Tai Wah Pork Noodle (大華肉脞麵), Holland Drive

This was a new-ish branch of Tai Wah Pork Noodle from Hong Lim - not to be mistaken with the Michelin starred Tai Hwa Pork Noodle at Crawford Lane which doesn't have other outlets. Apparently Tai Wah has started opening a few more shops recently. I came across this one (#01-39, Blk 40 Holland Drive) and decided to give them another try even though I was pretty sure I was unimpressed the time I had their bowl at Hong Lim. Here's their $7 bowl.

I enjoyed it this time. It was more vinegary than the last time I ate, had decent chilli whipped into the noodles and was overall more satisfying. Would have preferred for their wanton skin to be thinner though but it's not a deal breaker. Quick reference to Tai Hwa which makes more intense bowls and is definitely nicer in my opinion. It's also worth noting that both of them makes similar style of bak chor mee so this would be an apple-to-apple comparison.

That being said, I may no longer have the stomach/patience for the queue at Tai Hwa would gladly eat this instead. 

Uptown Nasi Lemak, Telok Ayer Street

Word was that this stall (Stall 6 Telok Ayer Coffee Shop, #01-01, 121 Telok Ayer Road) was set up by a couple of guys from Damansara Uptown in Petaling Jaya. I remember coming across their mention some time back but they slipped out of mind until chance had us stumble upon their queue. 

There's a few protein options with their nasi lemak and this was the one with nasi ayam berempah - a sizeable deep fried leg of chicken that's sealed in a crisp shell of spiced batter. Nice this one. The plate also came with a delicious onion-y sweet spicy sambal that packed a respectable heat and a lemon grass-y Nonya styled achar on the side. Coconut rice was good enough to eat on its own and it's also good with any of the ikan bilis/peanuts/achar/sambal combination. I gotta come back again.

2280 Burger, Henderson Industrial Park

Ken Loon of Naked Finn and BurgerLabo has a new casual-er burger joint (#01-10, 213 Henderson Rd) swathed in industrial chic. A kiosk order and self service kind of place. Why 2280? Apparently 2280 is the abattoirs’ international code for the beef neck cut which is the cut used for their patties. There's only beef burgers and fries on the menu so it looks focused.

These are much kinder on the wallet than BurgerLabo. There's a similar flavour profile to BurgerLabo's basic burger but I found this one to be less saucy and from that, the sweet tanginess from the pickled onions were more apparent. Meat was also obviously not as high quality as the wagyu blend. Patty, cheese, onions and their house made shio kombu mayo. Pretty much what it was. I enjoyed it. And the fries too.

There's only one flavour for milkshake. Liked that vanilla-y taste.

I needed more food after a double so I got another single minus the mayo. Just so that I could taste it a little better as a cheeseburger without the distractions. This was when I finally tasted the subtle flavour of the not necessarily so subtle "beef garam" that they have been talking about. Was not able to detect that extra umami from the burgers with the shio kombu mayo. 

Nasi lemak from Queenstown Lontong

Remember that I mentioned Queenstown Lontong doing more than just lontong? I got myself a plate of their nasi lemak this week and I liked it. Especially so in the morning when everything was just freshly cooked. Loved that their rice had a nice coconut flavour, was sufficiently salted and very moist; pairing with a sambal that had just enough heat and sweetness without being excessive for the latter. The plate came with a fried chicken wing with turmeric seasoning, a chicken nugget, a boiled egg and some crispy and fragrant ikan bilis which I also found myself enjoying with the sambal and rice. I'm usually not so big on ikan bilis.

Now I'm just waiting to find out where will they relocate after Tanglin Halt gets shut down.

Deep fried intestines porridge (炸肠粥) from Ivan's Porridge

I've posted the bee hoon from Ivan's Porridge once. Or twice. Maybe thrice. Or was there a fourth? Won't be talking about that anymore. This one will be about their porridge since the stall is called Ivan's Porridge. Not that we haven't had it. For some reasons, I've never talked about and they deserve mention. Their porridges are available with a variety of different ingredients.

Here's a recent bowl of 炸肠粥 with extra 肠粥 and egg. That's deep fried intestines porridge with extra deep fried intestines for those of you who didn't understand. I added extras because I thought the regular portions don't come with enough of them fried crispy bits. If savoury,  crunchy and offal-y in small bites is your kind of thing, this will be delicious in the creamy porridge richened by the egg. 

Mushrooms and shabu pork soba from Healthy Soba IKI

We've been getting soba from Healthy Soba IKI quite a few times over the past - more than a year. Back from the first visit, I remember liking their lemon soba and shirasu avocado don. Still like that lemon soba which has become a permanent item on menu now and I'm still getting that shirasu avocado don. Here's a look back to the previous visits (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二)

This visit was us catching some year end seasonals. The bowl at the top was their VGA porcini soba with broth made with vegetable stock, kombu and porcini. VGA simply implies it's vegan, gluten free and additive free. It's one of the more enjoyable clear mushroom broths I've had in a while - crisp and umami at the same time. Loved the toasty dried bean curd strips.

The second bowl was a spicy pork shabu soba which I'm not so enthusiastic on personally. It's not much spicy at all. There's a walnut sauce drizzled over which got diluted after you had tossed the soba. Pork slices weren't exactly shabu thin and some pieces were a little hard. Much preferred the porcini one.