Heng Ji Chicken Rice (亨記鸡飯), Chinatown Food Centre

Finally got to try Heng Ji Chicken Rice (#02-131 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) after hearing about them for so long. It was mentioned somewhere out there that this is the oldest chicken rice stall in the country. And they also turned out to be a queue I understood because they were that good. At least it was for me.

Their poached chicken were slurp off the bone tender - pretty much the epitome of it just like how it was with Sin Kee back when they were at Mei Lin Food Centre. Their light soya sauce concoction also tasted chicken-y. Rendered chicken fat maybe?

I thought the flavour of their rice was mild initially but it somehow developed as I ate, to the point that it reminded me also of those from Sin Kee. Flavourful yet not heavy. I need to come back again.

Tanamera Coffee, Rodyk Street

Breakfast by the river at Tanamera Coffee (8 Rodyk Street, #01-01/02, tel : +65 9145 8171). So to speak.

Have seen them here for a while but we've never actually understood what differentiated Tanamera Coffee until we went to the branch at Tanglin Mall.

I recalled liking their dirty matcha. While it should taste the same, I have the impression that the previous one I got had a better coffee flavour.

Americano's kinda sour. There's also an aftertaste from their brew that one gets from soya sauce or fermented beans(dao jio). 

Tahu tempe goreng which was good munching with their kecap manis sambal concoction thingy.

We found out that these guys fry a pretty mean goreng pisang as well. The bananas here were halved and battered. Great tangy sweetness from the pisang raja. Gonna get these again if/when we come back.

Chicken porridge was not outstanding. It was simple. Like something many would think shouldn't cost more than a couple of dollars kind of simple. I find it strange that it was served just lukewarm and not piping hot. Dough fritters did not taste like the regular kind we're used to.

That's their Big Breakfast 2.0. Not bad. Beef kofta would benefit from a bit more salt. Beans were quite delicious. But they were slightly chilled - which I thought was odd because I expected them to be warm. Kinda enjoyed the minty lamb sausages. Enjoyed the sweet caramelized onions. They were pretty generous with the beef bacon which were pretty chewy and not as smokey or salty as I imagined they would be. 

Was there anything that could have been better? Sure. Getting fried eggs with molten yolk like the menu shows would have been the least the could do for those. 😞

Xing Long Food Stall (興隆菜社), Chinatown Food Centre

Xing Long (#02-161 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) has apparently been around but I've never noticed them until very recently. Menu's not extensive but from my limited "research", rep's good and they definitely looked like they knew what they were doing.

Loved their fermented bean steamed fish head - possibly even more than those from Cheng Ji or An Ji. Might be because there seemed to be less of that "muddy" taste from the meat. Might also be because that bean sauce was cleaner tasting and reminded me of the sweet sauce from chee cheong fun. Just so that it's clear, this was the fermented soy bean sauce which is generally sweet, not fermented black bean which is salty. This sauce with the chunks of lard were a duo of rice thieves.

Decent stir fried (清炒) kailan with garlic. They shaved the exterior of the stemmy parts which removed the fibres making them tender with a soft crunch. Ironically, the leafier parts which I had thought would be more tender were more fibrous.

One rice like not enough.

Extra Virgin Pizza, One Holland Village

The last time we ate at Extra Virgin Pizza was like a decade ago when they were at United Square. For some reasons, they had fallen off our radar for most of the past ten years until we saw their new restaurant at Holland Village (#01-03/04/05 One Holland Village, 7 Holland Village Way, tel : +65 6263 9170).

Calamari's not bad. Not excessively chewy and there appears to be dried seaweed in the batter. For some odd reasons that I haven't figured out, the taste reminded me of Hokkien mee. That lime mayo was delicious and I definitely liked the fruitiness from the red peppercorns they put there.

Prosciutta di Parma with fruits and olive oil. It's a nice and reliable combination and I think I can make this at home.

So their pizza called 3P - there's a deliciously salty Caciocavallo cheese base, something which tasted like guanciale or bacon and supposedly peaches but I thought it tasted like plums. Did not detect any of the potato or walnut or rosemary (thankfully!) which the menu described. Like that last time 10 years ago, the crust was so thin in the middle that it couldn't hold the weight of its relatively sparse toppings. Not bad but not great.

Tiramisu's nice. Would love a bit more coffee but we were happy with it.

Ga-Hock Roti Prata (佳福印度煎饼), Upper Bukit Timah Road

Meanwhile, behind the facade of the innocuous looking Ga-Hock Eating House (794 Upper Bukit Timah Road)......

......lies the bustle of Ga-Hock Roti Prata. We've heard about them a bit and were interested.

So we came over for prata breakfast one weekend.

There was one unique thing about their onion prata. Aside from regular onions, there's also spring onions in them. No one would be blamed for being reminded of 葱油饼.

The fragrance of the spring onions came through for my cheese and onion prata. There's a light crisp and some chewiness to their prata which I liked.

The butter egg prata was a little disappointing though. In spite of being more yellow hued from the grease, it didn't taste buttery at all. Didn't taste like margarine too.

One of the gravies for the prata was their dal - a non-spicy, bean-y and savoury rendition which I haven't encountered before. Nice one.

There's also fish curry - not as intensely fishy as I imagined but still made a pretty good dip.

Sin Hoi Sai on the day of 人日

The title of this post puts this on 16th of February if anyone was wondering. Came back to Sin Hoi Sai a bit sooner than we expected. I probably have mentioned previously, the fact that they're available in the late hours makes them a viable option at times.

Succumbed yet again to the sambal petai. 😬 We were getting white rice today and this was just the no brainer for us. A no brainer we've always enjoyed.

Some sweet smoky coffee ribs which we're ordering from them for the first time. The meat from the rib was deep fried before being tossed in that dark sauce (with coffee presumably) for a coat of sweet caramelization. Don't expect fall off the bone tenderness for these - there's a bit of crisp with lots of bite to the meat.

First time also with their kong bao frogs. The gravy was also a little smokey with a bit of heat from the dried chilli and a hint of ginger. But there wasn't any of the sweetness I was expecting. This rendition was mostly savoury. Was a little thrown off initially but as we ate, that gravy grew on us. Frogs were slurp off the bone tender.

With the sambal petai and kong bao frog, one bowl just felt like it wasn't enough.