Best of Singapore Food

Below are all the excellent food that I have personally tried and I have decided to blog them down to share. Go try them!!

Last updated on 13 Mar 10: Chia Bee Lor Mee, Whampoa Fish Head Steamboat and Ippudo

Singapore - Restaurants

1. Astons Specialties - Western Cuisine, 119 East Coast Road & few other express outlets around Singapore, visit http://astonsspecialties.blogspot.com/ for more information. Try the steak, it is soft and tender and cheap! Serves Wagyu beef at a reasonable price.
2. Boon Tong Kee at Balestier Road- Chinese Cuisine, 401 Balestier Road, this branch serves undenibly the best chicken rice in Singapore. The chicken is so tender that it melts in your mouth. Other dishes like the pork rib, soup, and salad you tiao are good as well!
3. 黑社会- Translate to Boss Restaurant, Chinese Cuisine, 1 Harbourfront Walk #02-156/157 Vivocity, Aircon and nice ambience, serves the best dim sum in town! but the dim sum is only available in the afternoon till 5pm.
4. Bottle Tree Village Seafood Restaurant - Chinese Cuisine. 60 Jalan Mempurong (Sembawang). This is a very tranquil and unique place located deep inside Sembawang Park and is facing the beach. A very nice ambience. You can only drive there and the place is so secluded that it is not easy to find. Direction: From Sembawang Road, head all the way to the end, in the direction of Sembawang Park, past the Sembawang Straits estate. When you come to Andrew Ave (where some pretty nice houses are being built), turn right and follow the signs leading into Jalan Mempurong where Bottle Tree Village is located. It serves seafood with Thai-Chinese style. Try the butter prawn, it is one of the best i have ever tasted. The rest of the food tastes pretty good too!
5. Canton Wok by Chef Kang - Chinese Cuisine, 382 Joo Chiat Road. Try the set menu, which comes with 10 dishes at around $260. It is relatively cheap and the food is yummy! However the crab is ok only.
6. Whampoa Fish Head Steamboat - Chinese Cuisine, at intersection of Balestier Rd and Ah Hood Road. Beside the Fish Head Steamboat, its other dishes are very good too! Prices are reasonable.
7. Tambuah Mas, Indonesian Cuisine, Orchard Road Paragon #B1-47. Branches at marina square and tanglin shopping center. It serves authentic Indonesian homestyle cuisine, delicious with classic coconut milk and belachan fragrance. Try the otah, curry and chilli chicken, belachan kangkong, sotong, and many more! and don't miss out the chendol dessert!
8. Matsuo Japanese Restaurant, 松尾，Japanese Cuisine, 1 Newton Road #01-17 Goldhill Plaza. An small authentic japanese restaurant frequent by japanese businessman, and it serves the freshest and sweetest sashimi in town, which is as good as those you find in Japan. However it is expensive (ard $120 per person). Be there to try the assorted sashimi set and the beef, they are simply awesome! Ambience is casual.
9. Ippudo - Japanese Cuisine, Mandarin Gallery Orchard #04-02/03/04. Serving one of the best ramen I have ever eaten. Tel: +65 6235 2797.
10. First Thai Food - Thai Cuisine, Purvis Street, Non-aircon and casual, Cash payment only, no reservation, serves the most authentic, best and one of the cheapest Thai food in Singapore. Try the Fried/Steam Fish and Fish Cake!
11. Nana Restaurant - Thai Cuisine, Far East Plaza, Aircon and casual, cheap and excellent. Try the Butter Prawn and Pandan Chicken!

