Kheng Nam Lee Eating HouseTeochew Porridge

Wah it seems like it's been a really long time since I updated my blog. I've been quite busy these past few days. Well no matter, I've been trying to find new places to blog about, and upon my cousin's request, I shall soon blog about some muslim stalls I guess.

A short while back when Terence and I were supposed to pick Sherry up from Zouk, so we ventured to this coffee shop nearby to try their teochew porridge while waiting for her to be done. It's a small corner coffee shop by the side of the road, and it only serves, what else but teochew porridge. We were there at about 1.30am and people were starting to stream in. From old folks to young guns, can find them all here. Must be quite popular since there's such a crowd.

We stepped into the shop and took a look at what was available. Your standard teochew porridge fare I guess. After fussing over what we should eat we decided on pig's trotters, fish cakes, hae bee hiam (small prawns), mei cai(preserved/salted vegetables) and tau kee (beancurd skin). With teochew porridge you never really have to wait. They just dish out the food and serve you on the spot, so no waiting time.

I took individual photos of all the food but I was lazy to upload all of them so lets just have a group photo. I felt that the food was decent. The pig's trotters and fish cakes were notable mentions though. The fish cakes had stuff inside, crunchy bits you could call them. Like spring onions or something. Nice added bite. Pig's trotters was soft and not too fatty. Don't really like it when there's too much fats jiggling around. Haha.

The meal set us back $16. I thought it was alright considering that we had so many dishes including the pig's trotters. Worth a try especially if after clubbing at Zouk.

Kheng Nam Lee Eating House Teochew Porridge
715/717 Havelock Road
Opening Hours: 1000 - 0400

Chai Chee Pork Porridge

Normally when you mention Bedok 85 to someone, the first thing that will come to their minds is ba chor mee. Well, that's what made this hawker centre famous anyway. Flocks of people go to Bedok North Block 85 for the famous ba chor mee. And it's always highly contested about which stall is better. Well, today we're not gonna talk about the ba chor mee at Bedok 85, instead we're gonna talk about something slightly different. It still has pork in it, but no noodles.

Located inside the famous bedok north block 85 hawker centre, is this porridge gem called Chai Chee Pork Porridge. Run by an elderly couple, they have won numerous awards and been featured on various television programmes. Now what makes this porridge so special? Terence and I had to find out.

We both ordered pork porridge with egg. Took awhile to arrive. They're pretty popular, even at 2am there are still a lot of people ordering their porridge. Upon arrival I scrutinized the porridge, doesn't look much different from normal porridges you eat elsewhere. It was garnished with fried dough fritters(you tiao or you zhar kway) and lots of spring onions. The egg is cracked and poured into the bowl before the hot porridge is poured over it. Gotta give it a good stir to break up the egg and mix it in with the porridge.

Ok! Taste test time! First mouthful.... I was like "WOW". The flavour just fills your mouth! People associate porridge with bland food, but this porridge here is way way tastier than bland. It's got a semi smooth consistency and is full of juicy homemade pork balls and pork slices. The pork balls are basically minced pork clumped together. It's usually seasoned with oil, cornstarch, salt and pepper. My mom personally likes to add chestnuts to it to give it more bite. The meat is so soft, very easy to bite even if you're using false teeth. The spring onions also complement the flavour.As always, I like my food spicy so I added lots of pepper to give it the kick I like.

They have a few types of porridge like pork, fish and century egg. A normal bowl of porridge costs $3 and it's $0.50 to add an egg. You can also add ingredients for another $1 or $2. Bedok 85 is not only about ba chor mee after all, this is definitely worth a try.

Chai Chee Pork Porridge
Bedok North Street 4 Block 85 Market and Food Centre (next to Bedok North Police Station)
Opening hours: 1730 to 0300 (closed fornightly, no fixed day)

Kim Moh Restaurant Beef Noodles

Maybe not many people have heard of Kim Moh Restaurant, but lately they've been gaining more popularity for their Hainanese cuisine. The word has been spreading around and people are even travelling from jurong and woodlands to eat at this homely restaurant. Even makan sutra featured this restaurant. Located in the Laguna Park Estate along marine parade road, not many people would know about the restaurant unless through recommendations from friends or the internet etc.

Although they serve hainanese zhi char, in the afternoon you can also have their hainanese beef noodles. It's one of their specialties, and they proudly put up past newspaper articles on their beef noodles. Note that this beef noodles is different from their beef horfun so don't order the wrong dish!

It's available in both soup and dry versions, and served with thick bee hoon. I always eat the dry version when I'm there though. Like most dry beef noodles we eat at food courts, Kim Moh's version is also a served with a thick starchy sauce. However, the sauce tastes very different from the regular beef noodles. It's got a herbal and nutty taste to it, very unique and different from other beef noodles. The noodles are nicely done(can't really go wrong with thick bee hoon right?) and the beef is not too chewy or tough. The soup served also has a herbal taste to it. Lastly, the chilli served with the dish is very powerful! It's super spicy so eat with caution. I usually like to throw my chilli into the bowl and mix it together with the noodles, gives it the kick which I love.

