1 dessert 2 variation

As far as I can tell, this stall owner really have guts. Though it's a stall selling desserts, but they are selling not 10, not 5, but 1 type of dessert only...

'Ching Teng'(清湯) They are preparing and selling this only. Though it comes in 2 variation (Hot or Cold), but it's still 'Ching Teng'. So what's so special about it? The brownish looking bowl of 'Ching Teng' might appear to be pretty boring, but it does comes with a big variety of ingredients. As I scoop out and savor the bowl of 'Ching Teng', I have spotted ingredients like 'Gingko Nuts', 'White Fungus', 'Barley', 'Dry Longans', 'dry persimmon strips', etc... Regardless of the number of ingredients added, there's a good mix of 'sweet' ingredients, which really helps one to beat the crazy hot temperature.

So where can you give this dessert a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Four Seasons Ching Teng'(四季清湯). It's hidden inside 'Clementi Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  Daily: 09:00 - 21:00

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

Mix and Match

Having your dinner with a group of friends can be pretty interesting too. Rather than waiting for the same old guy, placing food orders for a big group of people, wouldn't it be much more interesting if everyone pick an item or two and share it among yourselves?

'Ngoh Hiang'(五香) If you are having your meals with a group of people, this would be one of the best choices. Imagine what sort are the various types of combinations that you could be getting. Rather than going with the same old stuff, life can be much more interesting if you have been adding sparks or surprises into it. (In fact, one of the most interesting meal that I have taken recently would be 2 big metal bowl of 'Yong Tau Hu' that the group of us have ordered together. And we almost puked. :P By the way, the most interesting part about the meal isn't just about the food only, the ingredients that we have chosen are pretty hilarious too. :D) Anyway, for a start, the fried Bee Hoon over here is pretty nice. Although it's pretty plain, but the Bee Hoon isn't too dry or too wet and it's pretty tangy. However, it would be great it they can fried it with bean sprouts. :P

Unlike some other stalls out there, the ingredients that were prepared over here are not coated with a thick layer of oil. I wonder how long does it take for the helpers of this stall to perfect the cooking of the 'Ngoh Hiang'. Even though I only place an order for a few types of ingredients (Prawn Fritters, Popiah, Yam Roll, 'Wu Xiang'), but all of them are not too oily at all. In fact, I love the crispy outer layer and the delicious ingredients that were wrapped inside each individual ingredient. By the way, if I'm not mistaken, they have prepared 2 different types of prawn fritters over here. One that comes with a prawn and one that comes with a few little prawns. (In fact, I wonder if it's due to the overdose of 'Prawn Fritters' that make me have the habit of eating both the shells and the flesh of a fried prawn.)

A sneak peek of the ingredients that they have prepared here.

Anyway, here's the menu of the 'Ngoh Hiang' stall. It should give you a rough idea of what they are preparing and serving over here and also the charges for the individual ingredient.

The name of this stall would be 'Sin Sin Prawn Crackers'(新新虾饼). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• 12noon - 8pm Daily
  (Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays)

* 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 you can find and get in
  'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Going 4th Fried Kway Teow

Probably this is my fourth (or is this the fifth?) visit to this place. After making numerous visits to this place, I have finally managed to give the 'Fried Kway Teow' over here a try.

'Fried Kway Teow' After I have given the 'Fried Kway Teow' over here a try, I finally understand why the 'Fried Kway Teow' over here is so famous. For a start, the stall owner is pretty flexible. You can choose to customise the 'Fried Kway Teow' in whatever way you want. It can either be darker or spicier. On top of that, the 'Fried Kway Teow' might appear to be pretty dry. However, once you put it inside your mouth, you will realise that it's pretty moist and that not only go for the cockles and sausages, the noodles and the 'Kway Teow' are pretty nice too. Best of all, rather than adding a scoop of chilli at the side of the plate, the stall owner has chose to fried it with all the ingredients, which I personally find this to be the best way of preparing a good plate of 'Fried Kway Teow'. :D

The name of this stall would be 'Zheng Xing Fried Kway Teow Mee'(正興炒粿條麺). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• 12noon - 7pm Daily
  (Closed on Sundays and Mondays)

* 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'.

China Delicious or Delicious China?

