Putien Codfish Specialty House @ Phoenix Road

For those who like Heng Hwa dishes, this can be a new addition to the places you can go for dishes originating from the Putien region in China. My aunt who is Heng Hwa discovered this place by chance and found the quite good and authentic.

Our cousin who took a liking for the food here calls it the 'up the hill' place. It's located on a slope high up near Phoenix LRT on Choa Chu Kang Road. People living this area seems to call it the 'hill' too, though it's not really that high. (found out after I posted a few photos of this place on Instagram and people responded saying the 'hill') It's on a row of shop houses and it's the last shop and there's a 'tent' at the end of the road with tables that people prefer to sit rather than inside the shop.

This place is known for their codfish steamboat, but we were not having steamboat but ordered different dishes instead. Here's what we had.


This was the salt-baked chicken wings. It's soy sauce that has been wrapped in paper and baked in a mountain of salt. I personally don't find it that special. It's tasty though. It seems it's one of the specialty dishes and limited packs are available daily.


The cold meats. Drunken Pork Trotters thinly sliced. Some people might like it, but I found it too cold, too fatty. Aunt likes it, I guess I am not a Heng Hwa to enjoy this. LOL!


Clams in Soup. This innocent looking dish has been spiked with cili, probably cili padi! It's very addictive though! Not overcooked, the clams are still soft and tender and you keep picking one after another to enjoy the natural sweetness of it.

Try the soup and you get hit by this spicy 'bite' in your tongue, but you will somehow keep wanting to continue drinking it.


The Heng Hwa Lor Mee. A dish that I won't get tired having it. A mix of seafood and other ingredients in a semi-starchy broth.


Instead of the usual Heng Hwa Bee Hoon, aunt ordered the Pork Leg Bee Hoon instead.

Some of you grew up eating stew pork leg noodles, and have eaten Heng Hwa Bee Hoon, this dish is like a mix of both, only wetter. It's delicious.

(Their Heng Hwa Bee Hoon's good too, we 'tapow' a pack home for eat!)


This was an unusual vegetable dish. It's fat plump beans that has been deep fried and coated with cereal. Instead of the usual cereal prawns or crayfish, this is vegetable style.

It sure was addictive, the many pairs of chopsticks were all picking bean by bean from the plate!


The salted vegetable duck soup. It was a huge duck drumstick in a big claypot. I can't remember the taste to describe it. Go try it and let me know. ;-)


A yummy dish of sambal kangkong. Definitely not a Heng Hwa dish, but it's on part of the menu that has local dishes. So we ordered it because someone who had eaten it before said it tasted good!

An alternative place to go for some Heng Hwa food that's worth going back. There are many other dishes to try. For Heng Hwas who miss dishes like Mee Sua Hu, Fried Mee Sua, Fried Yam, good old simple Fried Fish, they have it here.

Oh, the boss is a quirky funny man. He speaks nonsense at times. If you speak the Heng Hwa dialect he will talk to you in it and confuse everyone else who don't speak it. When you go early and it's not so busy yet, he will prepare some of the more homely dishes, I can't remember what aunt wanted to order, I don't understand the dialect!


Putien Codfish Specialty House
2 Phoenix Road
Singapore 668156

Hours: 11am to 11pm
Tel: 8163 4477 / 6875 0577

Paradise Seafood @ Senja-Cashew Community Centre

This was a family dinner in celebration of a member's birthday.

Our relatives invited us for dinner and it was quite a nice dinner at the newly opened Paradise Seafood @ Senja-Cashew Community Centre.

We were just there to enjoy the food and company. ;-) So I did not take notes of the name of the dishes, pardon me.



This sambal-ish sotong dish was quite delicious. It was done just nice, it was not rubbery but just nice and the sauce and the okra, brinjals and tomato with it makes it quite addictive especially with fragrant white rice.




Since it's a birthday, we had some birthday noodles. The dish was nicely executed, noodles were nice, not overcooked.