Singapore - Hawker Centers/Coffee Shops

1. Bak Kut Teh - Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh - 439 Joo Chiat Road. The Best Bak Kut Teh I have ever experienced.
2. Bao & Cantonese Dim Sum - 道记，Dao Ji, #01-1018, People's Park Cooked Food Centre at Chinatown next to OG Department Store. This stall serves the best Bao (meat bun) in Singapore!!
3. Carrot Cake - 青山菜头粿, Qing Shan Carrot Cake, Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lor 1 Market, #02-30, 6am - 1pm, Closed on Mon. Try the white carrot cake, chilli is must have! It is the best I have tried!
4. Char Kway Teow - Cui Lu Shang Tang Fried Kuay Teow, 505 Beach Road, Golden Mile Food Centre #01-91. A unique fried kuay teow with lots of fried crispy anchovies and green crunchy vegetables, besides the fresh clams. Though it does not use lard, it tastes better than those with it. A must try and be there early as it usually closes by dinner time.
5. Chicken Rice - 瑞丰，Rui Feng Hainanese Chicken Rice, #01-1012, People's Park Cooked Food Centre at Chinatown, the large hawker center next to OG Department Store & ChinaTown MRT Exit. The chicken is soft and tender, the sauce is yummy, and the chilli is fragrant and hot enough!
6. Claypot Rice - Geylang Claypot Rice, 639 Geylang Lorong 33. This is the place which serve the best claypot rice in Singapore. You should try other signature dishes like the lotus duck, soft shell crab, stir fried beans and grouper. They are excellent too!! Visit http://www.geylangclaypot.com/ for more info, and please call 6744 4574 to pre-order to avoid long waiting time.
7. Crab - Mellban Seafood, Blk 232 AMK Ave 3 St 22. Try the butter crab, it is awesome! It has a branch at Toa Payoh Lorong 8, Blk 211, the crab at this branch is not as good.
8. Duck Rice - 福南鸭饭 Hock Nam Duck Rice, 588 Balestier Road, it is a small coffee shop situated along Balestier Road (near to Thomson side). Open only during the day. It serves one of the best tasting braised duck, that comes with chicken rice, some vegetables, and a tasty peanut soup at the price of $3.50. Trust me, it is marvellous!
9. Duce Rice - 阿盛鸭饭 Ah Seng Duck Rice, Serangoon Garden Hawker Center, it is a large hawker center situated just before the circle, opposite the Post Office. The braised duck sauce is very yummy!! The duck meat is also very thinly sliced, and the slightly salty but tender and tasty duck meat blends well with the white rice served.
10. Fish Soup Noodle - Wu Xiang Fish Soup, Located at a coffeeshop at Blk 304 Serangoon Avenue 2 (same of Dju Dju). The fish is fresh and the soup is very tasty! Open till after Midnight.
11. Fried Hokkien Mee - 天天来, Tian Tian Lai Fried Hokkien Mee, #02-27 Toa Payoh 127 Market & Food Centre, it serves the best ever fried hokkien mee I have ever tried, tasty with fragrant prawn smell and taste.
12. Kueh - 荣潮州 Yong's Teochew Kueh, Toa Payoh HDB Hub Interchange basement food court.
13. Laksa - 真善美 Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa, Shenton Way Market Street Car Park Building. You can find the hottest, thickest and tastiest laksa in Singapore here. It is previously located at Depot Road, which is then moved to Killiney Road, and then to this new place.
14. Lor Mee - Chia Bee - Blk 10, North Bridge Road (coffee shop nearest to main road) - The Best Lor Mee with crispy fried fish, but it is only opened from around 1am till 11am.
15. Pig's Trotter - 韩家肉骨茶，Han's Bak Kut Teh, Store 42, East Coast Lagoon Food Village. Open in the afternoon till early evening. The braised Pig trotter is huge, fatty and delicious! and the dark sauce gravy is splendid! This is one place which sells the best braised pig trotter in town!
16. Rice - Dju Dju Indonesian Food, Located at a coffeeshop at Blk 304 Serangoon Avenue 2. The chilli is very nice, but spicy. The sambal chicken, sotong and otak is a must try! Closed at 9pm.
17. Rojak - 顺兴 Soon Heng Rojak, Toa Payoh HDB Hub Interchange basement food court. It is crispy, fresh with lots of peanuts! Closed at 8pm, & on weekends.
18. Wanton Mee - 华记云吞面，Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodles，Stall no. 45，East Coast Lagoon Food Centre. It serves the best wanton mee with its yummy barbeque sauce in town!
19. Wu Xiang - 93 五香虾饼 93 Wu Xiang Xia Bing, #01-202 Hawker Centre, Blk 93, Toa Payoh Lorong 4, very crispy and fragrant! A must try!

Cakes, Pastries & Desserts

1. RIVE Gauche - Orchard Road, Takashimaya Department Store, Basement 2, a small retail outlet that sells the best cake I have ever tried. Try the Mango and Guanaja, it is simply awesome! It has another outlet at Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura, Basement 2.

This post will be updated continuously.....Stay Tuned!

Buy Financials on this Dip!

