The Western Food Stall @ S-11 Yishun 744 Coffee Shop Near Yishun MRT Station [Singapore]

While some had gained weight during the pandemic, I actually lost about eight kilograms starting from the period of circuit breaker. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cavin (@cavinteo)

Jogging at least five kilometers daily did have an impact but I was also a lot more determined in cutting down my carbohydrate-intake. Hence, I often have only fried chicken for my dinner. Only problem; one piece can cost as much as almost S$4.00 and that's too pricey! 

The saviour came from this unassuming western food stall at S11 kopitiam that's a stone's throw away from Yishun MRT station. I started patronizing this stall about a year ago but the frequency increased dramatically during the circuit breaker; to the extent the staff members knew my special order.

Happiness Plate - for the purpose of blogging, this would be the three-piece fried chicken that came complete with French fries, coleslaw and a fried bun. My special order would be just the fried chicken, and nothing else. In this case, Jovyn was with us and she loves the French fries here as they were thinner and hence, crispier. 

Even though the chicken was juicy, I had to admit that frozen chicken was used and marination was definitely not the11 herbs and spices used by KFC. Thankfully, the chilli sauce did a great job in elevating its palatability and for the price of just S$6.50; it's definitely more friendly on the wallet. 

Aside from the price, another key highlight was the crisp layer of deep fried chicken skin! I always leave them to the last as they give me so much joy and are the perfect conclusion to my meal.

It might seem rather worth it for my to get one rib, one thigh and one wing but you know what's the best combination; one wing, one thigh and one drumstick! 

=====

Address 

744 Yishun Street 72, 

#01-197, S-11 744 Coffee Shop

Singapore 760744

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Happiness Plate - S$6.50

KL Try Fresh XO Seafood - XO Seafood & Salted Egg Lala Bee Hoon Soups @ Sultan's Kitchen [Sultan Plaza, Lavender, Singapore] #lalabeehoon

After another satisfying meal at Eat 3 Bowls (呷三碗) with a friend, we walked past a coffee shop located within Sultan Plaza and immediately noticed a stall that had a long queue. As my tummy was already on the verge of bursting, there was no way I can stomach another morsel. 

Turned out the Great Kon had also taken notice of the stall when he was last in the vicinity and since we still had some space after Happy Chef; we unanimously decided to check out the stall under the large sign "lala bee hoon"! 

Basic background about the stall; it originated from Kuala Lumpur where there were a total of five branches in Malaysia, and Singapore is its first overseas venture. Kon queued for about 20 minutes before he got to order, pay for the food and collect the above pager. Food came faster; at about seven minutes later. 

Salted Egg Seafood Bee Hoon Soup - I am familiar with the conventional lala bee hoon but the salted egg version, with a thumbs-up logo on the menu, interests me more. 

Sadly, the broth didn't impress; it's just a wetter, slightly saltier form of our usual tze char bee hoon. However, the soup was just secondary. I was a lot amazed with the springy bee hoon that looked more like tang hoon; it was slurpy and super nice! 

Operator obviously didn't stinge on the ingredients; there were seven pieces of lala, five pieces of scallops, one prawn and a generous sprinkling of crispy pork lard, latter of which was a tad too salty for my liking. 

XO Seafood Bee Hoon Soup - first item on the menu with a thumbs-up and I guess it would be a waste if we were to leave without trying! Since time was already on queuing, we might as well just order this too! 

Featuring the same, nice bee hoon, I was expecting a strong XO-flavored soup; which didn't materialise! The XO taste was weak although interestingly, my taste buds caught a whiff of longan. Refreshing nonetheless but it was a weird combination that failed to whet my appetite. 

Otah Balls - Kon made the executive decision to top up the soup with otah balls that cost S$2.00 for three balls. I enjoyed them; tasted just like otah with a nice spiciness even though old school otah wrapped in banana leaves still appealed to me better.  

=====

Address

100 Jln Sultan, Sultan's Kitchen,

Sultan Plaza, Singapore 199001

Map

As above.

Menu

As above. 

