Street Eats

A quick grab-and-go option in the CBD. The pide takes approximately 2 minutes to warm up and prepare. I wanted the Muar O’tah but it was already sold out and the auntie told me it’s very popular. Went for the Lulu instead which is black pepper chicken thigh with pineapple and house made mayo sauce.

I didn’t post a photo of the pide itself, as it’d just look like a flatbread stuffed with veggies. To my surprise, there was actually a whole lot of black pepper chicken (almost mince-like) below the first layer! The black pepper sauce is a kicker for sure as there are really copious amounts of coarse black pepper in the chicken. I wasn’t expecting this degree of flavour of heat but I was pleasantly surprised. The chicken itself is really tender and juicy too.

The black pepper chicken went well with the mayo as well as the fresh lettuce and tomatoes. The pide was a little flat and not nearly as fluffy or soft as I would’ve hoped but I liked that it was somewhat crisp outside. While I wish the pide bread could’ve been fluffier (I think Pita Bakery’s pitas would have been amazing with this filling!) , it was still a hearty and pretty balanced meal (with a good amount of veg and protein) for under $10.

I had this almost immediately after purchasing so it came to quite a different experience from the first time I tried this. The double chocolate Obanyaki is a limited edition flavour, and it’s named that way because of the two different chocolate fillings. There’s a sweet chocolate custard (the lighter shade) that will be the first thing you encounter in a bite, and deep in the middle is the melted chocolate. I really didn’t like the taste of the chocolate custard, as it was too sweet and curd-like for my liking. I think this would’ve done a lot better if they just had the molten chocolate filling in the centre.

There’s this new Chinese girl who’s working at 108 Matcha Saro who is super blur. She took our order for this and a matcha parfait but ended up giving us a red bean Obanyaki and keyed in the Houjicha parfait for us instead. Thankfully, the manager quickly stepped in to offer us the red bean Obanyaki for free, and also gave us a matcha soft serve cone for free for the trouble.

*Note that 108 Matcha Saro is cash-only at the moment.

Right in front of Haw Par Villa and at the exit of the MRT station is an old-school ice cream stand selling blocks of ice cream cut with a knife and sandwiched between wafers or rainbow bread. We spotted this on Sunday morning but I’m not sure if they’re there everyday. Apart from the regular stands at Orchard Road, you hardly find these anymore. They even ring the bell! How nostalgic.

These traditional ice creams have evolved with the times, and there are a variety of newfangled flavours like lychee and Thai milk tea available as well. I’m sentimental, so I went for my childhood favourite - chocolate ice cream wafer sandwich. Nothing mind-blowing, but incredibly comforting and brings back tons of old memories.

Whoever thought of this combination had an interesting idea, but interesting ideas don’t always work out the way we want. In theory I guess pandan and cheese might have been a viable sweet-savoury combination, but this pancake is an abomination.

Upon cutting into the pancake, we were greeted by an artificially green custard filling which didn’t look appetising at all. Steeling myself for the first bite, my tastebuds were first assaulted by sweet pandan, followed by a second wave of savoury cheesiness. It’s a wonder how both of these flavours didn’t meld together but ended up presenting themselves as two separate flavours that just don’t go well together. This was such a weird pancake I really would not recommend it to anyone.

Looks like almost all the pancakes at Mr Bean have been made healthier with wholemeal batter and you can see the grains inside. I think the change in flour and batter composition made the pancakes more dense and slightly less fluffy, but it wasn’t a deal breaker for me. My colleague was much more annoyed by this change, citing that the pancakes were a lot stickier and that the batter recipe wasn’t changed to accommodate the change in flour. Oh well. Can’t please everyone but I’m glad for this switch to healthier ingredients.

For the peanut pancake, I recommend eating it while it’s still hot or at least toasting it up first. Since I only got to eating it a few hours after and couldn’t be bothered with heating it, you can clearly see the peanut filling had hardened into a hard ball. The peanut filling was sort of like an extra-crunchy and thick crunchy peanut butter. There’s loads of peanut chunks in there, and I think the sweetness balances nicely with the pancake. Despite the solidified filling, I still enjoyed this anyway!

