Bánh Mì Saigon, Ang Mo Kio

I found out about Bánh Mì Saigon (505 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8) a while back and came by for a couple of their bánh mì. Was pretty glad to get in line before the queue became deterring. These folks apparently took their time about the business with the proprietor making the effort to explain to each customer that had queries about what they were selling. On top of that, it was another almost half hour of wait before our orders were processed.

Each of their bánh mì was slathered with some pâté, butter mayo thingy and some vegetables before they were generously stuffed with the ingredients of choice. One of what made Bánh Mì Saigon's sandwiches stand out above many other "bánh mì" out there was the generosity of those ingredients. Our orders were all obviously sans coriander/cilantro of course. 

The top sandwich was their "special" bánh mì - stuffed with assorted hams and I added a fried egg. Hearty and delicious this one was and I thought it made an obvious fall back/go to configuration with the savoury sliced meat and egg between bread I could easily inhale. 

Got another one with stewed pig's intestines and ears. Those innards had their offal-lish flavour coupled with a bit of spice and sweetness from the stewing broth. I didn't think the crunch from the pig's ears felt good in the sandwich though.

Not that I've a lot of experience with these sandwiches but in retrospect, I'd rank this and Viet9 as the better bánh mì around. 

Songane (송가네), ARC 380

This Korean eatery which takes no reservations, is located at a locale not exactly known for Korean food (#01-02 ARC 380, 380 Jalan Besar, tel : +65 6980 3474) and has a facade that was pretty run of the mill managed to reel us in with their black sesame samgyetang. Banchan's simple and not bad. Love them all with rice.

This was the said black sesame samgyetang. It's exactly like how most people would imagine - samgyetang flavoured by some sort of sesame paste.

After a bit of stirring, the broth darkened from the distributed black sesame paste. A broth that was deliciously flavoured by the aromatic nuttiness of  black sesame, a delicate ginseng flavour lightly sweetened by red dates. Or jujubes if you would. 

The chicken which enveloped some tender glutinous rice was on the border of falling off the bone so it was pretty easy to slurp them off those bones. I'd come back just for this rendition of samgyetang. It was at least a couple of levels up from the one we had at Bigmama.  

If anyone wanted to take a look at the black sesame stained bones/remnants of the chicken.

We had some pork dumplings on the side. This were filled with juices from the stuffings of pork. Delicious. I liked them better with the sesame oil/salt than the regular dip they came with.

Pretty satisfying food from Songane. Will come back.

Shiok Shiok Noodles, Teck Ghee Court Food Centre

What a name eh? These folks from Shiok Shiok Noodles (#01-07 Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre, 341 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, tel : +65 9773 9344) lay claim to the first mala bak chor mee.

I was curious and wanted to know if they were good. This was the large bowl of the mala bak chor mee. Notice those rough looking meatballs on the side? Yes, hand made and they were packed with the flavour from dried sole. There's also fish balls and fish cakes in place of could have been stewed mushrooms in bowls from other stalls.

The mala infusion in the sauce was legit. Solid Sichuan peppercorn flavour with a light 麻 and some heat. Enjoyed how savoury the bowl of noodles was and that their concoction didn't shy away from salt.  For a bowl of mala-cized local noodles, this had a load more credibility compared to the 麻辣三宝面 from Wen Ge Charcoal Delights (文哥烧腊).

We tried a bowl of black mee sua soup which featured sliced pig's kidneys and livers with loads of minced pork. The dark brown was was rich tasting and robust with a porcine flavour. Not bad. Couldn't taste the XO that was supposed to be in it though.

Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak, Seng Poh Road

Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak (#01-49, 71 Seng Poh Road, tel : +65 9383 5689) has taken over the space vacated by Loo's which has moved across the road in Tiong Bahru Food Centre. We arrived at the stall about 10 minutes before they opened and there didn't seem to be a queue. Pre-ordering was an option which we did and still waited about 40 minutes before we got our orders.

I've been thinking about what Gregory Leow has been saying about how basmati rice having a lower glycemic index which incidentally results in less satisfying experience when used as a rice for nasi lemak. Kinda agreeing on that. Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak reinforced that agreement because they too use basmati rice and I think it needs more coconut milk and salt. Not satisfying rice. Chilli is okay but I won't miss it.

That's not to say that we haven't had any such good ones.

I suppose a few things differentiated these folks. There's the option for roast pork belly which to their defence is nicely done, tender and also much better tasting than many many roast pork stalls. The ones here aren't as spiced up and again, would benefit from some salt. 

There's kawaebi which I feel also would be improved with some salt.

Chicken wings were so so and aren't in the same leagues as those from Ponggol Nasi Lemak which still sits at the top for my most satisfying nasi lemak as a whole.

Don't mind eating again if I'm in the vicinity but I wouldn't queue for it.

Chen's Mapo Tofu, Star Vista

I kinda got inspired to get the mapo tofu again from Chen's Mapo Tofu (#02-08 Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, tel : +65 6694 0160) after watching all the catharses in The Way of Hot and Spicy (ゲキカラドウ). Did not remember that there was the option for different spice levels but apparently there is.

This was the level 3 - the highest level. Didn't get the breeze in the face when I walked out but it had a respectable heat. Nothing I couldn't handle but I thought it was also missing something. Something that could take the flavours a step beyond where it was.

The missing something was vinegar which the side dishes had in abundance of. If anything, they were more tangy than spicy in spite of the slightly dangerously red appearances. Drizzle these sauces over the mapo tofu and magic happens. Speaking of which, the portions of those sides are kind of puny. The 3 for $12 didn't seem such a great deal.

Revisiting Yat Ka Yan (一家人)

We were in the area so we came by to 一家人 for desserts.

But we started with their 奶油 chee cheong fun which we had wanted to try the last time we were here but had been sold out. This wasn't exactly dessert. It was also not bad if I might say so - savoury creaminess from the sauce paired with sweet from the strips of bak kwa topped with fragrance of house fried shallots.

Almond paste was decent.

They had a durian mousse which was also pretty good but I attribute that largely to the D24 pulp. Not that this wasn't a good eat but if I had to compare, the mousse that I recall from Dessert Bowl was nicer.