Ah Seng (Hai Nam) Coffee, Amoy Street Food Centre

I've heard of Ah Seng (#02-95 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) for a while. It's mostly repeating gushing over their charcoal grilled toasts and pretty much nothing else because everyone doesn't know what else to write.

Tried it - no big deal. The tiny charcoal grill in the corner isn't big; the stall didn't have the space nor ventilation to accommodate anything larger so service can be slow. Nothing particularly outstanding came out of the charcoal grilled bread. Their green kaya was unexpectedly coconut-y. Coffee tasted like the ones you can get at Han's. Will probably not come back for coffee.

Further thoughts? I didn't think a commercial chain like Ya Kun or Toast Box is inferior to a "traditional" shop like Ah Seng. There's no discernible difference in the flavour of their toast. Both Ya Kun/Toast Box generally has more butter and kaya. Speaking of butter, I didn't understand why the proprietors at the stall needed to justify their cost because they used butter instead of Planta and that their charcoal was $76 a bag. They sounded defensive for some reasons. I was just there to get coffee and toast and it's not like I was complaining about the prices.

Bak Kee Teochew Satay Bee Hoon (峇記潮洲沙嗲米粉), Redhill Food Centre

I haven't had much satay bee hoon for a while. Used to eat a lot more of them as a kid. In the past decade or so, Bak Kee Teochew Satay Bee Hoon (#01-40 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) was the one of the few I remember being recommended to try and that has taken a while because in the times I've been to Redhill Food Centre, they're either closed or the queue looked deterring. But it's happened.

Verdict was that it was not bad. I liked this much more than Wham Poa Satay Bee Hoon. The obvious reason at first glance would be the gritty viscosity of the satay gravy which was savoury sweet, mildly spicy and nutty. Smothered in that gravy with the bee hoon were sprigs of spinach, slices of pork, pig's liver, cuttlefish and precisely two cockles and two strips of tau pok.

Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine, ION Orchard

We ended up in this Michelin starred branch of Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine (#03-05 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, tel : +65 6736 2118) because our favourite branch at Guoco Tower has stopped serving dim sum. Heard that it was due to shortage of chefs. Hearsay.

While we have been curious about what made this outpost deserving of a star, we've never made the effort until today - because we no longer had much of a choice.

Kung fu tea, fermented bean chilli sauce and picked mustard greens. These were part of the reasons why we come back even though we don't talk much about them

We've had their double boiled pig's stomach soup with salted vegetables and peppercorn previously. Seem to recall it being more peppery but this was also nicely done with tender chewy pig's stomach and fall off the bone pork ribs in the soup.

Competent 凤爪 steamed with black bean sauce that was slurp off the bone tender. We never expected any less for this dish from Imperial Treasure.

Steamed radish cake like what we usually prefer from them.

Got a basket of their Teochew siew mai instead of the Cantonese one that we normally do. These were lightly flavoured with dried sole (ti poh).

Nice fluffy char siew bao that were piping hot with the sweet saucy bbq pork fillings. 

Har gow - not bad.

Nicely done mushroom dumplings with great mushroom flavour.

Today's Teochew chai por kuey teow was a bit nicer than their rendition we had previously at Guoco. There appeared to be more chai por, the kuey teow was more tender and also more nicely browned. Delicious with black vinegar, their fermented bean chilli sauce and both. Or neither.

Tender, fluffy and light ma lai ko. For the best texture, you'd have to eat them freshly served as they are steamed on order and cool rapidly upon serving. The burns on your fingers, lips and tongue are known and accepted risks. 😂

Scalding hot egg tarts with ethereal custard and buttery crusts.

Orh nee was also pretty good. Texture of the yam was smooth. If only there was some aromatic oil to it...

Jew Kit (友吉海南雞飯店), Killiney Road

We've ordered delivery from Jew Kit (105 Killiney Road, tel : +65 6733 5578) a couple of times and have been thinking about eating in because we figured that pretty much everything we've had will taste better. That's finally happened. 

What have we here?

Just their addictive 酸梅 filled sour plum coke which we discovered last time that's doing their fine job of pretending to quench our thirst.

Their poached chicken was good. Chilled with a layer of chicken-y jelly underneath the skin, the meat was slurp off the bone tender.

Chicken rice - not the most impressive out there in terms of flavour but was delicious paired with their lime-y chilli sauce that had a light hint of bitter.

Not bad crisp charcoal tofu with pumpkin sauce.

Those sweet roselle prawns looked like they were much bigger compared to those we had from delivery. Still some crisp from the skin as I suspected now that we're having them freshly stir fried.

Lam's Abalone Noodles (阿南鲍鱼面), Food Republic @ Causeway Point

My first bowl of noodles from Lam's Abalone Noodles. This was from their Food Republic branch at Causeway Point (#04-01/02/03/04 Causeway Point, 1 Woodlands Square). Not a bad tasting bowl at all with their savoury mix of sauce and properly cooked noodles. Besides that skewer of abalone, there wasn't anything in particular that made their bowl stand out from a whole sea of other competitors though. I'm classifying them as "would not mind if I'm there but will not seek out" category.

The Noodle Memories (古月麵), Hong Lim Food Centre

I've never had ban mian/pan mee in Malaysia so I'm not familiar with how it's like over there. I have had some bowls that were from Malaysian brandings though - like say Nam Kee Pau so I'm gonna assume that they're are kinda similar. The Noodle Memories (#02-27 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) are run by a couple of people from KL so....same things? 

This was their dry chilli bowl that has a chicken cutlet added on.

The taste wasn't bad but didn't quite pack the punch I was hoping for. Tasted "friendly"...if you catch my drift. It didn't share the intensity in flavour like bowls from Grandma Ban Mee (老妈子板面) or Malaysia Chiak!. The heat was relatively mild and their fried shallots didn't taste like it was made by them......if you caught that drift. Noodle texture was passable but not impressive. YMMV.

That being said, it was by no means mediocre. There was pretty good mix of ingredients and the quality wasn't bad at all. Except maybe for the fried shallots. Maybe I just needed to ask for more chilli to 大辣 the bowl.