Fuel Plus

If you heard of Refuel Cafe which is popular in the East sides, you will probably know that they have opened another cafe in Telok Blangah area located at the foot of Mount Faber.

Fuel Plus

Interior has thrown a show case of  Scandinavian inspired decor. The environment is bright and gives a comfortable feel to diner. If you notice the pipeline decoration on the wall, you will figure out that they are spelling out "Fuel Plus".

Can you read?

We ordered some bites while waiting for the mains and we were glad that we did as it took quite sometime for the food to come. Cheesy tortilla nibbles were not a bad choice and served with BBQ pulled pork topped with refreshing salsa, jalapeno and their homemade sauce.

Nacho Pulled Pork - $12

While presentation is a plus point here, we also get to taste a different style of enjoying a glass of Ice Latte. Instead of having milk with espresso topped with ice. They did a reverse engineer way by having Espresso Freeze into cubes and served it with a glass of milk.

Ice Latte PLUS - $6.50

Close up of Ice Espresso Cubes

Fuel Ice Tea is surprisingly refreshing. Sweetness level was just right and pack full of citrus flavours. You get to taste the real strawberry fruits, kaffir lime and mint flavours in this drink. Definitely a boost to your vitamin C for the day!

Fuel Ice Tea - $5.50

The slow baked tender pork ribs were tantalizing! It comes with thai inspired mixed salad that contains rocket leaves, cauliflower, strawberries and even slice of fried lotus root. Yum! Taste and tenderness were definitely great and comparable to those cafe that specialized in BBQ Ribs. However, one thing that can improve on maybe perhaps the serving time. It was served cold and we preferred to have it at least warm.

Honey BBQ Babyback Ribs - $20

Close Up for Babyback Ribs

It was the dish I looked forward to the most before travelling down. I was tad disappointed as it was served with egg fettucini instead. Nonetheless, the quality of the food was above expectation. Tender chunks of beef was a spot on. The slow cooked beef in rich hereby tomato sauce was generous and every part of the pasta was well coated in sauce.

Beef Ragu - $18

Overall, food has been slightly above expectation and by looking at other tables orders, i'm kind of convinced that we have to make additional trip back to try other interesting bites, desserts as well as the Mains. Serving timing for the mains may take a while but good food comes to those who wait. Ha Ha Ha.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Refuel Plus
Location: 6 Morse Road #01-207, Singapore 099228

Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice

I'm rather surprise with Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice as they are appearing rapidly in malls these days despite that such common dishes in Singapore already has been all over in the food industry. Nonetheless, Singaporeans share a common love for food and by observing such snaky long queue outside this Michelin Bib Gourmand Chicken Rice from Bangkok, it just tell us so.

History

Omelette is fluffy and generous in its thick portion accompanied by Thai chilli sauce that is made up of fermented soy bean, ginger, green chilli, dark soya sauce. With a frequent order of Thai Chai Poh Omelette in Thai restaurant, this dish falls below my expectation as I will prefer the bite of Chai Poh to be more prominent.

Chai Poh Omelette - $6.50

Chicken was smooth and tender. I would say it tastes close to an average chicken rice stall in Singapore. The only differences is that they adopted the use of their chilli sauce that was mild spicy and not as spicy as the ones we usually have.

Half Chicken - $16

Signature Braised Pork was commendable. Sauce had deeply infused into the tender braised meat. It was braised to its softness that it can easily turn into a pulled-pork dish.

Signature Braised Pork - $8

The portion of rice is smaller than expected and cost $1.50 per plate which is on a high side. Those who can do without carbs may want to order at least 2 plates of it. It lacked the aromatic of the usual chicken rice that we have. However, one thing that is worth commenting is perhaps that their rice is least greasy. 

Rice - $1.50 each

Last but not least, how can we miss out ordering the Thai Dessert? Well, taste wise its quite ordinary and if you were to ask me, honest speaking, I will say that you can save this $5 to make up for another dish.

Red Ruby - $5

Given the competitive chicken rice stalls in Singapore, I find that Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice has nothing to shout about. However, this Thai Style Poached chicken did give a twist to the common chicken rice we have in Singapore. So if you are bored of Singapore Style of Chicken Rice, Go-Ang Pratunam might just be another of your chicken rice choice.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice

Location: 1 Harbourfront Walk, #B2-30 VivoCity, Singapore 098585

Mui Kee Congee

Chanced by Mui Kee Congee while we were around Shaw Centre area and decided to give it a try as there was no queue.

Mui Kee Congee

To begin with, Mui Kee has its very first outlet in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. It had begun with a young 30 years old lady , Mak Mui. Her son then took over the reins by putting in his same amount of passion and efforts as his mum. Over the years, Mui Kee has steadily built up its reputation among locals as well as tourists. Three generations later, Mak Mui's grandson (known as Ah Tung) took over the business. He took over the recipes and heritage cooking techniques during the 2 years of training from his grandmother at the age of 22 before he was allowed to be in the kitchen.

Mui Kee Congee

Congee is definitely the traditional Cantonese way of preparation. It was silky till no grains of rice can be seen. They were not watery and best was that each mouthful of it was permeated with so much of charred flavours in it.  While I expect the dace fish balls to smell abit fishy but I was thrown with some surprise here.

Dace Fish Balls 生滚鲜鯪鱼丸 - $9.80

There were about 6 dace fish balls in my bowl and we were quite comfortable with the taste. It was bouncy and tasted refreshing. Seems like that one of the ingredients included were orange zest.

Dace Balls

Innard were cooked to the correct texture, not too tough. As for the intestines, they were well handled. We added some pork balls for another $4 and we were glad that it did not disappoint.

Pork Innards 生滚及第 (肚,肝与粉肠) - $8.80

Steamed rice noodle was thin and smooth by itself. Adding on the sweet black sauce had boosted its moisture and lifting the plain rice noodle a delectable one with its ingredients. Besides the mixed mushrooms, it does come with a few variation like the chfe recommendations, Sakura Ebi or Roasted Duck with preserved vegetables.

Mixed Mushrooms 杂菇肠粉- $5

The Chrysanthemum Red Dates tea is not your usual kind of sweet herbal tea. Instead it tasted bitter and may not be a liking for all.

Home Made Chrysanthemum Red Dates Tea 自製菊花红枣茶 & Homemade Iced Citron Tea自製柠檬茶 - $2.50 Each

Overall, Mui Kee had brought the culture from Hong Kong into the shop where service staff take order conversing in Cantonese. However you can get them to switch into Mandarin or English too if you prefer this way. Apart than that, service is quite efficient and luckily the atrocious Hong Kong Service culture was not being brought here.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Mui Kee Congee
Location: 1 Scotts Rd, #01 - 12, Singapore 228208
Website

Whampoa Keng Fish Head Steamboat 黄埔庆鱼头炉

Friends were mentioning that we should try some Fish Steamboat for the evening and we went through a list of popular eating places and decided that we should explore the shop house in Balestier as its has been popular and long standing in that area.

It was nearing dinner time and for walk-in customers we had to join the snaky long queue as we did not make any reservations.

See the Queue

While waiting for our tables, we were told to look into the menu and decide what to order. There were seats outside the restaurant to let customers rest while waiting, however the number of seats could not accommodate all the people that were waiting. Some of them have to stand on the pavement which is just next to the road and we find it quite dangerous, also blocking the pedestrians who were passing by us.

The Queue

We waited for quite sometimes and while watching both human and the traffic, we managed to catch the beautiful blue hour during that day.

Blue Hour

About an hour of wait, we finally got our table. Order taking was fast and soon, our dishes were up on the table.

Spinach has a well balanced with depth of flavour coming from the mixture of normal, century and salted eggs. I'm the one who usually love to grab some of the vegetable gravy with my rice but not in this case as it is more of diluted and too much water content in the dish.

Sauteed Spinach in Assorted Eggs

Har Cheong kai aka Prawn Paste Chicken's depth of flavour is there and it was marinated long enough with the fermented prawn paste. Wings were plump and crispy at its first bite, letting out its hot juicy flavours.

