Hong Dou Tang

I know I've posted about this Peanut Soup Stall in Maxwell FC before but I'll just do another one since I tried the other two items available.

I reaaaaaally only wanted to buy the red bean soup. Really. But! I saw the makansutra awards going to it's peanut soup and tau suan. So I changed my mind at the last minute (literally) and ordered all three with some tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) to go.

Seriously speaking? I still think the red bean soup rocks. It has brown rice in it which gives a very unique taste. Well, you can read on my previous post about it by clicking on here.



And I reaaaaaaally don't see what the fuss is about the other two items. Uhm, the peanut soup is very watered down and you can only taste the peanuts faintly so don't try it if you are the kind who likes thiiiiiick, riiiiiiiich, gooooooey peanut butter-style peanut soup. Oh wait, or is that peanut paste?

The tau suan is also quite normal.



Yeah... don't know what else to say about it.

But I'll still go down for my red bean soup! Oooh yummy yummy.

Address:
Maxwell Food Centre
Peanut Soup
Stall 57

No dumplings, porridge lor

I was supposed to eat bak zhang last Saturday.

Supposed.

I set my alarm clock zun zun at 8am on a Saturday just to rush down to buy Ho Kee bak zhang. On a Saturday okay! But when I reached Amoy Street FC, I saw all the shops closed and all their wares messily stacked outside so I asked, "Uncle ah, jing tian mei you mai ah? (Today never sell is it?)". Then he told me, " Mei you ah! Jing tian spring cleaning!".

Spring cleaning?! I mean, which food centre does spring cleaning!!! Ahhh!!! Wasted my Saturday.

Okay lar, not quite. Because I took a chill pill, calm down, walked to Maxwell FC to have breakfast with a vengence! Ah ha!

I bought 2 muah chee, 2 kueh kosui, 1 min jiang kueh, 1 bowl of prawn dumplings, 1 bowl of braised beef noodles, 1 bowl of peanut soup w/ rice balls, 1 bowl of red bean brown rice soup, 1 bowl of tau suan, 1 bowl of century egg porridge and 1 plate of yu sheng (raw fish). Wah, breathless

Before you think that I'm a glutton, let me mention that most of the food were ta bao for my gf also (but I think I ate most of them).



Okay anyways, I've heard about Hoe Kee's century egg porridge and it's finally time to give it a try. Uhm, the porridge is tasty! Check. The porridge is sticky and pasty. Check! The porridge has loads of century eggs and pork. Check! And plus, the porridge is served in a large bowl for just $3 (or $3.50 if you add an egg). Oh yeah, they have condiments like fried onions, spring onions and chillis on the side so yeah, feel free to go crazy with them!



Generosity seems to be their speciality because check out this yu sheng. Oh mama, I've never seen so much fish in such a small plate of yu sheng before. And it's only going for $3. Seriously, the yu sheng is not bad. It's quite tasty and the amount of raw fish is just, Phoo!



Address:
Maxwell Food Centre
Hoe Kee or He Ji

Guangdong Braised Beef Noodles

Once again, another gem found in Maxwell food centre. This stall, Guangdong Wanton Mee, certainly sells super duper kick ass braised beef noodles. I know the signboard displays WANTON MEE, but I heard such good reviews about the braised beef noodles that we just had to try it and erm, give up wanton mee just this once.

But of course, we had to add char siew into our braised beef noodles. Haha! Yeah I know, such retards.



The beef is soft, tender and tasty. The sauce is rich, thick and well stewed. The chilli is good. Hey! It's a good deal! The flavours really blend well together and the sauce is not so rich as to make you sick but just right. Juuuust right.

I can't explain much further because I realise my english and vocabulary are getting from bad to worse. Either that or I'm just to lazy to think of words to describe. But trust me on this one and go down and try it yourself.

Oh, and while you are there, give the wanton mee a go and tell me how it tastes like okay?



Address:

Maxwell Food Centre
Guangdong Wanton Mee
Stall 99

Maxwell revealed!

Yes, here I am once again stripping Maxwell food centre apart bit by bit, going back again and again to slowly reveal it's well kept food secrets.

"What's on the menu this time round yummie?!". Sweet stuff of course! Savoury stuff, Hmmm, not in the agenda today.

Having read about Maxwell's famous onde onde, which incidentally ranks 2nd just behind Sgkueh.com's, I knew I had to try it out and since I had a Saturday morning all to myself, why not?



