Post call comfort food

It was the call with double digit admissions plus blues which we saw till 4am (the most ridiculous nappy rash......)when ching gathered everyone for a drink at the fish pond. Super sweet moment. and I stayed for my own pdu which started at 530pm (cos of 4 tas of which one was a stab......). from open to close of the 3mm hole. So happy! And even happier to see xo at recovery and got home for a nap, with this on the table on awakening. thanks muchos ;)

Old Airport Road Food Centre

Today's the first day of the last posting ever (hopefully), and after the nus lectures on spine/LL/hand, we zoomed down to Old Airport Road Food Centre; cos D didnt drive he and weeming didnt join us for lunch as they hitched a ride from enming.

Initial confusion but after pickin Marc and Jeremy from the bstop we left for the East. The multistorey carpark is less crazy than the ground level one, though i momentarily forgot where i parked =P

When I came, eveyone split up to buy food for everyone, and it seemed rather like a picnic, with chinese music in the background to add to the atmosphere. At least here, the queues are not crazy and no one rushes for tables.

I finally got to try Nam Sing Hokkien Mee - the first time I am trying this cos this stall uses veg oil. It tastes similar to what my grandma cooks at home - but my gran's stock of prawn heads gives much more aroma to the noodles. It reminds me of comfort home cooked food, and is good for me since I am just recovering.. Its divine on the Makan Sutra meter btw..

Toa Payoh Rojak never fails to impress, and the sauce always seems to accumulate right at the end, even though it seems quite dry at the start...Wanted to buy youtiao to dip into the huge amount of sauce left but K and D couldnt find..
And the repeat order of the Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fan .. Mushrooms and Prawn - this is one of the best (or maybe it IS the best) chee cheong fan I tried, simply cos the silky sheets of rice flour are just melt in your mouth smoothilicious!

We headed back to cgh, with trouble with parkin( in more ways than one), and congregated at the lounge for admin. Many false alarms, before heading for skc's revision at ncc after that - our day ended at 830pm, 12 hour days are just insane.

Tiong Bahru Market, Udders

It was a tuesday of week one revision - after the morning round and the intensive crf long case, we headed out to lunch before dr tien's tut on fever in the afternoon... to Tiong Bahru Market.

Tau kwa pop - this is the MOST AMAZING ROJAK EVER! Gorgeous presentation aside, what was unusual was the addition of thin papery fish crackers and long slices of raw mango adorning the dish. Even the basic musts of rojak are done perfectly - chunks of you tiao were crisp and pillowy soft dough within, most freshly fried.

Jian bo chee kwuay - grease bomb this was, kinda felt the other stall at TBM had better chee kwuay. Nonetheless, this stall is quite famous!

Ipoh hor fun - this was alright, just that the aunty was super nice, and super generous with the ingredients.

Went to Udders (Goldhill Plaza) with Kels cos Marc (going to see his ortho boss) Kels (going to collect stuff from Pharmacy) and me (getting a letter) shared a cab to ttsh. Marc met us later, so Kelly and I dug into Earl grey, chocolate whiskey with waffles. Bliss!

Ghim Moh Food Centre, Ion

After the Geri EOPT with the nice nurse conducting (and doing also!) the test and us exchanging papers to mark, our group minus Jeremy (happily going to Comex) adjourned to Ghim Moh Food Market for brunch.

I have been eating the thosai at Heavenly's Curry (Ghim Moh Food Centre) since my fam med days at John Chiam, and today was no exception, except I was trying out what was recommended in Makansutra - the cheese appom.

The cheese appom is an Indian snack I have never tried before and it definitely got me hooked. It has a central pancake sponge core and fanning from it is a crisp crepe layer. I figured the best way to eat it is to divide it into pizza slices, so that you get some of the cheese and chewy pancake central core, with the crisp crepe section, throw in some orange sugar and coconut and roll it all up!

Marc bought many many boxes of food back and when the rain came, we had a prolonged discussion on the role of women in the Asian society - surprising how some in our group actually consider being house-men =P Man being physically stronger, are goal and results driven: they must come home with the kill, the meat, the money and everything is measurable tangibly. Whereas women being the emotional and communicative creatures, contribute to society by intangible means - how do you measure the success of rearing your offspring? - and hence, despite the multitasking in running the household and family(to me it being the harder task of both sex's responsibilities) has been deemed unimportant, unvalued, and hence the diminished statue of the women in society

Ah Baling Stall (Ghim moh Market) - had Peanut, Yam (6 for $2) in an excellent peanut based soup. Brings me back straight to JC days, and extremely heart warming in rainy days.

