Mon An Vietnamese Muslim Corner

UPDATE: The stall has moved to 459 Changi Road (Kassim Restaurant).

Despite this being a Halal food corner, their food is popular with non-muslims as well.

The proprietress comes across as Vietnamese (not just her features, she seem to converse in Vietnamese with her staff as well) so I guess the food served here are more or less authentic. Also, they’re made to order so you gotta wait a lil’ bit for food served freshly off the wok.

Cha Gio ~$1.40 ea.

Love their crispy fried spring rolls. The first batch were already pretty good and I was eager to order more but there were none left. Later on, my colleague saw that they were just done with cooking another batch and ordered more… They were piping hot! Yumz!

Too bad they’re out of the Gui Cuon -their fresh veggie springroll. I would love to get my hands on those…

Pho Bo ~$5

Their Beef Soup Noodle may come off as a tad pricey but it was well worth it. They were pretty generous with the fresh & really tender slices of beef. The hearty bowl of soup is topped with veggies like bean sprouts, mint, basil and raw onions, making it all the more delish.

I wonder what that dark blob of sauce on top is... Hae Ko, like those used in Penang Laksa?

A Slice of 'Bo'

Look at that beautiful slice of beef! The beef was supposedly raw, prior to the hot soup being poured over it in the bowl.

Mi Xao Gia Vi ~$3.50

When I saw someone ordering this, I thought that this was a plate of vermicelli salad, for it reminded me of the one I had at Koh Nangkam.

Turns out my colleague ordered it and it's actually fried bee hoon. Will you just look at the generous serving of those big prawns?

He remarked that it's just like a plate of disintegrated Gui Cuon (the vegetable spring roll) but with less greens.

Oh well, since he was disappointed that he can't get his spring rolls, this turn out to be a nice replacement!

the stallIt's located at the corner of this Chinese coffee shop at Jalan Masjid, right behind Kembangan Plaza. Warning: Crowded during lunch hours & closed on Sundays.

ASLI Village revisited

Came back here, with the in-laws this time. Considering we all live a mere 10mins away, yet we have not really checked out most of their food.

The seafood stall at the corner

Hubby thought of ordering various dishes with rice from the seafood stall and share amongst us.

BBQ Stingray w/ chinchalok

One of the dish ordered from there was the BBQ stingray was was grilled just the way I like it. The meat was tender yet the thin edges were so crispy that I ate those part together with the crunchy bones.

The sambal was heavily infused with belachan and they were quite generous with the chinchalok on the side.

Other orders were fried rice (so-so only), crispy chicken wings (reminds me of har cheong kai), omelette (for the kids), kangkong belachan (little chilli, too much belachan!) and cereal prawns. The latter was pretty nice, actually. Quite high on my list of favourites for cereal prawns. If only the prawns were bigger, then it can contend with the ones from Adimann.

This stall was flanked with so many orders on that Saturday night, so service was pretty slow.

Thai Mix-Beef

My MIL on the other hand, refused to have rice and insist on ordering something else for herself.

First she ventured to the stall selling 'opeh' noodles (at my recommendation) but changed her mind after seeing the long queue.

Later on, I saw her in front on the Flamingo Thai food stall. She told me that she still had fond memories of the Thaksin Beef noodles that my BIL bought for her a few days back so she wanna try their version.

This mixed version had thinly sliced fresh meat, stewed meat and meat balls all together in the same bowl. The soup is not as robust and not as heavily infused with spices as Thaksin's version. Aside from the bean sprouts, there weren't really any greens. They do top the soup with a dollop of minced garlic, though (I LOVE garlic!).

Satay

As it is know, ASLI Village is managed by the people behind 'Jumain Satay', so they are really the main stall is this food court.

I'm pretty reluctant to say this but... I've definitely had (much) better satays.

That night I ordered the 'tender' version of their satays because I had my MIL in mind. I asked them regarding the difference between the 'original & tender' versions. The tender version is less sweet and supposedly more palatable for the elderly.

The meat looked like they've been minced before made into little lumps and skewered.

The sauce... well, seriously lacked some ingredients or something. It's just lacked the oomph!

PS: For my favourite satay stalls, you can view my previous 'random food' entry; towards the end.

Smoothy de Cafe re-visited

Mi Rebus

My mum told me that someone had informed her of a certain stall within Singapore Post shopping centre that served pretty good Mi Rebus.

When she told me that, my thought flew first to the food court at basement 2. Then again, I recalled just how dismal the food there is so I almost told her that she might have got the building wrong.

That's when I recalled this Malay food stall on basement 1, somewhere along the same row as McDonald's. Many times I've passed and seen office folks relishing their bowl of Mi Rebus.

I've patronised that stall a few times since then. However, it's only now that I finally tried a bowl of this. That little something on top is a fried chicken cutlet that I can't resist ordering.

And oh yeah. That Mi Rebus is really something. No wonder people talked about it. I'm impressed.

Waffle!

Who would have thought that the Malay food stall shared the same (tiny) premise as this bubble tea stall which happens to sell one of the best waffle around?

