Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee

A second attempt at lunching in - someone suggested the very famous Hokkien mee at Old Airport Road, so we sent a colleague there in a cab to buy back for the rest of us :)



We were all a little disappointed by the lack of sambal chilli and the small portion... but the noodles were so tasty that we got over the lack of sambal chilli. I liked the fact that there was just the right amount of gravy - just enough to keep it moist but not watery. Decent number of liao (ingredients) and relatively big and fresh prawns.

As for the small portion, we decided that the next time we would order one and a half packets each :D did I mention that my colleagues are big eaters?...


Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
Old Airport Road Food Centre
#01-32

Allaudin's Briyani

A bunch of us in the office decided to have a weekly regular lunch-in where we would have something special for lunch and we started with ordering Nasi Briyani $4.50 from this supposedly famous nasi briyani stall at Tekka Market. I was told the mutton one was better than the chicken so that was the one I ordered.

We were super excited when the delivery arrived...


It looks kinda sad huh? The piece of mutton was hidden under the briyani rice, and while it was tender and tasty, it was a really small piece. The curry and rice were ok, but not spectacular. A few of my colleagues have really big appetites (they are females, mind you) and were quite unsatisfied by this meal.

Not a great start to our weekly lunching-in sessions but we perservered :) most lunching-in posts to come!


Allauddin's Briyani
Block 665 Buffalo Road
#01-297 Tekka Centre

Lavender Food Square

Was in the area so I decided to try out two of the famous stalls from this hawker centre.

The wanton mee from Kok Kee Wanton Noodle is very popular and normally has a long queue. No queue coz I was there at an odd time so I took the opportunity to try it out -


Very over-rated, I reckon. The noodles was a bit tough and the chilli not spicy at all. The guy in front of me asked for less chilli - can't imagine how tasteless his would be! Surprised it's so popular, don't think I'll bother to try it again, especially if I have to queue.

The carrot cake from the Long House Miow Sin Popiah & Carrot Cake is also quite well-known -


This looked unassuming but it was actually quite good!

If you happen to come here for supper, I vote you skip the wanton mee... but the carrot cake is worth a try :)


Long House Miow Sin Popiah & Carrot Cake
Lavender Food Square #01-04
380 Jalan Besar

Kok Kee Wanton Noodle
Lavender Food Square #01-06
380 Jalan Besar
12pm to 2am
Closed every three weeks on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Beach Road Prawn Mee Eating House

I'm a big prawn mee fan, I like it in every form : dry, soup and fried... so I was quite eager to try out this well-known prawn mee place.

I had the Dry Prawn Mee with Pork Ribs $5 -


The normal Dry Prawn Mee is $4, you pay an extra $1 for the Pork Ribs. The Prawn Mee itself has two whole prawns which were cut in half so it can be easily deshelled. The soup had lots of flavour, and the pork ribs were tender and meaty. Whoever thought of serving pork ribs with prawn mee is a genius :D

There is also a Ngoh Hiang stall here -


It was just ok. I love the crispy prawn crackers and had quite a bit of it :)

Be prepared to contend with the difficult parking situation if you plan to come here - parking is along the main road outside the stall... and there is normally a wait for food too. Try it but go only when you're not starving and can afford to wait a bit :D


Beach Road Prawn Mee Eating House
370 East Coast Road
Singapore 428981
Tel : 63457196

Xing Ji Ruo Cuo Mian

I love my bak chor mee (minced meat noodles) and when the topic of good bak chor mee comes up, this place is nearly always mentioned. But this stall is unique in that they only serve the soup version -


This cost $2.50 (I think it used to be $2). A pretty small portion but there's a $3 portion too. Very simple compared to your usual bak chor mee - mee kia (thin noodles) with a few meatballs and minced meat. But the soup is really flavoursome and the noodles is cooked to the right consistency.

Not bad, worth a try! But be prepared to wait, there's always a queue at this stall.


