Bak Bak Bak Chor Mee, Ang Mo Kio

This was the Song Song Bowl (大) from Bak Bak Bak Chor Mee (Stall #8, #01-2823, 721 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8). Same coffeeshop where Meng Meng Roasted Duck used to be.

I liked it. Good texture from the mee pok and nice saucing. These weren't the same generic mee pok that most stalls are using - duck egg noodles is what I'm hearing. Loved those shabu thin sliced pork and their house smoked pork belly. This 白 bowl was good pairing with their sliced red chilli and light soya sauce. Will look forward to coming back.

Note to self : coffee from this coffeeshop is not bad. Thick and sweet.

Back at Tokyo Soba

Has been a while since the last time at Tokyo Soba (一, 二, 三, 四, 五). Today's experience was totally off, triggered by numerous little things that gnawed at me.

The quantity of the sliced beef was kinda measly for $20. But otherwise this was a pretty nice bowl.

Tonkatsu was okay tasting as long as one did not compare with the specialist tonkatsu shops. The pork was flavoured lightly with pepper. Meat was lean and a little dry. Easily remedied with the tonkatsu sauce.

Trying their kaisen kakiage for the first time. I liked it more than I thought I would. Seafood was pleasant, the onion was sweet and the fried batter wasn't bad tasting.

While I enjoyed the kakiage, I also thought it was a little too greasy.

What gnawed at me over this visit?

1) Default payment via mobile. This wasn't a thing for them in the past. Personally, I don't like being forced into it.  

2) The self order workflow had an additional step - some inconspicuous button that was required to be pressed for the order to be submitted after we had submitted the order. We did not realize that and waited for a long time before the shop informed us that our orders did not go through.

3) No freaking way to go back to the order list at the payment page. Good luck here if you had crafted long orders previously because we tried to remember it for 4).

4) We tried to order from a human and the human struggled to work their system to take orders. This step failed. We ended up back with the mobile ordering and mobile payment.

5) The wait was over 25 minutes for a half empty shop after the order had gone through.

6) Food was left on the collection counter for a considerable period. The hot food was cooling and the cold food was warming up. What the fuck is this shit?

7) Orders were incorrectly fulfilled. We never understood how can we were given hot nasu soba when the menu only has cold nasu soba?

Tim Ho Wan (添好運), Great World

Haven't had Tim Ho Wan (#01-139 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6483 2000) in a while. I remember they were pretty decent in the past and there was a point where the standards kinda dipped. Gotta say that we were pretty pleased with what we had gotten today.

As fried rice went, their Yang Zhou fried rice passed muster. While the plate was not downright impressive, it was better than many and I guess it checked the boxes of what I thought made Yang Zhou fried rice. Like real prawns, real char siew and how the texture/flavour turned out. I could eat this again.

Edible steamed chicken and cordyceps on rice. What surprised me a little though was that the quality of the steamed rice wasn't even that of what we've had at Victor's Kitchen.

Lemonade espresso from Gyutan-Tan

We stopped at Gyutan-Tan (B2-32 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 8321 3359) for a drink. Got myself a lemonade espresso. Nice one. Citrus-y sweet lemonade in decent coffee with fizz and ice.

Mt. Cheese King from Ramen Nagi

Current limited king at Ramen Nagi - the Mt. Cheese King. It looked disappointing. #disappointed

Because this picture was what got me sold. It's a lot less cheese and I did not expect the base to be the same pesto one as their Green King. My mind was prepared for tonkotsu and powdered cheese. A lot of powdered cheese. And I was definitely not looking forward to pesto in it as well.

This bowl was basically their Green King with a bit more powdered cheese and some toasted pine nuts. Cheese wasn't a dominant flavour in this bowl. I felt lied to but I have only myself to blame for thinking that Ramen Nagi would deliver. They haven't for tonkotsu ramen for a while. Chains like Keisuke and Ippudo have better tasting tonkotsu broth. It's time I had that etched in my brain.

There's cheese gyoza. These were a nicer eat. The crispy skirt tasted like the cheese flavoured version of the usual thing.

The actual gyoza were disturbingly small with mashy fillings which I had difficulty identifying. The shape and size of the gyozas brought up images of silkworm pupa.

Wen Kang Ji (文康記), Food Republic @ Wisma Atria

So this is where Wen Kang Ji has disappeared to (Food Republic Stall 9, Wisma Atria Level 4, 435 Orchard Road). I finally got to try their char siew rice which I've noticed from the menu of their old stall at Joo Chiat.

I liked it. Rice wasn't dry and grainy. Their char siew and sui gao were delicious as I remembered them. What made this plate different from regular char siew rice was a lardy sauce on the side which was the same concoction they use to sauce their wanton mee. The usual order comes with wanton but they were out of wanton today and offered one sui gao. Had to top up a dollar for the second one.