The story of Fishballs...

Although they have only started their business a few months back, but they have made their name loud and clear. Especially to those that are staying near that area.

'Fishball Kway Teow' It comes with a with bowl of soup and an average bowl of 'Kway Teow'(Rice Noodles). Looks pretty normal right, but it can get pretty amazing as you dig into the...

'Fishballs' & 'Fishcake' The 'Fishballs' are pretty amazing. The stall owner that is in his twenties were boasting that flour isn't added throughout the process of making these 'Fishballs' out of 'yellow tail fish', that has pretty much explains why these 'Fishballs' are so chewy and sweet... However, I personally find the slices of 'Fishcake' to be far more interesting than the 'Fishballs'. Their special blend of 'Fishcake' are superb. I wonder how many types of vegetables were needed in order to prepare this delicious 'Fishcake'. By the way, slices of chillies have been added into the fish paste, which ended up becoming these indulging 'Fishcakes'. I personally find the 'Kway Teow' and soup a letdown. They are slightly a bit soggy and in terms of the taste, the 'Fishballs' and 'Fishcakes' are far more delicious and special. :D

So where can you give this a good try?

The name of this stall would be '鱼缘'(Fishball Story). It's located inside 'Golden Mile Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• 10:30 - 17:00 Daily
• Depending on their sales that day, they might close the stall much much earlier. So do try to be much much early, if you really want to give the food over here a good try.

* Click here for the Facebook Page of '鱼缘'(Fishball Story).
^ Click here for the location of 'Golden Mile Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.
~ Click here for list of delicacies that you can find and get around 'Golden Mile Food
   Centre'.

Not just fishballs only...

Ever since I started exploring the Beo Crescent Area, it makes me wonder what are the nice delicacies that one can find in that area. Therefore, I started spending a bit more time exploring that area and...

'Fishball Noodles' Usually, I will start giving the local delights a try first and this time round I have decided to give one of my favourite dishes a try first. :D For a start, despite of the fact that I have requested for additional dumplings to be added, I'm getting a large and generous variety of ingredients in the bowl of soup. In contrast to the bowl of soup, the bowl of 'Kway Teow'(Rice Noodle) looks kinda small. By the way, the overall taste of the bowl of 'Kway Teow' was kinda weak, even though they have added sliced chillies, 'Pork Lard', etc... And though the texture of the 'Kway Teow' is pretty alright but the taste just isn't attractive enough. Probably they might fare much more better for the normal type of Noodles and not for the 'Kway Teow'. :|

The fishballs and the meatballs that are given were fantastic. Not only they are fresh, the texture were amazingly chewy and bouncey too. Besides for the nice 'balls', there were a few slices of fish cake, a lump of seaweed and minced meat too. Best of all, the bowl of soup doesn't taste pepperish nor plain like water. Not only it's tasty, the nice and delicious taste of the soup just makes one wants to continue asking for a second or third serving. :P But wait, let's not forget about the delicious dumplings. While preparing these dumplings, they have added a nice mix of both vegetables and meat ingredients, which makes it pretty crunchy and yummy. And even though the dumplings was served in the bowl of soup, rather than ended up to be soggy, it still remained to be amazingly good too. :P

So where can you give the bowl of Noodles a nice try?

The name of this stall would be 'Nan Yuan'(南園). It's located inside 'Beo Crescent Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  06:00 - 13:00 Daily
  (Closed on Thursdays and Fridays Except for Public Holidays)
• By the way, if you are thinking of giving the food over here a try, try to avoid the afternoon crowd as much as possible. (Trust me the crowd in the afternoon can be pretty nasty...)

* Click here for the location of 'Beo Crescent Market and Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in 'Beo Crescent' Area.

Not Yam Mee but fishball noodles...

I personally don't think that 'Yam Noodles' would exist in the world. Even though there's something known as 'Yam Noodles' or 'Shirataki Japanese Noodles' out there in the market, but it has nothing to do with 'Yam'. Anyway, let's proceed with the actual food itself...

