Wen Dao Shi

And so the story goes.. After the pretty average food experience at Yong He with his friends, Makan Boy suggested to patronise Wen Dao Shi. This is not the first time I have been here and it's definitely quite a popular spot for supper for many people. 

My friends were already quite full by this time so we decided to order just a bit to try out. The Kong Ba Bao 扣肉包 ($3.20) were really good. It was not your average Kong Ba Bao where the bun itself is much thicker not to mention the shape is different. In this case, the bun or rather skin (?) is very thin and barely covers the meat. The meat is different too and carries a bit of herbal taste. But it's still quite good although I think the normal Kong Ba Bao is good enough for me.

Kong Ba Bao 扣肉包 ($3.20) 

Siew Mai ($2.50) is another standard dim sum we have to try at any dim sum place. Sadly, their dim sum didn't really impress us at all. 

Siew Mai ($2.50)

Now, comes the star of the night: Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun ($3.50)! One bite of it and I can already feel that this was really something special. I looked at my friends and I knew what was on their minds even though they speak a word. It amazingly silky! Smooth as well! Again, it was not like the usual chee cheong fun. The sauce is quite different but this is one of the best chee cheong fun I had!

Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun ($3.50)

Verdict:

This is a really great place for people to hang out for supper. I would definitely come back again just for the chee cheong fun. The last time I came here, I remembered that their porridge is quite good too. There's a lot of other stuff on their menu so I might try those next time. Something really quite queer I noticed was that they actually sell crab meat (those processed crab meat that we all love) and called it 红白. I can't help but wonder if anyone would actually order thsi. And lo and behold, I did actually saw someone ordered it not on this visit but on my previous visit. Oh well, maybe there was something heavenly about their particular crab meat that I'm missing out. Perhaps..

!!!!?????

Wen Dao Shi 揾到食
126 Sims Ave S387449
24 daily

Yong He Eating House

This Yong He eating house was introduced by my friend who said that the tau hway and youtiao are not bad. But the last time he ate there was a few years back and it was located over at Geylang Lor 9 back then. It has since shifted to its new location at Lor 27A and after reading the online reviews we were not really sure whether their standards are still up there. 

Apparently, they have quite a bit of history going back to the 90's and I even read somewhere that they used to have the biggest youtiao in Singapore (that's why the name is youtiao king 油条大王 I guess).

Reviews online also complained that some of the staff had some attitude going on. And yes, we did met one auntie who gave us the black face but there was another auntie who was quite nice. So, there's always a mix of rotten and good apples I believe. Anyway back to the focus of the day, the tau hway with or without peanuts (both cost $1.70) was really not bad. I especially like the one with peanuts because it was a tad sweeter. As for the youtiao ($1.10), it so oily that my friend hesitated to dip it into his tau nee (soya bean drink). Otherwise, it's crispy enough.

Our hot tau nee was served in a bowl and the cold one served in a cup. Hmm why the difference I wonder? Both cost $1.30 as well. I think Mr Bean's tau nee tastes better. Simply because the tau nee here tasted like plain water. What? It was that bland and diluted!

Verdict:
I think that their tau hway and tau nee cannot be compared to the Rochor Beancurd which is also in the vincinity. So if I do ever come to Geylang again, I don't think I would pay Yong He eating house a visit again.

Yong He Eating House
517 Geylang Road Lor 27A S389473
Opens 24 hrs daily

Prata Planet

Prata is one of my favourite foods and I am continually on the search for one of the best pratas in Singapore. And I can tell you that there's not really much outlets that sell good prata. So it just so happened that Makan Boy and Makan Girl were around Clementi and we decided to check out this particular Prata Planet.

It was about 10 plus but there were still quite a bunch of people over there so I guess this place is quite popular among the residents here. As its name has already said it's a restaurant so the staff will come and take your orders and deliver your food to your table. I had thought before going there it will be like Prata Wala where it is self service of sorts. 

Mysore Mutton

They have 3 mutton choices but in the end we chose Mysore Mutton ($3.50). Mutton is often the first choice of meat for me in any indian muslim eating place. Mysore is actually a place in India so I'm putting my money that this recipe originated in Mysore. Anyway, the mutton didn't really taste any good to me. It wasn't flavorful enough. 

Plain Prata

Next up, the plain prata ($0.90). Again, this prata failed to compare up to my standards, It wasn't crispy enough for me. Maybe I should try their other variations of prata some other day since there are quite a lot of them on their menu (see pics below).