Xing Ji Ruo Cuo Mian
Blk 85 Bedok North Street 4 #01-07
Fengshan Market and Food Centre

The Sweet Stone Parad'Ice

We were having dinner at Modestos and wondering what to have for dessert when Victor suggested this place, which happens to be opened by a friend of his. I heard about this place a long time ago but figured with all that hype there would be long queues so wanted to wait for a bit... then kinda forgot about it :P

We ordered the Royal Claypot Fondue Set $14.50 which comes with the chocolate fondue, an assortment of fruits (strawberries, grapes, honeydew, bananas), masrhmellow, waffles and two scoops of home-made ice-cream -


Quite an impressive spread right? There were five of us there and this was just nice... if you've had a full dinner before this. On an empty stomach, I think I could eat this on my own... Ok, maybe not :D

The chocolate was sweet without being excessively so... and being thick, it was very obviously good quality chocolate. The waffles (which was apparently authentic Belgian waffles) has more of a thicker, bready texture than we're used to but still quite yums.

What we could not stop raving about was the gelato... nothing I hate more than strawberry ice cream because of the artificial strawberry flavour, but this strawberry gelato was home-made and had plenty of actual strawberry bits in it so I really liked it. We tried a few more flavours and it was all good...

Good value for a good quality dessert! A new branch recently opened up at the Old Airport Road Hawker Centre so try that one if this location is not so convenient for you.


The Sweet Stone Parad'Ice
505 Beach Road
#01-67/76/94 Golden Mile Food Centre
Tel: 6296 1867
http://www.thesweetstone.com/Home.aspx

Redhill Food Centre

Oops this was a post that I kinda forgot about - was here to have some hawker food on S's last trip back... no, not the recent one a few weeks ago, but the previous time she was back - in December :S

Ticking things off her "food to eat while I'm back" list, one of the things she was craving was wanton mee so we ordered Wanton Mee $2.50 from Pontian Wanton Noodles #01-38 :


It was not bad... The wantons are deep-fried with a reasonable amount of filling - I hate teeny weeny wantons! The noodles were springy and the sauce was just a tad spicy. I've actually had this again but at a different outlet (it's a franchise so it's found in quite a few locations now) and think it's a pretty decent wanton mee at a very reasonable price.

The other thing we had was Laksa from Ah Huat Laksa #01-68 :


Hmm, this wasn't bad but it also wasn't very memorable...

More posts to come on things that S wanted to eat on her more recent trip back :)


Redhill Food Centre
85 Redhill Lane
S150085

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles

I *heart* Bak Chor Mee (minced pork noodles) so I made a trip to try this famous one out. Would you believe they actually have a website??

Despite being there at 12pm, there was still a 20 minute wait... at least they are pretty organised - I hate stalls that get your order wrong. So I ordered the Dry Mee Kia with Chilli $4 :


I liked it! The noodles were cooked just right, there was just the right amount of vinegar in the sauce without being over-powering, and there was enough ingredients to go around. Worth the wait!

If you happen to notice, there's a saucer full of chilli padi on the tray. Anyone who has eaten with me is always horrified by how much chilli padi I can eat with a meal. Sometimes, I eat so much chilli padi that my mouth totally burns up and my eyes start watering...

I can trace this masochistic love for chilli back to my primary school days when I used to order a packet of fishballs ($1 for 5 small ones), fill the packet with sambal chilli and mixing the fishballs with the chilli until it looks like a scary red mess. After eating the fishballs, I would pour the remainder of the chilli into my mouth - yums! :D


Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle
Blk 466 Crawford Lane
#01-12
Tel: 6292 7477
www.taihwa.com.sg

Bedok Food Court (near Bedok Camp)

Came here for dinner twice in the last month - always a good option for hawker food when meeting up with easties (easterners?).

The Hokkien Prawn Mee $3 I had here is damn good -


Get it from Bedok Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee (Stall no. 29), or just go to the stall with the queue. Takes a while before you get your food but it's worth the wait. The noodles are moist but not spilling over with gravy, perfect mix of noodles and bee hoon, and a decent number of prawns included.

The Sambal Sting Ray $8 from Ah Ngeow Cooked Food (Stall no. 23 / 24) was pretty decent too...


The Oyster Omelette from Soon Lee (Stall no. 2) was also done the way I like it, with lots of crispy bits.


And just because I've never tried it before, we ordered Nasi Ayan Penget from a random stall -


Totally not what I expected - the chilli was not spicy at all, or maybe this was a poor example of Ayam Penget...

