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

928 Yishun Laksa is really good!

Heard that this place served really nice laksa so was on my list for a long while. There are a variety of toppings like fish cake, bean sprouts, crab sticks, tau pok and a whole hard boiled egg minus the cockles.

The whole dish comes well together and at the price of $3.20 is well worth the queue. During week day lunch hour, the wait is about 20 minutes. The broth is spicy and adds a great punch to the dish. Personally, I preferred a more coconut milk taste but this is still a very satisfactory meal.

Rated: 8/10

Food tasted 27 June 2016

928 Yishun Laksa
928 Yishun Central 1, #01-155
Singapore 760928

Opening Hours: 

Monday - Sundays: 11 am - 7 pm 

Yong Hua You Tiao - my old time favourite

This stall has been around Bedok for as long as i remember. And i always told my SO that this is the best you tiao in Singapore. Unfortunately, the standards dropped when the father of the stall handed over to the son. Though still nice and appetising the you tiao itself seems to have lost the super crispy on bite and yet soft  when bitten. 

It is still a decent piece of  you tiao to chew on. For maximum yummy results dip in coffee (yes! coffee) instead of soya bean milk. 

Food tasted: 9 April 2016

Yong Hua You Tiao

16 Bedok South Road, #01-20 Singapore 460016

Yue Lan Ting Fishball Minced Pork Noodle 月兰亭鱼圆肉挫面

My SO purposely drives to Anchorvale for the wok hei char kuey teow while i opt for the delicious bowl of laksa. Between the 2 the more popular is the char kuey teow. But if you're super duper hungry and unwilling to wait, laksa is your best option.

The shop has been interviewed by reporters before and business is quite brisk though there is no queue. I love the Laksa (S$3) for its flavourful broth cooked in coconut milk. The bean sprouts are lightly blanched and crunchy on bite. I have since stopped eating "ham" shellfish for health reasons but this stall doesn't skimp and give me a good serving of prawns and tau pok as replacement. The noodles are also cook to the right texture without being too over or under cook. This is a good place to have a blissful and quick lunch.

Rated: 7/10 

Food tasted: 12 March 2016

Yue Lan Ting Fishball Minced Pork Noodle

Blk 303 Anchorvale Link

Singapore 540303

Inspirasi @ Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre - the only mee soto i will ever eat.

This malay stall has been around in Bedok Interchange for as long as i remember . I was glad that they have moved to the new Bedok Interchange hawker. 

Usually, there is a long queue for this stall. I was fortunate this time as i bought the mee soto (S$2.5)in under 5 mins. This is one of the rare yellow noodles that i eat as i dislike the tarty 涩 taste that comes with the noodles. This taste is albeit milder and practically non-existent in this dish. 

Rated: 7.5/10

The broth is light,, clear sweet and flavourful. This differs from chinese broth that while sweet is geared towards salty. 

Surprisingly the chicken slices are juicy and tender. Each mouthful is a taste of heaven. 

Food tasted: 20 Feb 2016

Inspirasi 
#01-64 Bedok Interchange Food Centre
207 New Upper Changi Road

Singapore 406207  

Opening Hours: 
Mon - Sat:1130 am to 9.30 pm, 

Song Zhou Fried Carrot Cake - Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre 松州萝卜糕

I have yet to visit Bedok Interchange Food Centre since it move to the new premises. Its previous location has since been demolished and is now under construction.  

While the new location is more spacious and better ventilated and a better location, accessible from the multi-storey carpark and facing the main Upper changi road. There are still some hiccups. i.e some seating areas have ponding issues and visibly missing tiles (worn out so fast?). 

It took some time to get my bearings to hunt for my favourite western food, bedok Chwee Kueh. I can't seem to locate the goreng pisang stall that i used to frequent after school nor Hollywood the dessert stall? 

Anyway, i decided to try the Song Zhou Fried Carrot Cake as the queue seem to attest that its a gem in the neighbourhood and i always have a weakness for carrot cakes. 

I waited about 20 minutes before its finally my turn and i order the black fried carrot cake with additional prawns at S$4.00. Soon, a piping hot plate of carrot cake is served to me and the aroma is so tantalising.

Rated 8/10

This is definitely a very good plate of carrot cake. All the flavours are so right on the spot. The kueh itself is moist, soft and tender. The sweet dark sauce is pan fried till wok hei. The cook is also not stingy with the crunchy cai po (fermented radish) which makes the dish so much more flavourful.  This is so worthy of the extra calories. 

Food tasted: 20 Feb 2016

Song Zhou Fried Carrot Cake
#01-37 Bedok Interchange Food Centre
207 New Upper Changi Road

Singapore 406207  

Opening Hours: 
Mon - Sat:630 am to 10pm, 
Tel: 9684 3555

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