Fei Fei Roasted • Noodle (肥肥烧腊 • 云吞面), Hawkers' Street @ 100AM

I remember someone mentioning this stall once back at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre. Never got to try them. Came across their outpost at Hawkers' Street at 100AM (#04-05/06, 100 Tras Street) and their beautifully caramelized char siew beckoned to us. As hard as it was to believe, it looked much better than it tasted. Not that it tasted bad but the meat beneath all the beautify red and black surface was a little dry and harder than we imagined.

Ivan's Porridge is back!

After what seemed to be months of closure, Ivan's Porridge is finally back! I have missed the smoky chilli with their bee hoon.

They've mentioned that they'll be taking more frequent breaks moving forward.

Zhen Xiang Hainanese Chicken Rice (臻香海南鸡饭), BK Eating House @ Jurong Gateway Road

Came across Zhen Xiang Hainanese Chicken Rice (BK Eating House, 134 Jurong Gateway Road, #01-309) by chance while looking for lunch. What decided for me were actually those slabs of pork belly char siew hanging with the chicken in the stall. This turned out to be a pretty good find. Got the poached thigh. Chook was competently smooth and tender, well sauced with a pleasant sesame oil flavour. That and a light but adequately flavoured rice with a lime-y garlicky chilli which had a pleasant heat. That char siew though - was well caramelized, fatty and savoury sweet. Nice.

Da Po Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee Chicken Rice (大坡咖喱米粉面.鸡饭), Hawkers' Street @ 100AM

It's been years since we've last had curry noodles from Da Po at Golden Mile. These guys have an outpost at the new Hawkers' Street at 100AM (#04-05/06 100AM, 100 Tras Street). Here's a bowl of their curry chicken bee hoon mee. This was salty creamy richness with moderate spiced heat that was picked up by mixture of yellow noodles and bee hoon. Buried in it was chunks of tender poached chicken, potatoes, some pretty nice tau pok and a couple of thick slices of pig's skin. Love this. Will come back for it.

Revisiting Springleaf Prata Place @ Thong Soon Avenue

Been like a decade since we last ate at this Springleaf Prata Place. In recent times, there's the Springleaf MRT Station which makes the location much less inconvenient for people who don't live in the vicinity. Was a packed Saturday morning and we turned up not expecting the crowd.

Teh pandan's not bad - better than I imagined. Teh was adequate and the flavour from the pandan came through. Masala tea's also okay-ish. Note to self: Gotta siu dai.

Finally got to try their Impossible Murtaburger. Instead of lamb like the regular Murtaburger, there's an Impossible patty. The flavour also reminded me more than a little of a Ramly Burger. You know that there's too much sauce when you cut off a corner from a little piece and so much squirts out.

Otah prata which I felt was also a little too sauced up inside. There's mayo and mustard which kinda buried the otah.

Roti bomb. Crispy and sugary.

Lamb shank briyani's pretty good. Meat easily fell off the bone. Rice was savoury and pleasantly spiced. Nice nutty masala with a bit of heat as well.

Thye Hong Singapore Fried Prawn Noodles (泰豐), Food Opera @ ION Orchard

One might mistakenly arrive at the conclusion that this plate that I came across from Thye Hong Singapore Fried Prawn Noodles (#B4-03/04 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn) might be the close to perfect plate of char kuey teow - going by the definition of myriads of retarded parrots out there about what that should be. Parrots that mostly yap about wok hei and haven't a mind sufficiently prehensile to grasp other characteristics of the dish, not to mention articulate them. 

I don't know what might be the perfect plate. This one has charred noodles and was smokey for sure. That smokiness was as much from caramelisation as burnt bits and speckles of carbon. Much more in your face than say Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee. There was much less dark soya sauce flavouring than the appearance suggested. Those guys at the work also looked like hired hands rather than veterans. It didn't taste bad though.

BBQ drumstick rice from Golden Rooster

Not bad drumstick rice from Golden Rooster. Even though it didn't taste like it was fresh off the...whatever it was they use for their bbq chicken. Portion felt a little small though. Will stick to the half chicken the next time.

女皇镇驰名油条 (Queenstown Famous You Tiao), Alexandra Village Food Centre

I've never noticed this stall (#01-72, Alexandra Village Food Centre, Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1) until recently.

What got my attention were their banana balls.

Had a skin like hum chim pang - a little doughy and chewy. Inside was mashed banana. We returned for seconds and got a batch fresh off the fryer. Nice! 👍🏼

Redhill Prawn Noodle (85红山蝦麵 ), Redhill Food Centre

We were intrigued by the queue we saw Redhill Prawn Noodle (#01-95, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) whenever we passed by. With that visible constant queue every time, it's gotta be good right? Right? 🤔 Ingredients were decent. Soup's lightweight, not the gao type but still adequately flavourful and pleasantly rounded. Mee pok was sadly soggy and saucing not memorable. The noodle quality is important - at least for me it is since that's the majority flavour/textural experience there. Maybe the thing here is not to go for the mee pok. 

