White Bee Hoon (白米粉) @ You Huak Restaurant (友发餐室)

I vaguely remember someone telling me that there is a place selling superlicious white bee hoon somewhere near Yishun.

With limited time, insufficient funds and so many recommendations for good food, this slipped off my mind for quite a long period of time until recently!

The bright red Chinese characters "白米粉" was a significant marker but i still missed it. I was then driving carefully for the safety of my passengers!! 

The signboard for Selegie bean curd caught my attention though.

At a time when some of us could be preparing for sleep, the restaurant was still facing a constant inflow of customers (that included us of course)!

When you have a meal with the Gang of Four, it's not satisfying to have just ONE dish! Ms Tan, for one, needs her soup fix.

Seafood White Bee Hoon

The signature dish and the purpose for patronising!

Whatever angle you look at this, it is exactly the same bee hoon i could purchase from any tze char (煮炒) stall, except for the whitish color.  

Taste wise, the white version lacked the wok-hei that many people preferred and was wetter than its brownish sibling!! But I love it!!!

Each strand of bee hoon was coated with simple yet delicious egg gravy that was creamy enough for me to continue slurping until the last strand! Mind you, we ordered extra large!!

Stir Fried Kai Lan

Edible with no additional comment required. Oh, maybe just one. Baby kai lan will make a better dish.

Seafood Soup w Bittergourd

Bitter the way it should be, i am afraid bitter soup has never been my cup of tea. Except for a particular one from Old Airport road!

Prawn Omelette

I thought this was Furong Dan (芙蓉蛋) at first sight, which has always been one of the sure-nice dishes for tze char.

This had only prawns (and eggs of course)! The taste was not any better than normal furong dan and i am not complaining!

Pork Chop

This was one dish i will never ever order again.

Slices of soggy pork chop with not much flavour should not deserve much mention.  Period.

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Location

22, Jalan Tampang

(Closed at 10.30pm)
(Closed on Wednesday)

Directly Opposite Sembawang Shopping Centre (not Sun Plaza)!

Price

Seafood White Bee Hoon - S$12

Stir Fried Kai Lan - S$6

Seafood Soup w Bittergourd - S$5

Prawn Omelette - S$6

Pork Chop - S$10

No GST and no Service Charge. I find the pricing very economical! Shall bring my mommy there!

Headache with furnishing

Headache

with furnishing

Looking at the state of my bedroom, i know it's high time i should do something about it before i move back permanently.

For those who don't understand, my bedroom was used purely as a chinchilla room (when the family used to have 8) and with the demise of XiaoLun (our last chinchilla), i have decided to move my butt back and enjoy the feeling of sleeping on my own bed again.

Ikea offers a damn wide variety and i love the fact that everything is so customer-oriented (there's even a software for you to plan your furnishing using the dimensions of your room)!

As usual, many people have advised me that Ikea furniture is not long lasting and it might be more worth it to try other furnishing companies.

But i really like the day bed and its multiple functions! And also the wardrobe that will allow me to do many customised modifications....

Sighz.......... Maybe i should buy only the day bed and get someone to custom made a built-in wardrobe instead.

But again, built-in wardrobe very expensive leh!!!

*headache*

Street Food (街边小吃) @ Bangkok, Thailand

If I can choose only one thing i like about Bangkok, it’s the amazing popularity of their street food.

Hygienic or not, Thais love street food and you can find a lot of street hawkers lining the pedestrian pathways selling economically priced yet delicious meals, snacks and drinks.

With a weak stomach (affirmed by the number of times I had diarrhea in Malaysia whenever I had street food there), I am usually apprehensive when it comes to food sold by the roadside.

However, I have never (*touch wood*) had a single bout of stomachache in my annual visit (from 2007-2010) to Bangkok, despite having street food a few times a day!!

Here’s a few I had in my most recent Bangkok trip.

Banana Fritters

At only 20 baht (less than a Singapore dollar) a bag, these were badly needed to fill our growling stomach at the floating market!

Crunchily thin crust with a natural sweetness, these deep fried banana slices bought at the floating market were extremely delicious!

The unique factor over Singapore’s version was definitely the use of sesame seeds in frying the bananas that made eating them unstoppable!

Pork Kebab

The 30 baht paid for a long stick of pork kebab purchased right outside White Orchid Hotel in Chinatown was so worth it!

Its juiciness was unbeatable although I wish the marination was a bit stronger. Nonetheless, the hot and sweet Thai chilli sauce given was sufficient to punch up the taste factor!

Coconut Ice Cream

Unlike the coconut ice cream at its point value back home (in Singapore), the ones I had had the original coconut husk as the bowl, peanuts topping and jelly like coconut meat for its base!

                                                

Mind you, a small cup of refreshing coconut drink was given at no additional cost!

At 25 baht each, it’s no surprise that the stall was doing a roaring business in Chatuchak Market!

Fried Chicken Wings and Drumlets

This was in fact one of the first street food I had in Bangkok with Mr Kon and Ms Tan!

