Stalls

Frog leg porridge at Lorong 9 Geylang

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Frog leg porridge at Lorong 9 Geylang

Okay, a lot of people have been giving me a hard time about heading down to Geylang in Singapore but I didn’t go there to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. Oh wait, I did! However, it was frog flesh rather than the Homo sapiens variety. I went there for the famous frog leg porridge. =D

frog legs

The frog leg porridge is at Lorong 9 in Geylang. You can’t miss it. There are pictures of frogs right on the signboard. I’m not a big fan of porridge so I was rather dubious about this, but I like frog legs, it’s the best invention creation evolution since sliced bread. The Chinese calls it tien chi which means “field chicken” – a euphemism if you will.

geylang frog leg porridge

The Lorong 9 Geylang frog leg porridge is the most renowned one in Singapore. I had a bit of a chat with the proprietor and he told me that the frogs are actually from Malaysia since they don’t have frog breeding farms in Singapore. 

preparing frog legs

He also enquired whether it’s my first time eating here, to which I replied in the affirmative. He recommended the Dried Chilli Frog Leg Porridge. 

Dried Chilli Frog Leg Porridge

It costs SGD 10 for the entire meal (about RM 25 or so) and comes with a bowl of steaming hot porridge seasoned with freshly chopped spring onions and a claypot serving of frog legs cooked with dried chillies (kung pow style). 

geylang frog congee

This is actually a fucking good cooking method since the chillies do not overpower the frog legs but adds that elusive zing to the porridge. Congee, as we all know, is rather bland by nature. 

geylang frog porridge

I don’t even like congee, but to my surprise I ended up eating the entire bowl. The dried chilli cooking method produces a lot of mouth-wateringly spicy gravy for the porridge. I planned to just eat the frog legs with a bit of congee but I whacked the entire pot. 

eating geylang frog porridge

Mmm…frog legs – it tastes like very tender chicken with the texture of fish. The sweet and succulent frog legs, the appetite inducing dry chilli, and the spring onion infused congee are hallmarks of what makes this a truly intense porridge experience. 

frog leg porridge

Lorong 9 Geylang frog porridge gets the thumbs up from me. Just don’t linger around the area; you may come across establishments which your mom would frown upon. πŸ˜‰

Bungeoppang – Korean fish shaped cake

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bungeoppang

I was at 1U just now and came across this stall selling “Korean fish shaped bread” filled with red bean paste. I didn’t bring my dSLR since I had a data disaster to manage but I remembered having the same thing in Busan.

Korean fish shaped cake

Bungeoppang is a fish shaped cake of sorts sold by street vendors in Korea. It’s 1,000 Won (about RM 3) for 4 pieces. It has a red bean filling and it’s quite tasty when you eat it hot during the chilly autumn weather.

Korean fish red bean

We didn’t have a translator with us that day since we’re just exploring the streets and the kind stall owner gave us one with a smile and said “Service”.

Service means “complimentary” in Korea. The stall owner guessed we were not locals (probably due to our complete inability to speak Korean) and gave us one for free! It’s these little things that I love about Korea…and the fact that you can leave stuff lying around and it won’t get stolen the moment you turn your back. =D

Menglembu Honey Chicken and Mini Wantan Mee

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wonderful honey chicken menglembu

Menglembu is a town in Perak that’s famous for their peanuts. You know those peanuts with a huge ass thumbs up sign imprinted on the front that’s everywhere during Chinese New Year? Yep, those came from none other than Menglembu, Ipoh.

menglembu wonderful honey chicken

It’s also famous for their honey chicken so we stopped by Wonderful Honey Chicken on our way back from Penang. It looks like a simple roadside stall but the pure industry that goes on in the small shop lot behind the kitchen is nothing short of amazing.

menglembu honey chicken

Unfortunately, their honey roasted chicken was sold out (!!!) so we had to settle for fried chicken, char siew and “paper wrapped chicken” instead.

