https://www.umakemehungry.com/2020/10/choupinette.html

Hidden away in the Bukit Timah enclave, Choupinette been serving classic French dishes since 2002. When translated from French, "Choupinette" means "Sweetie Pie" in French.

The cafe also doubles up as a bakery where you can see lovely homemade loves displayed in the wooden baskets near the entrance.It was an impromptu breakfast arrangement on a Saturday morning and we did not make an advance reservation. We approached the cafe as walk-in customers. We were then told that they were fully booked till 11am and they will call us in 20 minutes time if there were empty seats.The menu items are rather limited and have no illustrations.The doughnut stick was said to be on the house, the reason being that they have kept us waiting. The Ema's Set is the basic set among all and only served until noon. This gives us a choice of croissant or pain au chocolate or sultana or small brioche or wholemeal mini-baguette with butter and jam. 

All sets on the menu are served with fruit juice and any coffee or hot tea or even hot chocolate. It quite out of the ordinary practise that they offer 2 glasses of drinks in a meal.The chocolate brioche is a perfect addition to a simple breakfast. The buns are pillowy soft and consist of chocolate.The set comes with a glass of fruit juice and we have cranberry and lime juice. These are not freshly squeezed juices and most probably some carton juices that can be bought off from the shelves.The Egg's Benedict's is a definite crowd-pleaser as almost each and every table did have one such similar-looking dish as their order. An a la carte order would have it cost at $19 but we have ordered in as a set and that comes with 2 drinks.

Choupinette has nailed it! The Egg's Benedict was perfectly done and well-executed with hollandaise sauce spread on both poached eggs.Besides just having eggs on toast with ham and hollandaise sauce, I'm actually quite impressed but how crispy the toast was. The texture was simply as good as munching on some biscuits.
Here comes our 2nd drink, a glass of hot cappuccino and a glass of ice chocolate.As an overall, service was ordinary and the cafe space is limited and hard to accommodate a large group. It will be advisable to do a reservation prior to going down to avoid disappointment.

If you hear of the Dim Sum in Bukit Batok near the swimming pool, Lai Kee Poa Tin, you got to try out the Fried Prawn Noodle Stall there too. The Neighbourwok is located in the same coffee shop and selling 2 kinds of food, namely, Fried Prawn Mee and Satay. They have been operating for a few months since 28th June 2020.Although they are relatively new in the neighbourhood, they are actually one of the best Fried Prawn Noodles in the district. The noodles were flavourful enough with "Wok Hei" taste and subtle sweet egg taste. Even though pork lards were being used in the process, the noodles were neither greasy nor "gelat". From strands of noodles to the thin strips of pork belly meat, they are generally well accentuated with the prawn broth. On a side note, their homemade Chilli had complimented the dish very well. The key components in a good plate of Fried Prawn Noodle consist of fresh prawns, pork lards bits, sotong, rich prawn broth, yellow noodles with thick white bee hoon, chilli as well as lime. 

On the other hand, the texture of the noodles is well kept in its shape, being still springy, unlike other places, you may find them already turning soggy when it is served to us. There are 3 types of meat to choose from, Chicken, Pork and Mutton. The cost of a per stick of Mutton Satay is $0.80 each while the rest costs $0.70 each. Satays are skewed to perfection, accompanied by aromatic chunky peanut sauce. To elaborate, the meat was thoroughly cooked, especially for Mutton, most places that we ate, the mutton satay was quite tough, dried and gamy. The Neighbourwok had actually done a good job by providing such satisfying satay.

PGFN refers to Pandan Gardens Fishball Noodles. It was founded on 1st March 1982 by a couple, Mr and Mrs Seow. Till now, the business has gone through 3 generations of the customer at their original coffeeshop at Pandan Gardens. If you do not know, PGFN is serving Laksa as well as Fishball Noodles at one of the corners in the coffee shop and they have a few branches throughout the years. 

