永珍 Yong Zhen Lor Mee & Prawn Mee

Address: Blk 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-40 ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre S150006
Hours 08:00-17:30 (closed on Wednesday & Thursday)

Visited 2 May 2016.

We chanced upon this lor mee stall unexpectedly. We had came to ABC Brickworks Market, not knowing what to eat for lunch... except with me telling hb that Amelia told me there's a lot of good food here. So we just randomly tried stalls. Hb and I both love lor mee, and so we tried out this stall and fell in love with it. I think that week alone, we must have ate it thrice! It is must better then the famous Bukit Purmei lor mee... which is famous only for their crispies, their sauce lacks the punch and the flavour. Yong Zhen's lor mee sauce is just awesome... flavourful and yet not too gooey and starchy.

If you are packing this lor mee home, make sure to request for the sauce to be packed separately from the noodles. I feel that soaking the noodles in the hot sauce, overcooks the noodles and makes it too soft.

You can also request for braised eggs, additional ingredients or noodles.

Hb has tried the prawn mee on a separate occasion. It is pretty decent but not mind-blowing like the prawn mee from Zion Road... it's more like your old-school canteen-style prawn mee. Gives you a nostalgic feel like you are back in Primary School.

Hawker Centres - Cleaning

As hawker centres are part of our daily lives, it is somewhat frustrating when you travel all the way to the hawker centre you want, for the food you want, only to be met with disappointment when you realized it's closed for cleaning. Very very frustrating.

When I discovered that there was actually a website that tells you when the hawker centre is closed for cleaning... OMG, it was god-sent! Most most most helpful website. So I must share it with everyone. :)

No more frustrations. No more disappointments. Yippee!

The Beef House

Address: No. 217 Syed Alwi Road S207636
Hours: 09:00-18.00 (closed on Friday)

Visited 23 Apr 2016.

First ate that this place a few years ago. It was my mother-in-law who intro-ed this place to us. It's a stone's throw from the famous Gek Sng Kio Laksa, another of our favourite haunt.

The food here is awesome. We have eaten everything - the abacus seeds, soon kueh, beef noodles and hakka yong tau foo. Prices are very affordable and reasonable.

Yummy soon kueh, sold out even before 12.30pm!

Super good abacus seed.

Bouncy and q beef ball beehoon. It's soooooo good!

IVINS Peranakan Restaurant

Address: 19/21 Binjai Park Bukit Timah Singapore 589827
Telephone: 6468 3060
Hours: 11:00 - 15:00; 17:00 - 21:00 (closed on Thursday)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IvinsPteLtd

Visited on 4 Apr 2016.

I have known this place since I was a little girl, and surprisingly, I have never eaten here till I met my hubby some 10+ years later. I was having piano lessons at Binjai Park and one day we noticed this restaurant had opened below my teacher's house. Somehow, my dad never brought me there to eat, despite us passing by every Saturday and seeing the long queues... I think my piano lessons were till 6pm, which was dinner time.

The food here is value for money... affordable, small portion and will not burn a hole in your pocket. Hubby and I always order their Ayam Buah Keluak, Bakwan Kepiting and Sambal Kangkong... remember to ask the waitress for their belachan chilli as they only serve it if you ask. We also always order their nasi kuning (yellow rice)... which has a faint coconut fragrance.

Today we tried something new, assam pedas... the red snapper fillet they used was very fresh, and on first taste... I was shocked cos the sauce tasted exactly like the ayam buah keluak sauce! How is that even possible? So weird right?

Try not to visit this place during the weekends as the queue is horrible and service will be super bad. Also we have tried the Heartland Mall branch... somehow it tastes different from the Binjai Park one... not too sure why though. Our preference is still the Binjai Park branch.

Carnivore

Address: 200 Turf Club Road, #01-16, The Grandstand, Singapore 287994
Hours:
Sat & Sun only: 11.00am to 3.00pm (Last Order: 2.30pm)
Tues – Thurs: 5.00pm to 10.00pm (Last Order: 9.30pm)
Fri – Sun & PH: 6.00pm to 11.00pm (Last Order: 10.30pm)
Closed on Mondays
Telephone: 6466 9418
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carnivore.sg/

It's been a while since we had Carnivore... this is a  Brazilian Churrascaria. I think it's been what, one to two years since we last ate there. The thing about this place is that before you go, you want to eat a lot of meat (sorry it's really not for the non meat lovers)... and when you leave, you swear that you cannot eat meat ever again.

Hubby has been craving for the buffet at Carnivore for at least a month already. When I saw the redemption rewards for Starhub - 500 points to exchange a 1-for-1 buffet dinner... it's a case of die-die-must-grab.

So here we are. They had a 1-for-1 Woodchuck cider promotion... so we ordered one. I still prefer Somersby over Woodchuck.

老档 Prawn Noodles

Address: Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1,  Alexandra Village Food Centre
Hours: 09:00 - 19:30 while stock last (closed on Thursday)

Visited on 2 Apr 2016.

Hubby and I went to Alexandra to check out the refrigerators and decided to come here for brunch. We walked around the food centre and surprisingly a few stalls caught our eye, especially this prawn noodle stall. We saw someone else ordering and the color of the soup, milky white with a tinge of orange/yellow, reminded us of the prawn noodles at Zion Road.

The prawn noodles was quite good, but definitely doesn't win the Zion Road one. The flavor wasn't as intense because the Zion Road one is more 重口味, but overall still not bad.

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.

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.