Hougang

Pandan ice cream waffles with Gula Melaka ($8.9) - the waffles were crispy and full of eggy fragrance, the Gula Melaka sauce that was just the right amount of sweetness went well with the waffles. The flavor of the pandan ice cream however, was very subtle and it didn't quite work for me, tasted a little weird after a while.
Smoked sawdust pudding ($5) - I LOVE THIS!!! The pudding was light and tasted a lot like milk, the crumbs that came along with it was soft and airy 😌👍

I've got my eye on this promising two-month-old cakes and desserts shop, run by a single lady, Yvette. She's an ex-teacher with no professional culinary background, though she did spend four months at Michelin-starred molecular gastronomy outfit, Bo Innovation. What's mindblowing is her creativity paired with the technique to pull off her ideas. She actually took inspiration from the completely unappetizing smell of ignited joss sticks in Macau's temples, and turned it into this one-of-a-kind dessert of whipped milk pudding and fine biscuit crumble trapped with an aromatic puff of smoke from burning wood chips. Can someone say, genius?!

Grilled Chicken Chop may sound like a kopitiam western stall dish, but it also probably is the best gauge of the chef's skills when it comes to the grill. They pulled it off well for this one; juicy, tender chicken which I could cut with a spoon smothered in a thick brown sauce which suggested hints of shallots. The fries also had a hint of truffle; possibly unintended and likely to have come from the previous batch of Truffle Fries orders (all the better for me though). Even the garden salad is worth a mention; the leaves are so fresh-looking and made most garden salads that came as a side in other restaurants look sad and dead.

Good knuckles are hard to find, let alone affordable ones that are situated at heartlands. Glad to have survived the wait for the ones served at Knuckles; at $10 this is definitely value-for-money. Already de-boned when served, there is no need for a mess before you dig straight in for the tender meat and crispy roast pork-like skin. The sour vegetables on the side makes for a good cleanse as it takes off quite a bit of the dish's oiliness, and the mash potatoes were smooth, buttery and savoury especially with the brown sauce.