Hainanese Laksa O.o?

Being a big fan of spicy food and Noodles, how could I resist the infamous dish, 'Laksa'. Ever since, I was a kid, I have been eating all sorts of 'Laksa'. As I grew up, I started to differentiate the different types of 'Laksa'. But 'Hainanese Laksa'? That would be something that we would be exploring today. :)

'Hainanese Laksa'? The appearance looks pretty much similar to the infamous 'Katong Laksa'. The concept of eating a bowl of 'Laksa' using a spoon and all the ingredients have been prepared in the manner that you can simply scoop them using a spoon. Ingredients wise, on top of the thick rice Noodles, you will also be getting cockles, beansprouts, slices of fish cakes and a lump of Sambal Chilli. Well, frankly speaking, I'm not expecting a big variety of ingredients, since each bowl is merely S$2.50 each. Taste wise, pretty much similar to 'Nonya Laksa', the taste of the thick 'Laksa' gravy is relatively sweet. As you mix all the ingredients thoroughly and throw a scoop into your mouth, the nice odour of 'Laksa' is floating inside your mouth. The nice taste of the shrimps + coconut milk, just simply explains why this dish is simply irresistible in Singapore. (This is pretty much similar to the 'Nonya Laksa', which makes me wonder what's the difference between the 'Nonya' and the 'Hainanese Laksa'?)

So where can you give this relatively sinful but inexpensive delicacy a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Qing Qiao Hainanese Laksa'(青橋海南叻沙). It's located inside 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  11:00 - 18:00
  (Closed on Thursdays and Fridays)

* 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'.

I can only see the ingredients only...

So where are the Kway Teow(Rice Noodles)...? In fact, the whole bowl of Noodles have been covered by a huge variety of different ingredients that I have difficulty finding them on my first glance...

'Fried Shark Lor Mee'(炸鲨鱼卤面) Not only there's the usual ingredients like 'Braised Egg', 'Fried Dumpling', and tasty 'Ngoh Hiang', it also comes with 2 big lump of Fried Shark Fin meat too. In fact, you will be amazed with the taste of these harmless looking battered fish Meat. Not only they tastes good, it comes with a pretty nice chewing sensation too. :) Beneath the mountain of ingredients, there's a nice mixture of beansprouts and rice noodles hidden inside this bowl of gravy. The rich and tasty gravy over here isn't too gluey, which makes the stirring process an easy one. As far as I can remember the gravy is so good that I ended up slurping down the whole bowl of gravy and emptied the whole bowl of noodles. :D Over here, they have also provided 2 different types of chilli (sliced chilli and belachan chilli), mashed garlic and vinegar too. The taste of these 'toppings' are so good that it has boost the overall taste of the whole bowl of Noodles to a completely whole new level. :D

So where can you give this delicious and relatively inexpensive bowl of 'Lor Mee' a try?

The name of this stall would be 'Soon Heng Food Delights'(顺兴美食). It's located inside 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• 09:00 - 15:00
  (Closed on Saturdays)
  
• Do turn up early to avoid all the crazy long queue...

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

The volcano here won't erupt...

I have read/heard about this legendary Japanese stall since a few years back. Though it has moved out of the original market/food centre and rather than winding up the business, he has decided to move to a new location. Though it's a new location, it's merely 10~15 minutes walk away from the original location.

Before I start, I would like to do a short introduction about Japanese Food. Yes, I do agreed that most of the infamous Japanese dishes are mainly raw stuff. But they have ridiculously delicious cooked food too. For a start there's 'Ramen/Udon/Soba', 'Tonkatsu'(Deep-Fried Cutlet), 'Yakitori' (Skewered Chicken), 'Japanese Curry' and one of my personal favourite 'Unadon'(Grilled Eel on rice). Well, at the end of the day, one has to give Japanese Cuisine a try, to figure out the greatness of 'Washoku'(Japanese Food), which is also a world cultural heritage. O.OV As for the post today... 'Yuzu Chicken Set Meal' The set meal comes with a decent bowl of 'Miso Soup' and a nice looking box, which is splitted into 2.

1/3 of the box contains a decent of white rice topped with sesame and Japanese Curry. Well, if you are a big fan of Curry, you can ask the stall owner to topped your rice with a scoop of nice Japanese Sweet Curry. Though Japanese Curry isn't Spicy stuff but I love the taste of the Carrots and Potatoes that have absorbed the taste of the Curry. Though the colour looks kinda dull, but the texture of the Curry isn't too thick and the taste is good enough to help me to wipe out half the portion of rice.

