Heng Heng Fish Soup

Fish soup, nutritious, tasty, and well, just good for you.

I normally prefer the deep fried fish slices with deep fried eggs...but that's of course, not healthy...but this is. Sliced fish, boiled in a soup. But my friends Jason and Sherron highly recommended this stall, and went ahead to queue before I arrived, so we do not miss the fish head which tends to get sold out by 10am.

The fish is very fresh, smooth meat, clean tasting. Very nice. The bowl shown below is the fish head, which my friends love, but which I am too lazy to eat...lol...I prefer sliced fish.

The fish stock is wonderful, very light flavours. But very nice. The sambal chilli is also superb. Wonderful belachan flavours, and packs a punch.

The fish slices are nice thick chunks. Very nicely done, and testament to the freshness of the fish, is wonderfully firm but tender on the palate, and leaves a sweet aftertaste. Very nice. Definitely and positively so.

Definitely one of the better fish soups in town.

Heng Heng Cooked Food
Blk 505 Jurong West Street 52
#01-186 Jurong West Food Centre
S(640505)

Food for Thought

Good food and give to a social cause at the same time. Sounds like a good idea to me. And Food For Thought delivers this.

Currently with 3 outlets, of which I have tried two. I have tried the one at Botanic Gardens and found it to be a bit pedestrian. But recently I tried their outlet at The National Museum. Was a great experience. Good food, good service. So I went back again to see if it was a one off...and it turns out the place is really good. So what did I eat? We had the breakfast stuff and pancakes the first visit: awesome. As was the risotto, which we tried again the second time around.

Labelled their laksa risotto...I am not sure where the laksa starts or ends, but this is a good risotto. Nice flavours, if I were to nitpick, the rice could be a little firmer, and the dish served a bit warmer. But the flavours, reminiscent of lemongrass was fabulous. The mushrooms were excellent. Very good.

We also tried what the menu described as crispy chicken curry.

A huge serving of a breaded chicken cutlet, deep fried to very crisp outside, and nice, tender and juicy inside. And generously sprinkled with a curry powder. The curry was similar to the mild powder one finds in curry wurst in Germany. A bit sweetish, fragrant, and very mild, almost non existent bite. The buttered fries had a kind of salsa vinegar sauce drizzled over it, and that had bits of chilli padi which packed a punch. The salad on the side was also nice and fresh.

The cafe/restaurant itself is right smack inside the museum. Beautifully decorated, though still maintaining a cafe or canteen like atmosphere. Nice. Service was prompt, polite. Servings huge. I recommend the place. Good food.

Food for Thought
National Museum

Le Le Wanton Mee

I am a big fan of wanton mee. I can eat it almost everyday. And there are so many variants, varieties...some of them so different from each other that they can qualify as another dish.

I dropped by this little stall in Serangoon Gardens Food Centre (not Chomp Chomp, the other one) to sample this WTM as it had gained some goo reviews from the blogosphere.

The noodles are the thin, Singapore styled factory standard. This contrasts to those we get in KL, where the noodle is a bit thicker, but slightly flattened, so the sectional cut is more an oblong than a circle.

The noodle is very springy, quite nice. The char siew is thinly sliced, and quite savoury. The deep fried wantons are also made from thin pastry which are also factory made. But when deep fried, it is very crisp, and very light, not oily at all. The sauce is a darkish sauce, with a good umami feel, and the chilli is quite extraordinary. Not super spicy, but with a wonderful umami and long after taste...a bit spicy, a light bite from the chilli, but a smooth, very satisfying taste.

The wantons in the soup is made differently than the deep fried one, having a tinge of the flatfish within. The meat filling was a little small, though. But the skin in the broth is very light, and almost transluscent.

Very nice WTM, and another on my list of must eats, along with Eng's and Dajie's.

Le Le Wanton Mee
#01-11, Serangoon Garden Market and Food Centre
49A Serangoon Garden Way

Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh is a labourer's meal...filling, with requisite proteins and carbohydrates. And one of my favourites.

