Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee, Macpherson Road

I wanted to try this since forever. My dad and I made a trip to Macpherson when Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee first opened, unaware that their opening hours were 11 am till 8 pm. We reached bright and early at 9:30 am, well ahead of their opening time. As there was nothing in the vicinity for us to while 1 hour and 30 minutes away, we could only trudge back home in disappointment. There were numerous reports that the queue had become insane following our last meek attempt so we steered clear of the place. Eventually, my mum assessed that the crowd should have thinned considerably so we came by on Good Friday.

We reached at around 2 pm, well after lunch time, but the queue was still insane. We were also told that we had to wait about 45 minutes after we were seated before our noodles would be served. To sum it all up, we waited about 20 minutes for a table and another 40 minutes before we were served. That would make it a grand total of 1 hour for our bowl of pan mee. That was when I told myself, this had better be worth it.

We ordered the Signature Dry Chilli Pan Mee. The chilli, sitting in a tub at the side of the table, was definitely the highlight. The minced pork was quite all right but the bowl of noodles as a whole was quite forgettable.

We also ordered a bowl of Mixed Soup which came with bean curd skin and fish balls. Another forgettable soup - bland soup base and very ordinary ingredients.

If I were living around the Macpherson area and the wait at Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee was shorter, I might contemplate returning for another bowl. But the long queue, inaccessible location, and highly forgettable food meant that I am unlikely to return in the near future. Maybe I should try the original store in KL and see whether the pan mee there is worth the hype. 

I took bus 62 from the bus stop near Kallang MRT and reached after a 15 minutes ride. Alight after the petrol station and Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee will be across the road.

534 Macpherson Road

11 am to 9 pm

An exciting start to June

It has been a while since I last wrote anything and I just have so much to say. My blog has slipped into some sort of a hiatus because the past few weeks had been nothing short of amazing. From my vacation to sunny Boracay, to the beautiful wedding of my good friend Tx, I am completely stoked. There is, perhaps, no better way to hit the middle of 2014.

Boracay is perfect. The sunshine, clear blue waters, fine sand, friendly locals, delicious food, and, of course, incredibly cheap beer proved to be ingredients for a wonderful vacation. It was so relaxing to soak in the clear waters with a beer in hand and sunshine warming your face. The sunset was spectacular every evening and it made me wonder whether I could hit the pause button somewhere so that I could soak in the beauty forever. The night sky was always covered with a blanket of twinkling stars and we spotted two shooting stars streaking across the darkness. We closed our eyes and made a wish. My thanks to Stef for tolerating my nonsense in Boracay and for all the fun and laughter in those six days.

It was an honor to be part of my good friend Tx's wedding and it was definitely a joyous and loving occasion. So this is how it feels like to watch one of your oldest friends marry the man she loves with all her heart. Couldn't have been happier for her. I hope the banquet and dinner party went as you envisaged them to be, and I hope this would be the start of a beautiful journey together. 

Five and Dime Eatery, River Valley

It had been a while since I last met Tx and I was naturally pretty excited to finally catch up with an old friend over dinner. I was telling her about how I was incredibly tired of shopping centres and the usual chains found in them, and asked that we went somewhere else. Somewhere preferably as far away from a shopping centre as possible. She suggested Five and Dime, and the reviews looked good, so that was where we went.

I was surprised by how close Five and Dime was to my office. I walked to the bus stop beside High Street Centre, hopped onto bus 195, and alighted 4 stops later. Five and Dime was just a couple of steps away. I tried to call and make a reservation during lunch, but they were fully booked. Tx arrived first and we were given two seats along the counter.

Five and Dime was a small comfortable cafe tucked in a two-storey shop house. The white facade and the black frames gave the place a modern chic look while the interior was simple and cosy.

Five and Dime had a separate lunch and dinner menu. We flicked through the dinner menu quickly and settled for the Seared Salmon ($23). The Seared Salmon came with a generous helping of greens, mashed potato, and a thick slice of seared salmon baked with mozzarella and parmesan.

It was delicious. I loved the light salad and mashed potato, but I was extremely fond of the seared salmon coated with a layer of melted cheese. The melted cheese went extremely well with the seared salmon. The serving was large as well, which was just perfect for my hungry belly. 

