Cheng’s at No. 27 - Hainanese comfort food

Found this place from the monthly magazine that the RC send out. I always read their food recommendations. Yes, I am auntie like that.

Cheng’s is a family owned restaurant specializing in Hainanese food. I follow up the magazine review from Cheng’s with ieatishootipost blog post on the restaurant. The food review seems promising!

The menu is simple and straight forward. The post on ieatishootipost covers like majority of food on the menu.

On this visit, we ordered the salted green mustard duck soup, crispy chicken with ginger and sambal French beans.

The salted green mustard duck soup is delicious but a tad too salty. After the meal, I had to keep drinking plenty of water but yet still feel quite thirsty. I am amazed that the duck meat in the soup is super tender and still juicy to eat after being boiled in the soup.

The crispy chicken with ginger is really good. I like the thin ginger slices and the chicken breast that actually tasted like pork. A quick blanch of oil with the slightly sour sauce made this an outstanding dish that goes well with rice.

The sambal French beans is light in its flavor with being overly spicy. The vegetables are very fresh and crunchy.

This is also a place I will recommend for simple Chinese lunch and/or dinner.

Food tasted 9 Sept 2017

Cheng's at No. 27

27 Yong Siak Street 

Singapore 168654
Tel: 6223 7883

Wed - Mon: 10 am - 3 pm, 5.30 pm - 10 pm 

Closed on Tuedays

Sumo Big Prawn - nice but could be better

I’ve been wanting to try this prawn stall for the longest time but couldn’t because of the extremely long queues or the prawn noodle is sold out. Hubs gives it a thumbs up, so must try since i am usually the person who likes the soupy food. 

Today is my chance to try it. The cheapest option of $5 is not available so I decided to try the $8 prawn mee hoon. 

The serving of lalas and 3 big size prawns is pretty impressive. However, you need to get your hands dirty to eat the prawns. 

The prawns are very fresh and succulent. The shell easily peels off the skin. 

The broth is flavourful but lacks a little punch. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but It lacks the taste of prawn base soup. 

Overall a very enjoyable dish, but its has to be given its $8 price tag.

Food tasted 4 Feb 2017

Sumo Big Prawn

628 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4
#01-72
Singapore 560628
Tel: 9299 2621

Magic Kitchen - not your usual cafe

Been patronizing this store for a long long time. Its one of the hidden finds in Ang Mo Kio and only those staying around the area might be aware of this rare gem.

I love their home style soups and will have them on weekends. But they have long cease serving these nourishing soups on weekends.

Menu wise is wide ranging with a mix chinese cum western style breakfast. Meaning you can choose from bread toasts to curry chicken and desserts.

This is not your usual fancy pants cafe. But it does serve great food at fabulous price. The chairs and tables are the portable type that my mum will use. (sorry mum).

I love their zhu chang fen which is soft and tender and the brown gravy is just absolutely delicious. 

Today, I feel like having the peanut butter with chocolate thick toast (guaranteed better than the local branch of dazzling café) and Hubs is having their kueh, yam cake and soon kueh.

The toast is toast to perfection and a good pairing with their local kopi (coffee). If you want to try something more fanciful, you can have a hazelnut coffee that doesn't break a bank.

The yam cake is also above average, soft tender and totally delicious.

Food tasted 4 Feb 2017

Magic Kitchen

529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
#01-2335
Singapore 562529
Closed on Tuesdays
Tel: 6208 6845

Full of Luck Club - Prepare to win 4D

Well new year is coming....going to this place gives great vibes.

I told mr FAT that if he this place fail to live up to the hype we go the place i familiar with at Holland Village.

 The dishes are served really fast. Might be attributed to the lack of patrons and there is plenty of seating spaces. The crowd did pick up a bit after 8 pm. Are Singaporeans having their meals later now?

 Golden sand corn with salted egg yolk 金沙玉米 （S$4.80 ). This dish is highly recommended by a blogger. Hence, this is mr FAT must order item. Upon tasting, its simply corn kernels that are coated with salted egg sauce. I'm not too impressed with this dish.

Chilli glazed fried fermented bean paste chicken wings 韩式炸鸡腿 ($8.0) I have no expectations for this dish. Ordered because i was craving for something finger licking and i am pleasantly surprised. The wings are well fried and coated with just the right amount of flour. The meat is juicy and tender.

 Stir fry radish cake with X.O. sauce ,XO酱炒萝卜糕($7.50) This dish is pretty outstanding. The radish is soft and moist on the inside. On the crust its crispy with wok hei. Thumbs up!

Salted egg yolk prawn 金沙虾  (savoury prawns in salted egg sauce, lettuce, fried curry leaves, crushed peanuts and bird's eye chilli), smoked duck 香熏鸭胸 (tender smoked duck breast in tangy sweet sauce, carrot cabbage slaw and spring onion). Bao aka buns option is any 2 for $9.80

I came here primarily for this. I can't forget the little bao i had in Hong Kong. But i am quite sorely dissappointed. Its not bad but it just doesn't live a lasting impression. Mr FAT mentioned that its not on the top of must it food on their menu so i am pretty unfair to them if i am eating this as a mains. ok ok! point noted.