'Fishball Noodles' After spending 20 minutes or so queueing up, I'm finally sitting in front of a bowl of 'Fishball Noodles'. For a start, the soup is pretty ordinary and after giving numerous bowls of 'Fishball Noodles' soup a try, it makes me wonder is it really that difficult to prepare a delicious bowl of 'Fishball Noodles' soup?

As for the bowl of 'Noodles', on top of the bowl of 'Noodles' or 'Mee Pok', they have added ingredients like 'Fishballs', 'Meatballs', slices of 'Fish Cake', 'Mushrooms', a bit of minced meat and a bit of vegetables. Well, in terms of the portion and the variety of ingredients that were added, I think that they have already won my interest in giving this bowl of 'Fishball Noodles' a try. However, as I mixed all the ingredients together, I think that they have added too much sauce into the bowl of 'Noodles'. Though the 'Noodles' still remains pretty chewy and springy, it's still remains a bit too wet for me. And it's the taste of fresh ingredients that have helped it to gain more (+). The bouncy 'Fishballs' and 'Meatballs' and the chewy 'Mushrooms' are definitely a (+). But it will be great if they can increase the portion of 'Mee Pok' even further so that it can balance out the amount of sauces added, and at the same time, satisfy my hungry stomach.:P

So where can you give the 'Noodles' a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Yam Mee Teochew Fishball Mee'(炎成潮州魚圓麺). It's located inside 'Hougang Street 21 Block 209 Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  07:00 - 22:00
  (Closed on Mondays)

* Click here for the location of 'Hougang Street 21 Block 209 Market and Food Centre' on
  'Google Maps'.

Good Yellow Tail Fish Balls...

In the older days, fish balls are made from 'Yellow Tail' fish. I have given several stalls that have been boosting about the 'Yellow Tail' fish balls that they were making and this is one of the better ones...

'Yong Tau Fu' For a start, unlike most of the 'Yong Tau Fu' soup out there, they are not using 'Yellow Bean' to prepare this soup. And based on what I have read, they are using 'Ikan Bilis' and 'Fish Bones' to prepare this soup. Although the taste isn't as strong as the usual soup that you are getting, but the soup has this nice sweet and savoury taste, which is a nice (+). As mentioned earlier, the fish balls over here are made from 'Yellow Tail' meat. Therefore, I find the texture of the fish balls to be pretty chewy, bouncy and it doesn't have the fishy smell. On top of that, most of the ingredients over here are handmade by the stall helpers. In fact, they are owning 2 side by side stalls over here and they are using one of the stalls as a mini fresh ingredients making factory. XD As for the bowl of noodles that I have ordered, the crispy ikan bilis that were sprinkled on top isn't too salty and it's adding a crunchy sensation to the bowl of noodles itself. The biggest drawback would be the fact that they only have chilli sauce over here, therefore if you are keeping a lookout for the sweet sauce, too bad... :P

The menu over here is pretty straight forward. For a start, you can either go for the standard bowl of 'Yong Tau Fu' that comes with 6 pieces of ingredients with Noodles/Rice Vermicelli. Alternatively, you can go bowl of 'Yong Tau Fu' with merely 8 pieces of ingredients. On top of that, you can request for a few other types of ingredients with an extra charge.

So where can you give the delicious fish balls and 'Yong Tau Fu' a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu'(秀記江魚仔釀豆腐). It's located in one of the hidden corners on level 2 of 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  06:00 - 15:00 Daily

* Click here for the location of 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre' on Google Maps.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in 'Chinatown Complex Food
  Centre'.

High quality fish ball

They have more than 20 stalls tucked away in a corner of this market and even though I have already eaten some heavy stuff for dinner, but I saw this interesting Noodles stall and I decided to give it a try.