Kelly and I then zoomed to my house to watch Away from Her and Ratatouille. Away from her was too melodramatic for us and Ratatouille's plot and character development was inherently weak. We headed to Ion (by default cos 77 came first) and there are many many surprising finds esp in Food Opera. Jeremy forewarned us that the food there was too generic and not nice but we disagree. The Breadtalk Group has indeed roped in many famous hawkers and we have already eyed many of these stalls!First we went to try Gindara Takopachi (B4, Ion orchard). There is only one flavour - octopus. I loved how crisp it was, and the innards piping hot and eggy - what is different here is that there is pink ginger as pointed out by Kelly. And what would make a difference is the seaweed powder and flakes like what we had in Shenzhen. I could easily eat a dozen on my own.Here we had the set for 1 - 6 balls and a matcha float. The matcha has a strong powdery taste, and the vanilla soft serve neutralises the grittiness of it

We then walked into Food Opera and was first distracted by Luk Yu Teahouse - Kelly was trying hard not to be lured by the Bo Lor Bun - think we might return for the dim sum another time.But we couldnt resist the SGkueh(Food opera, B4, Ion Orchard)! This was originally at Amoy and we wanted to try when we were with Sheryl and Weixin the other time but they were closed.We had the set of Ondeh Ondeh (and others) and a Durian ondeh ondeh. We highly recommend the original ondeh ondeh (comes in a box of 6 for $2.50 or in another set of 2 plus other kueh). The liquid gula melaka that spills out, with a cube of brown sugar right in the core is quite sensational! But one of the set of 6 that Kelly bought needed QC cos it was leaking!!
Check out the gula melaka.. slurp.

The durian ondeh ondeh was rather disappointing though. It was like eating durian cake (the ones you get in a tube) in a kueh, dusted in coconut, completely no contrast in flavour at all.

We also had the D24 crepe - but the Angie's choice version of the durian crepe is much better - alot creamier with much better quality durian filling.Just go there for the ondeh ondeh.

We also shared the Meizhen Haka Delicacies (Food opera, B4 Ion Orchard) - Yam Abacus balls. This was fantastic, chewy starch balls with plenty of shrimp and shallots. It was a grease bomb, but the savoury flavours were awesome. The original stall is at a very inaccessible place so we were so glad to find it here. We'll probably try the yam porridge and the glutinious rice here soon.

Dropped by Provence to get the milk buns (finally! they always get sold out here). But I must say that the milk custard within is getting lesser and lesser - I shall go back to Holland V's branch to QC.Anyway, am looking for a phone and when I was at the Singtel shop, I spotted the LG crystal phone (which hung on me, sigh), and considering between the E71 (pretty but old model) or the Samsung OMNIA II or Jet - didnt have much luck with my previous U300 though, repairing it XX times. Kels was aghast by the radiation of her phone, whilst I'm still browsing. Totally too lazy to go to COMEX (this is a rather dated entry) but I guess shall just sit on it, whilst waiting for 15 Oct.

Clementi

Was going back for acute abdo pain but Kels decided not to pangseh lunch - whilst the group lingered around science we decided to take 96 right outta Clementi.. to eat at Brothers Rojak (Blk 449 Clementi Ave 3 #01-211 See Lam Hern Coffeeshop). This is at a coffeeshop facing the entrance to the car park, not in the main shopping centre.

The clincher here is the excellent sauce, and there was even raw mango inside the rojak. Only if they had bean sprouts it'd complete the dish. The youtiao is toasty and yummy, and you'd have to wait for it to be as such.

Bought the popiah ($1.40) from the stall next to it (actually, it was a kueh tutu stall away), and Kelly liked the vegetable filling, plus how it stayed together even as she dissected it. I still prefer the one at Qiji, if not for the fact that the auntie snapped at me as I said I wanted more crunchy batter ! ('Ger ah! Next time tell me earlier!!! See, mess up the order !) geez she really likes her routine man.

Decided to bring Kel's to Fong’s Special Chicken Curry Puff (Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3#01-45 Clementi Central Market & Hawker Centre). This curry puff is excellent - the crust in between buttery and flaky, with the curry innards feeling up the entire space within (no air pockets).

