21 Seafood along Hougang Street 21 near Kovan MRT Station in Singapore #21seafood

The family agreed to have an early lunch to celebrate my mom's birthday but blur me forgot an appointment at 2.00 pm to discuss about an in-built cabinet that i am going to contract for my house! Postponing either the lunch or the appointment is a no-go so i frantically tried to find a place near the contractor's office with the only criterion; it must serve crabs.

Wonders of the internet; i found this place by the name is 21 Seafood which seemed to have a rather decent rating of 3.9 on Google with 190 reviews. Understanding that the eatery doesn't have space for many tables, we made it a point to arrive even before it officially started operations for the day!

Key attractions for the non-air-conditioned restaurant were the pricing of the crabs, which range from S$35 for three small crabs (from 0.90-1.00 kilogram) to S$40 for one crab that weighs about 0.60 kilogram, and the 16 cooking styles; from the popular chilli to the interesting claypot curry.

It's always hard to decide what to order and we left it to the birthday girl to decide. Do keep in mind that not all the pricing for the crabs would be available; when we were there, two options were out of stock. It might appear worth it to have the 3 crabs for S$35 but a 300-350-gram crab wouldn't have much meat in the first place.

Let's start with our feast! 

Mixed Furong Omelette - fluffy yet oily, this tasted alright but definitely not the best i have had as i felt the wok-hei could have been more intense.

Pork Ribs - tender and tasty enough; however, it lacked a punch to stand apart from other competitors. Sometimes, when you eat too much of something, there's a tendency you seek that extra 'something' for better differentiation. 

Butter Fried Squid - the nice aroma of butter enveloped the squid which was covered by a thin batter that wasn't as crispy as i would have loved it to be. The meat wasn't rubbery with a good bite; only issue, i think the chef was a tad too liberal with the salt. 

Hotplate Beancurd - conclusion, i am really not into hotplate beancurd. To me, the ingredients are better used in the stir-fry format that my mom can easily whip up at home! 

Sambal Kangkong - two factors for a good plate for sambal kangkong; it must be fried to the extent the stems are soft and the sambal chilli must encompass a combination of spiciness, pungency and a kick to my taste buds. This plate didn't meet the two factors.  

Garlic Crab - i don't know how best to describe it; the taste was like your typical vegetables stir-fried with garlic bits and scallions. Honestly, it didn't go well with crabs and i would have very much preferred it to be served steamed instead.  

Chilli Crab - one of three popular crab styles, this was sadly below average; the sauce was wasn't flavourful and the spiciness was like stuck in between wanting to get noticed and trying to stay hidden! 

Thank god that the crabs were fresh! 

Fried Mantou - fried buns were necessary when it comes to sauce-based crab dishes like chilli or butter crabs. I read on a google review that he/she regretted not getting more; hence, i ordered the largest serving which yielded about 10 small buns. 

Broke one apart and was excited to see it so soft and fluffy! My gosh, would this be another place like Forture Seafood where i could never seem to forget its fried buns?! 

Words taken back - it's literally tasteless and while i understand that the crab sauce would have resulted in some flavour; our chilli crab hardly made the cut given that i already didn't like it in the first place. One of the rare occurrences that our family found it hard to finish up the fried mantous! 

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It wasn't an enjoyable meal for our family although we do agree that pricing wise, it didn't burn a hole in our pocket. I also noticed that other customers were ordering crab with salted egg sauce and should i ever be back; that would be the one i shall go for. 

Address

212 Hougang Street 21,

#01-347, Singapore 530212

Map

As above.

Website

https://www.facebook.com/21seafood/

Menu

As above. 

Pricing

Mixed Furong Omelette - S$8.00

Pork Ribs - S$12.00

Butter Fried Squid - S$12.00

Hotplate Beancurd - S$10.00

Sambal Kangkong - S$8.00

Garlic Crab - S$40.00

Chilli Crab - S$40.00

Fried Mantou - S$4.00

(NETT, No Service Charge, No GST)

Nam Rong Chee Cheong Fun @ Bendemeer Food Centre [Singapore] #bendemeerhawkercentre

Bendemeer Food Centre is a place i have known for a long time but never visited until yesterday. I don't know why but i always assumed it was nearer to the Sikh temple.

