See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/04/02/my-favoruite-wah-kee-big-prawn-noodles-on-2apr2015/
a friend had to go for big prawn noodles today. not sure where the sudden cravings came from. we were at first planning to go to why eat har, a very good new big prawn noodle house started by a mutual friend’s brother. but was told that he was away & the stall was closed today.
anyhow, we decided to go to wah kee big prawn noodles at pek kio food centre at cambridge road. i was there at 11.30am today, a thursday, 2.4.2015 (wah kee is closed on mondays).

this has always been my favourite big prawn noodles stall though i had not been here many years. i queued for 30mins+ & we waited another 5 mins for noodles to be ready. the “famous” lady serving told us that the prawns today were too big for S$10, and she had to charge S$15.

we decided to take her suggestion to order 2 bowls S$5 & 2 bowls S$15 for 4 of us. wah kee has always served the large prawns in a separate metal pot. looked impressive but more important of course was how good it tasted.

the prawns for S$15 were huge, probably >100g each, fresh and excellent. in my memory which was really quite many years back the S$10 prawns were also very big. anyway, it was quite ok just to try. i am not sure though i would want to pay S$15 for this if i come again.

we asked for additional haebeehiam chilli. i added a bit to the noodles. the noodles & chilli mix was excellent, though the lady totally forgotten i ordered beehoon mee & we got 4 bowls of just mee instead.

for me, though why eat har’s chilli was also very good, wah kee’s haebeehiam chilli was really superb. we suspected that haebeehiam chilli was added which gave the large prawn soup (usual S$10 or today’s S$15) a lot more intense flavours than the S$5 soup.

the total dining experience (& by that i meant only the food visuals, flavours, texture, excluding ambience & service) was excellent, indeed the soup & large prawns are something i can think & crave for.

if i compare just the S$5 prawn noodles for wah kee, why eat har & ah hui, wah kee’s chilli was better, soup thereabout or better, so wah kee would still be tops. wah kee & ah hui had 2 prawns, whereas why eat har had 3, and ah hui’s prawns were smaller than wah kee’s. so if i want the big prawns, it’s wah kee, if i want the S$5 prawns, it’s wah kee or if i want more value then why eat har, and if i want pig’s tail together with prawns, then ah hui.

but all 3 are good for repeat visits.^^

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/04/01/fresh-pastries-great-coffee-carpenter-cook-on-1apr2015/

my daughter made the arrangements & we managed to find time to go for a 4pax family coffee/snacks at carpenter & cook this afternoon on 1.4.2015.^^ excellent outing this! wonderful food & ambience.

there were price tags on the quaint collections (i spied an old typewriter at S$800!) which included some enamel floral painted plates on the wall, tables & chairs etc.

hence carpenter – we were told by the proprietress shenn, who is a pastry chef who pulls the weights for the other part of the name – cook. ^^

banoffee pie was excellent! there was a coffee infused top. shenn said it was rare. the toffee was freshly made, very mildly sweet & excellent flavours (different form what i learned for the internet boiling a can of condensed milk in water for 3 hrs).

well, shenn told us her bakery was just downstairs at the same premises & all the pastries were own freshly baked & not from a common supplier. ^^

my own banoffee pie was not too bad but this was of course better.

lemon tart was very nice also. very mildly sweet (which we liked) & nicely tangy, & a nice crisp tart base.

both my daughter & i wanted to try the quiche. we picked the bacon quiche. i thought it was really savoury & nice. we all liked it. i tried a mini quiche previously, not too great, maybe i may try it again.

the flat white was smooth & silky, micro foam well blended, & great flavours. it didn’t have the latte art of assembly coffee. well i guess no latte art at all.

taste wise, it was as good as dutch colony & assembly coffee. maybe chye seng huat was better, couldn’t really remember. it was good anyway.

I had been trying out laksa at different places last few days. today i went to tanglin halt market & food centre & try out weiyi laksa 唯一辣沙 on 24.3.2015.^^

i was there at 11.55am but there was already a queue of 15 people. the queue went plus minus a bit but when i finished at 12.30pm queue was just as long.

so many people cannot be wrong, can it? i queued for 25minutes. weiyi had a good system with a board with numbers for the combination to order & the prices. & the guy was friendly, knew how to smile & be happy, which was sometimes lacking in other sellers. weiyi also sells prawn noodles.

today there was a sign “sold out” (at 12pm??). anyway i came for the laksa. i asked for no. 6 which was chicken & cockles & taupok, S$5 bowl, & thick beehon mee.

there wasn’t a number combination with just cockles & taupok. there was no purpose for me to try prawn combination. chicken with laksa was most uncommon so i wanted to try it.

the laksa gravy was excellent! a lot of hae bee as well. anyhow the combination of flavours – lemak, spiciness, taste – was excellent. i finished almost all the gravy. ^^

cockles were fresh & plump, taupok was soft & well infused with gravy & not falling apart. chicken was a lot better than i expected, very sweet & tender.

but of course, however good the chicken might be, it was no comparison with the poached chicken白斩鸡 at ah heng curry chicken noodle at hong lim food centre. likewise for heng kee curry chicken noodles. & if it is between the excellent laksa gravy & excellent curry chicken gravy, i will go for the latter every time. just my personal preference.^^

just comparing laksa with laksa, this would beat the #02-141 stall at bukit timah food centre hands down.

it also made me appreciate the teck hin laksa stall at food loft @ clementi. i was asking myself was this really better than teck hin’s. i think the difference was quite infinitesimal. the taupok was much better becos the taupok at teck hin was still hard & not well infused with gravy. the gravy might be tastier overall, but really not by much. there was no queue at teck hin when i visited at 5.30pm & i don’t expect it will have a 15pax queue at 12pm.

& compared with sungei road laksa at jalan shui kopitiam at jalan berseh? it’s kind of difficult to compare. this weiyi version, like teck hin’s, was a lot more savoury & substantial. sungei road had more lemak & sweet gravy.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/24/among-the-best-weiyi-laksa-tanglin-halt-food-centre-on-24mar2015/

I went to visit a chinese friend & look at his new Beacon LED office/store at tradehub21 on 21.3.2015.
he arranged for another mutual friend to meet at chickenwok 鸡之味 downstairs his office, and bought lunch.^^
we were early (intentionally) at 11.15am so the place was empty & we were the first & only customer (at the time we finished about 12pm).
i have seen chickenwok 鸡之味 S$15 for S$30 groupon vouchers many times before but did not consider to try. for today we did not have vouchers. & a check at groupon showed that the vouchers had sold out, but i know they always come back. seen it so many times liao. so next time if i come, i will be armed with vouchers. :-)
we ordered 5 dishes. they were all pretty ok, no bad dishes, tasty enough, quite inexpensive.
all except the S$8 romaine lettuce, which my ancient upbringing think quite ridiculous vs other dishes but my wife had enlightened me that there was no basis in the first place for me to think that vegetables should be cheaper than meat! :-)
and i do marketing, so i know the average amount romaine lettuce cost S$2.50 (2 bunches) to S$3.50 (3 bunches) in sheng shiong, and more in chinatown. well, so it’s S$8 in an inexpensive restaurant.
the best dish (kind of just slightly better than the rest) i found (top photo) was oddly the brinjal & tofu. the salted fish gave it a very interesting flavour & overall the dish was tasty.^^
curry chicken was good.
good as in c/w any economic rice stall or nasi padang stall, but cannot compare with the lemak green or red curries at good nasi padang stalls e.g. river valley nasi padang (now closed). :-)
this the thicker more pasty curry & not so lemak kind.
curry stingray also good, better than curry chicken, basically like any good homecooked curries or coffee shop stalls, which means not too bad la…^^
the claypot braised belly pork 东坡肉, not really 东坡肉 (the top restaurants seldom serve this swimming in braising sauce, always bunched standing up with or w/o sauce though i had tried the wet version also at kamjiazhuang recently, anyway tasted different in texture & flavour), was better than i expected. in fact it was rather good braised belly pork, nice soft texture retaining some bite not falling apart & quite tasty. 
romaine lettuce was good. to me, still too expensive vs a S$6 braised pork belly & S$6 stingray. still not attuned to the times, haha! 
there was no GST & service. they charged S$0.60 for ice water. for me that’s quite ok. guy got to make a living. 
& if you get a S$15 for S$30 groupon voucher, then this is better than coffee shop & food court prices.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/22/quite-ok-3pax-lunch-chickenwok-on-20mar2015/

See my full review & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/21/good-2pax-dinner-enochs-on-18mar2015/
(as already noted, name is changed to enoch's, the name of chef enoch teo)
had dinner at enoch’s on 18.3.2015. good to support these young aspiring singaporean chef.^^

young chef enoch teo honed his skills at restaurant andre (where he worked with another young chef immanuel tee), absinthe, bistro du vin.

managed to park at marshall road 2 side roads before enoch’s at 7pm. it was free parking too after 5pm.^^

place was the minimalist deco type, bright & pleasant, which was the right way to go. there were 2 other tables, a quiet evening.

i ordered the set, which came with the truffle asparagus, their signature dish, choice of lamb or seabass (i had lamb), and dessert (which was an apple crumble). wife ordered mushroom cappuccino & truffle asparagus from the ala carte menu.

surprisingly, the mushroom cappuccino was very much below par. it was firstly too salty. apart from the foam & the nice crisp crouton? the soup was very average tasting, did not feel any intensity or flavours standing out. i do my soup better!

asparagus was good. but parma ham was salty, not a very good grade. onsen egg (sous vide egg) was great texture & silky as it should be. asparagus was done very well, cooked, tasty & still having the bite, not soft. it was overall a pretty good dish, of course not in the class of Jaan’s 64degC 55mins sous vide egg with iberico chorizo. 

but it was a small dish, i think at most S$10, so S$17 was too pricy for this dish. the lady server from myanmar mentioned the tiny piece of truffle. i guess that is individual preference. to me the tiny piece of truffle added nothing to the dish & it was better off with just a dash of truffle oil (which many restaurants do) that would add great flavours to the dish.

the dish that stood out was the sous vide lamb. it was tender & tasty & the pesto sauce also enhanced the taste. a great dish!^^ & a large helping too.

i commented to my wife “hope it is not too sweet” before i dipped into the apple crumble. and first bite – it was too sweet! but actually after a few bites, it was quite ok because the apple was actually quite sour & the sweetness (slightly & not sickeningly sweet) counteract the sourness.

overall, other than the sous vide lamb, the dishes were just average and i think below what saveur offer.

c/w concetto also, i think concetto dishes were much better crafted & plated, and much lower prices. price wise meat dishes were ok but the asparagus was overly priced, and the mushroom cappuccino was just not restaurant class.

service by the myanmar lady server was ok. chef enoch was a bit shy & did not come to talk to us after taking the orders or he was much in conversation with the other table. it is an ok place which i don’t mind returning to after a while, except it is a bit farther & not the most convenient for me.