Good Chance Popiah

I frequented this place as a child, way before it stands at its current location. I think it used to be at Telok Ayer Street - that's what their website said and I have to believe them. A 7 years old little girl doesn't fully understand addresses and just eat where her parents drove her. Subsequently they moved, and my parents didn't know where they moved to, so we stopped patronising them.

Then in the recent years, I started working at the Outram Park area and found their (somewhat) new location at Silat Ave. Told my parents about it and we visited them once in 2010 maybe. We found the menu to be much more expensive than we remembered. To be fair, yes, food prices are rising and they have to adapt. But truth be told, it's also more expensive than other places of similar food types. Yet it's still the nice D-I-Y popiah I had when I was young. But parents never mentioned wanting to go back again, and I forgot all about it.

Recently, when we were pondering where to go for lunch, we walked pass Good Chance and thought, why not? So the few of us popped in and ordered a small popiah set, a hokkien mee, and a prawn paste chicken. The popiah set comes with the usual assortment of popiah fillings, served in a deconstructed manner. We were supposed to assemble everything ourselves. Sweet sauce, chilli, minced garlic, coriander, omelette strips, ground peanuts, lettuce, bean sprouts, popiah skins (chinese crepes if you will), and the main filling of stir fried Jicama (I learnt a new word today. We call it Mang Kwang in dialect. It's official English name is apparently Jicama, but also goes by Mexican Turnip.)

The set comes with only 6 pieces of skin, but the filling is more than enough for that, so we had to purchase additional skins at $1 apiece. The trick is not to overfill your popiah, since the skins are actually quite thin, and breaks easily if over filled. The filling used to be their star, but it's not as delicious as I remember. It felt a little MSG laden this time round. The hokkien noodles were forgettable. The boys didn't care much for it. And the prawn paste chicken was less-liked than Ka Soh's.

Thin popiah skins

Popiah fillings

Stir fried Jicama and carrots

My wrapped popiah

Prawn paste chicken wings

We left filling less than satisfied, both volume and yum wise. The hokkien mee and chicken costed a little more than other places serving similar foods, and wasn't even as nice. The popiah's standard definitely had dropped. And we all decided we will probably never be back.

Saveur (Bugis)

It was HY's hen's party (ok, post wedding but we really only managed to find time then), and XP mentioned this place before. And since I was craving foie gras, I managed to suggest this place for dinner after our art jamming fun. *evil grin* They don't do reservations, and open at 6pm. We thought we could just go and queue. When we reached they just opened, and the queue list apparently already filled up the place. Thankfully their other side (they have two side by side units) open at 6.30pm and we managed to get ourselves in that list. So it was a roughly 20 minutes wait and we were seated.

Their menu items were named the vaguest things. I will explain. Since there were 6 of us, we could order quite a variety to share. We started off with Saveur's pasta (just written PASTA on their menu), $4.90, their signature. Thin spaghettini tossed in oil and topped with a generous serving of sakura ebi (or dried shrimps to me). It was very aromatic and we all liked it. This was followed by foie gras, $9.90. A small piece of goodness shared among 6 of us. Most of them weren't keen on foie gras so I was more than happy to have a bigger share. =D

Saveur's Pasta

Foie gras with apple-infused port wine and vanilla bean

We ordered three soups to share. It really just said SOUP on the menu, S4.90. I had no idea what it was supposed to be. But as I'm looking at the online menu now, there's an item called Mushroom Cappucino. Sounds like it. Either they finally made a clearer menu, or the online one has more descriptive names than their actual. It was a little bitter, just like coffee should be, but savoury, unlike coffee. And there's hints of a mushroom flavor. It's a little weird and a little nice. I really don't know how else to describe it. But it was a nice start to the meal after the appetizers, warming our bellies before the mains.

Mushroom Cappucino

Ok, the mains are still vaguely named on the online menu. So here goes. DUCK, S10.90. Duck leg confit served over creamy mashed potatoes. We loved it! It was crispy on the surface, but fork tender inside. It was flavorful, and small. We ordered a second serving. =)

Duck leg confit

CHICKEN, $9.90. A chicken roulade served over rice. It's stuffing was supposed to be foie gras infused but I didn't taste anything remotely like foie gras. It was so so, and we actually had to push the last two slices around between one another before it was finally eaten up by XP and me.

