Another visit to 761 Yishun Seafood. 761 Yishun Seafood is a Cze Char stall located in a coffeeshop at Blk 761 at Yishun Street 72. The eatery has been operating for a very long time; 26 years!This post covers a consolidation of the dishes I ate over 3 occasions.

As usual I visited this Cze Char stall during dinner time on all 3 occasions. Be prepared to wait around 10 to 30 minutes during dinner time as almost half the people at this coffee shop orders from this Cze Char stall. The Hot Plate Beancurd served sizzling hot was outstanding. Generous amount of prawns and beancurds with eggs at the bottom. The sauce that was drizzled over the dish was robust and flavourful accompanied with a spicy after taste. The spiciness was just nice for us (We requested for it to be less spicy). Furthermore, the sauce complemented perfectly with plain rice. The Bittergourd Omelette also did not disappoint. For just $5, I was surprised that such a big serving of omelette was given. The omelette was well fried; big, fluffy and soft with the ideal thickness (not too thin, not too thick). The slices of bittergourd in it were well sliced at the ideal thickness. It was well cooked, did not hard and had no raw taste in it.

Wish that they could cut down the amount of oil required for this dish. Surprisingly, the Seafood Omelette that I had at Chong Kei Hoi Sin Yeh Mei Fan Tim 忠記海鮮魚翅飯店 (Macau) is still one of those which was not oily. Ironic as I would have thought HK/China would have had used more oil in their cooking. (no offence to anyone)

The Sweet and Sour Pork was average. Ginger Onion Diced Chicken was average. The different flavours of the ingredients were infused into the chicken. However, it did not sees to appeal much to me.When ordering Prawn Paste Chicken, customers can choose between the wings or meat. In this case, we chose meat. A decent dish. The prawn paste batter was not bad, just that in some parts, the batter was too thick. Another plus will be that it was not oily and inside, it was juicy and tender.On another occasion, we ordered the Prawn Paste Chicken in the form of chicken wings. It was so delicious! (Likely to be more biased as its chicken wings haha..) Anyway, I prefer this compared to meat. Crispy on the outside and inside it was piping hot, tender and juicy! Shiok. The Sambal Kang Kong was yummy. It was not overly spicy and the kang kong still retained a nice crunchiness.

The Spinach and Baby Kai Lan were both executed in the same way; with oyster sauce. Both were well fried and still retained the crunchiness. A simple dish that did not disappoint, if they were to cut down the saltiness by just a bit, it would be perfect.Shared the 'Jiu Qi' Soup among 3 persons. Anyone care to enlighten me on the meaning of 'Jiu Qi'? Is it a vegetable? Anyway this soup was very tasty and not overly salty. Filled with a wide variety of different ingredients such as vegetable, carrots, button mushrooms, straw mushrooms, squid, prawns, fish slices and egg, this is so value for money. Moreover, there was still more than half the amount of soup left after scooping it in the 3 bowls.

The food here may not be mind blowing, but it was surprisingly good and affordable. Good job!

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/01/761-yishun-seafood-cze-char-2nd-post.html

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has a long history and is possibly one of Singapore's oldest cake and pastry shop. They have over 50 years of history with a reputation for their quality product. The cakes and pastries are crafted by hand and contain no lard or pork. Today, LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has 3 branches in Singapore (For its locations please refer to the end of the post)LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has received many recognition from food shows, newspapers, magazines and celebrities. The whole shop is full of articles and photos endorsing their quality productsLE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry is known for their 'golf ball' pineapple tarts, bean curd tarts, cakes and wedding cakes. Look at the above picture! What a beautiful customised wedding cake!

Some of the items and their prices that are being sold in LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry. I went to LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry on a weekday afternoon at around 130pm. I wanted to buy the Beancurd Tart. However, it was already sold out when I got there. What is amazing is that the Beancurd Tarts are only available daily after 1230pm yet it got sold so quickly. I was told I can call in to reserve the next time.

I decided to purchase the Mixed Beancurd Tarts instead for $9.00.The Mixed Beancurd Tarts consist of 7 different kinds of Beancurd Tarts.Clockwise from Top Left (above picture): Longan in Beancurd, The Original, The Original, Peanuts in Beancurd.Clockwise from Top Left (above picture): Grass Jelly in Beancurd, Gingko Nut & White Fungus in Beancurd, Egg White in Beancurd, Red Beans in Beancurd.

Most of us would have tried Portuguese Egg Tart before. Beancurd Tart will be something new to most of us. The beancurd tarts will need to be kept in the fridge and are best served chilled. It has to be consumed within 2-3 days.

The crust of the beancurd tart is hard yet crispy, crunchy and sweet! The beancurd filling is soft, silky and with melt in your mouth sensation. Moreover, the beancurd taste is not overwhelming. Among the beancurd tarts, the Original Beancurd was the best! A nice change from Portuguese Egg tarts.

