Balls Galore at Thai Express

Haven't dined out alone with Sam for quite a while, not since he's started playgroup & I started my part-time job. So when I'm supposed to bring Sam to my mum's place for his overdued haircut after 'school', thought will be nice to eat at one of our new fav: Thai Express at the Jurong Point extension.

Sam quickly settled in his wooden low-back baby chair & clamoured for his toy cars. I made my usual order of chicken tang hoon ball soup ($6.90 for a bowl of 3 pcs) for Sam, who can usually finish at least 1 of the large meatballs mixed with vermicelli.

I like to order this dish for Sam, partly cos it's one of those foods Sam can easily feed himself with a fork, provided I cut up the meatball for him in advance of course. He can get both his proteins (chicken) and his carbohydrates (vermicelli) in a single bite! And it being a soupy dish, it's a much healthier alternative to other child-friendly foods, which are mostly deep fried.

But of course, being Sam, he refused to self-feed today. So I ended up having to feed him from his plastic rice bowl (standard Thai Express type) using the adult-sized fork. That's about the only un-child-friendly thing about this chain: they don't provide kid-size cutlery. Fortunately all their plates & bowls are plastic............

Decided to try a new dish today, instead of the usual prawn toast (minced prawns & chicken on bread, deep fried). The prawn balls ($6.90 for a plate of 5) were described on the menu as "crispy & chewy, kids love it!". Well, I loved it myself too, they were great with the accompanying sweet & sour chilli sauce.

Sam seemed to be doing fine with the chicken tang hoon balls, so I ate 4 of the prawn balls, leaving only 1 for him. And as usual, it would turn out Sam loved the prawn ball with the 1/3 piece of whole prawn inside, & clamoured for more. Had to pacify him with promises of future visits......

Also tried a new drink today, the Sour Plum drink ($5.50). Sam only managed 2 sips. Turns out the drink is slightly fizzy (that's fine by me), has small pieces of plum fruit in it (ok also), and has several calamasi seeds mixed in - not ok! Sam got a seed through the straw on his 2nd sip. Luckily for me (cos I passed it to him to drink before trying it myself) Sam didn't choke on the small seed & was old enough to spit it out. Definitely not a drink for young children!!!!

I ended up finishing the refreshing drink myself, uncovering more calamasi seeds in the process. Sam was, fortunately, contented with the free cold drinking water offered.

It's always nice to eat before the lunch crowd arrives, the service is so much better. The waiter & waitress today were very nice - picking up his toy cars when they crashed to the floor, offering a straw for his cold water, providing more serviettes without me asking. If only the bill would arrive more promptly...........the cashiers must be unused to customers signing up for Thai Express's own membership card, they took so long to process the previous customer's bill & application!!!!

Oh, DBS/POSB credit card holders get a 10% discount on bills exceeding $30. Well, me & Sam didn't eat that much today. ;)


Thai Express (Jurong Point)
#B1-65/66/67 Jurong Point
Tel: 68610167

Flower Bowl in Bali Thai

IMM is definitely one of the more child-friendly shopping malls in the West. Besides the free outdoor water-play area & sheltered playground, there's plenty of musical cars & gameball machines distributed all over the mall, so parents have something (assuming you're not picky) to entertain their children wherever they shop.

Today, Sam found his dream musical car: Mickey Mouse on a colourful car, his 2 loves in one! We were on the way to Popular, but Sam got distracted by this, and we never made it to the bookstore. I spent 20 whole minutes listening to Sam lament on the wheel that "break" (note the lack of front right wheel), and after he found the spare tyre at the back of the car, tried in vain to fix the problem! Really, spending too much time in the company of children may lower my IQ!!!!!!!

Lunch at Bali Thai today. We haven't eaten here for 4 years, and the food was as good as we remembered. The waitress discreetly obtained our approval before serving the keropok, since it costs us $3. Unlike the time in Siam Kitchen, Sam didn't eat much of the titbit, since it's the bitter version (sorry, not sure what's the true name of the titbit, I've always called it the bitter keropok!). I thought thus Sam would be hungry enough to eat plenty of my fried Thai rice noodles ($9.50) and the stuffed boneless chicken wings ($3.50/pcs, min 2 pcs).

