Even more food from Umar Ali Cafe

Part 3 of the compilation of eats from Umar Ali Cafe.

I had the idea that Horlicks dinosaur came with Milo powder. Apparently not. Not a bad rendition if you like Horlicks.

What innocuous looking newfangled prata might that be?

This was one up from a previous honey mushroom prata at Al Mubin - a banana honey mushroom prata. I know right? The mushrooms were quite tasteless and the honey was subtle. Most of the flavour came from the bananas which actually paired pretty well with their fish curry.

Maggi goreng popcorn chicken combo. Added keema to the Maggi goreng and that was nicely goreng-ed. Dry, no excessive oil and deliciously salty. More generously salted than the kuey teow goreng previously, possibly because of the instant noodle seasoning.

Tried their egg kothu prata. It's a torn/chopped up prata stir fried with loads of onions, curry leaves and other spices. Not bad tasting, a little heavy with the grease and also pretty good eating with their dalcha and fish curry.

Teh tarik's decent if unexceptional. Flavour from the tea felt muted compared to their teh halia cino. Don't know if it's a one off.

On the morning of Hari Raya Puasa......

Poori masala. Bread was thin and less greasy than the one at Al Mubin. Masala potatoes tasted starchy. The dal that came with this was different. This was beany unlike their usual dalcha which was laced with the flavour from mutton fat.

We got a fried chicken thigh freshly fried in the morning. Bird was moist, greasy and warm; with a nicely spiced and salted batter. Nice.

Kopi tarik's not bad. Coffee has got a bit of strength and pleasantly sweet. YMMV on the sweetness.

A few weeks later......

 

Mee hokkien...their rendition of Hokkien mee. 😅 Here's where we're in slightly unfamiliar territory because we've never ordered something like this from a mamak. There's obviously no lard involved. The flavour of the braised noodles tasted like it was just salt and pepper compared to a prawn based stock. Did not taste bad actually. The prawns...meat was slightly stuck to the shell. Meat stuck to shell is usually is an indicator of freshness - or rather the lack of. The meat was firm and actually sweet. Sweet! 🦐

Love their nasi goreng merah...with mutton keema. The keema part was something we asked for. Apparently the regular rendition here doesn't use keema. Noticed that the rice grains were short and small and not starchy. This plate was savoury and spicy with some heat. Would come back for it again.

Al Heera Restaurant, Sembawang Road

Got me some maggie goreng and fried chicken at Al Heera Restaurant (343 Sembawang Road, tel  : +65 6756 0323). Okay tasting with the regular instant noodle seasoning and MSG plus some heat but I would have preferred for the noodles to be more dry. This one was a little wet and I don't think it's a one off. It's how they roll at this place.

Fried chicken's okay too. They were refried on order and hence, served hot. Standard issue turmeric and garlick saltiness on the skin. Not awesome but also not a bad rendition. 

Tuna bibimbap from Ssada Gimbab (싸다김밥)

My first tuna bibimbap. From Ssada Gimbab. I wanted to keep it simple but ended up adding mozzarella cheese which on hindsight might not be the best idea since the warmth from the rice could only do so much before the cheese hardened again. What would seriously elevate this is a drizzle of good sesame oil. Definitely serviceable still.

Spicy Megamen from Brothers Ramen

I tried to break out from the megamen at Brothers Ramen (一, 二 , 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十) but they were out of the niboshi bowl which I wanted today. So I ended up with the spicy megamen. A first time. Which I found to be "better" because there's enough broth to soak those chunky charshu in to get them moist and more tender. But I lose an egg compared to getting the dry bowl. It was an 1hr 15mins from the start of the queue to getting our bowls today. A weekday. 

Double Banana pancake from Mr. Bean

This was not nice at all. The texture of the stuffing was odd to say the least for mashed banana and I could barely tell it was from the flavour. Tasted nothing like what one would expect from goreng pisang or banana cake.

Back with roasted birds at Tong Kee and their stoner lad taking orders

Today's experience with Tong Kee was kinda mediocre.

We asked if they could debone the chicken and the stoner kid taking orders said they could. We ordered three portions of thigh and drumstick deboned. We asked for some eggs with that order as well. Chicken came with bones. 🤨

For some reasons, he forgot to relay our order of eggs. 😒

Today's rice was dry-ish, clumpy and waxy. 😮‍💨 Not the standard that I remember from them. Good thing there was their smoky sweet sauce and lime-y chilli to get me through.