Well, I DID find a stall selling onde onde and it DOES have alot of newpaper clippings and foodie recommendations on the wall. However, I can't really read the chinese words so I don't know if it's Xing Xing's tapioca cakes. But seeing that it's the only store selling onde onde, I just went ahead and bought some.



The onde onde looked errr, a little unappetizing though. I thought onde onde were little plump balls coated with grated coconut but what greeted me was a tray of... flat balls with leaking gula melaka. Seriously! ALL the balls were sort of punctured! I still got some though.



Despite it's bad (really bad) appearance, this onde onde was actually quite good! Don't get me wrong, it still ranks behind Sgkueh's. But it's soft (but more chewy than Sgkueh's) and has a good proportion of gula melaka in it. There's also a little crunchy bit of gula melaka left in it. I feel that the dough is not flavoured though, meaning that they use little sweet potato and a high ratio of glutinous rice flour, creating just a bland dough.



i also bought their mua chee or mochi which was, unexpectedly good! I mean, it's not extraodinarily good just better than average. The skin was quite soft but what bought me over was the filling. Instead of the usual peanut and sugar filling, the filling here has been cooked in shallot oil, giving it a very fragrant taste. Not bad!



I also popped by one of our favourite stalls selling tong shui, or chinese desserts for some. This stall sells peanut soup, tau swan and red bean soup with peanuts, sago and brown rice.



We accidentally chanced upon this stall a few months back and it has been one of our favourite stalls since. Most people get the peanut soup but what we crave for is the red bean soup.



Not usual, boring red bean soup mind you! This red bean soup, with the peanuts, brown rice and sago gives the soup a very good and special taste. It's really good, trust me. and besides, you can also add in rice balls for an additional cost. Yummy!



I'm stuffed! By there's still so much more in Maxwell to unrevel! Don't worry, I'll be back again... soon.

And ending the trip to Maxwell with *drumrolls* min jiang kueh! Oh yummy!



Dear min jiang kueh,

Sometimes, I sit beside the window staring blankly into the landscape and wonder, "How can I ever, ever, live without you?"

From your greatest fan,
Sam.

Address:

Peanut soup
Maxwell food centre Stall 57

A piece of childhood goodness

Birthday posts aside, just the other day Qin and I headed down to Chinatown or rather, Maxwell food centre, for lunch. Yeah, sure Maxwell food centre has loads of goodies, but what I usually go down for is only for its darn good min jiang kueh.

Yup, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Min jiang kueh IS my favourite food, "What?! Comon!" I hear you say? Don't worry I still love my chocolates :)

When I say min jiang kueh I'm sure what comes to your mind is a slightly yellow triangular piece of pancake with peanuts or red bean filling inside. But this min jiang kueh I'm introducing to you is different in the sense that it is pandan flavoured, making the kueh very fragrant by itself.



I still have vivid memories of eating this kind of pandan pancake when I was still a kid and there was a stall selling them beside the clinic. I didn't know what it's called or what it's made of, only knowing that the combination of peanuts and pandan flavoured flour is a darn good one. Oh well, I guess I've been addicted to pandan and peanuts since, prefering sweet nonya kuehs and min jiang kuehs to sponge cakes or waffles. Sad to say, since that stall moved, I haven't seen a single place selling that certain kind of pancakes anymore.



So imagine my delight when I stumbled across this stall a few months ago while having lunch at Maxwell food centre! When I saw the shape and colour of that piece of min jiang kueh sitting on the table I was so happy! I was literally jumping for joy that THERE IS still a place that sell it!



The stall is called Ong Pandan Pancake and is located at the last row of Maxwell food centre near MND building. Firm to the bite and slightly chewy fragrant pancakes rolled up with sugary peanuts, red bean, kaya or coconut filling laid out on a large wooden chopping board just as I remembered. They sell the triangular kind too but I only buy the rolled up ones as they have more filling and are nicer to eat IMO. I also only order the ones with peanut filling. I guess it's a childhood thing :)



Min jiang kueh fans or not, go grab some cause it's super good! Even Qin who is not a min jiang kueh fan drags me down sometimes just to grab some :)

Address:
Maxwell food centre
Ong pandan pancake (Signboard only writes Pancake)
Located at the last row of stalls near the MND building side
Rolled up pieces go for 40 cents each while triangular pieces go for 50 cents each. Just buy the rolled up ones :P