Beng Thin Hoon Kee (茗珍奋记)

18th August, Tuesday

A traditional Hokkien restaurant, Beng Thin has been around for many years. I even recall visiting it several times when I was small (>20 years ago).

No pictures taken as I was having a business lunch with some of my clients.


Beng Thin Duck Salad (鸭丝冷盘)

This was a good opening dish, which was very appetizing. A nice mixture of cucumber slices, chilli, roast duck, and rock melon topped with gravy. Unique and excellent!

V's verdict: 8/10


Crabmeat fishmaw soup (蟹肉鱼鳔羹)

This was also good. Thick soup with fish maw and crab meat. Add a bit of pepper and vinegar, and the dish is perfect.

V's verdict: 8/10


Crispy roast chicken (脆皮烧鸡）

The skin was crispy, the meat was slightly juicy. The breast meat wasn't too dry too. Nice!

V's verdict: 8/10


Venison with mushrooms

The venison was decent; nothing special. I must say the attractive part of this dish was the mushrooms. They were sliced thinly; me and my colleague even mistook them for ginger slices or onion slices. The mushrooms were slightly juicy and sweet.

V's verdict: 7/10


Fujian style ngo hiang

There were 3 types of ngo hiang served here - the traditional one, spring roll, and another oddly shaped one which I don't know how to describe. The traditional one tasted good, but the rest were average only.

V's verdict: 6/10


Fried hokkien mee (福建炒面)

Beng Thin is famous for their fried hokkien mee. It's the dark kind, with thick and rich gravy. This was quite fantastic!

V's verdict: 8/10


Sweet yam with pumpkin slices and gingko nuts (金瓜芋泥)

Well I am not really into orr nee, but this was still quite good. Not too heavy and not too light. Smooth and the sweet flavour of the pumpkin blended in quite well with the whole dish.

V's verdict: 7/10

Overall, I found this place to be quite good. They may not have any dishes that scored more than 8.5 from me, but they had a lot of dishes which were already very good (score 8). Will bring my parents here one day.

Chomp Chomp

12th August, Wednesday

Fried hokkien mee (车间炒福建虾面)

Tried the fried hokkien mee from a different stall, since the famous Ah Hock was closed today. This turned out quite okay. $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Century egg and pork porridge (Chong Chong Pork Porridge & Macaroni)

This used to be my favourite porridge, until I tried the porridge at Maxwell Market's Zhen Zhen Porridge. Still, it's a good bowl of porridge, thick and tasty but not as thick as Zhen Zhen's, which some people think is too heavy for them. Comes with pork, century egg, pig liver, and egg. The egg costs $0.50 (!!!) and takeaway another $0.20.

$3.50 + $0.50 + $0.20

V's verdict: 7.5/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10


BBQ chicken wings (Xin Shi Dai)

Located at the back, right side. It's a relatively newer stall compared to Daily Fresh, but I found this to be slightly better. $1 per wing

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10


Wanton noodles (Swee Heng Wanton Noodle)

I ordered this several years ago and loved it since. I always order their green noodles; it seems to taste better than their yellow noodles. Just moist enough, with wanton and small dumplings. The ingredients were average, but the chilli and seasoning mixed with the noodles makes this a great dish. $3/$4

V's verdict: 8/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Mango Tau Huay (Dinghao Sugarcane Juice)

I have never tried mango flavoured tau huay before. This was mixed with normal tau huay. The mango tau huay wasn't strong enough on its own, so you have to eat it with the chopped mango. Unique and interesting. $2.50

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 9/10

Mosque Street Food Court

27th July, Monday

A tiny food court at Mosque Street.

Fried oyster omelette (Thye Hong Fried Hokkien Noodle)

At first bite, this was delicious and crispy! But as we got to the bottom, we could taste the oil oozing out and it was a bit of a turn-off. K ate an especially oily piece and stopped eating immediately. But overall, it was still quite good. $4/$6

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Fried hokkien mee (Thye Hong Fried Hokkien Noodle)

I told the hawker that I didn't want any prawns, so he gave me extra noodles. And he really gave me a lot of noodles! It's really a huge plate and I almost couldn't finish it. And I ordered a small plate. -.-

Taste-wise it was quite good, though I would have preferred more ingredients like pork and sotong. There was sotong, but very little. K said that this was "very very nice". $3.50/$5

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Empire Cafe

23rd June, Tuesday

First time I tried this. The inner layout of the restaurant looked so much like Seah Street Deli (also in Raffles Hotel).

