Pontian Wanton Noodles, Kovan

I'm rediscovering Kovan hawker centre. When we first moved to Serangoon this hawker centre was one of the places we frequented but somehow over the past few months we've started eating in Hougang more often.

What makes Pontian's wanton mee unique? The noodles are tossed with a slightly spicy chili sauce and topped with fried wanton skins. Aside from that it's pretty standard issue. Complaints? The greens were slightly overcooked and the soup needed more spring onions.

Gold Food Thai Restaurant, Bencoolen Street

Thai food that's cheap and not bad. Sunshine Plaza has a few interesting-looking places that we'll have to come back and try.

Gold Food

91 Bencoolen Street,
#01-14 Sunshine Plaza
Singapore 189652

phone: +6568831575
hours: 11AM-3AM daily

MRT: Dhoby Ghaut (NS24)

Xiao Xuan Feng, Tiong Bahru

Xiao Xuan Feng is my new favorite place. Noodles and dumplings in a cute space with wooden birdcages, vintage furniture and signage, and oldies music. You can watch the masters throw and pull the dough to make the noodles. Very cheap too. The mini greens with lots of garlic satisfy any garlic craving.

#01-15 Tiong Bahru Plaza

phone: +65  6377 0220

MRT: Tiong Bahru (EW17)

Hakka Ho Po Lei Cha Fan, Geylang

He:
My office is near this coffee shop and has become one of my regular lunch spots. Lei Cha Fan is one of those things that someone really needs to export to the US. I usually get it with vegetarian with brown rice at this stall. They serve it with lots of vegetables and not too much rice. The tea is minty and thicker than at most places I've tried.

She:
This is maybe the healthiest rice meal you can get here in Singapore. I like to eat thunder rice with brown rice and without the tea. When I'm craving a salad--difficult to find a good one in Sing, I like to eat thunder rice or yong tau foo. Unfortunately, thunder rice is not as readily available as yong tau foo, which is in almost every hawker center and food court.

Lorong 17 Geylang, near Sims Avenue
Singapore
+65 8135 0465

MRT: Kallang (EW10) or Aljunied (EW9)

Komala's Restaurant, Farrer Park

After a quick Sunday shopping trip to Mustafa Centre we stopped at Komala's for a snack and ended up having dinner. The Farrer Park location is close to the MRT station and is just one of dozens of similar restaurants in the area. We started off with an onion and chili uthappam which was fresh, crispy on the outside and came with three chutneys: coconut, coriander, and moderately spicy mystery orange. Sorry, no photo of the uthappam.

South Indian Thali

SHE:
Liked the onion and chile uthappam with the coriander and orangey-red chutneys. This is the better dish to get, as they make it fresh. The South Indian meal (thali=rice plate) is scooped up from precooked vats. The food is served on a fresh banana leaf -- nice touch for a fast-food joint.

HE:
The thali is just average here, nothing to write home about. They include vadai with the meal which you don't get at some places but since I don't really care for them it didn't do much to change my opinion of the meal. My favorite side was the coconut-y cabbage. A solid meal.

Tasty, unhealthily sweet mango drink


Komala's Restaurant (Serangoon Road location)
328-332 Serangoon Road
Singapore 218113

Phone: +65-6299-4464

MRT: Farrer Park (NE8)

Inaho's Kitchen Bar, Tanjong Pagar

Starters. Sorry for the crap photo, it doesn't do them justice.

Mystery shochu

Almost raw oysters with spring onions


SHE:
What a find! So, we're walking along a seedy street full of hostess and KTV-type bars in Tanjong Pagar, when I noticed a minimalist sign advertising Japanese food on the second floor atop of one of these seedy bars. I ask the hubby to check it out, half thinking it's a cheesy drinking bar, Japanese style.
Turns out it's a four-month old tiny restaurant with delicious food and a wide selection of shochu. There are only two tables and a sushi-type counter. We ordered the prix fixe menu, which was S$54 and included spicy sashimi, oysters, and eel as well as a lot of small side dishes. If you don't finish the bottle of shochu that you should definitely order, you can write your name on a label to put on the bottle and they'll keep it for you til next time.

HE:
Wifey didn't want to eat here but I brazenly walked in and talked to the proprietress who seemed nice enough so we decided to bail on the Korean restaurant we were unsuccessfully trying to find amongst all the Tanjong Pagar seediness and have a civilized meal. I liked pretty much everything we tried aside from the "tuna with Korean chili miso" which was served way too cold (I hate eating ice-cold fish, raw or not) and was seriously lacking Korean chili action. We ordered an imo (芋焼酎, sweet potato) shochu from Kagoshima prefecture which was on the lighter side making me think it might've been cut with some rice but the bottle didn't have an export label on it so who the hell knows what was in it. In fact, I can't even remember what it was called. Let us know if you can read the kanji.

Miso soup

Tiny, hard to see sign

Inaho's Kitchen Bar
Duxton Road, just north of Craig Road
Singapore

MRT: Tanjong Pagar (EW15), Outram Park (EW16/NE3)