The rest of the space would be occupied by the main dish. As for my case, it has been occupied by a generous portion of 'Yuzu Chicken'. Topped with a layer of 'Yuzu' sauce, which helps to enhance the original taste of the 'Chicken' with a sour taste. As for the 'Chicken', it's a combination of crispy texture, topped with the juicy and tender 'Chicken meat', which is pretty Yummy~~~~~ There's also a nice spread of salad/vegetables and not forgetting the nice indulging pickles.

As mentioned earlier, a decent bowl of 'Miso' soup will be given. It comes with a concentrated taste of 'Miso', which is relatively good.

This should give you a better idea of what are the set meals that they are offering over here. They have also throw in a few more "Today's Special" set meals on top of the normal set meals, which makes things much more interesting. The best part would be the part where all the set meals are selling at an affordable price of less than S$10, which is a super big (+). :D

THe name of this stall would be 'Kazan Japanese Cuisine'. It's located inside 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Weekdays: 11:30 - 20:30
  Sundays: 11:00 - 18:00
  (Closed on Saturdays)
• By the way, this stall used to be located inside 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre' and it has moved to 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre' recently.
• In case you are wondering, the word 'Kazan' in Japanese means 'Volcano'.

* 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'.

Not your average neighbourhood soup stall...

If you are talking about a soup stall in your neighbourhood, most likely it would be a Chinese soup stall selling the various types of Herbal Soup. As for the food centre over here, it doesn't seem to be the case...

'Spicy Pork Spaghetti Set' Though I call it a set, but it's merely a bowl of soup + a bun and a piece of butter. And rather than handing over a piece of cold bun, the chef over here has made the extra effort heating up the bun, before handing it over to the customer. Since I have gone ahead with the 'Spicy Pork Spaghetti', it doesn't really make sense if I dipped the bun into the soup. Therefore, I ended up creating an opening on the bun and throw the whole piece of butter inside. The bun is good. The nice and not too hard texture combined with the fluffy, sweet interior makes it pretty nice. Probably It might ended up to be much more better if I have gone with the much more soupy stuff. :)

As for the 'Spicy Pork Spaghetti', the base is pretty good. The thick and flavourful base is fantastic. Even though it's not spicy enough, but the nice mixture of generous portions of meat and vegetables ingredients simply makes it pretty tasty and good. As for the spaghetti, it's pretty normal, not too soggy and not too tough. Well, at the end of the day this stall is specializing in soups more than anything else. :D Too bad I couldn't take beef. Otherwise, the 'Beef Stew & Red Wine' option over here looks pretty interesting. And if you are looking for the common Chinese Herbal Soup, you will be disappointed with the choices that you are getting over here.

The name of this stall would be 'The Soup Bar'. It's located inside 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• Weekdays: 10:30 - 20:00
  Saturdays: 10:30 - 15:00
  (Closed on Sundays)
  

* Click here to find out more about 'The Soup Bar'.
^ Click here for the location of 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.
~ Click here for the list of delicacies that you can find and get in 'Tanjong Pagar Market and
  Food Centre'.

Not the whole head but this is more than enough...

From time to time, I would like to give something different a good try. Therefore, rather than giving the usual 'cze char' dishes a try, I ended up eating something much more funkier and bigger. Introducing...

'Steamed Song Fish Head in Hot Sauce'(驰名酱蒸松鱼头) Even though this is merely half a fish head, but it's much more bigger than those that you are getting from your neighbourhood food stall or a restaurant. On top of that, the price of the fish head over here is ridiculously cheap. They are selling it at a relatively low price of S$13. @.@"" For a start, the sauce is pretty interesting. The gluey texture and the nice mixture of salty and sweet taste(soy beans) makes it pretty delicious and unforgettable. Usually, the chef over here will topped it with crispy pork lard, but you can also have it without the pork lard just by asking. (In fact, if you like the taste of the bottled 'Soya Bean' sauce that you can get in the local supermarket, you should give this dish a good try.) Meat wise, it's pretty fresh but the taste isn't super fantastic. However, if you dipped it inside the sauce, the taste of the sauce will blend with the meat nicely. In fact, the fish head over here also comes with 1 of the eyeballs(=.=""), a reasonable amount of fish meat and also the slimy bits around the mouth. And if you have a gigantic appetite, this dish is big enough to help you to empty more than 2 bowls of white rice. :P As for the drawback, I guess that would be the bones. This isn't an atas fish head, where the waiter will help you to remove all the bones. But if you ask me, when I compare the amount of fish meat and the fish bones that I'm getting, I think that the fish bones are simply nothing at all. :D

So where can you give the fish head a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Cheng Ji Steamed Fish Head in Hot Sauce'(成记驰名酱蒸松鱼头). It's located inside 'Chinatown Complex Food Centre'.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  12:00 - 21:00 Daily
  (Closed on Sunday)

* 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'.