Pricing

Salted Egg Seafood Bee Hoon Soup - S$8.90

XO Seafood Bee Hoon Soup - S$8.90

Otah Balls (3s) - S$2.00 

Happy Chef Western Food - Happy Chef Chicken & Lamb Chop @ North Bridge Rd (near ICA Building & Lavender MRT Station) [Singapore]

Knowing my love for lamb chops, which are pretty pricey at many Western food stalls in Singapore, the Great Kon kindly shared about the ones he had at a coffee shop near ICA building at Lavender. 

And it turned out to be the Western stall I had always wanted to try whenever I sent my friend back to her home at the nearby Crawford Lane! Back then, Happy Chef was located at Block 466, which faces the carpark gantry.

Menu might look like your typical one from old-school Western stalls but look closer and you would notice unique names like chicken kiev, everbroom pork chop, fish shnizel. In addition, you are allowed to choose two sides (ranging from rice, mashed potato, coleslaw, potato salad, spaghetti, sunshine egg, french fries, garden veg to spicy veg pickle) to go with your mains.  

Our main objective is the lamb chop but since there were two of us, let's also have their happy chef chicken as the man taking our order appeared happy and friendly; and it just seemed appropriate to order something of their namesake. 

Lamb Chop - with garden vegetables and mashed potato, the first thing I noticed were the two huge slabs of lamb chop; that's pretty generous given that it only cost us S$8.50! 

Taste wise, I thought it was normal; didn't wow me as much since I recently had a real good one at El Carbon Grill House in Yishun! Nonetheless, Happy Chef's lamb chops were darn worth it, given the price and that not many Western stalls serve lamb chops that were less than decent. 

Happy Chef Chicken - frankly, it didn't look much different from your typical chicken chop, except for maybe reddish brown sauce poured over it. 

Not really in a carbohydrate mood and with that in mind, I opted for the fried egg and coleslaw. Well, can't say much about the sunshine egg as it was what to be expected. Coleslaw was alright. Garlic bun was peppery and superbly crispy; surprisingly, I prefer it softer and fluffier. 

Chicken, by itself, was as expected; didn't deviate much from your old school chicken chop, sans the light sweetness from the Western Barbeque stall at Old Airport Road. What's most impressive was the sauce; there was that addictive sweet, savoury flavour that totally elevated the chicken! You absolutely need it to go with the chicken. 

Friends would know I don't like mashed potato but the Great Kon insisted on giving me a portion from his lamb chop! Most mashed potatoes had the gravy drenched on them but the one from Happy Chef had the gravy mixed in. Interestingly, I like it much better served in the Happy Chef way and surprise, surprise; I actually eat it all up! 

=====

Great meal, great company! Guess I would be back to try the other mains on their menu; for example, pork chop, farmer's chicken dinner, teriyaki fish. Maybe I should ask my friend who used to stay there to give her take on what to eat too! 

Address

Block 465, North Bridge Rd, #01-5041 

465 Foodcourt, Singapore 191465

Map

As above.

Pricing

Lamb Chop - S$8.50

Happy Chef Chicken - S$7.00

Xmas 2020 - Unwrapping the Presents!

It's already 2021 and I still didn't get to unwrap the presents received from Christmas 2020! There was a good reason though; my DSLR was in the camera hospital and I only got it back yesterday! 

2020 hasn't been kind, with the pandemic taking centerstage for most part of the year and we can only hope for a better 2021. Due to the safe management measures like split-team, alternate-week work arrangement in the organization I work for; I almost forgot to prepare presents and only got to receive a number of them after Christmas, during my team's work-in-office week.   

Unwrapping done - I didn't enlist the help from Jovyn this time which proved to be less efficient back in 2019. As mentioned before in quite a number of postings, I prefer meet-ups over gift-exchanges and while I do pass presents to my close colleagues, it's really about my appreciation for their help over the past one year and I don't need them to "return the favour"! 

Truth be told, I can't deny I am curious as to what people got for me beneath all the wrappings. One interesting present I got this year is the mosquito-catcher using LED light and powered by USB! Due to the COVID-19 situation, I was also blessed with mask, sanitisation kit and deodorizer for the mask. 

