Sh!ok (Closed)

When it comes to Hainanese Chicken Rice, I honestly don't know anyone who hates this dish, almost all can recall a memorable experience with this dish. We didn't come here just for the Hainanese Chicken, which I love to eat in every possible opportunities, we are here to try out some of their signature Singaporean specialties.Chai Tow Kway 菜頭粿 (Black) is how residents of the Chiu Chow region call stir-fried turnip cake. There are usually two types, one is mainly with fish sauce, diced garlic, chili and some preserved radish while the other version is with black sauce. We ordered the black sauce version with flavors that were slightly chili yet sweet. The turnip cake was firm to the bite but not of optimal temperature. I have been hearing plenty of stories about how a traditional Hainanese Chicken should be or should taste like. I am a bit confused myself so I did a little research myself . There are many regional variations of this dish around Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore or Malaysia but the origin of it was likely based on a Hainanese dish called Wenchang chicken (文昌雞) . Preparation usually involves simple boiling of the entire chicken in stock until cooked. If you ask me, once it is cooked, depending on the intensity of the stock, the chicken can get a bit bland. Here is where the school of thoughts diverge from what I heard, one would say that it should be bland letting the unique sauces to give it all the taste while the other would argue the other way around.Anyhow, the Hainanese Chicken being served was not the bland style but with a noticeable chicken flavors. We were provided the chili sauce and the dark soy sauce which I preferred. Meat was firm and skin was not overly fatty so go ahead to eat them as well because I think eating the skin is part of the whole experience! A fair dish indeed. Even for the Bak Kut Teh, I was learning new things as well. The one being served was of clear soup and very peppery like those pig stomach black pepper soup being served at Chiu Chow resto. I am used to the very herbal version of Bak Kut Teh. Apparently, (again based on wiki) ... "there are numerous variants of bak kut teh with its cooking style closely influenced by the prevailing Chinese enclave of a certain geographical location. In Singapore, there are three types of bak kut teh. The most common variant is the Teochew (chiu chow) style, which is light in color but uses more pepper in the soup. The Hoklo (Hokkien), who prefer saltier food, use more soy sauce, which results in a darker soup. The Cantonese (perhaps the Malaysian style as well), with a soup-drinking culture, add medicinal herbs to create a stronger flavoured soup."It was the cleared based peppery soup that was served here. Not as peppery as the Chiu Chow style I am used to but it as quite ... refreshing indeed. It was quite hard to compared with the herbal type because they are simply different. The pork (with bones) was very tender and I liked it. Yum! The warming feeling was good.While the sauce was good for the Grilled Sambal Sotong, the squid was slightly undercooked in my opinion. Chewy and firm to the bite as expected but more grilling would make it better.Likes:Chai Tow Kway 菜頭粿 - very good flavors and relatively firm turnip cakesDislikes:The tables (for 2) were freaking small! If you are assigned one along the wall, expect your elbow to knock on the wall too many times during dinner. Chai Tow Kway 菜頭粿 - not of optimal temperature. Grilled Sambal Sotong - slightly undercooked / under grilled Average Spending: HKD 100 - 200 per personOriginal Blog with more Pictures: http://www.jasonbonvivant.com/2010/05/shok.html continue reading

可能以前在新加坡讀書,住太久了...超怀念新加坡美食..吃shiok里的东西有点嚴格 不好意思了環境非常悠美,很清新的感覺,服務態度很好! 晚上去不太多人噢有椰子味的水,是清水免費的...我剛喝時也很surprise有椰子味, 不過不是很重. 看到倒水的瓶子里原來有班蘭葉! 那道地是椰子味還班蘭葉是味..食家們要幫忙嘗嘗了mee siam: 份量充足,料也跟正宗的一样. 只缺在味道不够澴,吃起來有点像番茄湯.laksa: 份量充足,料也跟正宗的一样. 也缺在味道不够澴,湯底不够水,很糊..像在吃辣的芝麻胡 面條太lum :/kaya toast:還好, 面包外層是脆的,但里面的kaya太糊了,如果能像jam的texture 一样就好了 continue reading

Sh!ok, 久聞大名的一間新派星馬菜. 由於位置關係. 黎呢度食lunch也許是遙遙莫及的事. 前星期, 代老細係半山處理完小小野, 之後行落山, 剛好經過Sh!ok門前. 看見Set lunch $68至$78再加一. 心想若有一個中午閒閒地, 不用準時回公司報到時, 就帶同事來這兒食番個lunch.是日, 剛好有個得閒既中午, 而且接著又有出外差事, 所以可以要排到一個longer lunch. 便同同事兩個由金鐘山長水遠的,走上來Soho食lunch, 食 Sh!ok! Shiok, 不是食物的名稱, 其實 Shiok 只是新加坡既一個Singlish. "Shiok" 代表好食的意思. 這個字, 不往互聯網查一查, 真的不知是什麼意思. 現在查了, 好明顯地令人明白, 點解間野叫Sh!ok,荷包力量不足,所以我們每人只叫一個Set lunch. 一個是Kon Lon Mee, 按其英文解釋是新加坡雲吞撈麵. 另一個是 Daging Mabuk, 應該就是英國/愛爾蘭菜中既 Beef Stout, 我常說的愛爾蘭牛腩, 配上新加坡的椰香飯.Kon Lon Mee, 炸雲吞, 炸豬扒, 乾麵. 味道辣辣的帶點咸香. 豬扒切得好細塊, 只是牛刀小試同事的order, 沒有吃出什麼其他特別味道. 麵沒有像港式的用蠔油撈, 但麵身, 本身已是有味的, 說味道不錯, 冇錯真的是不錯, 但Shiok一聲就欠奉.Daging Mabuk, Beef Stout, 不知是外國學既中國飲食, 定是中國學人家西方既飲食. 總之, 呢味菜, 可中可西. 濃味帶有gravy味道的汁, 半腍的牛展肉, 是一個送飯一流既小菜. 食真一點, 味道又同Irish Beef Stout有少少分別, 不過味道夠濃烈, 感覺我應該要一碗原味的白飯而不是椰香飯.而椰香飯. 椰香味是有, 沒有完全蓋過飯味. 本來好怕佢會好似雞油飯咁"漏", 原來椰香飯一點也不"漏"少少椰香味反而令人開胃.看見鄰檯的海南雞好靚, 翻一翻menu, 原來是要pre order 的. 有待下次, 約齊一班朋友. 晚上來試, 才是這兒的真味.結賬時, 原來要$200以上才能簽卡.... 我想看看的, 是呢間野係registered as "shiok" or "Sh!ok". 最後, 今餐set lunch, 味道未夠shiok, 期望下次有機會, 晚飯時段上來點a la carte, 看看shiok 唔 shiok. It's a shock! 因為set lunch 未夠好. 而且我們到達時, 是中午1點, 人流竟然不多, 也是一個shock! continue reading

