Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant 茗珍奮記菜館

I have never thought that the traditional Fujian Cuisine Restaurant is housed among the OCBC Commercial building at Chulia Street with the main entrance through the carpark.

Entrance of Beng Thin Hon Kee Restaurant

It is not very often we get to visit such traditional restaurant nowadays with fabric flooring, round tables and chairs. In the past, we do get chances to go to such places whenever our relatives and friends invited us for a wedding ceremony.

Dining Floor

Wet Tissues Packets

The use of robot servers had kind of surprise me as I thought that the Chinese Restaurant will still keep their traditional way of serving food than adopting the technology to take over the jobs.

Robot Server

It was a birthday dinner for one of us and it's also the reason why we were here for some Authentic Fujian Dishes, highly raved by the Birthday Guy.

Longevity Buns

Starting off the meal with Prawn Ball Nghoh Hiang which is the restaurant's Signature. These starters were deep-fried to their perfection without being too greasy and a mixture of cucumber with shredded carrots as part of the plate.

Prawn Ball Ngoh Hiang

Let's start off by dipping the Ngoh Hiang in the sweet Sauce.

Ngoh Hiang

The Hei Zo aka Prawn Ball had a good balance of Prawn Meat together with pork.

Prawn Ball

The dish is well-loved for its delicate flavours and it seems like "Yi Pin Guo" 一品锅 to me just that the claypot was filled with tender Braised Duck meat. 

Braised Duck With Sea Cucumber 砂锅石参大鸭

The Sea Cucumber together with the duck was braised for hours and its really a stomach comforting dish for us.

Tender Duck meat

Here's my portion of the savoury gravy drowning the tender dark meat and sea cucumber.

Duck Meat & Sea Cucumber

This Signature dish features scrambled eggs tossed with carrots, springs onions, yellow onions, shitake mushrooms and was served with lettuce. 

Shark Fin Scramble Egg with Lettuce 桂花翅

We are supposed to scoop these ingredients onto the lettuce and wrap them up.

Shark Fin

I have never eaten such a dish before and I thought it was quite special to bite the fresh lettuce with crunch that wrapped the filling that was accompanied by the sweetness of the distinctive egg.

Wrap them in the lettuce

The Fujian Fried Noodles is one of their signature dishes. The presentation of the dish had already bought me over. The dish comes with the typical Hokkien style thick flat noodles and looked savoury in its thick brown luscious gravy.

The dish was tossed in light soy sauce, pork stock, prawn stock and garnished with spring onions, and fried onions. Beansprouts, deshelled prawns, tender pork slices were part of this creation and not forgetting the pork lard that makes the dish more fragrant.

Fujian Fried Noodles 福建炒面

The Braised Pork Bun is another classic Hokkien Dish whereby the pork belly was braised in soy sauce gravy and simmered.

Braised Pork Bun 扣肉花包

The pork belly had a robust herbal meaty flavour and the plain soft and fluffy buns held them in between.

Look at the dark sauce coating the Pork Belly! Yums!

I love braised food and the flavours of the pork belly were addictive.

Braised Pork Belly Bun

The food at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is kind of an eye-opener for me as they served traditional Fujian Dishes that we will not usually find elsewhere. The dishes served are hearty with good portions size, suitable for communal group dining. Now that I have learnt of Beng Thing Hoon Kee Restaurant, I will not hesitate to recommend it to someone who is in the search of authentic Fujian cuisine like this.

Rating: 4 / 5

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant 茗珍奮記菜館
Location: OCBC Centre, 65 Chulia St, #05-02 Singapore 049513
Website

Lau Phua Chay Roasted Rice 老半齋燒臘

I learnt of Lau Phua Chay Authentic Roasted Delicacies back in Alexandra Village many years where the queues during the peak hours are never ending and the black char siew with rice that was drenched in dark black sauce. Even though they have been around in Clementi for the longest time, this is my first time trying this stall.

Stall of Lau Phua Chay Roasted Rice

They left me an impression with a good amount of sweet sticky braised sauce over their roasted meat and rice. Over here in Clementi, this style of theirs still remains. We ordered a platter of meat with 2 braised eggs. 

Our Orders - Meat Platter and Braised Eggs with Rice

The pork ribs were sweet and tasty while the Char Siew was slightly disappointing. Though sweet with edges charred, the meat was a tad dry. 

Roasted Pork, Char Siew and Pork Ribs

The smokey and sweet flavours are of good pairing to the plate of plain white rice. 

Nonetheless, the Roasted Pork was the star of the platter. The top layer was crispy and it boasted the perfect meat to fat ratio. 

