taxi ride from Orchard Road and taxis are ridiculously cheap, this is not really a big deal.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

I really indulged it the fact that you can eat out at relatively small prices in Singapore (particularly translated back into the £!) with many decent quality meals in the food court costing about S$3 or £1. It is where the majority of Singaporean people apparently eat in, and though restaurants also abound, they tend to be quite a number of multiple of these prices.

One such restaurant I visited was Dharma’s Kebabs that I first read about on the blog of Nibbles & Scribbles. Fortunately the trek on my first day in Singapore around all the major sight seeing districts landed me right near this area for a rather late and lazy lunch.

Dharma’s Kebabs is located on Boat Quay, a street filled with overly touristy restaurants and bars taking advantage of the dockside views. Fortunately Dharma’s is not so over the top with the glitz and glamour, seemingly not much more than a larger hole-in-the-wall type place. It is associated with the BQ Bar next door, but at least serves decent food. I think they have air conditioned seating upstairs, but their industrial fans literally blew away the unbearable heat and humidity made it quite enjoyable sitting on high chairs next to the water.

Their menu is not overly complex, filled with various types of kebabs and a number of other plates and sharing platters. I ordered the Chicken Tikka plate (S$15) containing chicken tikka, garlic naan, some salad and dipping sauces. The chicken tikka was amazingly juicy and its coating gave it just the right of tang and flavour that went down a treat. The “naan” was more disappointing with a texture closer to flat bread instead of the proper soft tandoor cooked bread I was expecting but was still flavoursome nevertheless. The salad was literally from some other world, with an overly zealous chef really going to work on it with the salt and pepper shakers. The lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes would have been refreshing had it not been covered with a heart-attack inducing amount of salt!

This place serves some awesome foods and I read that the curry fries are supposed to be good. Service from the attendants was good, but then it was a very late lunch and there is always something magical about dining by the water at any time of day.

Details: Dharma’s Kebabs
Found On: 40 Boat Quay, 6236-0980 (Singapore)
Highlights: Great chicken tikka, platters offer seemingly good value
Improvements: Not so much salt!
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

I found this particular restaurant via another blogger who referenced an article from the NY Times talking about the little speak easy restaurants that are cropping up all over Hong Kong. You can tell it’s a popular location with locals by the large numbers that stream in for lunch, and my guess is that is becoming more popular with visitors as word spreads of this hidden gem, nestled in the heart of the ex-pat heavy Lan Kwai Fong. I went for lunch and arriving there at noon when the place opens is a good idea as it fills up quickly, and dinner requiring prior reservation.

The concept of this restaurant is simple – freshly made, hand pulled noodles and dumplings combined with the fierce spicy sauces of home-style Sichuan cooking. You place your order by putting numbers against a small slip of yellow paper. Thankfully they are considerate enough to have an English menu, giving you a great game of matching Chinese characters and prices, but dish names like Yibin Noodles and Tan Tan Noodles still didn’t really help me work out what I was actually ordering. Nevertheless I thought it would be fun ordering something I had no clue about and so ordered the Yibin Noodles.

The owners decorated the restaurant appropriately with many traditional style art pieces and paintings decorating its walls. Plastic tablecloths drape the small number of tables scattered across the room, but don’t hold that against the wonderful food that arrives quickly. Each table is also equipped with various cups chopsticks, straws, napkins, and toothpicks as well as little jugs of soy sauce just in case.

Someone who I could assume as one of the owners (perhaps Mum Chau herself?) soon brought one of the largest servings of noodles to my table. It was accompanied by a plate of what later tasted like Sugarloaf Cabbage stir friend with chillis. I found the Yibin noodles, though difficult to describe in flavour had a great balance of flavours with enough kick to give it a bit of an edge and the noodles themselves tasting as if they had just been formed and cooked. The noodles definitely had peanuts and sesame oil, but there were several other layers there but I couldn’t quite identify them.

Details: Mum Chau’s Sichuan Kitchen
Found On: Floor 5 of the Winner Building, 37 D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
Contactable On: (852) 8108-8550
Highlights: Authentic fresh noodles and dumplings. Apparently a mean dinner set as well.
The Kua Rating:8 out of 10

Good cha xui (Chinese BBQ Pork) can be difficult to come by, with many being overly fatty, not flavourful enough or excessively dry and with almost every Chinese restaurant serving it in one form or another, chances are you will have a bad experience. Before arriving for my holiday, some of my reading had included some great food bloggers, and I discovered a few great recommendations from Hong Kong local blgger Cha Xiu Bao but unfortunately couldn’t get to every place that had been listed.

The West Villa Restaurant, located in the Cityplaza II mall slightly out on Hong Kong Island from Causeway Bay is pretty easy to get to with the ever efficient MTR. The restaurant is large by Hong Kong standards with my quick calculations estimating it capable of easily holding 200 people. The décor is bright and the tables spacious with a focus being the traditional fishtank holding large fish out back. For a late lunch it was still pretty heaving and filled with families, was a good sign it was a good local.

Although the staff have difficulty speaking English, getting by with the English menu, a bit and a bit of pointing seemed to the do the job and my order for cha xiu in the three different styles including sliced, steamed and baked buns was on its way. As you can tell from the pictures, the sliced version is the best indicator for the quality of the cha xiu in its original form.

The chared edges are a good indicator that it had been cooked with care, the fat not out of proportion with the meat, and the red colouring at least indicating the presence of some marinating instead of simply being basted. Oddly enough, the succulent flesh was not overly sweet, and so they served it in an orange marmalade sauce to which you could overdose on the sugar if you wished.

The steamed and baked bun varieties of the cha xiu did not disappoint at all either. It was the first time in Hong Kong that the cha xiu bao filling had something other than the cha xiu (in this case onions), but they had been cooked well and so only added to the overall sweetness.

The steamed bun dough was superb, and was probably the lightest steamed bun dough that I’d had for quite some time, literally melting in your mouth. The dough was white, sweet and went well with the filling. The baked variety was slightly stranger, combining both the uncommon onion-cha xiu filling with a bun that was topped with the sweet crunchy crust of the “…” buns you commonly find in Chinese bakeries.

After almost overdosing on cha xiu in one sitting, I was still overly satisfied that I had made the extra effort to visit this restaurant. I will say though, that even not being especially close (i.e. walking distance) to any major tourist attractions, the MTR line leading directly into the heart of the mall still makes it especially accessible. The restaurant probably serves mean dim sum, and is a nice atmosphere to dine in, especially if you are after cha xiu.

Details: West Villa Restaurant
Found On: Shop 208, 2nd Floor, Cityplaza II, Taikoo Shing (easily accessible via the MTR)
Contactable On: (852) 2522 1624
Highlights: Fantastic char xiu of especially high quality
The Kua Rating:8 out of 10