Yaowarat Thai Kway Chap, Holland Village

First time having Thai kuey chap. Never had them in Bangkok though I've visited a number of times. Assuming that what we had was representative of how it is in Thailand, the obvious difference between this and the local variety is that the latter is accompanied by side dishes that are entirely braised/stewed. What we had from Yaowarat Thai Kway Chap (17A Lorong Liput, tel :  +65 8822 5637) were accompanied by dishes that are cooked in other ways.

Braised tofu. Texture was rough but tender. Nice.

I had hopes for the cabbage stir fried with fish sauce. This was a little disappointing from the lack of flavour from the fish sauce and that it was pretty oily. But the stir frying that they did was well done with speckles of char.

Stewed eggs in dark soy sauce. Not bad.

Followed the sheep and ordered their fried pork belly. While they were obviously no match for the specialists, I couldn't complain. The idea of pairing them with dark soy sauce and chilli never occured to me. Works.

This was fish sausage. Couldn't taste any fish in it. They were sweet, savoury and fatty - not dissimilar to lup cheong. Pretty addictive.

There was fried pig's large intestines. Nicely done with a light crisp exterior while the insides were tender with a bite. Quite salty though.

Spied their pig's stomach soup near the order counter and ordered a portion. Wasn't on the menu. The sliced pieces of pig's stomach were tender and chewy. Liked it. The soup/broth was exactly the same as the kuey (rice noodles).

Their kuey came in scrolls. Curled up rice rolls with more bite than the tender local variety. The broth was herbal, spicy and had a lot of pepper. I enjoyed it, even though it was a little more salty than I normally like. At $3 a bowl, it was pretty expensive.

Fried Kway Teow (炒粿條), Amoy Street Food Centre

Haven't had char kuey teow in a while so I decided to give this stall (#01-01 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) a go. A hum-less plate. It's yet another one of those that I've passed by on occasions beyond count but I don't remember having eaten from them before. I was slightly disappointed.

This plate of would have benefitted much from more dark soya sauce and better caramelizations for their flavour. Believe there wasn't any lard because I couldn't taste any of it. Bean sprouts had a nice crunch. Tasted healthy with too little sweet or saltiness. It's not bad per se, just not what I was looking for.

Chilling out at Tokyo Soba

Was looking for something that wouldn't sit down heavy so a cold soba was usually the quick fix for that. This was a chilled kitsune soba with the sweet abura age from Tokyo Soba.

Topped it with extra portion of the abura age. Should I be admitting that they're a kind of guilty pleasure here?

Healthier options seem to be popping up recently - like this cold nebaneba soba that featured natto, tororo and okura. Not a bad eat though if natto's your friend and the slimy texture isn't a concern.

Yuan Chun Famous Lor Mee (源春驰名卤面), Amoy Street Food Centre

I remember having a bowl of lor mee from Yuan Chun (#02-80 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road, tel : +65 62911439) some years ago and also recalled not being impressed. But there was a suggestion to give them a try so I relented since the memory was hazy from the last time round and importantly, there wasn't much of a queue.

The first thing I noticed was that the gravy was viscous but not starchy. Not outright impressive in flavour by itself but tasty with the spoonful of vinegar and chilli. Speaking of which - these guys don't have chilli paste, only chilli padi which I thought produced a cleaner heat compared with the paste. I didn't taste any garlic as well. The toppings were so so and I don't mind eating again as long as I didn't have to deal with a queue.

Chilled yuzu-miso chicken and immunity boost set from Healthy Soba IKI

The lemon soba is still around so maybe they're considering to keep that on the menu for good. Or for at least a longer term which is also good news anyways. So I've decided to try something else - the yuzu-miso soba. While it didn't have the same clean citrus clarity as the lemon soba did, it still had an appetizingly tangy broth which also masked the raw flavour from the dou miao. Today, they were also pretty generous with the shirasu in the donburi.

The other bowl was from their Immunity Boost Set that featured okura, kimchi, shimeiji and natto. Aside from the dashi base, the dominant flavour came from both the kimchi and the natto. It's not for everyone. I didn't mind it but I'm still trying to get used to the sliminess.

サラダ (home made)

We threw together a bunch of ingredients and fruit from the fridge. Peaches, tomato, grapes, cucumbers, half a head of lettuce and some Stilton. Made a dressing with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Korean yuja citron tea, salt and pepper.