one of the BEST egg tarts in sg goes to these lil babies; it’s kinda sad they r underrated bc of all the popular brands out there like taicheong (which r absolutely delicious too ofc)

a buttery, flaky pastry which encompasses a light and wobbly custard center!! it’s super smooth and soft, which goes rly well with the crisp and crumbly texture of the crust!! the aroma and flavourful of this gets me all the time, i literally order 3 just for myself 🤤

Went Geylang for dinner with my family. Decided to just swing by a durian stall nearby for durians since it is the durian season now.

Along Geylang, there is a stretch of durian stalls and this is the very first one.

I was browsing and looking at the red prawns durians when I realised the excited sellers had already gotten/ chosen/ opened two huge durians for my hub.

Weighing the durians, the seller showed us the scale. Over 7kg for two large durians. Then, he dropped the bombshell-more than $200?! I balked at the price, while trying to grapple with what was going on amidst the ongoing talking and excitement.

The seller did display the price of the so-called premium MSW durians ($30/ kg).

I tried to tell them there’s only 4 of us (we just had dinner btw) and we don’t need 7 kg of durians. Maybe we will just take one. (In fact, I didn’t even want to get a durian from the $30/kg stack of durians. There’s a stack of MSW durians going for $22/kg. Can choose from there what... but, oh well!)

Market price varies but even Combat Durian MSW durian prices has dropped from $22 (when I last ate 1-2 wks ago) to $15/ kg now.

Anyway, hurriedly, the sellers ‘threw in’ another half a (small) durian and a Thai coconut and sealed the deal with my hub.

I’m not a durian connoisseur but the $30 MSW durians tasted like all other average MSW durians I have tried in terms of aroma, sweetness, texture, and flavour.

To be fair, I can’t say we were cheated since the price was clearly displayed and we were shown the weight of the durians on the weighing scale. Yet, I can’t help but felt we were fleeced in a way. Sort of.

Being hurried into buying such overpriced durians clearly shows that it is all about maximising profits/ money here.

A very very unpleasant experience.

Duke Bakery breads don’t look exactly amazing and are pricier than breads from other bakeries, but their breads are all made using yeast from fermented fruits and good quality ingredients. A quick scan at the photos posted by people who review their breads will show you that their some of their delicious breads are chocked full of ingredients, making them worthwhile buys.

The honey & walnut bread is fragrant, soft, chewy, subtly sweet and has a very light yeasty taste.

Altogether lovely!

Duke bakery has been around in Singapore for quite a while, but I have not tried their breads before. The prices of their breads are certainly not cheap and furthermore, paying a premium price for a big-sized bun with ‘no filling’ (or so I thought) isn’t exactly appealing to me. I walked in once after lunch, but left without buying anything. My hub was not even interested in trying the samples out.

It wasn’t until I read reviews praising their breads being healthier and delicious that I changed my mind.

It was about slightly after 9pm (they close at 9:30pm), when I walked past the Duke Bakery at White Sands, but most of their breads were already sold out.

I eyed the last roll of (black) sesame bread. I had read excellent reviews raving about their sesame bread. But their breads are not standard sized buns that just serve one. So I have to consider carefully. Healthier breads alone doesn’t appeal to my hub. It must tastes good. I prayed that it measures up to the taste of barcook’s cheese and walnut loaf before I took the plunge and paid for the last roll of sesame bread. The staff behind the cashier counter asked if I wanted my bread sliced, and i agreed. I was pleasantly surprised.

This bakery baked their breads using yeast from fermented fruits. Interestingly, their European-Japanese-style breads has a soft and light texture, unlike the typical European-style breads with a slightly/ much harder crust. On top of that, their breads are chocked full of ingredients, making them so value-for-money!

By the way, the black sesame paste was absolutely delicious. Like the bread, the filling was soft, had a nutty fragrance, was not too sweet! Awesome!

My hub, who isn’t even particularly interested in their bread nor (black) sesame (flavour, except for black sesame Ah balling), actually took the effort to tell me, in an excited state, with eyes wide opened, that the sesame bread was VERY good! He was so impressed that he actually suggested going down again to buy their bread! Yay!

Made from rice flour and served with orange sugar, this fresh, buttery, fermented rice pancake with crispy edges and thick, spongy centre really wowed me.

This is such a treat!

As with the rest of their food, this pau is very well-made. It is a small pau that I can finish off in two bites.