Oh yes, to further reinforce that this shop has a long history, my parents told me that their wedding cake (30 years ago) came from this shop! This is a interesting shop. The only downside is that it is not located near the MRT station. Anyone tried their wedding cakes before?

ps: best to call and reserve the Original Beancurd Tart

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2012/03/le-cafe-confectionery-pastry-middle.html

Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery located in Bedok is a traditional shop selling kuehs. It first started its business in 1967, serving customers through their home kitchen before setting up their own shop (at its current location) in 1987 as business picked up.

Through out the years since their inception, they have survived mainly through customers' word of mouth (WOM), no advertising on their part is required. This is not an easy feat as I notice that their location is not exactly ideal. To get to Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery, one would need to take a bus from Bedok MRT station. It is not located in a crowded area near an attraction or shopping mall. They are located just next to Fengshan Food Centre where many people frequent at night for supper for the famous Minced Pork Noodles and Chicken Wings, but well... they are closed by evening time. Hence, to have operated for so long with just WOM, I am sure they did something, if not a few things right!So what are Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery's USP (Unique Selling Points) that have allowed them to operate for so long? From my perspective the USPs are:

1) Hand made Kuehs and other products. The Kuehs and fried stuff such as Yam Cake, Curry Puffs, Spring Rolls are all hand made! From pastry to the fillings, they are all hand made from the raw ingredients. Not made from factories! I feel that this is the most important USP. Despite it being a labourious task with such a wide product range, they still take the effort to make everything from scratch. Kudos to them.

2) Freshly made daily. Every thing is freshly made on the spot daily. To do this, they have to start working at 4am in the wee hours of the morning daily!

3) No/Minimum preservatives. If you are a regular customer here, you will know that most of the kuehs and fried snacks cannot be kept for long. This is because no preservatives are added. It is best to eat it on the spot or within the same day.

4) Vegetarian. Suitable for vegetarian.

5) Halal Certified. Suitable for our Muslim friends (important point..especially in the light of Amy Cheong facebook post).6) Wide variety of product range. They sell a comprehensive range of kuehs (from Nonya Kuehs to Ang Koo Kuehs to Soon Kuehs) and fried snacks (from Curry Puffs, Spring Rolls to Fried Yam Cakes) which are all hand made by them.

During this visit, the partner and I had the opportunity to view and learn (hands on experience) how some of the kuehs are made. First up, Ang Ku Kuehs.

Red Tortoise Cakes. This is a traditional kueh with a tortoise shell shape with a soft sticky glutinous rice flour skin and sweet filings inside. Back then, Chinese believe that eating tortoise will promote longevity, bringing prosperity and good luck to people. Hence, the tortoise shell shape. The Ang Ku Kueh is an auspicious kueh that is often eaten during important Chinese festivals such as Chinese New Year and also during birthday celebrations.

This is the mould used to make Ang Ku Kuehs.

It was not an easy task making the Ang Ku Kuehs. There are not supposed to be any cracks on the kuehs, but well, this is our first time making it. A hands on session that allows us to appreciate the effort gone into making this. This excludes the effort and man hours required for making the pastry and fillings as these were already prepared for us.I liked the Ang Ku Kueh ($0.50 each, $2.30 for 5) with peanut fillings in it. Because the peanut fillings were thick, moist and crunchy. Providing a nice contrast to the glutinous rice flour skin which was soft, sticky and chewy. Moreover, I must say that they were generous with the fillings.Also had the opportunity to learn how to wrap the Pulut Int ($0.50). The Malay Auntie was able to wrap it so fast and quickly. It seems easy, but upon attempting it, I realised that it was harder than it seems. Well, I guess I am better at eating. The Pulut Int consisted of sweet blue (clitoria flower) glutinous rice topped with gula melaka coconut toppings and wrapped banana leaf.

The red mould as seems above is the mould used to make Soon Kueh ($0.70) and Ku Cai Kueh ($0.70). I believe that this mould can be used to make curry puffs too.

The filling that is used in the Soon Kueh.

Each piece of Soon Kuehs are handmade. A labour intensive process and as seen in the above photo, each piece looks exactly the same as if they were made by machines.

This is the mould used to make Rice Kueh ($0.80).Freshly made Kueh Salat!

The Kueh Salat ($1.20 per packet) with the top layer consisting of a pandan crust with sticky glutinous rice at the bottom.Kueh Lapis 九层糕 ($1.20 per packet) aka 9 layer cake / Jiu Cheng Gao, one of my favourite childhood snack which I peeled off layer by layer.

Customers can choose between their Fried or non-fried Yam Cakes. I enjoyed both versions and though that this was one of the better yam cakes I have had. Because, their Yam Cakes ($0.80 per piece) were full of yam chunks along with mushrooms and other ingredients. In addition, it was soft and fragrant. Yam lovers will like this.Keeping the best for the last..

Both kuehs above are Tapioca Kuehs - Kotoh Ubi ($1.20 per packet). The one on the left is mashed tapioca with gula melaka mixed in it. While the one on the right is mashed tapioca topped with gula melaka coconut (This is my favourite among all the kuehs I tried). The tapioca at the bottom was soft and fragrant with generous chunks of tapioca in it. On top, the gula melaka coconut enhanced the flavour making this incredibly delectable.

I can't help but emphasis on the quality and freshness of the kuehs and snacks that Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery sells. In addition, these are hand made with manual labour at such an affordable price. I must say, I really admire the spirit of Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionary, for taking such effort to bring these delish kuehs to consumers in the traditional way (hard way). They could have easily just purchase a few machines to do the work (less staffing issues to handle, higher throughput). With our developing society modernising and as quality of life improves, who knows if kuehs will still continue to play a role in our daily life. From my own personal observation, it seems to be going on a down trend, we now prefer to eat fanciful buns/bread, cupcakes, pancakes, swiss rolls, bubble tea, beancurd, ice cream, crepe and more. Hopefully, I am wrong. Hence, if you are wondering where to get kuehs, this could be one of your options.

Thanks Gavan for the invite.

ps: the Spring Rolls are quite good too. Big and full of ingredients such as turnip, carrot, beansprouts. No photo as we well... ate it while on the way home.

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2012/10/lek-lim-nonya-cake-confectionery-bedok.html

This laksa stall is commonly known as the '928 Yishun Laksa'. Why 928? Because this tiny stall is situated at a little corner of Blk 928. This is Yishun’s most famous and best laksa. It is a household name in Yishun. This stall has been around since I was in Secondary school, and that is 15 years ago! Go to the correct stall. The stall is at the right side of the picture above. Do take note at the left side of the picture with the shutter down, there is a similar laksa stall there. For me, I prefer the one at the right, which sells the best laksa in Yishun.

Long queue despite the time being 4pm in the afternoon. It is just a tiny stall. But do not under estimate its power. The laksa comes at $2.50 or $3.00. Yes, the owner sells laksa only. And there is always a queue. Oh yes, this stall is featured frequently on TV (food shows), magazines and websites such as Makansutra. As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. Look at the ingredients. Reasonable amount of fish cakes, dried toufu, crabsticks, fresh bean sprouts, half hard boiled egg, lots of thick bee hoon. Normally, it comes with hum. In this case, I requested for no hum (Uncle Mai Hum..haha reminds me of this). Laksa leaves and sambal chilli paste which you can add according to your preference. The laksa gravy is fragrant, rich with bits of dried shrimps, right amount of coconut milk and chilli. Not oily too. It is so fragrant that I find myself drinking spoonful of laksa gravy despite sweating all over and before I knew it I finish the whole bowl! Yes, even all the gravy! This $3.00 is worth the money.

The downside is that there is limited space to sit and also be prepared to sweat it out eating this as there is only 1 small fan. But I would say this is one laksa worth sweating and paying for. Give this a try! Who says there is nothing good in the north!

This Hum Jin Pang stall located in Maxwell Food Centre is different from the typical Hum Jin Pang stalls. This stall requires customers to fry the Hum Jin Pang by themselves. Yes! You saw this right. (When one of my friend told me about this, I was wondering if she was joking.) This is a fry-it-yourself Hum Jin Pang (Hum Ji Pang) Stall.6 Hum Jin Pang for $1! What a bargain! I visited this stall at 4pm on a Saturday. There was a short queue. I was surprised to find out that there was only 1 person mending this stall!

Firstly, you queue and wait for your turn. If this is your first time, take the chance to observe what the person in front is doing.

Once it is your turn, the lady will ask you to choose from the 2 types of Hum Jin Pang available; Five Spice Salt and Sweet Red Bean Paste (differentiated by sesame seeds). Since it was our first time, we went for a mixture of both.The lady immediately start kneading and rolling the dough. Folding them and also stuffing the red bean paste if required. She did everything very fast and start to fling the dough (Hum Jin Pang) into the wok of hot oil.

Grab the giant chopstick and start cooking your own Hum Jin Pang. You will be required to turn it over the other side (to cook the other side). Everything happens so fast, that you might be cooking for the person in front of you or behind you as it is hard to know which is yours.Once the Hum Jin Pang turns golden brown, scoop it out of the wok to drain on a tray.The lady will help if she notice that it is becoming overcooked. After that you can sugar coat your Hum Jin Pang and just put it into the brown paper bag available. For payment, you put the money into a white container just next to where the brown paper bags are. It is all about integrity! You take what you order and you pay accordingly.The pipping hot Hum Jin Pang was crispy on the outside and fluffy in the inside! It was very soft and fragrant. The one with sesame has Sweet Red Bean Paste in it. The others that did not have the sesame contained Five Spice Salt. We prefer the Five Spice Salt Hum Jin Pang! We should have bought more as it was superb and not as filling as we thought. So simple yet so delicious!

Very affordable and yummy Hum Jin Pang! In addition, it was an interesting experience. I will be back for more!

*pictures combined from 2 visits (Hence you may noticed that the lady was wearing different clothes). Visited a 2nd time to buy $3 worth of Hum Jin Pang Yummy!*

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2012/06/hum-jin-pang-maxwell-food-centre.html