Bahrs Landing Seafood Restaurant and Marina

Address: 2 Bay Avenue Highlands/Sandy Hook, New Jersey

Tel: 732-872-1245

This summer I got a chance to go back to the Jersey Shore (Joyzee Shaw). They've made major changes to the place since I was younger. We all have memories of the fun yet boring times we had at the shore. Back in the days, most of the Jersey Shore was scary looking... you still get a feel of that if you do drive by The Hood!

I used to love the shore because I would have buckets of steamers, clams on the half shell and freid clam strips! Of course there was the cold pizza we would eat as well!

Well I had the opportunity to relive my childhood feasting days at Bahrs Landing Seafood Restaurant and Marina. It's a great dinner spot and the place has been there since 1917. They have their own private lable of chowder, tobasco sauce and salt I think! For 85 years Bahr's has been the centerpiece of Sandy Hook.

Of course we had the chowder! New England Clam Chowder ... I love the stuff! But no matter what I still think Jay's Diner up in Rochester serves one of the meanest Chowders in the Tri-State Area.

New England Style Clam Chowder (White) Cup $4.50

Steamers - Purified Maine Softshell Clams served with broth and drawn butter. Market Rate

Fried Calamari - classic lightly breaded tender rings and tentacles served with a zesty marinara sauce. $11.50

Raw Bar Table Trio - Clams, Oysters, and Shrimp Cocktail $25.95

Bahrs Seafood Sampler
A combination of broiled or fried sea scallops, shrimp, fish fillet, & tender fried clam strips
$23.99

Zento Contemporary Japanese Restaurant

I was exctied about Zento opened up at Dempsey Hill but was kinda disappointed when I went to try it. The food was good and interesting but we felt that they could have done better with more interesting concoctions for the vegetarian - it couuld also have been because Dyana was not around when we were ordering.

There were a few interesting dishes like their handroll which was made of a soyabean paper instead of the typical nori seaweed that they use.

Shown here is the Crunchy Spicy Tuna Roll

The Asparagus Salad was refreshing

Riceless Maki = Mango sashimi! A combination of three fish- Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, together with a slice of avocado and mango wrapped in rice paper.

Wagyu and Shrimp rolls delicious! The waygu beef sushi rolls were topped with melted gruyre and garlic sauce!

Would I go back? Probably ... but not that often. I do like the handroll very much!

Address: 18B Dempsey Road

Tel: +65 6474 0378

Dim Joy

This is a nice little place, the decor is nice and sparse, but I found that the food wasn't great and the service staff was a tad bit confused... it took us 30 minutes to get our order because no one keyed it into the machine.

Actually when reading other people's reviews I keep wondering to myself if there's something wrong with their taste buds.... Anyway my comments below!

The High Calcium Pork Rib Porridge was not great at all, really the porridge base just wasn't there... plus the pork ribs was way too salty. Rather go to Ho Kee Porridge at Maxwell to eat.

Har Gow - also very salty and I felt they were pretty small compared to Victor's Kitchen.

Steamed rice rolls - not much sauce, kind of boring ... nothing to rave about.

Savory Claypot Rice - nothing impressive... they supposedly make their own soya sauce and they already have it poured into the rice ... but that kind of ruins the authenticity of clay pot rice.

Radish cake - I had both the pan fried one and the steamed one. For the steamed one, I think the one at Victor's Kitchen and Wah Lok at Carlton Hotel... it was kind of weird here cause they had peanuts. The fried one was decently fried the correct way, not the pale looking fried radish cake and the amount of stuffing was good.

Pork & Chive Wor Tip - it's not fantastic because they are a bit skinny... as in not enough stuffing ... although the crispiness was just right. If you want nice ones, I would recommend going to Pu Dong at Balmoral to eat the Wor Tip there.

Honey-Syrup Char Siew Bao - Lacking in stuffing and the skin is not soft enough ... goto Victor's Kitchen, it's nicer. If not goto Crystal Jade at Taka on the 4th floor.2008-11-16 20:05:08

You can check out what these items look like if you head over to the Dim Joy website www.dimjoy.com

I guess you can take some people who are not acquainted to Chinese Dim Sum there and they will think that it is good?!?

Infuzi

Finally I remembered to take pictures at Infuzi, however, they came out ugly looking.. will try to ask my cousin to pass me the pictures another night.

You can actually ask for a special menu created for you at a higher price if you are particular in what you want to eat ... This picture of the fresh lobster is from another night where I requested to have a boston lobster steamed in a butter sauce ... yum delicious ... perfectly tender and the butter was nicely rich!

