More stuff from Lao Ye Teochew Porridge (老爷潮州粥)

We've been coming back to Lao Ye Teochew Porridge for a couple of more times since. I love their rice. They aren't the dry beady types that many eateries think they can get away with just because they have sauce in their food and they feel that makes up for the poor quality of rice.

Occasionally we encounter the ang go li (sea bream) tail. It's steamed and ladled over with a light soya sauce concoction. Meat's tender and it's pretty decent tasting.

The cross section slice of the fish is okay...I prefer the texture from the tail.

Steamed egg with minced pork appear to vary in how they're done. Sometimes I swear I can taste salted egg in it. Sometimes the salted egg's not there.

Sweet and sour pork's basic. Not bad tasting but it's also not fantastic nor will it be freshly done most of the time because that's just not the nature of food at Teochew porridge/cai png stalls.

Revisiting Two Guys

So we're back at the stall with just one guy. I wanted to try their lamb burger not knowing that the burger doesn't come with a lamb patty.

Looks like stir fried lamb with onions and black pepper. There's also cheese. Meat's not exactly tender and pretty lean. In a blind taste test, I would suspect it might be lamb and wouldn't be definitive on that suspicion. That's how it was. 

Buns were soft and pretty light but failed structurally because lifting the sandwich up with hands will simply result in the bottom bun flopping from the weight of the meat and everything starts spilling.

Decent tasting lamb mandi. The amount of meat on the shank would have fed 2 persons comfortably. Meat was tender but a little crumbly. Had nice fatty parts. The proprietor ladled some of the braising sauce on the rice during preparation so I'm guessing that the lamb flavour came from that sauce instead of the rice? Did not taste bad though.

Shu Heng Bi Tai Mak (數興老鼠粉), Hong Lim Food Centre

Shu Heng Bi Tai Mak has a stall at Kebun Bahru Food Centre in Ang Mo Kio. This shop (#01-51 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) is a branch and I hear these guys are good. What they're known for is their bee tai bak (老鼠粉). Or rat's tail noodle by any other name. I made a conservative choice of a bowl with mushroom, minced pork and fishball - which could be construed as a bak chor mee version of their offerings.

The minced pork sauce was outstanding - rich and umami that was sufficiently salty and had a light undertone of sweetness. Didn't escape my notice that their stewed mushrooms were tender; while I don't normally pay much attention them, these were delicious. Those crisp chunks of pork lard (猪油渣) which they dropped into the bowl were also good quality and aromatic. Bee tai bak's slurpy but that's how they normally are. Will come back.

Some mornings I just wanna get myself one of these...

Barley malt shake from BurgerLabo

BurgerLabo has in recent time relocated from their previous/original premise at Gillman to where 2280 is. So 2280 is kinda like gone and the place is just BurgerLabo. Kinda. They have kinda kept the burgers from both places so in a way, 2280 is still around.

Anyways, I got their barley malt shake in a recent visit. Tasted like Horlicks. I liked it. Not big on their truffle cheese fries. That truffle flavour tasted extra synthetic.

Noodle Star K, Tanjong Pagar Road

Noodle Star K (58 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel  : +65 6224 6061) opened more than a couple of years back. They're under Super Star K which does K bbq. This one as the name goes is obviously a shop focused on noodles.

Banchan's fixed. Kimchi, takuan and bean sprouts. What sets them apart is the cup of light beef broth that's part of the side dishes. Everyone gets one of those and they're refillable. It's not bad drinking. Like I mentioned, it's light and there's also a savoury beefiness to it.

I read they're known for their naengmyeon. The mul (potato flour) ones and the chik (arrowroot flour). The difference is texture and nutritional composition and both noodle types are pretty much tasteless on their own. But they soak up the broth pretty well. Each type of naengmyeon also has the regular and the spicy bowl. 

This was the regular chik naengmyeon. I like it. Noodles were soft and a bit chewy. The broth is made with beef stock and pear juice I believe, so it's savoury and fruity. Because it's chilled, it's also refreshing. Gets even more lively with a few squirts of vinegar and mustard.

That's their deulkkae kalguksu. We've just had one recently from Myung Ga II nearby. Flavour's similar but I like the one from Myung Ga II better because of the texture from the broth and I believe that one's also nuttier. 

The white ones are the gogi mandu (pork) and the red ones are kimchi mandu. Think the latter also has meat in it. There's a lot more chilli flavour to the kimchi stuffings than what I detect in regular kimchi. I like the gogi better. These dumplings were piping hot, had thin smooth (albeit crumpled looking) skin and were pretty tender.

That's a bindaetteok - mung bean pancake. It's not bad. Texture's potato-y and the taste reminded me a little of those mung bean fritters at goreng pisang shops. These were lightly salted.