Nevertheless, late is better than never and the first stall i am going to review was Nam Rong Chee Cheong Fun; as the name suggests, it's chee cheong fun i would be checking out although i read online that one recommendation was to pair the chee cheong fun with bee hoon from the same stall!

I already had noodles from another stall and i am not going to further bulk up my carbohydrate intake for the day! Hence, one roll of chee cheong fun was all i asked for.

There are a few styles of chee cheong fun in the market and the above was the kind i was first introduced to as a kid; It's just plain steamed rice noodle roll that's chopped up, drizzled with sauce and topped with sesame seeds.

Manned by an elderly couple, it's likely you can get an old school rendition of the chee cheong fun; each piece was smooth and slippery but as everyone knows, the sauce makes or break a chee cheong fun. To be honest, I would have loved a thicker sauce.

Despite not meeting the sweetness level i would have enjoyed, i thought the taste would be just right for the area which has a significantly higher elderly resident ratio. And for those looking for nostalgia, the chee cheong fun here might just appeal to you. 

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Address

29 Bendemeer Road,

#01-11, Bendemeer Food Centre,

Singapore 330029

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Chee Cheong Fun - S$1.00 a roll

Mom's Birthday 2020

The agreement was that i would make my signature osmanthus jelly (with red dates & Chinese wolfberries) cake for mom's birthday this year as she's not exactly a cake person. 

However, a box of sliced cakes from The Pine Garden appeared that night; darn, all the time and effort i spent in making the jelly could have been avoided but its' okay since mom can never say no to my healthy osmanthus jelly.

Such a hearty laugh from her because we found out she was the one who insisted on purchasing the cakes! Unlike my mom, Jovyn is the direct opposite when it comes to cakes although she's fixated only on a few types; in this case, cream cakes with chocolate rice. 

Let the singing begin!

Mom making her wish and blowing out the candles on the cakes (plural as there were technically more than two with each slice counting as one). Knowing my mom pretty well, she would likely wish for good health for everyone in the family and for herself; the luck to win more in lottery.

Taking photographs with the family! As the designated photographer, i am seldom in the pictures, which isn't much of an issue with me as i am camera-shy! Haha. 

Obviously there's no question about the goodness of my osmanthus jelly cake; for those from The Pine Garden, i enjoyed their lychee martini and pandan coconut! 

Happy birthday once again, Mom! 

再次祝你生日快乐！

Sliced Pork Fried Porridge from Old World Bakuteh (老世界肉骨茶) @ Yishun Block 747 [Singapore] #oldworldbakuteh

[moved to 732 Yishun Ave 5, #01-380, Singapore 760732]

Like many people, i seldom give a second chance when it comes to food establishments that fail to meet out expectations the first time we visit. It would have been the same case for Old World Bakuteh (老世界肉骨茶) but something happened a few days ago.

For the past four days, Alex had been buying the fried porridge from Old World Bakuteh and eventually, curiosity got to me and i asked to sample a bite. The result was that i decided to revisit the stall.

The original fried porridge was mixed pig's organs but i am not into internal organs. Thankfully, there's a sliced pork alternative. Pricing of S$5 was on the high side for porridge in a non-air-conditioned setting; trust me, it's worth a try to determine if you like or dislike the unusual porridge. 

To be honest, i was peering to see if the porridge was indeed fried as it could well be a marketing gimmick to intrigue diners. Turned out it was true; literally fried with huge, dangerous-looking flames surrounding the wok! 

Alex wasn't willing to share; so one large bowl for each of us! Yes, if you have been following, it's the 4th continuous day that Alex had been eating the fried porridge! Even i find it a tad obsessive.

Only one word can describe the fried porridge; extraordinary 

As you can see from the above two photographs, the sliced pork were fried together with the porridge, resulting in parts that were lightly burnt although the meat remained tender and nice. 

Key highlight was the porridge; a strong dose of pepper coupled with a caramelized charred flavour enhanced by the desirable wok-hei that i found terribly irresistible! It's so unlike the common Chinese porridge i have been having all these years and i can understand why Alex was so hooked.

Even i am contemplating if i should have the fried porridge again tomorrow even though i just had a bowl today! 

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Address 

747 Yishun Street 72, 

Within Hiap Hoe Eating House, 

Singapore 760747 

Map

As above.

Pricing 

Sliced Pork Fried Porridge - S$5.00