Revisiting Hai Yan Fried Kway Teow Mee (海燕潮州炒粿条麵)

So it was bee hoon the last time and kuey teow mee this time. I guess it's just textural differences. Aside from those beautifully fried eggs with molten yolk, there wasn't much else of note. Maybe I'm just not a char kuey teow person. Wasn't particularly impressed by the likes of Meng Kee or Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee even though people seem to think that they're great renditions.

Yuen Kee Dumpling (袁记云饺), Food Junction @ Great World

Came across an outpost of Yuen Kee Dumpling in the food court at Great World (L3 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade).

Their shrimp and vegetable pork dumplings were pretty good tasting. Noticed that there's black fungus in it. Still liking that viral sauce.

Taste Of The Bay at Ming Fa (明發) @ Upper Thomson Road

Came across this at Ming Fa at Upper Thomson. Squid ink mee pok on a limited run.

Basically a 小碗面 with seafood and squid ink mee pok topped with onsen egg and tobiko.

For all the dark intensity, there didn't seem to be any squid ink flavour. Kinda disappointed there. This tasted like regular mee pok.

Soup has half a crayfish, a couple of prawns, clams, sliced pork and minced pork. Ingredient quality was pretty decent. There was a light sweetness from the prawns and crayfish.

They used to shell the prawn for their regular bowl of mee pok in the past. Now it's a slightly bigger prawn with shell still on. 

These fried sotong were part of the limited time menu. The lady at the stall insisted that they were good and that if it happened that they weren't, she'll help me eat them. 😂 She's right, squids were pretty tender under the batter. Came with some lime-y mayo which was not bad tasting.

I remember thinking little of their coffee the last time I was here. Today's kopi peng was actually decent-ish and tasted better than I remember of their coffee. 

Lucky Her Kiao (幸运鱼饺), Horne Road

Lunch at Lucky Her Kiao (88 Horne Road). From what I gathered, this place is run by the 3rd generation of the family that operates Song Kee Kway Teow Noodle Soup at Toa Payoh that has been apparently been in business over half a century.

Was curious about their fish noodles. To be clear, fish noodles are noodles made with fish paste. These were okay tasting - lots of chew and a nice fish-cake-like flavour in those irregularly squiggly noodles. It was mentioned that they were hand rolled so I guess this qualified as artisanal?

In retrospect, I should have gotten this without sambal so that I could better taste them. A little pricey at $18 a portion but I guess artisanal comes at a cost. Probably not fair to compare them to Li Bai so I won't. 😂 I do remember liking the ones from House of Fishball better though.

The bowl of soup accompanying the fish noodles was loaded with ingredients. Amongst them, I found one of their her kiao (fish dumplings) with chewy skin made from fish (paste?) and minced pork stuffings infused with ti poh (dried sole). Because this shop also sold yong tau fu, I was expecting that it's soy bean soup. It's not. Tasted like fishball soup flavoured with corn.

Had some sliced pig liver on the side. Not bad tasting but also not memorable.

Revisiting Diner's Shack

Back at Diner's Shack which we haven't eaten at in a while. Our only gripe at this place was the slow moving queue and the long wait for the food.

Today's fish was sea bream (a.k.a. ang goli). This bowl had added on minced pork and fish roe. The bowl was as good as I remember them from the last time.

Curry chicken's really good here. One can tell from the consistency and colour that it was pretty lemak and there's a bit of nuance to the other spices that were used in the curry.

36 Curry Rice, Bendemeer Market & Food Centre

I remember this stall (#01-36 Bendemeer Market & Food Centre, 29 Bendemeer Road) from the previous time I queued for noodles at Changi Village Cooked Food. Both stalls were directly facing each other with similar length queues. Got a plate of bee hoon with kuey teow today. I prefer Changi Village Cooked Food. The only item I had that was memorable was the kuey teow which had a nice rice-y taste to it. Nothing particularly worth mentioning for the other items.

Nasi lemak & bee hoon meatless from Oriental Kopi

Oriental Kopi has nasi lemak and bee hoon without meat but it's only for breakfast it seems. With one less distraction, we had a chance to tune in just to the santan infused rice. Which I haven't had a chance to since the first time we ate at their City Square outpost. There's coconut, pandan, cardamom and that light lemon grassy flavour in it. Still don't know what are those green beans for. Definitely more complex than regular nasi lemak.

Chef Lup Roasted (立师父烧腊), Lau Pa Sat

Like moth to a flame, we were drawn to Chef Lup Roasted (Stall #04 Lau Pa Sat, 18 Raffles Quay) by the char siew hanging at the front of the stall. This was char siew rice with additional roast duck breast for $8.50. There was a lot more duck than char siew but that char siew was smokey sweet, beautifully caramelized with burnt ends. Duck's pretty decent with that sweet herbal sauce. I like the greasy chicken rice (油饭) it was served with.

Isle Cafe, Far East Plaza

Cai png at Isle Cafe (#02-66 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road). I've seen them so many times and we've finally decided to get some. The basic premise of Isle Cafe is affordable, frills free and decent tasting economy rice. Liked the long beans and curry chicken I picked today. Not a fan of the cornstarch slurried spinach which was kinda bland.

Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh (豐香肉骨茶 · 炒粥), Food Republic @ Vivocity

The last time I had the fried porridge from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh was when they were still operating at Beauty World. I've been wanting to come to this stall in Food Republic at VivoCity (#03-01 VivoCity, 1 HarbourFront Walk) for some time but have also been avoiding it because of the crowd. Finally happened by chance. Got a serving with mixed pork innards. The smokey fried porridge was till as good.

Uncle Louis Famous Chicken Rice, Amoy Street Food Centre

Came across Uncle Louis Famous Chicken Rice (#01-02 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) which has taken over the previous chicken rice stall right next to the char kuey teow stall at Amoy Street Food Centre. I remember seeing another branch at Maxwell Food Centre and I was told that there's another at Market Street Hawker Centre.

This was poached chicken thigh (白鸡尾) for two with a couple of eggs and liver. Not bad tasting. Sauce was slightly sweet and full of sesame oil. Meat was tender but not so easily slurped off the bone.

This was probably not the best picture to show that there's a thin layer of chicken jelly neath the skin of their chilled chicken.

Rice was pretty good with and without their garlicky/gingery chilli sauce which packed more heat than I anticipated. I'd take this over Tian Tian.

Wanton Kolo Mee by Jin's Noodle, Amoy Street Food Centre

Have been wanting to try Jin's Noodle (#02-110 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) for a while. Seems like they've rebranded with a new signboard. This was their $6.50 bowl. Not exactly impressed by those noodles. Texture wasn't as springy as I was hoping for and the saucing became one dimensional after a while. Those noodles really benefitted from their sambal and pickled green chilli. Wantons were aromatic with ti poh and pretty meaty - nice. The soup on the side even had a bit of that dried sole flavour.

Revisiting Milkfish (& Broth)

It's been a while since we were last at Milkfish. It seems that they've renamed themselves to Milkfish & Broth. The menu has changed a little bit with a few new broths that one can choose from.

The chilled tomatoes on the side have been replaced by pickled pumpkin slices and what appears to be Shine Muscat grapes. I consider this an upgrade.

They've introduced a miso glaze option for their grilled milkfish and I like it. It's a nice change up from/add on to the previous soy glaze. Not that it was bad.

Prawn rolls/hae cho are still the same.

Tried the tomato broth with seafood. Flavour of the broth has a thalassic quality with tanginess from tomatoes.

Xiang guo with rice at Zhang Liang Mala Tang (张亮麻辣烫)

Shifting away from the tang (烫) and towards the xiang guo (香锅) at Zhang Liang in 100AM. Also trying here to avoid processed items and keeping to ingredients that are more natural - like their fatty beef, sliced tioman (giant snakehead), eggs, some vegetables.

The rice wasn't fluffy but more sturdy, short grained and a little bit harder and less sticky than what many of us are used to compared to Japanese rice. But it was kinda hearty.

It might not have evaded notice that there was bai ye (百叶) in there in spite of the claims of keeping away from processed foods. We all succumb once in a while. 😏

Might have gotten too much sauce there.

Ten Tenths, Havelock II

Dropped by at Ten Tenths (B1-25 Havelock II, 2 Havelock Road, tel : +65 8363 2100) for lunch after hearing about them. Never knew about their existence before even though they've been in business for a few years.  

These guys serve a different herbal chicken from the usual style. Bird's roasted/fried rather than steamed. Meat tasted like it's frozen. Kinda dense and hard around the edges. The herbal sauce was robust and a little more sweet than I was expecting. Set came with oil rice (油饭). Chilli's sweet, limey and has a bit of heat.

Here's a bowl with char siew and roast pork. Roast pork's tender and has a good crunch on the crackling. Nice. Not a fan of their sweet & spicy char siew. Meat was kinda crumbly. The odd item in the bowl was their achar - looked like normal achar but there's barely any sour from the pickling.

Hill Street Hainanese Curry Rice (小坡海南咖喱饭), Hawkers' Street @ 100AM

We've been coming back to Hawkers' Street at 100AM (#04-05/06 100AM, 100 Tras Street) quite a bit in recent times. Tried the curry rice stall even though I'm usually not a big fan of curry rice; with a couple of exceptions which I'm not going into. Anyways, this was their "signature" plate which included pork chop, stewed pork bellly, fried egg and stewed cabbage. The gravy tasted a bit better than I imagined. 

Note to self: Pork chop's totally forgettable, don't bother again. Pork belly's pretty tender.

KangJi Curry Mee, Far East Shopping Centre

Heard about KangJi Curry Mee (#05-16 Far East Shopping Centre, 545 Orchard Road) recently and was curious about their curry mee. I haven't eaten anywhere in this building except for Shashlik.

We were here at the opening hour for breakfast. We heard that this was supposed to be Penang styled curry noodle.

Broth was thin and drinkable. Bowl was topped with some fried tofu skin stuff, some fried pork belly, slices of fish cakes and half an egg. Wasn't a bad bowl. Toppings were decent. But it also wasn't particularly memorable.

Blood curds are available for import after more than a couple of decades of ban. So we got a bowl of them as an add on.

Not a fan of their ngoh hiong.