McD's kueh bangkit soft serve

Yes it does taste like kueh bangkit albeit with less intensity. Not bad actually - I had imagined it to be powdery/chalky 😂 but it was creamy like their usual soft serve.

Hong Xing Handmade Fishball • Meatball Noodle (鸿興手工鱼圆•肉圆面), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Finally got to try Hong Xing (#01-07 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) after a couple of unsuccessful attempts. Noodles were well tossed and aromatic with a light layer of lard flavouring. Chilli sauce was gentle. A concoction I did not particularly mind.

What's interesting was their "meatball" with the pitted surface. They aren't actually meatballs as most of us know them. These were a slightly less tender fishball with infused with dried sole and if my palate didn't fail me, a light dong cai (冬菜) flavour. I don't know if these actually contained any pork but it was delicious. Soup had a lot of fishball flavour.

Hyang Yeon Korean Restaurant, Peck Seah Street

Hyang Yeon Korean Restaurant (2 Peck Seah Street, #01-02 Air View Building, tel : +65 6970 4678) is located next door to where ChoWon Garden used to be. They've a few things on their menu which we thought was worth giving a go.

But first a sikhye. Made in house according to them. This tasted better than the canned version and wasn't as cloying sweet as I imagined. I can see this being really good with ginger.

Banchan has a nice variety and was pretty good quality. A couple of mention worthy items included the pressed tofu/tau kwa (top left) and those potato strips with curry powder (bottom 2nd from right)

What stood out amongst the banchan for me was what I think might have been baek kimchi. Clean tangy fermented taste minus the chilli, layered with the taste of dried anchovies.

Remember I mentioned that I thought kong guksu might have been better sweet. We did it today with a sprinkle of salt and more sugar than salt. The creamy soybean taste of the broth pairs naturally with sweetness. Nice! 👍🏼

Other than the kong guksu, we also wanted to try their kong biji jjigae. The mushy stuff inside is pureed soybean and kimchi.

Not bad tasting. The flavour is more defined when the stew was no longer as hot so it makes sense to wait for some of the heat to dissipate before eating. Texture's kinda sandy (slightly gritty) with a flavour that's tofu infused with tanginess from kimchi.

More Cheng Ji (成记)

Back at Cheng Ji for a lighter than usual dinner. It's been a while.

Prices have gone up since the last time. Like a couple of dollars since 2022. Otherwise, it's a sustained standard of steamed fish head with black bean sauce we had.

Tried their stir fried brinjal and shrimp. This was loaded with lots of flavour from hae bee/dried shrimp rounded off by some lardiness. The last word wasn't a real word but I think I conveyed the point. Was trying to decide if I tasted salted fish in it as well but I am not sure.

Of course. Either the black bean sauce from the steamed fish head or that from the brinjal/prawn paired with sliced red chilli were so good on it.

First Sin Hoi Sai this year

Been a while since we've had food from Sin Hoi Sai in a sit down at their restaurant. There appears to be updates on the menu.

Like this seafood bee hoon which was delicious. It's moreishly salty and wok tossed with sliced fish cake, egg, bits of squid and shimp. Comfort food. 

Stir fried omelette with luffa - an easy going dish which kinda works most of the time for us. The textured of cooked luffa is similar to hairy gourd (毛瓜) or bitter gourd (苦瓜). The taste is more akin to the former so there's actually not much flavour to it.

We've avoided ordering our go to sambal petai today but still ended up getting the prawn paste chicken. We'll do better the next round.

Never realized that they had aloe vera dessert. Those chunks of aloe vera were huge and very sweet in the honey lemon broth.

Golden at Nirai Kanai