Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master (元朗油鸡博士), Chinatown Food Centre

This was much like the Hong Kong styled chicken rice, not the local Hainanese variety which most of us are used to. The bird was less meaty/fat and wasn't slurp off the bone tender. The meat was firmer and the skin was much more yellow and dimply. In this part of the world, it's usually referred to kampong chicken rice. 

I didn't dislike it as I did enjoy how the chicken was salted and that it had a natural chicken-y flavour. Rice was sufficiently flavoured, beady and dry-ish but were also where I thought it differed from the Hong Kong rendition I've had which uses regular steamed rice. But I haven't eaten much chicken rice in Hong Kong so I'm not authority on that. Like I said, I didn't dislike them (#02-041 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) but I don't think they would be a go to for me like say 169 Hainanese Chicken Rice just around the corner.

Dong Fang Hong Sotong Ball Seafood Soup (东方红墨鱼丸什锦汤), Hong Lim Food Centre

Stall faces the market at the back of Hong Lim Food Centre on the ground floor (#01-47 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street). I was curious because I've heard/read things about their sotong ball seafood soup. Tony Boey has done a pretty good job in his blog so I won't parrot it here.

The soup had a gentle savoury sweetness with a hit of fried garlic and some flavour from the seaweed - nothing like the powerful yet moreish seafood-y flavour that I incorrectly imagined. What I liked though were the sotong balls and meat balls. The latter was flavourful from the dried sole they mixed into the paste that made them. 

GATAO Taiwan Breakfast (角頭台灣早餐店), People's Park Centre

I haven't walked into this building since I was a kid. Anyways I got this pork chop sandwich from a Taiwanese stall in the food court (#01-04A/05A/05B People's Park Centre, 101 Upper Cross Street). Pretty decent five spiced pan fried pork with a fried egg and some lettuce slathered in mayonnaise. What was nice was that the sandwich was made to order and wasn't something sitting around waiting to be picked up so it's fresh in that way.

Tarpow-ing cai png from Ocean Curry Fishhead

Here's cai png with a couple of more toppings that I haven't had before from Ocean Curry Fish Head. Like those squids stewed in squid ink and curry leaves which left the sauce tasting much like...*Scott Travis drumroll*...curry. Nice - aside from the infusion of curry flavour spiked with heat from an occasional slice of chilli padi in what tasted like a cholesterol laden squid ink sauce, the squids were also stuffed with their roe. A mouthful there. And double entendre if you caught it. They also do the local rendition of sweet and spicy kung pao chicken which I liked. Not forgetting some garlic-ky kang kong for the obligatory greens that I ought to have more regularly.

Tong Kee Cooked Food (童記熟食), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

We've noticed people having wanton mee from Tong Kee Cooked Food (#02-24 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) before and thought they looked good. What killed the cat prevailed today. 

Here're some reasons why we will be coming back. The wiry texture of the noodles were enjoyable. Chilli sauce that went with those noodles were also respectable. On top of that, the char siew had nice caramelized bits and were tender. Wantons were also pretty tasty. They had gotten all the main components of wanton mee done nicely. All for a princely sum of $3.

Singapore Lor Mee (新加坡鹵面), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Here's a generically named lor mee stall at Tiong Bahru Food Centre (#02-32 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) - the third lor mee stall located there after another generically named but popular Tiong Bahru Lor Mee and the other Lor Mee 178 with the shark nuggets. Don't remember if I've ever eaten at the latter two - but then again, I've never been big on lor mee.

We tried this because we were curious about their fried cod fish lor mee. The batter was thicker than I liked and there wasn't much flavour in the cod. Not gonna be getting that again for sure. The noodles were pretty decent tasting but the same could be said for many other lor mee once it's been doused with some vinegar, garlic and chilli. As it had been with other experiences, I liked the bowl better once the gravy had gotten less starchy.