Nanyang Homemade Curry (南洋咖哩) @ Yishun Park Hawker Centre [Singapore] #yishunparkhawkercentre

Timbre+ no longer manages Yishun Park Hawker Centre and despite no longer being able to enjoy the 10% discount using the app; I still made a trip down earlier this evening.

All because I was craving for curry chicken, and remember there was a stall specializing in curry at the hawker centre; Nanyang Homemade Curry (南洋咖哩)! 

It's literally all curry dishes on the menu, save for the bread and plain rice! Selection included chicken, fish, mutton, vegetables and even pork! I am traditionalist; chicken it shall be! 

Curry Chicken Drumstick - opted for this even though under the chicken option, there were also curry chicken wing, and even curry chicken chop rice. Drumstick didn't seem like there would be a lot of meat but well, satisfying a craving took priority.

It's actually not just the drumstick as it included a chicken thigh too, plus potato; latter of which was passed over to Alex as I am not a potato person. First thing I did was to take a sip of the curry! 

Thick, creamy curry that tasted rich of fattening coconut milk with just the perfect level of spiciness for me that wasn't overpowering! And you know what goes well with curry? Plain, white rice! Saying goodbye to my carbo-restricted diet today! 

Unfortunately, the rice was a bit hard and I wondered if it was on purpose for diners to soften the grains with curry gravy! Chicken used tasted like it was frozen, and that kind of marred the experience too. 

Nevertheless, craving satisfied! 

p.s. controlling myself not to eat too much rice.

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Address

51 Yishun Ave 11, #01-27,

Yishun Park Hawker Centre

Singapore 768867

Map

As above.

Pricing

Curry Chicken Drumstick - S$6.30

Plain Rice - S$0.80

Sakana-No-Suppu: Halal Certified Japanese Collagen Fish Soup & Udon @ Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC) in Singapore

While waiting for Alex to knock off from work, I searched the surroundings of his workplace for places to have dinner and Sakana-No-Suppu, with a Google review score of 4.8 from over 180 reviewers, caught my attention! 

Menu as attached; halal certified, its unique offering of Japanese Collagen Fish Soup & Udon piqued my curiosity, as I wondered how different could it be from our local fish soup.

Sakana-No-Suppu - translated as original fresh fish slices in signature seafood collagen soup, the very Japanese element would be the dose of dried seaweed! Broth wise, it's light and not as heavily seasoned, with the shredded lettuce and seaweed gaining an upper hand. Those looking for flavorful seafood soup will be disappointed although from the Japanese cuisine perspective; it's didn't veer much. 

While the price wasn't cheap, we were at least given quite a generous serving of sliced fish that tasted fresh and chunky. Those fishball like stuff were actually tofu fish cakes that had soaked fluffy insides and felt less sinful than your typical fish cakes. 

Aburi Tori Bagge Udon - literally served in a bag, some of you would know I don't like udon but this was too interesting to give it a miss! You have three creams to choose from; signature nitsuke cream, special malay cream and smokey prawn reduction cream. We were with the signature, and what the hell was prawn reduction cream?! 

Again covered with a generous sprinkling of dried seaweed, I was prepared to pass all of them to Alex, who was more a noodle lover compared to me, after taking a spoonful. That didn't materialize at all.

This was a keeper for sure; cooked like a pasta, the thick udon noodles had a super soft texture that didn't feel heavy on the tummy and were coated with the addictively delicious nitsuke cream sauce that wasn't cloying for the palate, and would do well as the to-go sauce for any pasta! Chicken hidden in the cream was pretty good; with a tenderness soaked thoroughly in the cream. 

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Compared between the two, the udon was the definite winner but should you prefer a healthier meal for dinner, the soup would be a better bet for sure. I am already thinking of going back for another bagge; maybe the seafood one. 

Address

460 Alexandra Rd, #02-42,

Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC),

Singapore 119963

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

As above.

Instagram Page

https://www.instagram.com/sakananosuppu/?hl=en

Pricing

Sakana-No-Suppu - S$11.80

Aburi Tori Bagge Udon - S$11.90

(NETT)

Sarawak Kolo Mee and Char Siew Wanton Mee @ Malaysia Boleh! (Bugis Junction) [Singapore]

With so many food establishments to choose from, it's hard to believe that we opted for lunch at the air-conditioned Malaysia Boleh! food court instead. Reasons; the variety and the weather was insanely hot! 

Before deciding what to have; this publicity poster caught our attention, and it immediately activated the craving for noodles, specifically wanton me for me. 

So, both my mom and I decided to get the noodles from the stall which was supposedly known for its Chilli Pan Mian. Funny thing was; our mind was set on their new dishes on the menu, and not their namesake dish! 