The first time I was here, the very famous Cheng Tng was sold out by the time we finished dinner so I made it a point to make sure we got the it early the 2nd time round.


Order it from 夜来香 (Stall no. 31) for just $2. It's got plenty of ingredients in it, including a lot of stuff that I recognise from the cheng tng I had when I was a kid, but no idea what it really is... old school cheng tng, yums.

Plenty of reasons to come to this hawker centre - lots of stalls with good food, car park is never full and clean unlike the one at East Coast Park... the Hokkien Mee and Cheng Tng are definitely must tries!


Bedok Food Court (near Bedok Camp)

Hong Heng Fried Sotong Prawn Mee

During my blog anniversary, I was reminded by Joe that I haven't had much Hokkien Mee, considering that my blog was named after it... so I decided to order it when S and I had dinner at Tiong Bahru Market.

I love cheap hawker food - a huge plate for just $4.00!


My Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for eating Hokkien Mee is to mix it all up with the chilli and lots of lime so it looks nothing like this when I'm done... Yes, I do love my Hokkien Mee :)

This one was not too bad - moist enough without being too watery, chilli had a kick to it, and enough liao (ingredients) to keep me happy. It never fails to amaze me how much work goes into frying Hokkien Mee every time I see a hawker cook it...


Hong Heng Fried Sotong Prawn Mee
30 Seng Poh Road #02-01
Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre
S168898

Mongkok Dim Sum / Beef Kway Teow

I was feeling hungry after a night of partying so I dragged B out for supper. We ended going to Geylang for beef kway teow as I haven't had it in like forever.

Thank goodness we managed to get a parking lot right outside the coffeeshop as firstly the parking situation around here is always horrendous, and secondly, you don't really want to be walking around this area, especially late at night - the prostitutes are all around parading their 'wares'...

The original beef kway teow stall is across the street at the corner of Lorong 9, but I think the brother or uncle or someone like that opened up this stall. We ordered a plate of Beef Kway Teow for $10 -


I love the gravy that this dish is smothered in... and the fact that the beef slices are super tender. The two of us managed to finish this despite the fact that we ordered dim sum as well!

If there's dim sum available, I cannot help but order Siew Mai -


Anybody who's ever had dim sum with me knows how much I lurve Siew Mai... and the ones here were not bad.

We also ordered Chee Cheong Fun...


And Seafood Beancurd Roll...


We were so stuffed after all that food. Whatever calories I worked off from dancing earlier in the night was definitely replaced with this meal :) Can't wait to have the beef kway teow again!


Mongkok Dim Sum
214 Geylang Road (Lorong 8)
S389274
Tel : 6841 5133
Operating Hours : Mon - Fri 3pm-5am / Sat 12pm-5am / Sun 10am-4am

Aston's Specialities (revisited)

After a disappointing outing to Botak Jones, we decided to make a trip to Aston's to satisfy our craving for meat :)

Despite it being a weekday evening, we had to wait nearly half an hour for a table! It was quite a torture to be waiting for a table when you're hungry and watching a table near the entrance feast on a gigantic piece of grilled meat...

While we were waiting, I noticed a poster behind the cashier advertising the ieatSuper Burger. I remember reading about it on one of my favourite blogs - ieatishootipost - so I knew for sure I had to order it... I didn't even ask how much it was :P

After ordering our food and sitting down, it wasn't long before the food staring arriving. As mentioned in my previous post, the sides here are really good - love the onion rings!


All hail the arrival of the ieatSuper Burger!


Look at how big it is! According to the creator's blog, this burger it made up 200g of sirloin steak, topped with cheese, bacon, onion rings, BBQ sauce and Aston's Secret Special Sauce. All for the price of $12.50.

The pattie was thick and juicy... and together with all the other ingredients piled onto it, it made an amazing burger. It was so good that I could not help myself from finishing the whole thing :) This burger is as good, if not better, than any burger that you can get in proper restaurants!

Of course we also ordered steaks... erm, I can't remember exactly what kind of steak or which kind of steak is pictured below...


But the steaks here were infinitely better than the one at Botak Jones, even though one was slightly overcooked.

Definitely better tasting food and at much more reasonable prices... dunno why the food shows on TV are always featuring Botak Jones when Aston's is sooooo much better.


