Formosa Delights

I know of Formosa Delights from their handmade noodles through the stalls in the foodcourt. They have been fond of their quality handmade noodles and pastries since 1998.

Their Formosa Finest Handmade Noodle was shocking and not to my liking. Though the texture of the noodles was perfectly fine, the stinky seafood smell was too strong. The broth was sweet with the seafood, vegetables, mushroom and minced meatballs. 

Formosa Finest Handmade Noodle 一品手工面 - $13.90

This was the promotion bowl of Taiwanese Style Braised Pork Rice. It was decent and portion was rather big. The braised pork was a mixture of both fatty and lean meat. Other than that, it was paired with preserved vegetables and braised egg.

Taiwanese Style Braised Pork Rice 台式卤肉饭  - $6.90

The Milkshake was not too bad and tasted refreshing. 

Dark Chocolate with Banana 香蕉黑朱古力 and Vanilla with Strawberry 香草与草莓 - $5.90 each

The environment was rather noisy when some groups came in and I felt that those noises were trapped in the restaurant. 

Rating: 3 / 5

Formosa Delights
Location: 20 Clementi Road Singapore 129749 
Website

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee 大食家大大大虾面

When I find the environment and food are good, I will make a return. This is a return visit in a short span of time and this time around I had also brought them a new customer. 

We opted for the big prawn noodle out of the 4 given sizes and chose the preferred type of noodle.

Big Prawn Noodle - $11.80

Prawns are cut into halves and this makes it easier for us to deshell them. 

Big Prawns

Did not take notice the other time but the ingredients in the bowl are not just fish cake and prawns. They do have a small minced meat patty in the bowl of prawn mee.

Minced Meat Patty

While both drinks tasted good with Sour Plum, my vote still goes to the refreshing Green Apple Drink with Sour Plum.

Lime Juice with Sour Plum & Green Apple with Sour Plum - $3.80 Each

---

Posted on 6th December 2021

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee is located in one of the shophouses along Killiney Road. With its embossed and big Chinese characters signboard that tells everyone that they are doing "big big big" prawn noodles.

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee was founded by Seth, the son of the Big Eater Seafood Restaurant Group (Zi Char Chain). This restaurant is listed under the Michelin Bib.

Menu

Menu

The Interior is brightly lited with traditional Chinese ornaments hanging down from the ceiling. It kind of gives a modernly furnished feeling but still retains the traditional vibes with wooden furnishing and oriental tiles, not forgetting the big hanging frame hanging on the left wall right after entering the restaurant featuring the Eight Immortals crossing the sea.

Interior of Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee

We ordered the set meal for 2 pax and it comes with 2 Mains, 2 Sides and 2 Drinks at $46.80.

Mains

Out of curiosity, I chose to try on the Wok-Fried Big Prawn Bee Hoon. The plate of Big Prawn White Bee Hoon was yummy. Coupled with a generous amount of pork lard which elevates the dish's fragrance together with the chopped onions and garlic.

If the dish is ordered on ala carte basis, here's the pricing, $16.90 for Big Big Prawn (大大虾) & $19.80 for Big Big Big Prawn (大大大虾). The name of the prawn mee sounds playful, isn't it?

Da Shi Jia Wok-Fried Big Prawn White Bee Hoon 大食家炒大虾百米分

The first mouthful was surprisingly delightful -  A burst of Wok Hei Flavours in my mouth and the stock is totally awesome with umami flavours. It was thick but it does not bring out the heady prawn head taste which is what I prefer. It won't go wrong ordering this.

Bee Hoon 

Ingredients include celery stalks, pork slices, fisk cake slices, onions and big prawns that were halved. The dish also comes along with a bowl of flavourful prawn soup. These ingredients were complemented by the smoky flavours from the Bee Hoon.

So Yummy!

The traditional prawn noodle on the other hand was doing alright without overpowering broth. It might not be the best one among the popular traditional prawn noodles but it is better than the average one.

Ala Carrte: $ 6.80 / 11.80 / 15.80 / 18.80 (Depending on size of prawns chosen)

Traditional Prawn Noodle 传统虾面

2 Sides

There are a variety of side dishes to order apart from Salted Egg Chicken, there are Beancurd Skin Prawn Roll, Fried Fish Cake Crispy Spicy Winglets and Vegetables of the day.

Ala Carte: $6.80

Salted Egg Chicken 咸蛋鸡丁

Their Handmade Hae Zou is a side dish that is worth ordering. The deeply fried prawn fritters are delicious and traditionally complemented by the sweet sauce given.

