Old Tu Kee Smelly Tofu 老涂记臭豆腐 @ Bugis Food Street

Tried "urban-hiking" from Bedok to Bugis, along the MRT track path. Quite fun. Stopped at Bugis Food Street to try out the Old Tu Kee Smelly Tofu 老涂记臭豆腐. Ordered the mixed (pickled vegetables plus Cumin powder). Cost (if I remember correctly) SGD6 for 5 pieces of tofu. Hmm... Anyway, the smell. The smell is not the strong stinky type but has a lighter aroma with (I think probably) some herbal ingredients when fermenting. I may be wrong, but it does smell smelly-good. Tofu is fried to a good crisp, and internal quite soft. Quite nice! The pickled vegetables are nice, and works well together with the chilli sauce on top of tofu. But the cumin powder , while very nice, is poured onto a tad too much, and tends to snatch the focus away from the tofu. End up scraping quite some cumin powder off left uneaten. After a good protein-filled breakfast, I took the train back home.

Zi Hai Guo Self Heating Rice : Potherb Mustard and Braised Pork (Clay)Pot Rice 自嗨锅 自热米饭 : 雪菜扣肉煲仔饭

Cost around SGD4.40 for a bowl. A bit pricey. I ordered the Meigan (Mei) Cai and Braised Pork 梅菜扣肉 flavour but it sends me this flavour instead. The "rice" is recomposed rice with added corn starch, konjac, etc. Overall taste is good, but not much meat. Think of it as good as more greens are taken in by the body. Rice is chewy.  Also bought 3 other flavours ( Braised Chicken and Mushroom 香菇滑鸡, Taiwanese Braised Pork 台式卤肉饭, Cantonese Style Sausage 广式香肠 ) which tasted better than this one.

 

CP Gourmet : Chicken Green Curry with Rice ( Frozen Ready Meal )

 Bought from Fairprice Xpress Esso kiosk at a price of SGD9 for 2 packets. I microwaved for a minute more than the stated time, just in case the curry sauce does not get warm enough  Chicken meat is tender, curry has a slightly sweet taste with good spiciness, rice is still moist.  Portion of curry sauce can be  a bit more. Not bad, if considered at this discounted price.

 

Ichiran Instant Ramen Hakata-Style Straight Thin Noodle 一蘭ラーメン 一蘭拉麺

 Bought this 2-packet kit from Esso's FairPrice Xpress at sale price of SGD18.90... which is actually only a dollar less than the original price... anyway, never eaten this before and decided to try it... Soup is quite salty and the chilli powder adds a bit of punch to the taste of soup... Speaking of the soup taste, it strangely reminds me of some salty childhood snack that I cannot recall what it really is... Noodles are quite nice, but I felt it is about the same level as that of those Marutai instant ramen (3 portions in 1 packet type) ... Added some 7-11 Hanjuku eggs and instant teriyakai sauce chicken meat on skewers to my meal... Will I buy this noodles again... Hmmm... probably not, not in the near future anyway... 

7-11 Seven&i ( 7&i ) Premium Soy Sauce Ramen Instant Cup Noodles

 At a sale price of SGD1.60 per cup... The noodles are the flat and thin type, which I don't really like. The taste is very typical soy sauce. What makes up for it is the generous portions of ingredients inside each cup. There are even 2 types of meat pieces - chicken and pork, in addition to many pieces of shrimps which are quite bigger than those found in typical instant noodles. Good for a quick snack. 

HAI KEE Soy Sauce Chicken 海記醬油雞 - Bedok North Outlet

Address : Food Loft ( Stall 2 ) , Block 217 Bedok North Street 1, Singapore 460217

This brand was featured recently in 1 of the Taiwan food and travel show 食尚玩家 on 17 August (I think), and the shop 台灣海記醬油雞飯 was reported as having 60 years in Singapore.  Perhaps I was too young, at the age of 44, to remember having heard of this brand of chicken rice.  But even my 80 year old dad also cannot remember this soy sauce chicken rice before. In my impression (and their's too), the 2 shops Chiew / Chew Kee 钊记 are supposedly the pioneers of soy sauce chicken rice (google yourself for their ”war“ story). The Michelin 1 star brand Liao Fan Hawker Chan 了凡 is a later story, which a few years ago (or last year???) I wanted to go and try but the stall was not opened, and I did not want to go to the air-con one to try... 

Anyway, I bought the Hai Kee soy sauce chicken rice basic box, which cost SGD3.80. The paper box ups the appearance by a level already. And the contents did not disappoint either. Meat is NOT soft, but is tender. I don't really agree to some food reviewers who insists their chicken meat MUST be soft, else it is not up to standard. For my preference, the chicken meat should be "tender" instead of "soft" (nor too dry too).  Sometimes the type of chicken also makes the difference, for example the kampung chicken will have slightly more "compact" or "tightened" texture than the mass-reared chicken.  This one is quite tender and comes in quite big chunks. The braise sauce is on the savoury side which is nice. Rice is on the slightly oiler and stronger aroma and taste side, and not too soft too.  Recommended to go and try. However, this is still not my top soy sauce chicken, as that stall is in my pocket list, hahaha...

Xiang Piao Piao Dasheen ( Taro ) Flavor MilkTea 香飘飘 经典系 香芋味奶茶

"Follow me the left hand, right hand for 1 slow motion. Right hand, left hand, slow motion repeat..." ... Roughly about SGD1 per cup, this is a very nice cup of taro flavoured milk tea. I have not tried to make a hot cup yet, as the cold version is always in my mind when I wanted to drink this. Bought this from ezBuy. Apologies for accidentally leaving out the part on opening and pouring out the nata de coco. I took the advise of other reviewers to NOT put in the sugar, and indeed, that is a good advice.