Most, if not all economy indicators are pointing to a recovery. Even a shocking event like Dubai World defaulting on their loans, is not strong enough to jolt the market from their uptrend. This proves the strength of the market. The lingering unemployment issue in the US is also seen to be stabilizing and employment rate will be ticking up gradually.

Most US banks have returned their TARP loans, except for a minor glitch recently by Citibank, that pull the financial stocks down yesterday due to the cold response to its new stocks, but this is Citibank, the worst hit bank by the financial crisis, and a bank that is still majority held by the US government, and with the fact that the government is looking to sell all their current holdings, the market will not be big enough to absorb all of this, and Citibank stock price will remain under pressure for a long time to come.

I do not see anything wrong with the other US banks, and with the recovery, financials will be the first to ride the bull. Include some financials into your portfolio, and I believe this few weeks will be a good time to do so.

Buy on dips!

The market seems to be running out of steam, and with a mixture of good and bad signals, traders seem to have chosen to take some profits off the table.

US markets lost 2-4% last night, and Asian markets are currently on the downtrend. As reasoned in my previous article, I believe there are more downside, however there are several stocks which have reached reasonable prices, and you may want to nibble a little.

One particular stock that I like is Toyota Motor (TSE). I have especially waited for its Sep sales results to be announced (and I expected it to be poor, or at least a drop from Aug), after the US cash for clunkers program in Aug. It has dropped from around 4100 to 3380 within 2 months, and historical prices have been an average of 5000-8000 plus. Its tangible book value is around 3208, which means it is pretty near its book value. March lows is around 2500.

Though Toyota is bleeding now, but one thing to note is Toyota is the number 1 automobile company in terms of global sales, it has the highest sales in US (exceeded GM), and it owns the most popular electric hybrid car, Prius.

Automobile industry is subjected to cycles, and though I do not expect Toyota to bounce back very soon, it will be back eventually. Being also a dividend stock (around 2-4%), my view is this is a stock to hold for long-term, for both dividend and capital gains.

Thus I have issued a buy call for Toyota Motor, at a buy price of 3380 yen. Good luck!

Where is the market going from here?

The market has risen more than 50% from its March low, and recent market indicators seem to imply improving economy, but with some mixed signals. So is it a good time to go into the markets, for those who have not taken the courage to do so earlier and have missed the cash boat?

Let us take a look at what has happen since last year.

The main cause of this crisis is mortgage default, mainly in the US, and with this, causes many related subprime products to collapse. As a result, banks could not collect back their mortgage loans, and are stuck with lots of foreclosed empty houses. Losses on subprime products also accelerated the depletion of their cash. People starts withdrawing their investment with the banks, and the collapse of Lehman results in more default loans to most major banks.

While bank’s loan are insured, their insurers, like AIG, collapse under the influx of loan defaults. As a result, banks which can usually do loan from other banks, could not do so anymore as banks tighten their credit to ensure their liquidity to cover their losses.

Thus government has to intervene to do “free” loan to these banks, so that they can tide over the cash drain. And fortunately, this has indeed help to stabilize the banks, and prevent more from falling on their knees.

Market falls steeply, and the main fear is more banks will collapse, however what many people has forgotten is, this has pull down the entire market – consumer spending has declined steeply, job are lost, companies in other industry have collapsed, including retailers, and thus this has result in a different kind of loan defaults, like credit card and corporate loans.

Stocks start to rise from its March low, when it becomes clearer that the banks will no longer collapse, under the government support, and it starts to increase further when 2nd quarter results of most companies beat analysts’ expectations. Analyst Expectations? who are these analysts? Are they fortune tellers? Yes they are, and they are normal human beings like everyone of us, and the key thing is, they have the same objective as everyone of us, they want to make money out of the stock market, as their performance is not based on how accurate you write the report, but how much returns you have brought back for the company. Take a deeper look into the actual results and balance sheet of these companies and do a year-on-year comparison, you will see how badly hit these companies are. In normal circumstances, the stocks of these companies will be sold off steeply, instead of rising just because they beat expectations.

One thing to remember is, most government has pumped money into stimulate the economy, somewhere around the 1st quarter, and the most straightforward way to do this, like China, is to increase storage of commodities, make more loans to more companies. Companies also start to replenish their inventory after stopping for 3-6 months.

Who is going to buy the products made by these companies? Who is going to buy the houses built by the developers? One answer: End consumer, and one thing that many people has forgotten is US consumer spending accounts for two-third of its GDP, and US will still be the leading economy at least for the next 20 years.What do the banks do with those foreclosed houses that they are holding on?