This is the dessert stall that faces the outside (and is a few stalls away from the mixed rice stall with the long queue). We tried Michelle's favourite dessert- Red tea iced jelly - but it came all mushed up! (Hence, my vote goes to the dessert stall at Changi Village, for preserving the integrity of the red tea iced jelly) Otherwise, with longans and evaporated milk galore, we had no complaints.
What was yummier was their Durian Chendol which had durian puree which was very authentic and creamy. And it was not cloyingly sweet, with the coconut and gula melaka taste just right.

Kelly spotted the Granny Pancake stall at the coffeeshop opposite the hawker centre- nothing escapes her supersonic vision and we were in for a treat cos the uncle just unleashed a new batch of scalding hot fresh minjiang kueh. Mine was piping hot peanut minjiangkueh and the batter just melted to release the gritty bits of peanuts (the kind I like, not the commercialised creamy ones =p). As we mused about Mr HK actor (not sure if its the same one still!) we sure hope there wont come a day when such lingering amongst coffeeshops cease - either the lack of time on our part, or the time has come, for yet another upgrade for the centres.

Toa Payoh Lor7, Snow Frost, The Soup Spoon

After picking up my sis from school we decided to venture into the unknown Toa Payoh/AMK territory to try some food we've been reading about from Makansutra....first up is this famous Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodles (Toa Payoh Lor 7 Hawker Centre).

It was mid afternoon and the hawker centre was rather empty..the way we like it!

My sister had the dry version with beef slices..the gravy was rather slightly watered down - not that dry in that sense. The uncle was super generous with the beef slices...there seems to be more beef than noodles actually...

The meat:noodle ratio is similarly skewed here (not like we're complaining cos the beef slices were really tender). I took the soup version and found the soup to be great - it is superbly beefy and not all that saltish, and has a herby aftertaste.

Ah Chuan Fried Oyster Omelette (Toa Payoh Lor 7) is another Makansutra legend...

The omelette has lots of crisp edges and was really tasty with the tangy chilli sauce. Portion is a little small though..

We then went to Snowfrost (AMK Hub) cos i remembered it from M's blog, and we discovered another shopping wonderland there...

Strawberry snow ice

Sheets of silky strawberry ice with real strawberry slices and puree makes for a superbly refreshing treat!

Peach Milk ice

The ice was really milk-powederish tasting, and rather bland except for the parts with the peach syrup. Doh I should have tried the peanut version.

I realised there are alot of shaved ice places springing up now...Dessert Story at Heeren is one I've tried many times.

Pumpkin Soup

We then decided to head to town and dropped by The Soup Spoon (Basement, Paragon) for dinner. I had the pumpkin soup - it was so thick that I felt like I was having a pumpkin puree.

Beef Goulash

My sister's one was nicer, with chunks of meat and lots of stewed vegetables. We both really liked this, its one of the best non-creamy soups we've tried.

Pine Garden's Cake, Whampoa Drive Food Centre, Ghee Leong Bakery,Geylang Lor9 Porridge, Beancurd City

It was an early Thursday and Kelly's last day at emed so she bought cakes for her tutor and I got an equal treat too! We each were armed with a drink from Mr Bean (Kelly's peach soya milk and my hot soya milk) but we raided the sofa seats at Starbucks and blatantly had our cakes from the box =P - well we tried the staff lounge (but there was a function) and Kopitiam was far too crowded so.....no choice ! (at least our table had evidence of bought drinks heh)

These cakes are from Pine Garden's Cake (Block 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 01-2369) and have been raved about by both URBAN's Posh Nosh and the food bloggers alike. Both of us shared the following cakes and it feels like my birthday cake platter all over again =) Best thing is, cake platters have always been expensive with each cake averaging $6 plus but here at Pine Garden, each slice is $2.40 so these sweet treats are inexpensive. Stopping at one slice of cake is just too boring.

Lychee Martini - Layers of lychee cake with martini presoaked lychee fillings

All of the Pine Garden cakes we tried were sponge cakes and were all really light and fluffy - even the cream was really light. This was a fruity cake indeed with a strong lychee scent perfusing the cake - we couldnt really taste much martini in it, but it was rather unique. We were wondering what those orangey puree within those cream layers - any clue? lychees are certainly not orange in colour..

Blackforest Cake

Again, this is a chocolate sponge cake with cherries and cream - I prefer more dense layers of cream and alcohol soaked cherries though - this cake has a greater sponge - cream/cherries ratio.

