Daeng M.Y., Redhill

Lontong from Daeng M.Y. (80 Eating House, 80 Redhill Lane). This stall's in the same coffeeshop as Penang Handmade Pau. Crowd here can be pretty intense in the weekend because the queue never seems to go away during the morning hours. Gravy's fairly lemak. Serunding has to be requested for - seems these guys don't provide them by default. Not bad. And yes, those were paru.

Handmade Carrot Cake (手制菜头粿), Tekka Food Centre

Black radish cake from Handmade Carrot Cake (#01-301 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). Might not look like much and I was even thinking that a better job could have been done with the caramelisation. But there was a nice flavour coming from the kueh and one could also tell that it wasn't a mass produced variety from the texture. I liked that. For anyone that might want to know, they do fried radish cake sticks too.

Prata tsunami from RK Eating House

I remember eating from RK Eating House many years back and blacklisting them. Didn't have a good experience then. This was a prata tsunami which we had recently. 😬 It's one of those numerous banjir rendition with soft boiled egg, curry mutton and chicken tikka doused with dal, curry and sambal.

Chicken tikka's not smokey. But otherwise, it kinda tasted like how I imagined it. Didn't dislike it but I don't think I'll be getting it again.

Penang Handmade Pau (槟城手工包点), Redhill

Penang Handmade Pau was mentioned again to me recently so we came down for some of the bao/pau for breakfast. Stall's located in the coffeeshop (80 Eating House, 80 Redhill Lane) beside Redhill Market.

We got a bunch to try.

That's the coffee bao - tasted like coffee flavoured lotus seed paste inside.

Vegetable bao which has mostly stewed turnip and a bit of carrot stuffing. Not so different tasting from poh piah.

These char siew bao were noticeably better than the ones from Ru Fa Bao Dian. Nicer flavouring in the char siew stuffings and better filling to skin ratio.

Not so much of a fan of their kou rou pau (扣肉包) because the lean meat parts of the pork belly weren't as tender.

Slightly gingery and sweet fillings from their big bao. Not a fan.

Mei cai kou rou pau (梅菜扣肉包) - not bad. While the flavour from the mei cai wasn't as intense or punchy and the pork wasn't as deliciously moist & fatty as a proper dish of it, I thought it was adequate as bao stuffings. Wouldn't mind recommendations of better ones if they do exist.

About the cardamom tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe

I've been trying to figure out the difference between the cardamom tea and masala tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe because they tasted pretty similar. I think I've finally got it. Both have pretty obviously cardamom flavouring. The cardamom tea's cleaner tasting while the masala tea has a warm layering from the spices and heat from the ginger.

Re-revisiting Hong Xing Handmade Fishball @ Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Kuey teow mee 白 from Hong Xing Handmade Fishball this time. Just textural and flavour difference in the noodles compared to the mee pok I normally get. The flavours from fried garlic and shallots were also more apparent.

King of Laksa (叻沙之王), Aljunied

King of Laksa (Food Gallery, #02-100, 118 Aljunied Ave 2) opened second half of last year. There's been a bit of social media buzz over them and they have gotten themselves a Michelin Bib Gourmand since. From what I gathered, they're going the "no added salt, sugar, and MSG" route. But before you knock it, you should try it.

It's as lemak as any respectable laksa rendition out there. Broth was creamy, thick and adequately salted but not as oily. Very drinkable stuff in my opinion. Flavour's quite similar to the Katong Laksa variety. The prawns were deveined and meaty.

Gripes? More laksa leave and sambal that you could help yourself with would be nice. The queue was excruciating.

Rat tail noodles from Teochew St. Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (潮州街香菇肉脞面)

Seeing as Teochew St. Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle's style is a little sauce-y, I got the bee tai bak today which I thought worked better as a noodle type. So I guess this is as much confirmation as any that their dry bowl is the wet and pretty vinegary type.

Revisiting Pu3

Been some years since we last ate at Pu3. Came back recently for a plate of deliciousness which had (anticlockwise from 11-ish) begedil, assam pedas ikan pari, sambal goreng and lemak turi. Assam pedas packed more heat than I was expecting and was pretty peppery. 👍🏼 Love the savoury richness from the lemak turi too. Very satisfying plate washed down with a sweet creamy teh tarik.

I thought these were fried bananas but turned out to be plantains.

