Wang Chiew Eating House

It has always been a headache for me to organise an outing for dinner or supper as there are too many options for eateries in Singapore. You often face questions on "What to eat?" or "Where to eat?". As such we start "Googling" for new dining options. 

About 2 weeks back, I have got an invitation from Streetdirectory for food review session at WONG CHIEW EATING HOUSE so I decided to bring both my "BFs" (Boyfriend & Best Friend) along. :) 

This 24hrs eating house is located along 19 Sembawang Road, serving a huge varieties of Chinese food from Hongkong. You can expect to find Dim Sum, Roasted Meat, Dumpling Noodles, Hongkong Style Porridge to "Zhe Char" (Home style ala-carte cooked dishes) here whether you are looking for breakfast to supper options. 

As I was invited for a dinner review session, in this post I will be reviewing some of their interesting and common dishes served here.

Shopfront view

This eating place has 2 shops, the main shop is outdoor, whereas next to it is air-conditoned.

Curry Fish Head $23

Curry Fish Head is one of my favorite dish that can't be missed when dining out at any "zhe char" place with my family. This curry fish head easily serves 3 to 4 pax and I love the fragrance and texture of the curry as it is neither too thick nor watery, I could finished up 2 bowls of rice just with the curry gravy mixed with it! The meat of the red snapper fish head was very fresh and loaded with lots of my favorite vegetables and "tao pok" 

Roast Meat  $6  &  Roast Duck Leg $5.50

The skin of the "Sio Bak" (roast meat) was cripsy, the meat was tender and juicy, one of favorite combination when ordering roast meat. I wasn't a fan of "Drumstick" although it is always one of the best part of duck meat when people order roast duck. The duck meat was tender but I would prefer it without the gravy so that I can taste the original flavour of the duck meat. It is definitely a better choice for lunch.

Wong Chiew Signature - Golden Fried Lotus Roots $12(Small)

Salted egg is one of the best condiments to cook with prawns, pork ribs or crabs and we often eat lotus roots in soup. But have you heard of cooking lotus roots with salted egg? You will be surprised when the dish was served. The lotus roots was deep fried and coated with salted egg yolks making it crispy and rich in flavor. It somehow reminds me of eating tempura with a mixed of salted egg!  Ahh.. Talking about tempura .. please continue to drool as I'm about to introduce to you guys another special dishe by Wang Chiew! 

Wang Chiew Signature - Vegetables Tempura $8 (Small)

This is another interesting dish found at Wang Chiew -Vegetables Tempura. But why would we want to eat a Japanese dish in a Chinese restaurant? The truth is, this is a fusion of mixed Chinese & Japanese dish! The green leafy vegetables that is coated in the tempura batter are actually "Chinese Spinach" aka "Yin Choi". I have never come across such combination before but it really taste like the Japanese "Kakiage".  It is a must order when you visit here! 

Wang Chiew Imperial Beef With Mango Salad $11 (Small)

This is a recommended dish if you would like an appetizer to begin with. This is similar to the Thai Style Mango and beef salad. The beef was mixed with mango, carrot and lotus roots tossed in their self made spicy and tangy dressing. Infused with the spicy dressing and zesty mangoes, this dish was really appetizing!

Wang Chiew Famous Bucket Kampong Chicken -Half  for $14, 1 for $28

Other than roasted meat, Wong Chiew serves also their signature steamed kampong chicken in a wooden bucket. The chicken is drenched with their self make recipe of minced ginger and garlic with sesame oil for chicken rice. Instead of eating the usual Hainanese chicken rice that serves the garlic ginger sauce separately, it is mixed together. The kampong chicken is more tender compared to the usual chicken and less meaty as well. For those who like eating the boneless Samsui chicken at Soup Restaurant with the Ginger and garlic sauce, you may consider this as the "bone version". 

Wang Chiew Black Pepper Crab - 3 For $42

Black Pepper Crabs are also another favorite seafood delicacy in Singapore. Wong Chiew usually serves smaller crabs each around 300g to 400g for their promo! Bigger Sri Lanka crabs are only made available by ordering in 2 days in advance. I had tried black pepper crab from  No Signboard, Jumbo & Melben seafood restaurant, most of their black pepper sauce are usually quite dry and peppery as a result you only taste the pungent spice from the peppercorns. 

My "Left Right Hand" today! 

I brought my "BFs" along to assist me today! My "Right Bf" Fanesa is a huge fan of Crabs, she commented that the spiciness of the black pepper crab at Wong Chiew was just nice for her as she usually can't take the spiciness of the other Black pepper crabs and the crabs were fresh as well. Boyfriend and I think it's not spicy enough though as we love extreme spicy food.  

Best friend enjoying the crab too!

My Favorite Crab Claw!

Overall I find that smaller crabs are somehow easier for me to eat as compared to bigger crabs. Both my Bfs prefer Bigger Sri Lanka Crabs. Wang Chiew also serves a wide varieties of  Dim Sum at reasonable price ranging from $3 to $3.50 per dish. 

Vicky (The lady boss) & I

Group pic with Bf &Vicky!

Vicky is the lady boss now helping to run the restaurant for her mum. I would say it is not easy to run a 24hr eating place having to mend the manpower. But Vicky says she creates a homely environment for her workers to work like a family that also explains most of their workers worked for Wong Chiew for many years!

I have come to the end of the food review. If you are feeling hungry after seeing the food, please hurry down to Wong Chiew Eating House to fill your tummy now! I would definitely revisit Wong Chiew again to try their dim sum again ! 

To find out more on their other foods in the menu you may visit their website for more details!

