Feng Bo Zhuang

Maybe I had been watching to many "Chinese period" drama serial shows lately. So when I chanced upon this outlet "Feng Bo Zhuang" that was put online by "Voucherlicious", instinct told me to grab it! I paid $24 for two vouchers with a total face value of $40 and ventured my way there to this little but interesting eatery.

Feng Bo Zhung, which literally translates to "Windy Stormy Village", is a cute, little Chinese eatery with a "Wuxia (Chinese fiction of Martial artist or pugilist)" theme. This chain restaurant originated from Hefei of Anhui province in Eastern China. But no need to be the hero to fly over there as they have an oversea branch in, where else but have to be Chinatown!

The moment when we entered, the interior is like an overwhelming bamboo hut, including the ceilings too and all the woody stuffs. We were escorted by several female staffs clad in black warrior clothes and greeted us like swordsman and heroines! Even their chief (the Chinese boss) were also in warrior attire, helping around! Very interesting concept! They were friendly and helpful. For a moment, I thought I was in the middle of a movie-making show and I went on to dream that I was in a time tunnel, bringing me back to those pugilistic world.

There are swords and fighting sticks hanging on the wall and luckily, they didn't use it on us but shown us the big menu book instead. I pretended as if I was looking through some secret martial art skill manual. The name of all the dishes are interestingly titled under various martial art in mandarin, of which most of them, I could not comprehend. But thank God it was also printed in bilingual and complete with photos of many interesting dishes too!

The prices of most dishes are pretty reasonable, hence we had a hard time trying to order till it exceeded $40 unless you got more than two persons to share with! And surprisingly, the portion of some of the dishes are huge! The spicy and sour Sichuan soup came in a big bowl, which was enough to feed for four persons! I also ordered the cute dish that came in form of a real cut-out bamboo (extreme left of  food photo) with either chicken or frog meat. We took the later jumping amphibian.

The place was really packed with mostly gangs of fighters, heroes & swordsmen from whoever-care-to-know what sect they were from! Oops, sorry as I'm still in my fighting daze! Majority of the diners that night were Chinese, as in not local, saved for a handful of us and a Western couple. Anyway, the place is small and so it can be pretty packed and crowded the moment several groups of hungry warriors came in. Yes, it was full house while we were eating half way there.

As with all ancient time, those wooden stools without cushion and backrest will not be comfortable to sit for long period of time. Only nice to look at and for blending into the decor theme sake. But overall, we still fancy this place for the different types of Chinese food, their daring concept and last but not least, their great price and generous portions.

And when whoever finish their meals and leave the place, they will bid you their version of goodbye. Their "kungfu" version which I could hardly understand a word, especially when they spoke so fast with a very strong hometown accent. I just turned back and nodded my head in courtesy acknowledgement to them and telling myself the familiar tune of "Arnold: I'll be back"


Feng Bo Zhuang
57B Temple Street

Singapore, 058602 

Tel: 62233588

The Mushroom Pot

After shopping at OG Orchard, have a steaming hot pot but in cool comfort over at "The Mushroom Pot". A steamboat restaurant tucked at the corner on the forth level of OG Departmental store.

It wasn't crowded as we went on a weekday evening. There were several tables but coincidently, almost all tables were female patrons. Wondering why? I found out that they have the "ladies night" promotion from Mon to Fri dinner with a 20% off the buffet price. Luckily, we are better off as I had already bought the discount coupon from "BigDeal" at $18 for a $30 voucher. It works out to be a worthwhile 40% off! Anyway, I purchased two coupons which is enough for two persons. Since it can be used for both the ala-carte or the buffet menu, we chose the latter option.

There are several soup-base options (free and paid) to choose from. And since the pot is big enough and divided into two, we took the "wild mushroom" and the "spicy ma-la" soups. Both are free as we did not see the need to choose from the paid soup-base. You can even have the one-person individual pot to yourself if you prefer!

The ala-carte buffet menu is quite alright and enough to fill our stomach. There are several types of mushrooms from small to big to choose from, if you are crazy about those fungi! Well, they don't call themselves "Mushroom" for nothing! Most items on the menu are unlimited order, except for some.

Services were great. Even though we were sitting at the corner, the staffs bothered to come around every now and then to check, in case we needed to order or whatever. Went home full and satisfied!

Buffet price:
Mon-Thu Lunch: $18.90++, Fri-Sun: $24.90++
Mon-Thu Dinner: $27.90++, Fri-Sun: $29.90++

You may find out more from their website:
http://www.mushroompot.com/

The Coupon Craze

Have you ever at a loss of what or where to eat this weekend outing or family gathering? It happened many times to me that I am getting sick of eating the same old food or place every time.

So the best thing that ever happen is the coupon craze, that started in the States (where else but have to be them), had swept across to our tiny "red dot" country, Merlionpore. Sorry, I meant "Singapore". It is also the craze in many other countries now.

In case you are still wondering what I am talking about, here's a brief description of what it is all about! Basically, the discount coupon companies (more than a dozens of them as of now) will put out huge discounts (usually from 40% upwards) from certain merchants (eateries, spas, travel etc are the popular ones) on a daily or on every few days basis. You can buy the coupons online and since they are usually available ranging from one to few days before it expires, it can be snapped up pretty fast, especially for those popular, well-known outlets or for those tempting huge discounts!

I am just another end-user just like you, who surfed the net and chanced upon this coupon thingy. I have to stress that I am not related in anyway to any coupon companies nor to any merchants, which I may be reviewing them in my later post. No direct monetary rewards from them nor benefits. I am writing just to share with whoever care to read. I am only interested to review those outlets, which I find worth mentioning or at least on average grade but always remember that every individual have his/her likings or preferences. So every review will still be subjected to the familiar clause of "One man's meat is another's poison".

How come it works? Well, the power of bulk-buying at play! Basically it is the gathering of buying power at one go to secure huge discounts. Who benefited from all this? All three parties, namely the coupon companies, the merchants and we, the end-users. The coupon companies, or so-called middle-man, collect the commission from the merchants for selling for them. The merchants benefited from the publicity without the need to pay for those expensive, direct advertising medias and also to draw numerous new customers, which otherwise would not have come or even knew that their outlets existed anyway! And finally, we, the end-users save quite a fair bit of money through their generous discounts.

Real or gimmicks? I had my reservations too when I started out but have to say that after trying with no less than 50 coupons from different companies by now, I am very convinced and wished this coupon craze should have come in much earlier :) How more genuine you want it to be? So far, all had proven to be genuine discount and none had failed me... yet. I'm touching wood now...

Nowadays, I do not need to crack my brain of where to eat or whatever. I just snapped up whichever coupons which I see that is worth buying. Neither do I care which company it is from. It does not matters to me as long as it is worth it. As the saying goes, follow the wind blows and save all my headaches and dollars too :)