Is this your neighbourhood Economical Rice stall?

There ought to be a stall in your neighbourhood selling economical rice. But does it offer dishes like the following?

I knew that a plate of white rice wouldn't be sufficient to satisfy me and my hungry stomach, therefore I ended up ordering 2 plates of white rice at one go. Like many other places, you get to choose the type of sauces to go with the plate of white rice'. There's 'Chicken Curry', 'Seafood Curry' and all the sinful gravies, for example: 'Braised Meat Gravy', 'Char Siew' gravy, etc... And you can also mix and match the gravy that you like too. :P Although the plate of rice can be kinda small, but with all the nice mix of 'Chicken Curry' and 'Char Siew' gravy, I don't think I can complain about the great taste at all. (By the way, like many other 'Chinese Curry' out there, the 'Curry' over here isn't spicy at all, but the taste of it is definitely a (+).)

Anyway, I have also ordered 4 different dishes to go with the plates of 'Rice'. 'Stewed Cabbages' This dish also comes with a bit of black fungus and a bit of dried shrimps. For a start, the texture of the cabbages are very soft. When you scoop a spoonful of it into your mouth, there will be this nice taste and chewing sensation, which includes the interesting mix of the chewy shrimps and the sweet watery vegetables. 'Sauteed Potatoes with Mixed Vegetables' Like the good old western food sold in my 'Primary School' back then. This dish also comes vegetables like 'Peas', 'Carrots' and 'Corn'. The texture of the 'Potatoes' are neither 'Soft' nor 'Crunchy'. Although the taste is there, but I would prefer it to be much more 'Crunchy'. 'Meat Ball in Onion Gravy' Loved the 'Meat Ball' over here. Similar to it's competitor nearby, they also have this 'Meaty' dish over here. The 'Minced Meat' are firmly sticking together and as you throw a bit of it into your mouth, the chewy texture and the nice meaty taste just make you feel like continue chewing on and on. :D (By the way, the competitor that I'm referring over here would be '夜上海潮州粥', which is located in another coffee shop located on the other end of the same building. Click here to read more about it.)

'Pork Chop' As for the 'Pork Chop' over here, it's served in a pool of 'Gravy'. Therefore, if you are too used to the firm and chewy 'Pork Chop', you will be very disappointed. Although the 'Pork Chop' over here are chewy, but they are just not firm enough for my liking. Even though it also comes with the nice taste of the 'Pork Chop' but as compared to the 'Meat Ball' over here, I personally find the 'Meat Ball' to be a much more wiser and delicious choice.

So where can you give all the dishes a nice try?

The name of this stall would be 'Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice'(天天海南咖哩饭). It's located in one of the coffee shop beneath Blk 116 Bukit Merah View.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  10:00 - 21:00
  (Closed on alternate Tuesdays)

* Click here for the location of 'Blk 116 Bukit Merah View' on 'Google Maps'.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get at 'Bukit Merah View'.

Gets more and more chewy...

Noodles are something that I cannot live without. When I'm hungry or extremely hungry, the first type of food that I will be keeping a lookout for would most likely be 'Noodles'.

'Fishball Noodles' + 'Fish Cake' This would be part of my dinner the other day. I will be going through the food items over here one by one.

Even though the portion of 'Kway Teow' that was given were pretty generous, but there isn't a good balance between the 'Kway Teow' and the amount of sauce that was added. The 'Kway Teow' ended up to be a little bit too dry for me. :(

The soup itself isn't fantastic enough, same goes for the fish balls. But, I personally find the homemade fish cake to be pretty interesting.

Regardless of the way they are serving the fish cake over here, it will always ended up to be super chewy. Not forgetting about the fact that the taste of it is pretty fresh too. I personally felt that this is the speciality of this stall as compared to the other items.

So where can you give the nice 'Fish Cake' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Yong Hua Fish Ball Noodles'(荣华鱼圆面). It's located inside 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  Seems to start from lunch hours to dinner time.

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

Simple and Clean...

After going around the island giving all sorts of good delicacies a good try, I need to take a short break from all these fanciful sinful delicious food too. Therefore...

