{"id":109,"date":"2007-07-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-25T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=109"},"modified":"2007-07-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-25T16:00:00","slug":"black-pepper-goodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2007\/07\/26\/black-pepper-goodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Pepper Goodies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black Pepper (Beef) Rice @ Pepper Lunch Express<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ling was remarking the other evening the absence of food-related entries into the blog. Truth to tell, we\u2019ve been either eating at the same places or cooking at home-our dining experiences have been rather plain of late. In fact, I\u2019ve been having a binge on sweet potato porridge for several weeks now, but who among us would be actually interested to read my recipe write-up on that? \":)\"<\/p>\n

\"dining-175.jpg\"Still, we were at Hougang Mall<\/a> a few evenings ago to pick up my new pair of glasses. There\u2019s a Pepper Lunch Express<\/a> outlet on the basement floor, and we\u2019ve been seeing this restaurant chain at a few other spots around too, so popped in for a dinner. We\u2019ve normally been giving the place a miss as the prominently displayed prices on the outside aren\u2019t actually low – set meals go for around $8 to a whopping $16, which is pretty much out of the fast food price range.<\/p>\n

Both of us had the same thing: black pepper rice, pretty much nearly the cheapest set meals on the menu since everything else looked really dear. Basically, you get what the picture shows, and on a hot plate. Rice, nicely seasoned beef on the outskirts, corn and a mixture of other condiments in the centre. Upon serving, you mix up the entire lot, let the hot plate do its thing, then add sauces to taste.<\/p>\n

How was the taste then? Pretty interesting: the quality of rice grains used was high – we could really taste the difference compared to the cheapo NTUC<\/a> rice we use for cooking at home. The rice sans sauce was already pretty tasty with a strong black pepper-ish taste, and adding either the garlic or honey brown sauce adds even more flavor. The plate was about ok in portions; definitely adequate for Ling and myself, but hungry eaters could find the serving just a tad small.<\/p>\n