OPPA Chicken - Honey Garlic @ Ang Mo Kio Broadway Coffee Shop [Singapore]

It's hard for me to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to food and aside from strong recommendation from friends, the only other reason to venture beyond the zone is when there's an urgent need to pepper my supposedly anything-goes blog with food posts.

At the local town known as Ang Mo Kio, there's usually not much of a thinking and i would likely go for the chicken cutlet at Rasa Sayang Western Food at S11 food centre. This time round, i walked a bit further and the above stall at Broadway coffeeshop caught my attention!

The attractive looking menu definitely helped to draw the attention and as you could probably see, the stall was selling Korean-style fried chicken! It is actually quite unusual to find Korean fried chicken joints at coffeeshops in Singapore's heartlands. 

With five flavours to choose from (original, soy garlic, honey garlic, yangnyum and flaming yangnyum), i couldn't quite decide as taking soy garlic would make it easier for me to compare with 4Fingers which is getting too expensive for my pocket. I eventually settled with the top seller; honey garlic! 

Give your order, pay for it and wait for the food pager to beep for collection! Don't you just love this cool technology; versus that to the past when the stall operator would have to scream your name when your order is ready! 

Here's my visually appealing OPPA chicken (honey garlic) regular comprising of four winglets and four drumlets at only S$8.90. Those too lazy to pick at bones can consider the boneless option at S$11.90 for six pieces. 

Couldn't wait to dig in but it's necessary to hold back a bit by taking photographs necessary for this post; there's a small serving of salad (likely to beautify the dish) and the fried chicken were coated with the best seller sauce and diced up garlic!

I love the chicken; granted it wasn't as crispy and as garlicky as i would like it to be, the honey garlic sauce was sweet and addictive and you can't deny the allure of sauteed garlic bits that burst into shiokness when you bite into them.

Find the flavour a bit lacking? Look no further but the bottom of bowl like plate where the marinated-for-8-hours sauce was collected! 

I bet a bowl of white rice drenched with the amazingly tasty sauce would be cleaned up in no time! Glad that i am disciplined enough to resist the temptation as i am on a no-carb meal at night, where possible. 

Done and looking forward to the next time i am at the vicinity; i shall ask if i can mix the flavours next time; thinking of soy garlic and yangnyum! 

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Location

721, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8,

Broadway Coffee Shop,

Singapore 560721

Map

As above.

Website

https://www.oppachickensingapore.com/

Menu

As above

Pricing

OPPA Chicken Regular (8 Pieces) - S$8.90

Catching a Fly with Your Bare Hands!

A fly in a small office can create much irritation and despite opening the entrance door big-big to invite the "pest" out of our tiny office, that larger than the norm bugger still prefer the comfort of air conditioning which would have been fine so long it stays stationary!

To cap the frustration, it even took to targeting the humans by landing on our hair, buzzing around our ears etc. Hence, imagine my shock when i caught it in a split moment as it was resting on my fringe. I thought i had missed but look at that black stuff in between my fingers!

The kind soul within me didn't have the heart to squeeze the motionless fly harder to ascertain its death. Therefore, i brought it out to the green patch outside the office for a proper burial. I released my grip and that supposedly dead prick took the opportunity to escape right after i took the above photo! Ass!!!!

Thu Thu Baguette and Pho House - BBQ Pork with Noodle @ Vivo City Food Republic [Singapore]

With all due respect, i always have that impression that among all the brand name food courts in Singapore, Food Republic took the first spot for being the priciest; hence, i didn't really believe my friends when they claimed to have delish Vietnamese food at pretty reasonable pricing. 

Until i checked out the eatery, Thu Thu Baguette and Pho House, a week plus ago; okay, to be fair to Food Republic, you have to agree a lot of effort was spent on interior design and dining in its premises was unlike most other food courts. 

Even though this was housed within a food court, it had a separate seating section reserved for their customers. You may however continue to buy the drinks and even desserts from the main food court vendor. 

If i zoom in a bit more, i think i can submit the photo for photos taken on an authentic food trail in Vietnam! Speaking of the country, i think i should seriously consider a visit given my increasing acceptance for Vietnamese cuisine.

Fried Spring Roll - stupid me went to order this as i didn't realise it was included in the dry noodle that i would be ingesting shortly after. Anyway, coming back to the spring roll, it wasn't as good as the local ones we have which were bigger with sweet and crunchy turnips. 

BBQ Pork with Noodle - this entire set (with ingredients including spring roll, BBQ pork, noodles, two flattened meat balls and a bowl of relatively flavourful soup) only resulted in an outlay of S$7.90 which was already inclusive of GST! 

