Clawsome Bag - Jiao Cai Seafood (蕉财海鲜) @ Yishun Park Hawker Centre [Singapore] #yishunparkhawkercentre

Food choices were aplenty at Yishun Park Hawker Centre and deviation from the few favourites we had was quite rare unless something caught our attention; like the time I was seated in front of Jiao Cai Seafood while waiting for my order of BBQ Boneless Chicken Leg from Smokin' Joe.

Poster stating the newest offering on the menu; the clawsome bag which I assumed would be the same as the seafood bag elsewhere! In this case, the S$48 a bag at Jiao Cai would include crab, clams, prawns, mussels, sweet corn and fried mantou! 

Wait was close to 30 minutes! In addition to the clawsome bag, I took the liberty to add a vegetable dish to the meal too. While I am happy eating only seafood / meat, my parents are the traditional kind who prefer some healthy vegetables to balance out the sinful food. 

Four Heavenly Kings - I am presuming that the kings are brinjal, lady fingers, french beans and petai (stink beans). Mildly spicy and stir fried with ikan bilis, the vegetables were tantalizing and provided a nice variety for diners who dislike having too much of one vegetable.

Clawsome Bag - it would be more appropriate to label this the clawsome pot, rather than bag! Not that it matters to me as it's just a different vessel holding the ingredients. Do note that the stall had run out of crabs that day and I was agreeable to their proposal to replace with crayfishes instead.

Frankly, the gravy tasted just like chilli crab and I personally feel that it was one of the better ones; spicy, tangy, thick and gooey, flavourful with a tinge of tomato flavour that made us want to pour it over plain white rice! 

No complaints about the seafood, in general. I wasn't that happy with the corn though; it's hard to enjoy it as they didn't have much 'meat' in the kernels and the cob broke so easily. Gravy was the highlight and it's so blissful to use the gravy as a dip before throwing the seafood into our mouth! 

I so wanted to tabao the gravy back home! 

The fried buns; the oily type I like. As the fried buns I had in the past two instances were tasteless, I wasn't pining too much hope for these ones from Jiao Cai. 

Turned out they were good; the buns were pillow-soft in the insides, lightly crisp on the outside and had a moderate sweetness that's perfect for the spicy, chilli gravy!  

I counted; 4 crayfishes to replace a 500-600g crab. To be honest, I don't know if it's worth the replacement since crayfish, just like lobster, doesn't have much meat in the first place. Nevertheless, the chance is high I would return to have this clawsome bag again; hopefully the stall would have crabs then.

=====

Address

51 Yishun Avenue 11, 

Yishun Park Hawker Centre, 

#01-39, Singapore 768867

Map

As above.

Pricing

Four Heavenly Kings - S$12.00

Clawsome Bag - S$48.00 

Lao Jiang Superior Soup (老江一品汤) @ Punggol Oasis Terraces [Singapore]

What happen when you visit a neighbourhood mall for the first time without any inkling on what to have for lunch? For me, I relied on my mom who usually prefers soupy stuff and it's a no brainer that Lao Jiang Superior Soup (老江一品汤) managed to tug her heartstrings! 

Options were pretty comprehensive for such a small outlet, with about 11 different kind of soups. As expected, there's a higher chance for us to order those dishes with the "chef recommended" logo. Let's cut to the chase and review what we had.

Fried Spice Pork Belly - for some people, the taste of nan ru (fermented beancurd) can be repulsive and while I am not that extreme; it's not a dish I would order if I am ever dining out on my own as a strong flavour can turn me off.

Thankfully, the nan ru pork belly from Lao Jiang Superior Soup had a good flavour that didn't taste heavy of fermented beancurd. In addition, it was juicy (given the high fat content from pork belly) and had a crispy, thin-crust bite! 

Lao Jiang Soup - thinking this would be a signature soup despite the lack of a chef recommended logo, we went ahead with our order. In a nutshell, it was similar to a simple, light and unfanciful bowl of kway teow soup you can get from other noodle stalls. 

Signature Superior Soup - as the first item on the menu when you flip to the second page, with key information that the broth was boiled for over four hours, it's hard not to give this a try. And my family did by requesting for two servings; one with rice and the other with dry mee pok. 

The broth was extremely flavourful although I can't help but notice the resemblance with Yu Pan Dry Noodle (御品幹撈面) which had a number of stalls spread across Singapore. Even though Lao Jiang's version included two prawns and two relatively large pieces of fish maw, it's quite hard to stomach the significantly higher price of S$9.50 a bowl; it didn't help that I am not that big of a fish maw fan.

I love mee pok and would make a point to request for it so long it's available and I am not packing it for takeaway as the texture would change. Strange that in spite of having the noodle in the store, its texture felt as though I had requested for takeaway with a thicker, heavier feel that's unpalatable. Pity though as the pieces of crispy pork lard were amazing! 

Double Boiled Chicken Essence Soup - with the abilities to "combat fatigue, strengthen immune system and boost muscle growth",  it's the kind of soup that would appeal to my elderly mother! To show that the operator was true to its words on the use of chicken essence, a pack would be torn with its contents poured into your soup right in front of you! 

This kind of reminded me of XO bee hoon and I often joked with my friends that I would bring a bottle of XO myself whenever we feel that the taste of XO was too weak! Maybe we can do the same with chicken soup; just prepared one or two bottles of Brand's essence chicken.

