Shun Feng is highly raved for its yummy crayfish soup. There was a long queue already at 11:30 am and we waited for almost an hour. We ordered the large crayfish soup ($10) and a sliced mackerel soup ($7) which almost wasn't enough for three people. Took a glimpse around and noticed most customers had a large bowl of soup to themselves. 

We wanted to try the crystal horfun ($0.50) which came doused in soy sauce and crispy shallots. To our dismay, they ran out of horfun shortly before our turn, so we had to settle for the white rice (same price).

Can't go wrong with chili padi / sambal and crayfish (:

Each large bowl came with three whole crayfish (small ones), homemade meat balls, sliced dory, tofu and tomatoes. The crayfish was fresh, tender and slid off the shell easily. It also did not have a fishy aftertaste. We also enjoyed the meatballs which were packed full of ingredients like mushroom. The soup on the other hand was a bit of a let down. We went in with high expectations as everyone was saying how rich  and creamy it was, but it turned out to be much lighter in taste.

Sher went for the soupy version of prawn mee ($4) because she loves the deliciously rich stock. It is so red because all the goodness have been extracted from the prawn shells and prawns heads and gone into the soup. Although the broth is loaded with oil and cholesterol, we slurped up every drop of it.

S went for the dry prawn and pork rib combo ($5 for small). The dry version comes in a delicious chili sauce and deep fried shallots. The pork ribs were fork tender, albeit on the fatty side. Served separately is a small bowl of prawn stock.

The smallest portion is actually not very substantial. We were left craving for more. On hindsight, since were already survived the queue, we should have gone for the larger portion instead. Also on a side note, the popiah ($1.50) from a nearby stall was quite good -- we liked the pleasantly crispy popiah skin.

A more apt title for this post would be Toa Payoh Blk 92 Coffee Shop (10-15 mins walk from Braddel MRT) because we are going to review two stalls! The famous Kim Keat Hokkien Mee and Ocean Fish Head Curry. We had particularly high expectations for the former because we've been seeing so many Instagram videos of this hokkien mee bubbling contently in their rustic claypots. There were six of us, so we ordered two servings ($5 each, small). Unfortunately, despite all the hype, this hokkien mee did not live up to our expectations. Yes the seafood was fresh but the noodles were horribly overcooked, and the gravy wasn't particularly tasty -- overall it was average at best.

Since we were next to the Ocean, we decided to get ourselves some Claypot Fish Head Curry ($36). We were given a pretty big fish head (ang goli), and with it a generous portion of lady's fingers, brinjal, tomatoes and onions. The curry seemed a tad watered down, but was still tasty enough.

Looking up from our meal, we found the coffee shop to be outrageously packed. People stood around us, eyeing our every bite, waiting for the moment where we would stand up and they would get their long awaited seat. Lots of people were also dabao-ing cai fan from Ocean. Apparently, some people don't mind paying tse char prices for cai fan.

On the last day of the free-ride period to commemorate the opening of Downtown Line 2, and with food blogger Maureen's guide in hand, we decided to do our very own food trip. Our first stop was Beauty World Food Centre. With the opening of this segment of the line, Beauty World Food Centre becomes so much more accessible to the everyday foodie. 

If there's one stall you have to try at Beauty World Food Centre, it's got to be Top 1 Home Made Noodles. The stall name speaks for itself -- extremely QQ homemade noodles. Don't be deceived by the lack of a queue: you order and collect separately. To order, you first choose the type of noodle (beehoon, ban mian, you mian, mee hoong kueh, etc.) then the cooking style (soup, dry, chili/no chili) and finally the main ingredient (sliced fish, meat balls, abalone, etc.). Then you'll be issued a queue number and you can go off to find your seats!

Sher had sliced fish you mian (soupy version, $4). Along with 3-4 slices of fish (snakehead), there were the usual toppings. The soup here tasted slightly richer than S's, perhaps because all the ingredients were mixed in. What we enjoyed most was that the egg noodles were cooked just right and had a toothy bite to it.

Another photo of the dry banmian! Sadly, the unsatisfying portions left us wanting more. Also good in a way, because we had room for more food as we continued our Downtown Line hopping.

We wanted to try Hambaobao but unfortunately it was closed that day. We will definitely be back for more!

Walking down Purvis Street, you will find many eateries selling chicken rice and Thai food. Today, we had an inclination to go for local food, so chicken rice it was! However, we had no idea which was the famous stall, so like all typical Singaporeans, we went for the most crowded one at that point in time -- Chin Chin Eating House.

