Have you ever went to other countries and tried the Singaporean food there? Of course if you’re going there only for a holiday then you’re going to be looking silly eating Singaporean food. But some people can’t survive without Singaporean food so they will look for Singaporean food when they are abroad but the thing is most Singaporean food at overseas isn’t exactly authentically Singaporean since it would most likely be tweaked to suit the local taste.
When I was in Perth, eating Singapore food outside is actually something I dreaded doing because in Singapore we are even choosy over which stall to go to for Char Kway Teow or Chicken Rice, so how can a stall out of no where in some Australian town suddenly can whip up a delicious plate of something? Well from my experiences the kind of standard they can produce is not any better than what I can, so that’s why I found learning how to cook something myself is actually easier than to scour for delicious Singapore food when I was abroad.
Then not forgetting there are the wonderful Cantonese cuisines all over the place. If you were to put a Singaporean Cze Char and a Cantonese Cze Char side by side, out of 10 times, I will walk into the Cantonese Cze Char 10 times. It’s not that Singaporean Cze Char is lousy but just that Cantonese Cze Char is far more superior.
I was initially quite taken aback when my partner suggested we go to try some Thai food. Eating Thai food in Indonesia sounded like eating Nasi Padang in China. Ok I know certain food are sold internationally like Pizza and Pasta where you can get really good ones in any countries. Well for some reasons I find a plate of Char Kway Teow more tasty than a plate of Pasta and that kept me wonder, why Char Kway Teow is not eaten internationally but Pasta is. I look forward to the day I can eat Char Kway Teow in Italy and we can buy dry Kway Teow from supermarkets and hopefully by then someone had invented some kind of Char Kway Teow(plus wok hei) sauce where you just need to toss with it to eat. Ok that sounded really lame but really, I don’t understand the popularity of Pasta as far the taste is concerned. I think more likely it is popular because it is easy to be prepared.
Ok now I am quite a big fan of Thai food and have tried terrific ones in Bangkok and Phuket and had some really good ones in London too. The thing with food ‘exporting’ is that when a food arrives at foreign land, something that can be eaten cheaply in the country of origin are suddenly been sold at skyrocketed prices. I can guarantee you that a meal of Thai food in London can cost more than a meal of Cantonese food but yet I know for a fact that those kind of food don’t actually worth that much except that they’ll try to package via a higher class of eating outlet and then would charge you a premium price for it. I am usually quite put off by this kind of ‘product packaging’. It’s the same story with our local seafood where the good ones would move to East Coast Beach and start to up their prices because now thay have higher overheads blah blah blah, of course we all know their main reason for doing so is higher profit margin.
So when we arrived at Siam Garden, the first thing I look out for are the prices because the last thing I want is to spend $10 for a plate of Pad Thai.
You would also feel silly if you were to buy a Roti Prata for $5 in Shanghai. The prices here are reasonable which ranges from Rp20 000(SGD$2+) to Rp40 000. I was fairly surprised though to find that they don’t have a Tom Yum in the menu but only a Tom Yum Kung. For those who don’t know, Tom Yum Kung is not the original Tom Yum but another version of it where coconut milk is added to the broth.
I didn’t like this Tom Yum Kung but unfortunately that’s the only Tom Yum they have on the menu. My partner ordered the Pandan Chicken and I added the Pad Thai and a Stir Fry Beancurd with Seafood to go with steamed rice.
Tom yum koong: 7/10 
Padang Chicken: 8/10
As expected the Tom Yum Kung is too creamy for my liking. The Pandan Chicken is outstanding though most Pandan Chicken I had are always outstanding, I think this is one dish that is very hard to fail and yet easy to be outstanding.
Stir Fried Tofu with Seafood: 6.5/10 
The Stir Fry Tofu with Seafood is great but however I thought the flavour was a little too ‘Chinese’. This is really the kind of flavour I can get easily at any Chinese restaurant so to find it in a Thai restaurant is a little disappointing because I’m coming to a Thai restaurant to eat Thai food.
Pad Thai: 6/10
I loved Pad Thai absolutely and the key to it is to have substantial wok hei and enough wetness and sweetness, something that is very similar to Char Kway Teow but unfortunately the Pad Thai here was mediocre at best. It is not wet enough, oily, not enough peanuts, just don’t have that Pad Thai flavour. They seems to sprinkle the peanuts on top for fun more than anything else. This place just doesn’t serve food that is Thai enough unfortunately. Khor Thod!
Price: SGD$3 onwards per dish
Recommendation: Pandan Chicken
Conclusion: Food are reasonably priced but taste are carelessly tweaked which resulted in mediocre quality.
Likes: Affordable prices.
Dislikes: Not authentic enough.
| Address | Overall Rating | ||
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Food: 6/10 Value: 7/10 Service: 7/10 Ambience: 7/10 Cleanliness: 7/10 Overall: 7.5/10 |