A bowl of their dry beef noodles costs $5.50. Not sure if the soup version costs the same because I've never eat it. You can also get other yummies like the stomach and tendon to add to your bowl of noodles. That costs $6.50 per bowl. Food here can be a little more pricey than your regular zhi char fare, but the food served here is good, plus it's an air conditioned restaurant. If you're in the east, specifically marine parade, give this place a try. I'm sure you won't regret. Lunch is not that crowded, but dinner can get quite packed. Best to make reservations if you're coming on weekends. I will blog about their hainanese cuisine the next time I eat there.

Kim Moh Restaurant
Laguna Park Block 5000F Marine Parade Road #01-22/23 S449289
Tel: 64428900
Opening hours: 1130 - 1430 and 1730- 2130

Olive Rice

Ok its been a long time since I last posted about something I've cooked. So today I shall share with everyone my mom's olive rice recipe. Its a really simple recipe that is cooked in a flash. A great one meal dish, especially if you're having friends over and don't have enough time to prepare elaborate dishes. Here's what you need:

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice
10 cloves garlic, minced (you can add more if you like)
1 tbsp oil
300g minced pork (can use chicken but pork tastes nicer)
2 slightly heaped tbsp preserved olive vegetables

A
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
pepper to taste
1 tbsp oyster sauce

B
roasted cashew nuts
chilli padi, sliced

For those wonder what is preserved olive vegetables, here's a picture:

I'm not sure what it's chinese name is, I just know it as preserved olive vegetables.

First, cook the rice in an electric rice cooker. Use slightly less water than normal.


Heat oil in a wok. Fry garlic till lightly brown. Add in meat and preserved olive vegetables and fry till meat is almost cooked. Add in the ingredients listed in A and stir-fry until meat is cooked.

Add the ingredients to the cooked rice.

Mix the ingredients with the rice.

Make sure the ingredients and rice are thoroughly mixed.

Serve and garnish with ingredients list in B. (I didn't have roasted cashews today so couldn't use it to garnish, and I ran out of chilli padi so had to use normal chilli)

There you have it, a really simple dish to make which is guaranteed to be tasty and yummy. Easy to make, even for people who seldom cook. You can make it in advance and just leave in the rice cooker to keep warm.

Recipe serves 4 people

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles

Singapore is small and thankfully so, seeing that people will go anywhere for food. If there's one thing that brings most people together, it is food anyway. Most of us enjoy food anyway, agreed? So it's no surprise that a popular shop like Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles has customers from all over Singapore. This shop is so popular that they even have a group of Japanese business men that have been regularly patronizing their stall for the past 15 years!

I've been psychoing Terence to try this prawn noodles as I swore it is better than Beach Road Prawn Mee and River South Prawn Mee. Finally yesterday Terence and I went to Pek Kio market where this prawn noodle gem is located. We thought we couldn't make it as this shop closes pretty early, thankfully we made it just in time(We were one of the last few customers). And we were privileged to get to speak to the owner of the shop. A friendly man who is already hitting 70, he shared with us about the time he started out after taking over from his father, to his loyal customers and even his kids. Wah Kee is tradition, when this uncle took over his father's business it was 1968, so I wonder when his father started the business? After World War 2 maybe. So they've got over 40 years of experience in making prawn noodles!

Business for them starts at 5am when they start to prepare the stock. It is boiled for several hours(not sure what are the exact ingredients though, he didn't say). They start selling their prawn noodles at 7 plus and are usually done by 2pm. The uncle told us that he doesn't keep any left over soup, it is all thrown away at the end of the day and he makes a new batch the next day. He insists everything must be fresh or else it will not taste as good(what a waste of good soup though, can give me la haha)

If you're gonna take in all that cholesterol might as well go all the way right? So we ordered the $10 bowl of noodles. It arrived in 2 portions, the noodles in the bowl, and the prawns in the mini wok. Note that the soup served with the noodles and the soup served with the prawns taste different. The soup served with the prawns is much richer and fragrant. The auntie was nice and offered to top up our soup. =D

Having tried some of the better prawn noodles out there, I must say this one has a unique taste to it's soup. It is tasty in its own right, but not as salty as the others that kinda make you feel thirsty after drinking it. The uncle said that he did not believe in using MSG to flavour his food, and that he wanted his soup to taste special so that people will always come back for more. I couldn't agree more. He also joked that some people often ask him if he put something funny in the soup, like a chemical or drug, because if they go without his noodles for more than a week they will feel weird and will pop back to his stall for their regular dose.

For $10 you get 3 hugeass prawns! These prawns seriously out of this world. I didn't manage to capture it, but there's like a lot of prawn roe on these things, not to mention that the prawns are really fresh and succulent. The uncle revealed that why he can offer so many prawns for this price is because he has set up shop for so long, and is under the old rent scheme. Not to mention that he doesn't want to short change his customers.