Your cookie cutter tse char menu. Everyone else had a plate of chicken on their table and we immediately regretted not ordering one. Another recommended dish is the Hainanese Pork Chop. But if you are just here for the chicken rice, you can get a single portion for $4 (not too shabby).

Crispy beancurd ($6 for small) was quite a steal. True to its name, it was crispy and best eaten hot. Normally, you'd expect tse char beancurd to cost at least $8+ dollars and with more garnish than beancurd. A curious phenomenon because beancurd isn't that expensive in the first place? Anyway, don't bother with the chili sauce that comes with this dish, its passable at best. Instead we dipped our beancurd in the chicken rice chili sauce with crushed ginger (: 

Had to go for the Dou Miao or pea shoots ($8 for small), which is one of our favorite vegetable dishes. This portion could probably feed 4 pax, if you order the standard one dish per pax.

Have you ever had dry ban mian? Neither did we until we chanced upon Toa Payoh Central's famous dry ban mian. Normally with dry meepok or dry meekia you'd expect some combination of the classic chili/vinegar/tomato/dark soy sauce. However, with ban mian, one would probably be curious as to how on earth do you serve it dry. At Fu Zhou Ban Mian (whose signboard just states Ban Mian), for $3.50, what you get is a huge bowl of handmade broad noodles (ban mian), mixed in dark soy sauce. Apart from the crispy ikan bilis, a cracked egg and minced pork, this dish is a vegetarians' delight. It is absolutely loaded to the brim with green leafy vegetable (we think the veges are seasonal. We had cabbage on our second visit)-- trust us the picture doesn't really do it justice.

Be prepared to wait!  We went around dinner time on our second visit and had to wait about 30 - 45 mins for our order to be ready.

Because we had the dry Ban Mian, it came with a very generous portion of soup (with more leafy veges and an egg!) S ordered a dry prawn mee ($3.50) which had lots of kangkong (morning glory) and tau geh (mung beansprouts) -- and as usual, added too much chili powder. Because we are greedy people, we had to order popiah ($1.50) from a nearby stall to complement our meal. It was decent, although there wasn't any fragrant rojak flower that we adore.

This Ban Mian place has hardly any reviews so we thought we'd give it some publicity given that its cheap and good. Block 186 is within walking distance from HDB hub, look out for Courts!

In preparation for our visit to the Sembawang White Beehoon at Punggol Settlement, we thought it would be apt to dig out our photos from our previous trip to the original Sembawang White Beehoon at Jalan Tampang (just across the road from Sembawang Shopping Centre). We were there for a quick lunch before our K Box session, so fortunately, we only had to contend with workers from the nearby offices and factories. Apparently, the dinner queue for tse char at night can be quite an intimidating affair.   

The medium portion of White Beehoon costs only $6 and was large enough for the both of us! It looks like something my grandma would whip up at home, it was far tastier, albeit disappointingly lacking in wok hei. The star of the show was probably the rich and starchy stock, which was easily soaked up by the white beehoon. There was also a decent amount of prawns and sotong to go with the noodles. All in all, although not a particularly exciting dish, we thought it would serve well as a lighter alternative to horfun. Leaves you with more tummy space for other dishes like their much raved ngor hiang or fried chicken wings.

Alexandra Village Food Centre has lots of great options. However, as there's only so much food two stomachs can handle, we had to make some rather hard choices. In the end, we decided to go for the Bak Ku Teh and Roast Meat Rice instead of the Claypot Laksa and jiao zi.

There's two types of Bak Ku Teh out there in Singapore, the herbal kind and the peppery kind. Leon Kee's Bak Ku Teh belongs to the former category.  Laced with dang gui and garlic cloves, the claypot helps keep the soup hot. We ordered the portion with extra pork ribs ($6.00) and added crispy you tiao ($1) to soak up the flavorful soup. To go with the pork ribs which have been stewed for hours on end until tender, make sure to grab some chili padi and dark soy sauce. 

Next to the Bak Ku Teh stall was a long queue for this roast meat rice. Being typical Singaporeans, we had to see what the fuss was about. We know it looks like a pile of grisly meat and grease but believe us, it is in fact an incredible combination of char siu and roast pork doused in their special braised sauce. For only $3.50 a portion, you also get a bowl of cabbage soup (with pigtail) which helps to cleanse your palate between each spoonful of the sinfully good roast meat.

We will be heading back there a second time to try the highly raved claypot laksa!