Ponggol Nasi Lemak : The plate with the fried chicken drumstick and chicken wing

Hmmm...this plate from Ponggol Nasi Lemak felt festive. Hahaha! It's been months since we last ate here. The standards have maintained. 

A lunch from Leng Kee (龍記) and Hock Le Xiang (福乐香)

Woohoo! Managed to get fish roe with my sliced fish soup at Leng Kee (龍記) today!

I wanted to try the rojak from Hock Le Xiang (福乐香) after seeing them the last time. I liked that they were pretty generous with the rojak sauce and crushed peanuts. Pineapples were sweet and juicy. Will come back for this again.

Some grab and go spiced caffeine beverages at Botanic Gardens

We got these chilled drinks from The Provision Store at Ginger Garden just across from Halia in the Botanic Gardens. While not as strong as I would have preferred the spices and the coffee/tea flavours came through and they weren't bad at all. From the label, it's also obvious that the drinks were from Halia.

Hoshino Coffee, Capitol Piazza

This branch of Hoshino Coffee (#B2-55 Capitol Singapore, 13 Stamford Road, tel : +65 6384 5131) had always looked appealing as a sit down location compared to their others. Since we were attracted by their Hokkaido menu, it was a chance to see if it felt as nice actually sitting in. In other news, that above about was my first cheese tea. I get why people enjoy it - the salty cheesiness with the light sweetness.

The name for this dish was kinda long. Some like Omu Souffle 'Hokkaido' Seafood Rissoto with Lobster Bisque Soup. Yes it was spelled rissoto. If one didn't get hung up on that, it was actually a pretty decent wet rice/porridge thing with lobster bisque flavour. Found myself enjoying that omu soufflé which was soft and wobbly. Seafood was of the frozen variety and passable. The curious thing about this plate was the little blob of cream on top of the omu soufflé which was sweet. I liked that sweetness here though.

Wouldn't recommend their Hokkaido oyster spaghetti. Oysters were really small and not particularly impressive tasting. At all. Pretty sure that the prefecture of Hokkaido would not have been proud to have these represent them. This plate reminded me of 星洲米粉 or 香港面. Not even as tasty as their Hoshino spaghetti. 

That Hokkaido maritozzo looked and sounded good. Wouldn't get it again. The cream for some reasons tasted flat without any nuances. When paired up with the azuki, it all became pretty sweet and the cloy set in quickly. Something just didn't taste right with this.

Their Hokkaido mille crepe fare much better. That slightly salty creamy sauce was good pairing with the layered crepe.

Lo Chan Kee Cantonese Wanton Noodles (老陳記廣東雲吞麵), Holland Drive Food Centre

I've been wanting to try this Lo Chan Kee (#02-23 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, 44 Holland Drive) for a while because I've been recommended. Now that I have, I thought their sui gao noodles (水饺面) was a let down because eating that came with the inevitable comparison with 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).

The skin of the dumplings weren't as smooth and the stuffings didn't feel as bountiful if you catch my drift. There's only minced meat, no shrimps and wood ear fungus. These ones were 80 cents a piece so it just made more sense to pay $1.20 for that superior one at Beauty World. Also - clumpy dry noodles.

Guan's Mee Pok (阿源麵薄), Capitol Piazza

Have been wanting to come over to Guan's Mee Pok since they've setup an entire space of their own (#B1-55 Capitol Piazza, 3 Stamford Road). Previously they used to be a stall in the Food Republic a stone's throw away. The menu has gotten bigger so we tried some of the stuff that they didn't have in the past. Or at least we didn't recall them having. 

Like the mee pok with prawn paste balls. Loved the clean heat and tanginess from their chilli and vinegar. Texture of the noodles also held up well too. Those prawn paste balls were not bad tasting but they were also nothing we'd be looking forward to coming back for either.

There's crispy eel mee pok which looked good on the menu.

The actual fried eels had a thicker and crustier breading. Eels also tasted a little fishy. We got the sensing that they aren't great with fried stuff and we're definitely going to avoid them in the future. Does that mean that we'll be coming back?  Sure. For the mee pok and none of the fried things.

Tasted like how I remembered it from the last time we had them. Nice.

Some crunchy nai bai with chilli and fried lard? Yes please.

They were giving away a couple of fried prawn paste wings for some of the noodles we ordered. Edible. On hindsight, I wouldn't have paid for these knowing how they tasted. Ponggol Nasi Lemak just a few steps away makes much better regular ones.