Ba Yu Ren Jia

We like to eat China restaurant food. Not the normal chinese Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew restaurants, but the Sichuan, Beijing restaurants that have been sprouting up in Singapore in recent years.

Having tried most of them in Chinatown (South Bridge Road, New Bridge Road and Smith St), and having read good reviews of this place, we decided to venture here. Lavender. Near Textile Centre. 791, North Bridge Road! I'm not too sure what Ba Yu Ren Jia means, but Babelfish says Ba Yu Ren is Palestinian Chongqing. So Ba Yu Ren Jia means Home of a Palestinian Chongqing person? Dunno man.

We came on a Saturday night. We could see it was quite popular with the China Chinese community. I think we could have been the only table of Singaporeans. Ba Yu Ren Jia offers 2 dining options - $13.80 Mala Steamboat (which we didn't try), and ala carte (which we did).

Cucumber

I had intended to order the cold cucumber appetizer, but it turned out to be stirfried, with sichuan peppers (aka prickly ash) and dried chillies. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it was ok.

Marinated Chicken Feet

Tangy Chicken Feet with pickled celery, peppers and chillies. Quite hot and tasty, but it was rather tough. Maybe it's supposed to be like that.

Kou Shui Ji (Saliva Chicken, Salivating Chicken, Mouth-watering Chicken)

The first time I had Kou Shui Ji was at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Pao. It was delicious, and I've been a fan ever since. The Kou Shui Ji at Ba Yu Ren Jia is the best I've ever had. The chicken (and cucumber at the bottom) was covered in a most fragrant, spicy, numbing hot sauce!

Ma Po Tofu

Ma Po Tofu is quite a common dish in Singapore, and it can be found in many restaurants, coffeeshop zi char stalls and is also cooked at home. However, it was only in recent years that I've discovered that the Ma Po Tofu I've grown up to know is not really Ma Po Tofu! Ma Po Tofu is not just tofu in a spicy minced meat sauce. It needs the all essential magic ingredient - Ground Sichuan Pepper. Yum. This Ma Po Tofu is also the best I've ever had.

Tan Tan Mian

After mixing it up, the noodles were covered in a thick peanut sauce. Delicious. Better than the one at Crystal Jade. Also the best I've ever had. I've ordered Tan Tan Mian in different places and very often, it turns out quite differently. It made me google to find out what Tan Tan Mian really is. Wikipedia says peanut sauce in Tan Tan Mian is a modern adaptation, but modern or traditional, it was still damn nice!

Sichuan Beef Noodles

This was good too, but the amount of beef was too stingy. Ok, good but nothing to harp on about.

Total bill: $44.70 for 3 persons, including 2 cups of chinese tea. We were also charged $1 per person for 1 small saucer of sichuan pickle and 1 small saucer of peanuts, and another $1 per person for wet paper towels. Quite a rip off, but ok, at least there's no service charge and GST.

So, it's recommended I'd say. Better than any other Sichuan restaurant we've gone to. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the chef used to be from the fine Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant. Go eat!

The most disappointing Hot and Sour Soup!

Bei Fang Feng Wei over at Smith Street next to the ever so raved about Mala Steamboat place we usually write about has ultimately depressing Hot and Sour Soup!!!!

The Hot & Sour Soup had a "sai" flavor to it because the bamboo shoots were not clean, but no complaints about the service as the lady boss was nice enough to deduct it off the bill since we only had 2 spoonfuls of it. Continuing on, I also would advise you not to order the Xiao Long Bao, it's not bad for a non-Xiao Long Bao connoiseur, but if you are into eating Xiao Long Bao's advoid that place, the skin is a bit too tough, and the pork meat just doesn't melt in your mouth; honestly, I can even say that I think that Din Tai Fung taste better than the one's I had this afternoon. In the filling they use carrot and cabbage .... and the meat just had no taste to it... yes there was a great deal of soup but no taste!

We had 2 different noodles, the Zha Jiang Mian, which is quite ok but really I haven't found a nice one in Singapore, or even one that can match the one Mom makes ... I remember as a child we always had the Zha Jiang Mian from either this place called Cheong Hing or Lao Dai Kay in Flushing and Elmhurst respectively. Shant reminesce about days gone past, so I'll cut to the chase, the La Mian at Bei Fang Feng Wei is not bad at all, besides the Zha Jiang Mian, they've also got another signature noodle dish, you really should try it out, it's not bad at all!

Mala Mala and More Mala

Hot fiery steamboat from Chongqing China has become quite a big hit in Singapore over the last few years. I think the earliest Mala 麻辣 — "numb and spicy" restaurants were the Magic of Chongqing Hot Pot19 Tanglin Rd #04-06/07 Tanglin Shopping Centre and the famous Bugis $11 Buffet Steamboat located on Beach Road. By the way, Beach Road itself has a few stores competing for business. I think we can name Bugis Beach Road area Steamboat Lane soon!!!!


Of late, there have been Chongqing Mala Steamboat places popping up all around the island and since we are such Mala freaks, we decided to review a few places.


So far, our vote goes to the latest steamboat place we've tried Chuan Jiang Hao Zi Steamboat (direct translation, Village Head Son's Steamboat) at Smith Street. The pricing cannot beat the Bugis joints but food is fresh and the mala has a very authentic and different taste from it. I can't say that it's the spiciness of the chilli's that give the effect of Ma, but it's actually a spice or herb they are using that makes the soup base Ma! The owner won't give up the special recipe; it's a secret she says!!!

For a more exagerative review, Lynx will probably tell you the soup is magical. Apparently some people have been asking the owners if they place opium into their soup as people keep coming back for more.

I think the next place we gotta try is the one at Novena boasting that they are the true real Mala steamboat place. I can't quite remember the name right now but I do remember it is around Novena Church that side.

Jerry's Delivery Courteosy of Cuisine Express

One late night me, Rice King and Lynx decided we were too lazy to cook, however, our ultimate problem is that Lynx is on the Atkins Diet ... what a pain in my butt!!!!

So we decided to order from Jerry's! The food was good as usual ... mmm you gotta try it ... delicious ... the wings are delicious as usual ... but kind of lacked the kick you can get at Jerry's itself.

Maybe I am going through my super spicy phase where I can eat lots of spicy things, cause the other day when I went to this Mala Steamboat at West Coast there ... well it wasn't really spicy enough for me also. Hmmm ..... like Lynx says: ur so strange ... sometimes can eat spicy sometimes cannot even touch.

Feast your eyes on our food for 3:

"Ma La" Steamboat

right. we had our first attempt at "ma la" steamboat over the weekends and it was a success! well actually, it was drey's first attempt at making it. in fact the soup stock tasted pretty authentic if you ask me.
as always, we had a huge feast, this time consisting of various seafood like fish, crabs, pacific clams, razor-backed clams, and some huge mussels (which we have no idea wot they're called) that were tough as leather, all the usual vegetables and balls, beef, pork, chicken, tofu, tao poks and whatnots. the soup had the right degree of spiciness, and i must say it really packed a wallop. we'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

and then we had our usual chill-out drinking session. we made kiwi daiquiris - ice, kiwi puree, barcardi and sugar blended together. yummy.

Food Rumour #174 (yat chye sek)

Got wind that operation malaboat was carried out over the weekend. Wonder if anyone has pics of the operation? can post online for those who couldn't participate?