The search for a simple and light delicacy begins. In fact, the choices are pretty much limited and straightforward. What can be as simple and light as a bowl of porridge. They are preparing and selling 3 different types of Porridge over here. And they are the 'Pork Porridge'(猪肉粥), 'Chicken Porridge'(鸡肉粥) and 'Century Egg Porridge'(皮蛋粥). 'Pork Porridge'(猪肉粥) The name itself can be misleading. Even though it's given a name of 'Pork Porridge', the ingredients used are merely a half boiled egg, minced meat, 'You Tiao'(a long golden brown deep-fried Chinese doughnut) topped with a bit of spring onions. If you are looking for a much more fanciful bowl of porridge, you probably would want to give the other porridge stalls nearby a try. Taste wise, probably I have been eating the same bowl of porridge for the last 10+ years or so, therefore I really love the taste of the porridge over here. Trust me, I have given the porridge a try when it's warm or cold and the taste of it still remain to be pretty good. But how to appreciate the taste of this porridge to the maximum? As for myself, I would beat the half boiled egg, stirred all the ingredients vigorously hard so that it will ended up with a light yellowish colour and every mouth will come with a nice taste of porridge topped with a bit of meat, vegetables and egg. No matter how much food I have eaten, my stomach will always have space for the delicious porridge over here.

So where can you give the delicious porridge a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Shi Fu Rou Zhou'(食福肉粥). It's located inside 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  Seems to start from late lunch hours to dinner time.

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

I don't get it...

This is a continuation from the previous post. I am correct, a bowl of porridge couldn't satisfy my 'Big' stomach, therefore time for round 2. And that would be...

'Char Kway Teow'(炒粿条)
Though it's known as 'Char Kway Teow' and most of the time, 'Kway Teow'
and Noodles will be added to it in Singapore. And most of the time, the
'Kway Teow' are bigger in portion. (By the way, if you happen to be travelling
in Malaysia, you can give a different kind of 'Char Kway Teow' a try. XD)

Anyway back to our main topic today. So what's so special about the
'Char Kway Teow' from this stall? Firstly, though it's suppose to be
'Char Kway Teow', but the amount of noodles are much more greater than
the 'Kway Teow'. I love Noodles, therefore this is a plus+ to me. :P
Secondly, the cockles that comes with it are not stinky at all and the
taste is fantastic. (Usually, if the cockles doesn't taste that wonderful,
after giving one or two a try, I tend to shove the rest of them to a
corner.) :D Last but not least, the spicy taste. It's pretty spicy and
the spicy taste blends with the 'Char Kway Teow' wonderfully. Though the
owner of the stall can be pretty slow in preparing and cooking a plate
of 'Char Kway Teow', but for the sake of the delicious taste that you are
getting, queueing up isn't such a big issue after all. :D

So where can you try this delicious plate of 'Char Kway Teow'?

The name of this stall would be '786 Char Kway Teow 炒粿条'.
It's located inside 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.
(I don't really get it why they have added a '786' in the stall
name, can anyone enlighten me please?)

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

Simple Meal, Simple Me

Don't you hate it when there's so many options out there so you to choose. In fact, I was going round and round in circles at a Hawker Centre thinking what should I be having for dinner. I finally decided to...

Go for a simple bowl of 'Sliced Fish Porridge' first.
Hmmm... My luck isn't that bad after all. Though the 'You Tiao' is slightly
a bit oily, but that isn't important. Most importantly, it is still pretty
crispy and it's so good that I ended up finishing the 'You Tiao' much much
before I started digging into the porridge. Porridge wise, the texture is
pretty good and it didn't end up to be too watery, which makes it even much
more better. On top of that, the sliced fish that was added into the
porridge are pretty fresh too. Best of all, the egg was beat into the bowl
directly and I love stirring the egg and the porridge together till it
reaches a yellowish colour. By doing that, I can enjoy the taste of the egg
and the porridge together. :D I wonder how would the side dishes taste like...

So why can you try this?