Besides their wonderful soup and prawns, the noodles served are also very good. It is available in both soup and dry versions, and there are a few types of noodles to choose from. I will definitely be back. Ok this looks like a pretty long entry, but I just had to blog about what the uncle said la. =)

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles
Blk 41A Cambridge Road Hawker Centre (Pek Kio Market)
#01-15
Opening Hours: 7am - 2pm

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup

In the past while I was still in Polytechnic I only visited the same few places for supper. It was usually prata at simpang or mee goreng pattaya at siglap. Some how never got around to trying other stuff. Likewise, before I entered national service(NS), I never ate all the weird stuff like pig offals. Tried them before and found them kinda disgusting. Suddenly during NS though my taste buds started to change. I started to appreciate the kidney, liver, intestines etc. And that when I started to truly enjoy pigs organ soup!

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup has been around for a while. They're pretty popular amongst Singaporeans and have a few branches. You can find them at places like Lavender and Macpherson. Went to the Macpherson branch on Thursday for some supper. Even at 2am this place is still pretty crowded. It's one of the few stalls left open so late and night and there are a lot of people sitting in the area, mostly eating their pig organ soup.

The soup arrived hot but the rice was kind of cold. Oh well, just pour some soup over it I guess. Inside this yummy bowl of salty broth you can find pieces of meat, stomach, liver, pork balls, tofu and salted vegetables.

Note to self: Cannot eat this stuff too often. The liver is good for you because it contains high amounts of iron but because the soup has a high sodium content, not so good for stuff like high blood pressure. Eat in moderation I say. Or you can just eat the liver and don't drink the soup, but that would be the same now would it?

If you enjoy eating pigs organs this is a real treat, lots of juicy yummy stuff inside, coupled with a good bowl of salty broth, and a slightly sweetish dip of chilli sauce. Everything was gone really fast, not even a drop of soup left! One of the better pig organ soups around, unhealthy but gooooooood. My only complaint? That the rice was cold.

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup
Macpherson Food Centre (Along Pipit road)
Opening Hours: 1200 to 0400

Empress Place Beef Kway Teow

Yesterday went for dinner at LTN Eating House. Somehow we always end up eating there because it's close to home, but there are some great stalls there. One such stall is Empress Place Beef Kway Teow. Run by David Lim, who I affectionately call Uncle David. He's a damn nice guy la, lets me freely walk into his kitchen and help myself to his soup every time. One day people might mistake me for his worker! Haha. Can see Uncle David using his mobile phone in front of his shop in the picture.

Uncle David offers both soup and dry versions of his beef kway teow. You can also choose from meat, beef ball, tripe etc. If you're greedy or just like all the beefy stuff you can have everything. Just costs you more thats all. Oh yes Uncle David only serves kway teow, he doesn't have any other types of noodles. Normally when you go out and eat beef noodles at a food court and you order dry beef noodles what you'd get is a starchy sauce with noodles. His version though, is some what different. There is no starchy sauce, instead uncle David uses chilli sauce, oil and what not to make his dry version of beef kway teow. What you get is a spicy and fragrant bowl of kway teow.

The great thing about Uncle David's beef kway teow is the beef! It's super tender unlike the chewy and tough beef you normally get at normal beef noodle stalls. Not to mention that he makes his own chilli sauce which totally compliments the meal. And last but not least is the lovely rich beef soup. All the yummy goodness and taste of beef. Takes days to make his soup man. Luckily can always ask him for refills of soup! He will gladly oblige all the time.

Damage for a bowl of dry beef and ball kway teow is $5. A bit more pricey than normal beef noodles but I think it's totally worth it. His beef is so good! His soup version is also very good.

Empress Place Beef Kway Teow
LTN Eating House along siglap (I don't know the exact address)
Next to NTUC and starbucks is just opposite
Operating hours: 1200-Night time (usually around 2200)

The Coffee Showcase

After dinner we wanted to go to Ren Ren Desserts for some almond cream or something but sadly by the time we reached it was already closed. Since Terence already paid for parking, better not waste it. Decided to go to the Hong Kong Cafe at Roxy Square but while walking there this shop caught our eye and so we ended up at The Coffee Showcase a short walk down from Katong Shopping Centre.

The Coffee Showcase is a small cafe/bistro serving western food and drinks. They also have cakes and other desserts like chocolate fondue. Terence ordered an american cheesecake and root beer float while Wanjun ordered a coffee alfredo(its basically a affogato) and I ordered a coffee float.

First came the cheesecake. The presentation was pretty nice, but I guess sometimes it doesn't really matter cause it ends up in your stomach anyway! But some people can be quite particular about this kinda thing though. Cake was pretty good. Your standard heavy and rich cheese cake.

