Ah Balling Peanut Soup 75花生湯圓 - Lantern Festival 元宵节 dessert all year round.

Operating Days: Daily

Operating Time: 11 AM to 8.30PM (Weekdays)

Operating Time: 10 AM to 8.30PM (Weekends)

Address: Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road, #01-75, S 199583

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If you are a fan of glutinous rice balls and peanut soup, you would have probably heard of Ah Balling Peanut Soup 75花生汤圆. This is one of the famous Ah Balling stalls with more than half a century of history in Singapore. So why the name Ah Balling? In the past, people used to make rice ball as big as the size of the duck eggs, with the shape resembling duck eggs as well. The Teochew called the duck eggs as "Ah Ball Leng 鸭母卵", and that’s how the term “Ah Balling” came about.

Starting price for 4 Glutinous Rice Balls is priced at $2. The Ah Balling comes with various filling, such as peanut, black sesame seeds, green tea, yam paste and red bean. They have also different flavours of soup to go with the rice balls — peanut soup, longan, ginger and almond milk.

In my opinion, peanut filling is the best, especially if you choose to have it match with their famous peanut soup. You can still see the peanuts in their original form, and they have been boiled to the right point of softness.

The peanuts are cooked for so long till they are soft and all the flavour in it were all in the soup!

Each rice ball is of similar sizes and they are extremely chewy. Be careful when you are eating as the filling in it would ooze out if you didn’t chew properly. The peanut filling inside also provides a crunchy bite, giving it a good contrast to the soft rice balls.

Ah Balling 75 花生汤圆 serves traditional glutinous rice ball dessert that is well-liked by many Singaporeans today. It is no longer a dessert most Chinese eat during major festivities which in the past, it symbolizes reunion (团圆/圆满). Do give them a visit if you are nearby!
P.S. If you happen to eat at the stall on Lantern Festival 元宵節, don’t be surprised to find pink rice ball in your soup!

Song Kee Kway Teow Noodle Soup 松記粿條湯 - Fishball Noodle open till Midnight.

Operating Days: Daily

Operating Time: 10.30 AM to 12 AM

Address: 75 Toa Payoh Lorong 5, #01-20, S 310075 

Toa Payoh Lorong 5 hawker centre is a place for supper, with only a few stalls that starts their business in the morning. Song Kee Kway Teow Noodle soup is one of the very few stalls that start their business early.

Having been around for decades, many regulars will come by this stall in for their fish ball noodles.

I am amazed by how they are able to have the fish ball machines in a small stall. Do have a look when you are queuing up for their food.

I ordered my usual dry version of Mee Pok noodles. It came with 7 fish balls, priced at $4. They have the $3.50 portion as well which is suitable for someone who is not feeling too hungry.

The owner was very generous with the amount of pork lard and spring onions given in every bowl. It is not the “healthier choice” of course, but I like the way how the noodles were not too dry overall. Each mouthful were filled with the fragrance from the pork lard, which might be too rich for some depending on individual’s taste. In addition, the Chilli here is very worth mentioning as well. It was paired very well with the ketchup included. It will be better if the noodle can be served slightly harder as I felt it was a little over cooked in my opinion.

The Fish balls were bouncy and fresh. Every bite taken has had good texture and it makes you want to eat more.

What I like about Song Kee is the type of seasoning used for its noodle. It has lots of pork lard bits and fried shallots, which goes very well with the chilli base, giving a nice combination overall and definitely makes a fulfilling dinner / supper. 

OLEG - Cafe with waffle as sandwich

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 10 AM to 10 PM
• Address: 3rd Floor, Aeon Bandar Dato Onn, Jalan Dato Onn Utama Kempas, Johor, Malaysia
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We are back at AEON Bandar Dato' Onn in Johor Bahru, and this time round we have tried OLEG. OLEG is a contemporary casual eatery serving burgers, waffles, small bites, snacks, cold drinks and coffee. They have stalls at City Square, AEON Tebrau City and AEON Dato' Onn.

It is hard to miss this shop with its striking interiors located at level 3. This is mainly the reason why I visit them.

Everything is pretty much self service at OLEG. You order at the counter, pay and wait for your order number to be called. I had a hard time trying to communicate with the counter staff as they don’t really speak English. 

They also serve breakfast for just an hour. The price are so much cheaper than their normal menu. Chicken porridge for 5.90 RM?!

