Koung's Wan Tan Mee

Koung's Wan Tan Mee is one of the recommended WTM to go to in Singapore. It has been around for more than 60 years. In the earlier days, they are located in Geylang Lor 12 for 36 years and due to the increase in the rental price, they have shifted to Geylang Lor 13 for another 12 years before they shifted to the current location.

Stall of Koung's Wan Tan Mee

Although there is not much physical queue in front of the stall, we observed that all customers were already seated at the table, waiting for their number to be called to receive their order. It took us about half an hour before we can collect it.

Our Queue Number

The egg noodles were good and the texture was different from our "Mee Kia". It was springy and the firmness was still there despite leaving it there to take multiple pics of the entire meal. The noodle when tossed in their delicious sauce looked glistering and appetizing. The chilli was homemade by Mr Koung's and paired perfectly well with the noodles.

Wanton Noodle Dry - $5

With the making of the chilli, Mr Koung took a long time to research and perfect his chilli taste. The blend of sweet-spicy taste is rather unique to its own. On top of that, adding the handful of lards gave some cracklings bites together with Choy Sum greens and the noodles.

Wanton Noodle Dry 

The Charcoal Roasted Char Siew is made in house and marinated with 5 ingredients. Though the use of Gas Fire is more convenient, Mr Koung believed that Char Siew must be Roasted with Charcoal to get the consistent and acquired taste. He added that he has been using this method for 50-60 years.

Charcoal Roasted Char Siew

The wanton soup tasted good and these wanton were swimming in the soup while being served to us. The size was average and wantons were pretty decent with smooth skin encasing some minced meat.

Wanton

The dumpling soup was great and these dumplings packed a good punch of meat and prawns taste.

Dumping - $0.60 Per piece

With Prawns

Although I had tasted their Wanton Mee in JEM, I still prefer this original outlet in Sims Avenue even there is no air-conditioned environment. Having said this, Mall is still easier to access as compared to here.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Koung's Wan Tan Mee
Location: 205 Sims Ave, Singapore 387506

Website

Zheng Zeng Handmade Pau 真蒸手工包

Heard that the Pork Belly Pau was strongly advocated for and we decided to explore the area. Upon reaching the HDB Block, I was stunned by the length of queue. However, in the blink of eyes, the queue was cleared in a speedy manner.  

Stall of Zheng Zeng

No doubt that the queue was cleared, it left us with only one Signature Pork Belly Pau to order and we were told to wait for another 20 minutes to half an hour for the next batch of Pau to be ready.

Orders in Disposable Plate

The Siew Mai are rather ordinary in taste. Decent enough if you want just want some bites or fill the stomach.

Siew Mai

The Pork Belly Pau aka Kong Bak Pau was what made our presence there. The meat was well marinated and fragrant with a good balance of fats that literally melts in our mouth. The savoury sweet tasting meat goes well with the handmade pau. Delicious and sinfully good.

Pork Belly Pau - $1.50

Upon biting down of the Pau, I was elated as I have been looking for this familiar taste for quite a long time since one of my favorite Pau Shop in Ang Mo Kio has moved. The Pau was tender and soft, encasing the well marinated and juicy meat. It has an oriental cooking wine taste that goes well with a portion of hard boil egg within. 

Meat Pau - $1.70

Zheng Zeng Handmade Pau is of quality and uses premium ingredients selectively. They do have another branch located at Toa Payoh. Its kind of disappointing that they do not have one in the Western Region of Singapore. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Zheng Zeng Handmade Pau 真蒸手工包
Location: Sheng Hui Coffee Shop, 45 Sims Drive #01-150 Singapore 380045
Website

Sean Kee - Dine In

Have been revisiting many old places recently and here comes one of my favourite braised duck rice stalls. The coffee shop is still as run down as it is, giving the old school rustic interior look. As usual, the crowd is there on a weekend and we can see that the 3 brothers were pretty occupied with their individual roles at the stall. 

Sin Huat Eating House with Sean Kee

Sin Huat Eating House

We ordered a set for 2 pax and it comes with a mixture of meat and innards with 2 bowls of soup as well as 2 bowls of rice. The soup was tasty and sweet with cabbage.

Braised Duck Set for 2 - $18

Though it was about 7 years apart from the last visit, their style of dishing out this braised plate of meat remains the same. The braised duck was lavishly topped with braised peanuts and bean sprouts, decked by slices of cut cucumbers.

A plate of braised Goodness

Every piece of duck meat is uniformly cut to this size and it tasted so good with its sticky savoury braised gravy.

Braised Duck Meat

Although the braised duck already tasted good by itself, I still could not help but immerse this meat into the chilli given. Beware you might get addicted to this sour and tangy chilli too.

Dip them into Chilli

Not forgetting the moist and evenly coated rice drenched with sticky sauce. The combination of the savoury taste and tender texture of braised duck makes our trip so fulfilling and definitely money well spent.

Rice

After so many years, I'm still loving it! Whenever we talked about food in Geylang, Sean Kee's Braised Duck will never be left out!

