At around 12pm on a Sunday, we found a long snaking queue right outside a packed Tsim Chai Kee, but there were a couple of empty booths in the venerable Mak's Noodle.

Didn't take us long to realize why TCK was so in demand. The humongous prawn wantons were unreal: Two prawns jammed into one unnaturally large golfball of a wanton, and there were three of them. As with the hargaos we had the day before, they were indescribably sweet. The broth was also the stuff of legend - quite clear, not oily at all, but yet strangely reminiscent of prawn noodle soup. Madness.
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The best of them all were probably the hargaos, chiefly due to the sweet, plump and fragrant prawns without the off-putting fishiness. Spent slightly over SGD30 for about 7 superbly executed dishes - worth.
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The dry-aged, grass-fed Irish ribeye was simply sublime: It was a thick, meaty slab of smoked beefy goodness - without the over-the-top fattiness of a grain-fed variant - and a nice distinctive (and slightly salty) charred crust. Paired extremely well with the essential red wine sauce and the creamy bearnaise.
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Jury's out on this braised chicken in sweet black sauce though: It was a little too sweet for our liking, but top marks for the generous portion and the tender chicken. What's with the fries?
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Save for how it kept relocating itself to different parts of Concorde Hotel over the past few years, the quality of the food here has by and large remained consistently high and the prices bafflingly low - and that has been rewarded by throngs of diners (including Koreans) jostling to order from the Korean ajuma at the cashier.

The Bibimbap is a recent favourite of ours. It comes prepared a la claypot rice - with a slightly charred, crispy layer of rice at the bottom giving it that lovely smokey aroma - with a generous serving of beef bulgogi, carrot strips, fried egg, seaweed, diced cucumber and other vegetables, and brought together by a formidable hot sauce. Highly recommended, especially given the relatively wintry climate in Singapore over the past few days.
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Thin-crusted, with a dizzying truffle cream-melted mozzarella amalgamation over thin slices of tenderloin beef, and saltbae-ed with chunks of cherry tomatoes and porcini mushrooms. We are definitely coming back for this - notwithstanding that long trek to its secluded location.
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For some reason, your typical knock-off Cina variants at those economic beehoon stalls tak cukup baik - they always lack that additional lemak authencity, they never offer the good 'ol ikan kuning and oh, don't get me started on that travesty they call chilli. Rule of thumb: When you can afford LV, don't buy from taobao.

At our first outing to Boon Lay Food Centre, we were reminded of the wonders of this authentic Malay cuisine - although it was less "powerful" than expected. The moist rice was wonderfully fragrant as it was 800-calorific (thanks to P and her fitness app), while the sambal chilli had that lovely spicy, briny, spiced edge to it - maybe the ikan bilis oil or belacan used? Not entirely sure whether that's an ikan kuning given its size, but it was really well-executed, especially how the skin was crispy in some parts. But major no-nos were how the rice wasn't warm enough, and that pathetic amount of ikan bilis - which were actually quite good.

In sum, pretty decent, but probably not worth the travel unless you're in the area. Any recommendations for solid Malay nasi lemak?
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We were miffed to have missed it the last time they were here, so we made no mistake this year. The soft serve is practically in a class of its own - the intensity of the matcha almost identical to the grainy depth of their potent Matcha tea. It's virtually unparalleled by anything matcha we have had so far in Singapore.
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During our first visit there, there were unmistakable signs that it was gonna be awesome even before our order reached our table - the most significant of which was a 45min wait for our order at 7am+ on a weekday morning. Wow.

So since we were gonna wait that long, we got the biggest $4 portion - and my only regret is that we couldn't order a bigger portion. Freaking delicious is an understatement, and that's even despite all that build-up expectations during that tortuous wait. The first thing that hits you is the smokey, eggy aroma of an omelette fresh off the wok. You don't get this at your typical hawker stall. It could very be the Chinese version of a Korean kimchi pancake - with that lovely dry, crisp layer of fried egg holding together the moist, handmade chunks of carrot cake and of course, a generous serving of caipoh - the MSG of carrot cake anywhere.

But it's not just its texture and fragrance that set it apart from white carrot cake by the common man. The even distribution of the egg is something you just can't get elsewhere - and that's chiefly attributable to how the egg is added to the carrot cake in the frying process. Instead of pouring the egg mixture straight into the wok and over the carrot cake, the carrot cake chunks are first scooped and mixed in a bowl of egg mixture, and then poured into the wok. It's a wildly simple but effective measure - but that's usually all it takes to distinguish fantastic street food from more average ones.
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For starters, the contrast between this and their original tonkotsu base couldn't be starker. The golden chicken stock was light and relatively dull, without the assertive intensity of its more flavourful tonkotsu counterpart - which makes it a great option for the health-conscious, but probably a bore for those looking for a thrilling dining experience.
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But the dining experience here is more than just mismatched decor and music choices - we have to say the pasta here is absolutely fantastic.

For one, the [Spaghetti alla Carbonara] was probably one of the best we've had so far, and that includes the one at Prego. It has all the hallmarks of a great, hearty classic: Well-smoked pink strips of fatty pancetta, and a creamy eggy sauce of a almost-perfect consistency. It clung really nicely to the sphagetti, and was rich enough to keep us coming back for more - but not enough to make us feel overwhelmed by its intensity.
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The appeal of this dish - despite how ordinary it appears to be - lies precisely in its simplicity. In stark contrast to the ostentatiousness of restaurant/cafe grub, kway chap offers a light, refreshing alternative - it's practically 5 dishes combined into one hearty, no-frills $10 meal for two.

Granted, we may not be kway chap connoisseurs, but we didn't find the broth sufficiently robust. Herbaceous yes, but somehow it was lacking that extra herbal oomph that a bowl of Yu Kee Duck Rice's soup would deliver almost effortlessly.
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