Hock Seng Choon Fishball Noodles

I love balls.

Fishballs that is. I like them with noodles. Wait. I also like them with some ketchup, peanut oil, vinegar, some condiments of vegetables and sliced fish cake. The adventure that is going to the Bedok South market to have this bowl of noodles is long and can be made into an award winning movie. What is a familiar taste, interpretation and look like every other bowl of fishball noodles is in actual fact very different.

The line at the store is long most of the time. The person/owner that cooks the noodles makes alot of noise while preparing; you will hear the abrupt splattering of the ladle, plastic and porcelain bowls. The chili used is extremely spicy, the noodles, in my humble opinion is always over done (some people still like it this way but I don't), and the noodles do taste very bland.

Again, I like the fishballs from the store, I just don't like the wait and the noodles.

Nanbantei Yakitori

Funny how all of a sudden I realize that there are Japanese Yakitori restaurants every where. When I was in school, I would always skive around Far East Plaza, a restaurant I have walked by countless times but never walked in, and a dear friend of the blog and in real life, Pampadam brought me and Jelly (my wife's new nickname, she thought of this one herself, really.) to this new old place to try.

Now, this is a small restaurant. So quality is assumed. Check. Service was courteously rude. So restaurant is popular. Check. Menu is unreadable in a good way. So a surprise is going to occur. Check. The great thing about taking Pampadam any where is that she comes prepared. She took out a list of things that she was told to order by her friends and hot damn, her friends were right.

Grilled ball of chicken with quail egg was lovely. (Jelly gulped one whole egg down raw. Nice!) Grilled Mackerel was the only disappointing thing because it tasted like most places. The grilled lamb chop was succulent and delicious, and I don't really like lamb but this was void of all the grin of the lamb after taste. The grilled asparagus wrapped with bacon was as if you were eating meat, and meat alone. One thing that I didn't take the picture of was the grilled rice ball, that was the best one I have had yet.

I ordered many other things for the 3 of us but everything was else is similar to what most yakitori restaurants might have. The dishes that I have were what I thought to be the most outstanding.

The price was reasonable. But there is just something about having fresh and perfect ingredients in the hands of a master that knows how to grill under the most perfect conditions that drives me off the wall. Maybe its a primal instinct where it is encoded in our DNA that we enjoy grilling food, like back in the caves where humans first discovered fire. But be it as it may, a hot grill, fresh ingredients, even in the worst environment, would taste heavenly.

The SANdwich Shop @ City Link

It's weird. I love sandwiches. And in Singapore, the best sandwich shops are always around a mass of working cluster of people. Like at Raffles City, or Tanjong Pagar or in this case, City Link. The wife invited me for lunch one day and I went. Well, because I had to.

The salads are good. My breakfast sandwich was lovely. And the chips, don't order those chips pictured. Total cost was $25. I love sandwiches, therefore I recommend this place to you my friends. Not many know of this place, so it will be a good place to bring your mistress or girlfriend or wife. For me, all 3 just happens to be same person.

Go!

Pizza Pazza

Background: I was greedy. I was with wife and Pampadam. We were at the food court at Cineleisure Orchard. We were early and about to watch the terribly depressing movie called Funny People. The girls went to get some yogurt, I ordered a small pizza from the store I recognize from my dreams.

Reality: This dream turns out to be a nightmare. If there is an award right now. This is worst pizza I have had in Singapore in the last 18 years of my life.

Yes, I am that young.

Ang Moh Wontan Mee

Tucked into the depths of the wondering east side of Singapore, lays in secret in my opinion, the best Wontan mee in Singapore. Ang Moh Wontan mee is a lovely testament to why I love local food. This Malaysian style, dark sauce, no ketchup (if you order without chilli), and the tender char siew and porklicious wontans make this dish a constant in an ever changing country like Singapore.

Love it.

DOONG JI Korean Cuisine

Right now, in my opinion, the best Korean import and as it should be for most countries is their art and culture. And for my own own purposes of a food blog, art meaning pop music and culture meaning the food. Let me rephrase that, this entry is just an excuse that I can't put a picture of my favorite pop group at the moment, Girl's Generation (I'd rather call them by their Korean name, the abbreviated SNSD)

Unlike nearly all of western pop artists, most Korean, Indian, Japanese, Hong Kong, pop stars do tons of acting, do silly things on tons of variety shows and can actually look like they can make a fool of themselves by not taking themselves too seriously. Nearly all of the female Korean pop stars are seen to be pure, innocent, fair, homely, respectful, mature, responsible, and all the organic wholesome goodness.

Their food culture on the other hand, is spicy hot, tasty, lots of variety, shocking (in a good way) pickled, and is a wonderful treat to the senses. I have been reading up on Korean restaurants in the area and true enough, there is a Korean restaurant near my place.

DOONG JI along East Coast Road is a small and homely restaurant. The service is decent and the food, and its my first time having Korean food, was actually good. In fact, it was decent but the word decent doesn't do it justice. I grew up with my own sister telling me the wonder of Kimchi but Korean food is more than kimchi. It has alot of variety. Out of my own greed, I ordered several things for me and the wife. I forgot that in Korean culture, they usually have tons of side dishes that are served prior to your meal and I was already full by the time the food I ordered came.

The servers were nice enough to explain to us how to mix the dishes and what was good on the menu. When I went there the 2nd time, I went pretty close to the closing and I was the last customer, and they still let me order my food and I ate my fill. Coincidentally, the last 2 times I went, it was raining. And I would highly recommend Korean food when its cold because the spice and the heat makes it all worthwhile.

All in all, I really liked the restaurant. Its not overly expensive and there is a constant spattering of Korean MTVs or drama series playing on the 42 inch plasmas on the wall. At this price point, the $10 - $20 a plate and casual setting, it makes me want to go to Korea.