Soon Li Huat Economical Bee Hoon/Nasi Lemak *nice*

Soon Li Huat Economical Bee Hoon/Nasi Lemak

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
Block 163 Bukit Merah Central S(150163)

#02-08
- economical fried bee hoon
- economical nasi lemak

This stall was open for breakfast too, and I see it as a direct competitor to Hup Kee Delicious Food.

I thought Hup Kee was better, as I always spot queues at Hup Kee in the morning, whereas the queues for Soon Li Huat wasn't that long.

Until one day, I realised that my observations were abit off - people were queuing for this stall too!  Hence I thought I should try this for breakfast too.

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And boy, was I largely surprised!!!

The bee hoon was nice!  It had this sesame oil taste, and I sometimes a sucker for foods that have a douse of sesame oil (less sesame oil chicken), thus this suited my taste.  Of course, needless to say, the bee hoon was not rubbery; else I'd have condemned it.

Next up, the huge surprise.  The fried kway teow!  The kway teow tasted like just how I'd love my hor fun to be!!  Yes, you might not see the link, but I find that hor fun tastes best when the kway teow has been fried prior, and it should look dark, like in this photo.  Of course, I guess using the same kway teow as hor fun did add on to the taste; big pieces instead of those normal fried kway teow or the kway teows of fishball noodle stalls.

Unfortunately, the chicken wing and the luncheon meat had nothing good to comment on.  Minimal acceptable standards, I guess.

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Overall, I rate it nice because I really liked the kway teow and the bee hoon.  I like it so much that I even thought adding chilli to the meal was an insult to the kway teow.  And I'm thinking the morning breakfast queues are probably split into 2 because of the preferences for either better tasting bee hoon/kway teow or ingredients.

I should also make a disclaimer that some stalls have problems maintaining consistency in their tastes, like the Holland Village Economical Bee Hoon, thus I can't guarantee that this will always taste the same.

Fried Fish Soup *not bad*

Fried Fish Soup

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
Block 163 Bukit Merah Central S(150163)

#02-01
- fish soup
- fried fish soup
- seafood soup

The first shop in the whole food centre!  Or at least, the shop that is number 1 in the whole food centre.  One thing about fish soup, is that my current favourite is the one near alexander food village, sharing the same coffee shop as keng eng kee seafood.  Thus, I admit, I am super biased when it comes to fish soup.  And I even dare to say I'm somewhat reluctant to try out others.

Regardless, I still went up and ordered from this stall.  I did notice a queue during lunch hours for this stall, and it was definitely not the only fish soup stall in the food centre, so I did hope that it would be not bad.

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I ordered dual fish for this (fried fish + fresh fish slices), and when asked if I wanted to add milk, I said yes without thinking.

Of course, I had to constantly remind myself that I cannot compare to to Alexander Food Village one, as I find that nothing can compare to that.

Having said that, I was somewhat surprised at the taste.

The main reason why I said this soup is not bad, is due to the fact that I could still taste the sweetness of the original soup (whereby they prolly made the effort to really boil the soup, rather than add msg and whats not) despite having milk added to it!  The soup was really good!

The soup was topped with the fried egg thing, which I have never figured out what its called.  I don't really like my eggs this way, so I can't comment much.  There were slices of bittergourd too, and I felt that the taste of the soup was not affected by the bitterness at all!  I can't appreciate bittergourd; nevertheless I did force myself to finish every slice there was.

The meat, well, I'd say nothing to rave about.  The fried fish felt pretty standard, whereas I thought the fish slices didn't feel that fresh.

Finally, the rice.  I went for the yam rice option, and I liked it.  There were yam pieces, it did not taste bland at all.  I thought the rice tasted like glutinous rice, topped with the fried onion bits and stuff.

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Overall, this Fried Fish Soup stall is not bad, I think its definitely worth coming back, but I do not see myself going back any time soon as I've had an overdose of fish soup - to the extent where I'm not even sure if I want to go back to my favourite fish soup stall.

