Breakfast @ Cheng San market - Bee Hoon (和發) & Coffee (天天茶室)

Many moons ago, it was during one of the rare occasions that I had a weekday morning off and I decided to pop by the Cheng San market for breakfast. The Cheng San market is located at Blk 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, quite accessible if you drive and exit from CTE AMK Ave 5 exit.

I tried the 'Fried Sotong Bee Hoon' from Hwa Huat 和發 (because 1 key aim of visiting the Cheng San market is to try the coffee next door) and I was pleasantly surprised by how good and cheap the bee hoon is. The uncle would fry the bee hoon on the stop, i.e. hot delicious breakfast instead of pre-cooked portions. I added a Soon Kueh just to top my breakfast quota. 

 

和發

Of course for coffee I had the kopi from Everyday Tea Stall - 天天茶室. They were featured in the TV programme before, where the uncle (seen in the photo below) was commenting that he suffered from backaches due to long hours of making coffee. Nonetheless his coffee is damn good (for hawker fare) and there are often queues. 1 chap who was being interviewed even said that he would buy extra to keep in the fridge, so that he could enjoy the coffee when he couldn't come to the Cheng San market to buy from 天天茶室. Being a typical hawker fare, the mug is just a nice flower-design mug, i.e. not those nostalgic looking cups from the more famous kopi chains.

天天茶室

天天茶室 Uncle

天天茶室 Kopi 

So for those who have the morning off, and would like to try out good local hawker fare, drop by Cheng San market for a little culinary adventure. :)

Bak Chor Mee - Seng Huat Coffeeshop @ Hougang

Ever crave for bak chor mee at unearthly hours, say near mid-night? Well if you do, you could travel to Hougang for a bowl of yummy bak chor mee at the Seng Huat Coffeeshop! It is located straight next to Hougang Mall and right opposite the HDB office. Parking (for those who drive) is plentiful with two open air carparks nearby, and those who prefer the public transport could take the MRT to Hougang.

Seng Huat Coffeeshop Bak Chor Mee

Well I visited at slightly better hours, about 8 plus pm on a weekend and there are just about 6-7 customers in front of me, i.e. not a bad queue. The bak chor mee has received many awards and won many praises among the food connoisseurs. There are quite a number of articles and the owners put them up as plaques at his stall.

We tried both the bak chor mee (actually it is dried kway tiao) as well as the fishball noodles. Adding the anchovies to the noodles gave a nice crunchy texture, and the different ingredients were cooked just nice (unlike places where the liver is over-cooked). Sauce, i.e. the chilli and vinegar, is well balanced and brings out the flavour of the bak chor. Perhaps I had too high an expectation about the bak chor mee, and thus I would say it is good, but somehow didn't meet the high imaginary oomph standards that I had in mind... the curse of being famous I guess.  

Surprisingly though, we find the fishballs way exceeding our expectations. The texture / feel when you bite into the fishball is addictive and you would guess immediately that these are hand made fishaballs. Good size and great taste! So I guess I should amend my opening paragraph slightly... when you have cravings for fishball noodles at unearthly hours, do drop by Seng Huat Coffeeshop!

Pondok Laguna - Jakarta Seafood

Having traveled to Jakarta fairly frequently over the past year, I've had a chance to eat at some of their local favourite food haunts and one of these good seafood places is Pondok Laguna. The address is Jalan Batu Tulis Raya No. 45, Gambir, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 10120. It is not difficult to get to the place; all the cabs know the place fairly well.

Pondok Laguna Jakarta

As you can see from their signboard, the fish is a popular dish at Pondok Laguna. We ordered two types of fish dishes, the 'flying fish' or deep fried fish prepared in such a way to display a 'flying stance' (see picture below) and the normal (but just as delicious grilled fish). Personally I like the grilled fish compared to the deep fried version but the deep fried version is the traditional Jakarta style cooking, a must-try when you are in Indonesia. When the fish is deeply fried, it is a bit harder to taste the freshness of the fish (or maybe I'm just too particular).

Pondok Laguna - Flying Fish

Pondok Laguna grilled fish

Of course, other than fish dishes there are many other seafood variety available. We had the grilled prawns and I like both the size of the prawns, as well as how the prawns are seasoned / prepared for grilling. For Singaporeans who took pride about our local crab dishes, do give their black pepper crabs a try. Those who like spicy crabs will love this dish.  In term of spiciness it is a tad too spicy for me, but I guess that could be the effect of taking too many different chilli dishes that night, including sampling from that chilli paste presented on a small stone dish.