Let us take a look at the latest indicators: US jobless rate at 9.7% – a 26 year high, and an increase from 9.4% from the last month, and people cheers that the number of job losses are less than expected. Consumer savings are increasing, and latest consumer confidence has dropped as well. These are dark figures in terms of consumer spending.

One can only fix an issue when the source is fixed. The source of the entire crisis is housing loans. What is happening now is the banks are trying their best to work with people to prevent more foreclosure and help them to continue with their loans, to the extent when interest rates are lowered or loan periods are extended. They are doing this as it makes no sense for them to force closure, as what are they going to do with the stocks of foreclosed empty houses?

Let’s look at the housing data. One thing to cheer though, is that housing indicators are improving in the US, but a dark spot is that the percentage of mortgage defaults are still increasing. This is another indicator of poor consumer spending power.

The economy is stabilizing, and is not as bad as before, and is definitely deteriorating at a slower pace – note that is not growing. My point is, though unemployment rate is a lagging indicator, but this rate at a 26 year high is no joke, and without consumer sucking up all those stock-up inventory, the economy will not move and will not grow.

The market warrants an increase from its March lows, but definitely not an increase of 50-80%. Few good indicators of market bubble are the volatility of the stock markets recently, especially China, the pulling back of loans in China as advised by the government to avoid bubble, and the high volume trading of cheap and poor quality stocks – in the US: Citibank, AIG, Freddie, Fannie and BOA, in Singapore: penny stocks which has poor historical results in the top 10 active list and this has been happening for some time. Another indicator is the never-seen in tandem rise of bonds, gold and equity, one of this has to break off its relationship, and my take is equity.

The 3rd quarter results are especially important on determining the market directions from here, but meanwhile, i do not see anything boosting a further increase from here. My take is a fall of at least 10-15% from here, especially during the Sep/Oct period.

As a long term investor, do buy on this dip, as my feel is this is going to be the last few dips, and the market is going to rise slowly from here. My last note: I am also a fortune teller, like all those analysts. Thus you may not want to take my word too seriously and do make this a leisure read.

US and European Banks Writedowns

BANK 2007 2008 2009 YTD TOTAL Citigroup 29.1 63.4 11.9 $104.4 Wachovia Corp* 4.0 73.4 $77.4 Merrill Lynch* 25.1 38.6 $63.7 HSBC 19.3 30.3 4.8 $54.4 UBS 50.6 3.6 $54.2 Bank of America 12.1 29.2 6.9 $48.2 Washington Mutual* 5.1 36.7 $41.8 Fannie Mae 4.7 26.9 7.2 $38.8 RBS 7.0 23.5 8.0 $38.5 Freddie Mac 5.2 24.4 7.1 $36.7 Lloyd 6.8 28.9 $35.7 Barclays 7.0 16.5 7.2 $30.7 Lehman Brothers* 12.5 14.0 $26.5 Morgan Stanley 10.3 10.1 0.8 $21.2 Commerzbank 3.9 13.3 2.8 $20.0 JPMorgan Chase 4.5 10.2 4.4 $19.1 Deutsche Bank 4.0 11.2 2.8 $18.0 Credit Suisse 3.5 11.9 1.5 $16.9 Santander 4.8 8.3 3.1 $16.2 IKB $14.7 National City* $14.0 BNP Paribas 2.4 8.0 2.5 $12.9 Wells Fargo 3.5 8.7 0.5 $12.7 Unicredit 3.5 5.1 2.4 $11.0 ING 7.1 2.4 $9.5 Bayern LB 1.1 8.0 $9.1 C.Agricole 2.7 4.4 1.5 $8.6 BBVA 2.7 4.2 1.3 $8.1 Intesa Sanpaulo 1.6 4.5 1.0 $7.1 Societe Gen 1.3 3.7 1.9 $6.9 Goldman Sachs 1.7 4.9 $6.6 Canadian Imp Bk $6.5 Natixis 2.0 2.5 1.3 $5.8 Erste Bank 0.8 2.5 0.7 $4.0 Bear Stearns* 3.0 0.6 $3.6 Fortis $3.1 WestLB $3.0 Standard Chart 0.8 1.8 $2.6 Rabobank 0.8 1.7 $2.5

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