Fatt Choy Eating House (發財餐館), Haji Lane

Not impressed as a whole with Fatt Choy Eating House (10 Haji Lane).

Pork lard fried rice was a little underwhelming.

There's lard and dark soy sauce flavouring in it for sure but the fried rice was bland and definitely not great fried rice by any stretch of imagination.

This helped.

This was their original Roxy laksa. I've never had the original and I didn't think that those would have tiger prawns. Those prawns were nice and unexpectedly sweet by the way. The broth even had a particularly prawny crustacean dimension to it.

Not a fan of their ngoh hiang. Didn't like the crispy fried bean curd skin. Much prefer the regular skin. One could taste pork and prawns in them but it wasn't enough to save it.

I've had my share of lamb skewers and I'd rank these at the bottom of the list. At $18, they were also the most we've ever paid for lamb skewers. The meat looked aburi-ed, not grilled. While it had the prerequisite cumin flavouring, it didn't pack the oomph and also would have benefit from having a bit more salt. Lamb was chunky, chewy and lacking of a good fat to meat ratio that would have brought out better flavours. Waste of money. 👎🏼

Teochew St. Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (潮州街香菇肉脞面), Smith Street Food Centre

Been wanting to try the bak chor mee from this stall (Yellow Zone, #02-023 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) for a while. This was their $6.50 signature noodle. Pretty loaded with the works. I was initially scoffing at how soft the mee pok was but it for some reasons grew on me. Saucing is pretty wet here. I liked the quality of their toppings. Special mention goes to their stewed mushrooms and the fragrant combination of ti poh and lard. Verdict was I enjoyed it with the sliced chilli. Will come back.

Nasi lemak from Faith Nasi Lemak (信心椰浆饭)

Finally got to try the nasi lemak from Faith Nasi Lemak. This was the Set B at $5 which edged it into the category of pretty good value. The rice wasn't as aromatic as I hoped so this was one where the sambal definitely helped. A couple of things did bother me. That chicken thigh was a little dry. 魚柳 was freshly fried but a little too greasy for my liking. 

Some breakfast from ABC Multi Cuisine Restaurant

Breakfasting at ABC Multi Cuisine Restaurant. Teh halia's fine and the Nescafe tarik didn't look like it went through much tarik-ing. I like these beverages better from Umar Ali Cafe next door because they're made better in my not so humble opinion.

Okay-ish roti banjir. It's not a bad rendition but I prefer Umar Ali's because that one was more umami from the dalcha and fish curry. This one had a sweet sambal.  

Their mutton dosa/thosai used rice flour with little fermentation. It's apparent from the taste.  

I got this because they mentioned that the mutton they used was keema. This set my expectations looking forward to only keema. Did not expect the eggs and shredded red onions inside. Suspect this might have been what they put in their murtabak. Didn't think much of this because I found the onions disruptive for both taste and texture.

Wild grouper in laksa soup from Hai Kah Lang (海脚人)

I enjoyed this as much I as the tom yam broth from the last time. This laksa broth wasn't the thick Peranakan variety obviously. It's thinner, still flavourful and very drinkable. At least for me it was. I'm starting to feel that the soup from them is the thing to look forward to rather than the fish.

Roast duck with roast pork rice from 威胜碳烤烧腊

More roast meat rice from 威胜碳烤烧腊. Today's roast pork was really fatty. $9 in Feburary 2026 for posterity.

初二 lunch from Hajah Maimunah @ Jalan Pisang

Been a while since we last ate at Hajah Maimunah. 初二 of CNY was a good time as any and it also coincidentally marked the last day of their operations for this location before it will be closed for a month to focus on tingkat deliveries during the Ramadan period.

The food has mostly been good pretty much every time we're here - barring occasional inconsistencies which aren't common. We've had most if not all of these dishes before so there won't be much to say.

Except maybe for the terung belado which was squishy and tender. Nice with that belado salsa.

Perhaps just a reminder to self that we'll need to break out of the routine stuff once in a while...

...like their paru belado which I don't want to say no to. 😂

Today's assam pedas ikan pari was nicer than the last time. Stingray meat was less stiff.

We finished with some lopes and a green bean soup with coconut milk

Breakfast during 初一 and 初二

初一 Nasi lemak with extra chicken wings from Queenstown Lontong. I got a piece of tau kwa with it today which was unusual because it's not something they, or other nasi lemak stalls for that matter, include in nasi lemak. Not complaining though. I do feel that the rice tasted better when I had it in their old location at Tanglin Halt. I don't see many of the add ons that used to be available anymore too.

初二 Egg, onion & cheese prata from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七). Red onions lightly cooked down in the prata with milky saltiness from the cheese which is subsequently layered with a mutton-y dalcha and their signature sambal. Nice! 👍🏼

rumeL, Tiong Bahru Plaza

rumeL's (#01-107 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) a mixed bag. Back when they were renovating, I thought the signs looked like they were promoting a generic Italian cafe with Neapolitan pizza. I think they're a bit more and less than what they claim coupled with some localised flavours.

That and the fact that their name is the reverse of 'lemur'. A Madagascan prosimian primate mascot? I struggle to decipher the meaning behind how they amalgamate. 😲 

Anyways there's a kaya butter pizza. Which was pretty nice. Peranakan styled pandan kaya. It's available for breakfast cheaper than their regular prices and can be gotten with soft boiled eggs and kopi. What's notable was their puffy sourdough crust which was kinda enjoyable. I guess I could call it Neapolitan-esque.

Even with some powdered parmesan cheese, the kaya flavour was dominant.

There's the localisation. Though admittedly these kaya-carb-soft-boiled-egg-kopi traditional breakfast has been a lot more marketing than reality. If it had been tradition, it hasn't been much for the better part of the past few decades. When it was, it might have been only for a couple of decades at best and never widespread. This is just the narration driven by capitalism.

Kopi's drinkable stuff.

Hot honey pizza wasn't spicy. Just sweet and cheesy.

Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice has opened a restaurant in town called Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice (B2-36A Ngee Ann CIty, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6900 4320). So they're no longer boneless? 🤔 Anyways, there's a slew of other stuff on the menu other than chicken rice. That seems to be how all these old chicken rice brands that expand end up.

Chicken's pretty decent. Quarter portion was bigger than I imagined.

Chook has jelly beneath the skin.

But it kinda feels a little different from eating them at Tiong Bahru Food Centre.

There's Hainanese crispy pork on menu too. I liked this even though I'm generally not a fan of crispy pork with the exception of the ones from the defunct Blk 38 Curry Rice. These were crispy, lardy and savoury. Loads of crunch and porcine flavour.

Even the curry that accompanied those crispy pork was delicious. 

The pickled mustard green were much more intense than those that I remember from their Tiong Bahru stall.

Bean sprouts quite nice. There're bits of salted fish in it.

Egg.

This outpost has chicken rice made using basmati and Niigata Koshihikari rice. Might come back and try those another time. 

Ah Lim (阿林), Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop

Ah Lim is located in the same coffeeshop (Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop, 15 Upper East Coast Road) as Chendol Melaka - stall's literally a coin's flick away. This was their $8 bowl. There's plenty of minced pork in this one. Okay-ish tasting bak chor mee as a whole but I also thought it was a little pricey. And not particularly memorable.