Favourite Roast Meat Outlet

This article is about a roast meat outlet which my family has patronise over the years. It was originally located at Old Paya Lebar Road but has since moved due to the road improvement works carried out over that area.

Last week, we went there for lunch. The below photos were taken at the coffee shop. We had ordered a soup and then a plate of roast duck, Char Siew and Roast Pork for three person to share.

The first photo is the setting of the table. There are three sauces provided as per seen below. One is the chill sauce. The other one is a sweet ausce which goes well with the duck and the darkish sauce is a thick sauce which is applied over your rice.

The next picture is the soup with spare rib and vegetable. I forgot the vegetable name.

The following photos are showing the plate of the various roast meats. In the foreground on the left, is the Char Siew. The roast meat are on the right of the photo and in the background is the roast duck.

The below is a close up pictur e of the Char Siew. The meat was very flavourful and tasty and the meat was very tender.

The below is a close up picture of the roast duck. The skin was very crispy and the meat was also tender and it was not dry and the flavour of the duck is also excellent.


Overall, the roast meat items are very good as usual and it is a good place to visit if you want to go for some roast meat items.


Currently they are located at No. 125 Upper Paya Lebar Road S(534838). The below is a picture of their current location.

They even have a website : kayleeroastmeatjoint.com

First impression of Wan Hao

This is another review on a place I had gone for lunch quite a while back. I think two to three months back.

The name of the restaurant is called Wan Hao and it is located on the third floor of the Marriott. The following two photos show the entrance as well as the setting in the dining area.




This was my first visit to the place and since it was during the lunch hour when we went we decided to try a few of the dim sum items as well as some of their main dishes. We decided to order three steamed dim sum item and three deep fried item.

The following three pictures are the three steamed dim sum items. The first one was the steamed seafood dumpling. The base of the dumpling is prawns and scallop and they are been wrapped with a very clear flour skin. After which it is toppled with shark fin and then crab roe. This item was absolutely delicious. The prawn was very fresh and juicy and they wrapped it so well that the the item was not too dry. The flavour of the crab roe gave this item a complementing flavour. The second item I forgot its name already so cannot comment on it. ( Problem of delaying writing till forgot the name of the dish as well as the taste unless it is something very unique or excellent in taste) The third item was the Siew Mai. It was also a dish quite well prepared. It was very juicy and the filling was sufficient and the flavour is embodied in the individual Siew Mai. A very satisfying item.

The below picture shows the three fried dim sum items that we ordered. From the forefront is the char siew puff which is supposed to be one of their more highly recommended item. It was very good in general but my mum who does not like butter stuff did not really appreciate it.

The next two items are the more interesting items.

The first one is honeydew wrapped in Parmesan Ham. The ham was wrapped around the honeydew and then the ham was coated with something and then deep fried. It was quite a unique creation. In spite of it been deep fried the honey dew within managed to maintain its original flavour and moisture and the ham gave it a bit of salty taste. Hence when you ate it you taste the salty flavour of the ham followed by the sweetness of the honeydew. Quite an interesting flavour.

The next one is the sea perch wrapped with vegetable. The internal of the roll was the sea perch and the vege wrapped in the centre and it was wrapped in a layer of skin. It was one of the best dim sum I had. The sea perch was very tasty and the accompanying vege in it accentuate the flavour of the fish with it. The skin was really very crispy.

The below dish is the spare ribs with almond. It is the best spare ribs that I had. It was very flavourful and the sauce that was fried with it was very good. ( A bit on the sweet side though)

It is a dish which will go very well with rice or even on its own.

The below is the San Bei Chicken. This was the best version that I had. The sauce was very good and will be excellent to eat with rice. The sauce very rich of the flavour of the chicken as well as the ingredients which were used in the preparation of the dish. The chicken pieces was also very tender. My mum really loved this item. Highly recommended!

The below is the tofu cooked with scallop. This was a dish which was a bit bland in terms of flavour. It was not so rich in flavour as the previous two dishes. It had a more soothing taste and was light on the taste. Personally I found it ok but my relatives did not find it so outstanding.

The last of the main dish is the braised Ee Fu Mee with two types of mushroom. This has to rank as one of the very best I had. Every strain of noodle was tasteful and the noodle was not overcooked till it loses its "Dan Xing". You could taste the richness of the mushroom in the dish.

The below was the desert that my aunt had. It was coconut presented in three styles. You had the sea coconut. The translucent thing cannot remember what it was. The white base was super concentrated coconut juice which was very rich in flavour and very sweet. My aunt commented that it was too sweet for her liking. However you have to admit the presentation looks quite nice :)

Overall the quality of the food was very high and the ambience was aso very quite and elegant. A very good place for business lunch/dinner. One of the later article that I will be writing would be about the meal I had more recently over here when they had the 60's promotion.

Opinion on Manchester United signing in the off season

In the off season, Manchester United was the first team among the top four teams in the EPL to have made some very significant signings. To summarise they have signed Nani from Sporting, Anderson from Porto, Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich and confirmed the signing of the on-loan keeper from West Brom Tomasz Kuszczak. Currently they are trying to pursue the signing of Carlos Tevez from West Ham.

With regard to Tomasz Kuszczak, from the few occasions that I have seen him play when he was on loan last season as well as during his time at West Brom, he looks a good shot stopper. One of his potential weakness is that he does not seem to be able to handle crosses very well. In addition, he is not that dominating in the air when he comes to collect crosses. Overall, I think he is ok as a deputy.

With regard to the long awaited signing of Owen Hargreaves, I think that it is a good move in general. Ever since Roy Keane left Manu, Manu has lost a key focal point in the centre of the midfield. There has been no one one has been able to perform consistently as the covering person for the back four.

The purpose of such a position is to be the holding midfielder to protect the back four and to distribute the ball to the more flair players in the attacking portion of the field. Fergi has tried so many players in that position. Alan Smith, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes to name a few of the players who have tried to fill up this position. It seem that Paul Scholes was the closest to filling this role as he was mainly used in this position last season. However there are two main downsides to using him in that position. Firstly his timing of tackle is quite bad to be honest. ( The only skill he seem to be unable to really improve) Secondly, playing him in the withdrawn role will mean that you will lose his attacking foray around the penalty box which is one of his better ability.

With the signing of Owen Hargreaves who has been playing in this withdrawn role for both Bayern Munich and as well as for England, it will free Paul Scholes to go back to his more favoured attacking position. It will allow Manu to have someone who can compete in the centre of the midfield in terms of control of the centre of midfield as last season, there were a few games in Manu were overpowered in the centre of the midfield. The best example was against AC milan where Gattuso dominated the midfield and was one of the key reason why Milan was able to beat Manu. In addition, all the top teams in European football have a dominating ball winner in the centre of the park. For example, Gilberto for Arsenal, Essien or Claude Makelele for Chelsea, Gattuso for AC Milan, Mohamed Sissoko for Liverpool and Mahamadou Diarra for Real Madrid.

For the signing of Nani, to be honest I have only watched him in action once or twice in the Portugal international games. From the few matches, it is noticeable that his style of play is very similar to Cristiano Ronaldo. Like his compatriot, he is a player who likes to hug the touchline and to take on defenders and then to cut in to take a shot or pass. I believe that Fergi will use him as an impact player for his first season in Manu while he tried to help him to cope to the physical nature of the English game. In the long term, he should be the replacement for Giggs on the left of the mid-field. Hence this signing is more in mind of the future and should be a good move in general.

The last of the confirmed signing is the signing of Anderson from Porto. According to the news report he is supposed to be the next Ronaldinho but to be honest he has not been that high profile last season due to a broken leg suffered last season. He is a bit of the unknown quality and hopefully he is able to adapt to the English game as actually there has been quite a few South American who has not been able to adapt to the English game. A few high profile names come to mind. Players like Veron, Forlan, Silvinho formerlt from Arsenal and even Gilberto Silva took more than a season to adapt to the English game. He is someone who can be a big success or become another high profile failure. Like Nani, he will only be used sparingly as Paul Scholes and Carrick are currently playing the attacking midfield position

The last potential signing could be Carlos Tevez. As of now, West ham has not agreed to sell him to Manu and FIFA is going to be called in to push through the transfer. It is qute a messy affair at the moment and the end does not seem to be in sight. However from his last season performance for West Ham, he will be a valuable signing for Manu. However whether he is what Manu require for a striker is something that needs further examining.

Lunch at Thai Express (Marina Square outlet)

This is really a very delayed entry. This actually happen about a month back. My friend wanted to buy a Manu jersey to celebrate them winning the EPL title. We spend the afternoon scouring the nearby shopping areas for the jersey but to no avail. It seem that the jersey for that season was a one off and there will be a new design this coming season. ( In my opinion, the jersey design is changing too often, guess to capitalise on the spending power of today's fans)


Anyway after a futile search we decided to proceed to Marina Square for dinner. As expected it was so crowded on a Saturday so we decided to find the place where there is no need to queue. To be frank, we just needed a place to rest and a decent meal so that is how we landed at Thai Express.