'Fishball Kway Teow'(Dry) Initially, I thought that I don't need to wait for a very long time since there isn't any queue, but I'm very wrong. It seems that everyone will place their orders with the helpers at this stall and they will wait at their own seats. Frankly speaking, what attracts me the most would be the fact that you can request for more Noodles without any extra cost. Therefore I ended up placing an order for a bowl of 'Fishball Kway Teow'(Dry) with extra portion of 'Kway Teow'.

For the bowl of 'Kway Teow', it might appear to be flooded with lots of sauces and ingredients like 'beansprouts', 'Spring Onions' and 'Pork Lard'. But after some intensive stirring, I managed to stir and mix everything together nicely. When I started taking a bite from this bowl of 'Kway Teow', it's not as soggy as how I have pictured it. In fact, the way they have seasoned this bowl of 'Kway Teow' has managed to boost it to a pretty delicious level. There's the crunchy 'Beansprouts' + 'Pork Lard' and the tasty 'Kway Teow'. :D

Initially, I have actually placed an order for a bowl of 'Fishball Kway Teow', but the helpers of this stall told me that they have insufficient number of 'Fishballs' left, therefore they were asking if I'm fine with the idea of swapping some of the 'Fishballs' with 'Meatballs'. Well, I ended up accepting the offer and after trying one of the 'Fishballs', I finally understand why they have the problem of insufficient 'Fishballs'. Not only the 'Fishballs' over here are bouncy and chewy, the 'Fishballs' are loaded with lots of fresh fish meat too. In fact, when I was splitting one of the 'Fishballs' into 2 inside my mouth, both portions are bouncing inside my mouth for a short period of time. I'm not exaggerating, but the 'Fishball' over here are really that good. As for the soup itself, it comes with a nice non-pepperish, non watery taste, which makes it pretty enjoyable too.

So where can you give the fish ball noodles a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Xiang Xiang'(香香). It's located inside 'Chong Pang Market & Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Tuesdays - Sundays: 06:00 - 18:00
  (Closed on Mondays)

^ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in
  'Chong Pang Market & Food Centre'.
* Click here for the location of 'Chong Pang Market & Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.

More handmade Balls... :P

I don't think I still need to stress how much love I have for Noodles, therefore I shall move to the main subject immediately. :P

'Fishball + Meatball Kway Teow(Rice Noodles)' For no particular reason that day, I ended up visiting and having my dinner at this food centre. Since it was a public holiday, therefore more than 50 percent of the stalls were closed for business. I ended up choosing this stall mainly because of the long queue of customers queueing outside this stall and it's one of the 'Noodles' stall (or probably the only one?) that is open for business. From the look of it, one can easily identify the handmade 'Meat Balls' and 'Fish Balls'. Basically, the shape of a machine made 'Balls' are much more circular in shape but the ones over here are much more irregular in shape. For a start, the taste of the soup isn't fantastic enough and it's kinda boring.

As for the 'Kway Teow', I think that too much sauce has been added into the bowl and even with a bit of mixing, the texture of the 'Kway Teow' still ended up to be a bit wet and soggy. Therefore, probably their speciality are the yellow colour 'Noodles' and not the 'Kway Teow'. But on the other end, I think that the 'Balls' are pretty good. The texture of both types of 'Balls' are pretty bouncy and the 'Balls' doesn't come with the strange fishy or meaty smell, which is a very big (+).

So where can give the delicious 'Balls' a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Song Kee Kway Teow Noodle'(松记粿条汤). The stall is located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  10:30 - 00:00
  (Closed on Alternate Wednesdays)

* Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in
  'Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Food Centre'.
* Click here for the location of 'Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.

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'.

Traditional Noodles in the making?

I think I was a bit or maybe I'm too early for 'Chomp Chomp Food Centre'. Therefore, I decided to walk around the compound and I managed to come across another Hawker Centre nearby. Hence...

