NIE Canteen: The Secret Bak Chor Mee Combo!

The National Institute of Education canteen is really quite a hassle for most NTU students to visit. At the edge of the NIE main block, you need to walk plentiful before reaching it, a route march distance if you start off at South Spine. Most of us wil probably visit it only twice a year for its bookstore, but I am oh-so-willing to brave the walk for its Bak Chor Mee!



While there are plenty of good stuffs like Yong Tau Foo and the original Western Food, the undisputed longest queue is at its noodles store. Priced at $2.20 per bowl, they whipped out BCM, Prawn/Pork Rib Noodles and Lor Mee that could be sold out as early as 2pm!

Now I'm letting out the best well-kept secret of the store: (At least thats what I think la) Do you know that you can order a special version of BCM at 3 dollars? This one hsa extra noodles, ingredients and comes with their prawn soup!



But here comes the hard part: The uncle at the store can be quite a Food Nazi, so he will really scold you if you don't say properly what you want, or not in the order he wants to hear it. Ready?
This loosely translates into "I want 3 dollars BCM, with prawn soup, anyhow mix the ingredients"


Minced Pork Noodles

And there you go! Its one of the few BCM that really piled you with Minced Pork, alongside generous dosage of dried mushrooms, sliced ngor hiang and fried wonton. The noodles is al dente to my liking, with a good mixture of chilli and vinegar. Not something spectacular, but very comforting!


Prawn Soup

The second highlight! Now don't expect Beach Road standards, but it was still better than many of the prawn mee stores out there. With a pork ball and fishcake slices, the soup had a subtle prawn flavour which doesn't leave you thirsty afterwards. An obvious choice over the usual plain BCM soup!


Lor Mee

Besides BCM, the Lor Mee was also very well done with plenty of ingredients, thick stock and a good balance of thin vermicelli and thin broad yellow noodles. A real hearty steal at its price!

Werner's Oven: DAC Oktoberfest!

In the midst of all the projects, presentations and quizzes, Deli Aprecio Club managed to host another event for its members, taking studies temporary off the mind and enjoyed a night of meat devouring, beer guzzling and merrymaking. Oktoberfest @ Werner’s Oven!




Located near Siglap Centre, this little German eatery had been around for a long time. They whipped up a special menu for the occasion and even flown in a band all the way from Berlin! DAC booked 40 seats that night and was lucky to do so early, because it was a full house!



We started off with the German Pretzel that was warm and lightly salted. Good enough to be eaten on its own!



Then we shared the mega set for 4 that covered almost everything!




Frankly speaking, I couldn't remember what were the different types of sausages but they were really good! One had herbs in it while another was slighly spicy, and all were soft, meaty and bursting with juice! There were also two pieces of meatloaf hidden below that had the texture of ham but tasted interestingly like luncheon meat.

And the pork knuckle was by the far the best you can find in Singapore. Yes its even better than the one I had at Paulaner not long ago. Extremly crispy, sticky gooey collagen underneath and tender flavourful meat all round. I could go on to gnaw on the bone!



The half spring chicken was pretty average and good eaten with the brown gravy, accompanied by classic thick cut fries.




The two accompanying sides were also very well done. The sauerkraut was marinated nicely, tingely sour and refresh our hunger for more meat, while the mashed potato was smooth and buttery, just the way I like it!



And what's Oktoberfest without a mug of refreshing German beer? Cheers!



Keen to join us at next year's Oktoberfest? We are planning for a return already!

Cafe By The Quad: Laid-back lunch!

Projects, presentations and quizzes, the weeks are forever packed. So just a quick one before i get back to my work!



Situated beside the School of Biological Science, Cafe by the Quad is more spacious and quient than the other canteens in NTU, good for a laid-back lunch with friends if you arn't rushing for classes. Technically, this place is more like a Ikea-styled cafeteria, where you order from different stores and make payment at a checkout counter. The al-fresco area is fine to dine at when there is no blazing sun, or you can always opt for the aircon seatings inside.


Roasted Beef Set (~$6.00)

I ordered this out of curiousity of how they served this, but was rather disappointed that it only came in 3 thin slices with the standard sides. Taste-wise it was only average and perhaps not filling for guys. I heard the western store are better known for their other stuffs so probably I just chose the wrong thing.


Tempura Set (~$5.00)

The japanese vendor had a variety of bento and udon sets. The prawn bento came complete with sides and fruits, nothing exceptionally well done but still pleasent to lunch on.


Laksa (~$3.00)

Prior to coming here, everyone was saying that the laksa at the Quad is a must-try. Well to be honest, don't expect it to blow you away like the ones in katong, but rather just a above average bowl of laksa. It would have been better for me if they added in more coconut milk.

Another thing I heard was that they served rather good Zi Char dishes at night, must keep in mind to drop by some other time for a try. Until then, back to the books!

DAC: JB Seafood Trip!

During the recess week, NTU Deli Aprecio Club (DAC) and 90 of its members went on a half day seafood/kelong trip in Johore Bahru. Being one of the largest outing ever organised, we catered two full buses for this!



Located at Danga Bay, the fishing kelong was about 10 minutes ferry ride away. We were greeted and brought upon a mini tour by the friendly guide, who explained to us that the kelong was built afloat of many emptied oil barrels. Quite an amazing feat eh!

He then gave a live demonstration of opening an raw mussel to the woos and ahhs of everyone, followed by a mass feeding of mouldy breads to the hungry fishes!




Banana Leaf Otah, Goreng Pisang With Ice Cream

Danga Bay was lined with a variety of restuarants. While waiting for the other batch to return from the Kelong, we had some snacks in an oriental cafe. The otah was slightly moist and had a pleasent sweet taste to it, while the combo of ice cream and fried bananas went rather well!




We then travelled to this kelong restaurant for our 8 course seafood lunch. The place reminded me of Batam with its laidback and rustic surroundings. And the famishing people dig in!




Unfortunately, it wasn't that fantastic. My table of kangkong had a burnt taste to it (apparently its only ours), the crispy chicken was not bad with sour lemon sauce, prawns and mussels were alright and like I always say, you could hardly go wrong with steamed fish in soy sauce. The crab though looking good, had a disappointing bland chilli sauce while the butter sotong could easily pass off as normal deep fried calamari .

The best dish, to our surprise, was the dessert of Yam Paste. Smooth and creamy, it wasn't overly sweet and had a decent mix of riped pumpkins and ginko nuts. We nearly ordered a 2nd serving of this!


Group Shot

Next outing would be Oktoberfest @ Werner's Oven on 23rd this month. We are also opening up the event to the public and still have 7 seats left! Do let me know if you are interested to join us with a couple of friends!