At OLEG, you can customise your burger or waffle by selecting either chicken or beef and then choose one of the following types of sauce to pair with. They have Teriyaki, Wasabi mustard, signature curry, mayonnaise, signature spicy, honey mustard, barbeque, cream of tartar, and cheese.

We ordered a Waffle O' grill set, priced at 17.90RM. The set meal comes with fries and ice lemon tea. Even though there were no crowd, our waiting time was 20 mins after placing our order.  You can’t expect too much from their service. 

The waffle came with cucumber slices, leafy lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and the sauce you chose. Their so-called home-made ice lemon tea tasted artificial to us which we didn’t like it. The fries given were also dry and cold when it was presented to us.

OLEG's waffle has medium thickness, is light and is slightly crisp. It has a slight saltiness in the waffle, unlike what I'm expecting (I was expecting a sweet waffle!). The chicken is tender but has not much taste by itself, it would be better if it is paired with the sauce they have in order to enhance the overall taste of this whole meal.

Overall, OLEG has a comfortable and casual ambience with food selling at reasonable prices. I would probably go back again only to try their signature soft shell crab charcoal burger.

China Square Beef Noodle 中国城牛肉面 - Hainanese style beef noodle in Alexandra Vilage

• Operating Days: Closed on Thursday
• Operating Time: 10.30 AM to 8 PM
• Address: Alexandra Village Food Centre, 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-45, S 150120

Located at Alexandra Village Food Centre, China Square Hainan Famous Beef noodle or rice 中国城牛肉面 was previously located at China Square, hence the name. 

You can have a choice of either thick bee hoon or rice to go with the beef, either soup or dry. I’ve chosen dry bee hoon as I always like my beef noodle (or bee hoon) in dry version, topped up with the thick gravy with a serparate bowl of soup. If you order soup version, you get nothing but soup bee hoon.

This soup is clear and clouded by bits of beef. The soup is really flavorful and I emptied the whole bowl of soup even before eating the noodle. How I wish I am able to get a big bowl of soup.

The Beef Noodle came with thick bee hoon. The portion given was generally big as well. The bee hoon is poured with generous serving of sliced beef drowned with gravy. The gravy was starchy and thick and it does have the taste of clear herbal and ginger.

The slippery, thick bee hoon in the gravy that's rich and tasty mixed with gravy.

The tender beef slices are a joy to bite, it's unlike other beef slices from other stalls that are really hard to bite, as exaggerated by others describing the similar feeling of biting onto car tyre. They cooked the beef only few seconds before served to us, so it was still medium raw when we started eating.

Overall it was better than any beef noodle I have tried. Great beef noodles, in my preference, it taste better than Hai Nan Xing Beef Noodle.

Zhou Xing Xing 周星星經典燒味雲吞麵 - Hong Kong/ Indonesia Fusion Restaurant

• Operating Hours: 10 AM - 10 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 3rd Floor, Aeon Bandar Dato Onn, Jalan Dato Onn Utama Kempas, Johor, Malaysia

Recently at Johor Bahru, another new Aeon shopping mall has just started its operation. Situated at Bandar Dato Onn, it is not difficult to find the new mall as it is just a 20 minutes drive from custom.

While we were hunting for a restaurant to rest out feet and to fill up our stomach, we came across a shop named "Zhou Xing Xing 周星星”.

What does the name "Zhou Xing Xing 周星星" remind you of? It reminds me of all the shows Stephen Chow 周星驰 has acted before, but we are not here to feature Stephen Chow today. A bright yellow restaurant Chinese themed Zhou Xing Xing 周星星 is actually a Hong Kong - Indonesian fusion style restaurant  which was definitely not owned by Stephen Chow.The mascot, however, is inspired by his character starred in the movie - 食神. 

We were there at 7PM and we have to wait for a while before we get a seat.

It was a full house though there were plenty of tables available inside. Within 10mins, we were assigned a table.

They have 3 signature combination with Mee Kia (type of noodle used in wanton noodle commonly), Indonesian curry with Crispy egg noodle, and scrambled egg with chicken oil rice.

To order their signature menu, you will have to choose the type of meat to go along with your  noodle/ rice.  The four meat choices are Roasted Duck, Roasted Pork, Char Siew, and Soy Sauce Chicken.

