Nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers

Decent tasting but not fantastic nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers. About the same price as Crave if my memory serves. They're both a little different from each other and I can't say for sure which one I like better. What I think Lee Wee can do much better is their chicken cutlet box which is the option I normally pick because I'm not usually a wing person and their fried prawns usually look sad. That chicken cutlet been sitting out there for a bit and there's no more crisp left to it. Would also be nice if they actually found some way to prepare fresher ikan billis kacang instead of packeted ones that they throw in with each box.

Squid otah was not bad though.

Coke - coffee, caramel and chocolate......

So I came across these at 7-11 too and the cat got killed. The one with caramel tasted like Kopiko with a bit more caramel. I know it's probably not saying much but I didn't think there was much else I could describe. The one with chocolate was the nicer one of the two because of the light chocolate flavour which kinda differentiated it from the Kopiko/caramel/Coke combination of the first. I'll not be getting them again though. 

Another take out from Margaret Drive Chicken Rice

We've done take out from Margaret Drive Chicken Rice a number of times. I'm detecting inconsistencies with the standards of their rice. We had this to go before the lunch crowd came in so they were just about finished with the preparation to start service when I made the order.

The chicken had just been taken out of their cold water bath. Chilled and tender but it was never at the standards of the old Sin Kee. Still nice though.

I asked them to leave out the coriander and they left out the spring onions as well for some reasons. But we were given a lot of sliced cucumbers.

Today's rice was substandard even for this particular stall. I could tell from the texture that they were slightly undercooked because of the extra graininess. I expected that a professional who believed in their craft would not have let something like that slip and would rather tell a customer to wait rather than rush something that needed a bit more time. 

Sour plum Oreos

Came across these sour plum flavoured Oreos in 7-11. So I thought why the hell not. 

Apparently some sort of limited edition flavour for Spring. They're packed in fives.

The first taste from the cream was sweetness before the wave of sour plum flavour swept across. Tasted like the cream had sour plum powder. 

Works with milk too.

Chef Wang Fried Rice (王厨), Beo Crescent Food Centre

Came across this stall (#01-71 Beo Cresecent Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent) selling fried rice which I believe to be relatively new because I hadn't noticed them before. There were congratulatory flower stands and a couple of accolades put up at the stall front.

Some of you eagle eyed might have noticed and pondered if this looked like the fried rice from Din Tai Fung. Yes it certainly did. Tasted much like it as well at half what Din Tai Fung charges. So that means about the same price as King of Fried Rice - another local fried rice shop that's been compared to DTF even though the chef is a alumni of Jumbo Seafood.

The pork chop was thinner and dryer though. Heavy on the marinade so it kinda makes the rice taste a little bland after you've had a piece. Not complaining though seeing that we're getting the bar raised for less expensive fried rice which is a good thing. It's not cheap for hawker centre food but it is much cheaper than what one has to fork out in restaurants.

Marché, before dining out is out again

This was our last meal out before the Heightened Alert came into effect and we could no longer eat out again for another month. Since we hadn't eaten at Marché for a while, it sounded good.

They've introduced their XXXL schnitzel for a while now. I was curious. There's pork, beef and chicken. This was beef, presumably veal because while I could tell it was meat, I couldn't tell for sure what meat it was. The beef was pounded thin and the fried cutlet was huge. I was initially thinking that I might not be able to finish this but as it turned out, the breading was nice and crisp. Even though it was largely breading (maybe 60+%?), it was tasty and we did finished it.

Rosti with cheddar and fried egg was good. Very nice. Now I know specifically what to repeat orders for this in the future.

The lamb chops looked sizeable so we ordered some. Filled with generous layering of flavourful fat on the meat. Kinda happy that this last meal out for a while was satisfying.

More eating at Putien

I'm not a shareholder if anyone was suspecting. I just like their food.

We have favourites like their fine Heng Hwa bee hoon which is great on its on or with their lime-y chilli sauce.

They also do a very decent lychee sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉) which we enjoy.

