Recently at Nanjing Impressions (南京大牌檔)

Some off white coloured food from Nanjing Impressions. A lightweight dinner for two.

Which included Madam Chiang's Beauty Porridge (民国美龄粥).

Some julienned bean curd (麻油素干丝).

And tasty Huaiyang sweet strata cake (淮扬千层油糕).

Toast Box Coffee House (土司工坊), Seng Poh Road

This spot used to be the coffeeshop that housed Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak (and previously Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice) and Sixties Chaozhou Traditional Minced Pork Noodles. Toast Box's parent has decided that this iconic neighbourhood spot makes business sense and has taken over and given the old space a makeover.

First time trying their French toast. Not bad tasting. Gotta watch out for the saccharinity of the syrup though. I like it as a whole because the bread was eggy.

Another first time here - the lemon cream toast which featured a lemon cream sauce that tasted like the lemon cream fillings from lemon cream biscuits that have appeared in one form or another in the past decades. That lemon cream together with the butter was actually not bad a combination.

Bee hoon from Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (樑成香菇肉脞麵)

Bee hoon this time around at Liang Seng. Might be my first bak chor bee hoon and it works for this stall at least because of the sauce which gets absorbed into the vermicelli. It's otherwise just a textural variation from the other previous bowls. Portions were pretty good though I noticed that prices have gone up by 50 cents since a little over a year back.

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice.Wanton Noodle (新記馳名雞飯.雲吞面), Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

There's a bit Sin Kee Confusion going on. The Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice which I started off getting myself acquainted with which was previously at at Mei Ling Food Centre relocated to Holland Drive as Sin Kee Famous Cantonese Chicken Rice (which later morphed into Margaret Drive Chicken Rice). It's run by a son of the founder, Benson, as far as I am aware. They've always made it clear that they don't have branches.

But there's a couple of other Sin Kee chicken rice around. This one is at Margaret Drive/Queenstown and they too call themselves Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice (#01-30 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive). Unlike that Sin Kee which I mentioned previously, this one has roasted chicken and wanton mee.

Chicken's decent but they're not the standards of the one Margaret Drive Chicken Rice even though their birds looked similar. Breast meat here was stringy. Note to self: get only drumstick/thigh next time.

Rice was adequately flavoured. Good enough to eat on its own. 👍🏼

Chicken liver's passable, not exceptional.

Decent boiled eggs and tau kwa.

One week later...

Came back another day for their roasted chicken thigh (烧鸡尾). Decent tasting cut but not as memorable as the roasted ones that can be gotten from Tong Kee nearby. The rice was delicious just like the last time though. No qualms re-visiting for a chicken rice fix.

Breakfast of akauo, yellow croaker, portabello and natto at Nakajima Suisan

Breakfast at Nakajima Suisan (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二). This was the akauo hiraki teishoku with natto added on.

I don't know when this happened but the rice has changed. I remember them being dryer in the past...less Japanese-y. Came to attention today that the bowl we got was starchy and short grained so I guess it's a small upgrade. One of various little ones they've made through the years. Natto + shoyu + rice = 👍🏼

Trying their yellow croaker for the first time. Never seen them here before. The fish was huge.

Meaty and flaky with a little bit of fat. Not bad. Hope they're still around the next time we come back.

Grilled portobello caps are $5 a pop here.

Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodle, Seng Poh Road

Christmas breakfast! 🎍

I never realized that Li Xin has presence at Tiong Bahru until recently. The stall's sequestered in Today Restaurant (71 Seng Poh Road). This site previously housed Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh. 

The name/branding has changed a little here. The stall is simply called Lixin Fishball but we know who they are. This outpost is manned by a lady who looked irritated that she had been interrupted from whatever reverie she was in.  

Prices have gone up over the years. I recall the basic bowl to be $5.50 back in the day.

Got a bowl of their fishball minced meat kuey teow dry and 白. I'm gonna go with it being pretty expensive at $7.50 for a basic bowl like this but it was delicious.

There's apparently a signature noodle which I never knew about until today. Instead of just fishballs, there's also a couple of fish dumplings and sliced fishcakes. Not a fan of their mee kia but otherwise the noodles tasted much like how I remembered them. The spring onions and sliced chilli made the noodles look....Christmas-y. 

The soup though was mediocre. Tasted like fishball flavoured hot water.