While Sam enjoyed the delicious chicken (slightly minced with a bit of carrots & herbs), he only ate a third of the bowl of the noodles I set aside for him. I guess he found the same fault with the dish as I did: while the fried noodles do taste good, the sweetness of the sauce accumulates as you eat, so halfway through the dish, I was rather sick of the noodles already.

Hubby was luckier with his fried tang hoon ($8.80), which he finished so fast, only an empty plate greeted me when I tried to get an alternative carbohydrate for Sam. I guess he got really hungry after the terribly spicy papaya salad ($9.50) appetiser, which caused me to finish half my drink of calamansi ($3.80) after only a single mouthful! Nope, it's not just me, even hubby could only manage a few bites before surrendering.

While the service was generally good, with the waitress asking us to check the individual items before signing on the final bill (pretty sure it's a subtle way to make sure we won't return & complain about having to pay for the keropok!), the kids' utensils provided upon request still cause me to ponder.

The white Ikea baby chair was quite usual, but the translucent flower-shaped bowl the waiter brought doesn't resemble any child's bowl I've seen. I'm still wondering if that bowl is meant to be eaten from, or is it used to contain peanut shells or chicken bones???!!! And the waiter a bit blur blur, I had to ask a 2nd time before he got me a spoon for Sam, and yes, he provided an adult-sized spoon.......

Still, I can't help but wish I was hungry enough to order some of the desserts. Maybe next time...........


Bali Thai (IMM branch)
2 Jurong East St 21
#01-21 IMM Building
Tel: 6560-5660
Opens 11.30am ~ 10pm

Keropok Galore in Siam Kitchen

Couldn't resist the die-cast models of the Comfort, Yellow Top & CityCab taxis, so today brought Sam to the Toys 'R' Us in Jurong Point to buy the pull-back toy car. He picked the blue Comfort model, and continued to be entranced by the car with front doors that can open & close (his 1st such toy) the entire day.

His fascination with the toy gave me the opportunity to examine the banner outside the Siam Kitchen on the way to NTUC, and so we ended up having the set lunch (S$11.90++) there.

The wooden baby chair was clean with a working safety belt, and the waitress, upon request, gave the complete plastic baby set (bowl, spoon, fork), with warm water & straw in the plastic cup. A big plate of keropok was served when we were seated. Sam loves the tidbit (adds $1 in the final bill), as I do, so we munched our time away waiting for the food to be served.


Of the 6 appetisers - 10 main courses - 3 drinks set lunch menu, I chose the spicy green mango salad, thai rice noodle with beef, and the iced lemongrass tea. The drink was refreshing, as claimed, though I find it a trifle sweet, and I personally prefer a stronger lemongrass taste.

The green mango salad was nicely sour & crunchy and really spicy (for me), and it's about the best dish of my lunch there, cos the beef noodles turns out to be a trifle disappointing. The soup was too oily for my taste; even looking at the oil reduced my appetite somewhat (though the mango salad turned it back up). The beef slices were fatty, and the beef balls not very flavorful. No, I'm not the only picky one - Sam also didn't like the beef balls much, eating only 1 when he could easily eat 3.

Worse still, he still doesn't like rice noodles much.......he willingly devours ramen, ban mian, & yellow noodles of all sizes, but when it comes to hor fan & kuay teow, he eats only just enough to stop his tummy growling. So his half bowl of rice noodles got wasted, and he ended up eating even more keropok!

I had added $1.90 for a dessert, caramelised tapioca with coconut milk (out of the 5 choices available). This turns out to be a big portion, but way too sweet for me. I thought the dish would be served dry, but the tapioca chunks are literally swimming in the bowl of syrup.

To top it all off, Sam's diapers overflowed and I ended the lunch rushing out of the restaurant to change his pants! What a meal! I suppose I shouldn't be too picky for the price paid & the size of the servings. Just treat it like a thai food court with service charge & GST, and since it's not crowded at lunchtime, it'll do, sometimes.


Siam Kitchen
#B1-06 Jurong Point (outside NTUC Fairprice)
Tel: 6794-1588