Grilled Prawns

Rice is served local style where you scoop as much as you need from the basket, and yup other than those dishes described above, we had other stuff as well (some fried tofu(?) and vegetables). We completed the dinner with the desserts - an ice ball with thick coconut milk surrounded by avocado, coconut flesh and atap seeds. Sweet, sinful but completely worth it. So for those looking for authentic local fare in Jakarta, pop by Pondok Laguna and try out their seafood. 

Pondok Laguna - dessert

GE 2015 - Poll Card

Tomorrow on the 11th of September, Singaporeans will get to decide the political candidates that form the new government of Singapore. Election period is always an interesting one. Four years ago in 2011, I was excited to be able to vote for the first time in the Singapore Elections. This time round, four years later, I'm staring at the Poll Card with a heavy heart.

Singapore Elections Poll Card 2015

Four years ago, it was clear to be that the government was somewhat out of touch with what was happening on the ground. The people had highlighted issues that were not addressed properly by the government. Thus it was clear that those who were in charge, ought to be told (via the election system) of their shortcomings.

Four years later, at this juncture I must say those who are in charge have listened and have bothered to formulate and implement better policies. However, there are still a lot of unhappy sentiments and I hear these sentiments at various chats and forums.

This creates a dilemma - to vote for the incumbent political party and tell them they have steered towards a correct path (by listening and responding to people's needs), or to vote for the opposition and tell the incumbent that they have not done enough (despite being steered towards the correct direction).

I can only hope that after tomorrow's elections the people of Singapore could continue to stay united (whatever the outcome of the elections) and continue to help Singaporeans and Singapore succeed. Hazy days ahead... indeed.

See also:

- GE 2011 - Poll Card Has Arrived

April Fools' Day - Blk 71 article by e27.co

I'm quite sure that the article by e27 on how Singapore's Blk 71 is to be shifted to Sentosa and become a museum, is an April Fools' Day joke.

While Blk 71 is now a news highlight because of government's focus on entrepreneurship, I seriously don't think anyone would want to change it into a museum, least of all shift it 'brick by brick' to Sentosa.

Nonetheless the crawler engine of Yahoo pick the article up as a news item, and it is now on Yahoo.

Nice try e27, and Wish all a Happy April Fools' Day (& have some fun)!

Presidential Election 2011 - Poll Card has arrived

The Poll Card for Singapore's Presidential Election 2011 has arrived (see the picture below). The news stated that Singaporeans should receive their poll cards this few days, so look out for it in the letterbox. If you didn't get your card, you can actually print one yourself via the Elections Dept online service. I think Election Dept has an easier time for this Presidential Election since they can mostly re-use the earlier procedures / details from the General Election in May 2011. My polling station was the same as the earlier GE polling station.

The Poll Card looks the same, except it says "PE 2011" instead of "GE 2011", and the location of the "PE 2011" box is different, that is all.

So who will most Singaporeans vote for as the next President? I don't know but can only offer an educated guess (heh, my previous guess about the Writ of Election date and polling date is accurate!) after I hear what the candidates have to say, and people's responses to their views. Tonight is the broadcast of the speeches by the four Presidential hopeful - Dr Tan Cheng Bock, Mr Tan Jee Say, Dr Tony Tan, and Mr Tan Kin Lian, so for those who care, turn on your TV tonight at 8pm.

Related Posts:

- Writ of Election from 3 Aug - Presidential Election Date?

- GE 2011 - Poll Card has arrived!

Sunset Grill & Pub (Seletar Airbase) - Hot Wings

Sunset Grill & Pub is located at an obscure part of the Seletar Airbase. Honestly speaking the cafe is very hard to find, but nonetheless it is quite famous for food-seekers of a particular type - hot wings.

Sunset Grill & Pub is not the most beautiful restaurant or that the ambiance is fantastic (unless you happen to like the army camp feel, with heavy smell of mosquito coils lingering in the air. So most folks do go there for the simple reason that they served very special spicy buffalo wings. The spicy buffalo wings have ratings from 1 - 10, to indicate their spiciness. Of course, they do offer wings with ratings beyond 10, all the way to 35. Folks who attempted wings beyond rating 30 will get certificates and a place on their wall of fame.

Actually, most people who tried wings rating 30 and beyond will end up in bed or worse the hospital, so please don't try. I'm perfectly fine with wings of ratings 3 or even 5. Their sauce for the wings had a certain pungent acidic taste, which led me to believe that they added other spicy ingredients other than chilli. Order for wings is at a minimum of 6 wings. Not my type of chicken wings, but everyone has their own version of 'taste' I suppose.

For those who want to get a bit of 'hotness' on their tongues and in their stomachs, here's the address of Sunset Grill & Pub - Republic of Singapore Flying Club, 140-B Piccadily, Seletar Airbase East Camp. Tel: 6482 0244. They are closed on Tuesday, and even on normal days Sunset Grill & Pub can be quite crowded, so go early if you want to.