The coffee alfredo is their shops version of an affogato which is basically an espresso shot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Theirs is served with mövenpick ice cream which is quite yummy. The coffee float as show below is somewhat similar, just that it's a double shot of espresso with a scoop of mövenpick ice cream, and is served cold whereas the alfredo is hot. Their coffee is good, not too bitter without sugar and it's got a pretty good aroma. If I'm not wrong they use Illy brand coffee which is a pretty good brand for brewed coffee.

Not sure how Terence's root beer float tasted but I'm sure thats pretty standard anywhere you go. Though we were only there for drinks but we saw some teens eating, looked pretty appetizing and portions were of decent size. The average prices of drinks are about $3.50 and food is abt $6. Chocolate fondue is $8. This is a cheaper alternative to coffee bean or starbucks, but the coffee served is just as good or even better!

The Coffee Showcase
45 East Coast Road S345765
Opening Hours: 1130 to 2130
Closed on Monday

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee

This last week or so has been a some what healthy week man. Ok for those wondering about my expanding waistline, I have been exercising ok? Though not the most intensive kinda stuff but still doing my bit to watch the weight. Can't believe I exercised so many days in a row. Played tennis, golf, jog and swam for like 5 days in a row? I've even done 2 sports in a day too. So can still afford to eat suppers for now. Haha.

Anyway went to Hong Kong Street Chun Kee at bukit merah for dinner yesterday with Wanjun and Terence. Seemed like telepathy as all of us thought of eating their fish meat been hoon and sum lau hor fun. Arrived at around 7.15pm and was quite crowded as usual, though we still managed to find seats. This place is a zhi char shop but it's quite famous for it's fish meat bee hoon and sum lau hor fun. I think they have a few other outlets as well.

We ordered our standard trio which is fish meat bee hoon, sum lau hor fun and hong kong kailan with garlic, but they have other nice dishes like prawn paste chicken(har chong gai).

First up was the kailan. It was served hot man, sorta burnt my tongue while greedily trying to shove a whole stalk in my mouth. The vegetables are prepared well, not overcooked so its nice and crunchy, plus the garlic sauce is very tasty! We like to take out the vegetables from the fish bee hoon and coat it in the garlic sauce. =)

Next came the sum lau hor fun. This dish usually arrives earlier than the fish bee hoon, guess the soup takes longer to prepare due to the longer cooking process. But it's a good way to get the ball rolling, curbs our hunger for a bit before the main dish! Fresh fish slices cooked with lots of beansprouts(tau geh) and hor fun kway teow. It's a very neutral tasting dish, simple and not too tasty. Can appreciate the fresh fish! At this point Wanjun claimed that she was very hungry and that she could finish the whole bowl of fish bee hoon when it came. She also declared that she will never and I mean NEVER be full. We shall see.....

Finally the main dish arrived. Since young I've used to wonder why the soup was a white milky colour. I realised that some stalls use evaporated milk when making the soup, which gives the soup sweetish tinge and milky flavour. Some people like that though I'm not particularly fond of the sweetness. Later on however my brother told me that milky colour is actually caused by the cooking process. He said something about using a very high heat to cook the stock and fish that causes this to happen. I read the famous food blogger ieatishootipost's blog and he reviewed this place before. Apparently the high heat cooking the stock and oil causes emulsion thats why the soup turns white! Somehow this method seems more authentic to me than adding milk to the soup. Takes more skill anyway. The chunks of fish are lightly fried and juicy. Some pieces might have small bones though, but that's quite rare. The soup is good stuff man... They add chinese rice wine to it that makes it even more delicious. Now that I know how it's made, can't say its very healthy, but still very yummy!

So far this is probably one of the best fish bee hoon soups I've had. I always patronize this place, either the bukit merah outlet or the one near bedok camp. They serve good food and the prices are decent. Yesterday's dinner set us back $24, which equates to $8 per person. Not bad for the amount of food we ate. Towards the end of the meal Terence and I were already very full and couldn't eat anymore. Wanjun on the other hand was still going strong. She had a point to prove and couldn't lose face to Terence after making those claims. Finally though on her last bowl of bee hoon, she succumbed to what I call "bursting to the point of merlion" or "buttpom" for short. She fell short of her goal but I must applaud her for her ability to eat so much and never grow fat! Why can't I be like that too? =(

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee
Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 #01-90
6271 8484 / 6272 8484
Opening Hours: 1130-1430 and 1700-2200 (I think)

Lai Lai Beef Noodles a.k.a Lai Lai Family Restaurant

I'm running out of places to go for supper at the moment! Need to look for new places to try before I run out of things to blog about. Haha. Well this next supper session brings us to the bugis area. Liang Seah Street to be exact. A popular area now for all those steamboats since marina bay is now defunct. Once again my "brilliant" photography skills and wonderful 2 mega pixel handphone camera don't do the pictures much justice so please bear with me. If someone is willing to volunteer to take photos for me I'd be more than happy. Haha.

