Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore

Hawker degustation...this is an experimental post with no pictures. Just cross referenced back to the ieat blog. I have been following the blog for about a year...without knowing Dr. Tay who runs the blog, I identified with his taste, and generally agree with those of the places he recommends. Lately, I joined the forum, and finally met with the ieat gang, and including Dr. Tay...interesting bunch, I think I have found a foodie home...and I look forward to many makan sessions with them.

So after church this Sunday, the family decided to go try out the many hawker places recommended by the blog and forum.

We started at ROC Pizza, but when we got there at noon, it was not opened yet..."come back at 12:30"...hmm...hungry, we strolled downstairs and ordered 2 plates of Fried Hokkien Prawn mee. This was not the same HKM as I blogged before in Beo Crescent, nor like that one found in Kims. But the method of preparation was different. No gravy, but it looked like the noodles were cooked in gravy, which had time to be infused into the noodles. The plate looked like fried bee hoon mee...dry. Each strand was tasty, and full of flavour. Nice. Highly recommended.

By the time we wallop 2 plates, yes, the chilli also packs a punch, and unusually they included slices of raw chilli padi which provided extra oomph, it was half past, and we strolled upstairs to ROC. Ordered a Pizza Margarita and Pizza with ham and mushrooms...both 12 inchers - $15 for both was reasonable.

While he baked the pizza one at a time...we were the first and then only customers, Kin walked over and bought a plate of Char Kway Teow...it looked like a plate of fried chye sim, with some crispy silver fish...but within the folliage was some CKT...sweet, empowered with some nice see harm. The store was very popular, perhaps because it proclaimed in a large sign that no pork, no lard. The taste was ok, sweet. Reminded me of the CKT you get in the morning breakfast fried noodles store...the one which is ready prepared. I liked the use of the crispy silver fish in lieu of crispy lard. But a real CKT needs some lard to taste right. Eat again index? Not really.

By then the pizza arrived. The dough was very thin...the sides bloat up into a crispy balloon at the edge of the pizza. The ingredients were quite thin as well. The consistency of the bread was crispy. It was more like eating crackers with topping. The family rated this pizza as ok, no great shakes. The ingredients used...the ham, cheeses used in were not exceptional...the Quartro Formaggi at Modesto's was my reference standard...four kinds of superb cheeses, parma ham...etc...but, of course at a different price level. The ROC version could not compete. For the low prices charged, it was ok, but I won't return just for this pizza. Our favourite at Modesto's was not threatened.

By then, we were almost full...and not yet sampled the chilli mee, the pasta at the other end, and the beef hor fun...which had a very long queue and looked wonderful. Next time.

But wait, we were not done yet...we next went to the Ice Queen and ate some gelato. Made in-situ, the gelato claimed to use only fresh milk...less sugar, less fat, no eggs. We had 2 triples ($3.90 each triple) - Black sesame, Peanut, Rum n Raisin and Durian, Green Tea, Hazelnut chocholate. The Black sesame was nice...can really taste the sesame. The Rum n Raisin was rather strong with rum...the way we liked it. The Peanut tasted like cold peanut butter. Durian was quite strong tasting and pleasant (incidentally we had durian the evening before...tapow from the fruit store next door to Two Chef in Commonwealth Crescent...one Mao San Wang and another the seller claims to be better than MSW - he calls Tek Kar. Both were excellent.) The Green Tea was lesser than those I have tried in Tokyo, and the Hazelnut choc was forgettable.

This Food Centre was an interesting to do a tasting...many great stores, and good mix of old style, traditional looking hawkers with new, yuppie like hawkers. Worth another visit if just to try out the other stuff mentioned above.

Golden Mile Food Centre
Various stalls.