Forture Steamboat - Bukit Timah, 18/4/07

We had lunch at this steamboat place, but in fact, it is really known for their herbal chicken. When we got there, there was literally no one inside, which kind of gave us an uneasy feeling since Makansutra highly recommended this place. It was already 1 plus, so we had to give them the benefit of the doubt that it's past lunch time.

Nothing fantastic about the ambience, but we were not expecting much anyway. There was the main dining area, reasonable size, and a room that has 3-4 big round tables. We were shown into the room and had the whole place to ourselves, which was nice. A chinese calligraphy hung on the wall facing us, not exactly sure what the words were about, since Foxy's chinese language is not that advanced, but something about having treasures from all over the world.

A pink (yucks!) plastic sheet was placed over our table, presumably so that they can throw after we finished rather than clean the table. Looking at how messy Stud can get, it's not a bad idea afterall. Maybe for future outings, we should bring newspapers and lay them on Stud's side of the table. Hee...



We ordered their dou miao, a tofu thingy (which is how Foxy so eloquently puts it), and of course, their herbal chicken. Their dou miao was a soya sauce flavored dish. It was quite nice, especially with the rice, crunchy & not oily at all. Not as good as Din Tai Fung, but DTF uses a garlic sauce and you know how much I like the garlic...



The tofu thingy was fried tofu with minced meat (either beef or pork, don't think it was chicken) and a thick sauce, almost like a gravy. Foxy suspects there are bits of sichuan vegetable (now how to explain to Stud what that is?) with the tofu that gives it a bit of crunch, but really can't be sure. This went even better with the rice than the dou miao. A bit salty, but the rice helped balance the flavors out.



The herbal chicken was next. It came out very quickly, so we suspect it was pre-made and just heated up for us. Maybe it would be nicer if it was just cooked. But it was actually quite nice already. The chicken meat was very tender throughout the whole chicken and the soup was nicely flavored with heaps of chinese herbs. We devoured the soup and the chicken till nothing was left except the bones. Yup, not even a drop of soup left, since Stud was convinced (by who else?) that the herbal stuff is good for the body.

The portions for the 3 dishes were way too big for the 2 of us, more like for 3-4 persons, but we finished everything, except the bones. If the bones were edible, I'm sure Stud would have chewed & swallowed them too. Anyway, the food was either that good, or we were just too hungry. However, the wait staff should at least warn us about the portion upon order.

No presentation skills, what you see is what you get. Would be better if they add some colours to the dull-looking dishes. Prices same as what you would pay for a normal zichar stall in coffeeshop, but at least some zichar stalls make the effort to garnish their dishes with chinese parsely or carrots or something.



Overall, this place was very good, but is it worth the journey all the way to bukit timah, aka 'the boonies'? Let's let Foxy make the call... (Foxy says forget it, esp since it was a 'long' walk to the nearest bus stop and we had to take a *gasp!* NON AIR CON bus to Clementi MRT.)