menglembu char siew

The char siew is made with the same sauce (e.g. honey) so if you close your eyes while eating the fried chicken dipped into the sauce and concentrate really, really hard, you can sort of imagine what the famous roasted honey chicken tastes like. >.<

paper wrapped chicken

*sour grapes*

Ching Bau Liang

The coffee shop by the roadside near Wonderful Honey Chicken serves a refreshing bowl of tong sui called Ching Bau Liang, complete with a quail egg! Do check it out if you’re ever in Wai Sek Gai (which is apparently what this entire food street is called).

menglembu wantan mee stall

Menglembu is also famous for their miniature wantan mee and the stall does a very brisk business late at night. We had to wait for about 30 minutes or so to get our chance at the ridiculously small portion of wantan mee.

menglembu wantan mee

I wouldn’t say there’s anything special about their wantan mee, it’s probably the Lilliputian serving size that provides most of the appeal. The side order of wantans we had that night was a bit off too.

menglembu wantan aunty

However, I do like the aunty manning the store, who did an impromptu kung fu pose for me. πŸ˜‰

Monkey Kampua

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monkey kampua

Kampua mee is to Sibu what char kueh tiaw is to Penang. There are a lot of good kampua places here but the best is arguably the one beside the fire station, dubbed Ang Kao kampua (Monkey kampua) after the owner’s nickname. I believe most of the locals here know about the income tax fiasco and the buzz that the owner drives two luxury cars, one of them a Mercedes, despite being a “humble kampua stall owner”.

monkey kampua business

Word on the street is, one day some people from the IRB came in and sat there posing as customers, with an increment clicker to count how many plates of kampua they serve on an average day, tallied against their reported income. The discrepancy was so colossal, no amount of hyperbole can sufficiently describe it, and thus the owner was slapped with a huge fine.

monkey kampua cook

I am not sure about the veracity of the story, but if it’s true, this has made the proprietors understandably wary about people with monitoring devices in general. I was asked if I was a reporter when I waltzed in and started taking photos of the place, and although they are friendly people, I had the distinct impression that they would not take it very well if I had stated that I represent the IRB. Heh!

monkey kampua original

However, the kampua is the best in town. This is the classic version of kampua mee – the flavor comes primarily from pork lard and shallots. It’s served with finely diced spring onions and char siew.

monkey kampua soup

Monkey Kampua also serves a mean dish of pork liver soup. It’s mixed with pork balls in this photo but kampua is versatile in the sense that you can order it with pien nuk (pork dumplings), in soup (ching tang mien) and with pork liver (tu kang in the local dialect).

monkey kampua soy

I like mine with soy sauce and chilli sauce. The accepted vernacular for this is kampua puak lak puak tau yu and should be preferably vocalized with an appropriate Foochow accent.

monkey kampua eddy

My only beef with this place is that they don’t serve beer. πŸ˜‰

Sg. Besi Wan Tan Mee

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besi wantan mee

Jessica was in the vicinity of my condo one night and asked if I wanted to eat some overwhelmingly delicious (those were her exact words) wantan mee in Sungai Besi.
HB: How overwhelming?
J: Power overwhelming.
I was sold. She’s such a Starcraft geek sometimes. Heh! I was up for it since I just got back from work so I drove down to Sg. Besi with her as the GPS. There are no signboards at the place – it looks like a car workshop which moonlights as a restaurant at night.

besi cooking

We arrived there at around 10 pm and the place was still bustling with customers. The friendly lady proprietor came over and took our order. She didn’t seem to mind the BYO (had a bottle of Absolut Vodka that I just plonked down on the table) and gave us the lowdown on the Good Stuff (TM) they have.

besi place

Sg. Besi Wan Tan Mee is famous for two things (one thing actually) – their wan tan mee with char siew. Their char siew is apparently their signature dish (according to the proprietor and Jess) so all their wan tan mee is served with awesome char siew.