Zest Chocolate Cake (Orange)

There are also the mango and lemon flavours but Kelly chose the orange. Well, I'm partial to orange flavoured foods cos they taste like artificial vitamin C Redoxon tablets - the first taste of this orange flavoured sponge and orange cream cake tasted like an overdosage of Vitamin C but the orange taste grows on you - however I still prefer my orange dark-chocolate instead! Orange in real chocolate in much nicer than when eaten alone ( I don't like oranges) or in cakes.

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

We couldn't finish the last cake so I brought it home, but my sister and mom attacked it before I got to it the next morning =(

Well amongst all the cakes, if I had to choose one, it'd be the lychee martini. Even though I'm not a fan of sponge cakes.

After that we were craving rojak from Whampoa Drive Food Centre so we ended up here slightly after the lunch hour but the carpark was still packed but with some patience, we managed to find a space... this was our second time here - the first time was a fail cos the Hoover Rojak was closed !! (It closes on Tuesdays, take note ok)

There are 2 blocks at the Whampoa Drive Food Centre. We walked around Block 91 first - most stalls here were closed - I think they open in the morning till lunch only.

We bought a peanut pancake ($0.60) from Granny's Pancake - the peanut filling is one of the most crunchy and nutty and gritty fillings I've tried! It is unlike the peanut paste you get in most soya bean chain stores where it is more creamy and buttery. Here it is like a fried peanut bits - real fragrant - and tasted rather good with the thick doughy pancake. If only the pancake had a pandan flavour - like the Pancake from Maxwell Food Centre!

Then we went over to Block 90 where most of the stalls were open.

We finally made it here! Many people were eating the rojak all over the food centre so we were working up an appetite receeing the place. The auntie was also trying to promote her otah.

Rojak, $5

We just ordered the largest portion - came complete with the full works including cuttlefish. The rojak was not too bad - but bordering on the average side because the prawn paste sauce was just not thick or fragrant enough for us! Lacked the chilli punch too. And the youtiao wasnt toasted so it turned out to be rather soggy with the sauce. There was alot of fruit in this rojak too - many many pineapples and occasional mangoes. What was different was the parsley on top of the rojak instead of kangkong. We prefer the Toa Payoh Rojak at Old Airport Food Centre - the sauce there is really power!

Oh what was exciting was that we saw Chew Chor Meng queueing to buy rojak here! Kelly says he lives quite a distance away so he must be a real fan =P and she observed that he looks thinner on tv (but again, we havent seen him in a while) - must be the steroids from his Kennedy's condition.

After that we walked across the road to Sing Hon Loong Bakery (4 Whampoa Drive) - also known simply as Ghee Leong. This bakery is open 24 hours and supplies bread to most traditional toast places - so as far as freshness goes, you can't beat this. They don't use preservatives in their bread either.

It has been in operation for many many years. Oh no occupational hazard - can you imagine all the collection of microcrumbs in their lungs? I love the smell of bread, but after doing respi med.....hmmmm...we always tend to think pathologically...
They sell loaves of bread, baguettes, and bread with fillings such as coconut and red bean.. check out those blackened ends! You should check out the huge, blackened ovens man - many many years of toiling you ovens.

To ensure your toast doesn't have the unsightly ends (though I like those crispy ends )

We bought a baguette ($0.90) and topped up $0.60 to add fillings of planta margarine and peanut butter on one half and kaya on the other half. This is really old school and you can only have this style in neighbourhood bakeries.


We then walked over to Whampoa Drive Food Centre again to eat our bread.

I felt like I was eating a Subway but with more conservative fillings =P The kaya was real sweet but did not have the eggy feel (a good eggy one is like Good Morning Nanyang Cafe's). The plantar margarine kinda overwhelmed the coconut taste.

The bread has a really thick crusty layer and was rather hard to bite into when the bread cooled down. But I liked the crust - the bread was not really crumbly at all, very unlike toast.

The peanut butter was creamy - again the planta margarine to peanut butter ratio was great and overwhelming but since the peanut butter taste was stronger it was actually good to eat. Funny thing is it was the first time Kelly was eating Planta margarine on bread. Planta margarine taste really good with bread when you sprinkle sugar on top of it all!

It was a really hot day so we bought soya bean mixed with grass jelly drink from this corner soya bean stall at Whampoa Market (Block 91). This stall has been around for 28 years! The auntie is super chatty.

Try the soya bean-grass jelly concoction. It is fanastic! sweet beany taste with the chewy slightly bitter grass jelly.