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Posted on 11th September 2015

After a few tries again, we finally got our butts in the Coffeeshop where Sean Kee is located - Dine In. The previous visit to Sean Kee was a takeaway and within few weeks from the last visit, we managed to visit them on a Public Holiday. We did a comparison among our visits from take away to trying out them in the Food Festival. The experience was different but I would say their braised duck was remarkable.

For Dine-In, though the braised rice portion is considered half a portion lesser than take away. However, the sweet & salty gravy cradles each grain of rice well.

During this time of visit, besides the 3 big brothers who was manning the stall, their dad was there too.

Rice

As a soup lover, the best part of dining in the coffeehouse itself is to get a bowl of soup. Soup was tasty and with hints of herbs smell, however, it also gave us a sense that it was filled with lots of MSG based on the strong taste.

Soup

The mix platter was generously done with braised peanut, cucumber and beansprouts on top of the sweet braised duck meat, braised hard boil egg as well as braised Tau Gua. The tick and luscious gravy had spread all over it revealing a little sweetness that appeals to my taste buds.

Braised Duck

Cut on the braised duck was relatively even with meat being tender and tantalizing to the palate.

Look at its toppings

If you like your braised duck to go with some porridge, its also available at Sean Kee. The texture of the porridge was smooth and gooey, almost like a small bowl of Congee. Once again, their dark brown gravy do wonders on the plain bowl of porridge too and seriously, I dont mind having extra bowl of it apart from a bowl of rice.

Porridge

Having experience both dine in and take away from Sean Kee, I would say that I would prefer having the dine in method as we get to have a good feel and taste of braised duck at its best condition. The portion of duck and rice marked a big differences between dine in and take away too. Thus, Dine In is definitely recommended.

Rating: 4 / 5

Sean Kee
Location: 659 Lorong 35 Geylang Road Singapore 389589
Operating Hours: 11am - 6pm (Closed on Alternate Saturday)

Mini Star (HK) Fermented Beancurd

We were travelling along Geylang Road after lunch and chanced by this Mini Star Fermented Beancurd shop. The Fermented Beancurd word had made me stop by as I had heard many talking about the stall in Geylang but I did not plan to visit the place. The stench was strong enough to make one in thinking that the drain somewhere is choked and needed attention.

Shop of Mini Star Fermented Beancurd

I hurried into the shop and ordered a portion of Fermented Beancurd for take away. The wait was about 5-8 minutes. Sweet sauce, chilli and pickles were packed separately.

Fermented Beancurd (2Pcs) 臭豆腐 （2个）- $4

In such case, it is easier as we can control the amount of spice and sweetness to savour down these 2 blocks of fermented beancurd.

Sauces and Pickles

The beancurd was deep-fried and the exterior comes with a light crisp with the interior soft and good to go with the sauces.

A block of Fried Beancurd

Though they served Hong Kong Dishes, they still manage to fix my Fermented Beancurd Cravings in Taiwan. If you are craving for Smelly Beancurd, do visit them.

Rating: 3.25 / 5 

Mini Star (HK) Fermented Beancurd
Location: 795 Geylang Rd, Singapore 389678

Yong He Eating House 永和豆浆油条大王

No doubt Geylang is known for the Red Light districts, they are also known for a great place for supper. Yong He Eating House 永和豆浆油条大王 specialises in Taiwanese snacks like Mee Sua, Fried Spring Onion Cake, Soya Bean, Taiwanese Oyster Omelette etc... If you have been to Taiwan, they do have 永和豆浆油条大王 there too.

With all the sweet bean curds from shops and stalls, to see Saltish Bean Curd is a rare sight. Just as the name suggests, bean curd is read salty with preserved turnip, hints of sesame oil, fried fritters, spring onions. Not my favourite and not everyone will like it but the dish brings out an absolute Taiwan's food culture.

Saltish Bean Curd 咸豆花 - $2.50

We cannot compare to what we have in Xi Men Ding Night Market's Ah Zhong's Mee Sua else this will definitely be a far cry to that. The bowl of Mee Sua consists of cut big intestine and have an ordinary taste. In fact, some of the Taiwanese stalls does this dish better, perhaps you may want to skip this and save some of your tummy space.

Taiwan Noodle 台湾面线 - $4

With just the plain spring onion cake, it costs $1.60 but if it's plastered with egg, it's an additional of $0.70. The onion cake was lacklustre and was too thick thus too filling to the stomach.

Fried Spring Onion Cake 葱油饼加蛋 - $2.30

The taste of this Taiwanese Staple food is too localise to Singaporean's taste and nothing similar to what we had in Taiwan. Minced meat was generously provided in the bowl decking up by the rice. However, it lacked the traditional punch of braised sauce that accentuates the meat and it's not very common to have preserved vegetables in the bowl of rice too. The meal was accompanied by half a braised boiled egg.

Braised Minced Pork Rice 鲁肉饭 - $4

The Taiwanese style of Oyster Omelette is very different to our local way of presentation no doubt it's the same Asia cooking. Instead of just starch, egg and oysters, the Taiwanese style has spinach included and sweet gravy drenching over the Oyster Omelette. 