To name it, their Flag Ship stall is actually located in Keat Hong CC, operating 24 hours since 15th April 2017 with a casual and affordable air-conditioned environment. Other branches are located in Punggol and Bukit Batok West.Signature Fishball Minced Meat Noodles come with a mixture of fish dumpling, minced meat, slices of fish cake and fishball. Comparing this Signature Fishball Minced Meat Noodle to the popular chains of fishball noodles that
I had, the taste cannot get any worse. It's still packed with a full of Asian taste, or rather a staple dish that we normally seen here in Singapore.We preferred to explore something more than just fishball noodles and had the mushroom minced meat noodle. Mushrooms were well braised and definitely the meatballs together with minced meat sums up an average bowl of noodle.The taste was inviting, nothing to complain about.Fish cakes were our side orders and really complemented well with our bowls of noodles.Personally, I find that the standard of fishball noodle won't lose out to any popular fishball noodles franchises/branches/chains in Singapore. 

PGFN refers to Pandan Gardens Fishball Noodles. It was founded on 1st March 1982 by a couple, Mr and Mrs Seow. Till now, the business has gone through 3 generations of the customer at their original coffeeshop at Pandan Gardens. If you do not know, PGFN is serving Laksa as well as Fishball Noodles at one of the corners in the coffee shop and they have a few branches throughout the years. 

To name it, their Flag Ship stall is actually located in Keat Hong CC, operating 24 hours since 15th April 2017 with a casual and affordable air-conditioned environment. Other branches are located in Punggol and Bukit Batok West.Signature Fishball Minced Meat Noodles come with a mixture of fish dumpling, minced meat, slices of fish cake and fishball. Comparing this Signature Fishball Minced Meat Noodle to the popular chains of fishball noodles that
I had, the taste cannot get any worse. It's still packed with a full of Asian taste, or rather a staple dish that we normally seen here in Singapore.We preferred to explore something more than just fishball noodles and had the mushroom minced meat noodle. Mushrooms were well braised and definitely the meatballs together with minced meat sums up an average bowl of noodle.The taste was inviting, nothing to complain about.Fish cakes were our side orders and really complemented well with our bowls of noodles.Personally, I find that the standard of fishball noodle won't lose out to any popular fishball noodles franchises/branches/chains in Singapore. 

Many have raved about this hidden gem located in Bukit Batok and it seems that there is no reason for me to give it a miss. I first came to know of Lao Cai's Curry which is located just adjacent to Mian Wang's stall, serving delicious curry rice braised pork, salted calamari rings etc, similar to the ingredients of Mian Wang. These two stalls are affiliated and running under the same family. Hokkien Mee was out of my expectation, not the usual plate of noodle that comes with a heady prawn stock taste. On the contrary, it consists of its own unique style. Expect a good plate of wet and slightly thick gravy/stock that served with little hints of "Wok Hei". The portion is reasonable with ingredients like prawns and squid. Substantial of eggs were used to give the noodles sweet flavours. Other ingredients are pretty standard, that includes squid, pork and prawns. Mian Wang is generous with the crispy fried pork lard and served it by the side of every plate of Hokkien Mee. Unlike the traditional Hokkien Mee stall, Mian Wang gives the traditional dish a twist in its menu. What a weird combination of having my favourites dishes within a plate! The thought of pairing the moist and wet noodles with deep-fried crispy Calamari just did not come across my mind. To my surprise, they have tucked the piping hot fried Salted Egg Calamari by the side of the plate separated by the leafy lettuce green and away from the luscious noodles, thus the taste does not interfere with one another. Salted Egg Calamari was filled in savoury salted egg sauce over its thinly fried coated batter, not only that the Calamari ring was thick and worth it. Initially, I was quite hesitant to order this but in the end, I still went ahead and ordered it. At the first taste of the fiery red meat, I was like Oh my god! If you love those sweet savoury sauce over your Char Siew Meat, you will totally love this with the tender and soft braised pork. It has reminded me of a homely taste. If you are in a mood for Hokkien Mee with a twist, you may want to pay a visit to Mian Wang 1971 and try out their different types of Hokkien Mee. 

