Hai Xian Zhu Zhou (海鲜煮粥), Yishun Street 21

The last time we were here (#01-472 Choh Dee Place, Blk 233 Yishun St. 21), we saw quite a lot of people with their steaming bowls of noodles which looked pretty good even though it seemed that these guys are pretty well known for their porridge. Yes, it's the same Choh Dee Place as the one with the fried carrot cake. I got a bowl this time round - tom yam pork Koka noodles. Pretty generous portions of thin sliced pork, liver and what appears to be home made meatballs. All for a princely sum of less than four dollars. If you were wondering, it tasted like instant noodle seasoning with instant noodles. It sure was delicious though.

Breakfast food for dinner at MTR and other thoughts

I've disliked coriander for as long as I can remember. There are spectrums to dislikes and my relationship with coriander falls close to one the extreme end. Hence understandably so, when I realized that the rava idli from MTR was stuffed with them the first time I ate them, I was mortified. Mind still not fully latching onto the reality of these days when I actually eat one; half anticipating that I'll be spitting out a mouthful from reacting to the flavour. But no....that did not happen. I happily scooped another piece, warily eyeing bits of leaves and stem hanging out from the rice cakes - still unbelieving that I'm actually enjoying these. 

That's a chow chow bath. Breakfast kind of Indian vegetarian food. A plate with a scoop of the savoury kara bath and another of the sweet kesari bath. Semolina pudding/cakes the both of them. The former with ghee, mustard seed and bits of vegetables and the latter with ghee and cashew and raisins, flavoured with saffron. I learnt of their existence back in the day at Chellas. These ones here at MTR tasted better.

And to wash down, a cup of hot badam drink. Which is pretty much like their badam milk. Except that it's hot and not cold and was noticeably less creamy. But basically a sweet milk drink of almond spiced with saffron and cardamom. 

Diandin Leluk, Golden Mile Complex

We noticed Diandin Leluk (#01-67/68/69, Golden Mile Complex, 5001 Beach Rd, tel : +65 6293 5101) the last time we were here at BeerThai House. A bit of Googling told us that the restaurant had been around and well known for quite some time. Since we were exploring Thai food here, why not? Their iced green tea with milk was stronger and creamier than BeerThai.

That's some deep fried catfish with mango salad. The catfish meat seemed to have been shredded and deep fried into a crispy floss cake. I'm generally not so big on something so deep fried and crispy and it was pretty much the mango that kept me going.  Couldn't say that I could actually taste fish. Now that we know, we'll just stick to the regular som tam mamuang in the future.

Their pad krapow moo was quite tasty. There was a generous portion of the minced pork, savoury with some heat from the chilli padi. I would eat this again.

This was larb muang moo or is it just larb moo? A pork salad with innards - there were bits of chopped liver, intestines and maybe kidneys. The porcine flavours were a little too heavy for us. While I could work through this, I'm pretty sure we won't be getting it again. I had been expecting that vibrant hit of lime and mint like the larb moo from Gin Khao.

We had oyster omelette too. Not too bad, but this looked more like the local variety than the ones we had seen in Bangkok.

In retrospect, BeerThai had left a deeper impression than Diandin Leluk - but I don't think I'm going to discount this place without another try.

Lunch at Adam Road Food Centre

Been quite a while since the last time I came here. We were looking for something local and frills free so Adam Road FC (2 Adam Road) was as good as any with that regard.

Saw the maggi goreng at Ibrahim Mee Stall (#01-04) and decided to try it. Yes, it is stir fried instant noodles with crinkle cut fries drizzled with mayo and cheese sauce, a fried egg and the local Indian mutton steak. A greasy carbo plate with some protein and just a tiny bit of fibre from the bits of cabbage in the fried noodles. It wasn't too bad, but I think it could have been improved with a bit more salt and heat from the spices. There was nothing about it that would make me come back for again.

Here's kambing/mutton soup from Bahrakath Mutton Soup King (#01-10). What got me interested was seeing the proprietor in the stall snip chunks of boiled mutton from a large hunk to be put into the soup. Mutton that was tender. The soup was not bad -  I thought that the fat from the the lamb might have been well emulsified in it resulting in creaminess. The bread they had was dense and absorbed the broth pretty well. I'm definitely coming back again - I see brain, tripe and tongue on the menu.

I'm pretty surprised that I survived this without a post lunch coma!

A carrot cake breakfast from Choh Dee Place

Choh Dee Place is a local coffee shop (Blk 233 Yishun Street 21) in case anyone was wondering. I haven't had carrot cake for ages and decided to get a plate of black and white. This was actually pretty good if a little expensive. A portion of sweet and savoury with some heat from the chilli.

Ramen Gallery Takumen, Circular Road

This was my first visit to Ramen Gallery Takumen (66 Circular Road). The concept behind the shop was the feature of multiple offerings from different ramen-ya under a single roof. With regards to that particular concept, I had always been curious as to how it had worked and I found out today. It is as advertised but the shop wasn't run by the actual folks behind the respective brands. It was manned by a couple of Hokkien speaking aunties. So I'm guessing that all they do behind the counter is cook the noodles and everything else is made either from a central kitchen somewhere or imported ready for use with minimal preparation.

Isn't this place a little pricey for almost instant noodles?

Anyways, here's a bowl from Bigiya, a Michelin Tokyo Bib Gourmand winner. The more interesting of the bunch in my opinion. This bowl featured a fish and chicken broth with yuzu and had wheat noodles. My expectations were accordingly inched up because of their accolade (I should have known, right?), so a fair assessment would be that I was a little disappointed. I suppose I had been expecting a more of the yuzu flavour than just a hint and also better standards for their ajitama.  It wasn't a bad bowl per se, just nothing to get excited over or come back for again. On the other hand, the cheese gyozas were tasty.