Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun Restaurant, Smith Street

I remember liking Holland Village's XO fish bee hoon from years ago. They used to be at Holland Drive and later moved to Dover. Have had it it both locations. Don't know if they're still the better ones at their signature X.O. bee hoon but I guess it isn't really important. I found out about this shop in Chinatown (15/17 Smith Street, tel : +65 6227 3345) only a few months back so we came here to try.

The X.O. bee hoon was still enjoyable. Haven't had the one from the main shop at Dover for ages so I don't know if there's much of a difference. Whispers seem to indicate so. This one was not bad. Not something that would make me go 'wow' but not bad the same. 

Their stir fried kailan is nice. Not so much the generic oyster sauce concoction than the quality of the vegetables. These weren't fibrous and had a nice crunch at the stems.

We just wanted to know if we would not enjoy their prawn paste chicken because I remembered not being impressed by them all the way back from their time in Holland Drive. It's probably not them but me. Flavour is okay-ish but I don't like the crust on the wings and it's a tad too greasy for me. Now I'm sure that I'll never order these from them again.

Chicken rice from Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodles

I wanted to give Da Po's chicken rice a try after their curry noodles the last time.

Ordered boiled chicken thigh with a hard boiled egg and livers. This was possibly the largest portion of chicken thigh meat I've ever gotten. Livers came with a heart. The sesame oil they used was quite generous and hence, there was a pretty prominent flavour of that in the light soya sauce dressing. Chicken was competently tender.

Liked their rice. There's enough flavour in it to eat on its own - quite similar to the Margaret Drive Chicken Rice stall except that this was greasier. 

There was accompanying soup with bean sprouts. Nothing special about this. But on the whole, I thought their chicken rice was not bad in a rustic way.

Coffee Break, Amoy Street Food Centre

I remember seeing this stall (#02-78 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) closed every single time during the weekends that I've been to Amoy Food Centre so I did not expect to stumbled upon them doing business over the past weekend. Decided to get some of their toast and coffee. 

The toast I had was suppose to have cinnamon sugar and butter. Could barely taste the butter. Even chains like Ya Kun and Toast Box have toasts that would blow this out of the water. Wouldn't get it again. 

Tried their masala coffee. Their masala mix had a fiery kick. Nice but there were a couple of things that bothered me. There was an odd bitterness which didn't taste like it came from the coffee. The other was that while I knew it was coffee, I'm not tasting much of it. 

Moosehead, Telok Ayer Street

Moosehead (110 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 6636 8055) has been in business for a number of years. It's another one of those places I've been meaning to check out and for reasons, it's never happened. Until now. Better late than never they say.

These are dates wrapped with bacon topped with aioli. And pine nuts. Nice munching with the smoky saltiness from the bacon and sweet from the dates.

That's their pulled pork sandwich. Menu mentioned coleslaw but I didn't get any. Added a sunny side up which in my opinion improved the sandwich. Bun was pillowy and the fillings of pulled pork in BBW sauce were piping hot.

Pistachio cake. Not bad. Topped with crushed pistachios, yuzu creme and drizzled with honey. I liked the crumbly texture. Maybe I could ask them to heat it up the next time.

Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Noodles, Amoy Street Food Centre

I've heard numerous mentions of Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Noodles (#01-14 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road). Happened by one early weekend afternoon before the queue gotten long.

I liked it. The mee pok had a nice texture and were well tossed that it didn't clump together. Very competent bowl of noodles that would have been better if they hadn't added ketchup. What got my attention was their bowl of soup filled with the usual suspect but quality ingredients. I liked that the soup had a nice sweetness (from the cabbage and pork I hope and not MSG) and the aroma of garlic. I will be back.

A few days later......

Tried their 白的. Doesn't look very different from the last time but this bowl of noodles had no chilli/ketchup mixed in. I wanted to taste how it would be with just vinegar and their cut chillis. Not bad. Vinegar tasted a little thin though. Without the chilli/ketchup, I was getting a pretty pronounced flavour from the lard in the mee pok. There's even more of those crispy fried lard in their soup.

75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup, Golden Mile Food Centre

Not bad. Because we've been around here more than usual recently, we've also had the chance to give this stall (#01-75 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) more than one go. It seemed like they have been around since 1947 - pretty long time for a dessert stall. Tried both the almond soup and peanut soup options and I liked them both. What I thought was special about them were the peanut filled glutinous rice balls. Those were pretty fragrant from the crushed peanut stuffings. Not a fan of their bean paste like matcha flavoured rice balls though.