Foodie Times: Yong Tau Foo (Food to try in Singapore)

One of the food to recommend and commonly found in almost every food court/hawker centre would be Yong Tau Foo.

Have it for a heavy breakfast or lunch or dinner, it's a "any time can eat" choice. There is a wide variety of ingredients from fried to non fried, vegetables, beancurd stuffed with fish/seafood fillings, ngoh hiang, fishball, tofu, hotdog, etc etc

Basically the stall will have the food laid nicely at their front counter/rack. With a bowl and a tong, just grab the ingredients (usually I stopped at their minimum number of pieces needed to ordered). I always ordered it with yellow noodle without any soup or gravy and add on a lot of sweet sauce. But at times when I craved for hot and spicy, I will go for curry/laksa base. 

Previously, the stalls I visited would scald the ingredients in hot water. The fried items turned soggy after that. But nowadays, the fried items are separated from the non-fried ones. And some stalls actually re-fried those fried items. 

"Select your own" style, with sweet sauce and yellow noodle 

"Select your own" style, with sweet sauce and yellow noodle 

Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee 高記釀豆腐面

A pre-selected set which comes with kangkong

How to order: 

1. Pick the ingredients you want from their display counter into the bowl. There is a minimum number of item for a certain price. After the minimum number of item is met, additional pricing will be added (based each additional item)

2. Choose base:
-> Spicy Gravy (curry/laksa dependent on the stall),
-> (Non-spicy) Hakka Gravy (only selected stall offer this),
-> Clear Soup based or
-> Plain (they either fried the ingredients or scald it with hot water)

3. Choose noodle/rice (dependent on the stall also):
-> Huang Mian (Yellow noodle)
-> You Mian (Thin Yellow noodle)
-> Guo Tiao (flat rice noodles)
-> Mi Fen/Bee Hoon (Rice vermicelli - thin)
-> Cu Mi Fen (Rice vermicell - thick)
-> Plain white rice
-> Plain (without any noodle)

Condiments to go along:

1. Sweet Sauce - I always go for this. Don't be mistaken, this is NOT ketchup. Although it is sweet, it is totally different taste (apart from being sweet) from ketchup.

2. Chili Sauce - This is for the majority of the people I know... But there are some who actually liked to mix both sauces together (a scoop of sweet sauce and a scoop of chili sauce)

3. Sesame oil/seeds - Make it smell nicer with a tablespoon amount of sesame oil or go for a less oily version with sesame seeds.

For Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee 高記釀豆腐面, just select a set from their menu. The dish's ingredients is pre-fixed. For the condiments to go along, it would be the same as normal stalls.

Foodie Times Hong Guo @ Chinatown Point

Cross Bridge Vermicelli 

Szechuan Chilli Chicken Cube

Pumpkin with salted egg york

Taste: 4.5 out of 5.
-> Cross Bridge Vermicelli: There were different sets to choose from. We opted for the one with vegetable and meat. The noodle seemed like the thick rice noodle while I was expecting the thin version. The bowl was huge and the soup was hot, but not piping hot... (I want it to be piping hot). 
It was bland with a lot of vegetables. Didn't add any condiment since our side dishes was spicy.
->Szechuan Fried Chicken Cube: Lived up to it's name. It is spicy. Compliments well with the vermicelli.
-> Pumpkin with salted egg york: It was a bit soggy when served. Not sure if it's meant to be. Can taste the pumpkin and a bit of salted egg. Portion seemed a bit too little (for me since I am a big eater)

Service: 5 out of 5. The waitress was very detail in the orders. She checked with us if we wanted the vermicelli set to be served with everything in the bowl or served as shown in the menu where we pour in the ingredients on our own.

Location: Accessible via Circle Line @ Chinatown and proceed to Chinatown Point @ Level 2.

Cost: Can't remember the exact cost but should be around $40 for the above side dishes + 2 sets of the vermicelli (around $20 per person)

Foodie Times: Korean Dessert Bingsu Bingsu Bingsu

Location: Refer to the description below the pictures

 

Mango Bingu - Chicken Up @ Jurong East MRT

Taste: 5 out of 5. Served with whipped cream, it doesn't look like what is shown in their picture. BUT, the finely shaved ice is great. Melts in the mouth and no lumpy ice. A pity it was mango with whipped cream, mango chunks and mango syrup. But for the price, what's more can I ask for.

Service: 4.5 out of 5. For this Bingsu, it was fast unlike my subsequent visit at Chicken Up. 

Location: Located at the 1st floor of Jurong East MRT station.

Cost: $3.50 @ Qoo10 discount

 

Mango Bingu - JIJIM @ Westgate Basement

Taste: 4 out of 5. Wanted to impress someone with the fine shaved ice. Had my expectation up since I tried the bingsu @ Chicken Up. However, it wasn't as good. There were still small lumps of ice and it was a bit too sweet. Apart from the shaved ice, there were a scoop of mango ice cream and a lot of mango chunks.

Service:3.5 out of 5. Preparation was quick a long wait. Not sure what went wrong on that day of my purchase but could see the lady going around many times making this. 

Location: Located at the basement of Westgate, beside Jurong East MRT

Cost: $7.90 per serving. 

Coffee Bingsu (Size = Double) - Caffebene @ Vivocity

Finally get to try this. Been to the place once but it was full house and almost gave up waiting for seats again. There are seats outdoor but it was a hot weather so we didn't want to melt ourselves (and the bingsu) with the weather. To enjoy, push in the ice cream and mixed well. Then... just dig in!

Taste: 4.5 out of 5. This is the bigger size version since there were 3 of us sharing. I found it sweet when I was almost finishing it. It reminded me of the ice-blend mocha from McCafe. I guess I am really more of a tea person than coffee. But the nuts, cereal and chocolate/coffee beans ingredients keep me going as there gave a plenty of those.

Service: 4.5 out of 5. Since there were other orders ahead of ours, so we did wait for a short while.

Location:  Level 2 of Vivocity. (We got lost even though we had been there before).

Cost: $19.90 for the Double Size

Foodie Times Pranakorn @ Changi Village

Located in the far east of Singapore, Pranakorn @ Changi Village focused on authentic Thai food at a decent price.

Everything were great! 

The Thai Holy Basil with Minced Chicken is a nice balance for those who are in for spiciness but not to the extreme of burning the stomach. The Thai pork cake was served piping hot and one word to describe would be "Delicious"! The Papaya salad helps to balance our taste buds and portion served is generous. The grass jelly served with gula melaka is 5 out of 5 for me. Never knew such a dessert exist. The mango with sticky rice was also as good but I prefer the gula melaka dessert.

If really to pinpoint some flaw with this place, it would be they seemed short handed as taking order and getting the food served takes some time. But it is worth the wait.

Accessibility: As I was staying in Hotel Changi Village for my staycation, it was a walking distance from the hotel. If to get there via public transport, it is via bus only as MRT is not nearby.