Pang's Hakka Yong Tau Foo (小彭酿豆腐), Hawkers' Street @ Clementi Mall

This was the Hakka Signature YTF noodle dry from Pang's Hakka Yong Tau Foo (Hawker Street, #04-20/21/22 Clementi Mall, 3155 Commonwealth Avenue West) inside Hawkers' Street at Clementi Mall - the food court that has replaced the previous Boleh Boleh!.

Was actually on the fence for a little bit between that and the traditional bowl but curiosity on what's signature won.

There's a bunch of stuff that's maybe not seen in the "traditional" variety. That included some squiggly stuff that tasted like they were made of pork (or lard) and fish paste and some seaweed bitter gourd fish paste thingy. I think they did a good job flavouring up the fish paste with....dried sole maybe? 

Noodles were savoury and lardy. Soup wasn't the typical soy bean variety. Nicely done as a whole in my opinion. Will not mind coming back.

Dumpling mee pok from Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken (香江豉油鸡)

Been a while since we were here at Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken. Today was sui gao mee pok. The mee pok here has great texture - firm, thin and has a good bite.

Still impressive stuffings of prawn, minced marinated pork, strips of wood ear fungus and little chunks of diced water chestnut. Should ask for extra chilli the next time.

Lee Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice (利興海南雞飯), Marine Parade Central Food Centre

Pleasantly surprised at Lee Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice (Marine Parade Central Food Centre, 84 Marine Parade Central). This was an order with poached thigh (白尾) with a side of roast pork - a competent plate featuring sufficiently flavoured rice with smooth tender bird and a nice lime-y garlicky chilli that packed a bit of heat. Soup on the side's sweet from the cabbage and carrots; not bad. What we didn't expect was the smoky roast pork. Arguably tender and yet with sufficient bite and a sandwiched fat layer that was unexpectedly soft.

Looking forward to coming back.

One week later......

Roast thigh (烧尾) with a side of char siew and egg. One can imagine the carcinogenic sweetness on the burnt ends of the char siew. Nice.

Tai Weng Hainanese Chicken Rice (大榮海南鸡饭), Smith Street Food Centre

Half chicken and some livers/hearts from Tai Weng Hainanese Chicken Rice (Yellow Zone, #02-039 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street).

Roast chicken was competent. This one had a different sauce though - it wasn't the usual dousing of sesame oil and light soya sauce. It was something darker. Wondering if they might be similar used in soya sauce chicken.

Serving of livers with some slivers of hearts.

Soup's pretty good; one can taste the chicken in the broth. The only thing I haven't quite decided on was the rice which was dry and grainy - something I don't normally gravitate to. That rice however was adequately flavoured if not salted sufficiently, and was pretty good with their prickly chilli. We'll see about coming back.

Western Boy, Kopitiam @ Tiong Bahru Plaza

Here's a half spring chicken with aglio olio spaghetti from Western Boy at the food court  in Tiong Bahru Plaza (#03-101 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road). There's the same spicy garlicky local aglio olio like the one we had and liked previously at their branch in Malaysia Boleh at Bugis Junction. Decent fried chicken but it's not Arnold's. I'd go for a protein without the hassle of bones the next time.

Hajah Maimunah Mini, Hawkers' Street @ Clementi Mall

The last time we ate at Hajah Maimunah Mini in Clementi Mall, the food court was Boleh Boleh!. It's now Hawkers' Street and Hajah Maimunah Mini ended up being located in the same spot as they did previously. Anyways we got a plate with some favourites -  ayam goreng, sotong hitam, quail eggs sambal and sambal goreng. Still as delicious. Am pretty sure the food quality's better at the flagship but we took what we could get here.

Zam Zam has gotten a makeover!

Haven't been to Zam Zam for a while. The interior has been refurbished.

Hot limau less sweet's nice. There's enough citrus sour in the fruit to make believe that we're cleansing the grease from the food we're about to ingest. 😂 

The thing to eat here which we don't come back often enough for is their crusty mutton murtabak. Spiced ground mutton, egg and diced onions layered in folded prata which is crusted with more ground mutton.

This was the $12 portion.

Ordered their dal for the first time and wishing that we had thought to do so earlier. Love the cumin infused savouriness.

Not bad mutton kurma. The onion loaded gravy was more nuanced with the spices than I had imagined. Mutton's relatively tender but still had a bite to them.