Birthday edition lunch: Shima

Lynn have gone to Shima several times with her family before. She's been wanting to bring me for ages, but their dinner ala carte menu is pretty pricey. She found out that they have a buffet lunch, and we've been talking about going, but never got around to it. Finally, I decided to take half day leave on her birthday to try it out.

Shima is essentially a teppanyaki restaurant. The lunch buffet runs from 12 noon to 2.30pm, and last order is at 2pm. Upon seating, without the need to order, they automatically serve you the entire lunch menu one time. From there, you can decide which ones you like best and reorder from there. I made reservations at 1pm, thinking that will give us ample time to eat. Alas, it was pouring that day, and the birthday girl couldn't get a cab. Although I reached earlier, it appeared that they were not going to start my teppanyaki until she arrives. But they did serve me the sushi and sashimi first. The sashimi was forgettable, but the kani maki was actually pretty good. The vinegar rice had just the right tinge of sourness, and the rice was fragrant.

The tempura arrived soon after the birthday girl did, which was a very late 1.40pm. That left us 20 minutes to try everything before last order! Only after she arrived did the chef bring out the food and start cooking. I don't know if it was intentional so that all parties get to eat food hot from the grill, or was it coincidence that the events occurred at the pace it did. The tempura prawn was nice, crispy and juicy. The shishamo was a tad oily, so I didn't enjoy it that much and we both knew it won't go into our second order.

The happiness started once our teppanyaki started being served. First up, prawns. It was soooo yummy! Cooked to perfection, it was crunchy from its freshness, no hint of the fake crunch from bicarbonate of soda treatment. It was juicy, and the sauces and flavoring perfect. I was in prawn heaven.

Next came the salmon. Cooked just right, it was soft and flaky and moist. The sauce it was sitting in completely complemented the fish.

Next came the oysters, which we were highly anticipating. Partly because we read in some blog that it was very good, and partly because we had been eyeing the plump juicy oysters on the grill. Oooooooh myyyyyyyy goooooooodnnesssss, it was A-MA-ZING. We were blown away by how the exterior was grilled to a crusty perfection, but the inside was still plump and juicy. No hint of fishiness, just the sublime briney flavor of the sea. This needed no sauce. It was perfect the way it was. I was almost tempted to ask them to fry eggs with the oysters ala oyster omelette style. But that idea came during our second round of food, so it was scraped pretty quickly, as I will explain later.

The vegetables was a nice precursor and balance to the meats that were to follow. They were done such that they were still crisp, but 'burnt' enough such that the sweetness of the vegetables came through. One of the sauces provided was for the vegetables, but I had absolutely no idea how to dip a bunch of loose veggies in the sesame sauce. Lynn used the sauce for her meats, anyway.

The garlic rice was a disappointment. Lynn say the standard dropped from her previous visit. I pointed out that since it's lunch buffet and by default everyone will be served one round inclusive of the garlic rice, maybe it's a mass production thing. It had that 'rice cooker fried rice' feel, ie, fried in a huge batch, and stored in a rice cooker and scooped as and when a new patron arrive.

Then came the meat. Our beef we asked for medium. I loved it. Like love love love it. Juicy cubes of beef, just the right amount of seasoning, perfect chew. I'm drooling now thinking about it. The chicken came soon after. Tender morsels of well-flavored chicken, with just the right amount of char. 

By the time all these were served, it was 2pm. So despite the fact that we hadn't finished our first round of food, we went ahead and ordered a second round of all the teppanyaki items. And we completely enjoyed the second round of seafood too. Unfortunately, by the time the meat and veggies were served, we were quite full. We did well though, and finished more than half of the veggies, the chicken and the beef, before we had to call it quits. We didn't even have space for ice cream, and needless to say, we were the last to leave the restaurant. So I learnt, when I come back, I WILL come earlier to more fully enjoy the food instead of eating in a rush. And I WILL be back. Definitely. Buffet priced at $49.90++ for weekday and $59.90++ for weekend.

