Knife Laugh Noodles?

With the influx of mainland Chinese folks looking to make a living in Singapore, it's with no doubt that we're bound to start seeing Chinese food stalls popping up around Chinatown. Some dishes are hard to stomach, like the mega spicy mala hotpot. On the other hand, there are those that are easy on our palates because they present familiar tastes, textures and/or form.

So my Spanish colleague (who's somewhat adventurous with trying new stuff) was apparently receptive towards Dao Xiao Mian and we had been trying to direct her with verbal instructions to this stall in People's Park Food Centre for as long as I can remember. In the end, decided to head there for lunch and bring her along. I had the one with Mutton while she ordered the one with braised beef.

Dao Xiao Mian (刀削面) refers to noodles prepared by "shaving" strips off a flour ball directly into boiling hot water using a specialized knife. It requires delicate skill on the chef's part in order to ensure that each strip is made with the exact same thickness. The middle portion of each strip is thick and chewy while gradually thinning out on the sides.

One thing to note would be that depending on the meat you go for, the noodles will served with different soups. My colleague's braised beef noodle came in a darker colored beef broth while my mutton noodle came in a clear soup that also had glass noodles and seaweed strips. Either soup, they're both served with a thick layer of oil. While it causes a panic attack in the stupidly health conscious, take note that it does serve a purpose which is to keep the soup hot for a longer period of time because heat is unable to escape from the surface. That in itself is a double edged sword so you gotta be careful when drinking the soup. The seaweed strips in the soup add a springy yet jelly like texture on top of the noodle's chewy bite but I found them to be a tad strong for my liking. That is a personal preference issue, I'm not a fan of eating the konbu type of seaweed in general.

As the main ingredient in this dish, the mutton is very well prepared. They're not amazingly "fall off the bone" tender but are good enough to bite and pull out the bones with. Singaporean Chinese eaters should take note that these mutton pieces are slightly gamey so if you're used to having your mutton light on the gamey taste it's best to go with the beef instead. Nevertheless, very nice to bite with as each diced mutton piece comes in a good ratio between fat and lean meat.

All in all, I really enjoy heading to this stall for all of their stuff. Aside from Dao Xiao Mian, they also serve regular Chinese noodles like Dry noodles in bean sauce. Another star product of theirs would be the Mutton/Beef soup with Pita Bread. It's a peculiar dish whereby they replace noodles with broken up pieces of pita bread that's left there to soak in the soup. Essentially you're left with soup and small little chewy pieces of pita bread surrounded by softened flour. Be warned, though, you'll be left with a sore jaw/temple and a very full stomach should you try it.

I can't remember the actual stall number but if you're looking for it, it's located deep inside the alleyway between People's Park Food Centre and People's Park Complex. Enjoy!

Shao La? Shao Lah!

Maxwell Market is food heaven, it's also food house of mirrors. Step in and you'll get mesmerized by the hordes of people as well as the rows and rows of food stalls selling pretty much similar stuff! If you disagree with me, go and count the number of chicken rice stalls with a blue signboard running white words.

I gave up staying in line for chicken rice (Mama Lim makes them better anyways) so I spent another 15 minutes looking around the entire hawker center before settling for a somewhat believable stall. Fu Shun Roasted Meat Specialist.

It's a pretty long queue, about 10 minutes of waiting? (The ones for the big name chicken rice stalls were stupid long, maybe 30 minutes) I decided on this stall also because of a nearby seat I could place my skateboard on as I stood in line.

I don't know what got into me. I didn't get the noodles, neither did I get the roasted duck. Aren't those stuff supposedly the number one representatives for any roasted meat houses? Bah! Anyways, I got the mixed meat rice, which consists of shio bak and char siew for a low price of $3.50! That's pretty damn cheap if you ask me!



This is the char siew. Note the texture of the flesh!

And this is the char siew with that thick gravy smeared over! Notice how it coats the meat nicely yet holds nicely within the flesh? HEAVEN! The meat was chewy, with each bite you get more juice flowing and more flavour as a result. There are burnt bits around the meat which adds a slight smokey touch to the aroma. If you are health conscious, I suggest you NOT EAT AT ALL! It is called CHAR siew for a reason hehehe.

This is the shio bak with a generous amount of their very spicy chili sauce lapped on top. Shio bak essentially a slab of pork belly roasted in a mega hot oven until the skin burns. To which they scrape off the burnt bits AND THEN ROAST IT AGAIN! The result is a beautiful tri-layer of chewy lean meat, melt-in-your-mouth fat and crispy/crunchy skin. How good is the skin?



I'll go back to finding more food now. Here's the address to Maxwell food center!

#01-71, Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street                            

McDonald's Fiery Mala McSpicy Burger and the McLaosai Ring of Fire!!!

What better way to celebrate labor day than with a blogpost about something that got me feeling like I was in labor? *budum tss*

So it was a lazy day and I was pretty determined to try out McDonald's new McSpicy variant, supposedly a spicy level 4 burger, topping the original McSpicy which was a spicy level 2. I'll just make an early note that McSpicy burgers have been known to create stomach upsets in a large majority of diners. My guess would be the amount of oil involved with this burger.

 

For convenience's sake, I've made a special request for the burger to be cut in half so that I can hold on to it with one hand and snap photos with the other. Also, this makes showing the insides much easier!

Ok on to business. First up, the burger was a little small in my opinion. This was pretty strange for me, considering that I don't remember the original McSpicy being that small. Nevertheless, this pretty much has become a standard with McDonald's stuff. Single patty burgers are too small while double patty variants fill you up too much. There's no such thing as a 1.5 patty unfortunately. It's a minor thing for most, I guess. Considering you pay 7/8 bucks for the meal, which includes fries and a fizzy yuzu drink. That in all should be pretty filling but definitely too much calories.

The chicken thigh patty was pretty straightforward. A thigh fillet that's pretty tender and flowing with juice, perhaps a little to much (refer to the toilet troubles)

Taste wise, it's disappointing.

This is misleading. I've been eating Mala Hotpot and stuff for a while already (heck I work in Chinatown!) and I can tell you straight up that this is nowhere near what a Mala soup/sauce is supposed to taste like. Where is the numbing sensation from the Szechuan Peppercorns? Where is the distinct smell from the Szechuan style chilli oil?

All I tasted when I sunk my teeth into the burger, was a rush of spiciness. Yes it is indeed spicy, but it's the wrong kind of spicy. This kind of spiciness feels more what you would associate with biting into a chili padi (the really small ones). The spicy sensation pretty much goes away after 5 minutes, which is sad. Normally, a mala hotpot dinner would leave your lips burning for at least another 15 minutes after you're done eating. Why does that happen? It's most likely because of the blend of spices and chili that they use. What they did with this burger was pretty much jacking up the amount of chili onto the sauce. Boo.

I didn't like the taste, neither did I like the aftershock. Went to the loo twice that day. Honestly, I wouldn't have tried this on any normal day. Thought they were genuinely using actual mala sauces so they might've been different in any case. Too bad. I think I'll just stick to my Rou Jia Mo which only costs $2.50 at Chinatown. Woopie!

Not So Boss Rib Ramen

Far East Square and the likes are a hotbed for OLs and Salarymen during lunch hour considering their proximity with office spaces around the Central Business District Area. In a sense I would've thought that this means all the extra effort shops must place into their foods if they want to survive competing against so many others for so many more picky tastebuds.

Guess I thought wrong.

Made the trip down to far east square for lunch since my colleagues are either dieting or not intending to travel that far (thank goodness for my longboard). Buta Ramen's a place I've passed by once or twice while heading elsewhere and the point that catches my eye was how they claim their meat to be the star product. Good enough for me, I'd like to give it a try.

First thing, the queue took a while to move. I don't know why but the reason became apparent by the time I got to the order. Basically, I ordered their BOSS RIB ramen since that's pretty much what they're proud of. Paid my $13.90 for the set and what followed was a few minutes of waiting for the rib to be prepared, all the while with my bowl of ramen soup and noodles sitting by the counter!

So my tray was finally ready and I brought it over to my table (chose an area close to the sunlight so pictures turn out better!) I guess for $13.90 it's a pretty decent price? I'd be paying the same price for a similar set if I were dining at marutama or the other ramen places. Ok... maybe slightly more.

Let's start with the good things shall we? The tonkotsu soup broth is pretty decent. It's thick, creamy, flavorful (could be stronger, though). It doesn't leave you feeling thirsty, so I guess there is some quality to this soup. That's about it really.

First thing that really raised a bit of a red flag for me was that their chopsticks were full of fluff (whatever you call them). I'd expect a quality restaurant to provide some quality utensils, but what I got instead was a good 2 minutes of rubbing them together which still couldn't get all the pieces off. I gave up and at as it is, hoping I don't get stabbed.