Uncle Penyet, Bukit Merah View

Nasi lemak from Uncle Penyet (#01-253, 116 Bukit Merah View). Portion was pretty generous. This one has butterfly pea basmati rice - there's flavour from the santan, but not impressively lemak so it's an easy decision to eat with their sambal. Otah and fried chicken's decent. Luncheon meat was not good.

Ah Seng Durian, Alexandra

Stopped by Ah Seng Durian (#01-22 & 24, 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1) for....dessert.

Tried their MSW durian sago. Frozen puree on mousse with sago and shaven ice. There were cubes of nata de coco inside.

Pretty creamy. Wouldn't say it's not good but neither durian puree nor mousse were at the level of the ones from 99 Old Trees. Or Dessert Bowl. Or Yat Ka Yan. There's just something odd about that frozen puree that didn't taste exactly like MSW that I couldn't put a finger to.

More breakfasting at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada

Seems like the menu at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada  (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八) is evolving. There's a bunch of new stuff I haven't seen before up there.

Behold their chocolate prata. Just chocolate sauce in it I guess.

With their muttony dalcha...not weird at all. 😏 Lamb and chocolate have been a proven thing. 😬

Double egg banjir with some jiggly chunks of lamb fat from the dalcha and sambal. Ini bagus.

One week later......

Strawberry prata - with strawberry syrup like any other strawberry prata. Barely discernible strawberry flavour from it beyond some sweetness.

Curry puff & goreng pisang from Selera Restaurant

I remember getting curry puffs in the vicinity many many years back. What I couldn't recollect was if they were from Selera Restaurant or Old Chang Kee across the road.

Tried a puff lately and based on impressions (aha!), I like these better than Old Chang Kee. But then again, I'm also biased against Old Chang Kee for their gimmicks and increasing prizes.

The skin was a nicer hue of golden brown and the fillings seem to taste "nicer". The oil in the fryer didn't inspire confidence though. Lol. 

Goreng pisang was awesome. Skin wasn't excessively thick or oily and had a good crisp to boot. The melty pisang raja inside was sweet and banana-y.

I need to come back for more of these.

More food from Tim Ho Wan (添好運)

More recent eats at Tim Ho Wan. Aside from some of the things we tended to get like their pan fried radish cake, spinach prawn dumpling and recently their morel dumpling which weren't photo-ed, there's a bunch of limited time stuff from their SG61 “Flavours of Singapore” specials.

XO fried rice with bacon and luncheon meat. Pretty decent. For something that has bacon and luncheon meat, this was really low on salt.

This was bak chor rice rolls - a take on bak chor mee obviously, using cheong fun. There's minced pork, stewed mushrooms, some fried pork lard, tau gay and a token sprinkle of chopped spring onions. It's not lardy like some of the local bcm but it was an interesting take, especially with the vinegar in the sauce that made it easy to inhale.

Not bad laksa seafood dumplings that's stuffed with bits of shrimp, scallops and water chestnut. Those water chestnuts were unexpectedly chunky. Laksa gravy was a little thin but it wasn't bad. Would have been great if there were more laksa leaves. 

I don't think I've never had egg tarts from Tim Ho Wan before. It might be a first time for me. Short crust pastry with eggy custard inside - typical of Hong Kong styled egg tarts. Not bad.

Never seen this peach gum & goji berries in coconut soup dessert before. I reckon it would have been nicer if there were more peach gum.

Some calamansi lemongrass fizz for the weather. Flavour was like a preserved plum (酸梅) drink, but not particularly lemongrass-y,

Ru Fa Bao Dian (如發包點), Holland Drive Food Centre

Have been wanting to try the baos from Ru Fa Bao Dian (#02-09 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, 44 Holland Drive) for some time.

There're a couple of flavours not commonly found for baos around that they do here.

Like curry chicken bao which has chunks of curried potato and chicken. Closest thing were those steamed curry baos from Old Chang Kee. Not bad though.

There's also one with chicken and cheese. The stuffings tasted like sesame chicken with cheese and it's actually kinda nice.

Char siew bao was...ordinary. Skin's a bit thick.

Their har gow's not my thing. While I might have been unfairly comparing these with those from restaurants, I'm not sure what's inside these even. Siew mai tasted like a minced pork ball.