Prawn Paste Chicken - (Medium)

This was what we were attracted to Whampoa Keng. The steamboat stock was milky and tasted great. Ingredients include the chunks of fish, fried yam, cabbages, seaweed, herbs and hints of fried sole fish taste were spotted. Charcoal as left burning throughout the session in the middle of the pot.

Let's dig in

The entire eating area was cramp and servers have to be extremely careful not to knock over the hot steamboat into others. Not only that, the entire place was smoky with steam rising up from each table's hot pot.

Burning in the Charcoal

Their prices are on a steeper side if we were to compare the same meals to other Fish Head Steamboat. For that time taken for us to queue and grab a table, I would not mind exchange Whampoa Keng Fish Head Steamboat for other eating places. However, taking a look at the crowd, it seems like big families with elderly were enjoy such dinner sessions. Perhaps this traditional name of Fish Head Steamboat already have a group of their die hard fans who love Whampoa Keng's style of preparing the Steamboat.

Rating: 3 / 5

Whampoa Keng Fish Head Steamboat 黄埔庆鱼头炉
Location: 554/556 Balestier Road Singapore 329872

May Veggie Home

This was my first experience having vegetarian meals and visiting 100% Vegan Eatery as an itinerary during my travel. A different approach and of course an eye opener to me enjoying people watching while immersing ourselves into the home cook vegan dishes. Thanks to our pal's recommendation, else the trip to May Veggie Home would not have materialized.

Maggie Vegan Cuisine

Diners came here not just by words of mouth. In fact May Veggie Home has been also feature in tripadvisor and HappyCow, thus the crowd would would not be just only locals but foreigners too. In terms of its location, they are easily accessible via BTS (Asok Station) or a stone throw away from the shopping mall Terminal 21.

Recommendation on Trip Advisor

There's a merchandise corner for healthy food and you can pick them home.

Merchandise 

With such welcoming decorations in the corner, we find that the environment was rather cosy and unpretentious.

Corner

Good that the restaurant is environmental friendly as they are using paper straws. Both drinks were definitely refreshing to beat the hot weather. For Lemon Grass drinks, diner get to see the original lemon grass plant in the cup and we were all glad that they tasted great without being too sweet.

Iced Lemon Grass & Iced Thai Tea - 59 Baht Each

We started the appetizers with the Grilled Vegetarian Bacon. "Bacon" texture was almost there, crispy and produce a kind of smoky flavor, wrapping around the small bunch of enoki mushrooms. It would be perfect with this bacon were thinner.

Grilled Vegetarian Bacon - 149 Baht

I would comment that this Cauliflower Spicy Wing was an interesting creation. I would have think they were meat balls if we were not in a vegetarian eatery. It was actually made up of cauliflower, battered and deep fried then coated with some spicy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Though drenched under the sauce, the crispiness were still well kept.

Cauli-BON CHON - 129 Baht

Its hard not to order the staple Thai dishes when we are in Bangkok. Vegetarian Shrimp Tom Yum with Coconut Meat was served in an earthen pot, keeping the soup warm. Often I will order the clear Tom Yum Soup and will avoid the orange broth but definitely not for this. Coconut milk was sparingly used in the dish without compromising its taste.

Tom Yum Kung - 149 Baht (Small)

There were still some fiery kicks in between mouthful of sips and I love the fragrance of its lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and other ingredients. 

Plentiful of Ingredients

Pineapple Fried Rice was nicely presented in the fruit itself. The fried turmeric rice was topped with "Chinese Sausage", pineapple, raisin, cashew nuts and shredded soy "meat".

Kao-Pad-Sap-Pa-Rod - 220 Baht

This dish reminds me me of Larb Moo, one of my favourite Thai dishes. Nevertheless, the vegetarian version having fried Minced Tofu in Basil Sauce is also one of the better dishes we had ordered. The presence of basil fragrance and texture from the fried Tofu had already won our hearts.

Krapraow Tofu - 129 Baht

Phad Thai with Tofu just as the dish name suggested. It was nothing fanciful and quite decent as a noodle dish.