Chicken roulade

FISH, $14.90. Pan-seared sea bass. The fish was tender, and flavorful without fishiness. I loved the sauteed potatoes served under the fish. BEEF, $14.90. Beef short ribs braised in red wine. It was very salty. And the beef loving me didn't like it. Too salty. This one was a miss.

Pan-seared sea bass

Beef short ribs

PORK, $10.90. Roasted pork belly served over lentils and soft boiled egg. This one is a super hit. The pork belly skin was roasted to crusty yumminess, but the meat (and fats) below are super tender, giving way to my fork and knife with minimum effort. The lentils were delicious too, and I love soft boil eggs. Haha... We ordered a second serving of this too. In fact, the second one was even more tender and I couldn't even dissect it into 6 portions without the whole thing falling apart.

Roasted pork belly

We felt that we were lacking some greens and ordered an additional GARDEN SALAD, $4.90. How pretty is that quail egg? Mesclun salad tossed in vinaigrette. Nice touch of greens to an otherwise meat laden meal.

Garden salad

Overall I enjoyed myself here. The food is definitely very affordable for French fare. Which is why, for the first time, I actually priced every single item in a post. We were seated right at the door and could see the continuous queue for seats. So if you're interested to try out Saveur, going early is not a bad idea.


Saveur

5 Purvis Street, Talib Court #01-04, Singapore 188584 Tel: 6333 3121

Fatty Aunt Yong Tau Foo

We walked pass this joint renovating while on the way to another for lunch. This shop front had been empty for a while already since the previous soup place closed down, so we were pretty curious what's the new place. A quick investigation reading the signs indicated a new Yong Tau Foo shop opening. It went into our to-visit list. Since its opening, we've been there several times already. We really like it for the freshness of the ingredients, the flavorful soup and the general nice service.

Food: the non-fried ingredients are kept fresh in a ice cream fridge. I like. No souring of the tofu and no icky feelings about the raw fish paste sitting out at room temperature. 

Leafy vegetables and fried food items are on the upper shelf at room temperature, but that's fine, since these foods are less perishable. They serve up a good variety of Yong Tau Foo on top of the standard tofu and such. I love the fish paste stuffed capsicum, which is less commonly found elsewhere. FQ love one of their fried sticks of some sort, which contains egg.

After your selection you pay at the counter and get a numbered receipt. Then your number will be flashed on the screen when your food is ready. Although they do need you to be self-servicing during peak hours, they are more than happy to send the food to you during off-peak. And we've been there so often that aunty already know my choice - bee hoon soup. FQ and E love it plain. Simply blanched Yong Tau Foo with a little sesame oil and sprinkled with sesame seeds - no sauce, to go with rice.

It's a 小吃店 kind of place, an entire shop front to themselves. Although air conditioners are installed, they are never turned on. Since they don't have doors closed during operation, I guess it makes no sense to turn them on and waste electricity. If you can find seats under the ceiling fans, it's actually not too bad. But we went during peak a few times and ends up sitting outside along the corridor. Hot. So we learnt to go there are later timings.

Prices isn't too exorbitant either. 50 cents per piece for non-premium items. I saw signs that indicate pork belly goes at a dollar. I think it's worth it for the quality of the food, and the crowd definitely agrees. :)

Fatty Aunt Yong Tau Foo

• Blk 147 Silat Ave #01-26
• Singapore, Singapore 160147

Herbivore

This is one restaurant actually not found by me. Hubby saw it occasionally when we drove pass Fortune Centre. So when I suggested Bugis area for walk walk and makan for Valentine's day, he brought me there. It serves vegetarian Japanese and Western food.

We didn't have a reservation, so the only available seats were the outdoor seats, or we would have to wait. It was just after a rain, and nice and somewhat cool, so I accepted the outdoor table. After browsing through the menu, I was actually tempted by quite a number of interesting options. So we ended ordering quite a fair bit. An Unagi don set for him and a tempura soba for me. And to share we had Salmon Sashimi (??), Shitake mushroom with cheese, grilled asparagus and avocado maki.

