Apple tart from Da Paolo Gastronomia

Damn you Da Paolo! 😡 Why did you have to make this so good? 😲 So tangy sweet and buttery with a cinnamon infusion kind of delicious layered with tender chunks of apple between those crumbly pastry...why did I chance upon this?

Kidding aside, this apple tart thingy was delicious. Their Americano's drinkable - not the same standards as Café Ma Maison but drinkable. That coffee cup sure was thicc.

Yellow noodles from Ah Seng Teo Chew Minced Meat Noodle (亞誠潮州肉脞面)

Yellow noodles this time round at Ah Seng Teo Chew Minced Meat Noodle. Was originally curious about their bee hoon which was listed as a noodle option on their menu but they did not have any so I ended up getting this instead. A second time (or third if you counted this) I'm on bak chor mee with yellow noodles. The first was at Lai Heng and I think they did it better with the texture. Otherwise, the saucing and ingredients were exactly the same as every other time I've had a bowl here.

Chao Yuan Noodle (潮源麵家), Kimly Foodcourt @ Lucky Plaza

The food at the Chao Yuan Noodle (#06-48A Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road) looked suspiciously similar to Orh Kee Noodles. 🤔 Even their mee kia were of the same type.

Anyways, we got fried meatball noodles. Not bad. Chilli was pretty tasty and the saucing was lardy. This was leaps more satisfying compared to Cheeky Bee Hoon.

Soup was filled with minced pork and deliciously flavoured with fried garlic. Love it. No qualms revisiting.

Cheeky Bee Hoon, Asian Food Mall @ Lucky Plaza

Read about Cheeky Bee Hoon (#B1-038 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road) some time back. They looked sad on a Sunday. There was literally no queue the entire time we were there. Every other stall had one and the food court was packed. 

This was their signature bowl with clams and pork. Ingredient quality was not bad and the curly bee hoon was a curiosity. What ultimately didn't make the cut for me was the sweetness in the sauce. And the soup. It bothered me and since that was what made them, it's a forgone conclusion we're not coming back. The surprising thing for me was the green lime-y tasting coriander sauce which made everything taste better. That's coming from someone who does not like coriander. 

Shu Yan Sichuan Cuisine (蜀宴), Chinatown Point

This spot where Shu Yan Sichuan Cuisine is located (#01-41/42 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +665 6732 1898) used to be China Classic. Seem to recall seeing these guys at UE Square some time back in a setup that looked more classy.

The decor looked bare bones - pretty spacious and thin on character if you catch my drift. One of the private rooms was obviously filled with smoking people because you can definitely hide all the smell even when the doors are opened for brief moments. But enough with the observations...

This wasn't the usual dry pot cauliflower (干锅菜花) we've had before. Shu Yan's rendition was a lot more salty and that was because of the pork they used for the stir frying. Those thinly sliced pork belly had a braised flavour and texture like waxed meat. Salty and great with rice.

Pretty decent rendition of 干煸四季豆 with the exception of one thing which bothered me. There were too many bits of the Sichuan peppercorns in it which made it a hassle. While I enjoyed the flavour from the peppercorns, I didn't like biting into them.

This was their stone pot tofu with lamb (石锅豆花肥羊). It was a listed as a signature dish and we were looking forward to it because 肥羊.

Sadly, the 肥羊 was a disappointment. The meat was marinated/sodium bicarbonated to death. 😞 Texture was unnaturally smooth and perky with no identifying flavour from the meat. 😞 Seeing that that's how many stir fried beef dishes are processed locally, I don't think that bothers many people. It does me. Chewing on a piece of fat barely brought out the ghost of the lamb-y flavour. 😞 Tofu was fortunately nice.

Gotta remember that food's generally salty and oily with 小辣 already packing some heat.

Curly King, Upper Boon Keng Road

Curly King has a menu that is set up with permutations very similar to King of Fried Rice and Fried Rice Story. The difference is that it's fried instant noodles here. Dude at the stall (Shifu 5654 coffeeshop, 11 Upper Boon Keng Road) looked like he didn't want to be around or speak beyond what was absolutely necessary. This happened on 2/8/2024 at almost 7pm if anyone wanted to know. 😂😏

The noodle with the crab's edible. Not much texture or mouthfeel from the protein because...minced crab is minced crab. Meat has flavour but it wasn't exactly the greatest of quality. For the price they were charging, I knew not to expect more. What rubbed me off was that the tobiko which was chargeable at a dollar for the other plates is automatically included here. We made to pay for them because I'm sure it wasn't free. What if we didn't want tobiko with the crab meat?

Mala noodles wasn't 麻 nor much 辣. While I've also learnt not to expect much from mala flavoured stuff here, there are those that do a better job. For the record, there was more kick from the mala seasoning at Fried Rice Story. Not a fan of their fried chicken because of the ginger in the five spice flavoured marinate.

As a minor consolation, I had gotten molten yolk for the fried egg. Oh, the fried instant noodles were okay tasting by the way. I'd consider them again only if they are in the vicinity and I didn't have to queue for it.