I read about this place online, can't remember if it was through someones blog or some food directory. Anyway, we ended up at Lai Lai Beef Noodles/Lai Lai Family Restaurant. They've got a cute menu, very colourful and well detailed. I'm surprised they actually have a lot of things to eat and drink. Prices are a bit steep though, guess maybe cause its located somewhat near town area.

A friendly guy approached us and took our orders, not sure if he's mainland chinese or local. He didn't have a china accent though, and spoke a little english so I'm not sure. Thought it might be another horrific experience trying to communicate with him (remember our visit to Cai Gen Xiang?) but thankfully with him able to speak some english and a well illustrated menu we were able to get by. Terence ordered pork cutlet curry rice while I opted for, as the name of the shop suggests, the beef noodles. I reckon its their specialty anyway otherwise what for call it Lai Lai Beef Noodles.

The beef noodles is available in soup or dry, and you can choose from a few different types of noodles like kway teow, taiwan noodles and potato noodles. The guy recommended the taiwan noodles as he said that was their specialty. It's available in 3 sizes, small medium and large. You can also have it with a set meal that consists of the beef noodles, a drink and a side dish of your choice. You can also add extra stuff like egg and some other beef stuff.

Short wait later and the food arrived. On first glance, it's something like the braised beef noodles Terence ate at Cai Gen Xiang. Ok soup taste test first! Very important that the soup must taste good. Had to take 2 spoonfuls to confirm. It's a clear beef stock which is a little spicy. Quite rich and tasty! I like! Noodles were like those handmade noodles, quite firm texture so the bite is quite good. Hong Shao = Braised right? I'm not sure but the beef chunks were nice and tender. It might be beef shin or something I'm not sure. Anyway some of the beef chunks have these sinewy bits inside. Its kinda like gelatine or something. Some people like my dad like this a lot. No preference for me though. Overall I think this was a good bowl of noodles. Had the small sized bowl but it was still very filling. Can't afford to eat it all the time though.

Terence's curry rice was basically a japanese mild curry with pork katsu. Had a few carrots and potatoes in it too. Terence noted that they served it with japanese rice instead of normal rice which is a good thing. The cutlet was also quite big and was a thick juicy cut too. The curry was SOP instant japanese curry though, tastes like something everyone can make, maybe that's just the way japanese curry is. Should go to Japan one day and see if their curry tastes the same. Saw some jap dramas and they also use the instant curry blocks to make their curries. It was quite worth it in my opinion though as it costs just a dollar more than just having the cutlet alone without anything.

Lastly I ordered a really expensive ice blended bubble tea. The norm nowadays at street side stalls range between $1 to $1.50 but this thing here costs a whooping $3.80! Well can't blame la its a restaurant anyway. Instead of being served with pearls its served with konyaku jelly instead. Quite standard fare like most bubble tea shops so nothing to shout about.

My final take on this place? Can return again but not too often la, quite expensive for a supper joint. Was very satisfied with the beef noodles. Food costs anything between $5-$15 bucks and drinks cost an average of $3-$4.

Anyway anyone got any supper joints to recommend? Please let me know ok? Thanks so much!

Lai Lai Beef Noodles/ Lai Lai Family Restaurant
20A/B Liang Seah Street
Opening Hours: 1130 - 0300 (last order 0230)

Ren Ren Desserts

Mention Katong Shopping Centre to people nowadays and normally people will remember it as the place to go for cheap lan gaming or pool. The older generation will probably fondly remember it as the hip place to be in like the 70s-80s. It is also the place where they filmed a scene for the movie "The Maid" by Kelvin Tong if I am not wrong. But there are a few places to eat in Katong Shopping Centre too. The food court where they filmed the scene for "The Maid" has some cheap and good food. And nearby we have Ren Ren Desserts, which is just a few shops away.

It's just a small air conditioned stall with a few tables. I think the stall is less than a year old and I've been wanting to test their stuff for awhile now but never got the chance to. So since I was at Katong having dinner with my parents, managed to coax them into having dessert with me! Can see the back of my dad's head in the picture. Haha.

By the time we got there it was almost 9pm and most of their desserts were sold out! Gee I guess they're pretty popular huh? Anyway they sell those traditional chinese desserts like almond cream, tang yuan(glutinous rice balls), orh nee(yam paste), seasame cream etc, and some non traditional desserts like pulut hitam(unpolished black rice) with ice cream and mango ice.

Quite a few desserts on the menu to choose from. They actually pasted all the pictures of their desserts on the wall but I forgot to take a picture of that. I did get a shot of their banner though. Any pictures on the wall pasted with a red circle with a X means the dessert is sold out for the day, so at least you know what is available.

