Gobbling Germans' Gibberish

Since we were lazy, we decided not to seek out some “original” hawker stall but go for lunch in one of the shopping malls.

In Germany this would usually be a bad idea. The food there — even staple stuff like sausages — tend to be bad. So choosing a “Food Emporium” stall (Hand Made Noodles) was a bit of a risk in our eyes.

But we were pleasantly surprised after we ordered black pepper chicken and dried noodle with fry sauce.

Black Pepper Chicken and Dry Noodles with fry sauce

Both dishes were not brilliant. But they were ok. Both freshly made (a thing sometimes more important than pure taste) and sizable enough to fill you up pleasantly for a few hours. Usually neither of these would be good enough to warrant talking about them, this just shows our surprise about the fact this was mall food.

We decided to have breakfast in one of the food courts and we had checked out a few online. Having a craving for “proper” congee, we moved to the Albert Food Center, which is practically next to the Bugis MRT station.

After walking around for a bit to check out what the different stalls have to offer, we then stopped at the stall #1-78, Li Fang Porridge, that had quite a selection of congees, including those with more unusual additions like frog meat and pig liver.

The woman and I decided to be boring, so she got herself a mixed scallop congee and I got the mixed pork congee, both of which came with an unsalted doughstick.

Long story short. Those were delicious congees, easily rivalling those we had in Hong Kong. The pork meat was tender, not fatty and there was cut pork, pork liver and a pork meatball in mine while the scallop congee had no chunky pieces in it and was more on the unobtrusive side, yet also excellent.

There was one “downside” and that was the price which was comically “high” compared to the other stalls. While you could get an 8 pack of rice cakes with preserved veggies for S$2.50, the congee here set us back S$5.50 each. For us, still cheap but the price could be the reason there was not a big queue.

Should we find any better congees we will be surprised and rather happy at the same time.

We walked along a road in Little Idia and happened upon a little restaurant “Delhi”. I had read about that, could not remember exactly what….so we moved in to try it out.

There was noone inside — usually not the best sign — and they used little tablet computers for a menu. You could order, review and then finally send the order with a click.

I like new technology. I really do, but call me old fashioned, I prefer to talk to a waitress/waiter. Oh well. It worked and we got our food. Naan,Roti and Lassi, Onion Bhaji and Mixed Pakora as starters, Palak Paneer and Dry fried Mutton as mains.

While the Roti, Naan and Lassi were all run-of-the-mill, the Pakora and Bhaji were very tasty.

Onion Bhaji

The Bhaji was not fatty at all (what it often is..) and had a very nice taste, not overwhelming. Would get that again. The serving size was generous as well. All that for S$8. Unfortunately, there was no dip going with it.

Pakora

Usually, I am not too fond of Pakora. This will not change due to this Pakora but I have to say that both the consistency and the freshness were very nice. Well seasoned but not too much, the filling good and just as fresh. Again they were not fatty…I admit, that does not happen all too often when ordering Pakora, still it is worth noting.

Maybe it is a personal peeve, but nothing spoils deep fried or fried dough-based foods more than causing them to drip fat or be generally too fatty.

Palak Paneer

The Palak Paneer ist usually the “test”-dish of the woman and it was this time again. It was creamy and only slightly seasoned, something that usually is not the case. The Palak Paneers we ate up to now were more in-the-face with the spinach and the seasoning.

The fact that the seasoning was not strong does not mean it was a bad Palak Paneer, but both me and the woman are more fond of a “robust” seasoning.

Dry Fried Mutton

Which brings us to the dry fried mutton. Looking at the dish made me think if they should have added a “spicy” tag to the menu, but surprisingly, it was not spicy at all. The seasoning was intense, though. I cannot precisely tell what they used, there was a kind of salty sambal-like stuff all over the meat which gave it that strong taste.

Usually I go with lamb or beef (hard to get in indian restaurants..:D) and would have thought the meat flavour would punch through but it did not. It was mostly ok, slightly stringy but I liked the overall taste.

We both rather liked the place. And the entire Food including the drinks and the service charge set us back S$55, which ok…since we compare prices to those in germany.

The view was quite interesting…it was around 1 or 2 pm and apparently it was not very full. We got seats quite easily. There was no air-conditioning but that was fine, the ventilation was decent despite the haze and temperatures.

A food court in china town (335 Smith St.)

After that, the gobbling german man could not decide what to get. His counterpart could though so we stopped at a simple stall. We had Fishball Mee Pok and a Laksa. Both were ok…nothing to write home about. The Laksa was supposed to be spicy. It was not very spicy at all. The fishballs had a nice consistency but the broth could have been seasoned a bit better. But all in all it was fine for a quick snack. Both set us back S$3.

Laksa and Fishball Mee Pok.