Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang, Bukit Merah Central

I've been wanting to try Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang for a while. This one was from a relatively new outlet (161 Bukit Merah Central) at the coffeeshop where No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle is. From what I've gathered, what they serve marries local nasi lemak with ayam taliwang, an Indonesian grilled chicken dish with a spicy sambal. Don't know why the plates are so big but the portions weren't. Added an otah which totalled up the plate to $9.50. Would not consider this great value at all considering that I was still thinking of getting more food after that.

Anyways, I didn't like their rice. The first flavour that I detected was ginger. Not overly strong but definitely present. Chicken's fall off the bone tender, pretty tasty and the sambal was fiery. There was a bit of sweetness and considerable heat that followed. Something you wouldn't want to choke on. Nothing else stood out.

Al Mubin, Ang Mo Kio 529

I remember seeing this Indian Muslim coffeeshop previously and recalled it being "sleepy" but it's apparently not as quiet as that recollection. Since then, I've learnt that they're Al Mubin (#01-2359, 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10). Not different from other similar outfits doing local Indian food and "Thai styled" stir fry. Came across a black pepper thosai from their menu.

It's not bad tasting. There's a bit more crisp and fermentation in the dough than I imagined and the insides of the pancake was sprinkled with cracked black pepper. So it was a pretty peppery thosai.

Fook Seng Goldenhill Chicken Rice (福成金山鸡饭), Jalan Rumah Tinggi

Sequestered in the serenity of a time capsule at one end of bus service 63 is the estate of Jalan Rumah Tinggi. We stumbled upon it previously while exploring a park between Ikea and ABC Market.

Amidst the unhurried sanctuary, is Fook Seng Goldenhill Chicken Rice (#01-431, 37 Jalan Rumah Tinggi, tel : +65 9777 3318).

The place is oozing old school from pretty much every crevice. Service can be really slow. Food was not bad.

There's cold tofu with chicken floss and oyster sauce. Chilled, sweet and savoury on a cold block of bean curd. Nice.

There's an order-able portion which consists of just thigh and drumstick meat for 3. It's $24 compared to the half chicken which goes for $20. I'm happy paying for the dark meat. Could taste light soya sauce, sesame oil and no sweetness. Meat was tender with a bit of a bite. Not bad.

Rice was moist and surprisingly addictive. Surprising because the flavour was weak and in general, I have only disdain for this form of weakness. 😂 Chicken rice needs to have that savoury garlicky chicken flavour to be chicken rice. But I'm liking this with their chilli.

Chilli has a bit of garlic and oil which I think might be chicken oil. It has noticeably less intensity compared to most and that lime element was completely absent. That's they way they rolled and still roll. Pretty enjoyable rendition here.

Eggs here are fried. That's the only way they do them and I never knew I wanted this on chicken rice until today.

Molten yolked 荷包蛋 on chicken rice - you won't know until you've had it. Good stuff.

Extra rice is a dollar each.

Phở Me, Old Airport Road Food Centre

Heard about Phở Me (#01-89 Old Airport Road Food Centre, 51 Old Airport Road) recently.

They got my attention because there's bone marrow on the menu. First time for a Vietnamese stall here. Do not scoff at the tiny potion of the broth that comes with it. It's already loaded with some richness from bone marrow.

Marrow from the bones just added on to the already greasy broth. 

That's phở gan - tendons only. Broth's light and beefy, generally savoury with a background sweetness flavoured with pepper. Not bad tasting. The one thing which I felt would have improved it greatly were how the tendons were prepared. These were somewhat chewy. Would have been nice if the texture were much more tender.

A bit of heat from the red, sour from the green and also pickling from the garlic help cuts the beefy richness.

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?