Craving For Simplicity

Huge thanks to Derrick (@sgfoodonfoot) for bringing us to this gem of a prawn noodle, helmed by a young hawkerpreneur and her recipe was passed down from several generations. Between the soup and dry version, the latter was totally on a league of its own, especially when you have their homemade sambal, lard oil and fried shallots tossed in beautifully with the kway teow and yellow egg noodle to give it an umami boost. There are no fanciful ingredients, just lean pork slices, prawns and bean sprouts to make it a well-rounded bowl of prawn noodles. When you order the dry version, you will get a bowl of the prawn broth which has a slight sweetness and packed with seafood flavour that you will crave for more from each slurp.
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✨ 545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles
📍 665 Buffalo Road, Tekka Food Centre, Unit 01-326, Singapore 210665
🍴 [Not Sponsored]

Forget about all the trendy and hipster cafes that serves most run-off-the-mill brunch items, this is one place that takes pride in serving good eats in a comfortable environment. As quoted from their website, the café is “dedicated to creating food that is both honest and of the highest quality”, which speaks volume to the dedication and passion they put into their menu so that you are consuming only the natural and premium grade ingredients from their in-house breads to the fillings and homemade sauces in their sandwiches.

Prior to this visit, I was recommended the Eggstatic Brioche ($5.50) which I duly got and this didn’t disappoint at all even though it might seem like a normal combination of eggs and bread, the creamy scrambled eggs in the brioche pullman is so good, you will want to take an extra bite after each mouthful. Another that totally hits the spot is the Lox & Cheese ($11.50), which is perhaps my favourite for the day and got me salivating at the thought of it. This sandwich is constructed with a base of wholewheat pullman with a spread of cream cheese, Löwe'f berry jam and lined with smoked salmon, pickled cucumbers, shallots and dill. The lady got the Portobello Burger ($14.50), a recommendation by the staff and it was equally amazing; a roasted portobello mushroom with other accompaniments of caramelized onions, mature cheddar, emmental, butterhead lettuce, roasted tomato, pickled cucumber and honey mustard, sandwiched between a brioche bun. We ended the meal with the Super Lemon Tart ($7), the tanginess that hits you from the get-go before the sweetness lingers in at the end.
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✨ Löwe'f Artisanal
📍 1 Queen Street, Singapore 188534
🛵 https://www.lowef.co/
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Come evening, most if not all the stalls would have already closed except for one, Sin Ho, which comes to life for their wok frying skills. I have previously reviewed them a few times over the past years and I am happy to say that even till now, their standard and consistency is still top notch. Dare I say, they might even have the best har cheong gai aka prawn paste chicken in this area and beyond. The small portion comes with 6 pieces of well marinated chicken pieces that you will totally not regret ordering, and in fact will want even more after finishing it. Some places either have a thick batter or the marination is not able to seep through into the meat, but here at Sin Ho, everything works from the crispy outer to the juicy meat texture. For people who are not able to accept prawn paste chicken due to the pungent aroma, give this a try as the prawn paste is not super heavy, in-your-face kind of intensity.
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✨ Sin Ho
📍 216 Bedok North Street 1, Unit 01-75, Singapore 460216
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Instead of going for their extra crispy toast, we decided to get their French toast that comes with a slab of melting butter on top the toast with their own homemade moreish kaya by the side. The kaya is slightly different from the rest as theirs are eggier with a clumpy texture that is not as smooth as others. While the setup might not appeal to many, the quality of the traditional brewed Nanyang coffee more than makes up for it, the aroma and thickness will awaken any senses. I truly hope that the charm of this old-world heritage establishment remains as it is for many years to come to contrast all the modernization that is happening now to the F&B industry.
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✨ Tong Ah Eating House
📍 35 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089142
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As many have said previously, the laksa broth is so slurp-worthy that I literally wiped clean the entire bowl within minutes, something that George himself noticed and commented that I must be very hungry. The outstanding thing about this bowl of laksa has got to be the gravy, which as you stir, you will notice grounded shrimp bits in it and every spoonful is just an umami burst of seafood flavour. What’s different from others is that the rest of the pack tends to go heavy on the coconut cream/milk that they add into the broth to thicken it but George manages to get the magical amount to make sure that the broth does get make you feel surfeited and yet the santan gives it a nice consistency to the overall texture with a fragrant aroma.

There are 3 different size options ($4.50/$5/6) and this bowl is the $5 portion which comes with a reasonable amount of thick bee hoon, some bean sprouts, fish cake and a generous amount of prawns which might be because I opted for no cockles in my laksa. George himself also jokingly mentioned to other customers in the queue that for the $5 and $6 options, you can either choose more noodles or more ingredients. Huge thanks to Alan from @malaccamakanking for recommending me this place and the pro tip is to give George a call before heading down as his laksa sells out very quickly.
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✨ Katong Laksa
📍 307 Changi Road, Singapore 419785
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Every bite of this bánh mi brings me back a little to my vacation trips to Vietnam and at $5.50 for the Traditional Vietnamese Bread, this value-for-money sandwich is definitely worth the stomach space. The fresh baguette has a crispy texture while the filling might not seem substantial in my photo, there’s actually quite a lot of ham slices inside. My only gripe would be that if they can add more of the pate and do chua (pickled carrots and radish), plus the option to add a fried egg, it would be the perfect sandwich.
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✨ 233 Bánh Mi
📍 216 Joo Chiat Road, Unit 01-07, Singapore 427483
🛵 https://233banhmi.com/order-2/
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The several times that I am there at about 12:30pm on a weekday, all the food has been sold out but fortunately, this time round, I was there much earlier and managed to get one of the last few plates of this elusive nasi lemak. As the stall name suggests, the only thing that you must get is their nasi lemak as they are truly specialists in this dish. Using premium grade basmati rice and fresh coconut milk, the rice is wonderfully fragranced that you just cannot get enough of, and tag teaming the rice is the slightly sweet, mildly spicy sambal.

