The Land Of Smiles

Easy come easy go seems to be the unfortunate catchphrase of many F&B businesses these days, as the famous Nian Nian You Yu at Maxwell closed mere months after opening. However, Fish Village spawned right in as its direct replacement, also specialising in steamed fish and miscellaneous seafood. On the evening I visited, they were slammed with an odyssey of orders, so they won’t be worrying about a lack of business for now.⠀
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The Thai Sauce Scallop ($14) is decently delicious, albeit nothing particularly special. An abundance of scallops are doused in a subtly spicy & sweet Thai chili sauce, and garnished with pickled onions & what appears to be julienned cucumbers. It’s sour enough to stimulate your salivary glands & your appetite, and it’s suitably savoury, with the hints of sweetness & spice from the chilies jumping in at the end. The scallops were dangerously close to being overcooked, but fortunately they stopped just short.⠀
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Fish and seafood are exorbitantly expensive these days, so to find such fresh produce at such a bargain is truly a blessing.

@jiak_song star attraction is supposed to be their handmade noodles, but as toothsome as those noods are, they simply can’t hold a candle to their tom yum broth. The Tom Yum Mee Hoon Kway ($5.80 nett) is a big bowl with lots of charmingly chewy mee hoon kway (flat hand torn noodles), slices of poached fish & minced pork, but all of that are just witnesses to the glory of the terrific tom yum soup.⠀
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Jiak Song’s tom yum takes the ubiquitous Thai spicy soup and amps every attribute up to eleven. It’s sumptuously salty, satisfyingly sour and most importantly of all, the spice is violent enough to ignite a wildfire on your tongue. This stellar spicy soup flavours every single ingredient in the bowl, and it’ll spice up your day too. For under six bucks, this banging bowl of tom yum noodles offers absolutely unparalleled value.

@warmupcafe_sg name is a bit ironic as it’s pretty cold inside, but they do bring that Thai heat to warm your belly up. They have all the Thai classics like basil chicken, pineapple fried rice and Pad Thai, but the Creamy Crab Omelette Rice ($13++) called to me the loudest that day. The crab omelette isn’t quite an omelette, but more like scrambled eggs with all those runny, eggy curds burying the rice.⠀
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A dollop of crabmeat atop the omelette and a green chili based sauce on the side complete this comforting looking dish. Truth be told, although the runny, silky egg curds were texturally terrific, it was a tad bland. However, that’s the cue for the green chili sauce in the little fish shaped plate to shine. It perfectly embodies Thai flavours: spicy, sour, salty and slightly sweet. ⠀
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The subtle spice enlivened the crab omelette, while the sourness was so shiok it compels you pour the sauce all over the omelette rice and give it a good mix. The salinity of the sauce makes up for the lack of it in the omelette, and if I had to guess I’d say the green chilies were mixed with fish sauce & some vinegar. The Creamy Crab Omelette Rice was simply scrumptious thanks mostly to that absolutely GOAT-ed chili sauce. Warm Up Café’s green chili sauce goes straight into my list of ‘sauces so stellar, they should be bottled & sold’.

Whenever you step into a Thai restaurant, you MUST get their prawn cakes. Simple as. If and when you dine at @kinnarithaicuisine , not getting their stellar prawn cakes ($8 + 10% service charge) should be a crime under the penal code.⠀
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Prawns are finely minced up into a coarse paste, shaped into a donut and coated in breadcrumbs before getting deep fried. Anything deep fried is usually good, but these prawn cakes were utterly sublime. Sure, they could’ve done with an extra sprinkle of salt, but the textures were downright heavenly. A light, thin layer of crunchy breadcrumbs envelop the sprightly & springy prawn paste, and that prawn paste is intermittently interrupted by a larger chunk of prawn. It may be eight dollars for a pair of these cakes, but these are some thicc ass cakes. Totally worth it.⠀
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Trust me, every man loves thick, juicy cake, and this man loves this thick juicy prawn cake from @kinnarithaicuisine.