Aston's Specialities
119 East Coast Road
S428810
Tel : 9147 4627
http://AstonsSpecialties.blogspot.com

Botak Jones

This place has been featured extensively in the newspapers, IS Magazine and pretty much every food show on TV. Their hook is "damn good food at a damn good price" - American food served in a coffeeshop at heartland prices. Botak Jones himself is Bernie Utchenik, the former owner of Bernie's BFD at East Coast Park and Bernie Goes to Town at Boat Quay.

Because of all the publicity, and as you can expect with kiasu Singaporeans who are always swarming the newest eating places, this place has really been packing it in...

Our first attempt at eating here was abandoned as there was a really long queue snaking around the building and we were way too hungry to wait for our food. On the second attempt, we came here at 6 plus to try and beat the crowd. Not much point though - there was still a 15 minute wait to place our orders and about another 30 minute wait for food. The staff do try to manage customers' expectations by telling them that the food will take at least an hour to be ready...

I ordered the Botak Burger at $4.50. There were add-ons but I just thought that $2 for 2 rashes of bacon was a ridiculous price to pay, and with add-ons, the price of the burger would end up being more restaurant than heartland priced... so I ended up with this -


It doesn't come with any sides, so it looks kinda sad all by itself on that big plate... and the taste of the burger was not at all worth remembering...

We also ordered the NZ Ribeye Steak (200g) $13.50...


... which was a decent size but again taste-wise, it wasn't anything fantastic.

The Cheese Fries $7 were a huge disappointment!


By the time it got to us, the cheese had already hardened... and when I pulled a fry out, the cheese pretty much stayed where it was. Erm, isn't the cheese on cheese fries supposed to be gooey and melted all over the fries, and you're supposed to get some melted cheese when you pick up a fry??

My first thought when I saw the Egg Salad $5 was - "Damn, that's a lot of onions..."


As you can probably tell by now, I think this place is highly over-rated - prices seem reasonable, but they do add up if you want a decent burger... long long wait for food... and I'm willing to overlook all that if the food was good, but sadly that is not the case here. I suspect that all the business they've been getting has caused the quality of food to suffer...

If you want to have very good steaks and burgers at extremely reasonable prices, go check out Aston's instead - watch out for an upcoming post, I ate there again recently :)


Botak Jones
Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5
Tel : 6755 1225
Operating Hours : Tuesday - Sunday 12:00 noon til 10:00 pm, Monday closed
www.botakjones.com (check website for other locations)

Lor Mee

Yes yes, yet another thing that I've never eaten... and it's for the same reason why I've never had Dry Beef Noodles - the thick gooey sauce just does not look appealing... also, it's really not all that common nowadays, you can't find it in most food courts.

Happened to see a stall selling Lor Mee (only $2.50!) at the Maxwell Food Market so I decided to give it a try.

Took a photo before I started eating...


Then realised it looks much better after the noodles are all mixed up so here's another photo...


Didn't taste quite like what I expected... for some reason I thought there would be vinegar and it would be sour-ish. I think there are a few versions of Lor Mee and this one is without vinegar. My sister bought a packet of Lor Mee recently and I could smell the vinegar from like a mile away!

There were pieces of unidentifiable meat in the sauce - think it was probably ngoh hiang and some fish cake. I was forewarned about the garlicky taste from the minced garlic garnish but it wasn't strong at all.

Didn't love it and didn't hate it. Maybe there are better versions of this out there that I have to try... What I really don't understand is how this is a breakfast food!


Zhong Xing Fu Zhou Fish Ball Noodles
Stall 62
Maxwell Food Market

Aston's Specialities

I was in the mood for meat and it was the perfect opportunity to strike an item off my wishlist... read about this place in a few places - this post on ieatishootipost, a write-up in the New Paper the same day I came here, and a mention in that week's issue of IS-Magazine... So I was quite relieved that we only had a 10 minute wait for a table.

But it was definitely worth the wait!

Here is the Prime Ribeye Extra Cut with your choice of two sides for just $14.90.


Look at how thick and juicy the rib-eye steak is! And for just $14.90! It was done quite nicely... and the sides were really good - loved the mashed potato.