At the side of the shop entrance is a poster which states that they are recommended in some Japanese and Taiwanese magazines or newspapers. There was an article was in Japanese so I couldn't read what was written. Guess they have some good publicity overseas. Gee they must be kinda popular huh? Well we would soon know the verdict. A friendly old man who greeted us in cantonese took our orders. Mom ordered red bean cream with ginko nuts, Dad ordered longan with white fungus and I ordered sesame cream.

Once again I was lazy to take individual shots, anyway just using my handphone camera to take all my pictures so can't expect too much la huh? Verdict on their desserts? If you have a really sweet tooth, you probably wouldn't take well to their traditional chinese desserts cause it's not too sweet. Mom and Dad love it though, they prefer stuff thats not too sweet. I don't mind either, seeing that my taste buds these days have kinda changed.

Lets start with what I had, which was the seasame cream. Apparently this stuff is good for your hair, supposedly makes your hair darker. Good for people with white hair! First taste and you might find it a tad bit bitter(its sort of sweet with a bitter aftertaste), but it kinda grows on you. With each mouthful I took I seemed to enjoy and appreciate the taste more. The cream was very smooth like a thick soup. It's also got toasted seasame seeds inside for that little bit of bite. Ended up enjoying every last drop of it.

The red bean cream with ginko nuts was sweetish with a taste of mandarin so it was a bit tangy. Consistency wasn't as smooth as the seasame cause you can taste the red bean bits, it was also thicker than the seasame cream and probably more filling. It also had lots of ginko nuts inside which is good for the brain! Mom was quite pleased that it wasn't too sweet like some others we've tasted before.

Finally we have the longan with white fungus. It's essentially like cheng tng because the soup is a longan based soup, just not so sweet like the normal ones. Tasted a bit different from the normal cheng tng but was refreshing. It also had a lot of munchies in it just like cheng tng, though not the same kind of ingredients though.

The damage for all of these above mentioned desserts? Less than $6! That's bang for buck eh? Well I thought so la, cheaper than some places like ah chews and just as nice. The average price of desserts there are about $1.80, so its very reasonable. Definitely must come back to try their other desserts next time.

Ren Ren Desserts
Katong Shopping Centre B1 (near the air conditioned food court at the corner)
865 Mountbatten Road

Wan Dou Sek 126 Dim sum

Geylang is a treasure trove! Why I say that? Not because of all the hidden "gems" lurking around Lor 6-20+ but because of the great amount of good food you can find in the area! Beef horfun, tau huay, pig organ soup... The list goes on and on...

Friday night went with Terence, Wanjun, Sherry and Adrian to Timbre for drinks and some live band music. And to cap off the night we made our way to Wan Dou Sek (126) at Geylang for dim sum. Apparently everyone is trying to watch their weight. All scared to grow fat! Me included of course. Haha. Wan Dou Sek not like those traditional push cart dim sum we used to find (those are really rare now by the way), or the classy upmarket restaurants like Crystal Jade. It's just a small air conditioned coffee shop that serves pretty darn good dim sum. Sure it's appearance may not look appealing to some but still the shop is packed full with people all waiting to appease their supper cravings. Actually wanted to check out the place a few days earlier but Terence was saying it's kinda bo hua(not value for money? is there a closer translation? can't think of any) if just the 2 of us ate there. Can't sample more food without spending more money, plus we expand our waistlines too due to all the excess eating. Need to share the joy with others!

One of my favourite dishes at dim sum places is century egg porridge. Thought it should be something I should try but sadly was forced to try their duck porridge instead. Well to be fair the duck porridge was pretty good. Should have swiped some of Sherry and Adrian's century egg porridge though.

The duck porridge came served in a mini claypot. It was still bubbling when served, not sure if you can see the bubbles from the picture above. Burnt my tongue while tasting the darn thing! Must remember to let it cool a bit more the next time before eating. Porridge was pretty good. Very tasty with lots of bite sized pieces of duck inside. Got to mix the sauce and porridge well to balance out the flavour. It doesn't have the smooth consistency like the porridge at Crystal Jade, but most places don't make their porridge that way anyway. It's still all good, goes down easily without much biting. =) The portion is kinda small though, not something you'd have for dinner unless you have like 2 bowls or something?

These 3 dishes came together, was lazy to take individual shots cause everyone was hungry anyway. All the hungry people were hovering over the food with chopsticks in hand waiting to strike while I took this photo. A lot of pressure to get it done quickly! Haha. Anyway it's carrot cake, chicken wings and "tennis balls". Interesting name eh "tennis balls"? It's actually deep fried chicken & cheese. Very nice but sinful! Adrian is a chicken wing man, loves the stuff so he had to order it. Another sinful/oily dish. Yet it was really crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside! Nice seasoning gave it good flavour. The carrot cake is also fried if I'm not wrong. Or pan fried? Soft and moist and goes well with the chilli sauce given. I think it also had bits of hei bee(small dried shrimp) inside for extra bite and flavour.