Laiyulai Three-Sauce Simmer Pot (来御来三汁焖锅)

I love it when a random find restaurant ends up being delicious. And this was one of those times. Lynn and I were going to have dinner at Chinatown Point because I wanted to get something from Daiso. She was having one of her monster bugs and had been sick for weeks, so heaty food such as Korean BBQ is out. I suggested a long list ranging from Din Tai Fung to Genki, all supposedly lighter food, and she rejected every single one of them. Then she said there's a new Chinese food shop that smells fabulous. I know which shop she was talking about since I've been attracted by that smell before. So in we went to try it out.

Their concept is very cute. Three sauces doesn't mean they dump three sauces into your dish one shot. It's a simmer pot concept, as opposed to a hotpot. You start with stew instead of a broth. That is the first sauce. Then after finishing the stew, you request the staff to add broth, transforming the pot into a hotpot. So here's where they 'cheat' a little in the name. The second sauce is the hotpot in which you cook more meats or veggies. The third sauce is the soup you drink. So sauce 2 and 3 are essentially the same thing. Haaaa. But never mind the cheating. The food is GOOD!!!

So let me walk you through the process the way we went through it. First, we start with an empty deep pan:

Then they came along an added a lump of fat. Lynn initially thought it was lard, but upon asking, we were told it was 药材油 (Herb oil). I don't know how that is made but it sounds good for me. Lol!!

Then came along the veggies. Every pot by default comes with this base of veggies, no matter what dishes you ordered. This mixture comprise of carrots, corns, LOTS of onions, LOTS of garlic, celery, capsicum, lotus root and sweet potato. Because it's our first time, we didn't realize how big the pot will be. This pot is best shared comfortably among 3 pax. 4 pax can order more things to add on. For 2, it's leaning heavily on 'too much'.

With the veggies as a base, the staff then layer your order on top. We went for the combination pot, and chose our own dishes. Minimum of 3, which explains why it's a little too much for 2 pax. The variety is pretty good, we were spoilt for choice. We took chicken wings, fish and pork chop in the end. The fish was a parallax error on my part. I meant to tick bullfrog but apparently missed. Oops! So at this point, they cover the pot and let the whole thing stew slowly.

They returned about 10 minutes later, and added the sauce of your choice. They have several options. Original, which is not spicy. Then they have 香辣 (fragrant spicy), in three different levels of spicy. Then they have 麻辣 (numb spicy), also in three different levels of spicy. I was leaning towards original, in light of Lynn's cough, but she insisted the 麻辣 probably will help clear her airways. So we took the lowest level spicy of the 麻辣 sauce. After adding the sauce, they stir up everything nice and thorough, and then cover the pot again. So we waited some more. Then it's finally time to eat!

By this time the veggies were nice and tender. The sweet potato!!! It's to-die-for!! All the other veggies were nice too. The onions were translucent and sweet. Much later we discovered that the garlic were awesome too. Our meat choices were nice, though subsequent visits I discovered others that are nicer. The wings are chopped so there are small bits of bones that are quite annoying. So I would recommend the thigh meat instead. The pork chop had cartilage in them that didn't quite soften in that short period of time, so pork belly is actually nicer. The fish had a lot of pin bones so it was quite troublesome to eat but that's my mistake so I can't complain.

The sauce went really well with rice. The 麻辣 is really quite spicy. We were sniffling in no time. I would recommend the 香辣 more. Now I usually order the medium 香辣, and it's more comfortable to eat than the 麻辣. Even the original is yummy, I've tried that before too.

After we finished the bulk of our stew, we asked for the soup. The broth mix up with the remaining sauce and the resultant soup is pretty yummy. And we ordered beef and lamb (because we didn't know how big everything is going to be that first time) to cook in the hotpot. Subsequent visits we found that the luncheon meat and pork belly slices for the hotpot are delish!

I've brought everyone back here already. Colleagues, hubby etc. Yes, their sauces and broth are vegetarian friendly. So we ordered the vegetarian pot with mushrooms and beancurd skins etc. The hubby liked it too! Oh and did I mention? Their pig ear starter is something worth trying too!

