Song Fa Bak Kut Teh (松發肉骨茶), Chinatown Point

We haven't had Song Fa Bak Kut Teh for years. Not since the one near Clark Quay. Yes, it was that long ago. I remember not being impressed by their bak kut teh. But we have heard good things about them occasionally through the years and they did sound like a good idea in this recent cool weather. That and we wanted to find another go to after the last disappointing experience with the declining Old Street Bak Kut Teh. So we thought why not another chance? (#01-04 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 6443 1033)

These guys actually have a beer to their name now. That'll be Song Fa x The 1925 Brewing Co, the latter a local brewery, with the King's Garden Ale. What intrigued me about this brew was the chrysanthemum, oolong and green tea in it. Didn't taste very complex but I found myself liking the sweetish floral flavour. 

We had slice pork tenderloin. These were really tender.

Not bad tasting fish in bak kut teh broth.

Pickled mustard which was a killer with their steamed rice.

Pretty decent braised chicken claw they did. Claws were fried well and braised to a slurp off the bone tenderness. Tau kee was also nice.

Tau pok wasn't bad too.

Not a fan of their dough fritters (油条) which were too crispy and hard.

That's braised pig intestines and pork belly. Not bad.

Needed some greens and kailan sounded good.

Gotta have rice with all those dishes. Like I said, those pickled mustard alone were good enough for me to inhale a bowl. The food was on the whole a lot more enjoyable than what I remembered of it from our last time. I guess it was a good idea that we gave it another chance.

Hock Le Xiang (福乐香), Bukit Timah Food Centre

I was recommended this stall (#02-152 Bukit Timah Food Centre, 51 Upper Bukit Timah Road) for their poh piah and these were not bad tasting. While it looked very sauced up beneath the skin, they weren't as sweet as I had imagined. The roll that had chilli was also less spicy than I expected. Wrapping was a little loose that the rolls fell apart when I picked them up with chopsticks. This was possibly the first time I've had such thick ones sliced into only 3 segments. 

Don't mind eating them again but I'll probably also want to try their rojak the next time.

Wen Ge Charcoal Delights (文哥烧腊), Bukit Merah View

These guys (116 Bukit Merah View) are the roast meats stall located at the same coffee shop as Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice (天天海南咖哩飯). What piqued my interest about them was that they had mala three treasure noodle (麻辣三宝面).

I kinda enjoyed it. Just as I had suspected, it wasn't very 辣 and does not 麻 at all. It was that Szechuan peppercorn flavour in their blend of chilli paste they used which gave a hint of mala flavour and that was pretty much it. Couldn't even content with the sweetness from those sausages or from the burnt ends of the char siew - both of which were nice by the way. Roast pork was respectably tender and meaty. Will come back another time.

TamJai SamGor Mixian (譚仔三哥), Chinatown Point

We went over to TamJai SamGor (譚仔三哥) for their soup noodles again. This visit was at their shop at Chinatown Point (#01-01 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 6223 1167 ). I just noticed that they mentioned their rice noodles were from Yunnan but these guys are a chain from Hong King. The marketing in this shop is clearly local so....the feel was kinda rojak. 😬

Anyways, I figured out how to interpret their spiciness meter. I was previously baffled by the numbers in those ratings but those numbers only indicated the amount of 小 before the 辣. Halfway up the spice meter (50% mark) the last time simply got me to 小小小辣. Today was a bowl of 过桥米线 with mala broth at 小辣 (70% mark).

I could taste that the heat was revved up. While it was bearable heat, one doesn't want to choke on this stuff. The appeal of their 过桥米线 was variety for their toppings so it works for people who want a bit of everything. I'll stick to their regular bowls the next time. I got the impression that the only thing that voluminous in the boat shaped bowl was the soup. 

Today's noodles came with their pickled vegetables and a nutty minced meat dip. Both were nice. The former was especially good pairing with the slices of meat.

We ordered the 5 piece 土匪 mid wings this time.

Pure Imagination, Great World

So this place (B1-K119 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 9640 6397) popped up in the space that Plentyfull Bakery used to occupy. From that I had gathered, they're by Janice Wong of 2am: dessertbar - featuring a chocolate focused pod to bar experience with a live chocolate production facility. We were actually lured in by their delicious looking cinnamon buns at their counter.

Said cinnamon buns were heated up when they served. These were tender and slathered with cream cheese. Nice. Not heavy at all. One could arguably also describe these as fluffy. 

Pretty taken in by their buttery pound cake which was warm, moist and dense.

The only chocolate thing we tried was their was their bacon and egg cocoa waffle. While it cannot be seen from the picture, the cake-y waffle had tiny bits of ham in them. Nice combination of sweet salty which I thought was pretty good. Liked that velvety chocolate which was surprising light and not overly sweet.

Qin Ji Rougamo (秦記肉夹馍), Guoco Tower

I wanted to try the black pepper beef rou jia mo from them (#B2-04 Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street) because I've had the pork ones from the shop at One Raffles Place previously. What I didn't expect was that the black pepper fillings had a flavour pretty similar to a less intense McPepper. I liked it. There was less meat than the ones with pork though. Now I wonder how their noodles are.