Revisiting Hai Yan Fried Kway Teow Mee (海燕潮州炒粿条麵)

So it was bee hoon the last time and kuey teow mee this time. I guess it's just textural differences. Aside from those beautifully fried eggs with molten yolk, there wasn't much else of note. Maybe I'm just now a char kuey teow person. Wasn't particularly impressed by the likes of Meng Kee or Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee even though people seem to think that they're great renditions.

Yuen Kee Dumpling (袁记云饺), Food Junction @ Great World

Came across an outpost of Yuen Kee Dumpling in the food court at Great World (L3 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade).

Their shrimp and vegetable pork dumplings were pretty good tasting. Noticed that there's black fungus in it. Still liking that viral sauce.

Ayam Gepok Anakmak, Ang Mo Kio

Learned of Ayam Gepok Anakmak (#01-877, 215 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Ang Mo Kio Street 22) recently and came to try their ayam gepok. What got my attention was the gajus (cashew) sauce which I haven't been seeing around here.

There're a couple of options. One can get it with regular fried chicken and or ayam berempah. This one's the latter. 

Sadly their ayam berempah was lacklustre. The meat was dry-ish and a little stringy even. Remember that this was chicken thigh. The flavour of the berempah wasn't particularly great. Rice was lumpy. Aside from tofu and tempeh, there's also fried cabbage on the side which I haven't had before. Tasted toasty and bittersweet.

I mentioned interest for the gajus sauce. That's accompanied by sambal. One can choose level 0-4 for spiciness with 0 being not spicy at all. This was a 2. And it packed substantial heat. The sauce was akin to a coarse cashew butter - nutty and oily in a good way. Pretty good with the sambal because the sambal has the salt. Any spicier this level and I probably wouldn't have been able to taste much of the food.

Jeju Sanghoe & Juk (제주상회&죽), myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens

This outpost by Jeju Sanghoe is Jeju Sanghoe & Juk (#B1-03 myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens, 1 Maju Avenue) - the name clearly references their porridge which has more variety than the shop at Tras Street.

But first some chilled sikhye which was a sweet reprieve from the blazing heat.

We came here today for their abalone innards juk/porridge.

Quite a bit of sliced abalones in there.

I was expecting more intense flavour because of the innards but the flavours that mostly came through was from the seaweed and sesame oil. It was a nice bowl of porridge though.

Taste Of The Bay at Ming Fa (明發) @ Upper Thomson Road

Came across this at Ming Fa at Upper Thomson. Squid ink mee pok on a limited run.

Basically a 小碗面 with seafood and squid ink mee pok topped with onsen egg and tobiko.

For all the dark intensity, there didn't seem to be any squid ink flavour. Kinda disappointed there. This tasted like regular mee pok.

Soup has half a crayfish, a couple of prawns, clams, sliced pork and minced pork. Ingredient quality was pretty decent. There was a light sweetness from the prawns and crayfish.

They used to shell the prawn for their regular bowl of mee pok in the past. Now it's a slightly bigger prawn with shell still on. 

These fried sotong were part of the limited time menu. The lady at the stall insisted that they were good and that if it happened that they weren't, she'll help me eat them. 😂 She's right, squids were pretty tender under the batter. Came with some lime-y mayo which was not bad tasting.

I remember thinking little of their coffee the last time I was here. Today's kopi peng was actually decent-ish and tasted better than I remember of their coffee. 

Lucky Her Kiao (幸运鱼饺), Horne Road

Lunch at Lucky Her Kiao (88 Horne Road). From what I gathered, this place is run by the 3rd generation of the family that operates Song Kee Kway Teow Noodle Soup at Toa Payoh that has been apparently been in business over half a century.

Was curious about their fish noodles. To be clear, fish noodles are noodles made with fish paste. These were okay tasting - lots of chew and a nice fish-cake-like flavour in those irregularly squiggly noodles. It was mentioned that they were hand rolled so I guess this qualified as artisanal?

In retrospect, I should have gotten this without sambal so that I could better taste them. A little pricey at $18 a portion but I guess artisanal comes at a cost. Probably not fair to compare them to Li Bai so I won't. 😂 I do remember liking the ones from House of Fishball better though.

The bowl of soup accompanying the fish noodles was loaded with ingredients. Amongst them, I found one of their her kiao (fish dumplings) with chewy skin made from fish (paste?) and minced pork stuffings infused with ti poh (dried sole). Because this shop also sold yong tau fu, I was expecting that it's soy bean soup. It's not. Tasted like fishball soup flavoured with corn.

Had some sliced pig liver on the side. Not bad tasting but also not memorable.