Being a Chinese with a big appetite, a normal main dish would have difficulty satisfying my super big appetite. Therefore, even though I knew that I shouldn't be eating that much, but I just couldn't resist all the delicious temptations out there. For example...

'Xiao Long Bao'(小笼包) The 'Xiao Long Bao' over here are pretty juicy and it also come with a pretty good broth and a decent portion of meat. On top of that, they are making all the delicious 'dim sum' from scratch, which means that everything are handmade and not factory made. On top of that, the cheap and affordable price that you are paying for the 'Xiao Long Bao' over here are pretty reasonable. However, there's a drawback in this delicacy. In order to wrap all the ingredients and the soup together nicely, the skin of this 'Xiao Long Bao' tends to be pretty thick and this delicacy would taste which more better if they can reduce the overall thickness of the skin of the 'Xiao Long Bao'. :P

So where can you give the delicious 'Dim Sum' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'China Delicious'(中国小吃). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• 10am - 11pm Daily
  (Closed on Mondays)

* 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'.

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'.

Raw Noodles? @ Lorong 8

Had an interesting conversation with my friend today and I think that I have agreed with him completely. Basically, once a delicacy has caught my attention, I would go all out to give that delicacy a try. Therefore...

'Sheng Mian'(生麵) Here's a fun fact to start with, if anyone tries to translate the following Chinese characters (生麵), you will end up with the translated text of 'Raw Noodles'. For a start, this can be misleading. The 'Sheng Mian' over here aren't raw at all. As you can see, I have placed an order for the soup version of 'Sheng Mian'. The noodles are pretty tangy and that texture of the noodles aren't too hard nor too soft. The cook of this stall have definitely spent a long time trying to perfect the amount of time needed to cook the noodles. The noodles alone have already capture my interest. As for the soup itself, delicious ingredients like prawns, leaned meat, crispy 'ikan bilis', egg and vegetables were added into it. Therefore, the taste of the soup ended up to be pretty flavourful. On top of that, if you are the type that prefer to mix the egg into the soup, once you have taken your seat, you must quickly mix all your ingredients together vigorously. There will be chances that the egg is half cook and you still can mix it into the soup and make it even much more flavourful. :D

So where can you give the 'Sheng Mian' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Seletar Sheng Mian Mee Hoon Kway'(實里達 生麺 麵粉粿). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Fridays - Tuesdays: 6am - 2:30pm
  (Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays)

* 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'.

How clean can it be?

Rather than sticking to the same few places, keeping a lookout for something new to try, from time to time, I don't mind spending a bit of time travelling and exploring new dining places. Hence...

'Kway Chap Set' Pretty much the same as all the other 'Kway Chap' stall out there, the set will come with a bowl of 'Kway' and a plate of ingredients. For the (big) bowl of 'Kway' itself, the smooth 'Kway' were cut into bite-size, thin and squarish shape, which made it pretty easy to consume. In fact the number of pieces of 'Kway' that you are getting are pretty much the same as the number of pieces of ingredients that you were given. So what does that mean? Basically, it means that you can take a piece of 'Kway' and a piece of ingredient and eat it together in one single bite. :D Although the soup comes with a bit of herbal taste but it isn't something too special in terms of the taste.

So what are you getting in the generous plate of ingredients? There's the big intestines, small intestines, slices of pork meat, pork skin, fried bean curd and boiled egg. And all the ingredients have undergo the cooking method of braising. Basically, all the ingredients have been handled and cleaned properly. Therefore you wouldn't be getting the dirty bits and the strange smell that you are getting elsewhere. (However, I still prefer the taste of the not so clean 'Kway Chap'. But for eaters that haven't really gave this dish a try, here's a good place to start.) Taste wise, it's pretty much the same as all the other stalls but there, except for the fact the the ingredients have been handled and washed properly.

So where can you give this 'clean' plate of 'Kway Chap' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Guan Kee Kway Chap'(源記粿汁). It's located inside 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Mondays - Wednesdays: 11am - 8pm
  Fridays - Saturdays: 11am - 8pm
  Sundays: 9am - 8pm
  (Closed on Thursdays)

* Click here for the Facebook Page of 'Guan Kee Kway Chap'(源記粿汁).
^ Click here for the location of 'Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre' on
  Google Maps.