For the dinner I had with my cousin, I had a very nice steak ... I didn't order the Pan-Seared AustralianWagyu Rib-eye (Marbling 8+) with Red Wine sauce because when I had it previously, it wasn't what I expected ... when I ate it ... I was thinking ... I can go buy a piece of waygu at mediya and cook it myself ... perhaps the piece of meat was a bit thin for me .. hahahahah

I had the Grilled U.S Angus Rib-eye with Pearl Onion Sauce & Parsley Butter and my cousin had Duo of Kurobuta Pork;Pan-Roasted Rack with Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes with Chorizo, Braised Belly with Mirin & Rice Vinegar Reduction . My cousin greatly enjoyed the dish... I will try to get you a picture of that ... my pictures came out awfully dark and it just looks like a few blocks on a plate.

On a separate occasion, I went and had the set meal ... the newest addition to one of their set meals is a nice prawn pasta in curry sauce; I honestly think that they should include this on their menu as a standard entree.

Carpaccio of Yellow-fin Tunawith Arugula Salad,Anchovy Mayonnaise & Lime
Dressing
Caviar Pan-Fried Duck Liverwith Duck Sausage Confit,Onion Compote & Mesclun Salad
Prawn Pasta tossed inLight Curried Cream & Aged Parmesan
Sorbet
Grilled U.S Angus Tenderloin of Beef with Mushroom & Bacon Sauce
Slow-Baked Chocolate withPeanut Mousse & Berries' Puree
Coffee or Tea

Infuzi has a few good dishes ... the Maine Lobster Pasta with Lobster Oil & Japanese Seaweed, the Seared Hokkaido Scallops, Pan-Roasted Mud Crab Cake, Pan-Fried Duck Liver with Port Reduction

I think Satellite has some photos from Infuzi also ... but I don't think she will ever upload them ...

Capitol Restaurant 首都酒家

Oh me oh my, I love it when it's Hairy Crabs (aka Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, big binding crab (大閘蟹) and Shanghai hairy crab (上海毛蟹)), season although I hardly get to go enough these days ... partially cause of health reasons and partially cause I don't have time ... Wow, I can't believe that I am actually saying that I do not have time to eat HAIRY CRABS!

I usually make my way down to Capitol Restaurant 首都酒家 cause they have value for money Hairy Crabs and you don't have to go Yue Hwa or anywhere else to buy and steam yourself, plust to have to make sure you have the correct vinegar and make ginger tea afterwards ... what a headache! It's just as much of a headache with cold crabs.

Although I only make my way to Capitol once a year, the owners there recognize me ... which I like cause I've been going there for practically 9 years already ... since they were based at Cantoment ... they've moved around but have always stayed around the same proximity. They are now located at 323 New Bridge Road, but please remember to make reservations 6222 3938.

They bring in their crabs from Tai Lake in Shanghai, China.

The deliciously hot steamed crab with it's silky melting roe ... yummm I am getting hunger pangs just from writing that and thinking about it! Many people don't like to eat hairy crabs because it's just too much work ... but through hard work we are rewarded; once you dip that roe and some crab meat into the nice thick sweet tasting ginger vinegar mixture and you are shifted into another dimension... of course after eating too much you can expect to feel like you are going to have a heart attack soon because of the richness of the roe ... and by too much I mean 3 - 4 normal sized hairy crabs ... not the mini's!

To go with this wonderful delicacy is usually a hot chinese rice wine (usually fa tiu, like what we had); place a sour plum into the chinese rice wine to enhance the taste!

Good Old Home Cooking

Simple meals to warm the heart! Note that these were cooked on separate occasions ... I am not that crazy to eat all these things in one night!


Szechuan Frog Leg Porridge ... I will place the recipe up when and if I remember how I cook this dish! But it's a great mid-night snack! Satellite and I enjoy eating this dish lots! Woops, I forgot to take a picture of the porridge.



Sumdumful, Jian and myself had a simple meal one night when we were all lazing around in the house and didn't want to step out. Steamed Herbal Drunken Prawns, Steamed Cod Fish Cantonese Tyle, and Bak Choy with Garlic.


Sumdumful, Jian and myself eating a simply cooked western styled dinner ... no salad cause Miss Satellite hasn't been around to make our wonderful salads!


This is cod fish with a lemon white wine sauce and red wine tomato pasta with sausages. By the way, they were my guinea pigs, as I'd never done up a lemon white wine sauce before ... there was salmon also that night but I didn't get a good picture of it!


Oh and I definitely cannot forget the weekly soup ... If I don't have soup I feel like I am missing something ... Home made soup is great for the health and good for your complexion ... best of all when you make it at home, you can be assured that there is no msg! Radish and carrot soup with red dates ... great for our kidneys and livers!