Layulai Three-Sauce Simmer Pot

Chinatown Point

133 New Bridge Road
#02-38
Singapore 059413
Tel: 6444 4115

Tunglok Signatures (Vivocity)

Ok... Here's to catching up... *flex fingers*

It was my aunt's birthday, and the family decided we'll have dinner at Tunglok Signatures. I'm guessing the decision was made based on cousin's Amex discount. Back then I hadn't applied for that card yet. So for our 20 pax, that was a 20% discount under the Palate membership. I wasn't part of the decision making team for the food ordering. I simply go and sit and eat. But I believe we ordered some kind of set menu, as is the norm for my family.

Tunglok Signatures does serve up some 'attas' items that aren't found in the Tunglok Seafood restaurants. It's like a levelled up Tunglok if you will. But if you're looking for the usual favourites, they still carry quite a fair bit of those in their menu. The sharks fin soup was served in individual portions. I'm not a huge advocate of sharks fin, and will never order it by myself. But the family loves it, and I think it was part of the set menu. Their's was made more spectacular by the little sprinkling of flammable substance at the side of the bowl. Immediately prior to serving it to each guest, the waitress light up the substance. So each guest get a piping hot bowl of sharks fin with a little not-so-useful-at-keeping-the-soup-hot, more-for-asthetics flame at the side of the bowl. It turned out to be a little dangerous for the kiddos and we had to turn each plate until the flame is away from each kid. Fireworks aside, the soup was rich, warm and yummy.

Sharks fin soup

Next atas item. Bamboo clams. I looooovvvvee bamboo clams. This is an advance order item, something I learnt on a second visit when it wasn't available by the time I arrived at the restaurant. Steamed with a generous sprinkling of garlic and glass noodles and yummy sauce. I loved loved loved it. I think I even managed to snag an extra because there was only 9 pax on our table, not counting my 3 year old nephew.

Bamboo clam

Next is the fish. This is the most deconstructed fish I've ever seen in a Chinese restaurant. Garoupa, served two ways. One side is little nuggets of garoupa deep fried into golden perfection. Those were GOOD. We even managed to cheat one nephew into thinking it was chicken nugget and he ate them. He NEVER eats fish. The other side are fish slices stir fried with a variety of vegetables such as asparagus and peppers. I love these veggies, so that side suits me fine too. Overall, I like this dish.

Garoupa served two ways

I probably missed a whole lot of dishes in my photos, because I'm sure we ate more dishes than these. But really, those three were my favourites. The noodle actually wasn't amazing, but it was served so prettily that it warranted a photo. Bamboo pith noodle soup. The broth is sadly one dimensional, the noodles unimpressive, and shrimps soaked in soda to an artificial crunch. I hate 'fake' shrimps.

Bamboo pith noodle soup

The most amazing thing about Tunglok Signatures, is actually the birthday service. We brought our own cake. But the cake was displayed beautifully on this huuuge plate, with meaningful writings on it. And to amaze us further, a few of the waitresses actually came to our table, and read that entire writing out in celebration for the birthday girl. And the next amazing thing was served alongside our cake. Their longevity buns. Instead of the usual pink lotus paste buns served at the beginning of the meal, theirs were yellow buns served at the end. Which puzzled me. Until I bit into one. OMG!! IT WAS 流沙包 (salted egg yolk custard bun)!!!! AND ITS VERY VERY YUMMY!!! The older folks weren't keen on it, and the helpers were too full to eat it. I managed to conquer and wolfed down 4 all by myself. YUM YUM YUM!!

Cake presentation and longevity buns

I was duly impressed. Both by their food and their service. And I brought my hubby's family back to celebrate my FIL's birthday subsequently. Lynn brought her mum there for birthday celebration after my rave reviews too. And she, too, was very impressed. And now that I get the Amex card, Lynn and I can go and eat at 50% off. I think we'll be frequenting this place alot alot of times...


Tunglok Signatures
VivoCity #01-57
1 HarbourFront Walk
Singapore 098585
Tel : +65 6376 9555

Lao Si Chuan

I love this place. Period. We saw it before when we went for chicken rice, just next door. But Lao Si Chuan doesn't seem to be opened for lunch. So we were curious and returned for dinner one fine day when a few of us happened to stay back for dinner, and wanted to try something new. It was YJ, XP and me. They both don't take very spicy stuff, so it's an interesting group to have dinner at a Sichaun restaurant. Still, we managed to order not too spicy stuff.