本來仲想叫laksa但only星期一有得食又無魔鬼魚食.....無奈呢度環境幾舒服飲吓野ok食就不及灣仔及tst食開的同類了Disappointed 所以喊面 continue reading

10//05/2010 cloudy with rainSoho, other than Lan Kwai Fong, is a dinning place of East-meets-West in Central. One can find all kinds of international cuisine within just a few streets and their cross-sections. She is also expanding her boundary continuously with new restaurants opening every now and then. With no exception, Sh!ok is located at the end of peel street (upper hill) decorated in Soho style. A typical relaxing simple modern look with downstairs for drink and light meal, upstairs has a huge glass window for street view and fine dinning. You may simply drop your car outside if you don’t worry to pay for a possibly fine. Sh!ok is a place for Peranakan 娘惹 cuisine, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay. For those fond of Peranakan dishes probably like the experience of having your food swimming in a mysterious brown sauce; and taste of sweet soy sauce that I love the most.I could hardly wait to come again to taste Laksa since I was so full after an abundant order of dishes with a party of friends last time. For only 2 of us tonight, we have a quick meal with 3 orders: Warm waterWe started with 2 cups of warm water. Ha! Ha! No extra fee. We decided to be a bit cheapie this time not to order any drinks since the air-conditioning was quite cold tonight. Besides, it is a health concern that we are not recommended to take cold drink after meals. It would slow down digestion process. The warm water was served in a medium size drinking jar, exactly same container for other Singaporean drinks. It is probably a smart move so they don’t need to serve “cheapie” customer by entertaining water refill request so frequently. We were served by normal tea cup last time. It is also a heart warming service at Sh!ok since water used to be charged for $50-80 per bottle at Soho restaurants. Kam Heong Mee Goreng Our first dish comes from a marriage of Kam Heong and Mee Goreng. Kam Heong literally means Golden Fragrance. It is likely cooked with dried prawns, chilies, curry leaves, garlic, pepper, blacksauce type of strong taste ingredient in order to bring out the “golden fragrance”. There is a particular Kam Heong section in the menu, Sh!ok offers a variety of food choices for customers who like this favor.Mee Goreng is made with thin yellow noodles. The dish is likely derived from Chinese Chow mein or Japanese Yakisoba. There are at least a dozen different versions of Mee Goreng you can find in Singapore/Malaysia. The noodle we have today was a perfect balance of salty, spicy and dry (not in a sauce), tossed with cabbage, shrimp, egg, chicken or beef and other things I can’t quite recall. It was cooked in blacksauce but served dry. The yellow noodle was cruchy and well absorbed the highlight of all ingredients. The dish is filling but neither oily nor stuffy. Variety of Mee Goreng is determined by the sauce and combination of ingredients, although they are more or less the same; but quality of a good Mee Goreng is governed by the chef. You see what I meant!! Laksa Lemak – Monday specialNext came to our table was a bowl of thick rice noodle with red color thick sauce and tops with cockles, prawn, fish sticks, tofu puffs and a whole egg. There are at least a dozen of different types of laksa in Singapore/Malaysia. Lemak style is the one served in coconut milk. From the first bite, I was in heaven. The soup was a coconut-based curry soup, thick and spicy with coconut fragrance. It tasted like after long hours of cooking with numerous ingredients. It carried coconut milk but not excess. It is not too popular nowadays to find cockles 螄蚶 on any dishes due to water pollution. Cockles used to be served raw; especially in Hangzhou starter. The one we have tonight was cooked, of course. It tasted not as fresh as raw but still good. Texture is, in fact, similar to clams. We have quite a few pieces on the Laksa. We have only 3 pieces of small prawns in the soup, probably prawns is more expensive. Shell was off and they taste all right. The hard boiled egg we have was nicely pre-cut into thin slices but still stick together in order to offer a better presentation. Tofu puffs are usually added to think soup in many kind of cuisine as they are the best absorbers. We could not stop by fighting for extra piece. Fish sticks and if there was any other were all up to standard and added to the perfection of our laksa lemak. Toast Kaya At last, we have Toast Kaya as dessert. We like the Kaya spread to have a strong fragrant of egg white. However, we don’t like it served cold. It is kind of strange as we used to have our toast warm. Kaya is a spread made with egg white, coconut milk and Panda leaf.We rushed home at 7:45pm before big crowd came. We suspected Sh!ok was full on even a Monday night tonight. . continue reading