Pin Sheng Teochew Bak Chor Mee (品盛潮州肉脞面), Eng Hoon Street

Out back behind Chapter 55 along Tiong Poh Road to Eng Hoon Street is Pin Shen Teochew Bak Chor Mee (#01-46, 56 Eng Hoon Street, tel : +65 8833 2282) - housed within the same coffee shop as a certain Tiong Bahru Yong Tau Hu stall

I've passed them by a number of times over the past year and have been wanting to give them a try. Saw that they have a tom yam bowl which looked intriguing. I ordered one and was intently observing the assembly of the bowl until it was plopped onto the tray and I was arrested by a “要小柑橘吗?”

小柑橘 refers to calamansi. A common lime variety found in this parts. All that was needed was a squeeze and a drizzle over the mee kia - one that had a moderate burn from the heat, was lime-y and lemon grassy from an enjoyable savoury tom yam broth. There was also a large fish dumpling among the toppings they had in the bowl. Not so much minced pork though. But I will come back for this.

Tsukemen from Ippudo

Ippudo has tsukemen on their menu for this month. From what I gathered, it's available only at their shops along Mohd Sultan and in MBS.  The tsukemen is apparently a Singapore exclusive. I was intrigued.

Those thick chewy whole grain noodles and charshu were as they appeared. Competent.

Hence the item that made or broke the tsukemen for me would be the dipping broth. This one was not viscous and punchy as say Tonkotsu Ikkyu, Sanpoutei or Tetsu (formerly at Ramen Champion). If we were comparing only strength of flavour, the one Keisuke's Kamo Soba also hit harder.

There was a pronounced bonito flavour from the gyokai broth, a nice sharpness from diced onions and bits of fats. But it was too thin to cling much onto the noodles. Not thick enough that I could still drink it like soup - in fact, I had imagined the bonito tonkotsu bowl at Ikkousha to be somewhat like this. 

Putien and the 2021 Yellow Croaker Festival

It's the Yellow Croaker Festival at Putien. I gather that these "festivals" occur to showcase specific ingredients that are in season. Like the oyster or seaweed ones that they've done. The yellow croaker has always been on their menu though. It's just more variety of dishes that they've done with the fish.

But first, their stir fried yam with sugar and fish sauce. First because it was the first dish that made it to our table. So addictive.

They've a red mushroom seafood lor mee which we've never seen on the menu before. There might have been a seafood lor mee previously but not one with red mushrooms. Which rendered the broth pink. From what I've read, these mushrooms are gathered from deep within the forests of the Wuyi Mountains in the Fujian province. Harvesting them isn't a walk in the park. 

They have a pleasant woodsy mushroom flavour which I find less intrusive than regular Chinese dried mushrooms. Don't know how much flavour they contributed to the lor but that lor was delicious from the seafood and sweetness from the cabbage.

One of the dishes from the festival was kailan stir fried with salted yellow croaker. It's okay. Not as impressive as the previous two or the next dish. Some of those kailan were a little fibrous. Which I didn't expect because they usually put more care into the ingredients. 

Another festival dish was their yellow croaker fillet soup. Soup was tangy, I couldn't tell if that came from tomatoes or pickled vegetables. Meat from the fish was a little too soft for my liking. Perhaps deep frying works better for me with this fish because of their texture.

Otah toast from Toast Box

We were here to get coffee and saw this on the menu. This otah sandwich/toast thingy was not bad at all. I attribute it to the otah they used which packed sufficient flavour and just enough heat to go with the crunch of those cucumbers. 

Another luxed up bowl of Myojo Char Mee

It's my favourite Myojo char mee again. Those two teardrop shaped fish paste things are fish balls filled with fish roe - frozen from supermarket. Lots of shredded lettuce, a couple of molten yolk-ed sunny side ups and ngoh hiong from a secret location somewhere central of this sunny island.

Li Xing Nasi Lemak, Amoy Street Food Centre

This Chinese nasi lemak stall (#02-80 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) is right next door to Yuan Chun's lor mee. Pretty old school style where one gets to pick their choice of greasy fried/stir fried ingredients to go with the coconut rice. The reason why I've never noticed them before was because these guys are only open for the first half of the day and only on weekdays.

Their rice had a pleasant coconut flavour which I liked. The rest of the toppings were so so from what I've tried. Ikan bilis and peanuts were the sweet and salty kind with just a bit of heat. Sambal was way too sweet for me - good thing I like the rice enough to eat them on their own.