A quiet Friday night out with the wife turned out to be a rather enjoyable seafood dinner with some good friends.
Venue was a seafood place within 5 minutes walk from the Aljunied MRT station. Turns out one of the couples we are meeting eat pretty regularly there.
They are running a 2 crab for $68 deal for crabs sized about 800g and we ordered 2 to be done black pepper style and 2 chilli style. Of the 2 styles the black pepper one tasted more flavourful than the chilli one which was rather average. The signature kam heong style will have to wait for next visit.
We ordered various other dishes to round up the meal. Something called Dai Lok noodles was a particular revelation with the robust flavour of the black sauce coming through the chewy texture of the thick noodles. Other standout dishes included the calamari coated in salted egg yolk batter and the lah lah cooked in herbal broth while the coffee spare ribs deserve a mention.
In case I forget to mention this, this KL styled cze char stall used to be situated in a kopitiam at Block 85 Toa Payoh Lorong 4 until they moved to present location 2 years ago.

Tucked away in a coffeeshop in a quiet corner of Toa Payoh is a Bak Chor mee stall which I occasionally frequent on lazy Saturday afternoons.
I cannot compare it to its more illustrious counterpart Lai Heng since my aversion to long queues have deprived me of enjoying it. My bak chor mee fixes have to come at this stall.
I ordered my regular dried minced meat with "homemade" meatballs. For a traditional Teochew touch they give you piece of the crispy fried fish whose name eludes me. The meatballs are like the Fuzhou fishballs with meat encased within meat and they taste pretty good.
For me bak chor mee is about how well they cook the pork liver and the lean pork. They are well cooked without losing its tender texture and becoming too tough to the chew. I did not order the dumpling soup this time around but its taste is commendable. Lai Heng will have to wait for now.

I have been reading about Harrianns being rated as a fine purveyor of Nonya kuehs and finally had the chance to try them out.
They do have their choice of set meals but not being particularly hungry I chose to order a kopi o with a box of ondeh ondehs to indulge my sweet tooth.
Their kopi o turned out to be uncommonly robust and proved to complement the sweet dessert pretty well. I popped in the ondeh ondeh one at a time enjoying the rich taste of the gula melaka gushing into my mouth as I bite through it. It's been a while since I enjoyed a "proper" ondeh ondeh.
I look forward to my next visit to Harrianns should I pop by Bugis in the near future.

Many accolades have been showered on this stall and after eating it again today I would say it still remains one of the best bowls of beef noodles you will find in this culinary haven called Singapore.
Long queues regularly form at this stall and I deliberately chose to visit them during the off-peak hour of 11am. I ordered my favourite dried mixed beef noodles which thankfully remains at a very affordable $5 per bowl. The best part of the meal for me was slurping the ultra-flavourful soup while chowing down on the generous serving of beef parts.
Meals like this make me glad I live in Toa Payoh surrounded by all these gorgeous and fabulous street food. You can still eat very well without having to pay exorbitant prices.

This stall does not really stand out in a food centre with more illustrious "household" names but if you are looking for a kway chap fix when their more famous Lorong 8 counterpart is closed in the morning this is not a bad option.
I reckoned that this stall couldn't be too bad if the neighbourhood uncles and aunties eat there with some frequency. Of course it must pass the intestine taste test which means it should smell and taste like it has been properly cleaned. That it did. It also passed my wife's salted vegetable test when she raves about it being not overly salty and free of "particles". Its chilli is not half bad either.
Its braise is not as robust as its Lorong 8 counterpart Guan Kee but it is a decent alternative if you are craving kway chap rather early in the morning in Toa Payoh.

I walked over to a nearby Uncle Leong's to indulge in one of my favourite seafood dishes.
Got a few raised eyebrows from the restaurant staff when I asked if they served crab during lunch rather than the mundane rice and noodles they serve mostly during lunch. Ordered the Claypot Crab Beehoon Soup for 2 pax.
The food arrived and we tucked in. The broth was creamy essence of crab and the beehoon absorbed the crabby goodness as well. The meat was well cooked and the texture delightful.
The meal reaffirmed that this dish remained one of my favourite crab dishes and I'm glad Uncle Leong's is so easily accessible from where I stay.