YJ loves stir-fried potato, and so do I. So we ordered the 青椒土豆丝, which is stir-fried julienned potatoes and capsicum. The potato were cooked until just tender, with a wee bit of crunch left. Perfect. Next was something I requested, because I love beef. 水煮牛肉. I love love love love this dish. It means water-boiled beef. A misnomer actually, since it gives people the idea that it'll be something very clear and light, and this red bowl of goodness is anything but. Essentially it's tender beef slices, bean sprouts, soy bean noodles and glass noodles in a bowl of spicy and numbing (麻辣) broth, with it's accompanying layer of oil. The beef is oh-so-tender. And the bean sprouts and the noodles really soak up the fragrant goodness of the broth. We ordered it to be slightly spicy (微辣), which I recommend. Even if you have high tolerance for spicy food, because of the very hot (temperature) broth, it can be quite unenjoyable to be sweating buckets from both the heat and the spice. And this level of spice is manageable. Even YJ could handle it, after washing off the chilli oil with a bowl of water.

青椒土豆丝

水煮牛肉

zoom in on the beef in the 水煮牛肉

鱼香肉丝,  literally translated to fish fragrance pork shreds. Another misnomer. There's no fish in this dish. Apparently the fermented chilli used in this dish resembles fish taste, hence the name for this Sichuan dish. I actually don't remember it very distinctly, so taken I was to the beef. Really, I spend the entire time digging to ensure every last bit of beef, sprout, and noodles are out of the broth and in my tummy. Although care had to be taken to avoid the ambush of the Sichuan peppers.

鱼香肉丝

On a separate visit, I fell in love with another dish. 酸辣土豆丝. Stir-fried julienned potatoes again, but this time in vinegar and dried chilli to give a fiery and sour treat. Very appetizing. Very spicy. Very shiok. Love. I painstakingly picked every single dried chilli to the side, so that not one shred of potato goes to waste.

酸辣土豆丝

We also liked the 陈皮鸡, orange peel chicken. Deep fried chicken pieces subsequently stir fried with orange peel and a sweet and sour sauce. We liked it. Perfect crisp, perfect balance of sweet and sour, goes super well with rice.

陈皮鸡

This next dish was a miss. 芋香鸭方. Crispy fried yam with duck. Over-fried. Too dry, can't taste the yam, can't find the duck because it was deep-fried to nothingness. Don't waste your time on this.

芋香鸭方

We also liked their 辣子鸡丁, which is chicken cubes stir fried with an insane amount of chilli and Sichuan peppers. It wasn't quite as bad as the one at Old Chengdu, because we ordered a medium spicy version. But because of the less spicy, we were able to enjoy it more. Moreover I think it was more fragrant than Old Chengdu's one too. And the best part? The cost. The average for each person is typically less than $20 each time I went. I love this place. Really. I think I've said that a million times in this post alone. Love it. 

But note the slow service. The waitress's attention are quite hard to catch. And their air-conditioning is on the weaker side. So be prepared for a very hot meal.

Lao Si Chuan

249 Outram Road

Singapore 169048
Tel: 6561 1518

Foong Kee Coffeeshop

We have coined this the Legendary Char Siew place. This was discovered by our student, A. He found out about this online, and had been there on several occasions with his friends, and sometimes alone. Comfort food to him when experiment failed, he said. It was quite a walk for us, and by the time we reached, I was grumbling. It better be good I said. But after the food came, I shut up and ate.

It's a roast specialty shop. They only have four kinds of meats. Soy sauce chicken, roasted duck, roasted pork belly (sio bak) and bbq pork (char siew). Then you can opt for white rice, oil rice, or noodles. I love noodles, so noodles it is. Some of the rest took rice, but I forgot the pictures. E loved loved loved the oil rice. He always go for a noodle and a oil rice. The birds are nice but not out of the world. The chicken was tender, and well flavored. The duck was roasted very nicely, with the skin nicely crisp. Duck wise, I think I prefer Yee Kee Roasted Duck. But overall, I prefer here, and I'll tell you why.