besi wantan mee duck

It costs RM 5.50 per plate and it’s worth every sen! The drive down was long but the food more than made up for it. It’s gotta be the best wan tan mee I’ve had in KL. The noodles are springy and flavorful and the char siew is to die for. It has a crispy edge, but is tender on the inside. The char siew is also slightly sweet, but not overpoweringly so and has an almost melt-in-your-mouth texture. Superlatives fail me.

besi wantan mee mushrooms

You can choose add-ons for just RM 1.50 to your wantan mee with char siew.
I had a duck drumstick (RM 8) with my wan tan mee. I choose the entire drum instead of an add-on.
Jess had the shitake mushroom add-on for RM 1.50. It’s juicy and flavorful; the mushrooms taste like it just came out of a pot of pork stew (perhaps the same one I ordered below). The mushrooms were practically engorged with delicious juices. Mmm…

besi pork

We also ordered a side dish of stewed pork leg (RM 10.00). Just coz I was craving for pork.

It’s so good I did my speed eating thing while Jessica filmed me. Watch me stuff my mouth like a pig on this (power) overwhelming(ly) delicious wan tan mee with char siew.

besi onions

You can also add fried onions to the wantan mee with char siew for that extra oomph! I have no idea how to direct you here since Jessica guided me but the address listed on the menu is:
No. 190H, Jalan 2 Β½ Mile, Off Sg. Besi, 55200 Kuala Lumpur.

besi me

Sungai Besi Wan Tan Mee – Best in Sg. Besi, KL, and some say, PJ.

Claypot Chicken Rice

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jan claypot chicken rice

The humble Claypot Chicken Rice is something which I’ve actively hunted whenever I get a hankering for it (and even when I don’t). I remember having a family vacation when I was 7 years old, with my dad bringing me to Petaling Street and telling me that the claypot chicken rice over here in KL is good and “different” from what we get back home.

jan chicken rice setup

I don’t know why but that memory has always stayed with me. I’ve actively sought out this…er, nostalgia tinged delicacy since then. I was told that there’s a stall at Ming Tien food court that dishes out pretty good Claypot Chicken Rice so off I went with Jan to check it out.

jan chicken rice

The stall sells Claypot Chicken Rice (RM 5) and Claypot Pork Rice (RM 5.50) so if you have any illusions about it being halal, leave them at the door (or the arch rather). It’s pork. πŸ˜‰

jan feed

I ordered the Claypot Chicken Rice since the Claypot Pork Rice didn’t look that appealing from the photo, but rest assured, I’m going to check it out some other time. You’re gonna see a lot more of Ming Tien posts coz it’s near my condo and I like how they open till late. πŸ˜‰

jan chicken rice plate

It tastes pretty good, but it’s not the best I’ve had. The Claypot Chicken Rice was flavorful enough and came with the classic, sinful Crust of Charcoal Rice (TM) beneath. This is the best part of the dish, you scrape it into the pot to mix it around but if you’re a crust aficionado, you can opt to leave it longer so the crust will procreate into a veritable swarm of Crust Goodness (TM) from the residual heat from the claypot.

jan chicken rice eat

I don’t make any sense, do I?

jan chicken rice cook

I’ll tell you something though…what the cook lacks in skillz, he more than makes up for with pure enthusiasm. πŸ˜‰

Shark Fin Noodle

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shark fin noodle stall

This has gotta be one of the more decadent dishes you can afford to eat every day. Weighing in at a relatively easy-on-the-wallet price tag of RM 5.50, it’s practically a steal! This Shark Fin Noodles is located at Ming Tien food court, and I feel obliged to proclaim the goodness of this particular dish to all and sunder.

shark fin noodle owner

The Shark’s Fin Noodle stall serves up shark fin soup and shark fin noodles. Imagine noodles dumped into shark’s fin soup and you’ll have an idea about what this dish is all about. It’s almost criminal that most places do not serve this – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that chucking some good ol’ noodles into leftover shark fin soup would make a tasty dish.