We were so hungry after getting off the airport shuttle; I can never forget that first taste when my teeth sank into the tiny piece of chicken wing!

I can never get enough of this!!! 20 baht got me two small wings and two drumlets!

Orange Juice

This is a must-drink for any hot weather!

Squeezed, bottled and kept cold in a tank of cold water or a layer of ice, this almost natural drink (usually 20 baht for a small bottle) with added salt proved to be the ultimate thirst quencher whenever the weather got too unbearable!

More hawkers seem to have switch to pomegranate juice. Back in 2007, i saw mainly orange juice sellers. Must be health related issues.

Disclaimer:

What I have here is just a small portion on what Bangkok has to offer! There are loads more like the BBQ skewers, corn cobs, fried wantons, roasted chestnuts etc etc!

Chinatown (唐人街) @ Bangkok, Thailand

The first thing that comes to people’s mind when you mention Chinatown in Bangkok is the wide array of food (for example Nam Sing and T&K Seafood)!

Chinese eats any living things with its back to the sky (as the saying goes) and its all time favourites are shark’s fin and bird’s nest soup, dishes commonly found in Bangkok Chinatown at much more economical prices.

Night-time has always been mistakenly thought amongst tourists as the only period to visit Chinatown and it’s purely for food.

Basically, nothing else in Chinatown is worthy of another mention….. except for maybe this lady selling a huge bunch of helium balloons (reminded me of the movie: Up).

However, Chinatown in Bangkok is more than just food and it’s more than just the night time!

There are many old buildings you can never find in Singapore, given their likely safety issues and the jittery feeling that warns you it’s not just humans living in those unmaintained dwellings.

My mind wandered to the first ‘story’ of this Thai horror movie, 4bia (Phobia) when I noticed this; the story on mobile phone if any of you still remembers.

You know a place has retained its charm if you manage to find a wet/dry market that is filled with locals. Fancy buying a live chicken and take pleasure in plucking out the feathers, slitting its throat and having fresh fried poultry for lunch?

Or you need any dried products to enhance the flavour of that bland soup of yours? Get your choice of sun-dried cuttlefish, fish maw and maybe some gingko to improve that memory of yours!

Feeling tired and hungry? Get your stomach filled in this mixed-vegetables-meat-rice stall that still adopt the old school display.

Are you on a diet to reduce that weight gain? Get yourself some Thai salad with that horrible nose-stinging smell that I detest!

There is even a walkway filled with aunties offering face threading services!! Though this can be found in Singapore, it’s the first time I saw so many people offering it in the same location.

As with any Chinatown, you can find traditional pastries used for birthdays and weddings. Yes, I know you can still find such shops in the lion city! However, it’s still pretty rare to find one that sticks to the designs back in my childhood.

The day time (as contrary to the night) is in fact an equally busy period for the lengthy wholesale market located along the lane parallel to the main road (Yaowarat or Yawaraj road) I mentioned frequently in my recent posts.

This lane, known as Sampeng Lane, is such a well hidden gem; you don’t see a lot of trigger-happy tourists! And the items for sale were at times, even cheaper than Chatuchak market!

Remember, it is a wholesale market so the more you buy, the higher your bargaining power! Like these strands of shimmering crystals that were way cheaper if you buy a dozen instead of one.

Do take your time to explore around and note that good (and at times, outdated) buys are usually dumped right outside the store.

Buttons of all shapes and sizes! I found a button that was almost as big as my palm!

Coin and hand phone pouches that looked so right for ladies yet totally wrong on men!

Rolls of colourful fabrics you can buy! In meters obviously!

My favourite ‘type’ of shop in Sampeng Lane since there were easily 3-4 such shops! Usually 4-5 stories high, they stock a lot of products and give wholesale price when you purchase more than 3 items of the same product category/item.

Since Halloween was around the corner when I visited Bangkok, quite a few shops were selling Halloween related party materials. I am not sure what the pricing was but I remember buying a huge bag of balloons (for sculpting) for less than S$4.00.

T-shirts are available but you will get better designs in places like Platinum Mall for the same price.

Watches that can give Swatch a run for their money! I am not comfortable in buying electronic products at very cheap price! Give me Kenneth Cole anytime!!

As you might have realized by now, Sampeng Lane has loads of accessories for sale and there are many shops selling bling bling necklaces, earrings, bangles, shoes, bags etc etc!

The range of products in Sampeng Lane is not as wide as the world famous Chatuchak (seriously, no one can beat Chatuchak for its one-stop convenience) but it is memorable enough for me to plan my stay in Chinatown whenever I am in Bangkok.

Given my zero knowledge on the pitchy Thai language, you might have wondered how I manage to haggle the price with the stall owners in Chinatown.

Charm aside, it’s my cannot-make-it grasp on the Hokkien dialect, similar to the Teochew dialect used by the older generation of Thai Chinese!

Truth is; bringing my mom along was a good choice since she speaks Teochew!