@kinnarithaicuisine has been established along Joo Chiat Road for a good long while, but it’s only recently that they’ve rolled out a couple of sick lunch specials. One of those lovely lunch offerings is this bowl of Khao Soi Chicken, which is eight dollars before additional service charge only at lunch.⠀
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Khao Soi is a Thai coconut curry soup noodle, and is a rather familiar dish to Singaporeans. That’s right, it’s a Thai twist on curry chicken noodles. The luscious coconut milk enriched curry is chock full of lemongrass and fish sauce. which is the main difference between the Thai curry & the nyonya version. The aromatic Thai curry gravy houses egg noodles, which is essentially mee pok, chicken thigh chunks and raw shallots. The dish is generously garnished with an abundance of crispy deep fried mee pok at the top.⠀
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There really isn’t much to say about Kinnari’s Khao Soi chicken, it’s a redolent, rich curry gravy that binds al dente noodles & chicken together. It’s simple, but it’s simply comfort food for a rainy day or when you need something hearty & spicy to breathe life into a dreary day.

I’ve had @ccthaifood Garlic Fried Pork with rice before, and while the deep fried pork belly was supremely satisfying, the grease level got out of hand halfway through. I found myself wishing that they put a side of tart mango salad to keep the fatty deep fried pork from being surfeiting, but I didn’t realise that Cool Cool Thai already had the solution on their menu.⠀
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Their Fried Pork Belly Salad does cost a little more at six dollars (and an extra seventy cents for rice), but it resolves all of the grease control problems the rice version has. The same delectable, deep fried pork belly slices are now tossed in a Thai salad mix of raw red onions, shredded carrots, coriander/cilantro (DISGUSTANG), tomatoes and an unholy amount of Thai bird’s eye chilies all bound together by a sweet and mostly sour dressing.⠀
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The incredibly sharp tartness of the dressing subdues the greasy tendencies of the pork belly effortlessly, and the strong sourness of the dressing gives way to the infernal, hellish heat of the chilies. These tiny Thai chilies are no joke, they are shockingly spicy and they WILL give you the sweats. Bracingly sour, slightly sweet and severely spicy? Yep, those are all the hallmarks of good Thai food.⠀
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The pork belly had a charmingly crispy rind and each slice had a titillating thickness to boot. However, you don’t really have time to ponder the merits of the deep fried pork belly before you get slapped around by the stupefying spiciness. As much as this salad hurt me at both ends, I’d still order this again.⠀

#takeawayszn isn’t over yet, and many F&B establishments are still serving up tremendous takeaway deals. @lotusthaisingapore whips up a gnarly garlic chicken set for $10.80 before GST, and it’s a fairly reasonable custom for some tantalising Thai cuisine.⠀
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Besides the garlic chicken & rice, you get a clear tom yum soup on the side and a cup of the ubiquitous Thai iced milk tea. The clear tom yum soup contains nothing but a slew of shimeji mushrooms and a wedge of tomato, but it is astonishingly ambrosial. It’s salty and satisfyingly sour, pulling double duty as both the perfect palate cleanser and appetite whetter. Of course, shemeji ‘shrooms are always scrumptious, and it gets even better in a solid salty & sour soup.⠀
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As for the main event, it certainly delights. The slices of deep fried chicken are seasoned very simply with salt & white pepper before it’s dredged in flour & deep fried with an abundance of garlic. As the name implies, it’s all about the awesomely aromatic fried garlic and the succulent chicken that’s perfumed with the aforementioned garlic. It’s so gloriously garlicky that it would probably outright kill any vampires skulking in the shadows.⠀
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For $10.80, you could do a lot worse than getting some titillating Thai garlic chicken for lunch. Get some. Then get more. With Lotus Thai’s garlic chicken, you’re a winner.

Ten bucks before tax & service charge for this piquant plate of fried rice with honest to god crabmeat in there? Shoot son, get me more! @khaohomsg has an ample array of fried rice, and this one commands the highest premium of them all. Yup, they’re in the eight to ten dollar range. That’s some sick value right there.⠀
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The fabulously fluffy fried rice is splendidly salted, with the wonders of wok hei amplifying the stellar seasoning of the egg & spring onion speckled rice. As for the crabmeat, they were delectably fresh and cooked competently. It relies more on the strongly seasoned fried rice for flavouring, and that’s perfectly alright.⠀