Ala Carte: $6.80 / 9.80

Hae Zhou 虾枣 （手工）(5 Pcs)

2 Drinks

I'm not a fan of green apple but this drink had given me an addiction. The natural sourness from the green apple had struck a good balance with the Sour Plum Powder. It tasted sweet and refreshing after all.

Ala Carte: $3.80 / Glass

Fresh Green Apple Juice with Sour Plum 苹果酸梅水

Will I come back again? Though I am not a big fan of Big Prawn Noodles, I will still make a return as their Wok-Fried Big Prawn White Bee Hoon left me a good impression. At the same time, I will not mind bringing my friends/family who is in the search of prawn noodles.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee 大食家大大大虾面
Location: 89 Killiney Road Singapore 239534

YY Kafei Dian

Nothing much changed since 9 years ago ~ The same shopfront with old school charms and likewise, bustling filled with people even on a weekend. 

YY Kafei Dian

Here's the corridor of YY Kafei Dian, just look at the queues forming under the shades. It just seems like everything is back to normal even in the pandemic state.

The Morning Sun Shines

The queue is still as confusing for people who don't patronize the place much. There is a separate queue for Bee Hoon and Noodles from the usual Toasts and Coffee Queue.

Hearty Breakfast while waiting for the Bun

While I blindly join the long queue behind thinking to order the traditional breakfast set soon I realised it leads me to the counter for Bee Hoon, I had no choice and I ordered them so that my effort of queueing will not be gone to waste.

Counter to Order Bee Hoon

The Bee Hoon standard was well maintained. It was moist like before and very smooth for swallowing. The plates of Bee Hoon were warm too. My choices of items are fried chicken drumlet, mixed vegetables and Wu Xiang.

Bee Hoon Plate

On the second portion, we had a mixture of fried noodles with Bee Hoon. Our preference will be the latter as it was wet and was not oily. Tau Gua, Luncheon Meat and Otah were added to this plate. It costs $7.80 for both Bee Hoon & Noodles. 

The chilli on the plate was mildly spicy and enhanced the taste of the fried items on the plate.

Bee Hoon & Noodle

Here comes the traditional half-boiled egg for breakfast.

Half Boiled Egg

Beverages like a cup of coffee and Teh C cannot be missed out from sets of Traditional Chinese Breakfast.

Kopi & Teh C

Completing the Traditional Breakfast, we had ordered the Kaya Bun and were given a buzzer to grab it when its ready.

Buzzer for Kaya Bun

While a lot of coffee shop serves the usual toast, YY Kafei Dian has this additional Bun that you should not step out o the place without.

Bun - $1.60

While many modern cafes are increasing, this makes coffeeshop like this a gem for retaining their traditional heritage. It does make us feel restored and charged going places like this once a while after sinking ourselves into those uptrends cafe.

---

Posted on 6th October 2013

I first came to know of YY Kafei Dian's existence when my Hong Kong pal told me that this was under her list of Must Go places in Singapore. Decided to give it a try and see how it fares.

YY Kaifei Dian

It retains the old School Singapore Kopitiam Culture could be probably the reason why it was recommended in the page of Singapore's tourist guide. Selling old-styled local breakfast (half-boiled eggs, big fluffy kaya toast with Kopi or Teh) and other local breakfast items. It also serves zi char during lunch and dinner times.

Breakfast Items

Kopi O was lacking in fragrance, I could not smell the aroma of roasted coffee, unlike other traditional coffee like Nanyang Coffee.

Kopi O

Fluffy Bread with Kopi O

The toast was fluffy on the inside and crispy toasted outside. Nothing to shout about as I could get the same type of bun from many other places in Singapore. Kaya was spread sparingly on the toast and the taste was somewhat unique. It had overpowering of  coconut sugar.

Close Shot of Bread & Kopi O

The plate of fried vermicelli was served warm. Surprisingly, the bee hoon was rather tasty and was fried just nice. It was neither too dry or too wet. However, the side dishes were standard-fare.

Bee Hoon with Luncheon Meat and Egg

Not forgetting the ambience, it drew us back into the 80s, 90s where coffeeshop (kopitiam) were much more simple and humble unlike the modern fanciful decorations we had in most of the breakfast places right now. In fact, I should say, we can hardly find such places nowadays in Singapore but they are readily available in Malaysia.

Old school type of Coffee House

The food served was pretty run of the mill and one could probably get them from any coffee shop.
Service was turned off, especially when beverages were wrongly served and the worker was rude to take the cup away even customer had drunk it.

