Thursday, February 18, 2010

Western Chow

www.westernchow.com

This is what happens what you read blogs at work. You get so intrigued about the food that's been written about and you get your colleagues to read the same entry and ALL got curious and wanted to give it a try.

So the three of us gals (the others away on holiday) took a cab ride ALL the way to Lor Ah Soo just to have a go at this popular food stall (featured in Manja magazine and Berita Minggu-the local Malay Sunday paper). Well it turns out that Lor Ah Soo ain't that very far from our workplace at Ubi...

We were kinda worried that it'll be closed, due to CNY (since it's Chinese-owned and all). Thankfully, they are open. I've already made up my mind since the time I read the blog entry so I quickly place my order (I am really, really fickle-minded).

We are to choose 2 out of the 5 different sides that they offer, to accompany our mains. There are coleslaw, french beans, mashed potato, fries & rice. There is also the promotional set meal, where soup + main course + dessert = $7.90.

2 of us took up that offer.


cream of mushroom soup

The consistency of this soup seems to remind me of the canned variety but the dark brown colour tell me otherwise.

It does taste homemade, just that it's a tad too starchy till that it became unecessarily thick. The thing about starchy foods is that they fill a person up easily. Appreciate the mushroom bits every now and then.

Either they don't add MSG or only a little was added; for I don't get that 'certain' aftertaste or feel extremely thirsty prior to eating this.

Somehow, eating this makes me miss the mushroom soup offered at Starhub Green's foodcourt. Hope to blog about that one soon...


dory fish in bread crumbs

My colleague's order. Her chosen sides are the mashed potato & french beans. I had a bit of the fish: it's not fishy and slightly sweetish.

Believe me, I've had my fair share of fish fillets that are fishy and bland at the same time. This one's quite alright. Not too greasy, too.


chicken chop mushroom sauce

Another colleague's order. She's determined to try the mushroom sauce so she settled for this. She chose the mashed potato & coleslaw as her sides. She told me that her coleslaw taste 'fresh'.

I had a taste of the mushroom sauce: not too starchy and it does carry the rich mushroom flavour, akin to mushroom soup w/o the cream. Those big mushroom pieces in the sauce are a definite plus.


char-grill black pepper chicken

My order. I chose the mashed potato and french beans as my sides.

The mashed potato is smooth and creamy and the accompanying gravy taste a lot like the mushroom sauce. Maybe it's one and the same, seeing that both the sauces look similar; on my colleague's plate.

The french beans look like they are blanched prior to being stir-fried with carrot strips and garlic. I like that it's done nicely, without tasting too raw or over-cooked; giving a pleasant, slight crunch with every bite.

Both my colleague and I are a tad peeved that they didn't serve that piece of garlic bread with the soup that's served earlier. Maybe next time, they can consider doing that for patrons who ordered the set?

Now that piece of chicken... Is delish! That thigh meat is cooked in a way that makes it live up to its name. Charred nicely at the edges yet juicy and tender at the same time. The skin isn't that fatty and the surface is delightfully crispy.

The black pepper sauce complements the chicken meat nicely, where the black pepper taste wasn't too over-bearing. Nice.

I do wonder why mine is called 'char-grilled chicken' and my colleague's is called 'chicken chop' while both look like they are prepared similarly?


'dessert'

This comes in as part of the promotional set. Served together with the soup.


canned peach & fruit cocktail bits

Well yeah, it does look like nothing. I remember asking the person at the stall, "What's the dessert?"

He looked pretty uneasy and mumbled something to the line of, "Peach cocktail."

Well, what do you expect when the whole set costs only $7.90? After all, definition of dessert is: "Dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet foods.."

It does meet that definition and it works as a closure to complete a meal. Besides, after all that I've eaten, anything heavier that this will be much too filling... I have no complaints.

No comments: