Garden Street Kway Chap

Address: #01-21, Serangoon Garden Market and Food Centre, 49A Serangoon Garden Way, S555945
Hours: Tue - Sun: 08:00 - 15:00 (Closed on Mon)

Visited on 31 Mar 2016.

Wanted to eat the kway chap at Tampines, but when we reached there at 1.30pm (after my appointment at SGH), the stall was already closing already. So hubby suggested trying this stall at Serangoon Gardens, which we had tried going to yesterday before TCM. But they were closed already cos the opening hours are till 3pm only.

The kway chap is pretty good... not as good as the kway teow kia in JB (loads of pork lard and fried shallots), but for SG standard, it was good enough. No smell like the Old Airport one, which in my opinion is really quite yucks.

Thumbs up.

RIP our love

Name : Xmas

(also known as the Dog, 笨狗狗, Mas-mas-choo)

Age: 13yrs

DOB : 28 Mar 2003

Gender : Male

Adopted : Mid Sept 2004

Passed away : 26 Mar 2016

Sorry we had to let you go. You are the love of our lives for the past 12 years, we really didn't wanna let you go. But seeing you suffering with your malignant tumor was heartbreaking... and when you didn't even want to eat anymore, we were forced to make the hard decision. And it was the hardest decision in our lives.

We miss you a lot. Your daddy misses having you following him around. I still check the floor whenever I put my feet down to stand up for fear of stepping on you. I still leave a gap for the glass sliding door between the kitchen and the living room, so that you can walk through when we have the aircon on. I still look at your favourite sleeping spot, near our shoes, whenever we come home. Miss your silly-ness.

Torazou Ramen Restaurant

Address: 45, Jalan Austin Heights 8/3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Telephone: 012 717 9178
Hours: 11:00 - 22:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Torazou-Ramen-%E8%99%8E%E8%97%8F-Austin-569672723160177/

Visited on 28 Mar 2016.

As we changed our itinerary for our trip today, Taman Mount Austin became our last stop. Wasn't really prepared for dinner to be in this area and we did a last minute scramble to find a eating place. I initially thought of MaMa Nyonya Restaurant in Taman Molek... we arrived, walked into the shop and after 5minutes walked out... cos the price was steep! And they didn't even have soup on the menu... how can a Peranakan restaurant not have soup?! So we decided to go back to Taman Mount Austin area to have dinner.

We initially wanted to try Warakuya, but as usual, queue was long. The waitress told us we had to wait at least 25mins for a table. So we took a number, sat down for 2 minutes and flipped through the menu. The price was not very cheap, so we decided to drive around the area in search of another restaurant. I remembered KOBO 烤霸工坊 and we wanted to try it, only to realize that they are not opened on Mondays. Great. So bobian, have to 随便吃 and we wandered into this ramen restaurant, called Torazou Ramen Restaurant. Was a bit apprehensive walking in, cos at 745pm, there was only 1 table filled, the restaurant only had 3 people - 2 customers and 1 waiter... with us, that made 5.

We sat down and ordered the ramen and some side dishes, and surprisingly, the food was actually quite good. Another plus point is service was good too... and the waiter reminded us of our gaming friend, Josh. We were also pleasantly surprised when the waiter wrote down the wifi password for us to connect... not that we needed it since we have the uMobile prepaid card... but it definitely added points to the place.

It's called big char siew raman, but not char siew lah, it's actually pork chop to me.

Your normal char siew ramen, quite nice.

The shishamo is really good.

Mentaiko gyoza... totally love it... I can never get enough of mentaiko...

Pork skewer recommended by the waiter, marinated with salt and pepper and grilled. Very nice.

Restoran Rong Shu Xia 榕树下果条仔

Address: 24，Jalan Maju，Taman Maju Jaya，80400 Johor Bahru
Hours: 07:00 - 13:00 (closed on Wednesdays)

Visited on 4 Mar 2016 and many times after that.

Lervonne first brought us to this 果条仔 (pronounced as kway teow kia in hokkien) and hubby and I totally fell in love with it. For lovers of pig innards, pork lard and fried shallots, you will totally heart his place. From intestines to tongue to lungs, I think they sell all parts of the pig, from the head to the toes here. They put loads of fried shallots onto the food... and it is totally HEAVENLY! This is our MUST-HAVE breakfast whenever we go into JB (nearly weekly affair).

如果进新山不吃果条仔，会浑身不自在。哈哈。

They always say that us Chinese foodies have something against a pig, if they give us a pig, and when we are done feasting on it, you get nothing left.

For local SG foodies who actually dare to eat kway chup and all the weirdo stuff, this is a must go to! I used to remember going down to the hawker center and dapao kway chup for my breakfast every morning, the auntie felt i was special because i always ask for the special liaos that old uncles order like pig's blood and pig's lungs. These are stuff you can't get in SG anymore.