The unagi don set looks like a regular Japanese set. Only it comes with mock unagi. I'm not a fan of mock meats, but I did sample a little of his 'unagi'. Seeing that I personally don't like real unagi, I'd say I actually prefer this version. And because I seldom eat unagi, I can't quite comment on this dish. He finished all of it anyway, so I guess it's yummy in its own way.

Unagi don set

I ordered my tempura soba for the simple reason of a hot soup on a rainy day, and no mock meat. Tempura eggplant, pumpkin, capsicum and mushrooms accompanying a hot bowl of soba. There really isn't much to complain about. The broth was decent, and I enjoyed my dinner.

Tempura soba

Next is the cutest dish of all. Vegetarian salmon sashimi. Looks every bit like real salmon sashimi. I texted this to almost everyone on my chatlists because I found it so amusing. Probably made of Konjac jelly, it was a little springy, a little juicy and overall actually not bad. Of course not as good as real sashimi, but it's as close as it gets.

Vegetarian salmon sashimi

Our next side dish was a no brainer for yumminess. Deep-fried battered cheese-topped shitake mushroom generously doused with teriyaki sauce. What can possibly go wrong? Crispy on the outside, very hot and juicy on the inside. The type of cheese they used tasted very much like McDonald's cheeseburger's, so I kept having this fast food sensation as I ate this.

Shitake mushroom with cheese

For obvious reasons, there's no pork bacon wrapped around these grilled asparagus. But I wanted some greens. These were quite well executed for a simple dish. The asparagus were cooked to perfection. None of the raw taste, but retained a perfect crisp. And not tough at all. Hubby is not even an asparagus lover but he liked this.

Grilled asparagus

The last side dish was a surprise. Hubby wanted sushi. I wanted no mock meat. So the only one that fitted our wants was the avocado maki. It did come with the tiniest bit of 'salmon' inside, but that's Konjac and I don't mind it as much as gluten. They came served prettily on a long dish, topped with a dollop of mayo, and drizzled with *surprise~* strawberry sauce! The combination sounds weird, I know, but it was yummy! The flavors all complemented each other, and their sushi rice is actually quite delicious. Much better than some of the regular sushi chains even!

Avocado maki

We enjoyed our dinner thoroughly, but it was pretty pricy. Since it was within CNY period, there was an additional $2 surcharge on every dish. Gasp!! But since vegetarian Japanese food is pretty hard to find, I guess they have the right to charge a little more. We probably may come back on special occasions.


Herbivore
190 Middle Rd
Fortune Centre
#01-13/14
Tel no: 63331612

Morganfield's

We were attending a talk at Biopolis, and a few of us decided to do lunch at Star Vista before heading back to the lab. After roaming through the building full of eateries, we settled for Morganfield's because D mentioned it was good before, and because they had a set lunch menu.

Between the 5 of us, we ended up with 4 sets of grilled ranch chicken and 1 set of black pepper chicken. For some reason, none of us chose anything from the steaks, chops, burgers or fish section. For me, it was because I'm trying to cut down on my calories so the grilled ranch chicken looked the least sinful. I don't know why the boys ended up with chicken like me. Haha!

Set meals came with either a soup of the day, or a garden salad, and free flow soft drink. I was in the mood for soup, so soup it was. Cream of potato with pork, how interesting. It was warm and creamy, with shredded pork and potato cubes. Perfect for a hungry stomach. But note the half-full bowl. I saw the other table's order from the ala carte menu, it was a bigger, and full bowl. And none of us ended up with refills for the soft drinks, despite E's happiness at finding Fanta on the menu.