Phad Thai Tofu - 119 Baht

Also indicated as one of the gluten free dish on the menu. The stir fried Chinese Kale with "Veg Salted Fish" or "Tofu" was a heart warming dish. Vegetables were crunchy and the gravy together with the "Salted Fish" blends in well and lifted the taste of the dish.

Pad Ka Nah Pla Kem - 129 Baht

The greedy us could not stop looking at the menu and finally decided that we should order something from its Western Menu. Vegan Burger Bun was fragrant, soft and was home made. BBQ Shredded Soy Meat was sandwiched and topped with cashew nut cheese. Presentation had scored points here too with food items served on a cross section of a tree trunk. Besides the burger, platter was served with sides like salad, onion rings , cheesy dip and ketchup.

BBQ Cheese Burger - 249 Baht

The cold drinks we ordered from the start were just not enough for our dehydrating bodies. We had a pot of hot lemongrass too.

Hot Lemongrass - 69 Baht

Overall, the food was interesting and generally tastes good. However, the pet peeve were their service standards. Most of the time we had to wave frantically before grabbing their servers attention, it felt that they were looking at our direction yet not attending to us till we stand up and head towards the counter.

May Veggie Home

Location: 8/3 Ratchadaphisek Rd, Khwaeng Khlong Toei, Khet Khlong Toei, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10110

Website

Hualong Fishhead Steamboat 華龍魚頭爐

Hualong Fishhead Steamboat has been established since 2003 famous for its heartwarming fishhead charcoal steamboat and this is their 2nd branch in Bukit Batok. There were also featured on Channel 8's TV Program couple of years back.

Hua Long

Its hard not to give this a try when this is raved one of the best fishhead steamboat in Singapore and also their their specialty. Pledge themselves the using a top grade soup without having MSG added and having it sold out daily. Their secret recipe was said to be using old mother hen,  anchoives, yellow beans, rock sugar and many other ingredients slow cooking for hours under the charcoal fire.

Hualong Charcoal Steamboat

We enjoyed the smallest red snapper version of their charcoal steamboat pot. Other than snapper, Red Grouper and promfret option are also available for the choices of fish.

Red Snapper - $23.80 / $38.80 / $48.80

A small portion is good for 3-4 pax sharing with other side dishes order. Ingredients almost filled to the brim together with big chunks of fish. The soup tasted milky and with hints of fried sole fish. Simply yummy!

Steamboat

We got a few pieces of cross sections of the fish.

Cross Section of Fish Meat

Having something out of their printed menu. They called it "Ham Yu Fa Lam Pou" in the dialect. Sizzling hot delight of pork belly slices topped with salted fish and placed in the claypot makes the a hearty meal. The ginger, onions and slices of dried chilli makes the dish looked a fiery combination but it turned out that together with the tender slices of pork belly, dark soy sauce, its actually a mixture of savoury flavours. They only have this randomly on its special menu. There are other out of menu items too.

Belly with Salted Fish in Claypot  咸鱼花腩煲 - $12

Having Cze Char gave you more choice of how you want the dish to be done. Just like the omelette, there were a few variations to choose from. From plain egg, Fuyong, Shrimps, Onion, Bittergoud, minced meat or even Chinese sausage. We have the minced meat Omlette, it was fluffy and definitely

Minced Meat Omelette 煎蛋 - $9

Their Signature Wok fried Noodles comes with a selection of either Bee Hoon or Kway Teow. Noodles were moist and tasted different. It was said that their top-grade soup was added and permeates into them. Ingredients were plentiful and that includes tasty morsels of fish, squid, prawn, lala and meats. It made a great choice that we traded our white rice with this.

Signature Wok Fried White Bee Hoon 招牌特制百米粉 / 白果条 -  $7.50 / $10 / $15 / $20 

Whenever rainy day comes, it would be good to enjoy such warm steamboat over the cold weather. We do not need to travel far and queue for those very popular Charcoal Fishhead Steamboat in the City and we can just fall back on Hualong's dishes.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Hualong Fishhead Steamboat
Location: 155 Bukit Batok Street 11Singapore 650155