Bukit Merah View Fishball Minced Meat Noodle (红山景鱼圓肉脞麵), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Not a bad tasting bowl from Bukit Merah View Fishball Minced Meat Noodle (#01-45 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) though this was more of a fishball noodle than bak chor mee. The only thing that made this a minced meat bowl was minced meat. There're no other pork cuts or even stewed mushrooms that many bcms tend to include.

Ingredients were generic factory produced stuff but the chilli saucing appeared to be different. There was something tangy in it if I wasn't mistaken and it tasted noticeably different from other such noodles. Not a bad bowl like I've mentioned but I think I've got to come back again sometime to understand it a little better. 

Surprise update 29/4/2024...

Got the larger bowl today which has one more meatball and a bit more noodles. What bothered me was that the noodles today appeared to be more cooked so the texture's no good. Saucing also felt a little sticky and didn't have the tangy flavour I was intrigued by the last time. I'm ranking this at the bottom end of ordinary.

Master Prata without prata

No prata for us today at Master Prata. They have a bunch of other things on their rather extensive menu which we wanted to start exploring.

Like their nasi goreng hati ayam - fried rice with chicken liver. Devilishly crimson.

Not bad tasting but one has to accept that the fried chicken livers from mamak stalls such as these are generally dry. Powdery kind of dry. Which strangely works when I crushed them into the rice and they ended up adding a flavour/texture that reminded me of fried fish roe. Like I said, strange. 

That's chapati with mutton keema. Keema's texture was kinda different from the usual. These had potato and something else inside. Tasted more like a mutton masala if you asked me. 

The creamy chicken kuruma packed more heat than the looks suggested. Chicken was impressively tender, even for breast meat.

Something sweet and milky to wash down - bandung dinosaur and some halia susu. The hot ginger milk was sweet in a good way.

Tai Cheong Bakery, Holland Village

We've gotten takeaways from Tai Cheong before but haven't actually had a sit down at their premise (31 Lorong Liput) for food until now. Here's some of those things. Their durian cheese tarts were intense with a pretty robust durian flavour - love those. Coconut bun was a little dense but the cream was deliciously light without being excessively sweet and the coconut flavour on bun as a whole was pleasant.

Unfortunately, the hot lemon ginger Coke's no good. The better one locally was from Tsui Wah (don't know if it still is) but the local concoctions never seem to be as good as those that we've had in Hong Kong.

Traditional set from Mad Roaster

That's the traditional set from Mad Roaster. A take on the local kaya toast and eggs with coffee by them. Traditional inspired would be much more accurate description. Not the chocolate babka though. That's not part of it.

The toast was pretty good. Butter's melted and soaked into the bread and there's kaya. Nice. Set included soft/half boiled eggs which can be used as a dip for the kaya butter toast.

Coffee was definitely not filtered through a sock. Did not taste traditional. Or bad. Or strong. Personally found it a bit too sweet.

Katong Laksa Holland Village Nasi Lemak, Holland Village Food Centre

I've had laksa from Katong Laksa Holland Village Nasi Lemak (#01-15, Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong) years ago but don't remember if I've had their nasi lemak before. It's actually not bad because there was a bit of salt in the rice which brought out the flavour of the coconut milk. I'm thinking a bit more would be great. I've never thought about sambal belanchan with coconut rice but it worked for me! 

Otah and the chicken wings were delicious. I just need to remember to come earlier the next time so that I can get the chicken thighs instead of wings. 

Lontong from Istimewa Nasi Padang

Sadly this was a very average tasting bowl of lontong. The fried bean curd (tau kwa) had a hard and chewy exterior, vegetables weren't tender (or well stewed) like we were hoping for and that gravy just didn't pack the punch like the usual suspects of our yardstick list from the recent years - Queenstown Lontong, Lontong Sedap and Nusa & Tara. One could also tell by how it didn't feel heart clogging even with the serunding. Maybe that's how they roll.

The paru goreng was great though.