Their paus has that fragrant pau smell that we are so familiar with and that I so love. When you try to tear the pau into two, you will realised that DTF’s paus have pau skin that is chewy (more so than at other places). At first sight, the yam paste look pastey and sort of rough, but is actually quite soft. Subtly sweet, the paste is actually quite nice.

Overall, quite a nice pau.

My favourite is still the black sesame pau though.

The beautiful thing about Din Tai Fung is, you can order just one of this to try out. As with the rest of their food, their paus are very well-made. It is a small pau that I can finish off in two bites.

Their paus has that fragrant pau smell that we are so familiar with and that I so love. When you try to tear the pau into two, you will realised that DTF’s paus have pau skin that is chewy (more so than at other places). At first sight, the red bean paste look rough. However, it is not. It is like tasting red beans without the ‘skin’. Not too sweet, the paste is soft and nice. I actually prefer the sweetness level of their red bean paste (rice) dumpling to this.

But I must say this is still a nice pau made with good quality red beans.

My favourite is still the black sesame pau though.

One of my favourite sliced fish soups. Love the thick slices of fresh fish and the absolutely yummy soup!

Usually, the queue is long on weekdays. (They don’t operate on weekends). While the queue is long, the food is totally worth the wait. Anyway, because of the long queue, this stall doesn’t allow customers to takeaway. They used to allow people to choose ‘black’ (fried), ‘white’ or mixed, but now, it is only the mixed version.

They usually use ‘Batang’ fish (马鲛鱼/ Tengiri). But when supply is low/ prices are high, they will substitute with another type of fish... like the one In the photograph (aka Sheng Yu). But they will try to give you more slices if that’s the case as the price of Sheng Yu is half the price of Batang.

In the past, they would be sold out by 1 plus in the afternoon. Now, you probably still stand a chance at 2pm.

I went on a weekday afternoon. This shop is tucked away in a quiet corner/ end of the food centre.

There was no queue, unlike the roving Pasar Malan oyster cake stall.

Also, here, the oil used is clean, unlike the other 2 oyster cake stalls; dark oil, sometimes the colour of Kopi O.

Very crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside. There are prawns, oysters, minced meat/ pork, and plenty of coriander. Usually I don’t like coriander, but taste is still pretty agreeable (not so strong that it is overwhelming). Worth adding ingredients! This oyster cake is bursting with ‘Liao’ (aka ingredients).

A delightful treat!

Date visited: 1/7/2018 (Sun, 7:30pm)

There are some parallel parking lots right outside the coffeeshop. But it is not easy to get an empty lot there. It is advisable to park nearby and walk over to the coffeeshop instead.

It doesn’t matter how long the queue. The Hokkien mee is fried in batches. If you happened to join the end of the queue just as the boss is almost done with the mee, congrats! The wait is short.

This must be the best Hokkien mee I have tasted thus far. I’m not sure if it is because of the charcoal used to fry the mee, but that ‘wok-hei!’

OMG!😱

I was blown away at my first mouthful! 🤯

That wok hei! I am repeating myself... is really... mind blowing.

At $8, this is not expensive. I did not dig out all the prawns before I took the photograph. There were 4 big, meaty prawns. Not the most expensive top quality type but nevertheless, very good quality, fresh prawns. The squid slices are thick (not the paper thin type) and fresh as well. This is well worth $8.

$8 is just nice for my mom and me. We have very average appetites.

The Kwong Satay there is pretty nice as well. I like their satay/ gravy and ketupat (not the instant, boiled in plastic bags type). Skip the Orh Luak though. Anyway, I digress.

If you like Hainan Fried Hokkien Mee at Beach Rd Army Market; its wok hei and the richness of its mee, then you HAVE got to come here. You will be mind blown 🤯 by this.

I am so coming back again for this.

Date visited: 1/7/2018 (10:30am)

Finally! The stall was closed for the whole of Ramadan/ Hari Raya period.

There is usually a short queue on weekends, but it moves fast.

One reason I like this stall is because they make your order fresh. I really don’t like being served thosai that has been lying around for a while/ cold.

While this may not be like MTR type of (crispy) dosa, I still like this type of thosai with orange sugar- fresh, humble, cheap & nice!

This ang ku kueh looks so much like a real AKK it is almost (un)believable! I mean even the dimensions are similar to a real AKK.

This AKK outer glossy layer of red is made up of black sugar infused with dates curd cover. It seems to have a slight hint of Yuzu. Beneath the glaze/ jelly is red bean paste with (pandan) mousse. At the base/ bottom is a crisp shortbread.

It tastes as fantastic as it looks! Un~un~un~un~un~believable!