The Ceylonese Affair, Mei Ling Food Centre

Came across The Ceylonese Affair (#02-17 Mei Lin Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Road) recently. The stall does only briyani and appam. 

It's actually not bad tasting. That being said, it was different from the more flavourful briyani that most of us might be used to. The rice was spiced but I'd call the flavour infusion gentle. 

This was their butter chicken briyani which featured their fried chicken with butter chicken sauce. Understandably, most of the flavour came from the sauce. Came with achar on the side. Those brown bits scattered on top were fried onions. Nice.

Tiong Hoe Specialty Coffee, Stirling Road

Have been here (#01-1133, 170 Stirling Road, tel : +65 8958 1133) a few times for their triple espresso con panna on the go but never a sit in until today.

Sparkling coffee's not bad.

Lightly aromatic, not thick or full bodied. But good drinking in a hideout from the scorching heat.

Noci Bakehouse, Suntec City

Sister to Noci Pasta Bar located at the end of Suntec closer to Millenia Walk (#01-604, Suntec City Tower 3, 3 Temasek Boulevard). They're at the spot that used to be Bakery 1946.

What's enticing about the bakery are their salt bread - their equivalent to Japanese shio pan. These here were larger. Got the one with black sesame and butter.

The insides had sweet black sesame paste and butter. Nice! 

The cream salt bun is not to be missed.

Noci Pasta Bar, Suntec City

Korean pasta place at Suntec (#01-386 Suntec City Mall, 8 Temasek Boulevard) that opened late last year. They're by a Gold Moon Restaurants Group which has brought in brands like Tonshou and Seoul Noodle Shop.

Complimentary sourdough with whipped butter. Butter's nice. Bread's okay-ish. I prefer them with a bit more tang and texture.

There's baccala. Not as lard infused as I was imagining. Flavour's mostly from the fish which wasn't a bad thing.

Had a couple of pastas. This one featured their in house squid ink tajarin with bottarga and anchovies - understandably umami that way. Not bad.

The other was their cacio e pepe which also used their house made tajarin. What's different from the usual cacio e pepe are the crush bits of pistachio. Would like for it to be a bit more cheesy and peppery but I think I enjoyed this as well.

Both pasta had great texture.

A coffee called cream di noci which had bits of walnut and walnut oil. There was a thick crema but I didn't detect walnut flavour from the mundane tasting coffee which had little worth mentioning.

Tarik, Arab Street

I noticed Tarik (92 Arab Street, #01-02) some time ago and made a mental note to come back for some of their tea. Making a mental note these days aren't as effective anymore because...out of sight is out of mind. Very often. But we were in the vicinity today.

Was spoilt for choice. Ended up with Boss Fav which was basically a saffron masala tea.

I liked it. Even though it was iced, it didn't taste diluted even till the end. Pretty creamy and moderately spiced with discernible notes of ginger in the saffron. Will come back to try the hot one another time.

Recently at Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant (June 2026)

There appears to be more new items at Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十).

They've included masala tea which wasn't available before. This one's milky, not so spicy. Kinda pedestrian.

Ghee pongal seemed dryer today than I remember them. Flavour's still good though.

There's also benne podi masala dosa which wasn't available previously. Not bad tasting but they weren't as good looking as the ones from MTR.

新路潮洲鱼圓粿條麵湯 (Xin Lu Teochew Fishball Noodles), Mei Ling Food Centre

Have noticed this stall (#02-05 Mei Lin Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Road) and its queue in the past times I was here so decided to try today.

The chilli option came with ketchup which I didn't like. Had a couple of mee pok clumps. Fishballs were nice and bouncy but I prefer the flavour and texture from Hong Yong Chao Zhou Yu Yuan Guo Tiao Mian and Li Xin. Otherwise, it was an okay-ish bowl of fishball noodles.

More char siew rice from Mei Mei Roast (妹妹李记烧腊)

$6.50 in June 2026. Did not realise it's been more than a year since I last had this.

BatterCatch, Great World

First time at BatterCatch (#01-106 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6485 3841).

Their Longan Tea Oasis drink tasted like some caramel sweetened bubble tea drink thing. Rosemary's entirely decorative. I'm not sure if there was even any tea in this.

This was haddock and chips. The buttery mushy peas was delicious. Love their dill & pickled infused tartare sauce. Curry sauce was also not bad.

The fish was not as good tasting as the one at Smiths. It's about as expensive though, considering cost to portions.

Batter is a little thick and floury around some parts.

Grilled barramundi tasted like it was frozen fish. Skin was chewy, not crispy. Not impressive as grilled fishes went.

Liked the peas enough to get another portion. Out of everything we had, this was probably my favourite. Tasted like lots of butter with plenty of green pea flavour. Would come back just for these.

Next Chapter (樂膳房), Ubi

Have gotten kopi peng a few times from this shop (#01-93, 304 Ubi Avenue 1) before. This was the first time getting food. Crispy chicken cutlet curry noodle. Very crunchy freshly fried chicken. Curry's decent.

Pizza Gorgonzola e salsiccia and honeyed baked Scamorza from Casa Vostra @ Raffles City

Back at Casa Vostra. Not bad tasting Gorgonzola e salsiccia pizza except for the Gorgonzola. I'm not even sure I could taste it. A bit disappointing I'd admit. As far as the taste went, this was just a sausage and onion pizza - a decent one at that.

Tried their baked scamorza cheese. Kind liked it. Chewy, salty and smoky with a light sweetness from honey. There's also a bit of spice from black pepper and I seem to recall tasting parsley.

Dry mixed seafood noodle with milk broth from Hai Kah Lang (海脚人)

Back at Hai Kah Lang. I've had something similar back at the branch at Taman Sentosa with clear broth instead of the one with milk. Topping of seafood appears to have differences. But those springy noodles and the milky broth with 花雕 were what mattered. The seafood quality's decent but not impressive so 21.90SGD (approx. 68MYR) is an experience I'd rather not repeat. Will stick to the sliced fish bowls which are cheaper the next time.

Taste Legend Charcoal Roasted Delights (味传炭香烧腊家), Tiong Bahru

The coffeeshop at Boon Tiong used to be called Food Paradise (11B Boon Tiong Road). It's been since renamed Food Hub after a recent renovation which has made the layout of the stalls....pretty templated. Anyways, Shiok Hokkien Mee and Chef Hong HoChiak Bar have survived that and are still around. One of the new stalls that caught our attention was Taste Legend Charcoal Roasted Delights.

Competent fat laced roast pork rice they do here.

Came back another time to get them with char siew because they looked pretty good hanging at the stall. We were initially disappointed with how they looked on the plate but turned out to be deliciously smoky. 👍🏼

A few weeks later......

Note to self: Char siew rice isn't always nice. Luck of the draw plays a part. Meat can be dry and lean.

Curry noodle's ordinary. The curry's savoury, had a bit of heat but flavour was otherwise a little flat. The stall use soya sauce chicken instead of the more commonly seen poached chicken. Pretty tender those. But this was nothing that I'll be looking forward to again.

Passable shui jiao.