I was invited to an event at Aberdeen Centre by ChineseBites and goodness it was food galore!
I was seated with the lovely Naomi from Constantcravings and Hanson from Nosh and Nibble who are both super lovely and amazing foodies (and people). It was nice to be able to get to know them while trying the entire food court of Aberdeen.
We really had to get creative in the way we paced ourselves while we were eating though Aberdeen Centre because when you have 6 drinks, 20 dishes and 5 desserts ahead of you…planning is essential!
Aberdeen Centre food court drinks
To start off our evening of food and more food, we were presented with an assortment of 6 beverages to try.
- mango coconut juice with tapioca, mango and pomelo bits from 8 Juice House
- milk tea with pearls from Estea Express
- matcha soy milk from Strike
- Honey matcha tea from Teppan Kitchen
- Lemon Ribena from Bubble Waffle cafe
- Iced Genmaicha from Saboten
It was quite the challenge to share the six drinks amongst the six of us. Especially since we weren’t provided with extra cups or anything of that sort. At first we tried putting 6 individual straws into each cup but this became tedious (and un-environmental) so in the end we each chose a drink to stick with.
My favorite out of the six was the iced Genmaicha because I am biased and adore Genmaicha. Brother deer liked the mango coconut juice from 8 Juice House best because of all the yummy toppings it had on the inside. However he did mention that it got a little sweet towards the end.
Now that the drinks are out of the way….on to the food!
Aji Hana
Sakura roll (prawn tempura, avocado, chopped scallop)
One of my favorite of the evening. It had lots of chopped scallop on top and had a good rice to filling ratio. The bonus was that it was well rolled and held together!
Bubble waffle cafe
Original bubble waffle from Bubble Waffle
I thought these could of been crispier on the outside because the textural contrast of a bubble waffle’s crunchy exterior and soft interior is the best part about them!
Curry fish balls
These were a little oddly shaped and they didn’t come with skewers at first so we were unable to receive the “full curry fish ball experience.” The fish balls had a bite to it, in that I think they were “fried” instead of boiled before being saturated in delicious curry sauce.
Chef of Dumplings
Pan fried Chinese chives with pork dumplings
Brother deer said the fillings in these was well distributed and balanced. Often times restaurants skimp out on the proteins but it wasn’t the case for these.
Szechuan House
Hot and sour noodle soup
SUPER SPICY ALERT! This was definitely not one of the favorites of the table. We didn’t end up finishing it and all you could really taste when you ate it was heat on more heat. I couldn’t detect any depth of flavor or anything else.
Wu Fung Dessert
Deep fried chicken wings + squid
Well fried. Battered. Crispy. Crunchy. Need I say more?
Lung Kee
Prawn wontons
Don’t let the photo fool you because these wontons were JAM PACKED with shrimp! I have never had a wonton with more shrimp in it in my life! The shrimp was well seasoned and there wasn’t much more on the inside of the wontons so it really highlighted the shrimp. My only criticism is that the broth was much too salty.
Yougo Chicken
Popcorn chicken nuggets
You can never go wrong with popcorn chicken. These little guys were gobbled up and vanished in a flash!
Tofu Hotpot
Drunken chicken hotpot
Filled with bean thread, a good amount of chicken, napa cabbage and tofu. Typically, Brother deer and I are not fans of drunken chicken because we don’t like the taste of rice wine but we actually found it to be okay. The wine wasn’t too strong and the chicken was moist.
Kitchen Korea
Chicken bulgogi & pork belly
Ahhhhh that chicken bulgolgi was amazing. The marinade and sauce on it was awesome and the chicken was insanely moist and juicy too. The pork belly didn’t disappear as fast at our table as brother deer thought that it was a little too fatty for him but then after a while he gave in and gobbled more up anyways.
Leung Kee
Baked pork chop on rice
The pork chop was well fried and didn’t get soggy even though it had a boatload of thick tomato sauce on top of it.
Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the rice as it was really wet, soggy, and moist making it really texturally unappealing.
Soy sauce chicken and Long Gong chicken
Chicken prepared this way is something that I don’t usually reach for because I find it quite tedious to eat…with it’s bones and all but it was sooo sooo yummy. All the cuts of meat was moist and juicy whether it was white or dark which was amazing to me because that rarely happens!
Sticky rice
I was excited to try this since it was from the same place as the amazing chicken but I was disappointed. It didn’t have much flavor to it and the rice was more on the “stiff” side and lacked the chewy, glutinous texture that’s integral for this type of sticky rice.
Strike
Club house sandwich
This was some club sandwich. It had bacon strips, a thin patty, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, mayo and cheese. Goodness! The sandwich bread on the outside was toasted nicely but the slice of bread on the inside got really soggy amongst all the fillings. But despite all it’s fillings, no sandwich filling “slippage” occurred so yay!
Tuna and corn egg rolls
We were definitely NOT fans of these. The tuna, corn, and mayo mix that was stuffed on the inside was watery and made the egg wrap incredibly soggy and mushy. There was an overwhelming amount of ground pepper in it as well. Just…not good.
Saboten
Saboten set (prawn, pork tenderloin, pork loin)
The fry on the tempura was definitely on point. It was super crispy and unlike typical tempura, they were coated with breadcrumbs which added to the crispiness of it. It came with a variety of sauces and we weren’t sure which to use for what but they all tasted good and that’s the important part.
Teppan Kitchen
‘A’ grade ribeye teppan with egg and corn
We were all looking forward to having this because who doesn’t like mixing up teppans? If you like Pepper Lunch, I suggest you try this one instead because it’s comparable and it’s cheaper than getting it there. I don’t know if it was because we didn’t let it sit in the hot pan long enough (we were just too desperate to try it) but the rice didn’t end up reaching the “chewy” texture stage.
Café D’Lite Express
Hainanese chicken on rice
In Naomi’s words, “this is the moistest chicken ever!” She is definitely right in saying so though because this was seriously some of the best Hainanese chicken I’ve had and I couldn’t decide if I liked this chicken better or the Soy Sauce/Long Gong ones better from Leung Kee.
I swear dessert should be served FIRST because by this time we literally had no more room in our stomachs for it but…
there’s ALWAYS room for dessert so we did some pacing around the mall for a few minutes to move things around in there a little bit and we were ready to go again!
Mazazu Crepe
Choco banana fresh cream mini crepe
I’ve never seen a cuter crepe in my life! It was so tiny and dainty!
Beard Papa’s
Mini cream puffs and cheesecake stick
You can’t go wrong with cream puffs or cheese cake. Enough said.
Frappe Bliss
A Dream in Eden (strawberries, kiwi, mango, mango ice cream)
This looked glorious. I used to get these all the time at Aberdeen with Neko but haven’t had it in a few years. It was nice to be able to try it again. Although it’s called “shaved ice” it’s really more like “shaved icecream” because they use condensed milk as part of the basis of the “ice” resulting in a creamier texture than traditional shaved ice.
Matcha Delight (matcha ice cream, chewy rice balls, red bean)
Their presentation has improved from a few years ago since they used to serve it in styrofoam bowls instead of parfait cups. But this was actually a not so good thing because it also meant that it wasn’t very balanced and we actually tipped the entire thing over! We were all speechless when it happened and madly tried to salvage what we could. It was still delicious of course…but just not as visually appealing heh.