Fried hokkien mee

This cost me $18, but at least I had my AMEX card, which gave me 50% off. It didn't taste very good actually. It was a bit too bland, and the chilli wasn't very good too, so even after mixing it in, it failed to help much.

V's verdict: 6/10

Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

17th June, Wednesday

Herbal chicken (Herbal Kitchen, 大厨帝皇鸡）



This was too diluted to taste good. The chicken was quite tender, but honestly it was ruined by the taste of the soup. $3.50

V's verdict: 5/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Laksa (Ah Seng Laksa.Prawn Noodle)



I must say this laksa tasted rather... unique. I think they added lemon or lime into the gravy, which served to neutralize the strong taste. It tasted quite refreshing, actually. $2.50

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 6/10


Fried hokkien mee (Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee)

(For some reason, I couldn't align this picture to the left. And no matter how many times I delete it and re-upload it, it stubbornly stays in the centre.)

This hokkien mee is the sticky kind, which means that it's quite filling. If you were to eat too much of it, you would probably get too stuffed and may even get sick of it. The plate was quite small though, so the portion was just all right for me.

The taste was not bad, and the noodles were very sticky, as I mentioned earlier. They added pork, but I think 90% of the pork was fat. -.- $3

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Serangoon Garden Market

25th April, Saturday

Pig organ soup (Soon Huat Pig's Organ Soup)



This stall is quite generous with its ingredients, with lots of pork, fatty meat, pig intestines etc. The soup tastes strongly of pickled vegetables without the overpowering smell of the pig innards, as they were washed clean. $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 8.5/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Pig innards (Soon Huat Pig's Organ Soup)



I ordered intestines, tau pok, pig skin, and dried beancurd. I asked for a little bit of pig skin only, but they still gave me too much. =/ The gravy was delicious, and because the intestines were washed clean, they didn't smell and tasted great. The price is a bit on the steep side though; this plate alone costs $7.60.

V's verdict: 9/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Fishball noodles (Hao Hoe Siang Noodles Soup)



Another dish which I have been eating since I was small. Interestingly, it tastes better if you da bao --- there's more time for the noodles to immersed in the gravy and for the taste to settle in. I had it at the market today, and it didn't taste as good. $3

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Fried hokkien mee (Stall 10)



From the stall right beside the side entrance. This is the wet kind with lots of gravy, so it may not suit some people's tastes. I would admit that my judgement is a bit biased, since I have been eating it since I was young, for around 20 years. Their standard isn't that consistent though, and depends largely on who fries the noodles. $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Chomp Chomp

19th April, Sunday

BBQ chicken wings (Daily Fresh B.B.Q)

I thought it was so-so only. $1 per wing.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Fried hokkien mee (Ah Hock Fried Hokkien Noodles, Stall 27)

The famous stall that everyone knows. His hokkien mee is mixed with bee hoon and yellow noodles, and was the dry kind without any gravy. Instead of the usual >20 minute wait, the noodles came in just 5 minutes. It was a bit disappointing though, the texture seemed to be off and the noodles looked as if they were glued and stuck together. $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 6/10


Fried kway teow (Chomp Chomp Fried Kway Teow Mee)

This stall has been there since I was young, so that's at least 15 years or more. Today's was also so-so, but then again, they were never really excellent in the first place.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 6/10


BBQ sting ray (忠忠海味园 B.B.Q)

This stall is located right at the left side of the entrance. We were sitting right outside Lucy's BBQ seafood stall, so we felt a little awkward when our food came. Well, turned out that we should have ordered from Lucy's instead, since I thought our BBQ sting ray tasted quite horrible. I remember ordering it before and it never tasted so bad! K claims that her judgement was biased due to her overwhelming love for BBQ sting ray, though. $8/$10/$12

V's verdict: 3.5/10
K's verdict: 7/10


One thing to note; we were sitting right beside the fan and our food was cold in a matter of minutes. So it is possible that they would have earned a higher score if not for the fan...