Hainanese Chicken Rice (海南鸡饭), Clementi Central

The name of the stall could not have been more generic. 😂 This was the same Kopitiam that houses Texas Lone Star and Jun Yuan House Of Fish (#01-271, 450 Clementi Avenue 3). Chicken rice was pretty darn tasty. This was a plate with thigh/dark meat (鸡尾). Loved the flavour in the rice where the zingy/prickly/garlicky chilli, as competent as it was, wasn't necessary. Chicken was tender and easily slurped off the bone. 

Blue Star Fish Ball Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles (古早味蓝星鱼圆香菇肉胜面), Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

I don't remember this stall (#02-29 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza) from the previous times I've been to the food centre. Name's kinda unusual for a bak chor mee stall. This was their signature bowl which was basically the one with all the toppings in from their mushroom bak chor mee and fish ball noodles.

I asked for extra lard and they were quite generous. The quality of the lard was excellent. There was a nice crunch and the flavour was good. Tasted pretty fresh.

The saucing was more wet than I usually prefer but otherwise, pretty tasty bowl of noodles. Noticed that their mee pok is slightly thick but quite narrow.

Meatball and fishball were the generic factory ones. Except for that one rough looking hand made fish ball which was noticeably better tasting.

Mala kampua noodles from Swan City Noodle House (天鹅城面家)

This was the mala (麻辣) version of the kampua noodles from Swan City Noodle House. Possibly the weakest "mala flavoured" rendition of local noodles I've had. While in the past I've been thinking that most of these were generally not much 麻 or 辣 - this was the mildest. Wouldn't have registered compared with Shiok Shiok or  Gimee Face.

It wasn't bad, just not mala and the chilli was pretty weak. What I discovered though was that their vinegar pickled red chilli introduces a nice acid to the noodles. Those are similar to the commonly found pickled green variety. Will get more of those the next time.

Honbo, Chijmes

I probably wouldn't have taken interest or walked in if I hadn't known anything about Honbo (#01-09 Chijme, 30 Victoria Street). But we did from their shop at Wan Chai a few years back.

Setup was diner-esque, looking like a burger restaurant with table service. Run by a guy with a Hong Kong accent who obviously bases his behaviour on whom he thinks he's talking too. Nice and patient with a chiobu at the bar while brusque with others. I meant curt. Anyways, they're at the spot that used to be Tonkatsu by Ma Maison.

We had apple pie tea. Cinnamon flavoured tea with a slice of apple?

Honbo 2.0 was delicious. I mean it kicks Shake Shack in the ass and connects solidly kind of delicious. 😂 Burger looked thick with the 4 X 2oz smash patties but was tender and beefy and cheesy. Oozing juices like Omakase burger dripping their liquid cow into the wrapper. Pretty greasy but gratifying $28 there.

There's a limited time scallop burger. Just two sizeable scallops with pesto. I'm sure it tasted nice. If not for the cilantro/coriander in the pesto they've conveniently neglected to mention. 

Fries nice. 

Blue cheese dip which on hindsight wasn't necessary because the fries were good enough to eat on their own.

Jun Yuan House Of Fish, Clementi Central

This was a bowl of XO 双鱼汤 from Jun Yuan House Of Fish just next door to Texas Lone Star at the Kopitiam in Clementi Central (#01-271, 450 Clementi Avenue 3). Don't know if the XO meant that there's liquor in it because I couldn't taste any. 

What was apparent for me was that it's better tasting than the recent bowl from Jia Li Seafood Soup with a deeper flavour. There's a more rounded savouriness if you would. Also less expensive. That being said, we didn't get red grouper this time. But we were much happier with this one.

Texas Lone Star, Clementi Central

Pretty decent chicken chop from Texas Lone Star (#01-271, 450 Clementi Avenue 3). They're a local western food stall in Kopitiam. What made this memorable was the creamy mushroom sauce the slathered on top of the meat. Tasted like the ones from Botak Jones. Coleslaw's a little more sour than I imagined and that pilaf rice on the side tasted mostly of the brown onion-y sauce. This plate was a bit more pricey than I expected for a coffeeshop.