This was their deep fried tenggiri - Spanish mackerel which is pretty common in this parts. Fish was dry without excessive grease and pretty tasty with their sweet garlic sauce.

Ordered their kailan with bean curd skin. Loved those bean curd skin. Reminded me of the tau kee that I used to eat loads of in Chinese vegetarian bee hoon as a kid.

The Duotou clam festival is in progress so we grabbed a pot steamed in Huadiao wine (花雕酒). This method of cooking preserved the natural flavour of the clams while adding another light layer from the wine on top. 

See how fat and juicy looking the clams were. They were literally squirting out hot juices when I bit into them.

Sixties Chaozhou Traditional Minced Pork Noodles, Seng Poh Road

That's the queue I joined at about 7.30am - was but three steps from the front of Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice stall. Those three steps took me 25 minutes. Another 20 or so went by before I reached the minced meat noodle stall. By the time I was done, it was an hour of my life gone. I've previously eaten here, aired my opinion and mistakenly assumed that they were a popular nameless stall. They are popular but not nameless, they are Sixties Chaozhou Traditional Minced Pork Noodles. 

What I said about their bak chor mee the last times till stands. Nothing has changed about how I felt about their bowl. I came back today because I guess I was just trying to reconcile the hype over them over what I actually felt about their noodles. Got the mee kia today and on hindsight, I prefer their mee pok. Today was a little more vinegary than the last time but that's about all the difference there was. Not a bad eat but I wouldn't come back because of the queue. I've been guilty of pandering to hype. Once or twice. Maybe thrice. Need to draw the line again.

Mee kia with extra chilli from Pin Sheng Teochew Bak Chor Mee

I wanted to come back to Pin Sheng Teochew Bak Chor Mee (品盛潮州肉脞面) to give their ba chor mee a proper try with chilli because the one that I had previously didn't have any. This was mee kia and I asked for extra chilli for this bowl but it turned out not very spicy. It was for some reasons very savoury and I think the chilli had something to do with that. Couldn't taste the vinegar even though I opted for it. This time round, I also noticed that there were small bits of crispy fried lard (猪油渣) which you could taste but the bowl of noodles as a whole didn't have any fragrance from lard (猪油).

The kopi from this place sure kickstarts my heart.

Black truffle dark chocolate ice cream from The Dark Gallery

I've tried some dark chocolate ice cream previously from The Dark Gallery before but it didn't leave me impressed at all so I kinda forgot about them for a while. Until recently. I happened to be looking at them again and noticed that they had one which was black truffle dark chocolate. Took a leap of faith and got myself a scoop. The ice cream was coal black, not even dark brown. I liked that the truffle flavour wasn't overpowering at all but still present amidst the creamy dark chocolate flavour. 

Lao Chen Carrot Cake & Popiah (老陳菜頭粿·薄餅), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

I remember getting poh piah from this stall (#02-83 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) years ago but don't recall much of it. This was presumably my first time getting radish cake from them - ordered with extra eggs. For some reasons, the taste was triggering memories that I hadn't expected. The kway reminded me of those brown triangular carrot cakes that I used to eat ages ago and the eggs made me think of oyster omelette. Not a bad plate of chai tow kway. I liked that there were some crusty caramelized bits on some of the edges.

This stall doesn't do the black and white order by the way.

Mun Zuk (满粥), Westgate

Someone suggested lunch again and this time it was Mun Zuk (#B2-K1 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive), a congee stall which appeared to have opened recently. From what I gathered, they're an offshoot of Li Fang Congee - another multi branched porridge brand. I got the bowl with meatball and sliced pork. Added an egg which was...90 cents. You know what? I liked it. The porridge had a good creamy texture and pretty moderated flavour. Am also sure those meatballs are hand made. Portions felt a little small but I don't mind coming back again.

Soya sauce stewed offal, tofu and egg with rice at Broadway

Remember the recent soya sauce stewed pig trotters with rice? This was from the same stall. I'm convinced that the food is identical with the one from the previous stall owners now.