Two broad styles are available. The Singapore style where the soup is clear and peppery, and the Klang style with herbal and often dark soup. I love both. And this rather new place in Simpang Bedok, also well known because it is part of the Yellow Ribbon Project...the shop is owned and operated by ex-offenders trying to make a good living. The owner taught himself how to cook, and opened this shop.

The style offered, was interestingly kind of a mix between the two main styles. It is pepppery, but with a light herbal flavour, with a hint of dong guai - a root known in traditional Chinese medicine to fight fatigue, anemea and high blood pressure. It has a bitter and strong fragrance, and this perfumed the broth.

And like some of the more traditional bak kut teh, the chef has included pork liver and some slivers of pork stomache. Very nicely flavoured. The meat was tender, the nice.

But the star of the show for me was the dry bak kut teh

I figure the BKT is cooked till the broth is much reduced...but also added in the ingredient mix is some very flavourful cuttlefish. Quite magnificent. This is the only place I know of to eat this style of dry BKT, now that Blissful Cafe is closed.

Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh
302 Bedok Road
+65 62733338
https://www.facebook.com/soonhuatbakkutteh
11:00 am – 10:00 pm

Chui Xiang Kitchen lobster porridge

Lobster! Sounds expensive...much alike wagyu or abalone. And a favourite of Kin's.

One of my friends recommend this restaurant, in Commonwealth, in a row of shophouses just beside the now defunct bowling alley. So, as it was close to where we lived, we went to try.

The waitress recommended 2 lobsters for the two of us, each weighing about 200g.

The porridge was more like rice in a beautiful, sweet tasting, very aromatic broth. The broth was not overpowering, and the rice was soaking within just long enough to absorb some of the flavours, but not so long as to be mushy. Each grain was still intact. The broth was quite nice.

The lobsters were smallish, but very fresh, probably live. As usual, lobster is a misnomer, this was rather crayfish. The meat was firm, very nicely flavoured, and succulent. Very nice as well.

We also had the spinach in 3 types of egg. Very nice as well. The broth is excellent. The egg cracked over the near boiling soup is quite nice. The century egg and salted duck egg adding to the richness and excellent taste.

Very nice little place. As we ate, we spied the table next to us having sang yee mien...crispy noodles with king prawns in a thick savoury sauce...hmm..to try next time.

Chui Xiang Kitchen (醉香小厨)
38 Commonwealth Avenue
#01-03

Sate Kajang in the North South Highway

Doing a road trip sometimes allows one to eat well. Perhaps in the US, or maybe in France, and certainly on rail in Japan. But often, travelling by road on the PLUS North South Highway in Malaysia is not a culinary highlight.

the rest stops are quite well spaced along the road, but may sometimes be very crowded during holidays where there are a lot of people travelling. And often the meals are just to survive or to keep awake.

Rarely does one find a gem. But recently, while driving from Penang to Singapore, along a rest stop called Dengkil, along the southbound road, I found this little satay shop, curiously with the name spelt out as Sate, which I understand is the common Indonesian spelling.

Hungry, we stopped for some.

Costing some RM0.80 per stick, we ordered 10 beef and 10 chicken. The beef was rather tender, being well seasoned. The flavouring from the spices were quite nice. The chicken was tender as well, but with the lean meat interspersed with chicken fat, was a bit greasy for my tastes. The gravy was interesting that it was a nice, creamy texture, with a lots of crushed peanuts, but was very mild. Chilli was served in a separate small bowl, and can be added as per one's tastes.

The satay were broilled on a gas stove, and therefore lacked the charcoal flavour that makes satay so alluring.

We also had teh tarik...pulled tea. This was rather nice, thick milk tea, with a beautiful foamy head.

Overall, not bad for a food joint in the middle of the highway not known for culinary delights. Recommended.

Sate Kajang Hj Samururi

R&R Dengkil Southbound

PLUS North South Highway

Malaysia

Status: apologies for delay in postings

Quick status update...sorry guys have neglected HoChiak a bit these few weeks...trying to get traction on my new website, at Deployant.com. We hit 13000 page views in about 10 days, and 1000+ Facebook likes and still growing very strongly. But a lot more work to be done. And HoChiak will be back. Soon.