Hoe Lee Prawn Mee & Bak Ku Mee (和利虾麵肉骨麵), Hong Lim Food Centre

Here's a bowl of prawn kuey teow soup from Hoe Lee (#02-26 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street). Old school, uncompetitively inoffensive in a light coffee hued broth infused in part with nostalgia, some halved prawns and white slices of lean pork loin which no food writer would wax lyrical about. Nice. Will come back again.

$8.50 curry chicken cutlet noodle and 水饺 soup from Ji Ji Noodle House (基記麵家)

I just had the impression that the curry noodles tasted better the last time I had it. Today's curry felt a little thin and I don't think I would have put them in the same leagues as Cantonese Delights.

Ordered the dumpling soup to try their 水饺. Didn't think much of them at all. Without even comparing them with the king of the hill, these were just mediocre. Wouldn't be getting these again for sure 😂. 

Lao Beijing, Square 2

The last time we ate at Lao Beijing was years ago. They were then located at Novena Square. Apparently they've relocated to the back in the Square 2 building - in the same spot where Old Hong Kong Kitchen used to be.

Tried their lavender lemonade. Visually it didn't look like anything that had lavender or was lemonade. I thought the flavour weak initially and the taste oddly reminded me of lavender kombucha. For some reasons, it got more delicious after the food. Hmmm.... 

Their stir fried French beans were not the run of the mill because we could taste Szechuan peppercorn flavour it it. Wasn't in your face but it conveyed that mala flavouring which as been "the rage" in the past decade. Delicious with rice.

Menu described this as spicy lamb shank. The lamb itself wasn't. Spiciness came from the dish of cumin powder on the side which packed heat, salt and loads of that cumin aroma that went well with the meat. Meat's a little dry but otherwise pretty decent eating.

Tried their xiao long bao. Stuffings were pretty competent and filled with porky juices. Where they fell short of "the benchmark" was the skin which were obviously less delicate and felt a little stiff.

Strangely named 'hard not to love chicken mid wings'. First thought that came to mind was Blackpink. Those chickens mid wings were charcoal battered and served with a fruity strawberry/dragonfruit/mayo dip on the side which was......actually quite nice. This would be the second time we've had chicken with strawberry sauce.

Batter was lighter than thee looks suggested but was pretty crumbly. Mid wings hidden beneath were meaty and pretty good eating.

Lunch at the newer Suju

We sure came back to Suju at Takashimaya real fast didn't we? ( 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八)

Tea here is charged by the pot unlike Mandarin Gallery where there wasn't even a need to order. It's refillable and inexpensive here though. 

I'm normally not big on shiitake. I enjoyed these because the flavour in these mushrooms weren't intense like the usual dried variety.

The quality of the individual ingredients of their tempura were good. From the sweet slice of pumpkin to the moist yet crunchy spear of asparagus or even the portion of sweet potato and tender eggplant. 

Loved their gindara nabe. The paper pot was loaded with chunks of cod, cabbage, mushrooms and negi simmering in the spicy miso broth. Got this today with their seasonal chicken and chestnut rice.

Quality of their miso marinated gindara remains top notch with the sweet glaze, fatty meat and aromatic crisp skin that was impeccably charred. Portions appear to be a little bigger.

Ditto for the shake harasu.

Haven't gotten past their matcha tiramisu. So good.

Yuzu ice cream for the recent sweltering heat.

Specialty Jumbo Noodle from The Noodle Memories (古月麵)

I was thinking of getting the dry chilli ee mian for breakfast and the idea of adding some fried chicken cutlet sounded good. The proprietress informed me that the configuration would essentially be their Specialty Jumbo Noodle. That was how I ended up with that. I've previously said my piece on the noodle but I'll add on a little more today - the textures were so nicely put together from noodle, boiled vegetables, minced pork and the generous portions of wood ear fungus strips. Chicken cutlet tasted freshly fried and crisp. Satisfying.

Surprise update 21/3/2026......

Still good. The bowl has a multi faceted appeal for me. Great texture layerings from the firm ee mian and wood ear fungus strips, sweet & spiciness from the chilli saucing coating those noodles and some richness from the soft boiled egg.

Even more food from Pastaria Abate

We're back at Pastaria Abate sooner than I thought. In my not so humble opinion, them opening a little later than most definitely helped keep them an option especially when we needed to get dinner past the usual hours.

We were recommended their portobello fries. I knew what they were, just haven't had them before. These were really good. I think part of the trick was a nice flavour to the crisp batter that wasn't excessively crunchy. Mushroom wasn't dripping with juices and that was a good thing.

Tried their truffle carbonara. It's a little wetter than I imagined. Their rendition uses pancetta affumicata which is in English, bacon 😂. What I thought to be worth mentioning was the truffle. It's from the truffle salsa they usually use so the flavour is more similar to how truffle might taste (can also be read as gentler) as opposed to the oil which is usually more in your face.

The restaurant recommended their spinach ravioli with blue cheese the last time we were here and we couldn't because we couldn't fit more food into our stomach. So we came back for them and hell yeah it was good. Tasted very homely and I meant that in a good way. Without that cheesy sauce and blue cheese stuffings, I could actually taste some of that spinach in the pasta. Pretty sure I did not imagine that.

Cioppino. Just found out that these things are American Italian and not Italian. This one has no fish. Noticed that their broth has an underlying flavour from mollusks, rather than crustaceans which I was expecting. There's cephalopods, clams, mussels and some prawns. Not bad but I was hoping for more punch from the seafood. Not sure what's the stuff slathered on top of the bread...tasted like garlic mayo?

Our tiramisu came with a splash of Baileys tonight. 😬 Other than that, I think it tasted pretty much like how it did the last time we had it.

Himalayan salt latte. Today's brew was a little saltier than the last.