And their namesake, the smoothie is pretty good, too.

MY own waffle...

Of course I can't resist getting one of those for myself! Chocolate waffle please.

Thought of saving it for later (tea break, maybe?) but seeing it all piping hot and crispy, I took a bite.

Of course that one bite lead to another AND another... O_o'

random eats... again

Mui Fun

It was pretty balmy that day. I was thinking of having something hearty, warm and soothing. This is the closest I can get to my idea of comfort food; without ordering porridge. Rice topped with really egg-y, seafood gravy loaded with some greens.

The really ‘egg-y’ part is what I’m after. I love my eggs!

Nasi Lemak (set)

I know that some places tint their coconut-infused fragrant rice green to accentuate the ‘pandan’ look. Like the Nasi Lemak served at Qi Ji.

But THIS Nasi Lemak I had for lunch that day had an eerie-looking green tint that looks wayyy too unnatural. Looks almost turquoise to me. I think they overdid the colouring a wee bit.

Could be that this is the first time that I had nyonya achar served as a set with my Nasi Lemak. Not that I mind. The sambal here was pretty good too. As with the fried chicken wing. Just too bad that crispy wing was a weeny bit undercooked inside (prolly cooked with too-high heat).

Fish burger & potato wedges

It really is refreshing to order something like this from someplace other than a ‘branded’ fast food outlet.

Burger is simple patty + lettuce + mayo ($2.20). Potato wedges comes with oodles of mayo ($2.00).

Colleague asked why didn’t I ask for cheese wedges instead? The mayo already did me in. Having the cheese would have been an overkill.

Maggi goreng

These are usually available at those stalls manned by Indian-Muslim hawkers, whose style of cooking usually having some red/orange coulouring added into their ketchup, which they use to season when frying.

The bright colour can put-off those who aren’t used to it but locals here are pretty much lackadaisical. That’s why also, we try to cut down on intake of food consumed from these stalls.

Too much food coulouring ain’t good for you.

But I gotta add that this stall at Changi Village food centre (the market side, right beside the Chinese drinks stall) also serve some pretty mean satay. Both the chicken and beef meat are marinated (and also grilled) nicely. And the sauce totally sum up all that goodness. It's pretty good, overall.

No wonder almost everyone have a plate of satay on their table (this was the only stall serving satay, that night).

My family, being the fussy Javanese they are, are always on the hunt for good Javanese eats (eg. Mi Rebus, Rawon, Satay...). Another of my family's favourite satay are those sold at East Coast Lagoon Food Centre, the one in front of Musa Barbecue Seafood.

Java Kitchen re-visited

For some reason, my colleagues & I ended up here during lunch hour.

Since I came down here once before with my family, for my bro's birthday meal -I recommend to my colleagues, that we venture here to try this place out.

You can read my previous entry on this place.

Food's decent. Almost homely. Love their chilli (although I can no longer take the heat)!

And this eatery seemed popular with the Indonesians residing in the area. You know what they say when that happens. The food should be good. Or at least authentic.

Rawon (Beef Stew)

My colleague's order. This stew here seemed watered-down. No more a stew. More like a soup instead.

Meat seemed tender, though.

Condiments for Rawon

A couple of prawn crackers, a whole salted egg and fiery sambal (chili paste).

Ayam Panggang (Grilled Chicken)

Another colleague's order. The chicken looked like its main marinade is dark, sweet soya sauce (which is not uncommon with Javanese style of grilling).

This seems like a newer item on the menu.

Also comes with that fiery sambal belachan.

Ayam Cobek (Javanese Fried Chicken)

Akin to the ubiquitous Ayam Penyet, though this one here looks much simpler.

Honestly speaking, it looks like some grilled chicken on the menu board so I guess my colleague mistakenly made this order.

Soto Sulung (Beef Soup)

My order. I had wanted to get the Gado-gado but I recalled just having Jenganan for dinner yesterday.

So I thought of having the Soto Java (Lamongan). But I find that to be common (boring!). I've always been curious about their beef soto, so I settled for the Soto Sulung instead.

No regrets. They used the my favourite cut of meat, where the lean meat is intermittently layered with soft tendons. There's also vermicelli & boiled egg inside. Yum!

The soup is almost reminiscent of Sup Buntut (Oxtail Soup) but it's less robust.

Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)

Another colleague's order.

Seemed like the main flavouring for this is soy sauce (again, not surprising). Served with achar (pickled cucumber & carrots) + keropok bawang (onion crackers).

I remember, when ordering Nasi Goreng in Jakarta, the mound of fried rice will be accompanied with side salad, fried chicken, sunny-side-up egg & crackers. Yummeh!

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Juice)

This seemed like a diluted version of the real deal. I think they only use chocolate sauce. Man, I sure miss mocha syrup in my Jus Alpukat! Like the one served in Sanur (Indonesian Rest'n).

You can check out their menu from their website.

KFC Roasta Burger

Cheese Fries & Egg Tarts!