Garlic Thosai

Finally, something that actually made my taste buds happy: Garlic Thosai ($2.00). The thosai was not actually really big but the paring with garlic was really awesome! Maybe it's because I just like garlic? Oh, whatever. Do try it if you are there!

Milo Godzilla

Something else on the menu caught my eye too. I had drunk Milo dinosaur before but I had never drink Milo Godzilla ($3.50). Yeah, so you can call me a frog in a well (it's a chinese phrase by the way). Boy, I regret buying their Milo Godzilla. I would rather stick with milo dinosaur. It's just a scoop of ice-cream on top. And it's vanilla ice-cream. A kid could tell you the pairing is weird. 

Verdict:

I don't think that they have one of the best pratas in Singapore. But if you are in the vincinity and have a craving for pratas then why not? Their prices are not over the roof and it's a nice place to have supper with your buddies. 

P.S.

I have read a substantial amount of reviews online raving about their pratas. Hmm, perhaps I missed out on something? I might go back again to investigate the rest of the prata variations. And apparently, Prata Planet belongs to a chain that have other outlets with names of planets such as Mercury and Mars. It's also related to Mr Prata since I saw one of their posters on the wall which says Mr Prata. Mr Prata is another prata house for in info. Interesting....

Prata Planet 

Blk 320 Clementi Ave 4, #01-37 S120320

6.30am to 11pm

Clementi Food Centre: Soon Lee Porridge

So after Makan Boy and Makan Girl finished the Adam and Zion Big Prawn Noodle, we proceeded to try out the Soon Lee Porridge which is extremely popular here. 

We had their pork porridge ($2.50). It's not self-service, they would bring over to your table because you do have to wait for quite some time. There's quite a lot of people waiting for their orders as well. You can see that the people tending the stall are very busy all of the time. 

Well, first of all, it's really quite value for money since it's only $2.50 but they give you a lot of stuff inside the porridge (pork liver as well).

Overall:
The porridge was quite thick and yet smooth to taste.The pork itself is also very savoury. Definitely recommended for those porridge lovers. They sell fish and chicken porridge as well and for an extra 30 cents you get an egg.


Soon Lee Porridge
Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3 #01-26
Operating Hours:
Mon-Fri: 6am - 9pm
Sat: 6am - 5pm
(Closed on Sun)

Clementi Food Centre: Adam & Zion Big Prawn Noodle

Makan Boy made another trip to Clementi Food Centre this time with Makan Girl! First up, we visited the Adam and Zion Big Prawn Noodle. I'm pretty sure that this is the one which has branches over at Adam Road and Zion Road (obvious from it's name, duh...). Supposedly their big prawn noodle is supposed to be very famous. This is not the first time I had eaten this but I wanted Makan Girl to try it simply because it's really that good.

Sure enough, the big prawn noodles ($5) didn't fail to amaze a second time. The soup is really really amazing. It's so sweet and flavorful that I finished the whole bowl. The prawns were also very big and succulent. Totally juicy! Can you imagine that? I highly suspected Makan Girl absolutely enjoyed it.

Verdict:

Definitely recommended. I think this stall is better than People's Prawn Noodles. Its soup is much sweeter and the prawns are much fresher and bigger. So it's really value for buck. Stay tuned for more posts about Clementi Food Centre!

Adam & Zion Big Prawn Noodle

Clementi 448 Market and Food Centre

448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-47

Mon.-Sun. 07:00-21:00
(Closed On Monday)

Prata Wala: Part Two

This is the second time Makan Boy and Makan Girl came here for supper! Check out Part One if you missed it. So this time around, we wanted to try out their bryani to see how it fares. It seemed like every time we came here, there was always a bunch of people. So I guess it's a popular spot for people to have supper.

Since they don't have mutton bryani anymore so we just ordered their Dum mutton bryani ($7.30) which is more expensive than the normal one (I'll explain that later). I wanted to try their egg prata ($2.00) so we got that and rose limau ($2.30) for our drink.

Now, let me start with the egg prata first. As crispy as the plain prata. It was very thin as well since being too thick would prevent it from becoming crispy. But the thinness also meant I couldn't really taste any egg. The rose limau tasted quite awful, it simply wasn't something that we could really appreciate in any way.

Time for the focus: Dum mutton bryani. The rice was quite sticky and moist and the chunks of mutton in the rice tasted quite ok. There's a hard boiled egg and papadum (the keropok look-alike) as well. Nothing amazing about those two (how amazing can it get...). 