A takeaway chicken tikka briyani from ABC Food Corner

I've bought this a couple of times from ABC Food Corner so far and for both occasions, we've gotten pretty big portions for the $8.50 they charged. Portions enough to feed two even with flavourful briyani rice which paired well with either the crunchy cucumber/pineapples or the tamarind infused fish curry (I asked for it). Not forgetting those salty smoky chunks of chicken tikka which was the point in the first place.

You Ji (有記), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

I've eaten from You Ji (有記) (#02-10 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) a number of times but they happen to be one of those eateries I've never brought up. These folks do what many would describe as local breakfast food. A small variety of noodles, yam/pumpkin cakes, porridges and a slew of other breakfast savouries to go along. It's not like no one knows them. Their queue stretches out pretty consistently. 

So here's something from recently. A breakfast of chee cheong fun with savouries of otah, scarred looking fried egg and a cheap hot dog that transcends decades of memories through space/time. Like their chilli sauce which had a nice light prickle of heat. Combinations like these are a pretty unbeatable configuration for an empty stomach in the morning growling for food. No?

Ramen Kiou X ROMAN.TEI - Double roasted beef tomato cheese ramen from Ramen Kiou

This was a limited time collaboration apparently - Ramen Kiou X ROMAN.TEI which featured the tomato broth ramen from the former and sliced roasted beef with black pepper sauce from the latter. I went all in for the double option which featured more beef and got it with cheese. I liked it. It tasted pretty much like how I thought it would since this bowl was basically just the tomato broth ramen with cheese which I've had previously. The beef didn't change that flavour and they were tender and delicious. Wasn't cheap but it sure was satisfying.

Big Fish Small Fish, Bugis Junction

I've heard of this shop for a couple of years but have never tried their food until recently. I had previously misjudged them for another faceless clone of Fish & Co or Manhattan Fish Market. They aren't exactly that. Big Fish Small Fish (#04-05 Bugis Junction, 200 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6904 8386) has more options and better quality for their fish and chips.

This was haddock and chips. You had to top up $1.50 to get chips (or fries) because they were served with crisps as a default. Don't know what's the deal with those crisps but I like mine with chips. Back to the haddock - the fish was firm and flaky with a solid crunchy flavoured batter that wasn't excessively thick. Great contrast pairing. IIRC, they also costed as much as what Smiths used to charge for their fish and chips.

There's grilled sea bass on the menu. Looked more pan fried than grilled to me. Didn't taste bad though. Sautéed vegetables on the side were tender and the crisps....were crisps - greasier potato chips. The pilaf was spiced and punctuated with sweetness from the raisins but the rice was dry and lumpy and would have benefitted with a bit more of salt.

Revisiting &Joy Dining Hall at Great World

This was the first time we were ordering food from Kuriya at &Joy. It seemed that food orders from any of the stalls are accessible from any of all the kiosks these days. Should've done that right from the start. Back to Kuriya - they have a pretty tasty and tender slow cooked salmon under a section of their menu they described for clean eating. 

Here's a frutti di mare pizza from Pittarino. Not bad tasting with the seafood and cheese on the thin crust - wouldn't mind a bit more generosity with the seafood though.

Revisiting Traditional Hainanese Curry Rice (中国街海南咖哩饭)

It's been a while since I last ate at Traditional Hainanese Curry Rice (中国街海南咖哩饭). I remember their concoction of sauces/curry being a little thin. I think I might have figured out why. I didn't get the stewed cabbage today and I think the liquid from the cabbage might have been what's thinning out the sauce/curry because it tasted more intense today. Will try another time to confirm.

Are Cows really Bad for the Planet? Why did we start blaming them?

 Food for thought so I thought I'd share.

Pratunam by Soi Thai Soi Nice, Westgate

I've heard about Pratunam (#B2-K12 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, tel : +65 6259 3626) but haven't really paid attention to what was mentioned about them besides the fact that they were run by the folks responsible for Soi Thai Soi Nice. Did not realize that they were located at Westgate until now. Tried their omelette prawn fried rice which tasted much like how it looked. The fried rice underneath the egg was unfortunately unimpressive. Saved by the nahm jim, cut bird's eye chillis and crushed peanuts.