Back to SG! Post 2

Singapore getting too fast-paced. I've only been away for 6 months and the basement of Bugis junction and Plaza Singapura have changed?! I'm not complaining though, only means more food stalls for me, ha!



This mochi balls were bought from Plaza Singapura B2. It's a shop selling japanese snacks and they grill this mochi ball on this takopachi-like cooker which does the cha-cha. Yes, it shakes.



It's nice, and yummy, but the filling will give your tooth the aches. I like the chestnut flavour though, and the strawberry as well.

And it's back to Chinatown again. Well, not exactly, but somewhere close. I was at Amoy Street Food Center be exact, after popping by the temple to give my prayers, and decided to try this dessert stall which was mentioned in ieat's blog ages ago. Apparently this lady here makes her own Ah ballings and her desserts are quite kick ass as well.




Verdict: I like the red bean soup, barley gingko and cheng tng but they are all too sweet. Don't take my word for it though, maybe my taste buds have tamed down living in Perth. The cheng tng ($1.50) is teeming with ingredients and I would say it's actually a very good deal for the taste and quantity.



The red bean soup was tasty as well, but couldn't beat the one at Maxwell's (where it has brown rice in it). If only the sugar level was lower, I'm pretty sure the full flavour of the red beans would come through.

What about the rice balls? Hmm, you could give me a commercially made rice ball and a home-made one and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They are practically the same, skin or filling. But it's nice, trust me on that one. I like the small rice balls without filling though, it complements the red bean soup very, very well. And it's tangy too!




Ah-ha, finally the barley gingko. It's just too sweet, and the flavour couldn't fully come through because of that. It's really a waste, because it had the potential to be really good.

A pity as well, because what this stall is most famous for is it's nut pastes. Too bad, they were sold out when I got there, which is good for me because I can't take nuts either, Ha!

Hoo haa! Thunder LEI CHA!

One thing I DID eat during my flare up of eczema though, was the Hakka dish of Lei Cha after reading that the tea-based soup had alot of healing properties which were reportedly good for the skin.

We had shunned this particular dish in the past due to the weird tea concoction and some not-so-good reviews from friends but actually, it's not really that bad!



Firstly, the rice (which you have an option of white or brown which we went for) portion had long beans, anchovies, beancurd, peanuts and some other stir-fry vegetables tasted pretty good in my opinion. The vegetables were stir-fried very well and the anchovies and peanuts added a tasty crunch to the dish which made it very tasty. I could've eaten it just like that.

The tea-based soup... well... didn't go down so well. Well, it's quite bitter and not exactly appealing. However, if you mix a little into the rice (which is another was of eating the dish), it actually tastes quite decent. Add a little nasi lemak-like chilli, which is DARN GOOD, into the mix and you get a slightly bitter-sweet-savoury mix which is quite yummy.



But then again, it's good for your health and is reported to be good for sleep and improving bodily functions. Some also said that it's good for complexion and slimming down. So ladies, take note!

Truthfully? I like the dish, especially the rice, and would eat it again. For those who had shunned it before, it's worth trying. At the very most, you can just eat the rice and chilli and leave the soup alone :)



Address:

Thunder Lei Cha
7 Amoy Street Food Centre
Telok Ayer Street
#01-11

ps: They also have another branch at Food Republic at the newly opened Vivo City.

Damn good kueh

Being in Amoy Street food centre, I had the pleasure of tasting the best nonya kueh in Singapore ever. I had previously read about Sgkueh's super duper good onde onde which was No.1 one Straits Times onde onde list and of course, the reviews on ST Foodies made me crave it even more.



Sgkueh is opened by a guy called Michael Tan who finally opened a stall front in Amoy Street after previously selling his kueh from home. When I first heard of Sgkueh.com, I had my doubts about the kueh being sold in a store with such a corny and commercialized name. But after reading reviews, man, that durian onde onde is getting harder and harder to resist.