Taste wise, it had that intense, nutritional flavour (guess it's the result of the chicken essence) with a noticeable ginger taste and I can imagine how shiok it would be to have this on a cold, rainy day! Red dates were soft yet retained a sweetness that complemented perfectly with the soup. Chicken was juicy but it's likely cooked separately; we knew because this was actually our second bowl as the chicken in the first bowl was cold, as if it was just taken out from the fridge. 

=====

Address

681 Punggol Dr, #01-42/43, 

Oasis Terraces, Singapore 821669

Map

As above. 

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/laojiangsuperiorsoup

Pricing

Fried Spice Pork Belly - S$8.00

Lao Jiang Soup - S$6.00

Signature Superior Soup - S$9.50

Double Boiled Chicken Essence Soup - S$14.00

(Inclusive of GST)

Slippery Floor Due to Broken Bottle of Olive Oil @ Yishun Northpoint City Mall [Singapore]

It's a route not unfamiliar for me and I instinctively whipped out my mobile phone to check out the newsfeed on facebook while walking from Northpoint basement passage to the connected Yishun bus interchange, to collect some plastic containers from my friend and also pass him a small pack of Florentine cookies that I just baked.

Before my mind could register what happened, I was already lying on the floor with a broken pack of cookies, and my mobile phone flung two meters away from me. There was some light yellowish liquid and a plastic bag. Darn, did someone just drop a bag of drink or something!? 

As my friend had already arrived, I quickly picked myself up and met him in less than a minute. That's when I realized I was bleeding with a cut across my knee. It didn't hurt much though and my friend kindly passed me some antiseptic wipes to clean up the blood. 

I would need to go back the same route to return home and took a closer look at the spot where I slipped. It wasn't a pack of drink that broke; what I found within the bag was a shattered bottle of olive oil! Now, I really have to count my lucky stars but it wasn't happiness flying in my brain; it was pure rage! 

The pieces of glass were everywhere and I was incensed that the person who broke the bottle of olive oil didn't even take the basic responsibility to contact housekeeping to clean up the mess! There are so many elderlies living in Yishun and the slippery floor could result in serious injuries (hip displacement etc) or even death. Not to mention the glass shards that could cut them too! 

Yes, I escaped pretty unscathed but I am not going to just walk away and think it's the mall's job to ensure they clean up! Okay, technically I did walk away but more to find housekeeping; eventually, I found the mall's contact and informed the guy who picked up the phone to quickly activate manpower to clean up the area. 

Maybe it was bad luck when one got injured as mine continued with a cut to my thumb when I was removing the skin from a persimmon earlier this evening, using a peeler. Alright, it's just me and my butterfingers. 

Hoe Fried Hokkien Mee (和炒福建虾面) @ North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre (Near Lavender MRT Station) [Singapore] #northbridgeroadhawkercentre

I tried to undertake a bit of research before checking out a hawker centre I have never patronized before; this would enable me to roughly plan out what to eat beforehand and help cut some time in deliberating which stall to order from! 

With a review rating of 4.5 on Google, I was half expecting a queue at Hoe Hokkien Mee but on second thought; who would have hokkien mee at 9.00 am?! Regardless, I am happy I didn't have to wait long. 

Generous plate of hokkien mee at S$4.00 a plate.

Aside from having a higher proportion of thick bee hoon (as opposed to yellow noodles in other places), there were also slices of pork belly, in addition to your typical prawns, eggs and squids. To be me, the squid can definitely be removed as they were tasteless! 

Slurping good; it was flavourful and rich of the sweet prawn stock that I always find irresistible in a good plate of hokkien mee. While good on its own, I do enjoy the chilli as it added an addictive layer of contrasting sourness, spiciness that made every spoonful into the mouth, an heavenly experience.

Burp! 

======

Address

861 North Bridge Rd, #01-93, 

North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre, 

Singapore 198783

(Near Lavender MRT Station)

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

9.00 am to 6.30 pm

(Closed on Sundays)

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/hoehokkienmee

Pricing

Hokkien Mee - Minimum S$4.00 a plate

Tian Yi Desserts (天義) - Signature Mixed Green Bean and Red Bean Soup @ North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre (Near Lavender MRT Station) [Singapore] #northbridgeroadhawkercentre

I started using my kitchen a lot more during the circuit breaker (CB) last year and one item I constantly made was green bean soup as the recipe is simple with a pretty fast process.

Fast forward to a few days ago when I was at North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre; the signboard of Tian Yi Desserts (天義) caught my attention as their signature was green bean soup and red bean soup! Now, I am intrigued as to how different could their soup could be and decided to order a bowl of their signature mixed green bean and red bean soup. 

The photograph above didn't do it justice as there was a noticeable half shade of green and half shade of red when I was at the hot dessert stall but my unstable juggling back to my table had mixed them up.:(

Featuring an interesting flavour combining both green and red bean soup which you could easily replicate at home, the highlight was really the sheer amount of ingredients that went into the soup, other than the necessary green beans and red beans. Visually, I saw dry longan, orange peels, sago, pearls, barley and lotus seeds! 

Nice, nutritional and generous; I bet this hot dessert would be a hot favourite among the older generations. For me, it's just too much ingredients and coming from a guy who likes more soup than green beans in his homemade green bean soup, this is just not my cup of tea.

=====

Address

861 North Bridge Rd, #01-112,

North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre, 

Singapore 198783

Map

As above. 

Operating Hours

9.10 am to 3.30 pm

(Closed on Sundays and Mondays)

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Signature Mixed Green Bean and Red Bean Soup - S$2.00