Saturday, April 05, 2025

More food from Umar Ali Cafe

Umar Ali Cafe, Havelock Road

Another compilation of eats from Umar Ali Cafe.

Umar Ali Cafe, ghee prata banana

There's ghee prata on menu. They obliged with my request to add banana after a baffled look from the guy taking the order. Not bad tasting. Wished there was a bit more of that ghee flavour but I couldn't complain.

Umar Ali Cafe, indian rojak

Loaded up on some Indian rojak. Definitely not the standards that one can find at Tekka Food Centre. 

A couple of weeks later......
Came over for some appam which are available only in the morning. These appams were surprisingly light.
Umar Ali Cafe, banana appam

The one with banana was delicious. Largely because of the type of banana they were using which softened from the heat into something tangy sweet nicely, just like goreng pisang.

Umar Ali Cafe, ghee appam

The other appam was had ghee drizzled over. With some sprinkles of sugar, it was deliciously sweet and buttery.

Umar Ali Cafe, sausage egg prata

Sausage and egg prata uses the same fried cheap hot dog as their Indian rojak as I suspected. The sausage was sliced and scattered over the prata with the egg before hopping on the griddle. Came with a mutton-y dalcha and fish curry. I asked them for a dollop of coconut chutney. Never noticed that the dalcha has daikon before.

Some time later......
Umar Ali Cafe, roti banjir special

Roti banjir special. A couple of prata kosong in doused in a mixture of dalcha and fish curry and topped with a couple of sunny side ups. Nice! Better tasting rendition than the one previously from the defunct ABC Food Corner.

There and back again......
Umar Ali Cafe, kuey teow goreng combo

Here's their kuey teow combo. Combo in mamak refers to the addition of cheese fries and red sauce mutton on top of the goreng-ed carb of choice. This one was a decent tasting combo plate. Those crinkle cut fries were not over-fried and dried out. Too bad about the dry hard mutton.

Umar Ali Cafe, nasi goreng ikan bilis keema

We wanted to do better than their usual menu nasi goreng so we got a nasi goreng ikan bilis with keema. The fried rice was light - fluffy even with loose grains and no excessive oil. With the keema, there was an infusion of flavour from mutton. Nice.

Umar Ali Cafe, cheese prata

Cheese prata has that square of cheese right in the middle. The edges without are a showcase of their kosong which in my opinion is old school bready and nice. Otherwise surpassed by the double cheese version from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada.

Umar Ali Cafe, double egg prata

Double egg prata is more satisfying than the single egg ones.

Friday, April 04, 2025

威胜碳烤烧腊, Ubi

威胜碳烤烧腊, Ubi Wong Poh

Pretty good roast meats from 威胜碳烤烧腊 (Wong Poh Kopitiam, 3004 Ubi Ave 3). Both meats were adequately moist and arguably tender. Roast pork was layered with a crunchy crackling while the duck had a thin layer of fat beneath for flavour. Nice. This was just next door to Wan Li Xiang Chicken Rice.

威胜碳烤烧腊, Ubi Wong Poh

Thursday, April 03, 2025

Cheesy chocolate murtabak from Master Prata

Master Prata, mango lemonade

But first some "mango lemonade". At least that was what it was called on their menu. Tasted like mango puree. The only thing that was lemon, was that slice in the glass which did not impart any flavour. But it was a pretty good beverage.

Master Prata, cheesy chocolate murtabak

Ordered the cheesy chocolate murtabak out of curiosity. I was half afraid that they'd just be drizzling some of those cheap tasting chocolate sauce from Hershey's but there were actual pieces of milk chocolate. Whether this was a murtabak was also debatable. Could've been called cheesy chocolate prata.

Master Prata, cheesy chocolate murtabak

The cheese was mozzarella. With the chocolate, this was actually kinda nice. Kinda like Nutella. Pretty happy with it.

Wednesday, April 02, 2025

Filipino sweets from the dessert stall Asia Food Mall

Asia Food Mall, Lucky Plaza

Tried a couple of things at the dessert stall in Lucky Plaza's Asia Food Mall (#B1-038 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road).

Asia Food Mall, ube champorado

We were curious about the ube champorado. The usual one's chocolate. This one also didn't have daing.

Asia Food Mall, ube champorado

I couldn't really taste ube though all the diabetes inducing saccharinity from the condensed milk. This looked somewhat like pulut hitam but didn't taste like it.

Asia Food Mall, ube champorado kopi c

Our fix to keep it edible was to get kopi c di lo kosong from the drink stall and make coffee flavoured ube champorado. Actually, kopi o di lo kosong would probably work as wellSurprisingly, the coffee here was drinkable.

Asia Food Mall, banana turon

While getting the champorado we noticed these banana turon. I got these to try in the hopes that it might use the local bananas that are commonly used for goreng pisang - while the voice at the back of my head was pretty confident that they wouldn't.

Asia Food Mall, banana turon

The rolls were drizzled with something brown and sweet...could not tell if it was caramel. There's also a dusting of sugar on them.

Asia Food Mall, banana turon

The voice at the back of my head was right. It's the one that tasted more like plantains which are less sweet and a texture like soft yam than ripe bananas. Which turned out to be a better choice since the fried skin was already crusted with sweetness. Unexpectedly enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice.Fish Porridge (新記馳名雞飯.鱼生粥), Mei Ling Food Centre

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice.Fish Porridge (新記馳名雞飯.鱼生粥), Mei Ling Food Centre

This was kinda where it truly began for me with the old Margaret Drive chicken rice. Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice. But that old Sin Kee and the current one (#02-22 Mei Lin Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Road) aren't the same. It's also not the same with another current Sin Kee at the current Margaret Drive Hawker Centre. There's a more complicated history behind the brand which I'm not going into in this post.

This one has a different proprietor at the helm and a smaller stall. Rice was a little wet but still grainy and great flavour from their stock. I could have almost believed that this was a replica of the old Sin Kee but for one thing I noticed. The chicken wasn't as tender. Not that this wasn't any good. It just wasn't the same.

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice.Fish Porridge (新記馳名雞飯.鱼生粥), Mei Ling Food Centre

Monday, March 31, 2025

More food from Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥)

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), Bukit Merah View

We've been eating at Ye Lai Xiang more than I've been posting about them. Most of the time, we end up getting something pretty similar so nothing much to see on those.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), porridge water

Rice/porridge water is available. I don't know what's the proper term for them.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), cai por omelette

Omelette with cai por is decent. The rendition from Kheng Nam Lee Teochew Porridge is superior.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), fried pork belly fermented bean curd

More fried pork belly that's been marinated with fermented red bean curd.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), steamed pork patty salted egg

Their pork patty with salted egg was so good. The patty was fatty and savoury with salt, topped with a chunk of salted duck egg for more flavour. This and rice maketh a good eat. Gotta get it again the next time.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), hairy gourd

More hairy gourd.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), fish

Sliced fish. Not fantastic but serviceable.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), meat stuffed tofu

Bean curd stuffed with minced pork. Not bad.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), spinach ikan bilis

Their unassuming dish of spinach braised with anchovy was umami delicious. Vegetable was tender. The list of repeat order grows.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), chap chye red fermented bean curd

More chap chye with red fermented bean curd.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), Bukit Merah View