To our disappointment, they have sold out their Roasted Duck and Roasted Pork before dinner hours! So for this time, we only get to order scrambled egg with rice and Indonesia style curry crispy egg noodle with Char Siew and Soy Sauce Chicken.

After they took our order, we waited for about 10 minutes before they our order is served.

First came was the crispy noodle with Indonesia style curry along side with Char Siew and Soy Sauce Chicken.

The noodle was really crispy on the first bite, and I really love how the noodle can be so crispy - similar to eating noodle snack. After about 5 minutes with the noodle drenched in the bowl of curry gravy, the noodle turned slightly softer. If you prefer your noodle to be softer , you may wanf to wait a while before you eat. The Indonesian curry has a slight hint of taste from the vegetable and coconut, which was already great on its own. However, they have placed the chicken and char siew into the bowl of gravy as well, which the taste of the meat was not too impressive due to the overpowering curry taste that covered up the original taste of the meat. I would very much prefer to eat the Char Siew on its own.

We waited for another 5 minutes before they serve our next order - which was the oil rice topped with scrambled egg with Char Siew and Chicken. We got two free wantons (stated in their menu) as well. Though it was given free to us, the quality wasn't compromised as the skin was thin and it was filled with meat.

Time to try their Char Siew in their original state! Their Char Siew was half fatty, and that makes the overall texture really tender! You could even see the strend on the meat clearly. The skin from the Char Siew, with the thin layer of fats were all marinated fully with caramelised barbeque sauce. Every bite of it will make you want to have more. 

Normally, I would order the leaner char siew as I don't really fancy Char Siew with too much fats. However at Zhou Xing Xing, I really love the Char Siew as how it is, and I ate them all without stopping. Their Char Siew is highly recommended for sure.

For their Soy Sauce Chicken, it was tender but they did not remove the bone from the meat. We felt that the chicken did not taste better than the Char Siew. We will give it a miss when we return the next time.

All in all, it was quite affordable to have a decent meal for a meal for two at Zhou Xing Xing 周星星 including a drink. We will definitely be back soon to try out their highly raved Roasted Duck and Roasted Pork!

Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak - The plate of Nasi Lemak that Prime Minister served

• Operating Hours: 7 AM - 5 PM
• Operating Days: Closed on Fridays
• Address: Adam Road Food Centre, 2 Adam Road, #01-02, S 289876
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Having been to some of the famous Nasi Lemak like Mount Faber Nasi Lemak, Bali Nasi Lemak and Ponggol Nasi Lemak, I went to Adam Road Hawker Centre to try out Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak with no expectations. Adam Road Food Centre itself is a great hawker in Singapore where you can find variety of Malay, Indian, and Chinese stalls to choose from. Nasi lemak fans should be familiar with Adam Road Nasi Lemak. Selera Rasa has been visited by lots of top food reviewers, and our very own Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also served this Nasi Lemak to Indonesian President.

All sets come with ikan bilis, cucumber slices and rice with sambal chili sauce.

You will have ample time to look at their menu displayed on the signboard while you are queuing. The price of your nasi lemak set ranging from $2.90 with just egg, ikan bilis, cucumber and sambal chili. This, to me, is considered expensive this plate of nasi lemak. 

At Adam Road Food Centre, you can easily spot this Nasi Lemak stall. Just look for a stall with long queue. After about 30 minutes of queuing, it is finally my turn to order. Their queue is long as many of their customers were seen ordering many packets of Nasi Lemak; with some even ordered like a good 10 or 20 packets, which the serving took about 5 minutes for 1 customer.

The fried chicken, the egg, and the ikan bilis are all nothing special in my opinion. Chicken wing was fresh, and though the batter was heavy, it was surprisingly crispy with juicy tender meat. The sambal chili was not spicy, it was more on the sweet side. I prefer the chilli to be towards the spicier version.

The rice I believe was basmati rice, a type of rice used commonly in Briyani. The rice grain is long, fluffy and gives a lighter texture. You could taste a mild coconut milk with each mouthful of the rice. One of the most soft, cottony coconut rice I have had. But I would preferred shorter and harder rice. 

Overall, I would probably not wait in line again to get a plate of nasi lemak here or even go all the way to Adam Road Food Centre to satisfy my Nasi Lemak craving, probably due to the fact that we have had eaten better Nasi Lemak elsewhere.