Just a day ago, one of my friends randomly forwarded me a video of this Lor Mee stall, asking me to try it out in Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre. She has also advised me not to go in during the weekends morning as the queue will be rather long but too bad as the week is already nearing weekends, lo and behold, the queue was indeed snaky long. It took about 20 minutes before we get to order our food. Let us check out the reason for the queue now. The regular bowl of Lor Mee is inexpensive and reasonably priced at $3. The portion may seem not enough for some but I find it just right. I have everything all in and that includes the coriander, minced garlic as well as chilli. Ingredients that made up the bowl of Lor Mee is nothing fanciful but rather ordinary. They are slices of Ngoh Hiong, fish cakes, Lor Bak and crispy bits, adding some crunch to our food. The Lor (gravy) is not starchy and is more on a lighter taste, in which it does not make the meal too "gelat" towards the end.Dining with a guy that has a greater appetite, the order comes with additional ingredients and noodles priced at $4.50. You can order solely with yellow noodles or a good mixture of noodles with Bee Hoon.Overall, if you prefer a lighter and simpler taste in Lor Mee, this will be your take! As for me, I have no preference of heavy taste in gravy or even the lighter taste, I find that both have their own special taste. 

If you hear of the Pie chain, Don your personal pie club in the malls, you might find this Cze Char joint in Toa Payoh rather familiar with its logo. I used to visit the stall in China Square many years back, introduced by my ex-colleague, enjoying both pies and their Signature Crab Beehoon Soup. Back then, the business had left me kind of impressed by their delicious Crab Beehoon Soup and the combination of pie business. Their Signature Crab Beehoon Soup is the first thing that I looked out in the menu. This signature dish is listed as one of the top 25 Crab Beehoon Soup in Singapore. The taste was distinct that till now I vividly remember that the hearty broth was different from the usual Cze Char Stall Crab Beehoon Soup taste. I noticed that Mr Don Lim, the owner was at one corner of the open kitchen preparing pots by pots of delicious Signature Crab Beehoon soup one by one.  The broth was milky white with ingredients like Chinese rice wine, large slices of ginger, evaporated milk, Angelica Root (aka Dang Gui "当归"), milk cabbage, long chunks of yam as well as plump Sri Lankan Crab accompanied by thick rice vermicelli noodles topped with my favourite parsley. The price ranges from $30 to $70 and we decided to order $40 for 2 pax. Overall the crab bee hoon gives an exclusive herbal note that I believe no other place catered to such taste.  The kitchen was rather busy on a Saturday evening and perhaps that was why our dish came to our table when we are almost finishing our main dish.  Realizing that many of the tables do have such similar dish on their table, we could not help it but order one ourselves. The Tofu was generously cover with cereal, fragrant and crispy on the outside with a vast difference of texture as you bite down into the soft silky tofu.  On a side note, I love their chilli, it tasted tangy with spiciness.  Here are our drink and the homemade ice lemon tea was kind of different with a layer of foam topped the glass. If you are craving for some pies, you can also bring them back after your meal. Don's Personal Pie maintained its flakiness on its crust. I had the Signature Chicken Pie and totally enjoyed the fragrance. The pie was built up with 2 portions, the "bowl" and a cover. I took out the cover easily and saw half a boiled egg was in it. The ingredients were obvious, making up of carrot, potato, minced chicken and peas with hints of white peppery taste. https://www.umakemehungry.com/2020/09/dons-pie-cake-signature-crab.html

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2020/09/mian-wang-1971.html

Many have raved about this hidden gem located in Bukit Batok and it seems that there is no reason for me to give it a miss. I first came to know of Lao Cai's Curry which is located just adjacent to Mian Wang's stall, serving delicious curry rice braised pork, salted calamari rings etc, similar to the ingredients of Mian Wang. These two stalls are affiliated and running under the same family. Hokkien Mee was out of my expectation, not the usual plate of noodle that comes with a heady prawn stock taste. On the contrary, it consists of its own unique style. Expect a good plate of wet and slightly thick gravy/stock that served with little hints of "Wok Hei". The portion is reasonable with ingredients like prawns and squid. Substantial of eggs were used to give the noodles sweet flavours. Other ingredients are pretty standard, that includes squid, pork and prawns. Mian Wang is generous with the crispy fried pork lard and served it by the side of every plate of Hokkien Mee. Unlike the traditional Hokkien Mee stall, Mian Wang gives the traditional dish a twist in its menu. What a weird combination of having my favourites dishes within a plate! The thought of pairing the moist and wet noodles with deep-fried crispy Calamari just did not come across my mind. To my surprise, they have tucked the piping hot fried Salted Egg Calamari by the side of the plate separated by the leafy lettuce green and away from the luscious noodles, thus the taste does not interfere with one another. Salted Egg Calamari was filled in savoury salted egg sauce over its thinly fried coated batter, not only that the Calamari ring was thick and worth it. Initially, I was quite hesitant to order this but in the end, I still went ahead and ordered it. At the first taste of the fiery red meat, I was like Oh my god! If you love those sweet savoury sauce over your Char Siew Meat, you will totally love this with the tender and soft braised pork. It has reminded me of a homely taste. If you are in a mood for Hokkien Mee with a twist, you may want to pay a visit to Mian Wang 1971 and try out their different types of Hokkien Mee. 

