Seng Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle, Serangoon Gardens Food Centre

the fish moar! maw soup

the BCM

tossed!

I first tried Seng Kee (#4 Serangoon Gardens Food Centre, 49A Serangoon Garden Way) years ago back when they were operating at Changi Road. They don't taste as impressive these days as compared to the first times I had them. Maybe I've realised that I'm not so big on that brown sauce that seems to be their thing with their minced meat noodles. With enough of their sliced chilli, it was still relatively tasty enough to inhale with ease though.

What made queueing at their stall worth the while was actually the superb fish maw soup. Like what I remembered of their soup; dense, cloudy, and flavourful. Laden with minced pork, slice pork, pork liver, fish maw, seaweed and he kiao (fish dumpling). With a generous splash of light soy sauce, it's a tough bowl to beat. I'd queue for that again. But probably not their minced meat noodles.

A chocolate & salami sandwich

This was a sandwich of circumstance if you would because I had these at home and it occurred to me that these two could work. It didn't taste strange, in fact, I kinda liked it. Like that peanut butter and pickle sandwich previously.

Coocci Contemporary Japanese has shifted

The stall has shifted to the ground floor of one of the shophouses surrounding the food centre that they were located in previously. The kitchen space had gotten bigger and there were definitely more people running the show, but the wait for the food and the sorting of the payment were still at a snail's pace.

Well, the menu has gotten much bigger. They're doing drinks/shakes now and there's some ice blended black sesame and banana drink that's pretty decent. The menu options had expanded to include lamb and beef. Unfortunately for me, their ribeye was pretty poor quality stuff even though it didn't look that way. They got the medium rare at medium well, meat was riddled with sinews and for a ribeye - it didn't have much of that beefy flavour I was looking forward to. Thankfully the smoked chicken still tasted good.

A recent couple of fried rice

That above was a bacon fried rice from Han's. Their technique of the stir frying as well as the ingredient that colours the rice differs in comparison to the egg coated variety which is generally regarded as superior. But this bacon fried rice did taste more satisfying that the last one that I had at Aberdeen fishball noodle shop which was of egg coated variety.  Yes, I just couldn't resist the comparison since we don't get so much bacon fried rice around. Maybe it's the smokier and crispier bacon.

This one below is from Cafe de Hong Kong. An often overlooked place with gem. That fried rice is signature of theirs and the ingredients include tobiko. This stuff is pretty darned tasty. The excellent dispersion of the roe guaranteed that every mouthful was filled with the bursty fish roe. For something that's traditionally well coated with grease, it sure felt light and got inhaled easily. Those brown stuff over the top were are dried scallops. 

A couple of pies from Pies & Coffee

This chain opened up a few years back selling…..well, not to be Captain Obvious - pies & coffee mostly. Their bakes look like stuff that’s pre-made from a central kitchen and delivered to each of their shops. So don’t expect that "artisanal bakes hand crafted in house by our pastry smiths" crap. 

Here's their duck confit and laksa seafood pie - the latter is of the shepherd variety with a mashed potato top. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to tell it was a duck confit or just pulled duck filling with the former. There was a generous portion of meat, but it was meat that lacked much flavour and salt to be confit duck. I had expected something salt cured and cooked in its own fat to taste a lot better. Wasn't very moist too.

I kinda liked their laksa pie. Those flavours in there were very basic where one could tell it was laksa, but didn't quite have any nuances beyond. I'm guessing that the flavour profile was chosen to be internationally safe rather than adjusted to local preferences. The heat was very mild and there wasn't any aroma of laksa leaves to be found. Seafood tasted like frozen stuff so there isn't so much going on for flavours or textures. Certainly not an impressive representation of those flavours. Still, I kinda liked it.

Masala chai latte from The Providore

These guys certainly know a thing or two about their hot beverages. I'm almost certain that this is probably the best rendition of masala tea in this stretch of town. A smooth & creamy concoction aromatized by the warmth of their blend of spices (predominantly cinnamon) that was surprisingly bold.