Places I've Visited At Beauty World 🍜

Having been to Beauty World Centre, half my life, I have definitely eaten my fair share of XLB and dumplings from You Peng noodle dumpling house. This time, however, I decided to try something new, their fried red bean pancake. ($4.80)
They also have fried onion pancakes, but red bean trumps all.

Red bean is life.

The enthusiastic server handed us the beeper and we sat down to enjoy our dessert we also bought from Food Mapping. (Their review is next!). I guess the wait wasn’t excruciatingly long, but it did take around 8 to 10 minutes. (I wasn’t counting! I was busying slurping up the dessert)

Finally, the beeper buzzed, as though waking up from the dead. I hurriedly shoved my boyfriend towards the stall.

The pancake came in a perfect circle, divided into 8 pieces and the top covered with sesame seeds. The pancake was piping hot and it was burning my fingers. Probably the reason why they give you chopsticks!

After taking a bounty of pictures, I took a sensible chunk out of one piece. I pulled a ‘meh’ face, while my boyfriend grinned and took another bite. It turns out that there were not enough red beans in mine, whereas, he got a nicely filled piece.

The red bean paste wasn’t distributed evenly *insert a sad face here* (Two pieces were nicely filled with red bean and some pieces were 99% dough) If you are unlucky like me, you just end up with more dough than red bean. I dissected one piece and what I ended up with was the Singapore Horror Story. Most of the pieces had less than half a teaspoon of red bean spread around it, only two lucky pieces were densely filled.

Taste wise, the pancake had a nice doughy feel and chewy. The sesame seeds gave the top a nice crisp texture. The red bean wasn’t overly sweet and it didn't have an artificial taste to it. (My pet peeve=Artificial tasting red bean paste!)

One thing noticeable was that it leaves your fingers oily but the pancake itself wasn’t overly greasy.

It seems a little pricey being a $4.80 pancake, but it comes down to being $0.60 per slice. So if you share it amongst a few friends, it’s actually relatively affordable. (Just be the first one to grab the thick piece, because it’s probably filled with more red beans J Muahahaha..)

Overall, this pancake looks tempting but I found it a little underwhelming, due to shortage of red beans. Nevertheless, it's not exactly something you can find everywhere.

Making it to the judge’s scorecards: 7/10

While waiting for our Crispy Pork Burger, we decided to order a plate of Nasi Lemak. The stall is located right in between Top 1 Homemade Noodle and Hambaobao, the signboard only stating “Nasi Lemak”. You could say it was run something alike, ANANAS, with a few set options available.

We ordered Set A ($2.20), which consisted of the regular, fried egg, chicken and the ikan billis. As my boyfriend brought the plate back to the table, you could say my first reaction was “What is this?”

The rice, egg and chicken were messily dumped onto the plate. What was more concerning was the measly amount of ikan billis and peanuts she offered. Yes, I actually counted, 5 tiny ikan billis and 10 peanuts. I must say I was disappointed. But, what could I have expected based on its price point…
(Closing one eye, I attribute this to the fact that she was closing the stall and must have ran out of ikan billis)

When it comes down to taste, what more could I say? The rice was sub par, however, the owner did give more rice than what you would say was a usual amount. (Probably because she wanted to finish off the remaining rice) The fried egg was cooked and to my delight, the yolk was still a little runny. She chopped the chicken into three pieces, drumstick, wing and that boney part of the wing. Better than expected, the chicken was actually pretty tender and not dry. Halfway through the meal, my boyfriend did point out that she had neglected to give us any sambal.

Overall, I really can’t complain much as the entire plate was only $2.20. But I honestly wouldn’t be back for another plate sadly.

My hunt for food brought me to Beauty World Food Centre this time. I remember coming here all the time when I was younger. All the memories of attending my dreaded tuition classes there. Let me just take a deep sigh of relief that I no longer attend any tuition.

I pre researched on what to get at the food centre. With the intention of buying a variety of dishes to share with my boyfriend. And Hambaobao was at the top of my list, having never tried it before.

We actually brought dishes from 5 different stalls and the damage was $17.70. Stay tune for the reviews of the other stalls!

🍔 HAM BAO BAO 🍔

We arrived at hambaobao at 630pm on a gloomy Wednesday. There was a queue already formed with two people in front of me. My boyfriend wanted to order the classic beef but I convinced him to try the crispy pork belly first instead. As I handed the lady $5.00, in exchange she gave me a key with the number 13 and told me it would be a 20 minute wait.

Written on the chalkboard menu, their options available are:
•The Classic Beef
•Dat Dory Fish
•Crispy Pork Belly
•Spiced Pull Pork
•Ayam Buah Kelluak (I want this next!)
•Add ons: Fairy fries/Extra cheese or bacon

(Really wanted to try more but I wanted a variety of different foods that day. So I'll definitely be back hambaobao!)

Back at the table at 635pm and at 655pm, the lady hollered out my number.
Served on a metal tray and brown dabao paper, it's a really different vibe especially when the stall sits in an old school hawker centre.

I would say it's kind of hard to actually pick it up and chomp down on it like a regular burger. Instead, we deconstructed the burger and ate the elements separately. (Don't kill us)

The burger consists of the bun which they toast up on the pan, which explains the crispy insides and the soft top. 4 thick slabs of pork belly, topped off with hoi sin sauce, english mustard and 3 slices of Japanese cucumber.

They were so generous with the pork belly, that my boyfriend and I got two slabs ( I really mean slabs) of pork belly each. The pork was really nice and tender, a bit chewy at certain parts. The fat melts in your mouth and the thick crispy skin is so crunchy, you could hear the crunch a table away.

In my opinion, the Hoi Sin sauce compliments the pork belly really well. But I would leave out the overpowering English mustard. Alike wasabi, the mustard shoots up your nose leaving you with a scrunched up nose and closed eyes. Me and spicy things don't really mesh well together, so I ended up scrapping off the English mustard. My boyfriend on the other hand enjoyed the mustard and Hoi Sin combination, to each his own.

Overall, it is a really unique burger and quite worth the $5. I didn't manage to try the fairy fries as CARBS. But I will definitely be back to try their other burgers.

Would I order this again?
Yes! Without the English mustard though...

Location:
Beauty world Food Centre
Level 4