Tag: review

[Review] Zhou Kee Hainanese Chicken & Roasted Rice

Zhou Kee Hainanese Chicken & Roasted Rice

Address: 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 S(560527), Cheng San Market & Food Centre
Operating Hours: Daily 9 am to 8 pm
Affordability: $$

Dear said I sort of became a chicken rice connoisseur as I’m always having it for lunch when I’m at work. My work requires me to travel around all the time, and lunch break usually will be a very quick meal due to a tight schedule. And chicken rice stalls typically have the shortest queue or they are quite fast to pack me a meal. That’s why it’s my go-to meal for lunch. I joked to her about starting a chicken rice review which I have put off because I can’t describe food well enough to influence people’s decision to order from the particular stalls that I’ve visited.

But here I am giving it a go with my first food review on this blog. Hopefully, I can describe it well enough like those food bloggers or journalists. Crossing my fingers that I am able to pull this food review off.

Ok, so my first food review would be Zhou Kee Hainanese Chicken & Roasted Rice. It is located at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, Cheng San Market & Food Centre. It is at the first row directly facing the open space car park which is easy to locate if you’re unfamiliar with the area.

I had the chicken rice both dine-in and takeaway. And I would say, having it takeaway tastes much better. I thought I was the only one who thinks that way, but no. My mother-in-law thinks so too. Maybe wrapping up the chicken rice brings out the fragrance better? Hmm…

My dine-in experience was late at night after work for dinner. Was too hungry and decided to have a quick meal at the food centre. Dining in, you get a bowl of soup which is pretty much standard when ordering chicken rice. Though it was a one-time eat-in and it was a long time ago, I remembered that the rice wasn’t as fragrant and it was a little hard like it wasn’t fully cooked. The meat was dry and a little tough to chew on.

Take away Zhou Kee chicken rice

However, having it takeaway is another story. It’s much yummier in my opinion! Most people believe that the chicken rice that was packed in the brown paper is the most delicious chicken rice. And I would have to agree. The picture above was my recent order. Half a roasted chicken rice packed in a white styrofoam box, and a packet of rice packed in the legendary brown paper. The takeaway comes with a packet of sauce for the chicken, and a packet of chilli sauce.

The chicken was much juicier and flavourful. However, the sauce that was supposed to go with the chicken, I find it a little too salty for my taste buds though Dear seemed to find it OK. The rice was well cooked and had the chicken rice fragrant to it. Eat it with their chicken, the taste was heavenly.

Portion-wise, I think it’s reasonable for the price we paid considering the recent chicken price hike due to the chicken shortage in Malaysia and we had to find another source to import our chicken supply.

Overall opinion, recommended.

[Review] My Experience With J&T Express As A Seller

Selling on shopee

I’ve tried selling on Shopee previously and gave up because I didn’t get any sales. Yes, I wasn’t patient enough to wait for someone to purchase something from my store. And with my limited products, I’m trying to compete with the other bigger players. Which I definitely lose out. Eventually, my store got taken down automatically because I didn’t log in for quite some time.

Then I decided to give it another try with my friend’s encouragement. She told me not to give up as it takes time for someone to purchase something from my store. She started from zero and now her Shopee store is doing well.

With the friend’s encouragement, I set up the store again. Adding products that I’ve already have on hand. Stumbled upon the shipping information and I had to ask my friend between Ninja Van and J&T Express. Although I did my research, both had equally bad reviews online, I asked which she would recommend since she had the experience for both courier services as a seller.

My first experience

So I’ve decided to choose J&T Express and set it as my preferred courier service on all my products. Then the waiting game for a buyer to purchase something on my store. It took about a month to received the notification from Shopee about a purchase being made.

Sharing my happiness with Dear and the friend who encouraged me, I went on to find a carton box to recycle and pack the order. Arranged for J&T Express to pick up the parcel at my place the next day. Dear helped me set up the printer we rarely use for me to print the shipping label. It was all so happy and exciting. I mean who wouldn’t be when there’s a first order coming in?

Woke up early on 10th September as I’ve arranged the parcel to be picked up for the time slot 9 am to 12 pm. Happily waiting while I had my morning coffee. And was thinking of having lunch after the parcel is being picked up.

12 pm went by and there’s no sign of J&T Express staff. So I thought maybe there’s a delay due to traffic. And I waited for another hour before contacting J&T Express directly.

Hi, pickup has been assigned for today. We have notified the pickup team to contact you on the ETA

J&T Express (on FB Messenger)

I was told the pickup team would contact me, but after another hour’s wait, there’s still no sign of J&T Express. I contacted them again yet there’s no reply back. It’s like they ghosted me.

It’s OK, so much for the service. The pickup guy came at about 3:30 pm. 3.5hours late without an apology or reason to explain to me how “early” he was. My first experience with a courier as a seller wasn’t pleasant. Thank you J&T Express for the awesome experience.

I think with all the wait and hassle that I had to go through, I think it would be much quicker if I deliver the parcel myself. Was told that the courier is very slow with delays but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. They have my contact number, why didn’t anyone contact me if they’re going to be late?

Also, what’s the point in allowing me to choose my preferred time slot according to my schedule for the team to pick up my parcel? If they can’t be punctual and adhere to the time slot that consumers like me chose, then what’s the point with the option? Your lateness has caused me inconvenience. I had to cancel my lunch appointment just to wait for your pickup team to arrive.

I hope the team will improve better. As sellers and buyers, we all trust you to take better care of the parcels that were entrusted to you to deliver. I will give you another chance but I won’t be having any more expectations after such a disappointment in my first experience.

Thankfully the receiver received the parcel. So all is good. Was waiting to check if the parcel had reached the receiver before I post this up on the blog. Maybe J&T Express is just slow, but I do hope they treat the parcels well instead of the kind of horrors we saw online.