He Zhong Carrot Cake (合眾菜頭粿), Bukit Timah Food Centre

I gather that this was the go to radish cake stall (#02-185 Bukit Timah Food Centre, 51 Upper Bukit Timah Road) for many people and since I couldn't find Seng Kee, I decided to get a plate from them instead. I do seem to recall having this radish cake from He Zhong before years ago because I have had the impression that they were more bland-ish and "healthier" tasting. It was okay. The egg kinda hid that quite a bit of those cubes of radish cake aren't actually exposed to the frying. Chilli was a little less gritty than I expected. Can't say I'm a fan.

Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice (天天海南咖哩飯), Bukit Merah View

I had been introduced to this stall (#01-253, 116 Bukit Merah View) by an ex co-worker years ago. Didn't leave much of an impression at that time but for some reasons, I got reminded of it and came down for lunch.

To be more accurate, there was more than curry going on. There're six sauces which was ladled with varying quantities over the rice - three of which are curries. I don't think there's a formula there or at least I couldn't figure out how they decided. The result was a melange of flavours with each mouthful determined by how and how much you mixed things up or where you took that spoonful. I wouldn't say what I had gotten was a definitive curry flavour like say the one from Hong Seng.

Cabbage was tender and garlicky. There's pork chops which do have meat in them but are thinner cuts than those at Loo's. I got some fried prawns as well. The latter didn't taste as good as those from the Beo Crescent curry rice stall though.

Chicken claw noodle with sui gao from Lucky Wanton Noodle (好彩云吞面)

I remember getting dumpling noodles from Lucky Wanton Noodle years ago and having a good impression of them. I wanted to relive that and instead got distracted by the braised chicken claw so I ended up with the chicken claw noodles instead - with additional sui gao (水饺). 

Love how the herbal savoury sweet braising sauce had been infused into those slurp off the bone tender claws. Sui gao was well stuffed and filled with minced pork, shrimps and black fungus but I've been spoilt by Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice (香港玫瑰油鸡麵饭) and Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken (香江豉油鸡) that I'd have to rank this one below them. Not that these weren't good. They were.

Unfortunately, their noodles didn't do it for me. I prefer something with more bite. In a twist of irony, I also found myself liking the dark soya sauce concoction for their wanton/sui gao noodles over the braising sauce from the chicken claws. 

Riverside Grilled Fish (江边城外), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Riverside Grilled Fish setup shop (#02-109/136 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6270 9646) a while back. We had a pretty good experience at the flagship at Raffles City some years ago and have been wanting to try this one out for a while. Never happened until now.

Sour plum coke. Nice but a little sweet.

There's 麻酱拉皮. I'm not sure how to feel about their rendition.

The sesame dressing was sweet - not that it was bad but it tasted exactly like the goma dressing in Japanese salads. No heat incoming even with the dried chilli in there. While I'm not an expert on this dish, I thought what it lacked was fragrance. Fragrance from the sesame and/or chilli oil that would transcend the bowl of ingredients.

Abundance's red hot chilli dumplings were way superior than these 红油抄手 here. The former had more skilful wrapping and were firmly packed with stuffings along with better tasting chilli sauce/oil. These weren't even close. They didn't taste bad with the pork/prawn stuffings but were just easily forgettable.

Didn't think much of their stir fried French beans too. It's not so much the inferior quality in the ingredient than how they concocted their rendition. It's a little too sweet and not savoury enough without much heat.

Fortunately, their sliced fish in pickled vegetable soup (酸菜鱼) held up. To be specific, it's pickled mustard greens. There's enough saltiness, sour and heat with the light aroma of the peppers that made them moreish. Not to mention pretty generous portions of those firm slices of fish.

Gotta have rice with the pickled vegetable soup because they were made to go well together.

Jin Fa Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice (金发传统海南鸡饭), Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

We were getting lunch Tanjong Pagar Food Centre and noticed that Jin Fa (#02-16 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza) looked pretty decent. Hence this plate of 鸡尾 with gizzards, liver and egg. I liked it. Not a big fan of the gizzard though. The flavour in the rice was light yet fragrant that the chilli sauce wasn't necessary. Couple that with competently smooth and tender chicken, I though it was a pretty good plate. They even included a bowl of herbal soup on the side.

Will definitely come back another time.  

Penang Home Made Beef Ball, Beauty World Food Centre

I noticed this stall (#04-43 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road) the previous times I was here and decided to give them a try. They have ran out of the "dry" bowls for some reasons so I got my beef tendon kuey teow with soup. Tendons were nicely tender and had the slightest of chewiness which I thought was good. Broth wasn't very robust so I ended up emptying the chilli sauce and the pickled green chilli into my the bowl. That perked it to the point that I finished up till the last drop.

Doesn't change the fact that the beef broth was a little thin though.