Mala spicy noodles from Xing Hua (兴化)

This bowl of mala noodles from Xing Hua tasted like mala spices had been added into their white lor mee. There's a bit of heat and noticeable flavour from the Szechuan peppercorns in the gravy but as a whole wasn't much 麻 or very 辣. I'm on the fence about how I feel about this bowl. There's a bunch of other stuff we enjoyed from their menu so I don't think this will make it to the top of the list anytime soon.

Pong Noodle Village (彭傢面庄), Teck Ghee Court Food Centre

I'm not much of a local wanton mee person but I was recommended to give this stall a try. Seems like Pong Noodle Village (#01-20 Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre, 341 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, tel : +65 9833 3604) has a similar backstory as Chun Seng Noodle House which followed a similar vein of an old established eatery that had closed down and then re-emerged from their ashes with a refreshed branding selling the same stuff, run by the next generation of the owners. 

Noodle texture was not bad. I found the sauce to be a little sweet but that's how they do them. Might try with more chilli if I ever come back. The wantons and sui gao weren't shabby; the latter had minced pork and bits of water chestnut. A competent plate better than many but still ranks lower in my books than stalls like Shun Feng Roasted Delights (顺沣港式烧腊) and Zhong Yu Yuan Wei (忠于原味云吞面).

Una Una, Bugis+

The quality difference between the unagi bowls from Una Una (#05-02/03 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6238 1011) versus Man Man/Unagi Tei was obvious. While I hadn't expected a lot out of the cheapest unagi hitsumabushi in town, I still felt this was a letdown. Portions were kinda small for the double and the eels didn't have the light crispiness nor smokiness. Even the rice felt dry. It was a dollar more for the spicy bowl which basically involved just shichimi sprinkled over the eels.

The only consolation out of this was that two Sapporos were going for $10.

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice has recently shifted from their former premise to the current location (#02-67 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) in Tiong Bahru Food Centre right where Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted used to be. Just next door to Skirt & Dirt.

So this was a late lunch (2-ish) and most of their cooked food were already sold out. Still plenty of their popular pork chop and curry squids for some reasons and there were still people in line though. The stewed cabbage didn't look appealing at all so the pork and squid were it for me today.

Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (來興香菇肉脞麵), Toa Payoh

Finally managed to get a bowl from Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (73 Toa Payoh Lorong 4) after hearing about them for so long. These guys are arguably ranked as one of the better minced meat noodle stalls around. Hence armed with a bit of reading and some real life feedback, I went in with my expectations tempered so as not to set myself up for disappointment.

Pretty solid bowl of bak chor mee by any standards. Chilli has that dried shrimp flavour but didn't pack as much heat as I was expecting/hoping for. Their concoction of the noodle sauce were more balanced compared to shops like Tai Hwa/Tai Wah which tend to be more vinegary. This bowl also had loads of stewed mushrooms. Will definitely try to get another bowl if I'm in the vicinity but I wouldn't go out of the way or endure too long a queue for them

Note to self : Stall has only a couple of bags of mee pok in the weekdays and will usually be sold out by lunch. No mee pok during the weekends.

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.