Soya Beancurd $0.60

The tauhuay here is in a class of its own. It just melts away...into nothingness. Very very smooth!

We saw a grandmother and her primary school going grand-daughter enjoying tauhuay - and the grand-daughter ordering from the chatty stall auntie. The grandma yelled if she had enough money, and the grand-daughter so cute, ferried the tauhuay over! The granddaughter even manged bits of dialect in their conversation - sweet indeed...

Then 2 deep voiced people walked over and the ever chatty auntie blatantly asked them if they were tai guo ren....heh that was hilarious - they moved to sit near us and were interesting indeed...

Time spent hanging out at hawker centres people watching can be interesting indeed - from celebs to trans - you really see the world of personalities in these humble hawker centres.

We then drove to Plaza Singapura, intending to catch the 450pm show, Detroit Metal City. We intended to enter the cinema only at 510pm (Golden Village has a standard ad time for 20 minutes =( ) so to kill time we scouted around for travel money pouches - Carrefour, travel shops on level 4 and 6 - Carrefour has the cheapest at $3 but was sadly uncomfortable whereas the travel shops was sadly overpriced. sighh....

We were again very excited when we saw popcorn (Large, $6) in the popcorn machine so we were fooled to thinking it was fresh (actually I think either the display one is full or they too lazy to scoop over) Today's had many chunks of popcorn stuck together. But the rest tasted like styrofoam!

Detroit Metal City was HILARIOUS, we havent watched a comedy together ever before (amazing since we've prob watched over 40 shows in the past year) but we laughed so hard it was so uncomfortable because we were SO FULL so carbo loaded from the cakes and bread that the food almost threatened to pop out..

The actor with the dickhead hairstyle was amazingly plastic! He really swings to extremes of the super cheesy-sweet-childhood-dreamy prototype to the Saturnic Death Metal cursing alter ego in his band - the stunts in the show esp the ones where he hanged down towards the audience was really hilarious! His costume was such a get up and the way he parades it obliviously when he got confused between his childish demeanor and his domineering alter ego was really funny! And him chasing the (REALLY GORGEOUS) girl, trying to hide his real job, highlights again - like in Departures - how certain jobs having a kind of stigma. Japanese films do seem to focus on this. Ooh but death metal is so extreme - female death Saturnic music was even more extreme. Go laugh your head out and watch this movie. Cry your hearts out at Depatures first then laugh at this one.

After the movie we wanted something soupy (it was carbo overload with that half - baguette each and all the cakes) so we drove to Sunshine Plaza and parked there (the Prinsep Street public lots were full, period) intending to eat at Victor's Kitchen. But it closes at 8pm so we didn't make it. Then we wanted to eat the Tom yum noodles in Burlington Square.

Failed again!!

Disheartened, we decided to settle for the Lion City Geylang Lor 9 Porridge at Peace Centre. We passed by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts on the way and we realised it was really very new and gorgeous! There seems to be an event going on because there were art exhibits, peoplke drinking wine at a platform, and even a strings quartet performance.
This is part of ....
a very long sentence..

and it was a sentence about a cow who appealed NOT to be eaten up...
This art was on one of their walls...

And on further walking, we found out there was a block of HDB flats right next to NAFA! It is so strange seeing flats in the middle of the city!
Thank God the Lion City Geylang Lor 9 porridge (Peace Centre) was open!! This was our second time here in a few weeks. We ordered one frog ($8), and the meat was as smooth as ever, with the warm salty spicy Kung Pau sauce, it tasted awesome with the porridge...

It was one pot of yummy smooth congee...

We then walked back to Selegie towards Sunshine Plaza where the car was and we stopped by the other tau huay shop - Beancurd City (4 Short Street) - not the Rochor Original Beancurd that everyone goes to.

I think the tauhuay here is smoother - I think the Rochor Original Beancurd's is too dense and grainy plus maybe the sensation of eating it in a plastic tupperware and plastic spoons ups the synthetic feel. Here you get a good old bowl and porcelain spoon.

The grass jelly is cut up into cubes (just like the way Kelly doesn NOT like it) and I think the Rochor Original Beancurd has a better, firmer version (and is not cut up!)

The next time I come here, I shall order the tauhuay from Beancurd City and the grass jelly and youtiao and sesame ball from Rochor Original Beancurd. Question is, where I should sit?

We walked back to Sunshine Plaza and spotted this funky bag shop...

Which is your favourite food label? I love the corn flakes one and Kelly picked the Pretz one.