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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Nasi Ambeng at HMC - Review

Assalammua'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog.

Yes, I am sure you have noticed. I now have ads by Nuffnang on my blog. WHY? Like every other Singaporeans, I guess we have to make the best out of everything. Love and love alone doesn't bring a meal to fill the tummy, ya!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank many of you for continuously reading my blog and kept coming to revisit. As time passes by, with more readers, I will be bringing in more variety to write about.

In the meantime, all of you can still continue to buzz me on interesting topics that you want me to write about too. Speaking of which... I had a friend who had asked me for my ratings on Hajjah Mariam Cafe's Nasi Ambeng.

So, what is Nasi Ambeng??



Nasi Ambeng is actually a Javanese dish, which consists of white fragrant rice, a main meat dish (beef/mutton rendang OR chicken (either masak merah or lemak cili api), begedil (almost like a potato wedge), serunding (fried coconut flesh), acar timun and sambal goreng. There may be differences in what is served depending on where it is made (I guess). I mean Javanese are everywhere, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, so different countries have different taste buds, and it usually follows (mutates - because we keep improvising!) what is more in trend with the respective taste buds. The special thing about Nasi Ambeng is that it will have to be served on a tray and shared with 2-4 people. This usually initiates the people to bond and interact through food.

So where is Hajjah Mariam Cafe?


It is located at WestGate,  Jurong East #B2-08 at the Gourmet Paradise.


The pros:



Well food is awesome!! I must say because I don't usually touch anything that has too many going on, on my plate. Anyhoos, I gobbled half of it the first time I had it with my husband. Well I was distracted a lot by Baby M at that point of time. And I cannot deny that it was nice.

So we went a second time with my parents, and ordered 2 sets for 2 as they ran out big trays to accomodate all 4 of us on one tray. So we decided to take on one with chicken (masak lemak cili padi) and one with beef rendang.

We basically went silent and got busy eating. Well, until parents said, "take some from ours, we couldnt finish" only to realise our tray is almost empty! So we took my parents' share and continued eating. It was just so nice. The food is awesome.. I had to say because I wasn't exactly very hungry this time round.

I had to give it a 4 out of 5 for the food. The first Nasi Ambeng I had eaten, and probably many more to explore - since I can eat this one, I can probably eat other Nasi Ambeng just the same, yes?

The Cons:


The space has constraints. It is small, and people keep streaming in, so there is no chance for it to be empty unless everything is sold. AND you can't sit before you order your food. It is only fair I guess, so that those who sat have already had food ordered and noone would be stranded with food in hand but nowhere to sit. BUT it eliminates "chopping" the place so your friends who are late can sit and order when they arrive - which I think is good, but having had people who are habitually late, or when we need a family dine out and having them coming from different places makes us end up dining late, and hungry people makes angry people.

The queue I had to say, during non-peak hours - like between 3-6pm - we already had to queue for a good 20 minutes. So I am guessing if you come during the peak hours, just be ready to queue for 1hr or so.

And with many people streaming endlessly, don't sit while waiting for your order to be ready, pls stand there at the counter, because they will forget you.. I mean I would forget you with that many people streaming in with orders after orders.

With space constraint, this makes it a non-friendly place for wheelchair bound individuals or those with prams - i know not many are okay with "parking" their baby pram at the side while eating, and it is definitely a no go if baby is asleep, I mean I wont be "parking" my baby in her pram to eat because she is sleeping, and neither would I carry her disturbing her sleep just to eat.

But hey, food is worth it. So I'd be coming again!

Happy gobbling!

Wassalam,
Jun

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