The name of this stall would be '麗芳粥品'.
It seems to have several outlets island wide but I have only tried the
branch located inside 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

Chinese Mutton Soup

It's getting hot these few days. By pushing my tolerance for a humid weather even much further, I decided to go for a bowl of 'Mutton Soup' for lunch...

'Mutton Soup'
I'm getting this from a Chinese stall in a hawker centre.

Let's take a closer look at the 'Mutton Soup'.
There's mutton balls, mutton belly and mutton meat.

In fact, this is my first encounter in getting mutton belly
in a bowl of soup. The texture and the taste is far more
superior than pork belly that I'm getting in the pig organ soup.

Taste wise, unlike any other mutton soup than you are getting
from a muslim stall, the taste of the soup isn't too spicy. And
the chewy mutton balls and mutton belly have already given me
enough reasons to visit the same stall again. However, that
isn't everything. The taste of the deliciously thick mutton soup
and the generous portion of ingredients that tastes fantastically
wonderful, have capture my heart and soul completely.
(Seriously, if it's open everyday, I don't mind visiting the
same stall over and over again.)

So what other delicacy are they selling?

Here's the menu of the stall.
Basically, they are selling mutton soup only. One of the good
points about this stall would be the flexibility of customising
the mutton soup with the ingredients that you want.
(Though you can customised it, but it's more of selecting the
mutton parts that you would like to add into the 'Mutton Soup'.)

And where can you get this delicacy?

The name of this stall would be "Chai Chuan Tou Yang Rou Tang"(柴船头羊肉汤).
It's located in 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours: 11am - 2:30pm daily (Closed on Sunday and Saturday)
• Be there early. They might ran out of rice or mutton ingredients by 2pm in the afternoon.

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

4 eating or for washing your face?

I suppose most of the locals have eaten 'Yong Tau Foo' in Singapore before. It's basically a store that gives you the option to choose the ingredients that you would either have in a bowl of soup or have it in a dry manner and add ketchup/chilli sauce into the bowl of ingredients. Besides for the bowl of ingredients, you will also be given the choice of having it with a bowl of rice/noodles/rice vermicelli. But you can also choose to have the noodles of rice vermicelli to be added into the bowl of ingredients and mix them together. Either ways, time to move on to the next step...

Biggest 'Yong Tau Foo' bowl in Singapore I was browsing through the web and some of my friends were posting photos of this place and since it's located near my current workplace and my house, I decided to give this place a try. The time is 8:30pm and the stall doesn't seems to be open so I decided to give the other stalls a try. Time is 9:00pm, I was browsing around the place hoping that there would be a stall selling desserts... O.O I saw a long queue outside the opened 'Yong Tau Foo' stall itself... Time to join in the queue too. Looking at the stall wondering how come there's a few bowls placed in front of the stall itself. Suddenly realised that I need to grab the ingredients in a bowl before I queue up... Quickly grab all the ingredients and jump back into the queue again... (==)""" 11 in line... Waited for 20~30 minutes and it's almost my turn but wait, the stall aunty just added a few more types of ingredients... and that look nice... added a few more ingredients to my bowl again... Finally, it's my turn. The stall uncle will ask the question of how would you like the ingredients to be prepared?

I have listed some of the possibilities below.

• Dry
• Soup (With or without vegetables or ikan bilis or green chillies
• Split the ingredients into 2 or more bowls
• etc...

You will also be given the option of having a separate bowl of
noodles/rice vermicelli or you can also choose to have it inside the
big bowl of ingredients. Either ways, rather than trying to squeeze
all the ingredients into a bowl, if you have taken too much ingredients,
that will place all the ingredients into a bigger metal bowl, similar
to what I have shown in this post. In fact, the surface of the bowl
is big enough to cover more than half of my face.

On top of that, the bowl of noodles that I have ordered separately
is full of crispy bits, which is pretty much the same as the sides
of a fried dumpling and I'm loving it. Too bad the bowl of noodles
is much smaller than the bowl of ingredients that I have otherwise
it would be a good satisfying meal. :P

Either ways, I loved the soup. Besides for the sweet taste that most
'Yong Tau Foo' stall has, the soup has a spicy touch to it. Besides
for the taste, the wide variety that the place has is pretty astonishing
too. There's all sorts of pig organs, all types of deep fried stuff, etc...
If I'm not mistaken, they have more than 40 types of ingredients for
you to choose from. ++"""

Well where to get this 'Yong Tau Foo'?