Next disappointment was their BOSS RIB. Given the epic name you'd expect them to be awesome. Here're some the restaurant's descriptions I can remember off the top of my head:

- slow cooked for 24 hours
- quality pork
- "Fall off the bone" tenderness
- locks in the juice (or something like that)

Ugh... Meat was tough, I had to chew on it several times before they were "swallow-able". So the sauce might be nice, but the meat was pretty much dry. Did not give me the impression of "fall off the bone" tenderness, hell there wasn't even a bone there! Two pieces of these inch thick meat served on a pretty plate with some teriyaki-ish sauce. Rib, not so boss.

Here's a picture of the garnishes because they're just there

Next was their noodle. Remember me talking about them leaving the bowl on the counter for a few minutes? Not good. Noodles ended up soaking in too much soup and had a soggy texture. Nothing like what you'd normally get in a proper ramen shop. major disappointment. There's pretty much no fight from the noodle when you bite into them. Boo.

I don't think I even need to describe the ramen egg that came at this price point do I?

All in all, this joint won't be seeing me coming back. It has more misses than hits. The logo looks cute, the soup was decent but everything else just fell short. I'm not even sure if their loyalty card promotion would help them much. Meh.

I won't be sharing the address for this one.

DeBurp at DeBurg

 

Have you ever felt so much meat in your bite that you felt like laughing? Well I have, several times, and this was one of those times.

So it was payday and we decided on a last minute trip down to De Burg after passing by in the day. Heard much about it but didn't really know where it was so it's a good time to go over.

 

It's a typical kopitiam setting minus the weird uncles and stuff. A quick look around and I see that pretty much all the stalls here aren't selling your usual kopitiam bak chor mee and stuff. (more on that later).

 

 

Went ahead to get myself a 200gm Wagyu Beef Bacon Cheesburger. It's pretty big and in my opinion, a proper man-sized patty (some might argue that it's not enough for them, I say good luck keeping that belly down).

The whole Wagyu labelling didn't help my pockets, though. Paid close to 28 bucks for it. I don't pay much attention to price so long as it's nice. All in all, it ain't cheap for the premium. If you're not all crazy on beef quality I suppose you could get the 100gm regular patty for 15+. There's a regular 200 for 18 if I remember it right. ANYWAYS, on to the important stuff.

First of all... OK, I get that burgers are your pride. But the plating's kinda sad, don't you think? I'm talking about the side dishes :\ Those small little has brown pops things (think they're called tater tots or something) are small enough but they're kinda low on numbers... Or maybe it's just me being greedy. Tastes great though, crispy on the outside. Soft and potato-ish on the inside. Salad was meh, but I don't care too much for those.

Done with the small stuff, let's talk about the big stuff. The burger was great! Really juicy, very filling and everything went really well with each other. Let me try to go layer by layer, starting form the inside.

Meat - Really nice texture. Super juicy and flavorful. It's got a nice coat of cheese that keeps things from flaking around too much, of course with some extra taste.

Veges - layered up very nicely, providing a nice crunch to your bite so you don't just feel mush and mush followed by mush. They also help to balance your bite so it doesn't overwhelm your mouth with meatiness :)

Bread - Most underappreciated part of the burger. It's a regular piece of burger bun, yes, but it's necessary because of the soaking properties. Whatever juice flows out as you bite, that bread soaks it in. Good stuff.

Of course, what would be an Ang Moh meal if it doesn't come with good beer to wash down those sins? Luckily, there's scneider weisse and erdingers on draft. $10 for a pint! (NOW THAT'S A PRICE I'D REMEMBER)

About the other shops, we didn't try them all but took note of a few. There's a desert stall called eskimo, a seafood stall with pretty good chips from the looks of it (we had a bucket of mussels from the stall. Pretty decent and tastes exactly what you'd expect of mussels). There's also another stall in the corner that had enticingly fat crispy pork knuckles that I'm definitely going back there for. DAMN MY SMALL STOMACH!!!

Here's the address:
Blk 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-40, Singapore 151119

Chili Crab for Mama Lim's Birthday

 

I don't usually dine at a fancy restaurant... But when I do, it's for the ones that matter.

So we decided to celebrate mom's birthday ahead of both her lunar and "ang moh" birth date. Decided to head over to Longbeach King at Kallang. It's just behind that
huge McDonald's so you can't miss it.