Another type of presents that's getting more popular is those personalized ones; like those with my name on the presents that totally etched the ownership for those items! There's also a homemade clay diffuser that's so pretty; I am still thinking where I should display it at home! 

After unwrapping the presents, I always feel a bit guilty over the amount of paper that would be thrown away. I am also a heavy contributor and likely with a higher guilt as I prefer better quality paper. To be frank, I don't mind if people pass me presents wrapped with newspapers, even those with obituaries. The best, however, is to do away with presents and meet up for a meal filled with warm friendship and boisterous laughter.  

Geylang Lor 20 Banana Fritters @ Old Airport Road Hawker Centre [Singapore] #oldairportroadhawkercentre

There's always room for banana fritters even if I had already downed a bowl of prawn noodle soup, a serving of cheng tng and some char siew at Old Airport Road hawker centre! And since I am having some; might as well blog about the fried bananas from Geylang Lor 20 Banana Fritters.

Fried Banana - at S$1.50 apiece, the pricing was a bit higher than the Toa Payoh Lucky Pisang Raja and one of the things I noticed was that the batter seemed to deviate from the usual Chinese-style banana fritter.

Taste wise, not as sweet even though banana was pretty soft. As expected, the batter wasn't the crumbly type and while it's easier to manage, without having to endure the crumbles dropping all over the place, I am afraid this wouldn't be the kind of banana fritter I would buy in the future. 

3-in-1 - despite the full stomach, I am game for a 3-in-1 which is literally nian gao (new year's sweet cake) sandwiched between a slice of yam and sweet potato / tapioca, and then deep-fried. 

Featuring the same batter that I didn't like, this didn't disappoint as I simply love nian gao that's melty when I bit through! For this snack, the most important ingredient is the nian gao as it gave the necessary sweetness when the job for the rest was more to balance the taste. 

=====

Address

51 Old Airport Rd, #01-12, 

Old Airport Road Food Centre, 

Singapore 390051

Map

As above.

Pricing

Fried Banana - S$1.50

3-in-1 - S$1.30

AMK Curry Puff - Sardine & Yam + Ginkgo Nut Puffs @ AMK 722 Food House [Singapore] #currypuff

I recently wrote about AMK Curry Puff and got to know that the brand managed to retain their original stall at Ang Mo Kio (AMK). As it turned out, I happened to be visiting AMK this morning amidst the rare, chilly weather in Singapore; rare to find me wearing a jacket! 

So here I am; at the corner of a coffee shop located in block 722, AMK central. It brought back memories of course since I recalled waiting for the piping hot curry puffs back when I was a boy.

Back then, I think it was just the normal chicken curry puffs although the need to diversify means there are two available options; Sardine and Yam + Ginkgo Nut which I shall be trying today, as confirmed previously in my post here.

Sardine Curry Puff - identifiable via the red marks on the cooked puff, do you know that for me; sardine curry puff is actually preferred over the traditional chicken curry puff?

Spicy with that unmistakable sardine aroma, sweetened by the onions; I like this sardine curry puff although it lost to the one from Kalsom Kuih Muih Curry Puff for two reasons; the one here had a thicker crust and the filling didn't feel as generous. 

Yam + Ginkgo Nut Puff - almost similar to the marking on the sardine curry puff, this had just one mark instead of two. Whatever the case, I thought it would be good for the operator to use another colour mark for ease of segregation.

Swees Kopi Tiam at Batam had a yam version but I didn't like the crust. AMK Curry Puff featured the same crust it used for its curry puffs and I love it! Like Swees, it wasn't overly sweet and you don't get that cloying aftertaste once you are done with the puff. 

In addition, there were other nuts found within; for example, pumpkin seeds and they do add texture and flavour. The only strange thing, which isn't considered a disadvantage, was that I caught the light taste of curry when it shouldn't have been the case! 

=====

Address 

Block 722 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8, 

AMK 722 Food House 

Singapore 560722

Pricing

Sardine Curry Puff - S$1.60

Yam + Ginkgo Nut Puff - S$1.60