Clementi Food Centre: Boon Kee Wanton Mee

Recently, my friend decided to go around with me to taste some of the stalls at Clementi Hawker Centre. In this new series of posts, I will explore some of the food I ate over at Clementi Hawker Centre. First on the list, Boon Kee Wanton Mee. There was a considerable queue and my friend said that there's always a long queue here. So I thought the wanton mee must be really good to attract those long queues everyday isn't it?

Well, Makan Boy was wrong again. We ordered two plates of wanton mee, one with chilli, the other none. I tried both of it and frankly I can't seem to taste what was so special about this particular wanton mee from this particular stall that can make those people queue just to buy it. Maybe it's just a case of monkey see monkey do. People queuing so it must be good, that sort of mentality .

Boon Kee wanton mee ($2.50)

Anyway, the wanton mee tasted average at best to me. I have tasted much better wanton mee so it might have influenced my judgment as well.

Verdict:
Nothing special. There's another pontian wanton mee stall at Clementi Food Centre (I didn't try it). I had tried the same outlet over at Jurong Point some time ago but it cannot be compared to the one I had over at Pontian, Malaysia: Pontian Heng Heng Wanton Mee. Now that's the real deal. Not those other pontian wanton mee stalls in Singapore.

Boon Kee Wanton Mee
Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre
Blk 448, Clementi Ave 3
Singapore 120448

Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak

After our meal over at Ippudo, Makan Boy and friends wanted to find some good supper to satisfy their growing hunger pangs. Where else? Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak! 

Recently, Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak came up as the dark horse to grab the crown for the best nasi lemak in this year's Singapore Hawker Masters. A few other popular nasi lemak stalls such as Changi Village's International Nasi Lemak and Adam Road's two nasi lemak stalls were also nominated. 

As expected, there was a queue there but not too bad. I have seen even longer queues.To lessen confusion and faster processing, we all ordered the same food combinations. $3 bucks for chicken wing, bagedil and egg. Ok, reasonably pricing.

Their fried chicken wing was really Power! I always must order that whenever I come here to eat. As for their rice, it's fragrant enough but nothing stellar. The chilli was addictive though. Very nice. My friend commented that even their egg yolk was runny. Hahahah! In case you missed it, that was in reference to both the eggs of Ramen Champion and Ippudo.

Runny egg!!

Verdict:
If you want supper and good supper then this is nasi lemak is the go-to option. According to its website, it have a few other outlets as well. I never try the other outlets before so I'm not too sure whether the consistency of the food is there.

Haji Maksah Berkat Chahya Food Stall (Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak)
Block 221B, Boon Lay Place, #01-106 S640221
Tuesdays to Sundays, 7.30am to 2pm; daily, 6pm to 4am 
http://powernasilemak.biz/

IPPUDO SG @ Mandarin Gallery

Makan Boy headed down to Ippudo SG at Mandarin Gallery to get a taste of their famed hakata ramen and tonkotsu soup broth. Fortunately for us, one of my friends was able to get there early and queue for us (there was a pretty long queue). But unless all of the people are present they will not let you in. Well, the rest of us got there in time so no worries. 

Within a short while after we were seated, this extremely friendly waitress came to serve us. When we ordered our ramen she asked us how we want our ramen to be: soft, medium or hard. Apparently, it's common practice to choose the hardness of the ramen in hakata style ramen. The waitress even pointed out the strips of comics on the wall (I didn't even notice that) which explains the hakata style ramen. All of us opted for the medium ramen not wanting to take too much risk.

Our orders took much faster than expected to arrive since I thought there was a lot of people in the restaurant still waiting. Apparently not. I ordered the Shiromaru Tamago ($17) (basically, Shiromaru Motoaji ramen with the flavored egg). According to their website, Ippudo was the first to refer to their broth by the color, Shiro (white) and Aka (red). The color of their bowls also corresponds accordingly.

Shiromaru Tamago ($17)

My Shiromaru Tamago tasted refreshingly good perhaps after the not so good experience over at Ramen Champion (see past post).The ramen noodles were thin and smooth and the soup broth  was flavorfull as well. Excellent. I then devoured my slice of chashu. Not too bad. But nothing really amazing. I needed to try another slice to confirm. So there I was searching for my next slice of chashu. Wait. Where were the other slices of chashu?? Then it hit me. There was only one slice of chashu. My friendly waitress confirmed that there was only one slice of chashu for Shiromaru and two slices of pork belly for the Akamaru ramen. Only one slice of chashu... Oh well, but my flavored egg didn't fail to impress me simply because the egg yolk was runny. However it seems my other friends were not so lucky as their eggs were half runny and half overcooked. So I guess the standard of the flavored egg was not consistent.

There, runny egg yolk.

My friend got the Karaka Tamago ($19). It's ramen with a spicy miso and ground pork mixed with the ramen. I tried it and it's also quite good.  Almost the same as Shiromaru ramen except that it's spicy that's all. I'm not too sure why it's more expensive than Shiromaru. Maybe because of its special spicy miso?

Karaka Tamago ($19)

The other 3 of my friends ordered the Akamaru Tamago ($17. The broth was much more flavorful than Shiromaru and there was a stronger garlic taste. Really delicious too. And it had two slices of pork belly (I didn't try them). I'm not crying about it but I mean I love pork so I had expected they would put more slices in my ramen.

Akamaru Tamago ($17)

 

Serving size wise, the ramen would not leave you feeling full. If you want more ramen you can get them if your soup broth is not finished at an extra $2. We decided that's enough for us so we all left the restaurant with our stomachs still having room for more food. Oh yeah, I finished my whole soup broth and I felt really thirsty after we left. Probably the MSG.

Verdict:

Overall, I think the ramen here were quite good. Definitely a must try. The prices might be a little steep though. And serving size small. It's quality over quantity. 

P.S.

They have another outlet over at UE Square. It's called Ippudo Tao. Tao meaning drums performance. They fused the two ideas of ramen and drums together. You can watch drums perfomances on television screens while enjoying your ramen. I'm not too sure of the whole experience of Tao and ramen but I just might drop by someday to attain some enlightenment. 

IPPUDO SG 

Mandarin Gallery

333A Orchard Road

#04-02/03/04

Singapore 238867

Mondays to Saturdays

11am-11pm, Last order at 10pm

Sundays

11am-10pm,Last order at 9pm

http://www.ippudo.com.sg

Golden Mile Food Centre : 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup

When you come to Golden Mile Food Centre, you should never ever miss the 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup. I'm sure many of you people have tried it before since they have a few other stalls islandwide.

This was the perfect dessert of my food tour over at Golden Mile Food Centre (see previous posts). By the time I ordered, there were only red bean and green tea rice balls left. I only prefer peanut and sesame (I had ate them a lot of times at different stalls). The rest were not really nice at least according to my taste buds. So I just got their peanut soup ($1.20). And trust me when I say their peanut soup itself was amazing even without the rice balls.

The peanuts were already boiled very soft and the soup was also very sweet. Ahhh. Just writing this post made me feel like having another bowl of peanut soup right now. I shall post again when I do visit their other stalls and order the rice balls.

Verdict:
Definitely recommended! They also have ginger soup. Although some people dislike that, I personally like it as well. So you might want to give it a try but their peanut soup is one of the best (hmmm, come to think about it, I think the best in Singapore).

75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup
505 Beach Road #01-75 Singapore 199583
Golden Mile Food Centre 

Golden Mile Food Centre : Chung Cheng Chilli Mee

Next up on Makan Boy's food tour in Golden Mile Food Centre, Chung Cheng Chilli Mee. Have you heard of chilli mee? Neither have I. Well, chilli mee is actually just 'dry' prawn mee mixed with their specially made chilli paste. 

They sell chilli mee, pork ribs mee and laksa but since chilli mee is their specialty, I intended to try just that. There's prawns, fish cakes, half a hard boiled egg, some tau pork and even pork ribs. And it comes with a bowl of the prawn soup. 

The chilli itself is fragrant and spicy enough to set a fire in my mouth. Ok, I'm exaggerating. But funny enough, the star of this dish was not the chilli itself. It's the pork ribs. Boy the pork ribs were damn good. I think their pork ribs noodles would taste just as fantastic if not better. SImply because the ribs were tender and soft to chew on. Beautiful. 

Chilli Mee ($3)

Verdict:

Considering that I'm not much a chilli guy, I might be biased in my review of this. But I truly think that the pork ribs itself outshone the rest of everything in the chilli mee. So, overall I still think it's good but I would order their pork ribs noodles next time to find out just how good that it might be. For the chilli fans, I'm sure this chilli mee would be right for your taste. Go try it!

Chung Cheng Chilli Mee
505 Beach Road #01-59 S199588
Golden Mile Food Centre
8.30am – 8.30pm (Closed on Tuesdays)

Golden Mile Food Centre : 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee

Just not too long ago, Makan Boy made a trip down to Golden Mile Food Centre since some of the best hawker stalls are located over there. Subsequent posts will be about some of the other hawker stalls I patronised in Golden Mile Centre. I will start off with 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee (or simply, Char Kway Teow).

No pork no lard!?

The stall front states prominently that there is no pork or lard added so this must be one of the healthiest Char Kway Teow in Singpore I reckon. But without the lard would it taste as flavorful? There are tons of advertisements on their stall front and even tv screens showing the replays of tv programs that feature their Char Kway Teow. Wow, I guess this char kway teow must be really that power to attract that much attention.

So many signs... One set of chopsticks... No empty plates...

Well, there wasn't much of a queue there so when I ordered my Char Kway Teow ($3) it came pretty quick. Oh it is self served by the way. They use disposable plates and utensils which I don't quite really like because I like to eat my food with real plates and utensils. Just my personal preference since I like that more substantial eating experience. And... they even have a sign saying that only a set of chopsticks and spoon per plate and no empty plates are given out. 

Sure enough, the Char Kway Teow wasn't oily at all and there's a heap of vegetables on top. Hmm, it's pretty ironic to pair char kway teow with healthy eating don't you think? There's Ikan Bilis as well which I don't think I have ever seen in Char Kway Teow.

Healthy eating?

I needn't have to worry about the lack of flavor because even though there's no lard the Char Kway Teow still tasted remarkably sweet. I should say it tasted unique because of its sweetness. Guess I wasn't disappointed at all.

Verdict:
This stall does triumph over other average Char Kway Teow stalls so yes I would still come back for more. You should try it for yourself the unique taste and the sweetness. Even though they didn't use lard, I think they did a pretty damn good job. I correct myself. Precisely because they didn't use lard they did a magnificent job of producing such good Char Kway Teow. Thumbs up!

91 Fried Kway Teow
505 Beach Road #01-91 S199583
Golden Mile Food Centre
11am-9pm daily
Closed on Monday

Geylang Food Trail: Lion City Frog Porridge

Online reviews claimed that Lion City Frog Porridge is one of the best frog porridges, if not the best. Just how good is it?

They are famous for their Gong Bao Frog. You can order one, two or three frogs which costs $8, $16, $22 respectively. It's more expensive than that of Eminent Frog Porridge (I shall do a review on it soon) which is also round the corner. Eminent has a promo that gives you 3 frogs for the price of 2 meaning it's only 16 bucks.

Alright, so I ordered the $8 one since my stomach was already 75% (estimated figure) full by now after the big prawn noodles and hokkien mee (see previous posts for reviews). I ordered their smallest serving of porridge ($2) as well if not where's the porridge in frog porridge? There's was quite a bunch of people in that coffee house and almost everyone was eating their frog porridge. It is that popular... Needless to say I had to wait a while before...... my frog came first. 5 mins later, my porridge arrived. No comments.

At first taste, I could only taste the sweetness then the spiciness sets in. I'm not a big chilli fan but I could still fairly appreciate the full flavor of it. There's a lot of chilli padi so for those who do not absolutely tolerate spiciness do not try it please. Go for their ginger and spring onion frog. Maybe I should try that someday as well. Who knows it might even taste better than what they are famous for: Gong Bao Frog? The porridge is pretty normal for me. 

Ok, enough about the sauce and porridge. Let's talk about the meat of the frog itself. I know many people say that frog meat tastes like chicken meat. I really beg to differ. Frog meat is more tender and has more spring that gives your mouth that wonderful feeling to chew on. And do I enjoy the frog meat from Lion City? Absolutely. I think one frog is not enough for me. I regretted buying just one. I need at least 3. 

Verdict:

Flavorful Gong Bao Frog although a little bit too expensive. I tried the ginger and spring onion frog over at Eminent's and they were quite good. I'm not too sure about their gong bad frog though. If theirs is good as well, then they can give Lion City a run for their money since Eminent is cheaper. Overall, I would still recommend everyone to try it except for chilli haters.

P.S.
You can sit at the opposite coffee house and still order the frog porridge and they will still send it over. The famous beef kway teow and Qiu Ji fried hokkien mee are located over there at the opposite side. But I was already too full so I guess a sequel of Geylang Food Trail is guaranteed in the makings. Stay tuned!

Lion City Frog Porridge
235 Geylang Road, Lorong 9 S389294
67468105
5.30pm to 3.30am