We also ordered the Special of the Day which was Black Pepper Chicken with Sausages with choice of two sides $8.90.


A good-sized piece of chicken smothered in black pepper sauce with four mini-sausages, fries sprinkled in cajun pepper and a serving of steamed fresh vegetables.

Another thing to love about this place is the fact that they don't try to rip you off on drinks. An order of green tea means you get a can of green tea and a cup of ice... for $1.10. That's even cheaper than some food courts!

The decor is simple and there's no air-conditioning but I'll gladly forgo some comfort for a good steak! Highly recommended!


Aston's Specialities
119 East Coast Road
S428810
Tel : 9147 4627
http://AstonsSpecialties.blogspot.com

Tau Huay at Chomp Chomp

On an earlier episode of Singapore Idol, Jasmine talked about her favourite chocolate tau huay (beancurd) from a stall in Chomp Chomp - chocolate-flavoured tau huay? Sounds like a brilliant idea! I've been dying to try it ever since I heard about it...

Since I was in the mood to drive, and we were in a particularly adventurous mood, we decided to go look for the tau huay stall. It wasn't hard to find the stall - there were pictures of Jasmine pasted on the front - Stall No. 7 House of Yummy Beancurd.



Chocolate Tau Huay $2.50







Mango Tau Huay $2.50


There was another stall nearby selling beancurd as well (Stall No. 15 Ding Hao Paradise Beancurd) so we ordered two more bowls just for the variety.


Beancurd with Dumpling (tang yuan) $1.80









Beancurd with Longan $1.80


It was all a bit disappointing really... I feel that tau huay should have the kind of consistency where it breaks apart easily when you touch it... and the tau huay here (from both stalls) were way too hard, more the consistency of pudding than tau huay.

The chocolate tau huay was decent, if you think of it as chocolate pudding rather than tau huay... I finished most of it despite being pretty stuffed from dinner - what can I say, I love anything chocolate :P The one with the tang yuan was horrible - the tang yuan was really hard and practically inedible.

All this did was make me crave good Tau Huay... sigh...

Zion Riverside Food Centre

Every once in a while, I just have to go to a hawker centre and have all my favourite local food :) I love going to this hawker centre as it's near town and has pretty good food... I'm still avoiding Newton Circus with a vengence and with the on-going IMF meetings, I'm trying to avoid the Suntec area so Gluttons Bay was not an option...

There is a really famous Char Kway Teow stall at this hawker centre and it's really easy to spot coz it's the one with a queue. Tried it, didn't like it and don't see what all the fuss is about. The last time I was here, I really wanted to have Char Kway Teow so ended up ordering from another stall... and it was really good!


This $3 plate of Char Kway Teow is from Stall No. 20 Riverside Good Food Chay Kway Teow. It's got what the Cantonese call "wok hei" - the smoky taste that comes from cooking from a wok... It's not too dry and has lots of cockles and beansprouts. And unlike the more famous stall here, you don't even need to queue for your food - just order and sit and wait to be served :)


Another of my favourites from this hawker centre is the White Carrot Cake from Stall No. 26 Lau Goh Teochew Chye Thow Kway $3. The guy here is partially deaf so you have to order by pointing at the picture of the type of carrot you want. The last few times I had it, I really liked it... but today it didn't taste very good. I think it was because it was a weekday evening, the carrot cake wasn't selling as fast as he thought it would, and the carrot cake had been sitting in the wok for a while before he fried it up for me. Well, everyone is entitled to an off-day right? But definitely worth trying though...

The Rojak stall here is also quite famous - Stall No. 21 Clementi Brothers Rojak $3. It was pretty good too but I would have liked more pineapples... or maybe I was just slow and other people ate it all up :)


And to balance off all the terribly unhealthy food, we ordered a bowl of Fish Soup from the stall across from the Carrot Cake stall. Fish Soup is one of my favourite healthy foods... well, actually it's only healthy if you don't drink up all the soup - lots of sodium in it!