Char Siew

No doubt that the food is good, it seems that both of their stalls do adopt the same style from food to their customer service. The lady that we had communicated the order to was grumpy and did not give a good feeling towards the customers. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Lau Phua Chay Authentic Roasted Delicacies 老半齋燒臘
Location: Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, 448 Clementi Avenue 3, #01-20, Singapore 120448

Tiong Bahru Shark Meat Lor Mee (Hainanese Curry Rice)

It's been a long time since I last visited the Hawker Center on Telok Blangah Drive. It's time to explore the place again.

Hawker Center in Telok Blangah

Just looking at the main signboard of the stall isn't enough for us to know that the stall is actually selling Hainanese Curry Rice too. We were contemplating if to try out the Lor Mee or the Curry Rice and of course, the votes went to the latter.

Stall of Hainanese Curry Rice

Here are some of the dishes we ordered to pair up with our plates of rice. 

Dishes Ordered

The Chap Chaye was well braised till softened with Tang Hoon. The natural sweetness together with its gravy makes the dish 

Chap Chye

My essential dish to order for Hainanese Curry Rice will be the pork chop. The meat was thin and coated with breaded batter

We often called this ball of minced meat the "Lion Head". The meat was well marinated and seasoned with visible chopped onions within.

Minced Meat

The Chicken Curry is coupled with thick cuts of potatoes with 2 drumsticks. It tasted a little bit spicy.

Chicken Curry

Overall, the dishes were decent and the amount of gravy drenching my plate of rice is ample.

Curry Rice with Chilli

Rating: 3 / 5

Tiong Bahru Shark Lor Mee
Location: 82 Telok Blangah Dr, #01-40, Singapore 100082

Heap Seng Leong Malay Stall

If you have been to Heap Seng Leong, you would have known of this Malay Stall just located right in front of the coffee shop offering Nasi Lemak and the freshly made on the spot Sardine and Curry Puffs.

Malay Stall of Heap Seng Leong

While lining up in the queue for our traditional Breakfast from Heap Seng Leong, I was distracted by the handmade process of Curry Puffs from the Malay Stall right in front of the Coffeeshop. I observed the process of making the puffs from moulding the shape to having them deep-fried in the pot of oil.

Scooping the Fillings for the Curry Puff

The stall was manned by a few members, each having their delegated tasks. There are two kinds of puff, the Sardine and the Curry Potato Puff. These puffs were lined up neatly on the tray after filling and folding them. 

Frying the puff

Thereafter, they were being placed into the pot of oil for deep frying. I waited quite a while for the puff to be freshly fried out of the pot.

Frying the Puffs

To differentiate the two kinds of puffs, the Sardine Puff is indicated with a red mark on its exterior.

Sardine Puff - $1.20

The sardine puff has a mixture of sour and spice levels which I find that it is of a good balance.

Sardine in the puff

A dollar worth of Curry Potato Puff with its crispy and thin taste. The fillings was ample, just like a thick paste cradle between the crust. 

Curry Potato Puff - $1

The spicy level was considered mild and I simply love the natural sweetness of the potato within.

Check the fillings within the Curry Potato Puff

Besides the puffs, the Malay stall also offers items like Nasi Lemak. This will be another breakfast option while waiting for your traditional Kopi, eggs and toasts at Heap Seng Leong. 

Malay Stall @ Heap Seng Leong 
Location: Blk 10 North Bridge Road, #01-5109 Singapore 190010
Nearest Station: Lavender (EW11)

Heap Seng Leong Coffeeshop

A trip back here after 5 years to Heap Seng Leong and I'm really glad that the legend still remains. We became more appreciative of such localised and old school places after the pandemic had wiped up a lot of small businesses.

The Facade of Heap Seng Leong has never changed and that includes the interior too. Everything still looks the same, from the tiled walls to the marble top tables.

A step into this coffee shop has never failed to give me a nostalgic feel. It is just as good as sitting in a time machine back to the olden days.

Heap Seng Leong

At the sight of those displays of candies and snacks in bottles, they filled my memories. Even that orange payphone, it was something that we used to see or use daily but such a phone has now become history.

Cabinets

The Abacus was spotted on the cabinet top, perhaps this is one of the last few pieces that we will ever see here in Singapore.

Abacus

The loaves of traditional bread were all stored in the old glass cabinet near the side of the walls.

Where Bread are stored

While the queue was lined up till the door of the coffee shop, Mr Shi's hands has been moving nonstop in preparation of the hearty breakfast for his patrons.

Bread is ready

He was running a one-man show during the morning that we had visited and had been managing the crowd well, juggling and multitasking his duties from preparing beverages to the toasting of bread over the charcoal.

Busy Morning

Mr Shi in Action

Preparing our cups of Coffee

What's brewing

The Place that makes history

The workspace where the food and drinks are prepared.

Here's the classic to order from the shop. We ordered the complete set with a cup of beverage (the staple Kopi O Gu You or Kopi Gu You), half-boiled eggs and toast.