Ri Ri Hong Mala Xiang Guo 日日紅麻辣香鍋 - Charged by Item, not weight!

• Operating Hours: 11 AM - 9 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: People's Park Food Centre, 32 New Market Road, #01-1042, #01-1052, S 050032

The popularity in China selling Mala Xiang Guo has also started its popularity in Singapore as we see many simlar stalls start popping out at the food court and hawker centre almost everywhere! Ri Ri Hong Mala Xiang Guo 日日红麻辣香锅 is one of the first Mala Xiang Guo shops in Singapore and has been booming with business because of their generous portions and low prices. 

As we walked around we can see many customers at the hawker centre sitting down with a big bowl written 日日麻辣香锅 on the table. Joined the long (but quite efficient) fast queue, and within 5 mins, it is my turn to order.

Some of us may have seen food court selling Mala Hot Pot and they are priced according to the weight of the item, and normally, just a few pieces of vegetable can already cost you two to three dollars! Usually, we will get bill shock when we see the prices that other mala shops charge elsewhere.

What sets this stall apart from others is they charge by the types of ingredients you choose instead of weight. A dollar for a portion of a non-meat ingredient, two dollars for meat and three dollars for seafood and so on. This really helped us to better estimate the amount we will be paying.

You can choose from a wide variety of ingredients very much like Yong Tau Fu. 

You start by picking from all of the vegetables first, then move towards the next staff waiting to choose the meats like prawns, squid, pork, and chicken

You will then decide the spiciness level, from not spicy, mild, moderate, spicy to extra spicy. For people who can take spicy stuff, the moderate is bearable. You can choose to have a non-spicy version too if you really not a fan of spicy food.

We were worried that we overspent, but it came up to only $12 for 2 people. Thought it's going to be about $30+. So once you paid, you will be given a tag where you will then proceed to the back of the stall and wait for your orders.

The hot pot is mixed with lots of ingredients, such as garlic, red chilli, dried chilli flakes, sugar, spring onion, pepper, sesame, chilli oil and their secret Mala spicy sauce.

$12 for this huge bowl of items! This bowl can be easily shared by 2 people. The whole dish is a little oily so it’s not really the best dish if you are looking to have a healthy meal. 

The fragrant sauce had a strong taste of garlic, chilli powder, ginger, and their own spices.

The chicken was tender and marinated well but sliced rather thin. Each of the ingredients was fresh! The vegetables were all crunchy and had absorbed the essence of the mala sauce.

One of the most tongue spiking herbs used was Sichuan peppercorns. Normally we can't see them when we are eating, but definitely, we could feel the sensation when taking the first bite! 

Good quality ingredients and pretty affordable for the portion served! The mala hot pot was addictive to me, I kept going back for the kick! Definitely won't be the last time visiting this place!

Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee 高記酿豆腐麵 - Delicious Bowl of Bak Chor Mee!

• Operating Hours: 10 AM - 10 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
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Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo 高記酿豆腐 is not a stranger to any Yong Tau Fu (YTF) fans. For more than 60 years, they have been selling delicious homemade YTF under Gao Ji. They have many stalls located at multiple locations islandwide.

I have been patronizing their stalls at various locations for their consistency in taste and chewy noodles. The pictures I've taken is from one of the stalls located at Albert Centre Market & Food Centre.

You cannot pick your own ingredients, the only thing you can choose is either the soup or dry version, and whether or not you will be having your food here or take away.

One portion of YTF ($4.50) include pieces of the YTF items in a separate bowl, alongside with the minced meat noodles. However, I find that the ingredients are too little. 

The noodles are flat noodles, which I have not see any other stalls selling them in Singapore. I noticed that they changed the minced meat topping for their noodles from pork to chicken. I like their bouncy noodle texture, which tasted really good and made a lasting impression on me. However, I felt that it was totally not enough for a hungry adult, to be honest.  

The clear soup is cooked using soya beans and ikan billis, and it was light tasting and not too oily, which makes it a healthier choice. 

The tofu is nice and soft, filled with the fish meat at the top. Personally, I enjoy their bak chor mee than their ingredients in the soup. For me, I find joy in just eating their noodle, and would be totally fine even if there isn't any YTF alongside with their noodle.

If you're looking for some healthy food, not too greasy or too rich, give this stall a try! You can never go wrong with Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo.