I decided to have the prawn noodles at ah hui 阿辉 big prawn noodles. The stall was previously located at long house, the popular 14yr eatery at upper thomson road. we were early at 11am so there was no queue. 

Recently, my close friend’s brother started an excellent big prawn noodle stall “Why Eat Har” at thye hwa heng canteen, blk 29 eunos avenue 6. this triggers my interest to try out a few prawn noodle stalls.

to compare apple with apple, i bought the S$5 dry thick beehoon noodles. ^^

my first reaction was that the chilli was not as good as that at “Why Eat Har”, which was spicier, more tasty & gave a better kick – maybe more haebeehiam?? not sure. i tossed the noodles a bit more and the taste improved. this amount of noodles was just nice & much less than that at “Why Eat Har” as observed previously.

prawns were fresh & nice. there were 6 half-prawns (3 prawns) for S$5 dry c/w with 4 half-prawns (2 prawns) at “Why Eat Har”, but the size of prawns were substantially smaller. in terms of value, the 2 much large prawns at “Why Eat Har” was greater value.^^

the soup was very tasty & intense! my first reaction was that this soup just pipped the one at “Why Eat Har” which was also very good. “Why Eat Har” is just 2 week old, so have to go back there & try again. will probably try the big prawns for comparison.

my sis had the $5 prawn+pig tail noodles. this had 3 half-prawns + 3 pieces of pigtail. this option was not available at “Why Eat Har”. for those who want pigtail, this seemed like a very good option.

the soup for the soup version was not as intense as the dry version, due to the noodles. i like both versions but for the purpose of trying out the chilli & more intense soup, i almost had dry version exclusively when i had big prawn noodles at wah kee at pek kio food centre, cambridge road previously. did not go for a few years now. will try it again soon. ^^

overall the S$5 prawn noodles dry at ah hui and “Why Eat Har” were almost equally good in every respect. personally, i will go for “Why Eat Har” for the larger prawns, but i will be quite happy to go back to ah hui also. if i go with my sis who likes pigtail, then ah hui provides the additional option.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/17/very-good-prawn-noodles-ah-hui-balestier-food-centre-on-17mar2015/

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/16/good-3pax-lunch-tess-bar-kitchen-on-13mar2015/
had lunch with 2 friends at tess bar & kitchen at 38 seah street last fri on 13.3.2015.

interior is a pleasant modern industrial chic design. tess is helmed by head chef martin wong, alumni of l’atelier of joel robuchon. ^^ t

here about 5 tables were occupied & only 1 server who was quite good overall though strangely she did not automatically serve us dessert & coffee when we finished food, and we waited a long time before asking her.

we ordered the deep-fried pork belly & sous vide baby octopus for starters to share. we had wanted to order the smoked duck & wagyu cubes we saw on other reviews, but they were not available for lunch.

octopus was excellent, very tender texture & nicely matched & flavoured with chorizo & sundries cherry tomatoes. ^^

pork belly was an ok bear finger food, but not comparable with the standard roast pork in most chinese restaurants like crystal jade, imperial treasure, tunglok & canton paradise.

since there were not many ala carte tapas orders for lunch, we decided to order the main courses, which also came with a choice of soup or salad, and a choice of dessert or coffee/tea.^^

1 friend had the tomato soup of the day. 2 of us had the waldorf salad. salad was good, crunchy veg, & quite a few lovely cheese. tomato soup was good too. it was the standard restaurant fare, not my favourite.

2 of us decided to skip meat main dishes & ordered 2 pasta mains to share to share. the tiger prawn linguine was good. prawns had the nice bbq flavour, & pasta was tasty with the sauce. ^^

my initial taste of the vongole was much less good. when i took it with a lot for sauce at the bottom of the plate, it was much better. there were a lot of clams. ^^

another friend ordered the frenched lamb rack. i tried a small piece. it was good.