Ice Kopi - aside from the new items on the publicity poster, my eyes were also drawn to the offer of S$1.50 for ice kopi / teh with the purchase of any of the new items; super worth it! And in the hot weather I mentioned earlier; an absolute godsend. 

Waiting for the pager to beep! 

In less than ten minutes, I collected our lunch for the day. A serving of Sarawak kolo mee and anotehr serving of char siew wanton mee! 

Char Siew Wanton Mee - let's go with one of the noodles I would occasionally crave for, even though I prefer the white version, instead of this darker version which is the norm for Malaysian style wanton mee. 

As expected, the sweetness can get a bit cloying after but I do enjoy the slurpy texture from the thin strand noodles! Shall talk more about the char siew later which was also included in the sarawak kolo mee. 

Sarawak Kolo Mee - fried wanton and the minced meat were both forgettable 

(can totally do without them). Char siew was surprisingly not bad; thick cut, not overly fatty with caramelized edges. Yum yum.

Noodles for the kolo mee were thicker with a chewier bite, albeit coated smoothly with oil that was more sinful, and more delicious than the wanton mee, sans the sweetness. 

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Cleaned up the dishes!

Address

200 Victoria Street, #03-30,

Bugis Junction, Malaysia Boleh!,

Singapore 188021

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Ice Kopi - S$1.50

Sarawak Kolo Mee - S$6.00

Char Siew Wanton Mee - S$6.00

Anhui China Huizhou Culture Museum (安徽中国徽州文化博物馆) & Unofficial "Shopping Stop" @ Huangshan in China

Visiting the museums is part and parcel of any tour packages and it's no exception for our 8-day tour to Huangshan in China; bringing us to the Anhui China Huizhou Culture Museum.

Huizhou culture is a very interesting topic; as the name Huizhou suggests, it's a state yet not officially a state in China, given that it's straddled between three different provinces, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang! 

Primarily situated in the Anhui province, across six counties, the Huizhou culture was most prominent during the Ming and Qing dynasties, even though I was totally ignorant of what it was before my visit. 

The one playing the most important role in promoting this Huizhou culture would be the hui merchants, said to be the "most powerful and important business group during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This was totally new to me as I had assumed the Jiangnan area would be the key commercial district, especially during the Qing dynasty.

Thing about Huizhou people was more on their tenacity as the areas they were residing were known to be hilly, with insufficient food yet with a large population; hence, many would venture out and do business. 

This resulted in many men leaving their hometowns and families behind, so that they could carve a living for their loved ones back home. The above teary scene scene was also included in the Cultural Show for the Huizhou Culture that we caught the day before. 

Scenes of the businesses managed by the Hui merchants; according to the information plaques, their family background was often poor but given their tenacity, many eventually elevated in wealthy merchants. Major trade include the tea, lumber and the monopoly of salt. 

Women played an extremely important role in the Huizhou culture as many would stay back in their hometowns when the husbands would venture out to do trade for a long period of time. Said to be special among ancient Chinese women, Huizhou women were known to "have all good Chinese traditions, mild and competent, delicate appearance with a strong mind". 

There's a standard display of furniture for the main hall of a typical Huizhou house. Man would always sit on the right, and the placement of mirror, clock and vases have symbolic meanings; like mirror for calm and composed (心平气和), clock for lifelong peace (终身平安) and vase for safe and sound (平平安安).

Huizhou was also known for producing academic scholars in ancient China; one particular county, Xiuning, is even known as the zhuangyuan (ranked number one amongst the scholars who passed the imperial exams held every 3 years) county as 19 came from that county between 1217 and 1880; the most in the country. 

I thought we were done with the museum visit but no; we were brought to another area outside the main building, apparently for a better understanding of Huizhou intangible cultural heritage.

My eyes were drawn to this waterway with overgrown bushes filled with yellow flowers. 

The building but instead of going through the main door, we entered via the side door. It also didn't escape my eyes that most visitors at the main building didn't follow us, and that to me, would be fishy.

After a short introduction on Huizhou intangible cultural heritage, including some famous individuals known for their skills in making wooden statues from sandalwood, and ink slabs; we were brought to a section where we can buy them. I was like; wait, didn't I sign up for non shopping stop?! To be fair, absolutely no pressure for us to buy, but it's still a waste of my precious time. 

p.s. didn't take photographs as we weren't allowed to. Oh well, best way for us not to take evidence and complain to CTC Travel about it. Should I still file a complaint then since I was explicit when I signed up, no such commissioned based shopping stop! 

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Click HERE for our 8 Days Huangshan, Tunxi, Yixian, Wuyuan, Mount Qiyun, Thousand-Island Lake, Hangzhou Tour Package to China via CTC Travel Agency