Siew mai is one of Terence's must haves along with carrot cake. He always orders it when we go to dim sum places. These siew mais were great. The skin didn't turn hard even though it was left there for quite awhile. I had the honour of devouring the last one! =D Made with juicy pork and prawns I thought it was absolutely yummy!
Last but not least, one of my favourites! Prawns wrapped in beancurd skin. Wah this was a treat for me. Haven't had such stuff in awhile. It was deep fried to perfection! So cui cui(crispy?) on the outside, and the rush of flavours that go into your mouth when you sink your teeth in.... MAN!! Shiok! The prawns were good man, very firm and crunchy. Argh I'm like salivating now....

In conclusion, if you ever need to have your dim sum cravings satisfied in the wee hours of the morning or any time of the day for that matter, Wan Dou Sek is a good place to come to. Don't expect it to be cheap just cause it's a coffee shop located in seedy geylang though. Average price per plate is about $4. Even when we went at around 2am the place was still very crowded, so you can see their pretty popular. Seems like its always crowded. They're opened 24 hours a day 7 days a week!(don't they need a break? I have no idea man) Oh ya they serve their drinks in those round plastic recyclable containers so the drinks are pretty large. Though it was kinda cute serving drinks that way.

Wan Dou Sek (126) Eating House
126 Sims Ave
Opening Hours: 24 hrs daily

Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle

At east coast park you can find quite a number of good food stalls at the lagoon hawker centre. One such stall is Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle. They're pretty popular and have been around for a long time. They've won numerous awards too and have been interviewed by newspapers and tv programmes like Makansutra, Coffee Talk & Hawker Woks etc. They normally open for business around 1200-1230. If you were to go around that time it shouldn't be so crowded. But normally you will find a queue waiting to buy their wantan noodles at most times of the day.

Though most people will eat the normal wantan mee, I always order the shui jiao char shao mee. More shiok to eat the shui jiao than wantan la, its bigger and has prawns in it! Haha. The thing about Hwa Kee's noodles is that they add a sweet sauce on their noodles. Something like e char siew sauce you have with your char siew rice. You can ask for less sauce or no sauce if you don't like a sweetish tinge to your noodles.

Overall their noodles are quite nice. It's not overcooked or soft, and their chilli is good. Not that spicy so I normally ask for more chilli. Other than the noodles, the two other important elements which is the char siew and wantan are also good. The char siew is juicy and sometimes when you can get ends with the slightly burnt bits its a treat. Very tasty! The wantan skin is not thick or doughy like some others I've eaten before, and there is a decent amount of tasty pork inside. But I still prefer shui jiao to wantans.

It's $3 for a regular plate of wantan mee and $4 for the shui jiao char shao mee. They have other things on their menu too but I always have the usual. Definitely a must try if your at East Coast Park!

Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle
Lagoon Food Village Stall no. 45
East Coast Park
Opening hours: 1200-2200(I think)
Closed on Wednesdays

Turtle House Seafood Restaurant

After ice cream at ice cream chefs, Terence and I proceeded to Guillemard road for dinner at Turtle House Seafood Restaurant.

As the sign board states, it's a turtle soup shop! And I've been craving for turtle for a while now. Many previous attempts made to go to my favourite turtle soup restaurant at Tai Thong Cresent have failed so since there was this chance to eat turtle, though not at my favourite place, I grabbed it immediately!

Both Terence and I have never been here before. Essentially it's a zhi char restaurant that specializes in exotic meats like turtle and crocodile. You can still get your normal stuff like fu yong omelet, hotplate tofu etc. But as the sign puts, "Turtle House", so should eat the turtle soup right? Wah they have many different variations of their turtle soup man. You can get everything from just the meat and cartilage to the intestines/offals and turtle eggs etc. I think the most expensive turtle dish is like $60! Probably includes everything inside though. We just settled on the cheapest fare though, didn't wanna break the bank on one meal.

Lo and behold!~ After a short wait the turtle soup came! Shared a bowl of rice because we were contemplating on having supper later. Soup was piping hot when served. Took a taste before deciding to add some wine into the soup. The soup was not bad, but doesn't have much herbs taste. Also, it has quite a strong turtle smell/taste to it. Maybe they didn't clean or prepare it very well. Wasn't overawed by the meal but it was decent I guess.

Well everything was still devoured and you couldn't find a single drop of soup left in the bowl. I like soups. =) The meal set us back almost $40 cause each bowl of soup was like $14, plus a plate of veg, drinks, wet towels and rice. Not the best I've had but if you want a quick decent turtle fix later in the night I guess this is one of the places to go. A bit more pricey than most other turtle places though. It opens til midnight everyday.

Turtle House Seafood Restaurant
403 Guillemard Road (off Lor 36)
Opening hrs: 1130-0000
www.liveturtle.com

Ice Cream Chefs

Ok have been visiting a lot of places but haven't had the time to update my blog. Past few days were very eventful. Aside from a lot of eating, met with quite a few peeps that I haven't seen a while too. On Thursday went to Ice Cream Chefs for coffee and ice cream with Terence and Sherry. Ice Cream Chefs has been around for awhile now I reckon, always tell myself to go try it one day whenever I pass by in the bus or car. Finally the chance came when I managed to "psycho" Terence, who in turn forced Sherry to go. Haha.