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2020/09/fish-soup.html

We came across this Teochew Fish Soup stall while searching in the vicinity for simple food after running our errands. The queue lining in from of the stall surprised us even though it was around 5 sharp in the evening. Without further ado, we joined the queue without thinking much about taking a look at other stalls around.We ordered the Red Grouper Fish Soup and I'm kind of alarmed by the plainness from the taste of the soup. The taste of the soup was indeed very simple, bland and without too much of sweet flavourings that we often get from fish soup stall. However, there was a little hint of sole fish taste from the soup. Red Grouper fish was fresh and cooked together with beancurd skin and bitter gourdMinced Meat Fish Soup is an additional item on top of their menu printed on the signboard. I must agree that their fish soup is clear, simple and straight forward with standard ingredients like tofu, vegetables, sliced fish and minced pork meat.

The thickness of the cut from the sliced fish is relatively thick and acceptable. With the minced meat added to the soup, I find that the soup is a little more robust than the Red Grouper Fish Soup. I learnt that it was a crowd-pleaser perhaps due to the simplicity in the preparation of the Teochew fish soup. Instead of loading soup with MSG, they have chosen a healthier and natural way for consumers by offering a natural taste from the fish.  The freshness and quality of the fish are of no doubt, its definitely worth the money paid for and that has explained the length of the queue.

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2020/09/fish-soup.html

Nyonya Taste Brew & Bar is a new restaurant located along Jalan Pari Burong just a few minutes away from Tanah Merah MRT Station, serving authentic Nyonya delights, together with a wide selection of craft beers.

I have never come across Nyonya Taste by brew & bar till I came across someone posting on Facebook about home delivery with no minimum order on Nyonya food. I was kind of craving for that particular cuisine, thus I decided to go all out and arrange my dinner in advance. Communication and arrangement of food was done via Whatsapp in a breeze. 

Here comes the rare dish which is also one of their recommended dishes, Sotong Masak Hitam, when translated from Malay Language, it literally means Sotong cooked in Squid Ink. The taste of the dish threw us a surprise with loads of slice onions, chilli added with hints of black pepper taste. We are not so much of black pepper lovers, however, the dish as a whole well cooked and the texture of the Sotong was right enough.Ayam Buah Keluak is not only on their recommended item on their food menu but also one of the staples that we will often order when it comes to Peranakan food as I simply cannot miss out the chance in having Buah Keluak Nut. This chicken dish in spicy gravy was served with 2 pieces of Buah Keluak and you have additional at $2 each. The chicken meat came in large chunks were flavourful and tasty especially when it comes to pairing the sauce with the rice.  However, it will be better if they are cut into smaller chunks. On a side note, the Buah Keluak paste has been already extracted out from the nut and tuck into our delivery boxes together with the dish.Next, here are the two other dishes that we had to complete our dinner.The recommended Braised Babi Chin is actually one of my favourite dishes ordered. The dish was pretty well executed with rich flavours from the mixture of Pork Belly with mushroom, eggs and potatoes. The taste gave me a good reminiscent of home cook food in which each and every item was tender and soft, well braised. I love having the gravy over my plate of rice.The classic Nyonya style dish that includes Chinese Cabbages, sliced mushrooms, carrots, rice vermicelli, beancurd skin, black fungus and dried shrimp stewed in a tasty sauce. It may seem a simple dish but there is a lot of work required from the kitchen in preparation of this dish.The 3 portions of rice we ordered were packed in a container and portion might seems a little than expected. It kind of lack the rice's fragrance as we pulled open the container cover. Base on the food portion given (excluding the rice), we find that the amount that we paid for was rather reasonable. The portion was big enough for 3 pax or perhaps good enough for 4-5 pax. Though the food we ordered might not be appealing in the colours, taste-wise it is still appealing.  There is always a saying that "tabao" food may not taste as good as having the food served up to us piping hot when dining in, it will be best to patronize Nyonya Taste by brew & bar again. When? I guess it when my stomach is calling for Nyonya Cuisine again.

I came to know of Mikawa Yakitori Bar when we were discussing about good food in Bukit Timah estate with one of the friends. With the stretch of restaurants along Cheong Chim Nam Road, she highly recommends Mikawa Yakitori Bar. Well, after my first experience from this bar, I'm strongly agreeable with her honest comments.Our appetizer comes with the popular Japanese egg roll and we have our Japanese Omelette served not the usual way. The exterior was charred grill and I'm kind of impressed by the sofa wobbly texture as I lend my jaws into the omelette. Awe! It really buys me at their first dish!They have a few options for Japanese Stir fried rice. You can choose from Garlic, Salmon, Eel or Pork. We have chosen Unagi portion and every spoonful from the rice was tasty and satisfying. Hints of Wok Hei taste and for the price we are paying, its a go especially when they are not stingy on their Unagi. Bowl of fried rice is soft and every grain was significant in the bowl not sticking into each other.
Our Kushiyaki orders was served in a long traditional wooden board. Starting from left to right in the picture, Buta Bara $2.90 is their chef recommendation in which boneless pork belly with Onion makes up the stick while the one besides features Hotate Bacon Maki $3.90 with scallop wrapped inside the bacon. I thought it was quite special as I seldom come across such combination. Next will be a common combination of bacon and asparagus, Asparagus with Bacon Maki $3.20. Sasami (Tare / Mentai / Cheese) $3.20,  Chicken Breast Meat with a choice of sauce, mentai or even cheese. Tsukune (Tare / Mentai)  $3.50 which refers to chicken Meat Ball is part of the recommended items on the menu as well, patrons can has a choice of sauce or mentai over it. Last but not least, the chicken with leek and sauce, Negima (Tare / Shio) $2.90. It does comes with the choice of salt without sauce too. Another addictive item on the menu will be none other than their grilled pork cheek. Not only was it tender that makes up part of the addiction, the Miso sauce was definitely a perfectly choice to dab those meat onto. Here's our additional order as we felt that the food had scored above our expectation. We were kind of a little greedy thinking we should fill up our tummy more with their good food and we ordered their dragon roll. It was make up of fresh with Unagi, cucumber and tempura prawn that was served with a warm bite.  As a whole,  Mikawa Yakitori Bar has showed us (patrons) that they take pride in its kushiyaki skewers and we are pleasantly surprised with the dining experience. Service wise, they are professional and friendly.

Decided to come here for dessert after a walk at Macritchie. Luckily we didn’t have to wait for a table. One look at the menu we decided on the earl grey caramel waffle. The waffle tasted as good as it looked. The waffle was moist and paired with the earl grey caramel (which was a little over powerless but the caramel) and ice cream was a great combination. Looking forward to my next visit to Columbus.

I’ve been here a few times now and the favourite items on the menu is the steak and chips and the large selection of wine. The menu is mainly small plates and around four mains. Overall the food is OK, I would prefer a few more mains but where Frenchie excels is the choice of wine and friendly atmosphere. And I almost forgot about the bread!

Celebrate our wedding anniversary at Miyu. Was thinking of a different dinner setting rather the usual Italian fine dining restaurant and chance upon Miyu that does Japanese Omakase. Dinner took us almost two hours in all to finish all the courses with delicate explanation on the each dish. We enjoyed ourselves very much with the surprise and excitement of the next dish. Overall, the food is very delicious and good place for any celebration. 

We planned to go else where but since we both finished work late and restaurants close at 10:30PM we decided to go someone close to home and ended up at Five&2 (forgot to ask the origin of the name). It was a shame we got there after 8PM and missed happy hour. We ordered wince, can’t remember which ones but it was good and for food I ordered the burger with fries, the Aglio Olio Seafood (no picture) and for dessert the chocolate lava cake. All food items were OK and matched my expectations of the establishment. On a not so hot night it’s nice to sit outside and enjoy the view of Pongol pond. It was my first time here and it won’t be the last.