Hong Kong Cafes in Singapore

Another player amongst the Hong Kong cafe scene of late is Crystal Jade, and they are doing a very bad job and most probably ruining their name ... they should just stick with their Crystal Jade Kitchen and have the cooks there do the work!

The newest edition to the family is located at Liang Seah Street, another one will be opening in Orchard soon ... I think the new building is called Orchard Central.

Authentic my ASS! Each and every HK Cafe in Singapore that claims themselves to be authentic fail in one place already ... they don't have chilli oil and when they didn't have chilli oil we asked for chilli padi (did you check out how stingy they are with their padi? look at the photo man!) ... and I think I have already complained about this several times. Further adding to the whole HK Cafe concept, I am not sure what a HK Cafe is supposed to be ... are they comparing themselves to a HK Coffee Shop. I think there is a major identity crises in Singapore.

Probably the only thing I found nice about the place was it's dimsum ... dimsum ... at a HK Cafe ... I really do not understand the concept at all! Do HK Cafe's have dimsum? I know early in the morning in HK coffee shops they have steamed rice rolls and stuff, but I do not recollect pan fried radish cake, chicken feet or even steamed pork ribs.... I must be in a nightmare.

Oh and by the way, the radish cake ... was more flour than radish ... and there was practically nothing else in the radish cake itself.

By the way, the soup noodles we had, had the same taste as the macroni soup they recommended ... it's ridiculous ... on top of that, I want to complain, the coffee shops in HK have delicious soup bases .. most of the famous ones boil their soups for a very long time... the soup base for most of the soup noodles are weak at Crystal Jade Hong Kong Cafe.

What type of fried rice with pork chop is this? I think this is something you can make at home! The rice seemed like steamed rice ... with chopped eggs and some type of chopped green vegie ... ok I have concluded that I was somewhere in the Twilight Zone of HK Cafe's that day!

The porridge you can stick to the one at Crystal Jade Kitchen, this is not impressive at all!

Hard Rock Cafe - KL

My friend wanted to meet me at Hard Rock Cafe in KL, located at the first floor of the Concorde Hotel, although I don't mind eating western food, I've always been very skeptical about Hard Rock's food because their Quality Control for each branch is horrid! I've been to several and some are good, some are just plain horrible.

Frankly, I went in being skeptical but came out a pretty happy person! However, I did forget that American establishments serve American Sizes.

I should have just ordered the Caesar Salad which impressively I found delicious ... could it have been a lack of veggies in my diet for that trip? But I remember eating malay food and heaping the veggies on in the afternoon ... hmmm



I also had some open faced burger that wasn't impressive, the sauce was way too thick for me... sorry guys my pictures really suck ... was tired and hungry and the place was dark and noisy ... so very bad images!

KLIA Airport

Of recent, I have been travelling to Kuala Lumpur quite a bit, and usually, I go to the airport early to have their food ... And my preference is to stick with Sbarro's Pizza or Mac D's ... a little reminder of home I guess.

Expect the unexpected! I had been dying to try the Noodle House at KLIA, and one day I finally did...and to my disappointment, the food was not great and wasn't authentic at all! At least not the prawn noodles. I have in all my life, even in the US, never tried a fusion'd version of Penang Prawn Noodles (aka. Prawn Mee, Har Meen, Mee Yoke, Penang Hokkien Mee, 福建虾面). There was cauliflower and baby corn and cabbage in it! And seriously, I saw 2 little pieces of pathetic halved prawns in it. Further adding to my complaint is that they use the same laddle for their chicken herb noodle soup which completely killed the prawn mee taste! Mind you, it's not cause the noodles were halal and the soup base wasn't made with pork, but really ... it tasted like herbal chicken soup with essence of prawns.......................................... The only thing that didn't allow me to starve was the fried wantons... it's kind of difficult to mess up on wantons!

PRAWN MEE RECIPE (learned from staring at my mum and my aunties, and also revisting the recipe from Lynx's mum)

This is my recipe which I refuse to use cause I bought little packets of instant prawn mee paste cause I am lazy now ... You'll see why after you read the recipe!

To create stock do the following:

Pan fry with about 1 tablespoon of vegie oil a Ziploc bag of shrimp shells, inclusive of heads, after the shells become red in colour, add 15 - 20 cups of water, 3 kg of pork ribs (cut into pieces), and 1 bulb of garlic ... boil for 3 hours on low heat

To make the chilli paste, use 20 - 30 dried red chillis deseeded (do not forget to soak to soften and allow the aroma to come out), 10 - 15 peeled shallots, 5 peeled cloves of garlic, 2 - 4 tablespoons of garlic, and about a handful of rinsed preserved dried baby prawns blend until smooth and then stir fry in about 6 - 8 tablespoons of vegie oil until fragrant.