'Traditional Gan Lao Mee'(古法肉脞面) Hmmm.... This is very different from the normal 'Minced Meat Noodles'. For a start, the stall helpers have added lots of ingredients into this dish. Ingredients like fish balls, pork liver, mushrooms, minced meat, fish cakes, etc... have been added into this dish. On top of that, the dish itself have given me an interesting nice fragrance, which is pretty good. On top of that, the correct amount of sauces have been added into this bowl of noodles and the overall taste of the noodles and ingredients are heavenly. I think that the only drawback about this would be the portion of noodles that was given. How I wish that they could add a larger portion of noodles into the bowl for big eaters like me. :D

'Giant Home Made Fish Cakes' They are making and selling their own 'Fish Cake'. I wonder how long will it take to finish one gigantic 'Fish Cake' like this. @.@"

The name of this place would be 'Lao Song Huat'(老松發). It's located inside 'Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre', which is located near 'Chomp Chomp Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  08:00 - 22:00 Daily

* Click here for the location of 'Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.

Handmade fish balls @ Lorong 8

I think this was my third or fourth disappointed trip to 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'. I wanted to try the 'Fried Kway Teow' over here and it seems that I simply have no luck in eating it. Rather than wasting this trip, I decided to look around and give some other stalls a try.

'Minced Meat Noodles' I think that the speciality of this stall would be the fishballs and meatballs. These balls are handmade and they are pretty bouncy and the texture of the fishballs and meatballs are pretty chewy. On top of that, the taste of the fishballs and meatballs are pretty fresh. However, the only drawback of these balls would be the shape of it. Rather than being round, they look kinda irregular in shape. Although the bowl of noodles are pretty tasty too, but as compared to the balls, the balls were leaving a much more stronger impression in my mind.

Basically, if you are getting sick and tired with all the common ingredients of the 'Fishball Noodles' or 'Minced Meat Noodles', pretty much similar to a 'Yong Tau Hu' stall, you can D.I.Y your own bowl of noodles over here too. (Even though most of the ingredients that you can choose from were mainly fried ingredients, but hey it still makes it pretty special as compared to the normal stalls.)

So where can you give the noodles a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Handmade Fishball Noodle'(八巷手工鱼圆面). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• I'm not really sure what are the opening hours of this stall. Please drop me a message if you happen to know the opening hours of this stall. Thanks for helping. :D

* Click here for the location of 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.
~ Click here for the list of delicacies that can be found in
  'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Evolution of fishballs...

Fishballs are simply meat balls that will be using fish meat as one of the main ingredients and is that the furtherest it can go? The answer will be 'No'. In fact, there are many other ways to make it much more interesting. For example...

'Abalone Fu Zhou Fishball Noodles'(鮑魚福州魚圓面) After giving the whole ball of noodles a try, I have finally derived a conclusion. I personally felt that the ingredients are far more delicious than the noodles. Just for the fishballs alone are pretty amazing. While taking a bite out of one of the fishballs, the soup inside the fishball started bursting their way out of the fishball. As you chew on and on, you will realise that the 'Fuzhou' fishball over here works pretty much the same way as the Chinese Dim Sum 'Xiao Long Bao'. Not only the soup inside the fishballs are yummy, the meat inside the fishball are pretty juicy too and as you chew more and more, the taste of the fishball tends to get better and better. :D Though the other ingredients(the abalone, prawns, fish cake, etc...) taste pretty good too, but I still find the taste of the 'Fu Zhou' fishballs over here to be the best. The most disappointing part about this dish would be the noodles and soup. Either the taste of the ingredients were far more exciting than the noodles or my expectations for the noodles were just too high, either way I think that most likely I would only be giving the 'Fuzhou' fishball a try in the future.

So where can you try the delicious 'Fuzhou' fishballs?

The name of this place would be 'Meng Kitchen'(日夜小廚). It's located along 'Upper Thomson Road'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  24 hours Daily

* Click here for the location of 'Meng Kitchen'(日夜小廚) on 'Google Maps'.
^ Click here for the list of delicacies that's located near 'Upper Thomson Road'.

Growing Up with Noodles...