Damn, now I have a craving for unhealthy hawker food ;)


Zion Riverside Food Centre
Zion Road / Zion Close
(Opposite Great World City)

333 Bak Kut Teh

Ok, so I've already posted about this place when I first started this blog... but there weren't any pictures for that first post! I went there again recently, and now that I'm in the (bad :) habit of taking photos of my food, I took photos this time - so I thought it deserved another post :)


I had a bowl of Bak Kut Teh, Preserved Vegetables and You Char Kuay. Needless to say, I had my bowl of soup topped up twice... for free! YAY!

While looking at the menu, I noticed that there was 肉骨 (pork ribs) and 排骨 (spare ribs). What I had was 肉骨 Bak Kut Teh $4.50 which had huge chunks of meat with the bone attached, as opposed to the 排骨 Bak Kut Teh $6 which has a long rib bone and very little meat attached. It totally does not make sense to me why less meat should cost more...

I prefer this to the more famous Founders Bak Kut Teh - the level of pepperiness (not sure if there's such a word!) is just nice compared to the Founders Bak Kut Teh which is close to being unbearingly peppery... and there's never a queue here :)

333 Bak Kut Teh
325 Balestier Road
S329754

Blk 16 Bedok South Road Hawker Centre

Came all the way to this hawker centre to try the famous Hill Street Char Kway Teow... unfortunately, it was closed. Note : the stall's operating hours are 11am-7pm. I've heard its really good, and it's also one of the stalls featured on the TV show "Makan Places - Lost and Found". Definitely want to come back here another time to try it...

We decided to eat here anyway... we had Black Carrot Cake, Fried Oyster Omelette and Penang Char Kway Teow - ordered from a stall opposite the Hill Street Char Kway Teow stall, and Chicken Satay from a nearby stall... some of my favourite hawker dishes of all time :)

Nothing spectacular about the food we had... and it brings to mind the article in Life! section last Sunday about how the quality of food in Singapore is deteriorating despite us being a 'food paradise'. Totally agree - besides some exceptional hawker stalls, most of the food tends to be incredibly generic... carrot cake from a hawker stall in ang mo kio pretty much tastes the same as carrot cake from bedok. Especially for things like satay - have a feeling that most places get the satay from the same supplier as it seems to taste the same everywhere you go...

Not that the food is bad... just generic. Well, can't complain - even though it doesn't taste fantastic but I can still get to eat all this anytime I want. Sorry all you guys overseas, I just had to rub it in :P

Newton Circus Hawker Centre

Seems like all the well-known hawker centres in Singapore have just been renovated or are currently under going renovations. Newton Circus Hawker Centre recently re-opened for business, so I was quite happy to come here to check it out.

The layout is quite different now - the tables are in the centre with the stalls in a huge circle surrounding them. The tables right in the middle are probably the best seats in the house - they have a nice resort feel about them, and you feel like you're eating right under the stars... but beware when it rains as these seats are not sheltered.

I normally order Sambal Sting Ray $10 from Guan Kee Seafood (Stall no. 53). Been ordering from them for the last 4 years... I go back to them purely out of habit but their sting ray is really not too bad.

Coincidentally enough, we ended up sitting really near the stall so I didn't have trouble finding them. In any case, I already recognise the people who work at that stall... the easiest to spot is the Indian guy - rare for an Indian to work at a 'Chinese' stall and so he quite stands out.

As for the food itself, the sting ray is always fresh and the sambal is spicy without being overwhelming. It's grilled really nicely - so that the meat is still juicy... and with the right amount of sambal on top of it and a pinch of the onion/cincalok sauce, it's a taste of heaven :)

The other dish I always order from the same stall (Guan Kee Seafood Stall No. 53) is the Sambal Kang Kong $6. The smallest size is already a pretty big portion so don't ever try ordering a medium. I love it so much that I normally end up eating *most* of it :)


This plate of Fried Carrot Cake $3 was ordered from a random stall. Decent but then it's kinda hard to do bad carrot cake. This is one of the very few things that vegetarians can eat at a hawker centre... We also ordered a plate of Fried Hokkien Mee but I forgot to take a photo of it :P

One complaint about the new Newton Circus Hawker Centre - seems like all the stalls are selling the same things! Here's an example - just around where we were sitting, there was at least 6 stalls selling BBQ Seafood. Definitely a lack of variety... but pretty good ambience. Still quite crowded from people checking it out so be prepared to wait for a parking lot.