孖宝 - 麻坡卤面 Ma Bo Lor Mee @ Hong Lim Market & Food Centre

Tried yet another stall in Hong Lim Market & Food Centre this morning... I believe this is one of the many branches of this Lor Mee stall... So they conveniently use "Ma Bo" to represent 孖宝 and also 麻坡???... Hmmm....


I ordered the big portion ($3.50), and was shocked by the big serving portion when the stall keeper handed the bowl of noodles to me... And I am right, super full after finishing the noodles... As I hated coriander/parsley leaves, I requested not to put them in... Also added a teaspoon of fine-chopped garlic (yes, MUST put in, if you are ok with the taste of raw garlic) and dash of vinegar (which I should have added more)... Also, do not reject the red chillies, they are not the spicy type but provides a additional flavour ...


Closer look at the main ingredients... normal fish cake (thin slices, ok in taste), ngor-hiang (also thin slices and taste is well, ok but typical; cna b slightly thicker though ), lor bak / braised pork (thin narrow slices, quite nicely braised to the "lor" flavour; can be a bit more though), and 2 chunks of battered-fried fish. I like to lightly immerse the fried fish in the gravy, to soak in the gravy, and surprisingly, the batter skin is still quite crispy after long time immerse in the gravy, with some parts of the batter skin soaked in a bit of the gravy too! Nice... Fish is quite tenderly-firm and nice... In fact I think this fried fish is the best among the ingredients... Am very tempted to order the pure fried fish version of the lor mee next time... hahahahaha..


The noodles are the traditional flat-yellow type, which allow the gravy to coat on it, so when we eat the noodles, the gravy can also be tasted... Yes, the gravy is rich, smooth, thick and pleasantly surprised to NOT find any lumps of starch despite such thick viscosity, very good... It has a good "lor" savoury taste too... Perhaps if the egg-flower (蛋花) is a bit more, the gravy would be even smoother and enhanced egg-fragrance... Bean sprouts are typical...



Hmmm... what should I try next time?? Hahahaha....

Ji Ji Wanton Noodle (基记面家) at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre

Decided to try out the rest of the stalls in Hong Lim Market and Food Centre.... Decided to have this wanton noodles... and am delighted... hahahaha... This stall actually occupies 3 stalls... wow...


The front of the main stall displays a small hill of fried wantons and chicken cutlets... maybe will try the chicken cutlet next time...


I ordered the (min. price) $4 wanton noodles (云吞面) and it includes a small bowl of soup with 3 wantons... The bowl has the rest, including noodles, fried wantons, char siew, mushroom slices, vegetables... (the small plate at the bottom is green chillies in vinegar)...


The soup is quite different from what I normally eaten at other places. It leans slightly towards the sweet side (though still savoury), and my guess is the soup uses ikan bilis as base, not very sure though... The wantons in the soup looks slightly bigger than the normal ones you will normally find in other stalls, and the quite well-marinated meat fillings has a good tinge of pepper to bring out the flavour... not bad... The 3 fried wantons are similar except for the skin texture... The noodles are GOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!! I am so afraid of such noodles which are slightly thicker than the normal ones, but they turn out to be so good! The texture is chewy (think of the hand-made noodles) and springy, has a nice flour flavour... They really live up to their "noodle specialist" name... The sauce is supposedly the dark soy sauce based, and is VERY fragrance, though again is slightly towards the sweeter side though still savoury. Though, after I finish the noodles, I find the bottom of the bowl is a bit oily, perhaps a bit too much oil is used in the sauce. This however, does NOT change my opinion that the sauce is GOOOOOD!!!!! (I mean, a little bit of oil only)... I particularly like the braised mushroom slices, which is braised to nice flavour yet not too tough when chewed... nice.... The char siew is definitely above average, and can taste the meat's own flavour! But perhaps I had tried before some solid char siew, so I personally don't really find it to be special or such... Notwithstanding, the char siew is considered good really... The vegetables are not so good though...


strangely the soup taste a little more saltier at end of my meal... not sure why... maybe my taste buds had ran away... hahahaha... Overall, a very satisfied meal, 2 thumbs up!!!


As I wanted to finish my breakfast with a good cup of kopi (coffee), I walked around level 2 and saw this kopi stall...


Turns out they serve GOOD kopi-O!!!! Viscosity is just nice, not the watery type nor the super thick type... very very fragrance... definitely in my top 3 kopi-O list ...



Looking forward to my next trial at Hong Lim Market and Food Centre next time... maybe will try the Ah Kau Bar Chor Mee or perhaps the Ma Bo Lor Mee...

Star Wars Display at Changi Airport Terminal 3...

Let the pictures do the talking...

Jollibee Breakfast - Chicken Tocino Set

Tried this today... Rice has strong garlic taste which is good, but a little little too soft... chicken is in cubes, and leans towards the sweeter side... Reminds me of eating Char Kway but using meat instead of the kway... hahahaha... not bad...

New IT Gadget a.k.a. Toy(s)... Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (LTE) with S Pen

Yeah! Bought my new IT "toys"!!! The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (LTE) with S Pen is bought from Harvey Norman, at a good price of $400! However it does not come with the free cover, but I have already ordered 1 from Taobao.com... the Strontium Nitro 64GB MicroSDXC card is bought from Challenger for $55... expensive MicroSD card but is hoping the fast speed benefits the data transfer...


... Tab A 8.0 de-tombed... and also the accessories...


... Nice... Like the S Pen feature as I can draw on the Sketchbook app... shiok...