Since I have been staying in the same area for the last 20 over years, though it have also undergone a lot of changes, but there ought to be a few places that continues to give me an instant rush of nostalgia. :P

'Fishball Noodles' This would be one of the place that still continues to make me feel quite nostalgia. Back then, most of my lunch were taken over here. But what's so special about this place? Well, although this place was a coffee shop, but the variety of food that they are offering over here are pretty limited. As for myself, I always go for the 'Fishball Noodles'. :P (I am a big fan of Noodles.) Anyway, each bowl of 'Fishball Noodles' was relatively cheap and as you can see, the amount of ingredients that was given were pretty generous. As for the bowl of 'Noodles', it isn't too dry or too wet, which makes the stirring process much more easier. In fact, since I love spicy stuff, therefore I will pour all the various types of chilli into the bowl and mixed them together. Although bean sprouts were not given, but the taste of the chewy Noodles were so delicious that I finished it within minutes. And the ridiculously hilarious point would be the fact that I have emptied the bowl of Noodles and the whole bowl of soup and ingredients still remain untouched. :P The taste of the ingredients are pretty acceptable and the 'Fishballs' are pretty bouncy. Most importantly the 'Fishballs' are pretty fresh and it doesn't come with a fishy smell.

So where can you give this delicious bowl of 'Fishball Noodles' a try?

The name of this coffee shop would be 'Hua Bee Restaurant'(華美餐室). It's located near 'Tiong Bahru Market'. Although this place isn't facilitated with air-conditioning and the interior is slightly a bit too gloomy, who cares about all these unimportant stuff when the food over here are pretty amazing. :D

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  6am - 6pm Daily
  (Closed on Sundays)

* Click here for the location of 'Hua Bee Restaurant' on 'Google Maps'.

A Perfect bowl of Fish Ball Noodles

How much do I love Noodles? Well, how should I put it... basically more than 70~80% of my meals that I have been dining out have noodles in it. Hence, it have been a very long time since I have seen such a perfect bowl of Fish Ball Noodles. Introducing...

A Perfect bowl of Fish Ball Noodles. What makes a bowl of Fish Ball Noodles Perfect? Most importantly, ingredients like fish balls, fish cakes, etc must be flesh. The noodles shouldn't be too hard or too soggy and best of all...

The amount of vinegar and chilli sauce that was pour
into the bowl shouldn't be too much or too little.
Just look at the photo in the above and you could
easily understand what I'm trying to tell you. :D

So where can you find this Fish Ball Noodles stall?

This would be the Fish Ball Noodles stall and its located in...

The Coffee Villa located at 'One Commonwealth'.

* Click here for the address of 'One Commonwealth'.

Here comes another 'ball'...

What are the fish balls that you can usually get from a food centre or a market? Most of the time it will either be a normal fish ball made out from fish or a 'Fu Zhou' fish ball made from fish and has minced pork filling within the fish ball. As for today, I am going to introduce to you another type of fish ball and that would be...

'Chao Zhou' fish ball. Just look at the size of the fish balls, it's already much bigger than regular fish balls. On top of that, 'Chao Zhou' fish ball were also much more bouncy than regular fish balls. Best of all, the 'Chao Zhou' fish ball that I have eaten from this stall doesn't comes with a fishy smell which a big +. By the way, although the fish balls were very fresh and very delicious, I don't like the way the stall owners had prepared the noodles at all. I think that just by ordering a bowl of soup with 'Chao Zhou' fish ball will be good enough.

Fired Dumpling from the stall.
Although this place prepare fantastic 'Chao Zhou' fish balls,
the fried dumplings were pretty average only.

So where is this stall located?

The stall is located at 'ABC Brickworks Market/Food Centre'.
Besides for this 'Chao Zhou' fish ball stall, delicacies like
Fried Hokkien Prawn noodles, Satay Bee Hoon, etc can be found
in the same market too.

* Click here for the map of ABC Brickworks Market/Food Centre.
^ Click here to find out what other delicacy can be found in the ABC Brickworks Market/Food Centre.