As we were seated at the counter, I was initially quite perturbed by the repeated disturbances by the waitresses who were busy grabbing drinks from the bartender, replacing glasses back to the counter, marking down reservations on a large black book placed right beside me. I guess it was a small price to pay for not securing a reservation and having to sit along the counter. But the good thing about Five and Dime was that they did not chase us out into the pouring rain. It started to pour heavily while we were finishing our dinner, and all hopes to go any other place were dashed. We were also too full from the Seared Salmon to order any desserts, so we sat there along the counter for the whole night and thankfully we were allowed to do so. There were new customers streaming in as well but those were turned away because the cafe was full. I am honestly quite grateful that we were not driven into the downpour outside. 

297 River Valley Road

92365002

Mon - Thur: 12:00 - 22:00

Fri: 12:00 - 00:00

Sat: 10:00- 00:00

Sun: 10:00 - 22:00

Department of Caffeine, Brunch at Duxton

The Department of Caffeine came highly recommended and I came by one warm Sunday morning to try it with the girls. They take reservations so we were only kept waiting in the heat for a short while before the table was ready. I would strongly recommend that you make reservations before dropping by because the small cafe was bursting at the seams when we visited.

Department of Caffeine is situated along Duxton Road, down the road from Group Therapy. If you are taking the MRT, alight at Tanjong Pagar and exit where it takes you to Orchid Hotel. Walk along the side of Orchid Hotel and cross the road. You will see a dental clinic. Cross the street and turn into Duxton Road on your right. Walk all the way down and you would find yourself in front of Department of Caffeine.

The menu at Department of Caffeine was pretty extensive. They serve the usual food for brunch, mains, as well as waffles. Sze and I took the Poached Salmon with dill and mint sauce while Stef ordered the Sausages, Mushrooms and Egg.

These were the items which were "From the Counter". The mains come with either a regular or large salad. There were 3 options for the salad namely, Soba Noodles, Roasted Cauliflower, and Roasted Butternut Squash. Sze and I chose Roasted Cauliflower with our Poached Salmon.

The Poached Salmon with dill and mint sauce was quite good. The poached salmon was sweet and fresh, but slightly overcooked. The Roasted Cauliflower was crunchy but rather tasteless.

Stef's Sausage, Mushroom, and Egg was honestly quite disappointing. It was so bad that we decided it was not worth a picture. The sausage was overcooked and tasted quite odd. The mushrooms were quite ordinary. I would definitely advise against ordering that dish if you visit Department of Caffeine.

Would I return? For all the fanfare and strong recommendations, I find Department of Caffeine a slight disappointment. I suppose the strong recommendations caused my expectations to be pegged at a higher level and reality failed to meet my expectations. What a bummer.

15 Duxton Road

Mon - Fri 10:30 - 19:30

Sat - Sun 9:30 - 19:30

62233426

Daruma Ramen House, TripleOne Somerset

The boyfriend and I were walking around town one day and we decided to check out TripleOne Somerset. I would usually head straight for Togi at TripleOne but we wanted to try something different that day. It was either Fukuichi for Japanese food or Daruma Ramen House for ramen. The ramen won.

Daruma Ramen House was first set up in Hong Kong and was named one of the Top 5 ramen houses in Hong Kong. They serve ramen in different soup bases namely, shoyu, spicy, and tonkotsu. I am a huge fan of tonkotsu soup bases so that was what both of us chose. 

I had the Japanese Braised Pork Belly while the boyfriend had the Barbecued Pork. We also ordered an additional egg to share. 

The tonkotsu soup base was thick with the strong scent of pork bones. I was initially very excited about the thick fragrant soup base and was happily digging into my bowl of ramen. But the thick chalky soup base became cloyingly sweet towards the end and I had trouble finishing my bowl. The ramen was also reminiscent of Chinese la mian, and not the usual springy japanese ramen. 

The braised pork belly was soft, tender and very well-braised. The barbecued meat was lean and tender. If you are not a fan of marbly fatty meat, I would strongly advise the barbecued meat instead.

The egg was really good though, with a nice runny egg yolk within.

The bowl of ramen was decent, but definitely not fantastic. I doubt I would crave for a bowl of Daruma ramen but you might wish to pop by for a bowl if you are in the area.