1 friend ordered the profiteros. 2 of us had regular coffee.

the lunch came to about S$120 or S$40pax nett. not too bad. food was pretty good restaurant standard if not overwhelming. this a place i would come back to try out the other tapas dishes.^^

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/12/cheap-good-3pax-lunch-havelock-food-centre-on-12mar2015/

went with sis & bio to havelock food centre today 12.3.2015 at 11.30am.^^

carpark was full. looked like >50% taxis. i circled almost 1 round. fortunately turnover was real quick! taxis were moving out of lots just as quickly so we managed to park almost immediately.

we ordered a S$6 kueh chap & S$1 for 2 large bowls of kueh. also ordered yu mei mei red garoupa fish soup & havelock turtle soup.^^

kueh chap was probably not expensive as it had quite a bit of kongbak (braised belly pork), big intestines & small intestines, and pig skin. the taste was also very good.

not sure how to compare, but i guess this was quite a good kueh chap overall.

actually i did very good kueh chap myself so this one & others were competent but i guess nothing really standout-ish!

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/12/cheap-good-3pax-lunch-havelock-food-centre-on-12mar2015/
went with sis & bio to havelock food centre today 12.3.2015 at 11.30am.^^ carpark was full. looked like >50% taxis. i circled almost 1 round. fortunately turnover was real quick!

taxis are moving out of lots just as quickly so we managed to park almost immediately.

i saw the fish soup was very popular the last time i came. so this time i ordered a S$6 red grouper soup.
we were seated at the other side near to the turtle soup & kueh chap & the fish soup man said he could not serve us, so we had to collect. waited more than 15mins. maybe if you want fish soup it is better to sit near the stall.
there were about 6 pieces of red grouper fillet. grouper was very nice, fresh & sweet. soup was very tasty with good savoury & seaweed taste.^^

i am not sure 6 pieces for S$6 was good or not. will try again next time, see if i was discriminated against for sitting the other side, probably not. haha!

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/03/08/8pax-ala-carte-lohei-dinner-mitzo-grand-park-orchard-on-3mar2015/
a friend organised a lohei dinner at mitzo, grand park orchard on 3.3.2015.

coming out of the lift on level 4, the entrance was a bit hidden, right at the end of the hall way.

place looked atas, with a japanese sounding name mitzo, and the waiting staff including at the welcome counter were mostly foreigners, took us a while to spot a singaporean.

we were served by a spanish guy. must say the service was very polite & cheerful, and the staff were well trained.

it was only later that i read that mitzo was supposedly inspired by “mat zoe” 蜜枣 used in cantonese double boiled soup & lie tong 例汤。whatever.^^

mitzo is also apparently positioned as an inventive cocktail bar, serving some cocktails from a teapot.

there were 8 of us.

we ordered a medium lohei. the server used a cocktail tumbler to mix the sweet sauce & oil.
c/w with the lohei at char, the amount of salmon here was a lot more, i think 2x more. in terms of taste though, char’s lohei was a lot tastier & more refreshing, and altogether more enjoyable. here because the end result was a bit too dry, we asked for more sauce & lady came & added what looked like the char siew sauce instead of the sweet sauce & oil, the result was not the taste we associated with lohei.

the roast pork was pretty good. i think better than char but it was quite standard & not a stand-out c/w any of tunglok, imperial treasure, crystal jade, canton paradise.

the char siew was good. it was featured in their website also i guess one of the signature dishes? it was tender moist flavourful, slightly different from the one at char, not necessarily better. for me though, i prefer this (char’s was unique but sauce slightly on the sweet side).

the spanish waiter recommended the soft shell crab in curry floss. in fact we ordered all his recommended dishes.^^ the curry soft shell crab was good, competent. i liked the curry flavour.

the roast duck with truffle was good too, a good restaurant standard. my favourite roast duck though is the one at canton paradise.

eggplant was good, competent.

the scallop, crabmeat, egg white fried rice though was a bit below par, not enough wok hae. this a dish that i always order in imperial treasure nanbei or imperial treasure teochew at taka, so it was rather poor by comparison.

the food was actually quite authentic & better than my first impression that we were walking into an expensive atas place to eat so-so chinese food. i guess we were quite full & ordered very few dishes for 8pax, so we only paid S$30pax for the dinner.

but from what i saw of the set dinner & ala carte prices e.g. 1/2 roast duck was S$36 c/w S$26 at canton paradise, this place is certainly quite a bit more expensive. again it’s not comparing apple with apple as the ambience & location are quite different.

not my usual kind of place for cantonese food. don’t rule out also. not coming back anytime soon la…