LiHO (哩喝!) - Cheese foam mix with Tea!

Item I had: Cheese Guan Yin Large ($5.10)

Singaporeans, including me, who frequent any social media channels will see this similar title "Gong Cha will be replaced by LiHo!"

Gong Cha has been one of the Singaporeans’ favorite bubble tea brand since their day 1 here. However, on 5th June, all Gong Cha outlets in Singapore has been converted completely to the LiHo brand.

LiHo means “Hello!” in Hokkien, 你好 in Chinese, is a common phrase where people use to greet one another.

People are now queuing up for their special Cheese Tea, which a foamy cheese mix will be added to the top of the drinks. But if you are visiting on late night, do expect their cheese foam to be sold out. 

Cheesy foam is replaced by milk cream previously used in their milk topping 奶盖 series. 

The Cheese Guan Yin had a delicate and slightly flowery flavor, taste like typical oolong tea. Before I drink it, the "who would mix cheese with tea?!" was the first thought I had in mind. When I first tasted the drink, the combination of the tea and the cheese foam was actually quite pleasant, with the cheese providing a stronger aftertaste on my tongue. To me, the drink didn’t taste queer, but it wasn’t spectacularly delicious too.

There are 2 ways of drinking it. Firstly, you can choose to first have a mouthful of the cheese foam then have a sip of the drink, or simply, just shake the whole cup to mix everything together. Personally, I preferred the latter as the mixing of the cheese and the tea will thicken the drink, similar to the feeling like you are drinking yogurt.

To be honest, we were expecting the LiHo cheese drinks to taste weird, but it is not at all. The non-cheese drinks should be quite satisfying as well. After I drank this LiHo, it makes me missed that fragrant tea taste, which was what made Gong Cha different from all other bubble milk tea shops out there. LiHo is worth a try if you are craving for bubble tea in this humid weather. 

McDonalds' Minion Special! - Limited Time only! (Promo Ended)

-=Promotion is over=-

Item I had: Minion set ($7.90), banana Mcflurry oreo ($2.90)

No Introduction needed for this famous fast food restaurant, the letter M with the yellow colored font, even my mom who does not know a single English word know how to pronounce this restaurant so fluently.

For a limited time, to promote the movie "Despicable Me 3", Mcdonald had been very actively promoting Minions themed, so they have these cut potatoes into Minion-shaped potato bites and had made Banana Pies a comeback, what surprised me is they swap the whole soft serve into banana flavored! 

Minions fans will know how much the Minions love bananas, and these menu items are going to drive Singaporeans' mad for banana too. 

The above is what is included in the Minion set - a box of 6 pieces Minions Potatoes, 6 Pieces of Spicy Chicken McNuggets, a banana pie and a drink. 

Each box of Minions potato comes with 6 of minion-shaped, it's actually bit bigger than I expected, and I was thinking, it's a novelty so the taste might not be that good, so my first bite impression of it, it reminds me of those potato balls texture where outside is crispy while inside is very mushy like I'm eating mash potato. I actually like it!

A closer look at one of the minion potato.

Minions dipped into curry sauce, not a good combination though, it still good to mix with garlic chili sauce.

McDonald’s is striking back by releasing the fiery Spicy Chicken McNuggets! The Nuggets as compared to the normal nuggets, it's on a more salty version but those who do not take spicy food, that spiciness will come after you finished the whole piece.

First bite impression of Banana flavored mcflurry Oreo - it tasted very similar to those Banana flavored milk selling in the supermarket.

Overall the switch of soft serve ice cream from Vanilla to Banana flavored is not a bad move, but I would still rather have the tradition vanilla soft serve, but it still a good taste of Banana flavored once in a while. The must try I would say is the Minion potatoes, even if it does not taste good to you, appreciate of how it looks like is another way to support more of these. 

Teo Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle (潮記香菇肉脞麵) - 4 braised item in 1 dish!

• Operating Hours: 6 AM to 2 PM
• Operating Days: Wednesday to Sunday (Closed on Monday and Tuesday)
• Address: Tampines Round Market & Food Centre, 137 Tampines Street 11 #01-05, S521137
• How to get there: Tampines MRT station walk towards Tampines Street 11, walking distance est 10 mins.
• Food I had: Special Set Noodle ($5)

We decided to go for a popular pork ribs noodle located in the Tampines famous round market food centre despite not having many reviews.  Just take a look at the queue! It looks like something that is worth waiting :)

While queuing, I was looking through what is available on their menu- minced pork mushroom noodle, chicken feet noodle, chicken wing noodle, dumpling noodle and pork ribs noodle. There were so many choices! Really hard to guess which are the popular ones! Therefore,  for the first timer like me, there is actually an option called special set, which includes all braised item each with noodle, selling at $5. Definitely, I went for that to try out all their items.

Look at all photos of some celebrities who visited this stall.

While it was going to be my turn to order, I've noticed that the owner does smile at the customer that was ordering, a very good gesture of him appreciating those ordered from him, next was my turn to order and he did the same to me, smiling and nodding his head. I return the favor to him by smiling at him.

The noodle I wanted mee kia (麵仔) was sold out, so had the alternative, mee pok, it was so so and the chili sauce is not even spicy at all but it did bring up the flavour of the noodle, but I find it bit dry, so it's either add in the braised sauce or the soup if it's too dry for you.

This is the special set items - Chicken wing, Chicken Feet, Egg, mushroom and pork rib. All drenched in the same braised sauce. be careful not to wear light colored clothing, it may get messy!

The mushroom, an appetiser, it was very normal but it does give me an idea how is the taste of the braised sauce as its totally absorbed the sauce as I bite into the mushroom. One thing that I do not like is it's cold. It's alright, finished in a mouth, moving onto next item.

Next is chicken feet, the skin is soft but still another cold dish, which normally chicken feet should be eaten while its hot. But they did marinate this chicken feet, its much more tastier than the mushroom.

And 2 other items which is cold, is the chicken wing and the egg, they both are very normal but its cold, which I do not know if its their style all along or just today. So far not to my liking until I got to the last item...

The pork ribs, i finally knew what's the root cause why there were so many people willing to queue for it. The pork ribs were braised in rich and seasoned flavourful gravy for hours before it could achieve the ultimate tenderness and full absorption from the gravy. Many hours of cooking softened the pork ribs so that the meat practically falls off freely from the bone when trying to grab it from chopstick. The pork ribs were simply fasinating with its aromatic flavours by the braised gravy and its the only item that is hot other than the noodle.

The braising sauce is very good. It is sweet and you get a small bits of the cinnamon without it being over powering any item at all.

So if you are into pork ribs, I would highly recommend this stall, else you could get the same taste and texture in any other hawker, provided its not cold.