Nasi Lemak was factory made with packet of sambal chilli sauce in it. Unlike traditional nasi lemak, there was no fried egg in it. Just deep fried kuning fish and ikan bills served together with rice which was hard and very cold. The fish was over-fried & the rice was not fragrant.

Factory Made Nasi Lemak with Packet of chilli

It's kind of wasted or rather a disappointing trip for us to travel all the way down on a Sunday morning and experienced its slow and blur service.

Perhaps if one is going for its environment, it's still acceptable. For food and service-wise, there were definitely better eateries nearby.

Explanation of Shop History

Rating: 3 / 5

YY Kafei Dian 咖啡店

Location: 37 Beach Road Singapore 189678

Tiong Bee Bah Kuk Teh

Passing by the coffee shop and decided to buy some drinks to quench our thirst after a long sunny day but got attracted by a familiar dialect accent from the stall beside while queuing for a drink. I turned my head towards the stall and observed for a while, taking out my phone to learn that this Bak Kuk Teh has some history and was quite popular. 

Teck Seng Coffee Shop

Despite having so many other popular Bak Kut Teh around in Balestier, I could not resist myself and bought a bowl of Bak Kut Teh from them even though I'm not hungry.

Stall of Tiong Bee Bah Kuk Teh

To be honest, I am never a fan of Teochew Bak Kut Teh for their soups are peppery. Nevertheless, I must agree that this soup has a very well balanced taste without being overly peppery. A handful of vegetables were included too.

Pork Ribs Soup - $7

The meat was tender and succulent, falling off from the bones easily without too much effort. Although I'm ordering this plain without rice, the uncle allows me to refill the soup and asked if that was enough. 

Yummy Pork Ribs

Just like the social media stated, the service rendered is pleasant. I hope to make a return in an empty stomach for their other items in the menu.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Tiong Bee Bak Kut Teh
Location: 588F Balestier Rd, Singapore 329899

Zheng Zhi Wen Ji Pig's Organ Soup (正志文记猪什汤)

With so many Zheng Zhi Wen Ji around, I'm kind of losing confidence in the Brand's Pig's Organ Soup as there are some that are of no match to the one in Foch Road, worst still the taste of the soup is far off.

Stall of Zheng Zhi Wen Ji

The mixed pig organ soup was appetizing with preserved vegetables and other ingredients like liver, meatball, stomach, lean meat and tofu with coriander as garnishing. The offals were well treated and there is no foul smell. The bowl of white rice was drizzled with some braised sauce and was a good pairing to my bowl of Soup.

Pig Organ Soup - $4.50 + $0.50 Rice (Per Portion)

Braised Pig's Trotter was ordered as our side dish. The dish was well braised and the meat disintegrate easily at the slightest tear from our chopsticks. 

Braised Pig's Trotter 卤猪脚 - $5.50

The trotters are loaded with collagen protein and have low-fat content, aid in preventing wrinkles and aid in skin elasticity. Why not grab a bowl of these tender and juicy trotters too.

Skin

Overall the taste is decent and the soup is flavourful. I will not mind making a return for pig organ soup if I'm craving it and around the vicinity. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Zheng Zhi Wen Ji Pig's Organ Soup 正志文记猪什汤
Location: Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, 448 Clementi Avenue 3, #01-26, Singapore 120448

Margaret Drive Sin Kee Chicken Rice

Comparing the chicken rice stalls from the Hawker, Margaret Drive Sin Kee Chicken Rice has always been one of my favourites Chicken Rice Stall. I last visited one other branch (Margaret Drive Chicken Rice) in Havelock Road Cooked Food Center and was happy to see that this delicious chicken rice is getting closer to me geographically.

Margaret Drive Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Since 1978)

Sin Kee Chicken Rice is known for providing tender and succulent meat. I still remember the times when I had it in Margaret drive, we were so amazed by the layer of translucent jelly collagen under the skin of the chicken. 

Our Orders - $16

Their chilli sauce was homemade, likewise for the grated ginger that goes very well with the poached chicken too.

Quarter Chicken - $8

Bean sprouts were well blanched and tossed in light sauce together with cut chillis as well as coriander. They compliment each other well and are perfect to pair with the plate of fragrant chicken rice,

Bean Sprouts - $3

For innards lovers, we had a portion of the liver at $3, they tasted good when tossed in the light soy sauce too.

Liver - $3

After visiting the Sin Kee stalls, I'm glad that the standard has been consistent. Be early to avoid queue if you want to enjoy some pocket-friendly chicken rice. 

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Margaret Drive Sin Kee Chicken Rice
Location: Blk 40, Holland Drive, Stall 7, #01-39,  Singapore 270040