Address & Directions to Wong Chiew Eating House 

19 Sembawang Road, Singapore 779075

Tel: 64566838

Bus : 167 from Orchad Turn, Orchard Mrt Station,  

       980 from Victoria Street,Opp Bugis Junction

169 from Ang Mo Kio Interchange

Alight at Spring Leaf Condominium and walk about 2 mins you will see the place.

Cab: You can take a cab from Khatib Mrt around $6 

Thank you so much for reading , please stay tune on my next coming food post soon! 

Love,

Pinkie~

    

   

  

My "manic" hair colour!

OMG!! Yes! I just had my hair ends "dipped dyed" in "turquoise" at Salon COVO. Thanks to stylist Marco!

If you haven't noticed, manic hair colours are the latest trend. I see many people on the streets these days sporting streaks of manic hair colour, especially my favourite "turquoise". Totally reminds me of a mermaid's beautiful tresses! Seeing all these colours, it struck me that I should do something crazy too, or in this case "manic", to my boring hair colour.

It is almost impossible for us Asians with naturally dark brown or black hair to achieve such crazy colours without bleaching... but well, we all know bleaching damages our hair. Then again, what would you do if you have only one day to live? Live with regrets? So come on, throw caution to the wind, as long as you can count on the professional stylists at COVO helping you.

I was glad to visit COVO again, this time to try something BOLDER which is to have my hair coloured "turquoise". As recommended by my dearest cousin Angie, the secret to this beautiful manic colour is the Manic Panic brand semi hair colour, plus the creative skills of stylist Marco at COVO.

Manic Panic hair dye

So WHO & WHERE is COVO? COVO is a Japanese hair salon located at 43 Keong Saik Road in Chinatown. COVO means “a hiding place.” in Italian. When you are at COVO, you will enjoy a private and relaxing personal space as well as VIP treatment. 

I'll let the photos do the talking!

COVO shopfront

Salon interior at a glance

Your very own private space

This private seating caught my attention when I first stepped into the salon. Unlike other usual salons where you just share a row of seats with other people, at COVO you get your own private space and that immediately makes you feel like a VIP. Japanese salons always have clean, neat and simple interiors that make customers feel like they are right at home. 

My Stylist for the Day - Marco San

Marco was my appointed stylist. He was very polite and friendly, I was surprised that he could communicate quite well in English and I found out later that he had worked as a stylist in Vancouver before coming to Singapore. I showed him some pictures of the hair colour I wanted, but he did not promise me immediately that he could do it as the condition of my hair was not very good - most probably due to too many chemical treatments done previously. He suggested to test-bleach a few strands of my hair to see the outcome before deciding whether to proceed.

Test-bleaching on some of my hair strands

Marco asked me to feel the texture of my test-bleached hair and whether I was fine with it before deciding to bleach the other parts of my hair, as that was the max I could bleach. Any further bleaching would cause my hair to become severely damaged. I gladly accepted his advice and proceeded.

Bleaching the inner back part of my hair

Marco also advised me that bleaching should not be done up till the hair roots as it would damage the scalp, so there needed to be a margin of about 2 to 3 inches from the roots.

My personal little desk with hair magazines, drinks & sweet treat from Marco :)

Hair wash time! 

Most of the hair salons in Singapore use normal tap water to wash and shampoo our hair. Do you know that at Covo, they use "Tansan" water - aka "carbonated spring water" - to wash our hair?  So what's the difference? Covo's Tansan water helps to remove the extra oil or sebum that accumulates on the scalp, thus making your hair healthier. I agreed that the water in Singapore also contains more alkaline and fluoride as compared with Japan. 

Japanese people are very health-conscious when it comes to the products they use, plus they have an abundance of natural resources like spring water, unlike Singapore! :)

After rinsing!

My successfully bleached hair

After blow drying!

We are ready to add colours now!

(Left) For my base hair colour; (Right) Manic Panic blue hair dye

For colouring, perming and rebonding, Covo uses products developed by the “chemical master” and owner-stylist of COVO Japan, Mr Manabu. They use Hoyu for normal colouring, which is also from Japan, apart from Manic Panic hair colour.

Marco preparing to apply base colour to my hair

Wrapped with foil after applying colour

While waiting ..Time for a selfie? =P

Marco is very attentive and polite, always returning to check if I'm comfortable as I was not allowed to fidget while waiting for my hair colour to set. In other salons, the stylists normally come back to check on you only when it's time. 

After 2nd rinse

Finally, 45 mins later and after rinsing, I was thrilled to see my newly coloured hair before it dried out! At that time, I was still afraid my hair would not be able to absorb the dye. Luckily, everything turned out as expected! 

Marco trimming my hair before drying!

Cutting hair when it is wet means less friction, says Marco. 

After blow drying

Back view of my hair

Now you can have a clearer view of the area that is coloured turquoise!

Styling of my hair in progress!

After drying my hair, Marco suggested using the curly irons to curl my hair ends.

Finally, it's done!

The Handsome Magician - Marco San & Me!

Can't resist taking a few more photos with Marco San =P

Side view                                                Back view

If your hair length is longer than mine, you should consider COVO because it does not charge extra for long hair like other salons do. You can also opt for your preferred stylist without additional charges! Find out more about the price menu  here.

If you are convinced after reading my whole experience at COVO, give it a shot! I made the right choice by going to COVO salon for my hair colour treatment and I will certainly visit it again. 

Covo's price for Cut & Colour:  U.P @ $210* and you can top up an additional  $40 for hair treatment (highly recommended as U.P is $50).

 Great news now! Instead of $250* ($210 +$40) , You  pay only $200*!