If you want to taste the old fascinating flavors of yesterday, this tiny joint is one of the best for you to go to! Food that is served is amazingly cleaner than even some of the places in SG (You know its not clean when you taste something weird honestly, its not that its cooked wrongly, its that its cleaned wrongly!) If we go into JB in the morning, this is a must go for us! Try if you dare to challenge the pig, don't go if you can't stand lard, intestines and other weirdo stuff!

He Zhong Carrot Cake 合众菜头果

Address: Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, 116 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #02-185, Singapore 588172
Hours: Daily 7am to 10pm

Visited on 11 Mar 2016.

Finally found the carrot cake that hubby has been talking about. The last time we went to the food centre and couldn't find it at all. There are a lot of carrot cake stalls in this hawker centre and it was just impossible to know which was the original famous carrot cake stall. My dad brought us there back in March and finally we know which stall it is!

Just before we ordered, I told hubby that I wanted extra eggs and extra black. He couldn't stop laughing. Why? Cos this stall only sells white carrot cake lor. *facepalm *dumb blonde moment

We tabao-ed the carrot cake home and kept it till dinner time. Even though it had gone a bit cold, it was still super delicious.

This stall sells carrot cake that i ate when i was a kid 30 years ago, back when the time when the most popular shopping center was Yaohan! To me a trip to Bukit Timah Shopping Center's  Yaohan was not complete without going through the toys section and mashed potatoes at Waffletown at the basement level.

What i always felt was the best is this old shop that an old uncle was frying 菜头粿. Whats amazing about this you ask? Lotsa Eggs, lotsa Garlic and lotsa 菜圃! The old uncle will slowly and skillfully cook his dish while 10 over customers wait for their orders. And guess what this is where i learn how to eat chilli as a kid! Why? Cause the uncle always give me the order wrong, carrot cake for kids end up with chilli! But it was so so good that, because of it, now me and my siblings all take chilli! (K mebbe abit exaggerating but yeah lol!)

New generation of chef tending the stall but the food still is good! I feel that its second best in SG, but since not everyone can eat my wife's cooking, it might be best for for most of you. Trying is a must, cause this is how i think carrot cake should taste like, every mouth of it will make you want to go for another!

Hua Nam Restaurant

Address: 244-F Upper Thomson Road, Thomson Garden Estate, Singapore 574369
Telephone: 6453 3645
Hours: 07:00 - 23:30 (Closed on Monday)

Visited on 5 Mar 2016.

Hubby and I suddenly got adventurous and decided to try out this old-school looking coffeeshop along Upper Thomson Road. We always eat the Kampong chicken opposite this row of shop-houses and though we always wanted to try Hua Nam, it just kept slipping our minds.

We were really excited to try out the dimsum here. The food was unfortunately just average. The uncle taking our orders kept asking us to try their specialty, the seafood dumpling, which turned out to be quite a disappointment. It was a bit fishy and pretty tasteless. We felt the price was a bit on the high side... definitely not worth coming back again.

Just Want Coffee JWC, The Factory 30

Address: No 30, Jln Mutiara Emas 5/3, Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru
Telephone: 07 350 7508
Hours: 14:00 - 00:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefactorythirty

Visited on 4 Mar 2016.

Came here after having lunch at Chai Jia Chai @ Mount Austin, since it was just around the corner. We had to park along the streets and being in a factory area, just somehow didn't feel too safe initially. But then, everyone else was parking along the road, so it wasn't as unsafe as I thought lah.

4 of us - Lervonne, Alison, hubby and I - ordered drinks, brownie and chicken wings. The chicken wings were so-so only. The coffee was good and the brownie was the most interesting. The brownie came on a hotplate and the waiter poured the chocolate syrup onto the cake and ice-cream after serving us. It was really good. That was the most expensive "meal" we had in JB that day too... bill came up to RM90+, which is quite expensive based on JB standards.

Chai Jia Chai 蔡家菜

Address: 45, Jalan Rosmerah 2/3, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru
73, Jalan Austin Height 3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Telephone: 012 775 7928 (Mr Tan), 016 410 5998 (Goh)
Hours: 11:00 - 15:30 / 18:00 - 21:00 (Johor Jaya closed every Wednesday; Mount Austin closed every alternate Wednesday)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChaiJiaChai/

Visited on 4 Mar 2016.

Lervonne brought us to the Taman Mount Austin branch to eat. We loved the meetaimak, the peppery pig stomach soup and the lor bak. We found the vegetable choices somewhat limited and ordered the lady's fingers... not too bad. Even though hubby didn't like lady's fingers, liked it... pretty surprising.

Meetaimak and lor bak