We decided that we shall each order a side dish and a main dish each. Hence we decided to order the fried squid in Thai style and the soft shell crab as the side orders. I had my usual pineapple rice and my fren had the Thai style fried kuey Teow. The below are the pictures of the dishes which came quite fast.





The above is the fried soft shell crab. In terms of taste, it is nothing outstanding. what I liked is that they placed a generous serving of the fried garlic. It accentuate the flavour of the dish which made it quite ok. The fragrance of fried garlic is really wonderful.

The next dish is the deep fired squid in Thai style. This was a dish that I really enjoyed. The squid was coated with a flour and some seasoning then deep fried to a golden brown before the sauce was applied on it. The sauce as per typical Thai dish is quite sweet. It was really quite delicious.

My fren had the fried Kuey Teow in Thai style. The Thai style fried Kuey Teow is cooked very differently from the Penang or Singapore style Char Kuey Teow. The Singapore style char kuey teow is cooked with a sweet sauce whereas the Penang char kuey teow is really very different. I do not know how to describe it in English. Anyway according to my fren, the fried kuey teow was not bad it had a sweet taste which is the norm for Thai food and as per seen from the photo the serving was also quite a lot.

The above is the pineapple rice that I had. I liked the idea of fried rice with raisin. The raisin gives a lingering sweet after taste which help to make the dish unique in my opinion. However one of the minus point was that is was not salty enough and the rice did not really bring out the flavour of pineapple rice. Overall I was disappointed by this dish.

Anyway it was a good experience to try something different.

Empire of Debt

This is the first my book reviews which I had planned to write sometimes back but due to various reasons have not gotten to writing it till now.


The first book I will be reviewing is titled the Empire of Debt ( The rise of an Epic Financial Crisis) It is a book which is co-written by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin. William Bonner is the president and CEO of Agora Inc which is a financial newsletter company and Addison is the Editorial Director and publisher of the Daily Reckoning.

The below is the screenshot of the cover of the book.

Anyway, I do not know who is these two persons to be honest. I picked up this book to read was due to the interesting title and also the first chapter was able to capture my attention.


This book is primarily about the US economy in the past 100 years and a look into the future based on the policy and decisions that had been made over the last 20 years. It is quite an insightful book. It starts from talking about the present US economy. It looks at the decisions made in the early years which lead to the current US economy. In the opinion of the writers, the current US economy is run like an empire.

The main reason for their viewpoint is listed below

Before the world war started in the first half of the 20th century, US was more inward looking and more focus on building new things and producing new stuffs. However after World War 2, US took more interest in foreign policy and this interest got more intensified during the Cold war. After the fall of the Soviet Union, US became the only super power left and started to impose themselves on a number of other countries affair. Something similar to how the Roman grow their empire in the past. Except the Roman conquered the other countries whereas US is trying to control the other countries through policy, money and diplomacy.

In the book, they talked about how the present US economy is running close to a collapse.

1. They talk about the lack of productive things coming out of the US. Almost everything that is consumed in the US are made in Asia.
2. About the high mortgage of property in US to generate more cash for current consumption but it place a burden on the next generation. The key assumption is that property price will not fall. However if you think from an economics point of view, the concept of ever raising property price is never true. This is because a property is only as valuable as what the market demand is. It will reach a point when the prices are too high till there is much less demand which will cause the prices of property to fall. Then it will cause those people that has placed a mortgage to be unable to afford the property and their gamble fail. This will cause bad debt and people to go bankrupt which will affect consumption. This will be the start of a vicious cycle.
3. There is also a low rate of saving in the US which means there is very little for people to fallback when the economy go pear-shaped.
4. The US is borrowing a lot of money to fund its current consumption and the lenders are the Asian country. A good example would be Japan and China. They sell so much things to the US and then they accept US treasury bonds which is like the US owing money to these countries.

In my opinion, this is quite an interesting read as some of the points raised in the book will make you think about the current situation and evaluate the point raised in the book. Overall, it is quite a well-written book which managed to capture a lot of the key points and in a way it is like an X-ray on the current US economy.

The only drawback is that the wordings are a bit small and can be quite tiring to the eyes when you read too many pages.