shark fin noodle setup

Granted, at the price you’re forking out (RM 5.50) you shouldn’t expect prime fin from a 3,000 kg shark inside your dish…my agaration tells me that there’s only a sliver (or two) of real shark fin inside the dish.

shark fin noodle

However, the texture is authentic enough, and the crab sticks and other miscellaneous ingredients coupled with the starchy and vinegar-ish soup fabricates a more-than-passable approximation of shark’s fins soup (with noodles).

shark fin noodles macro

I am actually quite intrigued about shark’s fin noodles. It’s almost a no-brainer to create something like this. Leftover soup? No worries! Just reheat and dump in some noodles for a meal. It’s the first time I’ve sampled this dish and it has already engendered a craving, nay, a hunger for shark fin noodles with a healthy dash of vinegar.

shark fin noodles ppc

It’s a bargain at RM 5.50!

shark fin noodles end

Ming Tien food court has a lot of great stalls and they open until 3 AM…perfect for washing down your alcohol with some solid food. πŸ˜‰

Thong Kee @ PJ Old Town, beside the “smelly market”

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Thong Kee area

I’ve always believed that the best and most delicious food is found in the dirtiest of places. It’s a Malaysian thing. Heh! The places with great food aren’t really big on hygiene. Jennifer and Wye Meng told us about this awesome dai chow place beside the “smelly PJ Old Town main pasar” and we all headed down for lunch.

Thong Kee pasar

It was better than I expected – overflowing rubbish bins, the smell of pork and fish from the main wet market, flies buzzing around. I was very pleased…the ambience is unbeatable! πŸ˜‰

Thong Kee stall

The stall you want is called Thong Kee – just look #47. Thong Kee is very popular, so look out for the teeming mass of hungry customers congregating there.

Thong Kee cendol

Wye Meng told us that the stall beside Thong Kee serves up a mean bowl of cendol. I ordered mine with extra gula melaka and fu yoh, it really is something wicked on a hot afternoon. It’s one of the best cendol I’ve had.

She’s quite familiar with this place so she ordered all the signature dishes:

Thong Kee hokkien

This is 福建米 (fuk kin mai) otherwise known as Hokkien style fried bee hoon.

Thong Kee hokkien dish

The rice vermicelli doesn’t look like rice vermicelli at all, but it more than makes up for it with the amount of seafood present. It’s an aquatic celebration! I ate quite a few marine species and pronounce it good!

Thong Kee wat tan hor

This is ζ»‘θ›‹ζ²³ (wat tan hor). It’s kwong fu style fried kueh tiaw. I obviously didn’t write the Chinese characters – those were kindly furnished by Wye Meng. I can’t write Chinese.

Thong Kee wat tan hor dish

The wat tan hor is starchy and they’re quite generous with the seafood too. Marine treasures abound inside the dish – everything from cuttlefish to prawns. Wat tan hor does not have a “taste” per se – it’s a rather plain dish, but it’s good to balance out the two salty dishes. I also like how they cracked a raw egg into the wat tan hor. Authentic!

Thong Kee pai guat

This is ζŽ’ιͺ¨η‚†η”Ÿι’ (pai guat man sang meen) – stew pork rib fried with wantan noodles. It’s called Specialty Sang Mee on the menu and it’s their flagship dish.

Thong Kee pai guat dish

The cook is magnanimous with the pork ribs – just look at the CHUNKS of pork ribs in the dish. The noodles is done well, chewy and slurp-ilicious! I like the gravy too. Mmm…salty. Two thumbs up for this one; it’s the best dish at the place!

Thong Kee end

The food was so good that I ate four (4) plates…and it nearly sent me into a post-lunch coma. I would definitely go again; it’s seriously first-rate hawker style food. Thanks to Jennifer and Wye Meng for buying us lunch. Next one on me! πŸ™‚

Durian SS2 – All you can eat!