Cream of potato with pork

The grilled ranch chicken looks somewhat boring. But it was a surprisingly juicy and tender slab of chicken breast. I enjoyed it, and was thankful for it being lower in calories than, for example, fish and chips. The fries I think I tried to coerce one of the boys to help me finish. FQ ordered the black pepper chicken chop. It was the same juicy chicken, but smothered in black pepper sauce instead of our mushroom sauce on the side. He liked it too. But I believe they halved the serving for the set lunch. It annoys me a little. I'll rather have a more expensive set lunch, with the full sized serving. Don't you think the small servings makes it look a little like coffeeshop western food? Especially the black pepper chicken!

Grilled ranch chicken

Black pepper chicken chop

Morganfield's is actually supposedly more well known for their ribs. I'm not a huge ribs fan, because I can eat at most 2 bones before I surrender thanks to the gelat-ness. But their ribs platters looked absolutely amazing. I think they can be shared among ALOT of people. E returned with 2 friends, he said, who were all big eaters. They could barely finish one platter. I'll probably need to share with 5 pax at least, given my lack of appetite for ribs. He apparently loved it, because even now, 4 months later, as I'm blogging this very belatedly, he saw me browsing through Morganfield's website (because I forgot what are the dishes' names), he said he wanna go back there. Guess that says something about the quality of the food. If I return, I'll definitely come back for the ala carte, because the small servings of the lunch set meal annoyed me.


Morganfield's

THE STAR VISTA

1 Vista Exchange Green,

Unit #02-23, The Star Vista,

Singapore 138617.

Tel: 66943635

Fax: 66943651

Gui Lin Bee Hoon Mee & Nasi Lemak

I have a disclaimer to make. This post is in every sense an advertisement. But I just cannot, in the name of family ties, not post this. Moreover, I share because I honestly feel that our food is yummy. I'm sure those who spend their morning or weekends in the long queue for our food can vouch for this. This is actually my family business, food I grew up eating, as well as helped in selling. Food that makes me the foodie I am today. So for all the high end restaurants I visit, I'm still a hawker girl through and through.

I apologize for the faded signboard, but it goes to show how long we've been in business. My parents had been hawkers since before I was born. They only took up this location around 1989. This signboard is actually a new one after a coffeeshop refurbishment in between, but yeah, we're sort of iconic in the area.

Econimical bee hoon and other noodles types is always a popular option in all coffeeshops because of its affordability. But to make patrons return again and again to wait in the queue, I guess that says something about our food. Our fried bee hoon is fried just right, not mushy, and stringy enough without being chokingly tough. On top of this, we have fried yellow mee and fried thin kuay tiao. And another signature main is our dry fried mee siam. All the flavors of mee siam fried dry-styled into bee hoon. It's in an appetizingly orange color, topped with chopped chives, fried scrambled egg and tofu bits. A squeeze of lime makes it a plate of calories worth diving into.

Fried Bee Hoon

Fried Mee Siam

We are known for our nasi lemak too. My colleagues can vouch for this. They're always happy whenever I pack this for them for lunch. Fragrant coconut rice,, we don't make it green not because we skim the pandan leaves, but because we don't bother with food colorings. Don't be taken in by green rice you see outside sometimes. Putting pandan leaves in DO NOT make the rice green. And our homemade ikan bilis chilli goes perfectly well with the rice. It comes with a small additional cost but it's totally worth it, I promise.

Nasi Lemak with luncheon meat, otah, chicken wing (covered) and ikan bilis chilli

We have a huge selection of sides to choose to go with your mains, priced accordingly. There's something for everyone, and the huge favorite is our fried chicken wings. With our secret recipe marinate (wink), our wings are fried to a beautiful yellow color instead of the usual dull brown. Crispy on the outside, tender and flavorful on the inside. I'm telling you I really miss these wings after I moved out.

Signature fried chicken wings

Some of the options we have

Depending on the sides you choose (or no sides at all for the noodles), the prices start as low as $1. We operate as early as 5.30am and close shop at roughly 11.30am, while stocks last. And my parents are human too and need to rest, so we're off every Monday.

P.s. My uncle and aunt are operating a branch at Bukit Batok too! ;)


Gui Lin Bee Hoon Mee & Nasi Lemak
NTI Foodcourt
Blk 964 Jurong West St 91
5.30am to 11.30am
Closed every Monday