Being Makan Boy, I had to find out the difference between Dum bryani and just normal bryani. Through my research I found out a lot more than I expected. Firstly, briyani is often called biryani in other countries but the former is more often used in Singapore culture. Biryani is found in many countries including India, Arabia and some South East Asia countries and thus many local variants developed. It seems that Dum simply means that the meat, the spices and the rice are cooked and baked together so that the aromas are fused together to make a fabulous dish. Whereas the normal biryani is cooked with the rice and meat separate. That probably explains the price difference since the Dum biryani is supposed to be more fragrant.

Another thing is that the better biryanis use Basmati rice due to its extraordinary fragrance. Basmati means 'the fragrant one' in Sanskrit. Its grains are longer than other types of rice and when cooked it's not sticky like other rices. Apparently it also has a pandan-like flavour. There are many other imitated Basmati rice out there which is just long grain rice without the distinctive fragrance because the real Basmati rice is not cheap. 

Verdict:
The egg prata tasted crispy and quite good but a tad too expensive. The rose limau simply didn't perform at all. As for the Dum mutton bryani, I have tasted much better ones. So if I am coming here again, I would just stick to the plain prata.


Prata Wala
63 Jurong West Central 3 #01-71/72/73/74 JP2
Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Singapore 648331

24 hours

Clementi Food Centre: Nam Kee Fried Prawn Noodle

At the last of the list of food that Makan Boy ate during his visit here at Clementi Food Centre: the hugely popular Nam Kee Fried Prawn Noodle (well, at least popular in Clementi Food Centre). Fried hokkien mee is one of my favourite foods so it's a must on my to-try list. They only open during two intervals i.e. 11.30 am to 3 pm and 4.30 pm to 9 pm and they are closed on mondays. Since my friend and I were there around 4 pm, we had to wait for the stall to open again. Hmm, I reckon they must be living somewhere close and had probably went back home for a nap or something. There were others waiting as well and you could see them sitting at the tables near the stall (I could see the impatient look on their faces. They can't wait to get their hands on the prawn noodle). 

Sure enough, around 4.30 pm the stall uncle and his helpers arrived and immediately we ordered our prawn noodle. The auntie kept asking whether we can wait because it will take a while. Of course we can wait. After all, we have already waited for half an hour so waiting a bit more won't kill us. 

It was lucky we came earlier so we didn't have to wait for a very long time. Our prawn noodle ($4) arrived within 5 to 10 mins. I could already see a bunch of people ordering and the crowd slowly forming as they wait for their orders.

The style of this prawn noodle is not so wet as compared to other stalls. The number of prawns weren't a lot (just 3). But the highlight was their sotong. The sotong had a great chew to it. It was sliced thick but it wasn't like rubber where you have a hard time just trying to bite. Instead you can bite through it cleanly and that was why I had a great meal just based on the fact that the sotong was fantastic.

Verdict:
Definitely a must try if you are in the vicinity. Be prepared to wait as there can be a lot of people ordering. The sotong is enough for me to want to go back for another round. Overall, yes, the prawn noodles tasted good. I wouldn't say fabulous but better than average.

P.S.
So this marked the end of my food trip over at Clementi Food Centre. There are other stalls which I haven't try yet such as the Tanglin Halt Western Food which also garner quite a lot of attention. I shall make another appearance here sometime again. Muahahahah!

Nam Kee Fried Prawn Noodle
Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre
Blk 448, Clementi Ave 3 #01-19
Singapore 120448

11.30am-3pm; 4.30pm-9pm; Closed on Mondays`

Clementi Food Centre: Teochew Fish Porridge

After trying the Boon Kee wanton mee, Makan Boy and friend went on to try the teochew fish porridge which is just beside the wanton mee stall. Everytime I pay a visit to Clementi Food Centre, I always always see a queue over at the stall.

Well, we got the fish soup ($3) instead of the fish porridge to get a taste. First thing that came to my mind, the fish was really fresh. The soup was also refreshing as I can't really taste any MSG. 

Fish soup ($3)

So yeah, I could see the reason why everyone was queuing up for this simply because the fish was fresh and the soup was very nice to drink without being too flavorful.

They also sell mackerel otah ($1) as well. Frankly, I don't think it taste anything fantastic so I guess if you want to try just stick to their fish porridge or fish soup.

Mackerel otah ($1)

Verdict:
Do give this stall a try when you drop by Clementi Food Centre. It's definitely worth the effort to queue.

Teochew Fish Porridge
Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre
Blk 448, Clementi Ave 3
Singapore 120448