The name of the stall will be 'Soon Li Yong Tau Foo'(顺利娘豆腐). It's located in 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours: Irregular but usually its from midnight onwards daily
• Remember the following, queue up and get your ingredients first, before queueing up for the food. :)

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
^ Click here for some other delicacies that can be found in 'Bukit Merah View Market and
  Food Centre'.

The original taste of Carrot Cake...

I'm not sure whether I'm getting older and older or it's just me, but I sort of miss the good old days where one can get 'Carrot Cake Sticks' from a hawker centre or a market...

But what's a 'carrot cake stick'?
The appearance is pretty much similar as the modern French Fries. Except for the fact that the size is slightly much thicker and shorter and it's brownish in colour. I used to remember those days where I would get 1 big packet and eat slowly... :P Though I don't see much of it nowadays... :( Either ways time to move back to the main topic...

Although this is pretty much the same as the 'Carrot Cake' that you
are getting in a hawker centre but the taste is slightly different.
The texture of the carrot cake is slightly softer and the shape of
the carrot cake reminds me of 'Carrot Cake sticks'. On top of the
texture and the good taste, according to relevant resources, this
is one of the carrot cake stalls in Singapore that is making his own
'Carrot Cake' mixture. Pretty hard to find stalls like this nowadays.
(By the way, though I have placed an order for a plate of 'white
carrot cake', but it still turn out to be a bit brownish... so I
wonder how black or how brownish the black carrot cake will look like.)

So where to get this delicious plate of 'Carrot Cake'?

The name of the stall would be 'Bukit Merah View Carrot Cake'(红山景菜头粿).
It's located in 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours: 7am - 2pm, 6pm - 1am daily

* Click here for the location of 'Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.

Things started off from a place known as...

Shanghai... Before we proceed any further, let us listen to the song "夜上海" from the late 40s.

Isn't it nice? I'm pretty amaze that this song was sang in the late 40s. (Note: this song was twice as old as I was, yet I knew about it, doesn't that make it more interesting?) Sometimes, I will prefer spending some time listening to all these oldies where the lyrics were much more meaningful and much more straight forward than some of the music nowadays. :D So what is the link between this song and our topic today?

Let us take a look at some pictures first.

As far as I could remember, I had been having numerous dinner at this place ever since I was a kid. Whenever we make a trip to the place, there will always be a long queue outside this store. This place only offer 1 kind of food and that would be 'Teochew Porridge'.

The photos in the above shows some of the dishes that we have ordered on that day. The dishes were so good that I had eaten 2 bowls of rice and a bowl of porridge to go with it. In fact up till now, I haven't come across a dish that I don't like from this place. But some of the most recommended dishes of the place would be the salted vegetables, minced meat, meat ball, fish cake, 'Tau Kee (Flat beancurd)', etc...

I finally get to order and try the Meat Ball after making my second trip there last month. Aside from the fact that the Meat Ball is hard on the outside and soft inside, the taste reminds me of the usual minced meat that you can find in a bowl of Fishball noodles. But the Meat Ball was slightly more harder and juicier than minced meat. Trust me if you happen to be in that area, you might want to give this stall a try, especially when the price was pretty cheap too. :P (The dishes in the above only cost me less than S$5 only.)

So what's the link between the song and this place? Because both the title of the song and the tall name has the word "夜上海" in it. In fact the name of the stall was "夜上海潮州粥".

Some additional notes about "夜上海潮州粥":

• They were closed on Tuesdays.
• You can ask for a bowl of curry sauce or braised sauce to go with the rice or porridge.
• Besides the usual rice or porridge, they have a 3rd option that is "Aam", which is porridge without rice grain.
• They are open 24/7 except for every Tuesday so if you are looking for supper, you know where to get it. ;P.

* Click here for the location of this place.