Due to some logistical issue, instead of the noodles, we remembered something else. The noodles were taken to the side to be portioned and served to us. Somehow, someone miscounted the people on the table and 1 person did not get served. Hmmm... It was then a mess when they wanted to collect back a few bowls to re-portion it. Oh well... But everyone on the table volunteered to share theirs anyway, so it was kind of solved.




This was the black chicken soup. The soup had this nice colour and it was tasty. It must had been boiled long enough too.



The soup was portioned at the side for us as well and the ingredients served to us on a plate.

Oh, another service lapse. We knew they just opened probably a week or so when we went there, so teething problems was expected. What happened? They got our orders wrong. We ordered black chicken soup, but we were served watercress soup. As the soup was served without ingredients, we only knew it was wrong when we tasted it. We told them and they were apologetic and took back the soup.

A few minutes later, a lady came to tell us the black chicken soup was sold out and if we would like watercress soup.  Our aunt sense something fishy. You know aunties have this sixth sense. She said are you sure? We placed our orders quite early. We all probably knew it can't be the kitchen's fault, this chain has been quite organise. We knew it's probably the person who took the order, which is you know who, the lady talking to us. Since it's sold out, we said no, we won't have the soup.

Guess what? Another lady came out from the kitchen and said they have our black chicken soup ready. Oh man, the lady was pawned by her colleague. LOL. We wanted to laugh, but held our laughter. See, aunties sixth sense is accurate right?

Anyway, the delicious and fragrant black chicken soup saved the day, we tried to forget about the incident and continue to enjoy our food.




These prawn balls were very good too. Deep fried whole prawns coated with (I think it was) delicious salted yolk sauce. Really good, it was really good.




This was an interesting dish. It's one of their tofu creation, but all of us nicknamed it the chinese tofu goreng. Fried tofu, with fried crispy 'you tiao' over tangy thai salad and sauce.




This was our only vegetable dish. Claypot xiao bai cai with inoki mushrooms and other mushrooms. Our family are veggies people, so we loved the taste of it.




We had a fish dish too. It's braised in soy sauce and it was quite OK.




Oh, they serve live oyster here too. We remember it being reasonably priced and the birthday girl wanted to have it. So it was ordered. Oyster anyone? ;-)



I think everyone in the restaurant ordered this dish. Creamy butter crabs. It's on the big banner outside the restaurant, advertising their signature dish. Nice! The sauce was creamy and buttery. It was a change to the usual black pepper or chilli crabs. We all think they used quite of mayo in the sauce. It's kinda addictive.

Overall, we had a good meal, except for the service staff that was still quite new having served up some boo boos. They would have brushed up their service now since it's 2 or 3 weeks after.

Another reason we tried the place is because we got a flyer in our mailbox a few times before we visited and when you present the flyer, you get a discount. 



Paradise Seafood
Senja-Cashew Community Centre 
101 Bukit Panjang Road
Singapore 679910

Thai Express @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

This was a quick lunch at Bukit Panjang Plaza. Places to eat gets changed quite frequently here. There is now a Thai Express. It is situated where Xin Wang used to be. (By the way, Xin Wang, Thai Express belong to the same boss, so I guess they are trying to see which chain is more popular or bring in more profits)

I think Thai Express is a better choice than Xin Wang :-)

*** Mango Salad ***

We had a Mango Salad to share. If you are ordering this, be careful of the nasty chilli padi! Small and so potent! Probably that is why it is nice.

*** Tomyam Horfun ***

The Horfun that aunt had. I think it was the Tom Yam Horfun. I can't remember, but I remember it is :-)

 *** Meatballs with Tang Hoon ***

Our cousin had this and she liked it. She has this thing about tang hoon nowadays. She had it with a bowl of rice.

*** Set Meals ***

Thai Express seems to have set meals now. They have starters, mains and dessert.

For the starters, there was the shrimp toast (above) or Crispy pancakes (another set that we had)
For the dessert, what we were given was steamed tapioca cake with coconut milk.