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durian ss2

Durian runtuh! It’s durian season! There’s a famous durian buffet in the PJ area which spawned multiple competitors…er, inspired by their business model. The original durian buffet (to the best of my knowledge) is SS2 Durian, and they even have their own website! I was out drinking with Angela yesterday when I suddenly had a hankering for the King of Fruits.

durian ss2 pack

There’s this urban legend which effectively proclaims “Thou shall not mix durians with alcohol”. Unfortunately, Angela is a staunch supporter of this doctrine and was a bit apprehensive about indulging in the creamy stuff after drinking. Personally, I have no compulsion against consuming supposedly taboo food combinations. In fact, I kinda thrive on disproving urban myths. πŸ˜‰

durian ss2 cutting

One thing about www.durianss2.com is that the durian buffet is only open on weekdays from Monday to Friday. You’ll have to order a la carte from their rather impressive portfolio during weekends. They have a lot of weird and wonderful durian strains ranging from the premium Raya Kunyit to the common DX varients (D2, D24, D7 etc the last of which always reminds me of a certain police department).

durian ss2 smell

Durian SS2 usually have their racks filled with the thorny fruits whenever I drive past the stall. We went quite late last night so most of the offerings were gone. However, they have Styrofoam packs for RM 20 and plastic packs for RM 25 which contains a selection of different durians. We got the slightly higher priced plastic pack and it didn’t disappoint!

durian ss2 flesh

The durian flesh is pungent and sweet, with a slightly bitter aftertaste, just the way I like it. Angela also partook in the durians despite her initial misgivings. Durian SS2 provides wash basins, water, and makeshift tables and chairs so you can eat your durian in relative comfort.

durian ss2 us 

However, Angela tells me the Proper Way (TM) to enjoy durians is by squatting down, Ah Beng style. πŸ˜‰

durian ss2 coconut 

The place also sells coconut water, which is supposed to have a “cooling effect” to counter the “heaty effect” of durians. I’m not sure if I believe any of this (a polite way of saying Hogwash!) but I must say coconut water goes well with durians.

durian ss2 wash

However, there’s one piece of traditional advice which might be true…washing your hands with the durian husk does seem to subjectively reduce the lingering smell of durians on your fingers. Ask for one at the counter and see if it works. It did for me. πŸ™‚

durian ss2 packing

The King is not dead…he just set up a stall in SS2. Hail to the King of Fruits, baby! πŸ˜‰

The best popiah in Melaka!

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popiah melaka

I stand here as a witness to the best popiah in Melaka, nay, the world! It’s a gem of a find since most people will dismiss the unassuming stall, but not the locals. This popiah stall at Jalan Bunga Raya has been in operation for since time immemorial and picked up a couple of awards during its reign too – including a seal of endorsement by the good people at Ho Chiak!

popiah bunga raya

There is no signage on the mobile stall but this stall is so popular that it doesn’t need one. It totally eschews the trappings of modern marketing and prefers to maintain its (relative) anonymity. The queue for the sublime popiah kinda gives it away though. Just look for the Popia Bunga Raya sticker hidden in the stall. πŸ™‚

popiah stuff

The popiah in Melaka costs RM 2.50 (small) and RM 3 (big). The sign says it’s open till 9 pm but don’t let that fool you! It’s a trick, I tell you. A TRICK! The owner usually packs up by early afternoon coz all the popiah is sold out! We wanted to eat this on the very first day, but the stall was nowhere to be found. You really need to arrive early (and queue up) for this.

popiah roll

The secret ingredient which makes this popiah so great is the deep fried pork lard. I have always been highly skeptical of claims that there’s one ingredient that makes or breaks a dish, but here I stand corrected. The turnips, another important ingredient in popiah, are fresh and juicy too!

popiah cut

I had mine with chilli sauce and it was just BURSTING in flavor. I approve!

popiah me

Hail to the King (of popiah), baby!

P/S – Excuse my T-shirt. :p

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