 

One thing you can be sure is that this place serves really fresh seafood. How do I know that? Well, they pretty much have their fish tanks out for everyone to see. You can catch the kitchen staff walking over to get the ingredients. I guess this makes for an interesting conversation piece? We were pointing at the huge-ass Alaskan king crab for a moment. That, and also you could come up with a witty response when someone asks "why so long?" and tell them that the kitchen's "gone fishing" *budum tss*

 

I'm not sure if I should be happy or not but mom's starting to get the hang of using a smartphone. Not exactly an expert yet, but definitely making some progress. Here you see her using dad's Redmi to check if her LINE message got through (it didn't, and I had to fix it)

 

First thing served, as with all Chinese restaurants were salted peanuts. Enough for us to munch on while we deliberated on what to get for dinner. My plate had a special aeriated red wine sauce sprinkled over it. No, this isn't on the menu. My dad had a little slip of the hand while swirling the red wine :\

 

First dish that came up was a pot of Drunken Prawns. Pretty standard feature. They're exactly what you'd expect of a drunken prawn dish. A smooth, glass-like surface that returns with a springy texture after you bite through the flesh. I didn't want to mess up my hands so I had to peel them using chopsticks and my teeth haha.

 

Next would be some sort of thickened fungi soup served again in a pot. The soup is pretty light and refreshing. I love my mushrooms and this pretty okay! Unfortunately, I was still trying to fix dad's phone at this point so I kinda missed out on some shots of the pot haha.

 

Main dish part one was cantonese style steamed grouper! Again, looking back at the second photo, you'll probably know how awesome this one is. Basically, just ask yourself how often you feel resistance in the fish you eat. This one felt like the fish had muscles! As the style of cooking dictates, this one's somewhat lighter so that we'll get to taste the natural flavour of the fish. Good stuff.

 

 

I was still dealing with the fish head when the main course came in. All hail the chilli crab! Crab in that sinfully rich sauce made from chili, ketchup (yes there's ketchup), eggs and stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. It's usually served with fried mantou for us to nap up the remaining sauces and boy those mantou were KRISPY!

 

The dish is super messy to eat so I took a break from taking photos to chow down for a bit. Apologies on this. Anyways, my favourite part of the crab out by the body and legs. Pincers get more meat but I just prefer the flavour from the body instead.

 

 

We deshelled, we chewed, we conquered. Then we headed to the washroom to rinse our messy fingers (not before doing the trademark finger lick/vacuum). Bro and his fiancé got mom a lychee martini cake from Pine Bakery at Ang Mo Kio. I kinda messed up the surprise by asking mom her age haha. Anyways, the restaurant staff were nice enough to do up the decorations and dry ice thing. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

I really like this shot. It's off focus, but I still like the action. I wonder what mom wished for :\

SO MUCH MEAT AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

Somehow, this blog is slowly turning into a food blog. Yum! I mean, Yikes!

So I met up with Chris and Gerry over dinner for a quick chit chat session over my KBBQ of choice. Very straightforward, it's a Korean barbeque place where you grab you meat and grill them over a hot plate. Simple!

One reason why I love this place over everywhere else is the quality of meat they serve. Sure, they're a little pricey ($27) but they offer pretty good beef and pork if you ask me! They offer a pretty good selection of beef and pork pieces, ranging from unflavoured to seasoned stuff! Good enough to keep me from getting bored for the whole 2 hours of eating =D Unfortunately, the chicken option was looking a little sad (only had a chicken bulgogi)

As for the other options, I believe I saw some seafood. Prawns, some seasoned squid and stuff but nothing else. They got some shrooms but nothing I saw that'll fit the pan (they had some golden mushrooms and abalone mushrooms if you're into that kinda stuff). Here's me firing up the meal.

 

 

I pretty much stopped taking photos after this one so apologies for not stopping my binge to share photos with you all! All in all, I recommend this if your only point for consideration is the quality of pork and beef the joint serves. I heard that they've a new place opened in Tanjong Pagar that also serves soup but honestly, it's a little far for me.

Ok for the little bits. For one, the pan is tilted so grease that comes out of your food while grilling doesn't stay and get soaked back in. Plus points on that! That said, the little air suction thing that's supposed to keep the stuff from getting onto your hair and clothes is sorta misaligned so boo points on that. That said, I barely have time to pull that thing up and down so it doesn't really matter to me haha.

Place is located next to amoy street food center.
76 Amoy Street
Singapore, Singapore 069895

I suggest calling them at 63245016 beforehand to make a reservation. Place can get pretty packed at times!