Hup Kee Delicious Food *not bad*

Hup Kee Delicious Food
Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
Block 163 Bukit Merah Central S(150163)
#02-15
- Economic Bee Hoon
- Porridge
- Chee Cheong Fun
- *supposedly* Claypot Rice

When I first came up with the idea of this blog, I wanted to try and blog the stalls in order, ie. stall 1 to stall 80.  However, Hup Kee Delicious Food was the very first that I tried out, so I thought, why not?

So, my first morning at my new work place, and I walked all the way to Jalan Bukit Merah Central Food Centre for breakfast.  I first noticed that there was a long queue at this stall already.  Unsure whether to try it out immediately, I walked around the Food Centre and noticed that this was the only stall that had a long queue, despite having about another 2 stalls that sold similar economic bee hoon.  And this seemed like the only stall that sells chee cheong fun and porridge for breakfast.

On a side note, this place seems to be opened mainly for breakfast; it does not display much food during lunch time, and seems like they'll juz stay opened until the porridge sells out or something.

*The photo taken was not on the first visit though*

My standard orders will be bee hoon + kway teow, chicken wing, eggs, and luncheon meat.  Decided not to order eggs, as I'll prolly be saving the weekly eggs budget for brunch/scrambled eggs.

First impression was that this is definitely one of the better beehoon/kway teow combi.  

First, the kway teow.  I thought it was cooked just nice; the level of saltiness (saltiness, for me, kind of defines taste.  I noticed some years back that the better the food tasted, the saltier it is.  Of course, I'll always point out if the food was too salty) was about right for my taste buds.  Also, they did not use standard kway teow I think; they used the type for hor fun, whereby it comes in big pieces, and is thicker than the normal kway teow.  

Next, the bee hoon.  Well, nothing really spectacular about the bee hoon; it tastes just alright to me (the last two times I felt that economic fried bee hoon tastes great were from the stalls at boon keng, selling chee cheong fun, and the holland village food centre one, which has this chao tar taste to it.)  

The luncheon meat was of acceptable standard, or at least, this is the bare minimum on how luncheon meats should taste like.  Salty.  Most economic bee hoons have almost tasteless luncheon meat (think it's due to the brand they use?), are either cut too thin, or the meat texture is like...non-luncheon meat.  This one, I thought the size was just nice.  Nothing to really pick on.  

Finally, the chicken wing.  I like the seasoning, and it does still tastes somewhat juicy despite being displayed for awhile.  Of course, its a little soggy, but you can't really compare a economic bee hoon fried chicken wing with a freshly fried chicken wing. 

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Overall, I thought the the economic bee hoon for this stall was pretty decent, which explains the queue.  And as I was eating it, I thought to myself "yes, finally a stall that has not bad fried kway teow.  I won't be missing the Holland Village Economic Bee Hoon any time soon." 

Blk 163 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
Block 163 Bukit Merah Central S(150163)


One of the reasons why I started this blog is due to adaptability issues.  I'm sure many of us here have gotten used to a certain area (i.e Hougang), only to shift office/shift house to another part of Singapore where we are totally unfamiliar with.  And being a foodie, it does seem quite troublesome to ask friends for food suggestions.

Hence, I thought to myself.  Why not try out every stall at the new place, and give a review to each stall?

I will first start off with Blk 163, Jalan Bukit Merah Central Food Centre.  Of course, it does not mean that I will not post other food until I am done with this place.  It just means that I will attempt to try every stall, and post everything if possible.

And during days when I have cravings, or when I do not lunch there, I can also post on other places and other foods!

Anyways, first 2 posts are like an intro.  The food posts will be coming tomorrow, if I have the time.

1st post. Curry Flavoured Sai vs Sai Flavoured Curry

Obviously, this is to disgust people out and deter them from any further reading.

And this is to satisfy my friend, who's been asking me to review on sai flavoured curry.

If you were stranded on an island and you can only choose from 1 out of 2 canned foods, one being curry flavoured sai and the other being sai flavoured curry, which one would you choose?

Yes, disgusting as this question might sound, but it does link to a very important question that I've always asked myself.  Which is more important?  Service-oriented shitty food or Superb tasting food with shitty service?

My answer, would be superb tasting food with shitty service.

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Anyways, this is just to share some of my thoughts about enjoying food.  More will come soon!