Happy Noodles (快乐面), Lengkok Bahru

This was the coffeeshop that used to house Sim Lim Square Bak Chor Mee, Uncle Peter Hokkien Mee, 6th Avenue Nasi Lemak  and once upon a time Ye Shang Hai Teochew Porridge. Turn over of tenants seems pretty high. Coffeeshop seems to have been renovated and taken over by a new management fronted by the owner of OK Chicken Rice. 

One thing stood out about this coffeeshop. No zhi char and no cai png.

Anyways this was the bak chor mee from Happy Noodles which they called Happy Bak Chor Mee. The mee pok is apparently made in house.

No bad. Sambal's decent. Mee pok texture was pretty good and you can tell it's definitely not the generic/factory variety by the mouthfeel. Mushrooms were totally infused with the flavour from the braising sauce. There's beansprouts but no pig's liver. Nice lardiness in the bowl too. What impressed me were the finely sliced red chillis which most noodle stalls don't do and I hope it's not a one time thing.

A couple of weeks later......

The persona running the stall today was a different someone. The bowl was much saucier than the previous time but flavour's still good. Mee kia texture's decent, not soggy. Chilli not as finely sliced. So it seems that there's some sort of rotation for who's manning the stall and consistency may not be expected here.

Recent Shakings and Shackings

Recent eat at Shake Shack. Wanted to catch the Greek Shack before it rotated out. We got the single patty thinking that we'd get more tzatziki out of each bite but it seemed like there were less of them in the single patty configuration. Sad.

Double meat hamburger still isn't adequately salted if you added just one slice of cheese. I wished they'd salt the meat more.

Temptation's the one thing we'll never resist. Maybe.

An offal-y nasi lemak from Bona Aroma

Nasi lemak from Bona Aroma. Not the standard chicken wing or fish configuration. I picked what I wanted and there were chicken livers and paru goreng. Livers were fried and kinda dry-ish and slightly powdery textured. They use basmati rice here which is cooked with a little less salt that what I'm used to encountering for Malay nasi lemak. That said, it was quite good with the sweet/spicy sambal and serunding.

Pandan mango cake from Chalk Farm

Came across this pandan mango cake from Chalk Farm. I liked this. There're more mangoes in the cream than what could be seen. A little less cream would be nice.

Recently at Suju Takashimaya

Buri daikon from Suju ( 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, 二十三, 二十四). Yellow tail fish head with large chunks of daikon in a sweet-ish mirin soy broth. In retrospect, I liked the meat from the head more than the body.

Took me a while but I realised that their rice set alone makes a warm and comforting light dinner. Just rice, takuan (one time refillable) and a bowl of smoke-y good tasting miso soup (not refillable).

Forno di Fernando, Trio

Came across news recently that Fernando's Pizza at Trio, which I had previously thought closed down, has pulled a phoenix from the ashes and become Zazz Pizza 2.0. Well, it's Forno di Fernando (#01-09 Trio Mall, 1 Sam Leong Road, tel : +65 8228 8480) actually and it's the spiritual successor of Zazz Pizza which Fernando's New York Slices/Fernando's Pizza wasn't.

If any one was confused here, the chief pizza architect here's Hiran Fernando. We've been having his pizzas from back at Zazz Pizza when it was at Short Street until it moved to Cross Street Exchange before Fernando's Pizza came about. This new Forno di Fernando felt much like an incarnation of Zazz Pizza which we missed.

Menu's not exactly the same as Zazz though the Neapolitan styled pies are back. 

Tried a couple of their limited time specials (going for $25 each) which included this Cheese Platter Pizza made with 6 cheeses (Mozzarella, Taleggio, smoked Scamorza, Fontina, Gorgonzola according to the menu). That included shards of Parmesan crisps, drizzle of pistachio sauce and walnuts.

Pretty cheesy pie but I thought a balance here might have been lacking without an acid like baslamic vinegar. Also not getting much pistachio flavour from the sauce beyond some sweetness.

The other special was the Fernando's Curry Crab pizza featuring curried crab meat, curry leaves, stracciatella and some coriander cream amongst a few other things. Nice. For a moment I forgot this was pizza. Flavour from the coriander cream and curry leaves were familiar and paired unexpectedly well with the stracciatella. Liked this more than the Cheese Platter pie.

The hot honey and powdered cheese on the table helps with the cornicione. These didn't seem to be as easy to eat as those back in the days of Zazz. Something about the crust has changed. 🤔

Panna cotta needed more passionfruit sauce.

Not a fan of their pistachio affogato. This wasn't anything like the regular variety. There was a lot of ice cream and only 1 shot of espresso which I felt was inadequate.