The Battle of the Wanton Mee Noodles at the Lion City

In Singapore, wonton noodles is generally spelt as wanton which means something very different in the English dictionary. I suspect that wanton mee is a Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) derivative. But I can't be sure.

One of my favourite hawker food in Singapore is wanton noodles. So, the first place I ate straight after arriving from the airport is Eng's noodle house at Tanjong Katong Road. This store has an illustrious history. 3 generations have already eaten at this place - My grandparents, my parents and my generation. And so have many who lived near the Katong, Joo Chiat and East Coast area.

Eng's have moved to a spanking new place at Tanjong Katong Road. You used to be able to pay for SIN$2.50 or CAN$2 dollars for a bowl of noodles but now, the price has increased to about SIN $4 or CAN$3 which to me, is still very reasonable. Uncle Eng told us the main reason for the increase in price was his monthly rental, which is now around a 5 figure range. Crazy but a true state of reality in urban Singapore. But at least, he has his own outlet - the place is cooler and he has a bigger pool of staff to help him.

Eng's story started in the 1950s. His father, nicknamed Panjang which means tall in Malay started selling wanton mee in a push cart. I can't take a picture of his entire storyboard at his new place but here are some extracts.

Eng's dad - with copy of his first hawker licence issued by the City Council of Singapore

The young Uncle Eng

Finally, the moment I was waiting for - the wanton noodles. Eng's noodles is famous for his spicy chilli. In the past, he will put it as part of your noodles but now its served separately so customers have control on the amount of chilli.

The char siew is sliced quite thinly but the entire combination is heavenly

Close up of the wanton.

Uncle Eng's mother used to make the noodles when she was alive. Delicious!

Over the next few weeks, I ate wanton mee at least another 3 times. For breakfast, I had wonton mee at Haig Road market. This wanton mee store was there for years at some old canteen called Hollywood - why Hollywood? All because the canteen was located near a cinema. A nostalgic walk down to memory lane for me. My granny used to buy for me their wanton noodles every weekend.

Wanton mee cooked in a different way - more of the brown soya sauce effect rather than chilli

The noodles have a slightly more wet effect than Eng's

Gator's mandatory bowl of wanton - I ate everything up :)

Finally, Cho Kee Noodles at Old Airport Road. A family friend ordered this for me with no char siew. I much prefer having the char siew in my wonton noodles

The wanton here is pretty smooth

The chili here is so-so. Its a bit wetter version

The verdict - Eng's wanton mee is still my favourite choice after all these years. When my dad was alive, it was his favourite too. It was our favourite hang-out place at a humid and hot hawker centre, sitting down, eating our noodles and chatting. One of the simple pleasures of life.

Hawker's Delight - 4127 Main Street

The word "hawker" usually denotes a person who goes from place to place selling food. And that basically is the origin of the phase hawker food in Southeast Asia and Asia. In the early colonial days, many of these itinerant hawkers were unlicensed and over time, strict controls were implemented to ensure food safety and for better controls in sanitary conditions. The term hawkers eventually evolved from an itinerant trader to one which became settled into a fixed place - where people usually congregate to eat cheap and good street food. The hawker centers are now an ubiquitous feature in many parts of Asia and its a great way to savor a variety of street food.

I was thus very excited to try out the hawkers delight at main street. Actually, the place is pretty gritty itself - small and hole in the wall place and where one can see the chefs frantically stir-frying food in huge iron woks over the hot stove.

For appetizers, we ordered vegetable fritters. I have to say that the dough was pretty light and bouncy and it was so crunchy. Gator loves her fritters.

Crunch veggie fritters

The inside of the veggie fritters

For main course, we ordered two dishes. The mee pok noodles were a HUGE disappointment for me. It came choke full of ingredients - bbq pork, prawns and vegetables. But the brown sauce was weird. The sauce was salty and came with minced meat.Traditionally, the sauce should come with a bit of spicy chilli sauce, mixed with soya sauce and vinegar - it should be spicy, salty and a bit tangy. The sauce served unfortunately was just salty and lacks the oomph factor .Mee pok refers to the type of noodles and can be served with wanton or even with fish balls, fish cakes or minced meat.