Not gonna lie to you folks, the #burpplebeyond selection at @khaohomsg is pretty limited. You can pick from the salads, stir fries & rice/noodle section, but any and all seafood is completely off the table. A little bit of a bummer, given that Khao Hom seems to be a seafood specialist.⠀
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Fortunately, you can get the Kao Ka Moo ($9++) with Burpple Beyond. Despite having ‘Moo’ in the name, there’s no bovine here, and is actually the Thai version of braised pork knuckles. It’s done decently, with tender, moist meat that’s satisfyingly salty & herbaceous from the braising. The skin is fantastically fatty & wobbly, with collagen in copious supply just under the skin.⠀
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As for the other dish, it’s a simple stir fried mixed vegetable dish ($10++). A variety of veggies are stir fried over infernal heat with what tastes like oyster sauce till perfection, and in this case, simplicity sufficiently satisfies.⠀
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Thank you for having us, @burpple & @khaohomsg!

Khao Hom by Rung Mama (@khaohomsg) has recently set up shop in Djitsun Mall, a short stroll away from AMK Hub. I’ve been hearing lots of my fellow Burpplers screaming “whoa mama” over the first concept, Dee Tongue Thai by the same mama, so I was moderately hyped to try some Thai.⠀
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Their Tom Yum Talay ($12++) was terrifically titillating and I finally began to grasp the endless extolments of Rung Mama and her delectable goodies. It’s unflinchingly, authentically Thai with its feisty fieriness & sharp sourness, and it will take some getting used to unless you’re an unrepentant Siam-o-phile.⠀
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Within the bowl of splendidly spicy, sour & salty soup resides a mushroom medley alongside a seafood salmagundi. Portly prawns (that are fortunately mostly deshelled), springy squid and some sliced fish are the denizens of this tantalising tom yum soup. They are amply numerous to the point where you could just get a bowl of rice with a bowl of this tom yum soup, and you’d be golden.⠀
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Rung Mama? More like Whoa Mama. Thanks for hosting us, @burpple& @khaohomsg!

Note to self: if I ever dine at @izyfook again, bring a full lighting crew. The lighting in there is perfect for a little romantic dinner & a little PDA hanky panky for couples, but it’s a bleeding nightmare for my iPhone that’s at least three generations behind to shoot in. Anyway, my photo is awful, but Izy Fook’s Iberico Red Curry ($38++) is absolutely awesome.⠀
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Even though it was a cut of pork shoulder that was used, the meat was marvellously marbled with fat and it showed in the ludicrous juiciness of said pork. It was scandalously soft & was close to melting in my mouth, and each chew brought me within touching distance of carnivore nirvana.⠀
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The redolent red curry pays homage to its Thai origins with a hearty whiff of lemongrass perfumed all throughout the creamy curry, and is satisfyingly spicy to match. The curry is utterly umami, with the creamy concoction being perfectly balanced between spicy, salty & sweet. Also, it’s a chunky one, and the curry’s mouthfeel is heavy, creamy, luscious & delightfully velvety. The eggplant & potatoes within the curry add sweetness & starchiness to the already sublime curry, but I kind of regret not ordering a bowl of plain rice to mop up all of that highly coveted curry.⠀
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But really, the main element that makes this dish worth the eye watering asking price of forty bucks is the ponderous portion of perfectly cooked pork shoulder. It’s so fantastically fatty & flavourful that I couldn’t get enough of it despite its respectable size. This dish sure as hell ain’t Izy on the wallet, but finally, some good Fookin food.⠀

Alright, I’m drunk, I’m on Burpple and I’m trying to write a somewhat coherent review, so this is gonna be a fast game.

Right! So, Soi Thai has grilled pork neck available on its menu as a ‘signature’ item. I can tell you right now even through my alcohol impaired buzz that the grilled pork neck truly deserves that ‘signature’ tag affixed to it.

If you’ve never had the good fortune of savoring Thai style grilled pork neck, boy you are in for a treat. Think the lean qualities of a pork loin combined with the gluttonously gratifying fatty qualities of a cut of pork belly, and grilled to charcoal charred, delicious perfection, and you’re there. Sure, it’s might just be a little too oily for the more health conscious, finicky diners out there, but I swear on God it’s obscenely juicy and stupendously delicious. It’s a little like eating a very pleasant gelatin blob, but there’s that majestical meatiness at the end to stir your loins. Plus, did I mention just how deliriously delicious it is due to all that tantalizing Thai seasoning, and that shamefully inadequate chili sauce dip back there?

Lemme tell y’all right now, this plate of porcine is well worth sticking your neck out for.