Friday, August 30, 2013

PappaRich @ Parkway Parade


You may not have noticed, but the Halal food options at Parkway Parade has definitely dwindled. It's always been either KFC, Mad Jack, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Swensens or Pastamania. Mainly western fare. Naturally, we were jubilated to know that PappaRich is now Halal-certified!

Previously, their Halal branch is only PappaMia, located at Changi Airport Terminal 1.

As you may have known, PappaRich serves all-time Malaysian favourites (both our cuisines are pretty similar, anyway) so we finally get some local fare! Yay!

But at pretty steep pricing… Nay?

Rice options

On the left are 3 different options for Nasi Lemak alone.

On the right is the Super Rich combo. Their specialty 'Nasi Rich' (looks like 'Pilaf' to me) with chicken drumstick, beef rendang, curried potato, lady's finger, pappadum & sambal. Whoa!

More rice options

I was most tempted to order R07. The idea of beef rendang + sweet & spicy squid… Mmm!

On the right is the Chicken Rice & Fried Rice Specials.

Now, now... Why did I forget to snap a pic of the noodles section? But I have to admit that the picture of the rice dishes were sooo tempting! Maybe that's why…

Noodles options are Horfun, fried mee, laksa, soup etc. They even have Western fare ala Hainanese style - crispy chicken chop + fish & chips.

Breads galore

Hainan-style steamed/toasted bread slices with kaya & margarine etc. There's also roti 'canai' & naan.

There's also satay & vegetarian options in the menu.

Hot/cold desserts

Traditional desserts options, mostly.

We wrote our orders (using the code numbers) on the chit that's placed on every table and then ring the 'door bell' to call the service staff over. 

They have this system that's very similar to the polyclinics here. *Ding dong!* and digital numbers will indicate the table number. Maybe it's systematic on their part but it's reaaally irritating for anyone sitting close to the servery area. Or maybe, it's just me. 

Herbal lemon tea

Was nursing a cough that week. This was just apt.

Pappa Curry Laksa

My colleague had this previously and she mentioned that it seemed a little 'watered-down'. 

I took such a long time to decide that I ended up making a hasty decision and chose this. And she was right. The taste is there, actually. But the consistency was too runny, somehow. 

They were generous with the filler, though. Tau pok, fish cake slices, chicken & fresh 'hum' (cockles). Dipping those cockles into the sambal belacan provided (in the background) had been such a pleasure!

Pappa Fried Mee

This rendition seems like a cros between the Malay & Indian style of fried noodles. There's prawns, tomato, potato, tofu, 'cai xin' & bean sprouts. 

This was quite good. 

Pappa Lemak w/ Fried Chicken Drumstick & Squid

One look and it we were like, "Whoa!" Pretty impressive, I must say. 

Nasi Lemak with the works. Huge fried chicken drumstick + thigh, curried potato, sweet & spicy squid, boiled egg & sambal. 

Dry Curry Noodles w/ Steamed Chicken

Another colleague ordered this. Very interesting combo. 

'Dry' yellow mee slathered with curry gravy and served with steamed chicken ala chicken rice. They served chili padi on the side. There's a small container of light soy sauce on every table. 

Pappa Chendol 

My male colleague seem to have a weakness for chendol. He will order this whenever he see it on the menu. His mission must have been to find the best chendol around. And he always end up disappointed, including with this one here. 

His gripe? The size of the ice shavings. And I have to agree with him. Finer ice-shaving gives a smoother taste to the dessert. It's very distracting to have to chew on tiny ice-chips when you want to savour a dessert. And the shavings here were so rough that they're very much visible!

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All in all, quoting from what my male colleague said, "At least we get like what we see in the pictures on the menu. And the taste is there…"

But does that justify the pretty high pricing for what we regard as 'local' fare'? Oh well, to each his own.