Ice Cream Chefs is a small shop located near siglap. Not much seating area, just a few tables inside and outside the shop. We were lucky to get the last table when we got there. Quite popular with students (the shop was filled with them there). There were a lot of takeaway patrons too. Ice cream is a universal crowd pleaser, people of all ages love it and its great comfort food too. I forgot to take a photo of their shop cause I was too busy going "gaga" over all the different types of ice cream and toppings. They can "smash" in your toppings into the ice cream over their "chef's rock" btw, it looks pretty cool. Terence and I just went for the plain double scoop ice cream, while Sherry made her usual "I'm fat" comment and refused to order ice cream.

Terence ordered milo peng and cookies and cream while I opted for passion kiwi fuz and blueberries. Terence's ice cream was already devoured by Sherry by the time I took this shot. Tsk tsk wonder who didn't want any ice cream hmmmm. The passion kiwi fuz I had was a refreshing sherbert ice cream, good for weight watchers cause it's low fat. The blend was nice and you could taste the kiwi bits. Not too sweet as well. The blueberries was a full fat ice cream, very creamy but didn't have that hint of tangy-ness like most other blueberry ice creams I've eaten. It's got bits of blueberries in it too. Don't know which you prefer but personally I'd prefer that bit of tangy-ness in my blueberry ice cream. I got a taste of Terence's cookies and cream ice cream, was really good with chunks of oreo cookies in it. Oh and they serve decent coffee too. Pretty strong but good flavour.

Anyway it's $3.10 for a single scoop and $4.80 for a double scoop. Toppings are $0.70 each. Will be back next time to try their "smashed" ice cream on the rocks. =)

Ice Cream Chefs
520 East Coast Road #01-06 (Ocean Park Building, along main east coast road)
Tel: 64466355
Opening Hours:
Mondays - Thursday: 1pm to 10pm
Friday - Sundays & Eve. of PH: 1pm till late
icecreamchefs.blogspot.com

River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House

Once again Terence and I set out on our quest to find more supper places. We're running out of time as the date for my departure to Australia looms. Hence this explains why we've been having supper for 3-4 days straight now. Next stop is River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House for some prawn noodles.

Before we stepped in we thought it was only a stall at a coffee shop, turns out the whole coffee shop is run by them. It's just two guys running the show at night. One to prepare the noodles, the other serves. They do have a drink stall helper though.

This is a picture of the side of the stall. Basically all around the coffee shop you can see pictures of the prawn noodles and what not. The picture below is their menu. They have all sorts of prawn noodles you can imagine. From your regular small prawn noodles, big prawn noodles, big prawn and pork rib noodles, big prawn and pigs tail noodles, pig intestine noodles etc. A whole wide range to choose from. Was stuck for awhile when I was ordering cause I didn't know which type to choose.

Ok I ended up choose the normal big prawn noodles and Terence chose the big prawn pork rib noodles. I like a beehoon mee mix and Terence went for just yellow mee.

(Big Prawn Pork Rib Noodles)

(Big Prawn Noodles)

They're pretty quick, food arrived shortly after we ordered. How's that for efficient 2 man service? I think Terence made a better choice, seeing that for $1 extra you can have pork ribs. He said the pork ribs were good. =( Anyway the noodles were topped off with fried garlic which kinda compliments the soup. Well I like this kinda stuff. Soup was sweetish due to all the prawn heads and pork bones boiled to create the soup. Definitely good but always tastes better with chilli powder and some chilli padi! Love that stuff man. With the chilli powder and padi in, that hit the spot. Should have asked for more soup but paiseh la. Haha. The noodles were decent, not the best though, a bit overcooked. Prawns on the other hand were fresh and firm, with a nice bite. Terence said the soup wasn't thick (gao) enough but I thought it was good enough. Overall a better than average bowl of prawn noodles. Don't see many prawn noodle shops open till the wee hours of the morning so this place is good when you need your prawn mee fix for supper.

As you can see from the picture above, that's their operating schedule. They're opened like almost 24 hrs everyday except monday. Place was pretty crowded when we went there, and more people were streaming in when we left. Guess the place is pretty popular huh? They seem to have many regular clients, saw quite a few people chatting up the noodle server and asking for their regular stuff. Hmmm hmmm, even middle aged men with mid life crisis driving sports cars also patronize the place.

River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House
31 Tai Thong Cresent (Along Macpherson Road, near Potong Pasir MRT)
Operating hours: 0630 - 0430
Closed on Mondays

OH and did I mention that it's just a few doors down from my favourite turtle soup place? Too bad turtle soup closes early or I'd have that instead!