The classic set

Starts your day with a cup of aromatic black coffee that is topped off with a slab of butter. The marriage of Kopi and butter was heavenly, giving a smooth texture. Personally, I prefer the Kopi O Butter or Kopi O Gu You as the taste was more outstanding without the milk.

Coffee with Melted Butter and Toasts for Breakfast

Unlike most coffee shops in Singapore, their bread is toasted on a charcoal fire, thereafter, they will process it by scraping away the black parts and spreading the traditional canned kaya over it. Lastly, they will include a slice of butter within.

Checking the slice of butter within

Butter

The eggs are only prepared upon ordering, thus there is a wait of about 6-8 minutes. These half-boiled eggs were already cracked for customers and therefore we do not have to do it by ourselves. Enjoy them with some dashes of pepper and dark soya sauce.

Adding Dark Soy Sauce to Eggs

If you want to have a feel of enjoying some traditional breakfast in old settings, a visit to Heap Seng Leong will definitely give you that experience.

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Posted 30 June 2017

How many such coffee shops do we have in Singapore nowadays? With the advancement of technology, many coffee shops that looks like in the 90s would have been revamped to its modern state, coping up with the trendy renovations in the market.

Heap Seng Leong

With words of mouth, I get to know we have Heap Seng Leong still standing in the old estate, run by an old man in its pyjamas. A question that has been pondering us, how many hours did the old man actually sleep?  If you are unaware, the boss (old man) is always in his sleeveless white singlet and striped bottom pyjamas. The interior was rustic with the old signboard, clock and even cabinets. If you are from the 80s and before, I bet the settings did let you have a good reminisce of your childhood days.

In the coffee shop

Many come here for this, Kopi Gu You aka Kopi Butter. Perhaps this cup of Coffee with butter will take you back a couple of decades back and a sip on it is just like a pause by the time machine, there you enjoy your heavenly

Kopi Gu You - $1.10

Charcoal Toasted Bread with slab of butter and kaya sandwich in between them. It may not be as crispy like a biscuit as compared to the chains coffee cafe but they do have a charred fragrance.

Roti

Appearance wise, you wont get to see something very presentable, flatten and well stack. However these toasts do carry a very traditional feel and taste on the plate.

Kaya Toast - $1.20

Hope that such kind of traditional coffee shop will still be around. If you want to take a step back in time and sip a cup of good traditional coffee without paying too much like what we spend in a hipster cafe, visit Heap Seng Leong for its simple flavours. They are accessible within 5 minutes walk from Lavendar MRT.

Rating: 3 / 5

Heap Seng Leong Coffeeshop
Location: Blk 10 North Bridge Road, #01-5109 Singapore 190010

Nearest Station: Lavender (EW11)

No.18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow

The legendary Fried Kway Teow stall always has a queue line up in front of the stall. Though there are not many pax in front of me in the queue, it took me about 45 minutes to get the smallest portion on its menu as there is a bulk order from the online platform.

18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow

Though the smallest portion out of the menu, I'm glad that the amount of Char Kway Teow on the plate was not miserable and can be shared between 2 pax.

The colour of the Kway Teow was even and the smoky flavours had kind of engulfed me, sending signals to my tummy and creating hunger.

Fried Kway Teow - $5 

The level of the standard remains and No. 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow still live up to its reputable name. The Plate of Fried Kway Teow was wet enough and looked glistering with a good amount of oil and pork lard.  Ingredients like vegetables, egg, beansprouts, fish cakes, Chinese sausage and cockles were included.

We polished off the entire plate and true enough, it manage to satiate our hunger.

Worth your calories!

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Posted on 8th August 2014

I'm sure that alot of us have heard of No.18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow as they are given words of praises as one of the best CKT (Char Kway Teow) in Singapore. These are supported by the award certificates pasted at the stall.

It is not difficult to spot this stall as it is located at the corner and with long queues most of the time.

No. 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow

Comes in order of $3, $4 and $5. Each batch of CKT is cooked based on order. I'm quite surprised that the portion for the smallest order is generous, including its ingredients like cockles, slices of fish cakes, lup cheong (chinese sausage) , eggs and bean sprouts.

Char Kway Teow

Fried Pork lards had completed an authentic plate of fried kway Teow given an additional fragrance. It plays an important role in satisfying the taste buds with its unique aromatic flavours. Though it was oily, it did bring out the original taste of a simple plate of CKT. The wetness level is acceptable thus making such dish rather addictive.

Char Kway Teow - $3 (Small)

Sad to say, usually local delicacies that are delicious are sinfully high in cholesterol and fat. However, since it is one of the best recommendations, being sinful once in a while is totally worthwhile.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

No.18 Zion Road Char Kway Teow
Location: Zion Riverside Food Centre, 70 Zion Road #01-17 Singapore 247792
Operating Hours: Mon to Sun: 1200 - 1430, 1830 - 2300 (Closed alternate Mondays)