The porks. We call it Legendary Char Siew place for a reason. The star of the place is really the porks. The sio bak is beautifully roasted to crispy perfection, yet the meat remains moist and oily and sinfully good. The char siew. Oh my. Perfect balance of sweet and savory. Good mix of lean and fatty bits. I could pick out my lean ones for health reasons, while the boys could attack the fatty ones for yummy reasons. But even the lean ones were tender. The fatty ones, they were to-die-for. Melts in the mouth. Drool. I miss this place.

The the other reason for preference to this place. The chilli. Yee Kee have a half-hearted sub-standard chilli. The one here is chopped chilli and garlic and coriander in vinegar. That's the best dip for roasted meat I'm telling you. Then the springy noodles. I love. They offer wanton noodles too, for those who just want a plate of noodles to enjoy the char siew with.

Soy sauce chicken and roasted duck

Noodles

Sio bak and char siew

We've been there several times now. And still love it. And Lynn had been nagging me for telling her all about it but not bringing her there. In fact I think she's going to nag me again after this post.

Foong Kee Coffeeshop

6 Keong Saik Rd, 089114

A&I Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice

This is another of those food I ate growing up. No, they aren't my relatives. They did, however, operate at my void deck for a good number of years, maybe about 10, before they were forced to move to their current location when the old place stopped being a coffeeshop. So you can imagine how often we patronise them as teens, because it was so convenient to buy. But convenience aside, we love it so much that even after they moved away, we still drive there to eat their chicken rice. I can proudly say this is the best chicken rice I've ever eaten.  In fact, we love it so much that my cousins can finish one whole chicken between the two of them... If I didn't remember wrongly.

I missed it terribly after I moved away from my mum's. Because they operate mainly for lunch, I rarely get the chance to eat it as I'm rarely in the area during lunchtime. So this post was made possible only because I happened to be on leave, and dragged my family there for lunch.

Their rice is a generous heaping bowl of rice, not the measly small plate that you often get nowadays. Not that this helps my diet, but you do feel happier knowing that the seller didn't scrimp on your lunch. The rice is fragrant, but not overly greasy. I like. 

The rice

Their chicken is none of those fancy kampong chicken. No coloring to make it artificially yellow. Just plain, tender, well-seasoned chicken. The breast meat is sooooo tender, which is a rarity in itself as most places serves dry breast meat. And they drench it in a great soya sauce cum sesame oil mixture. My favourite part is actually picking those small detached pieces of meat left behind in the sauce after all the big pieces are gone. They soak up the flavor so well. The chicken skin is very 'Q' (best translation I can give is bouncy?', so chicken skin lovers, rejoice! I'm not a drumstick lover, but I do know of someone who love their drumstick so much he used to request for an unchopped drumstick so that he can bite it off the bone. Just looking at the chicken breast meat now is making me hungry.

Juicy and tender chicken

Zoom in on the chicken. Look at that tender looking breast meat!

The star of their stall is actually not really the chicken. It's their chilli. Fiery hot, well flavored. It compliments the chicken and rice so well. We are such frequent customers (at least my family is. I'm a rare customer.) that they gave us extra chilli and sauce on the side.

The extra chilli and sauce

But do be warned. They do overdo either the MSG or the vinegar. You get very thirsty after the meal. But I'm willing to suffer that for that delicious chicken. And chilli. And rice. Occasionally. Their soup is pretty blah so forget about it. And their pricing remains reasonable too. How I miss this place.


A&I Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Blk 907  
Jurong West St 91Singapore 640907

Yakinikutei Ao-Chan

ML and me always get a combined birthday meal, since our birthdays are only 11 days apart. This time round she chose the location, and she stated she wanted Yakinikutei. So the girls made the reservations, and there we are for dinner. Japanese table barbecue. The idea already sounds delicious. And ML's boyfriend seems to know all these hidden small authentic Japanese places. Yakinikutei is run by a Japanese lady boss. Their clientele consists of a lot of Japanese, so it goes to show the authenticity of this joint.