Yes it’s back! Love how gooey and chocolatey the filling remained despite having bought this hours ago. This is my absolute flavour from Mr Bean as the thick hazelnut filling even comes with small crunchy bits that add to the variety of textures in one pancake - the spongy and chewy pancake, creamy hazelnut and crunchy pops. Love!

From 15 July - 31 August, Mr Bean is running a promotion on their Singafour Eggwiches where you can enjoy two for $5.40 instead of $7. The two eggwiches available are the Butter Chicken and Chilli Crab. Unfortunately there wasn’t any Chilli Crab left, so I could only try the Butter Chicken (which I was most excited about anyway).

Cutting into the pancake, it’s immediately clear that they are really generous with the filling and chicken. The Butter Chicken filling is really fragrant and aromatic. The gravy is thick and creamy, while the chicken is soft and tender. I felt that the egg was quite tasteless though, but maybe it’s because the taste of the butter chicken filling overshadowed it. What was an unexpected treat was that the egg yolk was slightly runny, adding a luscious mouthfeel. While this pancake filling may not reach the level of a Butter Chicken dish at an Indian Muslim stall, it way exceeded my expectations. This would be suitable for someone craving a snack, in the mood for some Indian, but not willing to commit to a full Butter Chicken order. While it’s quite expensive to buy at regular price, I think the 2 for $5.40 offer is reasonable. Catch it before it’s gone!

One option for those who don’t like matcha is the original custard obanyaki, which is filled with a sweet and creamy custard curd filling. I didn’t care for this much as I’m not a fan of custard, and I would’ve preferred some matcha bitterness to temper the sweetness. The texture of the custard was quite nice though. I wouldn’t order this again as I’d visit 108 Matcha Saro for their specialty matcha items, but their Obanyaki textures are all on point as they’re fluffy and soft. Whether it’s worth paying a premium for them, you decide.

Similar to a red bean pancake from Mr Bean, just a whole lot more atas. The texture is fluffier and more airy too, so I guess that might justify the higher price tag. I appreciated that the red bean filling from 108 Matcha Saro comes chock full of crushed red beans, rather than a paste. It’s not too sweet, and goes nicely with the regular pancake base. Personally I prefer the matcha version as the contrast between the slightly bitter matcha pancake and sweet, earthy red bean filling is a classic pairing that I love, but if you’re not into matcha (why would you be at 108 Matcha Saro?!), this is an option for you.

Similar to the durian bun, the matcha bun is soft and fluffy, but has a floury aftertaste that I didn’t appreciate. The matcha filling is also molten liquid, and it’s unsweetened, making each bite quite bitter. Between the floury taste and the bitter matcha, I didn’t like the matcha lava bun at all and am also unlikely to try any of their other flavours.

Chanced upon this Thai stall at the Takashimaya food fest, and picked up one of these tiny lava buns. Apart from their cute logo and even cuter durian stamp, their buns aren’t that great. They were fluffy and soft, but had a floury aftertaste. The lava filling is truly molten lava-like though, and it oozes out rapidly when bitten into so be careful or you’re likely to get scalded. The durian flavour is pretty strong, so it will likely satisfy durian lovers. I wish the filling was more creamy rather than watery, so while I didn’t think this was a bad bun overall, I wouldn’t order it again.

I was so excited to see this colourful Thai snack available in Singapore. This always brings me back to my childhood vacations in Bangkok, where I would eagerly choose which ‘fruits’ I wanted from the stall at MBK. Unfortunately, the variant here didn’t match up to my expectations. The skin was too thin, translucent and film-like whereas the green bean filling was coarse. I felt the skin to filling ratio was too little, and I didn’t get much satisfaction overall. Guess it’s time for another trip back to Thailand.