Happy Geprek, Far East Plaza

I heard of Happy Geprek (#05-99 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road) last year. Have been wanting to try their ayam geprek since, fuelled by the curiosity of the range of sambal that they have. 

The first plate we had was with the spicy Indomie with sambal matah - the latter which had sliced red chillis, onions and sparse strips of kaffir lime leaves hadn't much on the more refined and flavourful rendition we encountered at Dancing Fish Signature. While the food packed some heat, neither the spicy Indomie nor that sambal matah were very spicy. Sweat inducing but manageable.

The sambal udang had more depth and savouriness, possibly because of shrimps as an ingredient. Not much heat as well. Chickens tasted like the frozen variety and refried on order. Not so tender or moist. 

I had imagined that the spiciness of their sambal would leave the deepest impression but what got to me mostly was the greasiness of the food.  Might not mind eating here if I was here but it's not something I'd come specially for.

Day Night Fried Kway Teow (日夜炒粿條), Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

We noticed Day Night Fried Kway Teow (#02-41 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, 163 Bukit Merah Central) the last time we were here. Didn't have anymore room then and their char kuey teow looked good enough that we were curious and hence this. Because they looked good and also because they had the decency to open on a Sunday.

This one was pretty savoury but it hadn't much sweetness from the dark soya sauce. The kuey teow they used was of the thinner variety than the usual which one finds in this dish. There's also crispy bits of fragrant light bitterness from the caramelized fried lard in the plate. Another unusual characteristic was the lime they gave. I don't mind coming back again.

Dhal vadai from The Vadai Shop @ Amoy

I know these as masala vadai but they're called dhal vadai at The Vadai Shop. Not bad eating but not one of the more memorable ones I had in recent times like those from Hajjah R.S.A. or Hajjah Syed Meeral. I went through one of these with with three of those green chillis which left me with a burning tongue and lip. Note to self : the onion vadai is worth coming back for.

That beef tenderloin hor fun from Maddie's Kitchen is still as good

Glad to know that it hasn't changed from the previous times we've had it. Smoky bitterness on that plate as I have heard it described and I can't disagree. I'm also pretty sure there's a whole lot of grease in there that I don't want to know about.

Lamb, mushrooms, sweet potato and the sign you've been looking for at Miznon

Came by Miznon because there was a lamb shawarma pita on the menu that was labelled *special*. I'm a sucker like that sometimes and also because...lamb.

I liked it as a whole as their pitas went but sadly, the meat was a little lean and didn't have enough flavours to compete with the other ingredients stuffed in the pita. Like the chilli and the pickles which overwhelmed what little there was of the lamb's natural meat flavour. Also, did not expect something that looked stir fried - not what I had in mind of shawarma.

Their mushroom plate was delicious. Great pairing with sour cream.

Yum yum tender sweet batata.

Lamb pot and a couple of other stuff at Boon Keng New Taste

Looking again at the menu from Boon Keng New Taste, I noticed that they categorized the food into at least a couple of regions from China. The kitchen and staff are Malaysian. So "Malaysian 东北-esque" is probably a pretty accurate description.

Noticed that there was a lamb pot in the menu. Was a little excited until they brought it to the table.

It's a 麻辣 type of broth as far as I can tell from the Sichuan peppercorns hovering in the range of 小辣. It got pretty salty towards the end. The non-meat ingredients included some bean sprouts, measly portions of thin sliced radish (白萝卜/daikon) and even more measly portions of even more thinly sliced carrots. Heh! I would have loved more bean sprouts and radish in there.

No gripes about the portion of the lamb but they weren't as tender as I was hoping for. Not likely to get this again. 

Standards of their 烧烤 seem to fluctuate. Today's was not as nicely done. The pig intestines were hard and chewy. I recall them being more edible previously. Not in picture was their grilled bread - which was basically sliced white bread with butter and sugar. Today's had garlic as well. Sugared garlic toast! Not bad tasting.

Fortunately, their seafood fried rice was dependably delicious. Since I hadn't mentioned previously, seafood here translates to some squid, a few shrimps and crab sticks. A little pricey methinks but if I had to call it, I'd take this over Din Tai Fung 99% of the time.