The pieces of BBQ pork weren't overly oily and had a soft texture that was nicely marinated with the familiar yet not cloyingly sweet flavour of satay! Thumbs up for the noodle too which i thought was more like vermicelli. It was smooth and complemented well with the pickled fish sauce (served in a separate bowl); giving it an appetising touch helped further by the distinctive aroma of coriander. 

I am so going to try their baguette the next time i visit!

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Location

1, Harbourfront Walk, Vivo City, 

#03-01, Within Food Republic,

Singapore 098585

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Fried Spring Roll - S$4.90

BBQ Pork with Noodle - S$7.90

(GST Included)

Up Close with the Deer @ Kampung Cai Ranca Upas [Ciwidey, Bandung, Indonesia]

One of the activities in Southern Bandung was the opportunity to get close to the deer at Kampung Cai Ranca Upas and for those travelling to Kawah Putih, it's just a few hundred meters away from the main entrance.

Now, when i heard about it, the image conjured in my brain was hundreds of free roaming deer trotting in landscape gardens; similar to the sight one would be greeted when they step into Nara Deer Park at Osaka, Japan.

Penangkara Rusa - meaning captive deer in Bahasa Indonesia; a fact lost on me since i don't know much about the language. Hence, i continued jumping up the steps leading to the platform; thinking of happy deer in a large compound that stretched beyond what my eyes can see.

Truth wasn't as expected; the area it encompassed wasn't huge yet compared to zoo standard, it was luxurious and i believe even bigger than what the world famous Singapore Zoo can offer. 

Faced with wet weather since the day before, i think it's inevitable to have muddy ground that's totally mixed in with the deer shit; my only consolation was that the cooler climate had kept the stench controllable. 

Ladies taking a picture! 

Information on deer which was lost on people who don't read Bahasa Indonesia. Of course i can complain as a tourist but when the local tourism is much more desirable, we have to give and take; put it this way, i could have paid higher for an English / Mandarin speaking tour guide who could help me translate. But i didn't.

Space, as you can see, was limited to within wire fences probed up by the wooden poles. It's supposed to be a deer conservation park although i don't really see a direct relation between conservation and captivity. 

Reaching the end of the raised sheltered walkway which led us to a platform where we can be closer to the deer which were crowding around in hope of a kind soul who will feed them!

Strange that they didn't make any attempt to climb up the steps to snatch the vegetables; honestly they appeared to be totally at ease with humans. 

Louise with one curious deer that thought she might have something (delicious) hidden in her backpack. 

With the kind of shoes i am wearing, i doubt i would want to sink my feet into the mud for a closer experience with the deer; furthermore, i didn't have anything to offer them. 

Wear boots if you wish to get closer! I am unsure if special permission would be needed to venture down but i guess you can always check with the warden. With the antlers, i am also wondering if it would be safe to be in such close proximity with the deer. 

The most decent selfie i can manage - there were supposed to be about three deer in the background; pity i was too slow and could only manage to capture the butt of only one. 

My elder sister, my younger sister and my mom had all disappeared; guess they were totally bored and as with most city gals, they came dolled up and would not want to run the risk of having mud splattered on them or worse still, falling into a pile of sludge! 

The other platform nearer to the entrance; the mud was deeper and there were lesser deer loitering there. p.s. one wrong step and i guess it's a must to spend for an entire change in clothing and shoes. 

Looked like a feeding pen for the deer.

While i was taking some final shots, Louise returned with a bag of carrots that cost her 10,000 rupiah a bag. Reason? Pretty obvious that she needed to bribe the deer get nearer to her!

They definitely recognised the black plastic bag!

I of course begged for a few sticks so that i can take the much needed photos for this post; darn was the tongue long! Even though it had the option to climb up the stairs to the platform to snatch the carrot, its feet ventured no more beyond the last step; maybe they had been conditioned to stay off the platform? 

The fawn with doe eyes; they were in fact generally quite tame and in addition to staying put, off the platform, they didn't attempt to bite my fingers off despite my cruel tricks to entice them closer without allowing them to take a bite of the carrots! 

My bad. 

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Location

Jalan Ciwidey-Patengan Km. 11, Rancabali, 

Ciwidey, Patengan, Rancabali, 

Bandung, Jawa Barat 40973, Indonesia

Pricing

10,000 Rupiah per person

5,000 Rupiah per car

Additional Information

There's a thermal pool nearby where you can soak in comfortable hot water even though the weather then was rather chilly. p.s. mom and Joyce disappeared to the commercial shops nearby to see if they could have any hot coffee/ tea!

Adventure seekers can try out the activities in the adventure camp! If you have sufficient time to spend in Bandung, you may also rent a tent and camp overnight. With the lack of lighting, i believe you might even catch the milky way on a clear night.

For the summarised itinerary of our 5 days, 4 nights trip to Bandung, please click here.