For true nasi lemak connoisseurs, the two most important elements are the rice and sambal and the Nasi Lemak Specialist nailed both flawlessly. Going back to basics, the original nasi lemak does not have many accompanying ingredients and what these originators focus on are solely the rice and sambal and as time goes by, more ingredients get added into it but the most familiar and straightforward ones are the fried egg, crispy anchovies and peanuts, and the chicken wing. The egg here is nothing out of this world, just a regular fried egg, but the crispy anchovies and peanuts are so well deep fried that it provides the right crunch and flavour. Last but not least, the chicken wing and I will end my review with a few words of it; one chicken is not enough, trust me and get at least two.

Never underestimate the art of perfecting simplicity because that’s the true definition of a good plate of food.
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✨ Nasi Lemak Specialist
📍 137 Tampines Street 11, Tampines Round Market & Food Centre, Unit 01-14, Singapore 521137
🍴 [Not Sponsored]

To me, they are one of the top chicken rice stalls out there and they have set the benchmark that any chicken rice stalls who wish to get the accolade as one of the best in Singapore will have to at least match Tian Tian’s standards. Anything below that benchmark and you are better off saving your calories for Tian Tian instead, which was what Gordon Ramsay felt when he competed and lost in the cook-off battle. Not only is their rice fragranced with ginger and garlic, they serve one of the most tender and succulent poached chickens that you can find out there. The magic is in the sauce that they will drench generously onto the chicken before serving which gives it a nice savoury touch while the layer of gelatin underneath the skin gives it a silky-smooth texture.
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✨ Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken RIce
📍 1 Kadayanallur Street, Maxwell Food Centre, Unit 01-10/11, Singapore 069184
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Since then, I went back several times and each time it’s always for their mala xiangguo. Recently, I stumbled upon a YouTube video by 聪生家SG Chengdu Family where both @_cecilia_chen_ and @szechuanese introduced the other stir fry dishes from this stall. That got me interested that if this stall is endorsed by Sichuan natives, their dishes will surely be authentic and worth a try.

From this meal, I can conclude that this stall is a hidden gem for damn good Chinese food from just the 3 dishes that I have tried such as the Sichuan Mala Chicken 辣子鸡, Fried Cabbage 手撕包菜 and Tomato & Egg Stir Fry 番茄炒蛋, all three perfect to go with a bowl of white rice. The fried chicken bits in the mala spices and dried chilli is spicy yet numbing, the perfect balance of a mala dish, while the fried cabbage is appetizing and savory that even some of us who do not take vegetables will accept this in their meal. Finally, the tomato egg stir fry is a classic comforting dish that will make it to every family’s table for each meal.
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✨ Happy House Sichuan Kitchen Mala Hotpot
📍 211 New Upper Changi Road, Unit 01-763, Singapore 460211
🛵 Deliveroo
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As mentioned in their menu and as quoted, Delhi 6 is a restaurant that offers a unique dining experience and flavours of the long forgotten cuisines of Undivided India’s North-West Frontier Province - which got me even more interested and the anticipation was high after ordering the Tandoori Murg Gulnar ($15/$27), Pukhtunwa Murg Biryani ($17) and a garlic naan. The Murg Gulnar is a meat dish of a chicken marinated in a blend of traditional and secret spices before it gets roasted in the tandoor oven. The biryani is the other dish that wowed us, as the spiced fluffy basmati rice might contain too much heat for some, which you can wash it down with some fresh lime soda, but the boneless chicken chunks inside is absolutely amazing. Tender-to-the-bite and well marinated with yogurt before it gets cooked together with the rice, the chicken to me gets the win over the rice in this instance. Overall, a very enjoyable meal that warrants another return soon.
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✨ Delhi 6
📍 30 East Coast Road, Katong V Mall, Unit 01-12/13, Singapore 428751
🛵 https://www.delhi6.com.sg/Home-Delivery
🍴 [Not Sponsored]

To me, the best chwee kueh in Singapore, as the soft, almost melt-in-your-mouth texture with the crunchy and savoury cai po is just such an impeccable pairing. With or without the chilli sambal, this humble dish deserves its turn in the spotlight. Prepare for the long queue and don’t waste your time getting 2-3 pieces, just get the full 4 pieces per order.
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✨ Bedok Chwee Kueh
📍 207 New Upper Changi Road, Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, Unit 01-19, Singapore 460207
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Mandi rice is a traditional dish originated from Yemen and the rice is cooked in a unique blend of spices. The rice is usually accompanied with a meat such as chicken, mutton or lamb shank. You don’t usually see mandi rice being sold in Singapore so if you happen to come across one, you definitely got to try it, which Abu Mubarak caught my attention when I walked past it one day. The rice contains raisins which gives it a nice sweetness and each plate is served with two kinds of sauces, one is a curry while the other is more tangy and spicy. We got both the chicken mandi rice and grilled chicken mandi rice to share, with the latter is grilled upon order, hence there is a bit of a waiting time involved. Even though it costs slightly more, between the two, I very much prefer the grilled chicken as it comes piping hot, with the nice charred bits on the skin and the spices sprinkled on top. The other chicken was on the drier side, but the mandi rice was the saving grace.
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✨ Abu Mubarak Mandi Rice
📍 300 Tampines Avenue 5, Income at Tampines Junction, Unit 01-01A, Singapore 529653
🛵 https://www.abumubarakmandirice.com/#/
🍴 [Not Sponsored]