42, ABC Brickworks Food Centre

Google registers the address of this stall as 42 Nasi Lemak. But the name on their signage is just 42 (#01-136 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah), which corresponds to their unit number in the food centre.

Bee hoon's not bad. Fried chicken also not bad but not a fan of the crispy bits of batter they scatter on the noodles. That being said, the plate was on the whole a little greasy. Don't mind coming back though.

Hai Kah Lang (海脚人), Funan

Hai Kah Lang from Malaysia has opened up at Funan in the spot that used to be occupied by Keisuke Plus (#01-15 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 9003 4023).

Their Bamboo White Coffee's not bad tasting. Supposedly infused with bamboo salt which barely registered. 

Fried fish cake's great munching with their dip.

We like their prawn paste sliced fish (虾酱炸鱼⽚). There's sufficient prawn paste flavour in the batter. That aside, the base flavour/texture of said batter was personally nostalgic for me.

Soup with milk and parrot fish and 干捞 wanton mee. Flavour from the broth was as fantastic as the one we had in JB. Love those dry chewy noodles.

Grouper with tom yam soup and rat tail noodles. That tom yam broth had a sweet seafood-y base which kinda caught me by surprise - in a pleasant way that is. Lou shi fun was delicious...I'm detected some flavourful oil but I couldn't put a finger to what it was.

We also got some of their coconut-y sea bird nest jelly drink that we liked from the last time. 

Ming Fa (明發), Smith Street Food Centre

First time getting a bowl of bak chor mee from Ming Fa at Chinatown (Green Zone, #02-049 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street). Have tried their branches at Tekka Food Centre and Upper Thomson and have also heard things about this one being the original.

Anyways, this was a decent vinegary bowl. Like the Tekka branch, there were no fishballs, no prawns and no pig's liver in it. Also nothing that made them stand out from most decent bak chor mee. It's in the category where I wouldn't mind getting if I'm in the vicinity but wouldn't travel here just for them. 

Jin Kimchi Express, Bukit Merah Central

I've bought kimchi from Jin Kimchi before but never made the connection with them to their Jin Kimchi Express stalls for some reasons. Ate somethings from their Bukit Merah Central branch (#01-3749, 161 Bukit Merah Central, tel : 6910 3180) recently. They're in the same SG Kopitiam as No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle.

Happy with their signature kimchi set with added sausage and egg. It's actually pretty good. The bowl was generously loaded with kimchi, tofu, and thin sliced pork belly in a savoury broth that was also kinda briny. That little serving of banchan on the side had really nice savoury sweet marinated quail eggs.

Jjajangmyeon wasn't great in my opinion. Was looking forward to a more robust bean-y flavour in the sauce.

BBQ mutton from Milan Shokudo

Previously, I was kinda disappointed that Milan Shokudo took away the chocolate banana pizza from their menu. My impression of them took a serious downturn with this bbq mutton I noticed on their menu recently. I mean, what the hell was this?

The pasta on the side was undercooked and looked like it had been previously portioned in a container and refrigerated. It hasn't even lost it's shape so yeah, you can judge the freshness of the prep from there. And that mutton - it's got that irritating sweet marinate which was pretty much the only flavour in the meat. I couldn't tell it was mutton/lamb. 👎🏼

Look at how much gristle in that mediocre quality meat that was inedible. It looked like these guys couldn't care less what they were serving to people. 👎🏼

Ruxu (入续), Funan

 

Ruxu (#01-11 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 8171 8419) is a tong sui (traditional Chinese dessert) and bakery chain from Guangzhou, China. They've gotten a bit of spotlight on local social media lately because of their first branch in Singapore.

They've something called phoenix milk custard with rice wine & mochi. Not bad though I think the flavour from said rice wine was a little weak. The custard was not excessively sweet with an almost ethereal texture and the mochi was much more tender than I imagined. 

Mango sago pomelo was okay. Decent tasting if not exactly memorable. Those mango were just crossing the edge into the pretty sour zone.

Almond pudding with osmanthus syrup tasted like I imagined. No surprises here.