A random ayam penyet from Chong Pang

This chicken didn't look smashed to me. I was thinking splintered bones but apparently, all the smashing did was to break the meat (tenderised?!) and made them easily removable from the bones.

Aside from being "smashed", the ayam penyet tasted like the regular fried chicken from Muslim chicken rice stores. The only difference was the sambal spruced flavours by quite a bit. That sambal was not bad. This stall in Swee Sian Yuen Eating House located at Chong Pang central claimed to be a branch of the original that hails from Changi Village where the ayam penyet rose to fame as a dish. I wonder how it stacks here versus the original. For Malay fried chicken rice, this was decent stuff. 

Noodle House Ken, Orchard Plaza

I first stumbled upon this shop along the side of the Orchard Plaza a few years back. Noticed that most of the people eating here were Japanese so the natural and logical conclusion that one would arrive at would be that the food here was probably as close as it can get to without being in Japan. Thought it would be a good idea to check out their ramen. The setup did look promising. Subsequently, I have revisited a couple of other times. Until this visit, I realized that I have never paid attention to the name of the shop. 

This was the Noodle House Ken (Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road #01-17/18) that I've heard people talking about. Talk about being oblivious to my surroundings.

char siew ramen

My last visit to this place was some time ago, so I can't remember much of their ramen. This visit could be construed as a clean slate in getting re-acquainted with the food here. But the first thoughts were that I recalled it being better. More delicious. Then memory can be a fickle mistress while taste and expectations do evolve. I'm not complaining about the noodles. At $12 a bowl, I thought it was fair in this part of town. For additional $2, I got the top up options of a stewed egg. Rather expensive for an egg but it was delicious. I wished that they had those straight noodles like the ones Ajisen does though.

Brotzeit, Vivo City

I didn't know what to expect of Brotzeit German Bier Bar and Restaurant (#01-149-151) which was opened towards the end of October 2006 in Vivo City. There hasn't been much that is notable about German cuisine on this sunny island beyond the pork knuckle and larger variety of sausage offerings (which I was sure is but a scratch on the surface compared to what's available in Germany). So I came here not wanting for very much except good beer

First impression of the place is that service was very spotty and almost, dare I say....... atrocious? After having been opened for about half of a year, I would assume that teething issues should have been more or less have been ironed out. Reservations were poorly handled and I'm still not quite sure if it was allowed for the outdoor seats. There seemed to be disagreement between different staff about this matter. To top it off, I was faced with a really sad attempt at a joke from the serving staff about getting me to share a table that has already been occupied by 3 ladies. I didn't think it was funny at all. Not a tiny bit. I've never been a proponent of numbered ratings for anything because quantifiability is subjective and three dimensional. But here's a 3 out of 10 for service.

The redeeming quality of Brotzeit was probably the food and drinks. The variety is comparatively, larger than Paulaners which actually did not have that much to choose from. Food portions were local sized. Not that I was expectig bigger. Speaking of which, Brotzeit serves Paulaner's brews so I don't know if there's any relation between the two.

The pork knuckles had a fragrant crispy skin and meat that wasn't excessively fatty. Apart from the beers and sausages we also had the fladen which were the German pizzas. I don't really know what about the pizzas here that makes them German. I'm quite sure I can find similar pizzas. It tasted quite mundane, making them pretty boring in comparison with what Magma offered in the way of cream cheese instead of the regular tomato base.


I don't mind coming back for the food. There's also the appeal from the selection of drinks on tap. The service crew needs some work but otherwise, here's not bad for a hangout after work.

Bab Noodle, Millenia Walk

I was not sure how to tag Bab Noodles. The restaurant does pseudo Japanese & Korean food and also local flavours (like sambal kang kong?!) and fusions. For what their name's worth, it's odd that half the available offerings comes defaulted with rice and for a change of that rice to noodles, would require one to top up $2 more.

Nothing in particular looked outstanding here so I landed myself a tori kaarage & stewed beef in BAB's Special sauce set ($11.90).

"Special" is a word like "authentic". Overused. And probably with no good reason. So it's tori karaage with some cold stiff stewed beef in a sauce that tasted bland. Food felt barely warm. Nothing Japanese about this set. With the exception of that chilli powder condiment at the table. Maybe that was a Japanese brand.


An unexpected ray of light on their menu call Spicy Crayfish Ramen. The taste was actually not bad. In spite of being a little thin, the sauce was quite delicious. Now if they could get better crayfish and make nicer noodles, this could just be superb. Do not quote me on this.

Hogga hogga!

I stayed off this place for a bit and now am back again. Don't have much to say about the prime rib at Hog's Breath that I've not already said before. In comparison to my previous visit which was a disappointment, the prime rib seemed to have gotten back to their regular standards. I did notice that their medium rare seemed to have gotten a bit more cooked than the "standard" medium rare and was dryer than before. Still I like this enough to make this place a meat fix. It's not Lawry's or Mortons, but these guys aren't as hard on the wallet. And good enough that out of all my visits here, I've never actually ordered anything else in the main course. At least I think so.

YY Ka Fei Dian, Beach Road

I think this place was called YY Ka Fei Dian. That's what it said on the signboard. They were one of the Hainanese chicken rice coffeeshops ($3.50 a plate here) in the locale; located at the junction where Purvis Street meets Beach Road which makes it a minute's walk away from Yet Con and Chin Chin Eating House. There was one thing that differentiated them from other chicken rice stalls in the vicinity. I was also told that they sold good donuts. I've seen people buy them by the bag loads so it might be true. Strange pairings indeed.

I've lunched here on a few occasions. Even though this coffee shop serves cze char, I've never gotten interested enough to try them. The chicken rice here was pretty decent. The chilli and the dark soy sauce helped with the rice. The condiments weren't too bad.



The colour of the rice was a little more yellowed than usual. It tasted a bit more heavy too. At $3.50 a plate, it was also a little costlier than the usual ranges between $2.50 to $3.00 in the most coffee shops. Then again, one gets non flattened chicken meat and the portions were anything but stingy.


There's Hainanese pork chop to be had here but it was sadly mediocre. Would recommend to avoid. Unless overly greasy over fried breaded pork is your kind of thing. $6 felt a little expensive for the portions. No? I was thinking that since this was a Hainanese coffeeshop, the pork chops might have been something that were good at. That was just not true. If you're looking for Hainanese chicken rice and pork chop together in the vicinity, stick to Chin Chin. Nicer pork chops there.