Taiwanese Oyster Omelette 台湾蚵仔煎 - $4

We will not purposely make a trip back here unless we are either nearby or really hungry in the night as it is open 24 hours.

Rating: 3 / 5

Yong He Eating House 永和豆浆油条大王
Location: 458 Geylang Road, Lor 24A Geylang, Singapore 389417

L32 Handmade Noodle

Updating the post of L32 Handmade Noodle since 2015. With about 6 years difference and inflation, the basic bowl of Pork Handmade Noodles has increased $0.60.

Signboard with Revised Pricing

The quality and taste is still my favorite. 

Pork Handmade Noodle - $4.60

The homemade noodles were well cook and does not have the flour taste. We have experienced a smooth texture of the noodle.

Handmade Noodle

Portion was adequate with lean pork slices and ingredients include, egg, vegetables, minced pork, fried Ikan Billis and fried onions. The soup version was sweet and tasty. 

Pork Slices

Here's the Mee Hoon Kway handmade noodle in its dried version. Ingredients were the same with soup separated in a bowl filled with egg.

Pork Handmade Noodle - $4.60 (Dry)

Mix it up evenly in the sauce and enjoyed the delicious bowl of Mee Hoon Kway.

After Mixing with Sauce

Despite that the wait and limited car park lots still remains the same, I still don't mind visiting them once in a while to get my handmade Noodle cravings fix!

Rating: 4 / 5

L32 Handmade Noodle
Location: 558 Geylang Lorong 32 Singapore 388980

Whitley Rd Big Prawn Noodle

Whitley Rd Big Prawn Noodle is one of the "To-Eats" if you are in Old Airport Rd Food Centre. A long time ago before they move here, they operated under the Whitley Rd flyover in the 1970s. Subsequently, they were at Farrer Park Food Center. The Food Center was demolished in the late 90s to make way for the construction of North-East MRT Line and they were here at the current location since 1996.

Whitley Rd Big Prawn Noodle 

The soup was darker in brown-orange in color, though it smelled fragrant, it might be kind of oily for some of us. It tasted with hints of pork bone taste and definitely the prawns head. Interestingly, the prawns came in small, medium and large. They were already half de-shelled which save some of our troubles peeling them.

Prawn Noodle - $4.50

Thankfully the prawns were fresh and plump, no complaints on that. Ensuring freshness, the prawns were boiled in the stock upon ordering.

Biggest in the bowl

They have a few stalls in Singapore, however, the one that is recommended in the Michelin Guide will be from the Old Airport Road Food Center.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Whitley Rd Big Prawn Noodle
Location: Old Airport Road Food Centre, Blk 51 Old Airport Road, #01-98 Singapore 390051
Nearest MRT Station: Dakota (CC8)

Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh

Recently we returned to the Bak Kut Teh Stall in Masiling that we have been patronizing sometimes back and was utterly disappointed by the lacklustre soup served. Are our taste buds expecting more now or is it that the standard had dropped drastically? It seems to be the latter as the crowd in the coffeeshop was no longer the same.

Anyway, it did not stop us from going further looking out for Herbal Bak Kut Teh. There were so many BKT stall out there but Leong Kee is one of the long-standing ones that i have heard.

Shophouse where Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh Located

Leong Kee situated in one of the corner shop house along Geylang Lorong 11. There are alot of media articles plaster on the walls outside the eating place over the years, raving about the food they served. Eating space is rather limited, there are only a few tables and chairs along the shop's perimeter.

Stall

A sip of the soup had tell me this is the right one! Herbal soup was not overwhelming and makes a satisfying meal. We ordered 2 rice, 1 Bak Kut Teh, 1 Dry Bak Kut Teh and 1 bowl of fried fritters at $27.9.

Our Set for Sharing

Meat was infused with herbal taste and ingredients were generous. Items include liver, belly, intestines, stomach, vegetables and tau pok. Perhaps one more items that I would like to see in the pot is button mushrooms.

Items in the Pot

Don't worry about the texture. It falls from the bone easily and even its liver was cooked to perfection, texture was just right and not too hard.

Ribs

Do not forget to order their You Tiao / dry fritters to soaked up the essence of the herbal soup.

You Tiao - $1 per pax

Dry Bak Kut Teh is laudable.  If you can take abit of spiciness, do have a try. Served sizzling and intensively flavoured in the earthen claypot, once its get served, we were engulfed by its aroma. Its savoury sweet sauce makes a perfect marriage to the bowls of white rice we had ordered. Not only that, it does strikes a right punch of sweet and spiciness.

Dry Bak Kut Teh - $10.50

If you are wondering what are the curly stripes garnishing together with dried chili and coriander. They are one of the pulling factor of the entire dish as cuttlefish gave out a good fragrant.

Sizzling Hot Pot

The meat were tender and evenly coated in the sauce. We sink our teeth onto the nice softly texture and enjoy every bite of it.

Earthen Clay Pot

To name a few Klang Style Bak Kut Teh in Singapore, I felt that Leong Kee's has the best taste so far  even though there are better ones out there. So glad that this has fixed my craving for Herbal BKT.

Rating: 4 / 5

Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh
Location: 251 Geylang Road Lorong 11, Singapore 389309