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.

Sweet Dots (甜心点点), 100AM

Chinese dessert/小吃 shop (#03-16 100AM, 100 Tras Street) in similar vein to Yat Ka Yan/Mei Heong Yuen/Jin Yu Man Tang. Also trying a pistachio paste for the first time. It's apparently their signature and available in limited quantities. Sure. It's not dissimilar to other Chinese paste desserts. Pistachio flavour was present but not exactly robust unlike how some black sesame paste can be. Not exactly impressed but also didn't dislike it as well.

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.

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.

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.

Sergeant Chicken Rice, Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ

Remember the chicken rice I had at the Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ previously? Just found out that they're Sergeant Chicken Rice. A branch of the very same one at Food Opera. Have been back a couple of time since.

They've a Duo Style Chicken Rice which includes both the 白 & 烧 going at $8.50. Eggs cost extra. Not bad but just kinda pricey for an additional serving of protein.

What came across as a better deal was the $7.90 Power Up Chicken Set. Only available at this branch if I'm not mistaken. Extra portion of meat and a choice of either greens or bean sprouts on the side.

Another dessert idea at HaiDiLao (海底捞)

White fungus and their tau huay from their dessert station. The former's hot and latter is cold so you kinda are still going get that hot and cold with a fresh bowl.

Revisiting Paradise Classic

Back at Paradise Classic for more of their "classic" zi char. Started with a pretty smoky braised bee hoon with assorted seafood. One could see those scorch marks in the noodles and also the gossamer of eggs from the decently done up 滑蛋 in the gravy. 

Egg with sliced bitter gourd. Competent, a little greasy.

Kung bao chicken was sadly disappointing. The flavour leaned towards tangy and was missing body - not so much sweet, dark and assertive with heat like how I like kung bao sauce. 

Rising heat and another single serving bowl from Gong Yuan Ma La Tang (宫源麻辣烫)

We upgraded the heat from 小辣 to 中辣 previously at Gong Yuan Ma La Tang because we enjoy a bit of heat and I mean...this was mala tang. Recently, the heat has been seriously cranked up. This was apparent even at Zhang Liang. Is there a 麻辣 association that I didn't know about cracking the whip on what's acceptable heat standards in the local shops. We're now settling for 小小辣 because it's already packing as much heat if not spicier than what the 中辣 used to. 🥵

Revisiting Choon Hoy Parlor (春花馆)

Came back to Choon Hoy Parlor because I wanted to try their chye ber which we missed the last time.

But first some spicy hot old ginger & red date tea.

That's the chye ber. The menu mentioned offcuts of the day with mustard greens. Pretty sure the pork trotters in there weren't offcuts. Not complaining though. The broth was delicious and tangy with loads of tender softened mustard greens. That and those trotters with meat and skin that's fall off the bone tender. Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover...🕺🏻😂. Rice thieves!

More of their dou miao and tau gey. Mind still trying to wrap around the fact that these vegetables were dou miao because I kept thinking that we were eating kailan. 

Soup we had today was white pepper pig stomach collagen soup. There's winter melon, tau kee and goji berries in it. Tasted like how I thought it would but not as gao as I imagined. 

This, their claypot dry bak kut teh. The dried cuttlefish infused dark soya sauce was rich and kickass umami coupled with characteristical sweet & savoury. That and some heat from dried chillis. Ribs were meaty. Wished there was more lady's finger than those token few slices. Another rice thief!

Rice for the rice thieves!