Other ingredients needed to complete your dish: yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, kang kong, bean sprouts, lean pork meat that is boiled and thinly sliced, about 1kg of boiled prawns shelled and deveined (cut in half if you are being stingy), 4 boiled eggs halved, and some fried shallots (you can buy this from the store or make your own, but most people will usually end up burning the fried shallots)

When your stock is done, strain the stock, you can throw everything out ... but if you really want, you can keep the pork ribs (put aside) to add to your prawn noodles later. After you have strained the stock, bring the stock to a boil again and add about 1/3 of your chilli paste. (If people want their prawn noodles spicer, they can add it in later when the prawn noodles are complete).

Serve by placing a portion of yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, water convolvulus and bean sprouts (optional) in a bowl, pour hot stock over, then add your pork ribs, lean pork slices, shrimp, and egg. Final toping will be fried shallots and/or extra chilli paste in the bowl if desired.

I really should have stuck with Sbarro's pizza or McD's!

Economy Rice @ Home

Recently I've been having fun cooking dishes and making it into an economy rice plate.

Just last night I cooked steamed chicken and steamed eggs (of which blur and hungry me forgot to put in some corn flour to make the egg a bit stiff). This meal takes only 45 minutes to make inclusive of cooking the rice. Check out how pathetic the plate looks, I should have placed the other 2 pieces of chicken on the plate!

Dinner in 45 Minutes!

First you: make rice and then start boiling water for whatever you are using to steam your food.

Take a 2 - 4 pieces of chicken, marinate for 10 minutes in 1/2 tbsp brandy, 1 tbsp each of light and dark soya sauce, a drop of seasme oil (optional). During this 10 minutes cut your ginger and spring onions into strips, after you finish cutting the ginger and spring onions (oh, and it's up to you how much you want to put into it). Steaming time is about 15 - 20 minutes.

When you see the water is boiled in your steaming mechanism, place your plate of chicken in the steamer.

For the egg, it's pretty simple, beat 2 eggs into chicken stock add some white pepper and then a tea spoon of corn flour. Put into a container and steam ... Some people like to add spring onions after the egg is steamed ... steaming time is about 8 minutes. You can also add century egg and salted egg to this dish as well.

There was another time I also made steamed herbal prawns, pork with ekoni mushrooms, lap cheong, stewed oyster sauce chicken with chinese mushroom, lap cheong and dao miu. Check out the pics! Oh, I had 2 other people eating with me that's why there was so much more food ... and I had eventually thought that I would dabao to Satellite's work place so she can be fed some real "healthy" home cooked food.

Pu Tien Heng Hwa Food

Oh delicious so many interesting things to eat. Actually I thought I already posted this up some time ago... I am not really sure and a bit confused ... so I am going to post it again. Cause I do like Heng Hwa food and I want to go back and eat more.

For starters we had the Drunken Cockles, Iced Bitter Gourd, Steamed Cold Pork Belly with Garlic, and Braised Pork Intestines... All were delicious ... especially the drunken cockles! I think I subconciously typed out my order of preference!

For mains we had the Salty Spicy Bamboo Clam and the Fat 3 - Layer Glazed Pork!

And of course, I cannnot miss out on their specialty dishes ... these two are my favorite Heng Hwa dishes - fried Hing Hwa bee hoon and the Heng Hwa styled lor mee!!! Although these are specialty dishes, their bee hoon and lor mee cannot beat a small little coffee shop around race course road ... I am not really sure what it's called but it was located near the old ntuc at race course ... The Bee Hoon and Lor Mee at the coffee shop taste better than the ones at Pu Tien.

Pho 99 at Amoy Street

Pho 99 at Amoy Street ... another venture of Sumdumful and my soupy things for lunch search...
Actually I can see the pho isn't bad ... except that it's not pho ... ok what I mean is the soup base and the ingredients aren't too bad, but they do confuse pho with kway teow in Singapore.

As you can see the cha gio is pretty pathetic. But seriously, any day anytime, this type of small eatery can beat the tastes of The Orange Lantern, which I find completely unauthentic. There used to be this place called Mai's I think at Marina Square ... there Vietnamese food was pretty authentic!

That being said, I am still looking for somewhere that has the authentic stuff!!! Can't wait till I get a change to get back to HCMC to get some of that yummy tasting Vietnamese food ... perhaps this time I will be able to eat!!!!