For one of the set, we had the Thai Green Curry. I like this curry, I actually finished the whole bowl of curry. (and got a very warm tummy later. :-p )



Their so innocent looking fiery Tom Yam soup. After you sip a mouth of it, you know the potency!


Thai Express @ Bukit Panjang Plaza
Jelebu Road
#02-27/32
Singapore 677743

Tel:  6892 6953
Hours: Monday to Saturday 11.30am to 10.00pm,  Sunday 11.00am to 10.00pm

Hock Lam Beef @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

We were at Bukit Panjang Plaza last Sunday for lunch and also to get some groceries.
For lunch we went to Hock Lam Beef. Aunt had the urge to eat beef noodles. ;-)

So what was for lunch?

This was the Mixed Beef with Tendon, Soup version. Five minutes after we ordered, we were told the tendon's sold out. Sold out before 12 noon? We think it's just some 'standard answer' for items that's not available. :-) The tendon was replaced with meat balls.



This was the same thing, Mixed Beef with Tendon, but the dry version.
The tendon was also replaced with beef balls.




I had the Hand Sliced Beef & Chunky Beef.

It was not bad. The ingredients looked fresh. The ingredients were plentiful too (probably because it's nearly $8/$9 per bowl). The sauce is gooey enough for my liking, not too thick. It was quite flavourful too.  I likes their beef balls too.

But the soup was a bit on the sweetish side. It's more evident after you eat the noodles then drink the soup! The soup served with the noodles (first photo) tasted better though. We wishes there was more 'xian cai' though. We only spotted a little of it.




It looks like things have gone up-market. The beef noodles were served in claypots with fire gel burning below it. You can see the prices below (taken with a camera phone).

We did notice a weekday lunch time menu and price though at the entrance. Hint: More economical to eat here during the weekdays. (Hey this is the heartlands!)

Beef noodles is close to the hearts of many just like chicken rice.  Everyone passionate argue which stall is the best in their opinion. Our tongues thinks it is a little above average compared to the rest, but it's on the sweetish side for the beef noodles served in this branch.




We don't usually want to give suggestions here. But Momo and I think they should get rid of the fire-gel. Their beef noodles were already served nice and hot. Claypots also retains heat well. There's no need to keep it hot with fire below. It gets uncomfortable when the claypot radiates so much heat on your face. I don't think they served it this way in 1911. ;-P


Hock Lam Beef
1 Jelebu Rd,
#01-60/61, Bukit Panjang Plaza
Singapore 677743

Old Pontian Cafe @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

I guess most people have tasted the Pontian Wanton Noodles for years. I only tasted it last weekend! It was at Bukit Panjang and it's at a tiny cafe at Bukit Panjang Plaza.

I had the spicy version of it. The noodles are skinny! Not too bad I would say.
But with the skinny noodles come tiny fried wantans. LOL

I think it's $3.80 for the Large size.



The wantans with the soup is bigger variety. ;-)



Even if you don't like wantan noodles, you should also visit this tiny outlet.

Their Pontian Popiah is nice! Huge, fat and juicy popiah. :-)
I remember they used to be a bit bigger half a year ago when I ate it too.
I think it was $3.20.
Update: I checked the price, it's $2.50.






The Old Pontian Cafe
Bukit Panjang Plaza
#01-2
1 Jelebu Road
Singapore 677743

Sapporo Ramen Bishamon @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

This was lunch on Sunday afternoon. We needed to return a few library books. There are no library near where we live, so we needed to choose one that is convenient.

The public library at Bukit Panjang is in Bukit Panjang Plaza itself. This should be convenient. We could return the books, settle lunch, etc...

[The books in Bukit Panjang seems to be newer it seems, the books that we borrow. But the magazines are quite 'well read'. The magazines in Jurong East library seems to be 'cleaner' though :-) Hmmm people at Bkt Panjang are magazine readers while Jurong East residents prefer books? ]

Lunch was at Sapporo Ramen Bishamon. We noticed that it was opened a few weeks ago so we thought we shall try it out this time.



It's only 4 of us this time.

We had 2 Special Miso Ramen. Looks pretty usual, but we kinda took a liking to it after we tasted the soup. Nice.....



The meat is not the 'melt in your mouth' kind, but it was not bad. The soup's not too salty but salty enough. (Not for those who like it extremely salty. LOL)
Ramen was quite 'q' as well.



After eating the meat, I thought I will now try the egg. When I picked up the egg, I realised it was soft and bouncy. Hmm... could it be a soft yolk egg?

(It was a whole egg,) so I bit a hole in the egg, and 'tada!' it was soft inside. I love soft yolk eggs! Most places only give half an egg, I like it that they give you a whole egg here.



The other 2 had the Beef Rice. Gyu Don.



Another of the fancy can drinks you can find in Japanese eating places. At least this one has 30% juice, compared to the pineapple drink I had that was totally artificial but nice. LOL.... This is $4.50 though!



Sapporo Ramen Bishamon
Bukit Panjang Plaza
1 Jelebu Road
#01-64/65
Singapore 677743
Tel: 6462 2001

Tang Dian Wang @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

This was one of our family lunches we had one Sunday afternoon. We were at Bukit Panjang Plaza and was wondering what to eat and we saw this new place called Tang Dian Wang. (I think there was a restaurant with a different name the last time we were here) We decided to try it out.




The Shanghai Siew Mai. Shanghai Siew Mai's stuffed with glutinous rice.



We had two kinds of lotus leaf rice to feed the few of us.
This is the one with Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages). Half of us seem to like this.



The other half like this one instead. Also glutinous rice, but it has a fragrance of orange peel and it's pork pieces instead of sausages.



Our cousin like the steamed chicken. She had a bowl of white rice to go with her favourite chicken. It's warm too.



For the namesake of this place, we ordered their soup. The soup comes in this nice pots and they will serve us. This was the soup of the day. Old Cucumber Soup. Yummy.



We also had some dumplings. They are quite nice.



And Hae Zhor. (Prawn nuggets) They were quite good too. The inside's not dry at all, but very moist.



We also tried an orange chicken. Very fruity!



A nice place with nice food.

Tang Dian Wang
Bukit Panjang Plaza
#02-27 to #02-32
1 Jelebu Road
Singapore 677743

Tel: 6892 6953

Mayim @ West Mall

You might have heard the phrase, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" So, sis and I wondered, can anything good come out in West Mall? (oops, sorry to people who stay in Bukit Batok, it's just a joke)

But it seems there is! We who are living all over this tiny island, met up in West Mall so that we could have a birthday celebration dinner at Mayim. At a 'forever there's a queue' restaurant in West Mall called Mayim.

You get modern zen crockery. Cups that alternate between "fat and short" with "tall and slim". Plates that are not round, but triangular.



Also, condiments on the table that are quite unique and tasty.
(Sorry for the blur photos, came out today with a camera that has no more battery juice, you turn it on, the cameras turn itself off after the no power icon comes out, so no time to focus and quickly snap haha)



The Beef Tendon dish. It's quite delicious.



The soy sauce chicken. Usually you have this cold right? This one comes warm.



Family's favourite. Spicy aubergine with mince meat.
(Sorry, the word aubergine stuck to my mind after only 2 weeks in UK, I finally remember it as brinjal. LOL)



Fruity Fish.



Another dish that we like that makes your rice in your bowl just disappear!
Deep fried long beans with mince.



Tofu and mushroom dish.
Be very careful. It burns your tongue. It's very very hot!



Very tender beef with tao pok and cabbage.



This was unusual. Xiao long bao that comes in little cups.



We ended the meal with an ice cream cake from Swensen's from next door.
The kind management allowed us to bring in a cake. :-)


Mayim
West Mall
1 Bukit Batok Central Link,
#02-04,
Singapore 658713
Tel: 67941590
Website: www.mayimfood.com


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More of the UK Food Diary:



A meal at Gourmet Burger Kitchen.