Ban Mian at Woodlands Koufu

My hubby introduced me to eating ban mian and now it has become of the food that I adore. But I only like the thin ones as it has the best SLURP factor!

I'm not a fan of the 'yellow noodles' or lye water noodles as it has a strong alkaline taste, unlike the ban mian, which is flour base, so it doesn't have the taste that I don't like.

My favourite store has to be the one at Koufu Food Court at Woodlands avenue 6. I've tried a few other stores, but this one is the best:

The ikan bilis is crispy but not too salty.
The minced meat is nice
The vegetable is very generous
The noodles are also very generous with just the right bite to it
The soup is lagi BEST ah...

I usually order without egg as I find that it sticks to everything and affects the taste. Add in some cut chilli padi into the soup to give it extra "kick" and dinner is served!

steaming hot noodles...

Koufu Food Court
Blk 768, Woodlands Ave 6

Homestyle Two-Bite Brownies

Are you a brownie fan? Or maybe just a chocolate lover?

Then you will love these. I found this selling at the NUS Coop store a few months ago this have since been pushed to my number one spot for BEST SNACK IN A BAG!



Like the name suggest, they are little brownies that can be finished off in two bites. For some packaged dessert, these brownies are surprisingly delicious!!!

They are soft, moist and oh so chocolately. I swear you can never stop at one! Goes superbly with a nice hot cuppa tea!

Korean Food Store at Food Republic (Wisma)

I remember my brother commenting that he loved eating bibimbab, back in the 90s when Korean food wasn't as popular as it is now. Fast foward 10 years later and the mountain tortoise (me) finally tried bibimbab at Wisma Atrium Food Republic for the first time ever. I'm hooked.

I havn't really tried this wonderful hotstone mixed rice at other Korean food outlet yet, so can I still qualify this store at Wisma Food Republic as the best? :)

I love how the sunny-side-up runny egg yolk gets mixed up with the special sauce and all the lovely vegetables.



Such a hearty meal with everything mixed into one bowl of rice...

Chocolat N' Spice Muffins

My FAVOURITE place for a muffin is the undefeated Chocolat N' Spice. I've been patronising the store for years. My previous office is just next to it, so naturally we were frequent customers. But surprisingly, fanatics can be found even at the Clementi area, my current office.



We always buy in BOXFULS... there are so many different flavours! Orange, cheese, chocolate chip, banana, walnut, blueberry, etc.etc.



But my ultimate favourite is this beauty... Double Chocolate



So chocolately and more importantly, SO SOFT AND MOIST! See the chocolate chips inside!



Go try it - You won't regret it!

Chocolat N' Spice
Blk 1 Tanjong Pagar Road
#01-18 Tanjong Pagar Plaza
Singapore 082001
Tel: (65) 9276 2110

Opening hours
Mon to Fri: 8.30 am to 5 pm
Sat: 8.30 am to 3 pm
Closed: Sundays & public holidays

Ayam Penyet House

Tucked away at the basement, most people would not even notice this obsure food outlet. Since it's recommended by a friend, I had to try.



We ordered the Ayam Penyet (Chicken Smashed), eggplant penyet, oxtail soup and some chendol to end the meal. Sadly, the eggplant and the chendol CANNOT MAKE IT. But you can try the chicken. The chicken is very tender and crispy! Yum...



The chilli is not as spicy as I would expect it to be... (I have high expectations for indonesian chilli paste!!) Ahem... I'm a spice queen... But it's still spicy nontheless and it goes very well with the chicken and rice.



The oxtail is very flavourful and the bits of meat between the bones are super soft and tender. Good as appetiser or as a meal by itself. They would serve this with rice actually.



Ayam Penyet House
67 Beach Road
NTUC Income Beach Junction
#B1-01/02
Tel: 6337 7761

CoCo's Greek Double Roasted Chicken

This dish is inspired by a cooking show on SCV, My Greek Kitchen. In the original they'll put herbs and use olive oil instead. So this is CoCo's simplified version. Just as good mind you...

The original recipie uses pork shoulder meat. Which is just as good! See below for pictures...

For 2 persons:
2 drumsticks (note: not enough - you may want to add more)
4 slices of bacon (note: not enough! because it just taste SO good!)
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 big onion, cut into big chunks
Pinch of salt, pepper & oil
Sprinkle of paprika (optional)



1. Preheat your oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees
2. Put everything into a baking tray (except for your bacon) and mix them all up!
3. Place your bacon slices on top of the mix



4. Drizzle a little oil over everything. This would help with the browning of your bacon.
5. Cover the tray with aluminium foil and bake for 1 hour



6. Remove the aluminium cover and bake for another 30 minutes. This would help to make everything brown and crispy!



SERVE~





The beauty about baking a dinner - NO MESSY KITCHEN! Can you tell that dinner is being prepared in this kitchen below??


This is the pork shoulder version. I skipped the paprika for the pork.



After 1.5 hours, the meat becomes so juicy and tender! A must try!

Poh Guan Cake House's Chinese Bean Pastries (豆沙饼)

Poh Guan Cake House, (opposite Hong Lim Food Centre) is the old fashion type of old shop that specialise in making traditional chinese pastries and kuehs and makes everything fresh. My Hubby & I love those chinese bean pastries (豆沙饼）and it's so hard to find shops that make really good ones anymore!! So naturally we bought a whole box when we found this rare gem.

Just as expected, it was great. Flaky but not dry, the bean paste is just nice, not too sweet. Sigh, really good leh. Really, believe me. I'm very picky with my pastry. It's good.

Poh Guan Cake House's Onde Onde

There's an old fashion pastry shop opposite Hong Lim food centre, Poh Guan Cake House. This is the type of old shop that specialise in making traditional chinese pastries and kuehs and makes everything fresh. If you're there, ask for their Onde Onde. They only make a few packets a day so you have to be early!

ONDE ONDE!!!!

I tell you. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD.

Real onde onde is filled with good quality gula melaka. Some people mix the gual melaka with coconut. I don't get it. What for?! Anyway, Poh Guan's Onde Onde was so heavenly.

Tip on eating Onde Onde: Pop the whole thing into your mouth and feel the gula melaka squirt out inside your mouth when your teeth sink into the soft yummy kueh.

GOD!!! The whole box was gone before the car left the carpark. Hahaha... Impossible to stop. I will be back for more.

Heng Kee Curry Chicken Mee

A colleague once mentioned that the Chicken Curry Noodles at Hong Lim Food Centre is "...The Best Chicken Curry Noodle Ever!" Wah... bold claim. I've walked pass the stall before, I've seen the long queue, but THE BEST? This I gotta try.

The queue was so long! But when we finally got it I thought it was really worth it.





It's more like Curry Noodles with chicken as they actually boil the chicken seperately. The chicken is super tender, the gravy is very tasty but not heavy! So we gobbled up the whole bowl in a matter of minutes. YUM! Please do go down and give it a try sometime.

#01-127, Heng Kee Curry Chicken Mee, Hong Lim Food Centre

CoCo's Teriyaki Chicken

So So Very Simple.

1. Marinate some boneless chicken thigh with Kikkoman teriyaki marinade for 30 minutes

2. Pre-heat oven at 200 degrees celcius for 10 minutes

3. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes

4. Chop chicken into bite size pieces

5. Pour the drippings from the baked chicken onto the chopped up chicken.

6. SERVE! (Psst... it goes GREAT with CoCo's Mushroom Rice!)

Teriyaki Marinade - The Kitchen Life Saver

CoCo's Mushroom & Garlic Rice

Got sick of eating plain rice, so experimented making mushroom garlic rice. This dish was inspired by those served at Japanese restaurants. I don't know how they do it in the restaurants, but this is CoCo's version!

Very simple, for 2 big bowls of mushroom & garlic rice:

1 scoop of rice
A handful of Shitake Mushrooms, diced
4 cloves of Garlic, roughly diced
1 medium sized onion, diced
Knoss Chicken Seasoning Powder (or chicken stock, if you have any)



1. Wash your rice & drain

2. Cook the rice like how you usually do it, just replace the usual plain water with Knoss chicken powder mixed with water.



3. While the rice is cooking, stir-fry the mushrooms.
Stir fry with a little oil, let it fry a while before adding a teaspoon of the chicken powder. Then you add the onion and garlic and stir fry it till it's nice and soft.

4. Pour the mushroom into the cooking rice.

5. Stir it all up when the rice is cooked.

The mushroom rice tasted GREAT. It goes SO well with CoCo's Teriyaki Chicken that we baked in the oven. A good twist to the boring white rice!

多记猪肠粉

Whenever I'm in Chinatown food complex, I always make sure I stop by 多记 for a nice plate of 猪肠粉, or steamed rice rolls.



Thousands of shops in Singapore sells 猪肠粉, but once you've tried 多记's you will notice the difference in taste. When you take a bite, take a while to savour it. You would notice that their 猪肠粉 has a very nice fragrance. The fragrance of rice.

That's because 多记 is one of the very few stores left that makes its own 猪肠粉, which uses real rice flour. I also love how smooth it is, with a little bit of bite in it. Rather than the mushy ones you eat at your neighbourhood coffeeshop. The sweet sauce is to die for! But since my hubby likes chilli sauce, I always request for them to put the chilli sauce by the side, so that I can enjoy it with just the sweet sauce.



It's quite cheap, $1, $1.50, or $2. But honestly, just order $2, it'll be gone in less than 10mins. They are also famouse for their bean dumplings and steamed yam kuehs, so do give it a try. On weekends they sell out VERY quickly. So by late morning most items would have been sold out. So be early! Oh by the way, good stuff always involve queueing, so be patient!

Chinatown Complex Food Centre
335 Smith Street, Chinatown Complex
#02-216

雪花飞 Hot and Cold Desserts

Located at the newly renovated market at Chinatown, 雪花飞 Hot and Cold Desserts served the best chendol that I know of in Singapore. The store front looked exactly like the other hundreds of dessert store in Singapore, but their Chendol is to die for!



The ice shaving is very fine, so it melts easily when you mix it with your spoon. Those that didn't melt forms nice little ice balls that absorbs all the yummy flavours without being too hard or crunchy.

The red bean paste at the bottom of the bowl is not too sweet, and the generous scoop the nice aunty gives is just enough to make sure that every spoonful has some yummy red bean on it! Yeah!

The green stuff - well - the are the same green stuff, so no comment. But what made me rank this as the BEST chendol ever is the coconut sugar, or gula melaka.

Oh mama~

It's thick, sticky, sweet and fragrant. Just looking at it makes me sigh in delight...



Mix everything together with a small scoop of thick, creamy coconut milk and voila! Heaven awaits!



You may try to savour it slowly, but sadly, the bowl won't last as you greedily slurp up every last drop!

Oh gosh I think I'll have to get my fix as soon as possible. Anyway, with such hot weathers, why resist? :)

雪花飞冷热甜品
Xue Hua Fei Hot and Cold Desserts
Chinatown Complex Food Centre
335 Smith Street, Chinatown Complex
#02-019