No Queue = Big Queue?

This stall might appear to be pretty harmless at first but once you hand your orders over, you will be surprise with the number of invisible customers that are standing ahead of you... =.="""

'Yong Tau Fu' For a start, each individual ingredient over here is S$0.60. This is relatively high as compared to all the other 'Yong Tau Fu' stalls out there. However, besides for the normal stuff that you can get at a normal 'Yong Tau Fu' stall, they have specially made ingredients too. In the end, I'm ended up with this.

For a start, they have separated the ingredients nicely. Once you started mixing all the noodles and the ingredients together, the heavenly sensation is a big (+). Every single bite comes with a nice mixture of chewy and crunchy ingredients topped with a nice blend of spicy and sweet sauce. Best of all, the ingredients that were separated into the bowl of noodles are mostly ingredients that will end up to be soggy when it's served in a bowl of soup. In fact, I ended up finishing the whole bowl of noodles + ingredients without even touching the bowl of soup + ingredients. :P

As for the bowl of soup, it comes with a strong and nice taste of soya beans. The original taste of the soup is pretty sweet, which is something that I like. However, it would be great if I can add a bit of small sliced green chillies to spice up the overall taste of the soup a bit more. :P As mentioned earlier, the choice of ingredients over here are pretty good. The ingredients that were added into the bowl of soup didn't end up to be pretty soggy and the sweet taste of the soup can blend with the ingredients nicely.

So where can you give the nice 'Yong Tau Fu' a good try?

The name of this stall would be 'Rong Xing Yong Tau Fu'(榮興酿豆腐). It's located inside 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre'.

Opening Hours:

• 07:00 - 14:30
  (Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays)
  
• Things can get pretty scary when there are more than 20 invisible customers that are standing in front of you. So either you have to be pretty early or you have to endure with the long queue... :P(Although it's a bit costly otherwise I couldn't imagine how long the queue will ended up to be if the price of each ingredient has been lowered... =.=""")

* Click here for the location of 'Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre' on 'Google Maps'.

When you can keep both...

'鱼与熊掌', this is a Chinese Idiom. It means that you can't have both fish and bear's paw. You will have to choose one of them. However, this doesn't apply to the foodie world. You can actually have both of them at the same time. Introducing...

'Fish Fillet Burger' Basically, this ended up looking like a toy more than a fast food to me. Anyway, you get to D.I.Y the burger that you want. First of all, you have the choose the main ingredient, either Fish or Chicken. After that, you have to choose a 'Paw' out of 6 different flavours, which is 'Milk', 'Yam', 'Whole Grain','Brown Sugar','Japanese Curry' or 'Squid Ink'. I ended up choosing 'Japanese Curry'. Well, most of the burgers out there are topped with a sauce. Same goes over here, you have to choose a sauce out of 6 different sauces. There's 'Black Pepper', 'Tar Tar', 'Golden Cheese', 'Mushroom', 'Thai Chilli' and 'Honey Mustard'. Well, that's 'Black Pepper' for me. Taste wise, I think that this is pretty normal. Even though the taste of the 'Paw' has added an additional taste to the burger, but the additional taste just isn't strong/nice enough. Or probably I have to go with the funky selections to spice up the taste a bit. (Ex: 'Squid Ink Paw' + 'Honey Mustard'.) By the way, I do admit that the burger looks kinda cute but taste wise it's pretty normal and the potion is kinda small for me. :|

'D-I-Y Fries' By topping up a bit more, you can get the 'D-I-Y Fries' rather than the usual natural cut fries. Basically the difference between the 'D-I-Y Fries' and the normal natural cut fries would be the extra sauce that comes with it. Basically, you just choose a sauce out of the 6 listed in the above. I don't remember what's the sauce I ended up choosing but I do remember that the texture and the original taste of the fries were pretty good. But there are more and more fast food restaurants nowadays that are offering 'natural cut fries'. Therefore if you continue to offer the normal fries, you will lose out to the competitors in the competitive market of fries.

So where can you give the cute burgers a try?

The name of this fast food restaurant would be 'Bear Bites'(熊の食). The above shows the second outlet that is located on basement 1 of Bugis Junction.

Notes:

• Operating Hours:
  Weekdays, Saturdays: 10:30 - 22:30
  Sundays: 12:00 - 22:30

* Click here to find out more about 'Bear Bites'(熊の食).
^ Click here for the 'Facebook' page of 'Bear Bites'(熊の食).