Arrived at this Michelin Bib Gourmand stall at 11am and the queue was already 10 persons. Ordered $4.50 medium portion Wantan noodles dry with chilli.

Waited about 10 minutes before it was my turn. The clear soup had umami taste and the pepper powder I added. The noodles were Al dente enough but not springy. In fact there was too much sauce stemming from the water collected by the noodles during blanching. Something to be said about those “flying Wantan Mee”. Besides showmanship, the move ensures excess water is drained to avoid affecting the texture of the noodles.

The chilli sauce they used was the sweet type. There was some heat in there but not the murderous type. Their char siew was forgettable, being dry and pitifully in quantity. And the portion for $4.50 is really enough only for the smallest appetites.

But all is forgiven when you take one bite into their Wantans. These are larger than normal, almost the size of shui jiao. Inside were chunks of water chestnuts mixed with minced pork. Yummy!

And their pickled green chilli are the best I have had so far this year. Crunchy, tangy, couple with soya sauce, it’s the perfect dip for the wantans. And if you add a couple slices into your noodles, it helps alleviate the sweet chilli sauce.

No chance to try their chicken feet noodles so I must come back another day. Early in the morning, according to an uncle queueing behind me!

Best cheese burger I ate this year! The bun was so aoft (they use potato buns) and the slight charring of the beef patty give a different texture to the juicy patty as you chew. The melted cheese was so savoury and creamy it accentuated the flavour of the patty. The caramelised onions were so sweet and the regular fries look like hand cut and fried to perfection.

For all burger lovers, this is the place to go for cheese burgers. Wonder how their other burgers taste like….

I’ll be back.

Best cheese burger I ate this year! The bun was so aoft (they use potato buns) and the slight charring of the beef patty give a different texture to the juicy patty as you chew. The melted cheese was so savoury and creamy it accentuated the flavour of the patty. The caramelised onions were so sweet and the regular fries look like hand cut and fried to perfection.

For all burger lovers, this is the place to go for cheese burgers. Wonder how their other burgers taste like….

I’ll be back.

Read about this new Hokkien Fried Prawn Mee place in Clementi, purportedly the best, so I decided to give it a try.

Located in a Kopitiam along Clementi Ave 1, a place where footfall is a bit light, this stall and it’s neighbours do provide a wide range of interesting options (see video).

Back to the Hokkien Mee, first of all the price is not cheap. Starts at $6 and you don’t get sotong until you buy the medium portion at $9. Both will have three shrimps, tail on, sliced pork and noodles.

Theirs is supposedly the wetter type but alas, by the time I reached home, it became the dryer version. Must endeavour to eat on the spot. Flavour wise, this is certainly one of the better fried Hokkien mee in the West but still off when you compare against those in Bukit Batok. One other thing to note - this stall will levy an extra charge if you ask for more lard bits or even sambal chilli. I find this practice to be particularly ugly, especially when they forgot to add extra lard bits for me, even though they charged me $2 extra! Don’t think there is anything sinister about it, just that the employees are new and muddling through internal communications. As evident from their initial failures to pack my medium portion noodles and sheepishly admitting to being new and lack practice.

Well, practice makes perfect so please practice more!

Perpetual long queue at this duck rice Kway chap stall at West Coast. The Kway here is smooth and the mixed offals and duck meat full of flavour from their braised sauce. A real gem in West Coast.

For those who live Korean Fried Chicken, this new place at Newest must be a blessing. But I find the chicken patty and chicken tenders to be very greasy and when you add cheesy fries, it’s quite heavy a meal.

For those who prefer the wetter version Char Kway Teow, there is Lai Heng at Shun Fu Food Center. The queues can be very long during peak hours but they have a very effective system of order taking and like clockwork, the queue moves quickly.

Ample wok heat there in the CKT when it is served although it dissipates rather quickly as well. This version has chye sim besides the usual bean sprouts and I noticed their cockles are more normal in size compared with some of the pathetic miniscule ones used at other stalls. For $5, you get a pretty decent portion of CKT.

Go ahead and add an Otah which is quite unique for CKT in Singapore.

A very good bowl of prawn Mee. The broth is especially umami with strong taste of prawn flavour. Couple of special things about this outlet - you get a choice of mee pork mee kia on top of the usual noodles and most customers will order the dry version. For $4, you get a decent portion that comes with 2 tail on shrimps, pork slices and bean sprouts. You can add extras for additional costs.

Leave it to you to decide which version is better, soup or dry.

Japanese dining outlet in West Coast Plaza. A bit pricey because even though I ordered the lunch special Salmon Ikura and a side of Tori Karaage with hot green tea, total damage came up to $32.

Food taste was normal, nothing to scream about. Was a bit surprised that the fried chicken side was more like a course in itself and not so much a side.

At 12.30pm lunchtime, place still has lots of empty tables so if you don’t mind the price and you’re in the mood for Japanese but rushed for time, this is a good choice.

New food outlet at Newest selling noodles. Arrived at 12.30pm and there wasn’t a single customer. On the menu, they have Bak Chor Mee, Fishball Noodles, Char Siew Wantan Mee, Laksa and Chicken Cutlet Noodles. For sides they have fried Ngoh Hiang, fried wantans and curry puffs (huh?).

Ordered Bak Chor Mee, Mee Kia, dry with chilli. The lady boss recommended fried Ngoh Hiang to go along with the noodles so I added that to my order.

Took about 5 mins for noodles to be served. First off, the soup lacked the umami taste of pork bone broth that has been infused the incessant boiling of minced meat and sliced pork. Which is understandable given the apparent lack of customers at this new restaurant.

But the noodles were cooked just right and the chilli sauce complement the noodles so well. Along with the noodles were 4 pork balls and about 5 slices of pork, on top of the minced meat and mushroom. So at $5, this is value for money.

The pork balls were quite normal but the sliced pork was too bland, perhaps again due to the blanching in broth not rich enough. To make do, dip into the sliced red chilli with soya sauce. Quality of the pork was good as the owner chose the pork loin part which has sinews that impart some crunchiness in the bite. Mushrooms were also thoroughly braised, so they were soft and sweet. So all in an acceptable bowl of noodles except for the soup.

Last but not least, the Ngoh Hiang. Meat paste wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried, it would have been lacklustre except for the thick chilli sauce that it came with which gave an extra dimension of flavour to the slices of Ngoh Hiang. Nice.

This is the second time a noodle shop has opened in Newest. God knows the residents who live nearby needs one badly to complement the Western, Japanese and Korean eateries.

Arrived at 11.15am before the lunch crowd. Boss was a really friendly chap and recommended his specialties Nasi Kunyit and Mee Siam but I ordered Prawn Noodles and I was not disappointed.

This has got to be the best prawn noodles I had this year. The soup has solid taste of prawns. The yellow noodles were springy in terms of bite with crunchy bean sprouts. Loved their sliced red chilli sauce when you dip the two shells off prawns into. Brings back memories of how grandma would cook prawns noodles traditional way when I was young.

If the prawn noodles was already so good, must come back soon to try their specialties.

Traditional style CKT fried in batches and then finished off individually. The $4 portion is enough if you are not particularly hungry.

The fried kway teow has some wok heat when served. It is the wetter version and comes with sliced Chinese sausages and fish cakes. They also add bean sprouts and Chye Sim but what also liked about it is the large cockles that this stall uses, unlike the small peanut sized cockles that seems to be the norm these days with even the big CKT names. Nice.