大東蝦麵 Da Dong Prawn Noodles ... "Guerilla" Prawn Noodles is here to stay in Joo Chiat?

At the stretch of Joo Chiat, when you, the Prawn Noodle maniac, see the sign that says "大東蝦面在这里 Da Dong Prawn Noodle is here", don't flinch, don't look back, you've found the place. We have been spying this prawn noodles stall for a while, skeptical about their standards. Da Dong Prawn Noodles is now sitting in the stall space inside Mellvin Coffee Shop that used to house Ren Ren Prawn Noodles. Nothing special about Ren Ren that's why our skepticism on this replacement stall. However, Da Dong Prawn Noodles is a different story and after some research, we understand that Da Dong had some history and has gone "guerilla" on it's fair share of fans. For all it's history since 1966, I'm really glad that they've decided to settle in Joo Chiat, a stone's throw away from where we're residing now.

Here's the stall and the man behind the stall who's the "guerilla" himself. Boss lives with the following philosophy that he displays on the blue sign in front of the stall,"If you do the simple things repeatedly, you'll be an expert. If you do it repeatedly with your best effort, you'll be a winner." Now you're looking forward to trying the prawn noodles right?

Here's HY's the soup version of prawn noodles. The most coveted component which is the delicious soup stock wasn't this much when it was served to us. I had to ask for more as HY usually like to drink them all up. Boss opened the cover of his prawn soup stock in a protective manner and only spare a small extra scoop. I don't blame him because after you drink a spoonful of this flavorsome soup stock, you'll be back for more. The soup has a melting pot of flavors from prawns and pork, with good tones of savoriness coupled with good hints of sweetness. What's ultimately nice for me was that it didn't send me rushing for a big glass of water to clear the usual effects of MSG in typical prawn noodle soup. I do agree with Boss that he should guard his pot of soup stock.

Here's my dried version of the pork rib prawn noodles. I like it that the meat on the pork rib was so soft, loosely held to the bone, juicy and tasty on the bite.

You know you're here when you see the signs. Many already found out that Da Dong is back in business at this premise so prepare for a wait during lunch hours.

From the entrance to the public car park right across the street, I was looking at Mellvin Coffee Shop where Da Dong sits right now. Nobody knows when Boss decides that the location is not optimal again.

354 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore 427600

Mary's Corner Tau Kwa Pau 豆干包 ... Good Bean Curd Bun in Alibaba Eating House

Apart from Saveur, the budget French cuisine stall, there's also a popular street dish, 豆干包 Tau Kwa Pau or Bean Curd Bun in Ali Baba Eating House. Mary's Corner is the stall that serves this dish even before this coffe shop was renamed. This is actually deep fried bean curd filled with eggs, cucumber, mushroom drizzled with savory sauce. The filling is also used as toppings. What makes this street dish a crowd puller? There's the bean curd fried to good crisp and also the toppings that enhances the plain bean curd. This makes for a good side dish. S$5 per portion.

Mary's Corner is one of the food stalls in Ali Baba Eating House. In Chinese. "Ali Baba Eating House" can be heard as "Ali Baba is definitely good!" That's how the coffee shop markets itself in the Chinese language. 阿里巴巴一定好！Well some food in Ali Baba Eating House are definitely good!

125 East Coast Road

Ali Baba Eating House Stall 3

Singapore

Saveur .... French Cuisine at affordable prices in a Kopi tiam

UPDATE 1 MAY 2012 : SAVEUR HAS MOVED TO 5 PURVIS STREET #01-04 TEL - 63333121

French Cuisine .... Kopitiam .... These two terms do not come to terms. The former high class, expensive and the latter,  heartland, low budget. When you visit Ali Baba Eating House at the junction of East Coat Road and Joo Chiat Road, you'll realize that there's actually a stall, Saveur, serving French Cuisine to locals in their flip flops, T-shirts and shorts and best of all eating beside the busy Joo Chiat Road. Saveur is started by Dylan and Joshua who worked in our local French Restaurants. They decided to bring what they learn to offer French cuisine at affordable prices where everyone can enjoy.

Angel's Hair with Konbu, Chives and Shrimps S$7 - Al dente angel's hair which is definitely better than angel's hair that I've eaten at set lunches in restaurants. My colleagues who came with me enjoyed this as well.

Slow Cooked Leg of Duck Confit served with citrus segments and boulangere potato S$8.90.
I would order this dish as the stall sign shows a duck.

The tender and flavorful duck meat with it's crispy skin was flawless. The mash potato was smooth. It's no wonder this is their most popular dish.

The stall sign says, "Saveur" besides a duck. Saveur means "Flavor" in French. So, it means flavorful duck isn't it? Go for the Duck Confit. Yummy.

