Hui Ji Fishball Noodles (輝記魚圓麵), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

I'm generally wary of tar pow-ing noodles home. It's common sense that most don't travel well especially when one is concerned with texture and these things inevitably soften or get soggy from the sauces/condensation in packaging. Once in a while, I hope against hope. Been wanting to try Hui Ji Fishball Noodles (輝記魚圓麵) (#02-44 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) for a while and that has only managed to happened during this HA when I didn't have a choice but to get them to go.

This was mee pok with some extra ingredients I added from their yong tau hu shelf. Didn't enjoy it much. The yong tau hu items were okay - just a little generic tasting so I didn't think there was much to write home about. What really bothered me was that the noodles had gotten too soft even for a short transit. Did not travel well at all. There's chilli inside but I also detected some sort of sweetness in the noodles.

What was nice though were the bits of fried lard. Darker brown than usual and very fragrant. 

The Coco Rice, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Noticed this stall (#02-58 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) a few weeks back. They're relatively new and riding on the trend of nasi lemak dyed with rice dyed blue from butterfly pea flower powder.

Tried their nasi lemak sets with tempeh/tofu/lady's finger and fried chicken leg. Aside from the chicken leg, the other ingredients were quite run of the mill. The chicken was well flavoured and the meat was juicy even. Very similar to the fried chicken leg from Hammee's but if I had to choose I'd say Hammee's was a little better.

Thought the rice could do with more coconut flavour. Tasted something else faint in it which I couldn't identify. Otah didn't taste like the regular mousse-y type grilled in banana leaves and didn't have much heat from their spices. Had texture more akin to fishcake. Not a fan of their sambal which was tangy, sweet and a little spicy at the same time. If I had to choose between this and Super Shiok, I'd pick the latter.

Chinatown Fried Rice, Chinatown Food Centre

I have noticed Chinatown Fried Rice (#02-010 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) a few times previously while searching for Chinatown Special in futility because the latter doesn't exist anymore. Decided to give them a try and lo and behold! It tasted very much like Chinatown Special. Down to the hae bee hiam, little planks of luncheon meat and a very similar looking/tasting sambal. While it is not visible in the picture above, the fried rice also featured little diced chunks of prawns. Just like Chinatown Special.

Anywayyys, a little bird who was a customer from back in the People's Park days told me that this is the same owner. He had closed the Chinatown a couple of units away and opened this. Name is a little generic and less mysterious than "Special" but who gives a Skaven's rat's ass eh? Their hours are Monday-Thursday from about 10am to 1pm. Not open on public holidays.

Rat's tail noodles from Ah Xi Prawn Crackers

No rats were involved in rat's tail noodles (老鼠粉). Don't recall having gotten any breakfast from Ah Xi Prawn Crackers before but I've tar pow-ed lunch a few times. Here's a breakfast to go with luncheon meat, hash browns, braised pig's skin and a fried egg (hidden below with the rat tails). Not a fan of the brand of luncheon meat they are using. Their pig's skin were kind of chewy - not as tender as I had imagined. Chilli's the spicy and sweet kind.

They're open early for breakfast and have a bunch of other items as well commonly found in economical noodle and cai png stalls. Not exactly the most memorable but very serviceable food in the hood.

Cheesy Beef Quad Stacker from BK

If Burger King is still using their "flamed grilled" ads for their products, they should be ashame of themselves. It's been a very long while since I've tasted "flame grill" in their food. Definitely not in this quad stacker which felt.....hollow - without even much flavour coming from the beef. No char grill aroma for sure. Just cheesy. They did something similar years ago.

Anything that isn't Ultimate Angus for their beef burgers these days have become subpar even when compared to McD. But you'd have to pay more for those. This "better" quality used to be the baseline standard in the past. How far the King has fallen.

Nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers

Decent tasting but not fantastic nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers. About the same price as Crave if my memory serves. They're both a little different from each other and I can't say for sure which one I like better. What I think Lee Wee can do much better is their chicken cutlet box which is the option I normally pick because I'm not usually a wing person and their fried prawns usually look sad. That chicken cutlet been sitting out there for a bit and there's no more crisp left to it. Would also be nice if they actually found some way to prepare fresher ikan billis kacang instead of packeted ones that they throw in with each box.

Squid otah was not bad though.