Mountain of mee pok noodles

Gator loves her shrimp but the sauce wasn't nice at all :(

View of meat in noodles

The second main course - nasi goreng (in Malay) which means fried rice  was much better. Even then, I found it pretty ordinary - it was fried with onions, tomatoes, shrimp and some pieces of fish cake and tofu. Nothing much to rave about.

My fried rice paradise wasn't much of a paradise :(

Close up shot of the nasi goreng

Overall Experience:
Deco: 2/5 - this is a no fuss, eat and go place. No problems for me in that aspect
Quality of food: 2/5 - except for the veggie fritters, the 2 main dishes were a thumbs down for Gator. Quite disappointing
Value for $$: $$/5 - price is cheap - between CAN$5.25-CAN$9 bucks. But the quality of food is below average
Overall Experience: 2/5

It was an overall disappointing experience for Gator. Hopefully, the other dishes like the laksa will be much better.

Dragon Ball Tea House, West King Edward Avenue

One of my favourite comfort food is bubble tea. It is like a perfect ending to an Asian meal. And my all-time favourite bubble tea place is Dragon Ball. I usually have mango slush without pearls. Tons of people have told me that they don't see a point of me having bubble tea without pearls. Don't get me wrong - I like those  sago pearls but I don't enjoy the experience of sucking those pearls from a straw and chewing them. I much enjoy having them as a desert - coconut milk and sago in a proper desert bowl.

One of the reasons why I really like Dragon Ball is that the drinks are really not that sweet. The place does get busy in the evening but service is pretty prompt. Dragon Ball opens at 2pm till midnight so I usually go there in the evenings or late at night.

My two favourite orders - mango slush and purple taro slush

If you are a blueberry fan, you will enjoy this drink

I tried a couple of flavours at DragonBall - including logan, strawberry and horlicks. But I always gravitate towards my favourite mango slush. Yummy!!

A note of warning though - do not think about parking at the back of the building. Apparently, there are frequent patrols and your vehicle might be towed. So, if you drive, parking your car at the Saveway parking lot (opposite Dragon Ball) is the best bet.

A notice put up by Dragon Ball - there are designated parking lots for DragonBall customers.

I have never ordered their snacks at Dragon Ball. The pictures of their snacks don't look very appetising. I usually grab the bubble tea as a takeaway. Another note of caution: this place only accepts cash.


Overall Experience:
Deco: Limited sitting capacity. Dragon Ball does look a bit old and tired.
Quality: 4/5 for the drinks - The place has become my benchmark for all other bubble tea joints. Whenever I have bubble tea at other places, I always comment that I prefer Dragon Ball.
Value for $$: $$$$/5 
Overall Experience: 4/5 - What can I say?? I am addicted to this place.

Carl's Jr - Washington State

On our way to Seattle Premium outlet mall, we dropped by at Carl's Jr to have lunch. We ordered two orders of burgers and shared a packet of onion rings. What can I say? The burgers were BIG and a tad too dry for my liking.

We had Western Bacon Cheeseburger - it came with onion rings inside. The bacon was kinda nice.

The bacon kinda made everything taste so much better!

I wanted to order the original six dollar burger but due to a miscommunication, we ordered the super star burger (no cheese). It came with 2 beef patties. I did not really like this burger - kinda dry. 

Two beef patties with tons of lettuce

As you can tell, I like the pix of my meat. Don't understand why the bun looks so white!

A burger that potentially is bigger than my palm - gosh my hands are so dry :(

We shared an order of onion rings - yummy!!

What lies beneath the rings of fried bliss?

 And finally, we had a diet coke to end our meal -with refills, you can potentially share a cup of pop.

I love the tagline - An even better way to wash down a burger is with another burger :)

Overall, the food was kinda so-so. But hey - we had the big portions, the nice bacon and rings and everything that was standard sized seemed upsize to me. What I liked about Carl's Jr was that we had a wide range of sauce to choose - bbq, honey mustard etc. Think there were 4 or 5 options. I would like to explore other burger joints in the States next time.

Southside Diner, Whistler

It was a relatively cold day when we took a drive down to Whistler and stumbled into Southside Diner for lunch. It was a nice cosy place and a great place to chill out.

The Reuben sandwich was really quite satisfying and there was a generous serving of the smoked meat. I ordered my sandwich with a salad - the salad dressing was pretty ordinary. But the meat was oh, so good.

Check out the juicy smoked meat!

