Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice, Food Opera @ ION Orchard

I've had chicken rice from Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice previously. Like 10 years ago. This was exactly the same order and it's $2 more these days. Still delicious with that pandan infused aromatic rice.

M.M.H Tiffin Centre, ABC Brickworks Food Centre

I remember M.M.H Tiffin Centre (#01-15 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah) from the last times we were here because I noticed that they had pongal on their menu. Am pretty sure they are the only Indian stall here that has pongal.

It did not turn out to be what I expected. Their rendition was much more wet and loose...somewhat akin to risotto or porridge. Couldn't discern any ghee. 😞 The nuts were sparse and chopped up into little bits. Cumin flavour was at least there. What I didn't like about it were the bits of ginger strewn in it. Well, at least now I know. 

Lau Jiang Fishball Minced Meat Noodle Laksa, Jalan Membina

I've been asked if I had tried the laksa from this stall (18 Jalan Membina) at least a couple of times from different people recently. That and we've noticed an increase in their mentioned online. Also recently. Haven't heard of them until recently so we got curious.

They're apparently known for their laksa. Not a bad rendition. What I liked was that their gravy was sufficiently lemak and the bowl even came with shredded chicken. The fried dumplings which seemed to be what got people excited about were not bad tasting once they've soaked up all that gravy.

There's also fishball bak chor mee. Pretty decent bowl if not entirely outstanding. What was prominent was the strength of the vinegar in the minced pork that was the dominant flavour.

 The fish stuff with the accompany soup was decent.

The laksa which is talked about made by the proprietors that are in the stall from 5am to 1pm and I think they don't do Sundays. There's a change of people in the afternoon who sells the same stuff. 

The laksa from those afternoon folks was also decent but there's no fried dumpling or shredded chicken. Ah ha! Different tenants then. There's an additional half an egg and more tau pok though. The latter was of a different quality that didn't absorb the gravy as well as those from the morning folks. 

Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodles (立兴), Chinatown Point

Li Xin has a new stall at Chinatown Point (#B1-47 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road). Here's a bowl of dry fishball minced meat noodles which I've never had from them before. Pretty impressed that the flavour of the noodles (猪油 specifically) are quite consistent across the different branches we've tried. This one was the same. Didn't taste so much like bak chor mee than their fishball noodles with minced and sliced pork.

The accompanying soup came with pork balls too. From the taste and texture, one could tell they weren't the generic variety. It's a bit more dense, less springy than the factory ones that's coupled with the aroma of dried seafood.

Another 牛肉炒面 and prawn dumplings from Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles

They didn't allow the change of noodles to the flat ones like they did the last time. Because of the texture, it definitely didn't taste as good as then and I thought the flavour also seemed different. Goodbye 牛肉炒面, you were good for just one bowl.

Noticed that there were prawn dumplings (手工虾仁水饺) we've never seen on their menu before. These were quite nice. Looking past the thick skin, there were little condiments in the prawn stuffing that one could mostly just taste prawns.

Bak kua ong lai toast from Toast Box

I had imagined that the pineapples in the bak kua ong lai (肉干黄梨) toast from Toast Box would be of the canned variety. Instead it was the paste/jam that one could find in pineapple tarts. Which kinda made sense. A tangy sweetness from those, smokiness from the bak kua (and obvious torching) plus savoury melted cheese. Not bad tasting.