The one thing I minded about here? The tiny saucer we get as a side plate. Each table setting have two saucers, one will be filled with a sauce, the other apparently there for me to eat from. Like really, why can't give me a bigger plate to hold more food? But it's beside the point, since the food are so nice that they don't really spend a whole lot of time on my plate.

As Yakiniku simply translates to grilled meats, you can expect a good selection of meats for you to choose from. They also have a good selection of veggies to go with the meats, and some interesting side dishes, many of which I didn't try.

If you order their sets (beef course or non-beef course), it comes with some small side dishes such as kimunchi and salad. Nothing out of the world, but a good way to kickstart your appetite. We ordered the garlic fried rice to share, and loved it. Fragrant Japanese rice, fried with lots of eggs and garlic. Akin to Din Tai Fung's egg fried rice with extra garlic. If you order their deep fried garlic (no photo, but its a MUST TRY!) alongside, you get double the garlic flavor. Yum! It turned out to be a fantastic vehicle for soaking up all the meat juices left on our dishes, so no wastage!

Kimunchi

Salad

Garlic fried rice

Now to the meats. Yakinikutei have a huge variety of beef, ranging from premium to regular to Australian wagyu to Japanese wagyu. The Japanese wagyu is pricey, and we didn't try them. We tried an order of the Australian wagyu slices. Subsequently on another visit I tried the Australian wagyu kaburi. I prefer the kaburi. Tender beef, mildly marinated, full of the wonderful wagyu flavor. WOW!

Wagyu beef slices

But to me, the star MUST-ORDER item in this joint? The premium beef belly cubes. Oh My God. They are succulent. Even when slightly overcooked, the interior of these cubes remain juicy. Sooooo juicy. You can feel the juice running down your chin as you bite into it. Bliss. A lot of bliss. The kind of bliss that makes you stop talking and close your eyes to enjoy the beef juices and flavors exploding in your mouth.

Premium belly cube

Ok, so on to the pork. We had the ton set, which came with both Iberian and regular ton toro. The Iberian ton toro was soooo well marbled. They look pale pink, with no signs of white streaks. So innocently 'fat free'. Then when you grill them, the fats melt and cause little combustions happening on the grill. And then when you bite into them, your mouth is filled with a mouthful of lard. Lard is flavor, don't you know? Extremely juicy, extremely sinful, but oh so worth it.

Ton set - Iberian and regular ton toro

They have a decent variety of offals too, if it's up your alley. I've tried ox tongue, tripe and liver from two separate visits. I think I'll stick to the meats. Haha! The problem probably lies with us, as we don't really know how well these needs to be cooked. The results were very overcooked offals that were too tough to eat. ML loved their ox-tongue. I didn't really feel a lot of love for them.

Liver and tripe

Ox tongue

The cutest food we ordered was the rice ball. A triangle of rice, which I meticulously grill at a corner, flipping infrequently to make sure every side is charred. Then I brushed on the given sauce, and you there you have a yummy snack. Crunchy outside, salty from the sauce, fluffy and fragrant inside. It's like a savoury rice crispy dumpling.

Rice ball

I've been here 3 times now. And left feeling happy every single time. The lady boss is such a nice lady. On my second visit, I brough Lynn here. We were given a big table for 2 pax reservations. While Lynn was waiting for me, a big group came in and they asked her if it's possible to shift to a smaller table to make way for the big group. Since she haven't started anything, Lynn was ok to shift. The lady boss was so grateful that she thanked Lynn repeatedly and promised our table free drinks. And yes, we did get the free drinks. And even a free upgrade from shiso rice to garlic rice for our set. I had intended to pay for the upgrade but the lady boss generously absorbed the cost. If there's anything I like more than good food, is the 人情味 (human touch) that comes with it. And did I mention they're open til 11pm? Last order is at 10.30pm. How cool is that?! Reservations recommended.

Yakinikutei Ao-Chan
Concorde Hotel Shopping Mall
100 Orchard Road
#02-22/26 (Ground floor)
Tel: 67356457 

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