125 East Coast Road

Ali Baba Eating House Stall 3

Singapore

Tel : +65 9125 0124

Saveur Website

Breakfast at 寶和餐室 Poh Ho Restaurant @ Crane Road

There's nothing happier than a good breakfast to start the day and we found one in Poh Ho Restaurant. Poh Ho Restaurant is actually an old style coffee shop in the Joo Chiat area, just one street away from the popular Joo Chiat Prawn Noodles. The coffee shop is packed especially on weekend mornings and parking can be a real headache.

Wall tiles laid to about 1/3 height of the walls, small mosaic tiles for the floor, white ceiling fans that was originally white, beer vendors calendars, a round wall clock. So old style right! 

A place to 'la kopi' stir coffee and relax.

There's yummy Wan Ton Mee from 福泰面家 Hock Thye Noodle House (a stall in the coffee shop) ....

... with delicious minced pork wan ton that also has crunchy water chest nut.

The coffee shop also has a popular Roti Prata Stall. Didn't get to eat a good Roti Prata for a while and prata served here was satisfying. They cook it the way I like it best. Crispy on the outside, a bit more charred and chewy on the inside. That of course need a long wait. It was about 30 minutes wait for ....

... my 2 plain roti pratas

... and Telor Bawang Roti Prata, Roti Prata with egg and onions.

The fish curry was good with the roti prata.

HY only eat plain Roti Prata dipped in sugar since she was a kid (She's still one at heart).

Joo Hing Restaurant 裕興 ... Simple Chi Char Fare Made Perfect

Joo Hing Restaurant 裕興 is a popular Chinese restaurant along Joo Chiat Road that serve chi char style food in a simple restaurant setting. The menu shows all dishes that would be commonly available in chi char places. However, what made Joo Hing popular is that they cook these common dishes much better than the rest. Ever since HY and I had a simple hor fun and stir fried venison with ginger, we've been dying to go back to Joo Hing for another session. This time round we gathered mum and dad to have 'Chi Char' dinner. 

As we arrived at Joo Hing, my dad recognized the boss of Joo Hing. Boss used to have the chi char restaurant at Dunlop street more than 20 years ago and was my grandma's customer. My grandma used to sell Joo Hing vegetables. Since then, Joo Hing was here to stay in Joo Chiat inside the shop houses with air conditioning. Dad had a little catch up with boss and I think he was quite happy about it.

If I didn't order this steamed grouper 红班, the cost of our dinner would be just slightly more than any other chi char place, but I think I've ordered the more expensive fish they have on the menu. We ask to have the grouper steamed Hong Kong style. As we dig our chopsticks into the fish, the meat slide off the bones easily. It was fresh and sweet. 

Tapioca Leaves stir fried with sambal is a must-try. The tapioca leaves were actually slightly sweet and apart from the sambal chilli some preserved beans seemed to be added to give a differentiated taste than what you normally get elsewhere. 

Another of Joo Hing's signature is the Tofu Prawns. The prawns curled up into a ball of succulence while the tofu was pre fried till it had a fragrance before mixing up in the appetizing egg white sauce.

I must say one of Joo Hing's 'unsung hero' was this dish of Sambal Chilli. It's a really good dip for the prawns that we had. One of the uncles from a nearby table was helping himself with several helpings from the condiment counter at one side of the dining area. 

Other than the dishes recommended above, we ordered the lotus root soup. However, this was a pass. It's either making soup is not Joo Hing's forte or they gave us the last bit in the soup pot. The soup had too much sediments. My MIL's version definitely tops this one. I've to tell HY to stop ordering double boiled soup in future cos' we always have MIL's standard as reference. It's not fair to the restauranteurs out there.

When you visit a chi char place, you wouldn't be bothered with service standards. I think you can expect the same here in Joo Hing. They don't allow booking for dinner during the weekends so there may be a good wait for tables.

360 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore
Tel : +65 6345 1503


Opening Hours : 
Daily 11am~2pm, 5pm~10pm
Closed on Monday

Hong Mao Mian Jia 红毛面家 ...... No Ang Moh sighted.

The name Hong Mao Mian Jia 红毛面家 evokes curiosity. Do you half expect an Ang Moh in a white singlet  cooking noodles in here? When we were there, there was no sign of any Ang Moh, just pretty good wanton noodles. HY thought the wanton were good even though the wantons are primarily filled with minced pork. Personally, I prefer wantons with shrimps. The noodles were al dente and the chilli for the dried version was sweet and shiok!  

Here's Hong Mao Mian Jia looks like at about 8.30am in the morning.

Walk straight ahead to the open glass window, take a number and shout out your orders. When the counter flashed to coincide with you number tag, your orders will arrive.

Mr. Gerard Ee has become the "advertisement" for Hong Mao Mian Jia.

