Meals planning for your family for working mums
Gone are the day when I need to slow boil soups and keep them in 5 bags of zip lock bags for my kids. I used to boil nutritious soup every Sunday and store them in the freezer. My special “soup bags” are my life saviour for the last 8 years and my Sundays will be spent buying pork ribs, corns, radish, lotus or pumpkins. These “soup bags” can be used to make porridge, noodles soup and even mac and cheese!
So, I stopped doing this 4 years back when I started catering Tingkat orders and I did some trial and error before I commit. The most challenging part was to suit my kids’ taste buds and I did my research. To all moms out there, yes, kids’ well-being is our utmost priority!
Luckily for most of the catering tingkat providers, they do provide tingkat trial periods before we commit to the monthly package. And now they also do flexible days and allow cancellation (of course not too last minute cancellation)
Here is what I have shortlisted for the best catering tingkat menu in Singapore, you can take reference and try it out yourself.
This is my top favourite premium tingkat catering that provides a la carte catering in Singapore and I have been using them for 4 years. Le Xin Catering wins my kids’ heart and voting, mainly due to the soup. They love soup and they voted Le Xin Catering as one with the best soup.
The soup is tasty but not too salty and you don’t have the msg after-taste after drinking the soup, on the cheapest tingkat you can find in Singapore. The variety is good and Le Xin Catering actually plan your soup menu carefully, they will only plan for 1 heaty soup for the whole week and balance off with 2 cooling soup for the week. For example, herbal chicken soup for Monday pair with, water cress pork rib soup and sweet corn soup for the same week. Our favourite soup will be Huai San chicken soup, bak kut teh soup, Tomato & egg soup and of course, my salted vegetable duck soup. Le Xin Catering has a comprehensive menu and they do not repeat their soup menu in the same month. You can view their monthly Tingkat catering menu here, https://lexincatering.com.sg/project/tingkat/ . I heard that they might be changing their menu soon and I really hope our favourite soup stays!
If you are looking for healthier choice for premium tingkat catering, Le Xin Catering is also one that provides tingkat delivery in Singapore with no msg, low cholesterol and salt meals planning, I guess this is because of the vegetable oil that they use. For their deep-fried dishes, I do not need to use kitchen towel to blot the oil away so I guess its pretty healthy. Yes, I do blot away oil. The ingredients are always fresh, the vegetables are properly cleaned. You will not experience unpleasant bites with the vegetables for sure.
Their specialty is actually their wok-fried dishes that actually make them so popular even after so many years. The dishes still have the wok taste and they
are really the essence of the Chinese cooking. We can never achieve this kind of aroma as we need high flames as this is not possible in our homes now. The last thing we want is a messy and oily kitchen just for a meal and the clothes in our yard stinks!
We usually re-heat the dishes twice as I usually work late and I will get my kids to eat their dinner earlier. They have to finish their dinner by 730pm as they need to be in bed latest by 1030pm. Kids in Singapore need to wake up very early for school so they need to digest their food well before bed. So, I will usually re-heat the remaining dishes around 8pm. The dishes still taste good, no worries! The trick is to microwave them while they are covered partially.
Le Xin Catering is not stingy with their portions so if you have kids in primary school, you can order for 2 pax if 3 of you are sharing the food. Special request can be made, if you need extra portion of the soup. The portion is just nice for my family, it could be we are already custom to the portion.
One very important point is that Le Xin Catering offers healthy or special options like brown rice, no msg,no chilli, no bones and a lot more varieties! If you think that tingkat catering only offers rice and rice, then you will be surprise that Le Xin offers fried beehoon and fried macaroni as well. And your family will be happy for a change. I am happy that we have switched to brown rice, I think my kids were able adapt with the help of delicious soup.
Best Catering was my 2nd option after Le Xin Catering and I tried Best Catering some months back, to let my family try out new menu. Impleasantly surprised with the taste and the variety as well. Best Catering score 2nd place in my heart, as the dishes are a mixture of traditional dish and some fusion of Chinese cooking. You will get to see mei cai with meat and Szechuan chicken. These 2 are my top favourite dishes of course!
My kids love the curry chicken, bbq chicken chop and fried dumplings,they are really tasty! The variety of dishes is good and our family love most of them. The dishes come in tingkat which reminds me of the old days times. It could be presentation plays a part, it makes you think the food taste better! We can cut down on waste disposal but I will have to wash them every night, and Best Catering will collect them back the next day.
The delivery time is prompt and the food is still warm when they arrive. So my kids ended up eating dinner early, its also good in a way. One of the reasons why we did not continue our tingkat service was that my family missed Le Xin Catering soups. My kids’ appetite was much better when we were on Le Xin Catering, so even though I do not mind continuing Best Catering. They are very picky when it comes to food so it is not easy to find one that they like and they can eat the same food over and over again.
03 Mom’s Kitchen
I was introduced by my sister to try out Mom’s Kitchen and it was the first tingkat catering that I tried. She insisted that I must use this because theyuse olive oil and the soup is good. Being new to tingkat catering, I thought I need to rush home to collect my food, gosh! It was a joke, they can hang outside your door if you are not at home. So, after many days of rushing home, I realised that they can actually hang outside your door. So, no more stressing over collection of our food.
The service was not that fantastic as I remembered when I first call up Mom’s Kitchen, the person was abit rude and impatient when I asked afew questions. The delivery man was also unfriendly and left my food at the gate without even waiting for me to open the door. I guess they have a lot of locations to cover so we have to be more understanding. And I had a really bad experience when I called to cancel my delivery (it was within the stipulated time period) and I got scolded. So, I tried to explain that I thought I am still within the cancellation time frame for the day and I had something urgent to attend to. I do mind paying the meal but I do not want the food to be hanging there through the night. I do not want lizards and cockroaches to be lured to my house. Mom’s Kitchen did not want to entertain my explaining and started scolding me. But I heard their service level went up a lot, it was like many years ago when I tried Mom’s Kitchen.
This is also one of the best catering tingkat in my list, the dishes are also not oily and the soup does not taste too salty (like Le Xin Catering). The variety is good, but most of the dishes are not liking to their taste buds. So, I gotta switch out. Generally, I will say the dishes are not oily and the soups are healthy. No msg as well for Mom’s Kitchen and the ingredients were fresh, a good option for kids if you want them to eat healthier food.
Nothing special about the presentation except that it is fuss-free. The packaging comes in microwavable containers so its pretty easy and simple to heat up. The portion is generous as well, we also ordered for 3 pax when there are 4 of us. Mom’s Kitchen is abit pricey among the 3 tingkat catering in Singapore, but I will say, when it comes to food, we can spend abit more.
So, here is my tips on how to choose a suitable tingkat caterer,
· Look at their menu first
Scan through their online menu, most of them are available on their websites. Decide if the dishes are what your family will like.
· Go for tingkat trial
Before you commit to the packages, go for a trial period, you can taste a few tingkat catering brands to see which one fits best
· Flexible days are available
Most of the tingkat catering companies in Singapore offers flexible days. You can choose 3, 4 or 5 days packages, so that you can plan to eat out with your family on certain days of the week
· Healthy options
Some of the tingkat catering brands offer no msg, low salt, less oily menu, healthier grain option. You can even request for more vegetables, more soup and less rice. You can explore more or ask them before you sign up
· Easy sign up & cancellation
Catering industry has progressed so much and yes, they have! You can place your order online with options available and you can even cancel online.
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