There's quite a variety of kueh being sold there including the traditional onde onde ($1.20 for 3), sweet and savoury Bingka Ubi, Tapioca kueh and a spunky variety of creations including durian onde onde (80c each) and differently flavoured kuehs w/ or w/o coconut including sweet potato kueh, mocha kueh, tau swan kueh, red bean kueh and some others which I may have missed out. These go for 60c each for the ones without coconut (bigger portion) and 40c each for those coated with coconut.

Being quite full from the min jiang kueh and wanton mee already, I only ordered the traditional onde onde, durian onde onde and much talked about sweet potato kueh which does not contain artificial colourings by the way.

What I read did not prepare me for what came next. I have never, ever... ever, tasted such soft onde onde, ever. The onde onde is soft like a custurd that you have to hold it delicately with your fingers. Pop it in your mouth and mash it with your tongue and feel the softness coupled with warm gula melaka. I'm telling you, I was in heaven at that moment.



The durian onde onde was larger in size but similar in texture with warm, real durian oozing out the moment you bite into it, oh man...it's like.. Omph!



The sweet potato kueh was of course, amazingly good. Not too sweet, good real sweet potato taste and soft like silk. I would think that the other kuehs carry the same, heavenly texture.



Sgkueh really does sell darn good, melt-in-your-mouth kueh which I think is a result of a very high sweet potato/tapioca to glutinous rice flour ratio. In fact, their the best I ever tasted! I know I'm a fan of Bengawan but sorry boys, these guys are of a different league. It's a pity that I'm stuffed from the wanton mee. The next time round, I'm gonna buy ALL of the kueh and sample them one by one. Till then, wait for my review!

Address:

Sgkueh.com
7 Amoy Food Centre Telok Ayer Street
#02-122
Singapore 069111

Opening Hours
10.30am to 3pm. Closed on Sundays.

Cheap and Good!

Just a short stroll away from Maxwell food centre is Amoy Street food centre, another food haven and one which I feel has much more hawker goodies than Maxwell. Step into the food centre during lunch time and you'll be greeted by long queues formed at several different stalls, each of them having their own "fans".

Among these are Sgkueh which sells a variety of damn good kueh and which I will cover in a seperate post, and Tai Seng Noodle House which sells a assortment of noodles including wanton mee and pork rib noodles. These two stalls stand side by side and despite being there on a Saturday morning, queues were already formed at both stalls.

Being the wanton mee fan ourselves, we quickly jumped into the queue when we saw the long queue and the many pink plates scattered around the surrounding tables (so S'porean right Haha!) I've heard, or rather, read much about this Tai Seng Noodle House praising it for it's generous helping of noodles and ingredients and boy I wouldn't have believed it if I haven't tried it myself!



The stall is tended by a lady who does all the cooking and serving herself.


Look at the assortment of sauces!

Since most of the customers were ordering the pork ribs noodle, we added that as an extra ingredient.

What I read is true to every word. The lady grabs a handful of noodles, cooks it in hot water, uses the tongs and grabs a whole bunch of char siew and fried wanton without any care to the amount, and throws a large amount of vegetables in. And besides that, she gave us a huge bowl of soup with at least 5 wantons.

So including the added pork ribs the set looked like that. How much do you reckon it will cost?



Let me tell you. $3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cheap right! Such a good deal I'd say! Given a choice between Kok Kee's and this, I'll be hard pressed to choose which to have.

The sauce is pretty good and one of the good sauces I've had, not the usual bland black sauce. The noodles, however, I find too sticky and they clump together making it hard to separate and eat.

The char siew isn't the roasted kind and is pretty average but the braised pork ribs is really quite good, which explains why everyone is ordering it. It's well braised and tasty and I even got a big piece of tau kwa, which was at the right saltiness by the way.



I didn't try the fried wanton though but the boiled ones were pretty good and the soup base was slightly sweet. I suspect that there's sugar in it.



Hey considering it a $3 dish, I would say it's pretty good! The next time round though, I'll just get the pork ribs noodles.