... I remember I have a old Starhub 1GB data SIM card which came free with my internet plan, and I had not been using for a long time... Decided to mod it into a microSIM card using a template and cut to size... Turns out the thickness of this SIM card is too thick and I had to file down the thickness... so far working well...



...and eagerly waiting for my tablet cover to arrive...

Kathali Performance Today at Bedok Blk 18 Market...

Good Saturday Breakfast...

Had a good breakfast with my parents on Saturday... Went to the Bedok Bus Interchange (air-con one!!!) row of food stalls (need to take the escalator outside Bedok Mall up to 2nd floor) and upon my parents' recommendation, we had the Wanton Mee ($3) at 1 corner of the row of eateries... Nice...


The noodles are slightly springy but leaning towards to the softer side... Sauce for noodles is quite good! Just nice in savoury and sweetness... The best is the char-siew... very nice, and not the typical red-dye version.... solid char-siew...


Unfortunately the wanton is the Singapore version (small and small), not the Hong Kong style... but the soup is surprisingly good... It has the after-sweet taste (回甘) and so seemed to have put in quite a bit of Lohan fruit... Very tasty...


We also ordered the Thai Style TauFoo, and it is quite good! The tau foo is fried once and put at 1 side, and refried when ordered, so the double-fry makes the outer crispy, even after soaked in the Thai chilli sauce for some time... The iiner of the tau foo is very very soft and silky... Very good mix of texture... Cost $3...


Sigh, when will haze go away....

Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee and Toh Kee Dark Roasted Duck Rice...

Today's breakfast was a heavy one... super heavy... Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee, at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre (the 2nd floor one...) Yeah, saw some reviews talking about the forgetful auntie helper, and today finally can attest to it, hahahaha....


I ordered the thin bee hoon and mee version, medium portion at $5.50... Was surprised to find big chunks of the chicken meat and lots of tau-pok...

Good Points:
(1) Curry is very very flavourful!!! ... and probably very sinful, but hey, who cares!!! Hahahaha... ok, seriously, very nice curry soup, good enough to drink almost the whole bowl, but do think twice for health's sake...
(2) Thick big chunks of water-boiled chicken (白斩鸡) ( I think... ), not overly cooked, tender, and chewy... As the chicken meat is not immersed in the curry soup (gravy), the "chicken taste" is not lost, nice...
(3) Lots of tau-pok!!! And the tau-pok has no "ow-long" smell (i.e. smelly frying oil after-smell/taste)... Solid...
(4) Mee (noodles) and bee hoon were cooked just nice, and the mee didn't turn soggy even at the last mouth...

Bad Points:
(1) Only (a total of) 1.5 pieces of potato... and while the potato is cooked to soft and not mushy, somehow it is not able to absorb the curry, so a very strong raw potato taste can be felt... maybe it is the type of potato used... not sure... maybe just my personal preference...
(2) Curry soup (gravy), while flavourful, does not have the fragrance I anticipated, in fact, when I put my nose just above the curry and breathe in, I could smell only a bit of the curry smell... perhaps it is because my nose has not "woke up" yet in the morning... hahahaha... maybe...

The chilli is kind of like slightly sweet sambla-chilli type, and quite flavourful too, but personally I feel there is no need for the chilli; the curry chicken mee is already sedap enough... hahahaha... Overall, I think it is the best curry chicken mee I tasted so far, and probably will go back to have another round next time... not in the near future though (*look at big tummy*)




Did some shopping at Daiso and window-shop at OG before going over to Toh Kee at People’s Park Cooked Food Centre to buy my packed lunch before heading to CSC... yeap, their famous Dark Roasted Duck Rice... $5... It is quite expensive compared to other roasted duck rice stalls, but looking at the big chunks of roasted duck meat (the picture below does not do it justice; they are very big pieces if you see it from the side), and the strong fragrance of 5-spices when biting onto the meat, I can overlook that... The chilli has a tangy-sweet taste, weird but quite good (though I pray is not because I happen to get a spoilt packet of chilli... pray hard hard... hahahahha...) Overall, quite good, if you are prepared to pay a bit more for more meat and tasty meat...

Leisure Trip to Chinatown 20th September...

First up, went to Hong Lim Market and Food Centre... And decided to eat at this Bak Kut Teh stall... have a strange feeling that I had been here before for a meal... anyway... Tried the main dish, the Bak Kut Teh (pork-ribs soup) and also ordered a plate of Yau Zhar Gwai (fried dough fritters) to go along... Turned out to be a good choice...



Soup is the Hokkien style (i.e. herbal added) which is normally harder to find compared to the Teochew (i.e. pepper and garlic) style... taste is ok, slightly to the sweet side... will prefer to have more herbal taste though, but this also means this soup is quite ok for those who don't like heavy herbal taste... The stall owners do come out and refill the soup, but think only for customers who order more than 1 or something (yeah, mine is not refilled, so had cold soup towards the end of the meal... sigh...) Generous portion of 3 pieces of pork ribs in the soup, and the meat is quite tender-soft, nice... And as to why I said earlier that order of Yau Zhar Gwai is good choice, the reason is that you can dunk the Yau Zhar Gwai into the soup, and they will soak up the soup... Put them inside your mouth and bite... WOW!!!! NICE!!!!! Hahahahaha.... Next time will probably try the curry noodles stall... But if go on Sunday can only try the stall that opens on Sunday...


Took a stroll after breakfast...




And went to this shop that my brother's family chanced upon the other day... Very nice place selling many biscuits and snacks of the older days... nostalgic...





And my biscuits and snacks haul from the shop (in the plastic bag only)...