182 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore


Opening Hours:
7am~3pm Tuesday~Sunday
Closed on Mondays

Chin Mee Chin Confectionary .... for a flush of nostalgia.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery is more like a coffee shop that sells cakes and pastries. The confectionery sits in one of the conservation shophouses near the East Coast road and Joo Chiat road junction. The two times we visited this 'old school' confectionery, there's always many people. What pulls them here?

During my first visiting the afternoon, all the cakes and pastries were swipe out like there's going to be war and I'm the last one here to try to get some food. All the trays sitting on the shelves were empty! So we waited for a table to have some coffee and bread, typical of a Hainanese coffee shop.

This time round, we came on a Sunday morning and the place was equally packed but there were cakes and pastries available on the trays. We grabbed a couple of curry puffs and custard puffs to be boxed up for a takeaway.

Our box of Chin Mee Chin Curry Puffs and Custard Puffs

The custard in the puff pastry.

This is 'old school' custard. Not the popular choux that comes from
the French-Japanese 'schools'.

Chin Mee Chin Curry Puff

The puff was tasty and had good texture. The curry filling
was red with taste that I prefer to be slightly more savory.

I guess I must have been spoiled by the popular choux creme puff pastry. The 'Old School' custard puff from Chin Mee Chin, to me, was more like a reminiscence of that delicious custard puff that mummy bought for me when I was still a kid. Now, the word to describe these custard puffs is "nostalgic" more then "delicious". Among the custard puff and curry puff, I prefer the curry puff for the puff texture but I prefer the filling to be more savory. However, I'll still visit Chin Mee Chin just for 'old time' sake. Somehow, sitting inside a conservation shop house, sipping traditional Hainanese coffee and eating 'old school' cakes appeals to me.

204 East Coast Road (between Joo Chiat Road and Still Road)

Tel : +65 6345 0419

Singapore

Teochew Traditional Steamboat 锦记海鲜火锅 ........ "不好吃不收钱"

Soup Base has 17 ingredients that made the soup tasty

This is the season when waves of monsoon rain cools down the weather in Singapore and make it very conducive for the steamboat meal. Along Joo Chiat Road, near to the stretch where there are pubs and a "vibrant nightlife", there's an unassuming restaurant amongst the shop houses that served good Teochew steamboat. How good it really is? Well .... so good that they actually stake a claim on their business card, "不好吃不收钱", directly translated to "If the food is no good, don't take your money". The soup base was a milky white, prepared with 17 ingredients but the boss just wouldn't tell me what's in there that made it so tasty. Of course lah ..... who would. For steamboat business to actually "make it", a good soup base is one thing, the other important factor, fresh ingredients for the pot. 锦记 Jin Ji provides only fresh meat and seafood, coupled with the tasty soup base that made it such an enjoyable meal. There's one ingredient placed behind the counter that not really fresh though ..... Calmex Abalone.

Here's some ingredients that we ordered;

This beef was super tender. Of course we shouldn't cook it for too long.

US Prime Beef that well marbled. This beef was super tender.

Dip the beef into the bubbling pot. But don't over do it.

Pork Balls. These pork balls aren't nicely 
rounded but taste nice and tangy.

Yam Sticks

Squid Balls. This is the squid paste. The balls weren't prepared yet. Service staff will do that for you. Another tangy tasty dish.

Fresh Sliced Grouper. We were proud of ourselves for
ordering this. It's really sweet and tender.

Drunken Prawns. They were still kicking and alive
until they got too drunk.

Boss Recommended this fish paste thick noodle.
It was very tangy and delicious. Just cook this for a while.

The chilli sauce at the far end had a real kick.
This garlic, chilli soy sauce made the
food taste all the better.

With steamboat that taste so good, it's no wonder why they are so confident to stake the claim "不好吃不收钱". One tip to take note : The place outside the restaurant can be quite active at night. For our female friends who want to eat here, if you don't want to be mistaken, do take care to dress up more appropriately.

176 Joo Chiat Road (Near junction of Joo Chiat Place)

Tel : +65 6348 8924

Singapore

Joo Chiat Prawn Mee ........ shiok prawn noodle soup

Hidden in the Joo Chiat area, off the main road, is a hidden treasure for prawn noodles. Joo Chiat Prawn Noodles is located in a corner coffee shop at the junction of Carpmael and Crane Road. The Makansutra certificate was hung up at the pillar beside the prawn noodle stall. That morning, when we were there, only the prawn noodle stall was opened. There wasn't any crowd but everyone was eating the prawn noodle. HY and I preferred the taste of this prawn noodle stall than the more popular Beach Road Prawn Noodles.

Prawn Noodle Soup

The prawn wasn't cut into half like the Beach Road prawn noodles but I'm glad that they removed the shell at the body of the prawns. This made it easier to eat the prawn meat than when the prawns are split into halves. The soup here was superbly sweet. We ask for extra soup.

Soft and tender pork rib. The meat was cooked till it was very soft.

I like to add chilli powder for the extra kick.

75 Carpmael Road

Singapore