My usual default order. Upgrade to cheese fries and additional egg tart.

This is why I try not to eat at KFC often. For the sake of my arteries.

cardboard 'oven'

This packaging really 'act cute', man!

I really thought that the grey panel was for some scratch-and-win game or something.

grilled skinless boneless chicken thigh

I always have this habit of exposing the ugly part of a burger- the insides. Looking at this really brings on a deja vu, of a promo burger from McD.

Sorry if this will hold u back from trying the burger out or something.

But the patty looks juicy, doesn't it?

oat bran dusted bun

I love this type of buns. You can say that I'm a sucker for them. Whenever new promo burgers use this type of bun, I'm always gunning to try them out.

Then again, I'm always gunning to try out ALL new promo burgers. :P

My take for this burger? The meat's tender and the sauce is decent. I don't mind if this becomes a permanent fixture on KFC's menu. I'm sure that I might just order this again.

Besides, it's gotta be a lil' more healthy than the deep fried Zinger or Bandito patty, rite? Rite...?

A great cuppa in the office

Such'a cute little machine!

It's the real deal ok?

Drip, drip....

Oooh, look at that dark, dark pool!

Ok, last few drips... Almost done!

My colleague brought his birthday gift to work.
Birthday gift that comes in the form of a “La Sorrentina” ™ ® Atomic Type Coffee Machine.

That machine is just so gorgeous. And expensive to boot (US$450).

Pair that with good coffee beans from Papa Palheta and you get yourself a mean cuppa to start the day right.

Not to mention that it makes the whole office smell like a high-end coffee joint. Heavenly!

ASLI Village

@ Downtown East

(Excerpt from Downtown East website)
"...ASLI Village is more than just a place to eat. The name ASLI means natural, original and the real thing in line with our food offering. Village is reminiscent of back in the old days time. We want it to be a place where we can get to know you better, just like back in the kampung days. A place where family and friends can get together and have a good makan all under one roof. Customers have the freedom to sit at our cozy and aircon dining area or enjoy alfresco dining while tucking into the wide choice of Halal local and international cuisines being served at ASLI village. ASLI Village – you are always welcome. "

Fried Popiah

Chicken Cutlet Noodle

To think I live merely 10 mins walking distance away. Finally came here after my family, who live in Bedok got curious about this food court - and that is after seeing a newspaper article on it. :P

There are still some vacant stalls and there's more coming up. Even a franchise of Chicken Champ by the Nuradee Bros will be opening a stall here soon. The main player here is the satay stall, seeing that Jumain Sataysfaction is the owner of this premise. Gotta get their stuff soon.

The chicken rice seem to be hot stuff here, so much so that they actually ran out of the rice when my parents made their order. Not willing to wait for 20 mins, they got the chicken noodles instead. My mum love that the wantan noodles are firm & springy.

Bro got the Fish & Chips from the Western food stall. The battered fish were soggy. I saw that they have this thing called 'The Messy Burger'; like a disintegrated burger on a plate. Looks cool, actually. They also sell nachos.

Also got the grilled Yuo Tiao + Tau Pok rojak from the Opeh/Upih Noodles stall. It was pretty nice. The sauce was adequately spicy with good amount of heko/petis and peanuts.

I discovered the Thai food stall and noticed that they are offering pretty authentic Thai fare like beef noodles, papaya/mango/vermicelli salad, pineapple rice, olive fried rice, pad thai etc.

I settled on the Phad Thai (fried kway teow). It was nice, actually. The Phad Thai carry just the right flavours. I like that there's this occasional bites on goong haeng (dried shrimps). Those who don't like their food to be sweet can pass on this for one of the essential ingredient here is palm sugar. Just too bad there's not enough wok hei (smoky aroma) because they're overwhelmed by orders that night so the stir-frying pair were too busy to let the food fry longer.

Those ordering stuff like salad & beef noodles get their pretty quickly for they're prepared by this Thai-looking lady at the front. The beef noodles are topped with a spoonful of minced-garlic. I like that! If only they pound the som tham (green papaya salad) instead of just mixing it up in a bowl before serving. That would have been more authentic.

Since this is so near to home, I really should find time to explore the other eats available here.

PS: They have separate musollah rooms for male/female at the back.

Chocolate-y Birthday

All my colleagues seem to gang-up and give me ALL chocolates this time. Mostly dark chocolates. They sure know what I like!

ROYCE Potatochip Chocolate

Read my previous entry on this HERE.

Assortment of choc goodies

Read my previous entry on the Pepperidge Farm cookies HERE.

And the Loacker biscuits are all individually packed and coated with dark chocolate. Mmmm...!

My favourite Ritter Sport mini has gotta be biscuit, cornflakes & hazelnuts. Mazipan is wayyyy down on my list. I can't take the overwhelming almond essence, which reminds me of some kinda' childhood medication.

Toblerone Dark Choc.

This is the huge one. Swiss Dark Chocolate with Honey and Almond Nougat. Can everybody join me and say, "Yum!"