#02-15 TripleOne Somerset

62356079

Daily 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Finished The Fault in Our Stars last night. I am rushing out in a bit and I am desperately trying to replicate my thoughts last night before they get buried in the crush of matters floating around in my head, so pardon all the missing words, if any. In any case, my proofreading sucks, I am not meticulous, and I am essentially bad at anything that requires grammatical correction. 

I love Hazel's eulogy to Augustus Waters. It goes like this:

"My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because like all real love stories, it will die with us. As it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there is no one I'd rather have. I can't talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this. There is an infinite between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many days of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You have me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."-

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. I have never ever thought about life like that. I used to believe that infinity was forever. That it was unknown but it was fixed; that all infinities were similar. However, it is so true that some infinities are bigger than others. Sure, science tells you that there are 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in one minute. But seconds could be further broken down into milliseconds and so on. We don't know what we don't know. We believe that time is fixed. That an hour is an hour, it is not infinity, and just the idea that there could exist a smaller infinity between two fixed numbers probably sounds ludicrous to many. But if we accept that there could be a variation of infinities, that infinity is not fixed, we could see how some infinities are bigger than others. 

You could have a forever within numbered days, but we are so wrapped up in seeking the everlasting forever, the infinity that is larger because we are greedy people, that we lose sight of the smaller infinity that flows between days. 

Sik Bao Sin Eating House, Geylang - Good Zi Char

We live near Geylang which makes the nearby Sik Wai Sin the perfect option if we crave for good, traditional zi char dishes. We read that Sik Wai Sin only served 4 dishes now as the younger son and former head chef of the family, Desmond Chia, decided to strike out on his own. As Desmond did the wok-fried dishes at Sik Wai Sin, his departure meant that Sik Wai Sin is left with the usual steamed dishes such as the iconic Steamed Fish Head with Bean Paste and the double-boiled soups.

Desmond Chia's new place is known as Sik Bao Sin, which means eat fully first in Cantonese. Sik Bao Sin is located between Lorong 34 and 36 along Geylang Road, a few bus stops from the flagship Sik Wai Sin. We reached Sik Bao Sin on a Sunday evening and found a table in the brightly-lit eating house. The menu reflected many dishes which were similar to that in Sik Wai Sin previously.

This used to be one of the family's favourite. We fell hopelessly in love with the Steamed Fish Head at Sik Wai Sin and decided to order it again at Sik Bao Sin. However, this version was sorely lacking. The fish was slightly overcooked which caused it to be quite tough. The bean paste sauce also lacked the fragrance found in Sik Wai Sin's version. If you want the authentic version of this dish, I would strongly recommend that you return to Sik Wai Sin for it. 

The Watercress Soup was ordinary. It was clear and light, with chunks of pork ribs and watercress. Nothing to shout home about but it was pretty all right.

Thank goodness the wok-fried dishes were still superb! Little wonder that Desmond was the chef in charge of the wok-fried dishes in Sik Wai Sin. His skills were definitely still remarkable and the standard of the wok-fried dishes were consistent with those found in Sik Wai Sin previously. The wok-hei was still fantastic and the fragrance of the oil was amazing. The greens were crunchy and tasty.

The Braised Tofu and Prawns came next. The tofu was well-fried and the prawns were fresh and crunchy. The sauce was robust and thick, which went very well with the tofu and prawns. 

The Ginger Chicken was the last dish that arrived. The wok-hei in this dish was good and I really like it as well! The chicken cubes were slightly crispy on the outside and very tender within. The ginger cubes were really awesome too. I don't usually pop ginger into my mouth when it appears in a dish but I decided to do so this time since my mother strongly recommended that I try. I did not regret it. The ginger cubes were exceptionally sweet with a spicy after taste. 

The wok-fried dishes at Sik Bao Sin is definitely worth the trip down Geylang Road. I would not say the same about the steamed dishes, which taste like a weak imitation of the ones at Sik Wai Sin. However, wok-hei is Sik Bao Sin's winning trademark and will definitely continue to draw crowds to this eating house.

592 Geylang Road (between Lorong 34 and 36)

67443757

Opening Hours:

11:45 - 12:30

17:45 - 21:30