I admit that I am more enamoured with the meat than by the actual sandwich!

Side view of the sandwich

Fresh serving of salad

The housemade beef burger was pretty ordinary - the portions for the fries were pretty generous as well.

Housemade beef patties

Beef patties from the top view

A bed of fries

The deco in the place was simple but it had this cabin feel to it. Gator totally approves!

The menu was pretty hilarious - check out the section on the Rules of the House- including the cartoon God Knows When You Don't Tip.

Play by their rules - or else eat outside :)

Little retro signage

Overall Experience:

Deco: 3.5/5 - nice and cosy
Quality of food: 3/5 - generous serving but the food was average
Value for $$: $$/5 - I find 12 bucks for a sandwich and 12 bucks for a burger (without tax) pricey. Guess that's because we are at Whistler.
Overall Experience: 3/5 - food was average but the service was warm and friendly.

I know I have been so late with updates. More soon...

Thai Son Vietnamese Restaurant

Here is another backdated food post of Thai Son. I was kinda swarmed by some sort of fruit fries entering and departing the restuarant which was not a totally pleasant experience for Gator - it was late spring then. Overall, the food was so-so.

I was looking forward to having some Bun Bo Hue noodles. But it was not a totally good experience for me. It was not what I expected. The broth was really very greasy. I had to pour away like 1/4 bowl of this oily mixture before I cook commence eating.

I know this doesn't look greasy - but it really is. It had this huge pork knuckle inside.

I was not too enamoured with the pork knuckle - it was kinda big and made eating difficult. But I did like the meat balls and also the slices of meat.

The broth came with a healthy serving of onions

Bun Bo Hue came accompanied with a healthy serving of meat leaves and bean sprouts

 I added quite a bit of mint leaves and bean sprouts to hopefully absorb the grease from the broth. But it did not really work. A thumbs down from Gator for this dish.

We also ordered a grilled pork chop with a side order of meat loaf. The portions were pretty generous. I like the meat loaf - thought it was better than Pho Hoa Hong actually.

I really like the grilled pork chop - done quite nicely.

My favourite part of the dish was the burnt bits from the pork chop and the meat loaf.

Overall Experience:

Deco: 2/5 - you basically want to eat fast and leave. A no fuss place.
Quality of food: 3/5 - I liked the grilled pork chops but the bun bo huy was a disappointment for me
Value for $$: $$$/5 - its reasonable and portions are generous. But overall, I had better food elsewhere.
Overall Experience: 3/5 - it was so-so for Gator. I want to try their Pho next time.

Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodles, Aberdeen Centre

I have a backlog of food posts and so will be gradually write about them over the next few weeks.I have been to Chef Hung's twice and have a generally happy and positive experience.

One of the main highlights of this restaurant is their display of a moving bowl of noodles accompanied by chopsticks. It never fails to amuse Gator. I was told that when their restaurant first opened, there will be massive lineup outside their premise. But I had no difficulties at all during both occasions to get a table.

Chef Hung has won several beef noodle competitions in Taiwan.

The picture of presumably Chef Hung was displayed in all their paper place mats.

And this is their accolade - award wining beef noodles.

This time, ordered their Champion braised beef with noodle in tomato soup. Chef Hung claimed not to have MSG in their food and I believe that its true. I was not dehydrated hours after enjoying my bowl of noodles. Requested beef shank for one of the bowl of noodles. I was happy with the portions - I love the beef tendons in my noodles.

This pix is a bit blurry because of the steam from the noodles: beef shank

This one had no beef shank - spot the juicy tomatoes

Finally, I cannot resist ordering their chicken nuggets - I have to admit that their chicken nuggets were not as good as corner 23. It was fried but there was not much taste to their seasoning.

Crispy chicken nuggets - need more spice and taste to this dish

Overall Experience:
Deco: 4/5 - comfortable and private seating. I love their display of moving noodles - a centrepiece attraction. I also like sitting at the corner near the window.
Quality of food: 4/5 - I really like their noodles but felt that they should improve on their side  dishes are alright.
Value for $$: $$/5 - Its definitely more expensive than Cattle Cafe.
Overall Experience:  4/5 - I know a lot of people felt that their noodles are overrated but I had 2 positive experiences so far and I really enjoyed it. Service was polite, prompt and efficient.