Between the 2 buns, i will repeat my order of  smoked duck because it is more flavourful and all the ingredients works well together.

Tried my first Bi Luo Chun 洞庭碧螺春 $6.50, a light flavoured green tea that complements all the dishes we ordered.

I think i might return here again if i miss Little bao. This is the closest food that is similar in Singapore.

Food tasted 14 Jan 2017

Full of Luck Club
Holland Village
243 Holland Ave
Singapore 278977
11 am to 11 pm daily
Tel: 6208 6845

136 Hong Kong St Fish Head Steamboat 香港街潮州鱼头炉- MUST TRY CLAYPOT MEE TAI MAK

This will be the third time i am dining at this place within 2 months. We found out about this place when SO was lamenting to his friend about the unpalatable claypot mee tai mak we had at SS2 in Kuala Lumpur. His friend then recommended this place to us. 

From the 3 times we had dined at the place, the claypot mee tai mak has been pretty consistent. Although, the chinatown one at Kuala Lumpur still beats this place hands down but this places works satisfactory for those with the craving and not willing to travel the distance (320 km to be exact) .
 

The place is quite popular with the residents in the area and its not hard to see why. The dishes we had sampled thus far are quite tasty and all the sauce cooked with the dishes were flavourful.


The signature in my opinion will be the claypot mee tai mak. It is served piping hot from the claypot. To ensure that the base does not get charred, the diner will have stir and mix well the pot of noodles, minced meat, sliced vegetables and a freshly cracked egg. 
 
Rated: 8/10
The noodle is served in dark brown gravy ($8 for medium size). The gravy is thick and creamy with light bitterness. The mee tai mak is well cooked to the right soft and firm texture. Sliced vegetables added to this dish makes the dish lighter and not so filling. I am unaware of any equivalent mee tai mak dish that can be found in Singapore. Hence, i am rating this higher.
 
Rated: 7/10
The other dish we had that day was coffee pork ribs (S$10). This is preferred by SO as we tried the salted egg pork rib that day and the coffee pork rib is more flavourful dish. The ribs are tender and coated deliciously with coffee sauce. Though the ribs are nice, i was too full to eat more than 3 pieces. SO happily took the rest of the ribs and clean out the plate.

Food tasted: 14 Feb 2016

136 Hong Kong St Fish Head Steamboat (this place has moved to clementi)
Blk 19 Lorong 7 Toa Payoh
#01-264
Singapore 310019 Opening Hours: 11am to 2pm, 5 pm - 10.45 pm

Tel: 9437 8260 or 8288 3368

New location at Clementi
Blk 713 Clementi West St 2 #01-115 Singapore 120713

Lam's Abalone Noodle Restaurant 阿南鲍鱼面 (Waterway point)

The very first time i had this noodle was more than 5 years ago when we are sourcing for a reliable interior designer somewhere near race course road. I always wanted to go back to try but somehow didn't manage to get down to it.

By chance, we visited this new mall, Waterway point at Punggol and we decided to explore the food court. We stumbled upon the stall inside Koufu food court and decided to have it. 

Lam's Abalone Noodle Restaurant 阿南鲍鱼面 was established by a person known as Ah Lam. He first started out in the early 1950s selling "Mini Wok Noodle" before being one of the first to sell abalone noodle in a coffee shop. 

You know the food is good by the queues in the foodcourt. Even with the nimble hands of the cook, the queue is seemingly never-ending. It was most definitely longer when we left the place after our meal. It doesn't help when everyone is ordering more than 2 bowls of noodles. The queue for it is estimated 15 minutes. 

Rated: 7/10
I ordered Lam's abalone noodles (S$6.80) without chilli and mee kia. This mee kia is thicker than the usual type we eat at hawker but still very stringy and Q. I like the vinegar that is used as the base it is distinct yet still light on the palate. My other companions who ordered the noodles with chilli felt the chilli overpowers the lighter vinegar taste and preferred more vinegar for the noodles. 

I am most impressed with the ramen egg as it complements perfectly with the noodle. Moreover, you hardly ever get to eat such good quality ones where is yolk is custard like with firm texture except in ramen restaurants and sometimes even those restaurants fail to deliver. 

The Lam's specialty noodle (S$4.50) is essentially same ingredients you see in the picture minus the abalone/scallop stick, half ramen egg and the 2 pieces of wolfberries in the soup. 

Rated: 7.5/10

Salt baked chicken thigh has 2 options, it can be served with wedges or rice. We choose the one with fries (S$8.80). The chicken is well marinated and fragrant. The meat itself is very juicy,tender and meat can be removed from the bone easily. The wedges are fried till crispy. The sauce that is served with this dish serves greatly enhance flavours of the chicken.

This is a very good meal at a very decent price. I will love to come back here again due to its proximity and more convenient parking compared to race course road. While i encountered no issues with parking, parking at the mall could be a little challenging during peak hours. 

Food tasted: 14 Feb 2016

Lam's Abalone Noodle Restaurant (Race Course)
460 Race Course Road 
Singapore 218700 
Tel: 6398 1154
Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm

Lam's Abalone Noodle Restaurant (Koufu, Cookhouse)
Waterway Point

83 Punggol Central  
Singapore 828761

West wing, #02-20

Tel: 6385 8824

Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm