Tha Chang's Boat Noodles

So I discovered these boat noodles a couple of months ago when I was at Bugis Junction and looking for something to eat. 

I think the plan had been to have sushi, but then the queue was long and I was lazy and since there was this (then) new Thai restaurant, thought we'd give it a try. 

What I didn't know at that time was that Tha Chang wasn't just a restaurant. 

It was in fact a drinking place, a pub, a club, however you want to describe it, and it had both food and beer and drinks and alcohol. 

If there's one thing I have come to understand about pub grub, it is that the food is usually good. Kitchens at these places don't normally screw up their foods, and so, whilst you might not get them dishes at wallet-friendly prices, you can be sure it will be as fulfilling, and authentic as one's dinner can get. 

Boat Noodles here was not going to be a dollar a bowl- that much I was certain. 

But I didn't think it very expensive either. 

I mean, look at the bowl! 

Never mind the fact that I was hungry and needed soup at that time, this is not the small kind of a bowl that merely gives you a taste of what boat noodles is, and nothing more.

Now, whilst that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the small ones (an outlet at the National Library serves up some really good and satisfying cute little bowls) it is the full-sized solid ones like those served here that brings me straight back to Thailand, to the place where for the first time I had one of the best Boat Noodles which taste I have never forgotten. 

The magic lies in the soup. 

It is the soup of this bowl here at Tha Chang that brings me to this place at Ploenchit near Mediva Clinic right next to Ploenchit BTS station. Theirs is somewhat thicker compared to here but the taste is memorable, nearly the same, and leaves me with a very pleasant smile. 

It is because of this taste, I tell you, that I refuse to have boat noodles at anywhere else on this island (thus far) except for here. 

I'm stubborn like that. 

What's funny is that I don't really know what goes inside the broth. 

Google tells me that the soup is made with stock of either pork or beef, has herbs- galangal, cinnamon, lemongrass, dark soy sauce, fermented soybean paste, and thickened (usually) with a bit of animal blood. 

That will probably be what's in the bowl over in Thailand. 

Here, gahmen regulations and all, I'm presuming the blood is what's absent at Tha Chang, but on the whole, it has, generally, everything else.  

I'm not sure if they have bean sprouts in the bowl- I can't really remember now, goodness me- but coriander (parsley?) and a bunch of other vegetables- spinach, maybe, yes, they have. 

Of course, it will not be boat noodles for me if there is no protein. 

My bowl today had plenty of pork slices, pork meatballs, and pork liver mixed amidst my choice of egg noodles, all of which were done in a way that made me think of ramen, but which wasn't really ramen at all. 

What I loved was how tender the pork slices were. 

At first sight one might have thought they would be on the tougher, drier, chewy side, but to my surprise, no, they were incredibly tender, full of flavor from the soup, and pleasantly nice to chew. 

I'll have rice vermicelli when I come here next time though. 

Egg noodles might go well with certain flavors of soup of different thickness, but the broth of Thai boat noodles goes best with rice. The taste of egg noodles seems to get lost in the savory soup of the cinnamon and galangal and everything else. 

It was a nice, fulfilling, satisfactory bowl I had this particular afternoon, one which- after Havelock- I actually needed, and I'm pretty sure I'll be back here at Tha Chang in future. 

After all, Ploenchit's never far from my mind, and I'm just so glad that on days where I can't be there, I can be here. 

WingStop's Buffalo Wings

One of the best blessings in life is to be able to have Fried Chicken as a celebration on the last day of the 2025 year. 

So some of us might find it commonplace, like what's the big deal when there're plenty of fast food joints that specialize in fried chicken, and you can get a deep fried spring chicken in nearly every hawker center and coffee shop and every Old Chang Kee all around the island. 

But fried chicken is one of those foods that you don't think you want to have until you really crave for it, or until you actually sit down at the table with the chicken steaming right in front of you and you realize you wanted it all along.

I hadn't thought I missed eating Fried Chicken. 

I mean, it wasn't a craving stuck consistently in the head. 

Even if I might have made a comment here and there.

But, yes, a blessing, overall. 

We had made a deliberate trip down here to Funan for the sake of these buffalo wings. Why it is that we came specifically down to this outlet, I don't know, especially since there are outlets at Bedok Mall, City Square Mall, even Singpost, the Cathay and Clementi Mall, but hey, last day of the year and all. 

Now, for us who don't know Wingstop, well, it is- in short, an American fast food chain that specializes in one thing, and one thing only- Buffalo Wings. How they manage to stretch what is- really- a wing of a chicken- is amazing, but they manage to do it, and now, after having their food off their menu, I finally understand why. 

The highlight of their menu has to be their flavors. 

That doesn't mean that they don't have food to offer. 

They do- in the manner of Classic Wings, Boneless Wings, Tenders, and Sides. There is not much to be said about the wings and the tenders. As in, I don't quite know how to describe it, but they do have sides that are worth a look and a try. 

Perhaps one day I might try their in-house Coleslaw or their Louisiana Voodoo Fries with cheese sauce, ranch and cajun seasoning or even their Mushroom Fritters (which today I had wanted to try but somehow didn't get to).

But this afternoon we were very much impressed by their Seasoned Fries. 

 

At first glance they seemed ordinary, no different from any other fries you got at other fast food joints. The difference however was that here they were served hot, crisp and so balanced with their seasoning that not a single fry was left tasteless or overly salty. 

But it were the wings that made this meal memorable. 

We'd taken the boneless. 

With flavors of Hot Honey Rub and Garlic Parmesan. 

I was a little surprised.

I had expected my friend to order our wings in the flavors of Texas Buffalo, Louisiana Rub or Hickory Smoked BBQ. These are, after all, flavors that he fancies, where the Texas Buffalo has cayenne pepper and vinegar, the Louisiana Rub has Cajun, and the BBQ is, well, BBQ. 

I too had thought he would have the Lemon Pepper, which, zesty and peppery at the same time, is interesting a combination seldom seen in chicken seasonings. 

But I wasn't complaining. 

I mean, he could have chosen the spicier flavors of Inferno or Kicap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce with chili flakes). He could also have gone Teriyaki

The Hot Honey Rub was pleasantly more sweet than spicy (it reminded me of Korea's gochujang) and the Garlic Parmesan was garlicky buttery- a favorite combination of mine.

So thankful am I for this meal that gave me uber strong Korean restaurant fried chicken vibes. 

Let's just say it was a very pleasant, and fun, surprise. 

Perhaps the next time I come to WingStop I'll make it a combo with 6 pieces, 1 side, and 1 drink. 

Just for me. 

After all, as fried chicken tastes great with beer, it goes just as great with Coke (or Sprite) too. 

Last Selfies of 2025

You know, there are still a good number of posts that I have to write for the year of 2025- I am not yet done with them- but I recently just transferred the last of the 2025 selfies over from the phone to here, so, hey, might as well. 

It is with a bit of a strange feeling that I look at the following pictures. 

Not so much of being what they are, but of the stories that make them. 

I usually tend to go light with my makeup. 

Doesn't matter if I have a meeting, I don't go bare faced once I head towards downtown. 

So that's how it was for the first few selfies, that's how it was for the selfies with me in the big Platinum-Pratunam T-shirt, and that's how it was for me in the last red sweatshirt piece that I had bought from Bugis Street almost 7 years ago and had finally dug it up now. 

The first two selfies I had taken from this dining place somewhere at Capitol Theater. I can't remember what it was we had gone there for. Maybe we had been hanging around the area to file something at the High Court. Maybe we had been around the area because my friend had something to do or someone to meet and I was there killing time. 

In any case, it was a Mainland-style place that we found ourselves at for our dinner, and whilst I won't be posting the pictures of the food here, I know we had a dish of smooth, silky dumplings, a deep fried battered pork fillet, and a bowl of soup that was simple in name (mushroom) but incredibly clear in texture, rich in flavor, and refreshing on the palate. 

There is me here in the large T-shirt that I bought from Platinum Mall in Pratunam and which I wear whenever I need to be comfortable. 

Like today where I was on the bus heading down to Aperia Mall, and which, if I'm not wrong, was Bus 31, although, really, I should have taken Bus 12 on the East Coast side rather than this one here the Marine Parade side. 

Nevertheless, the light was good, and so, from the back row of the bus, these shots I got. 

What's funny, though, is that I can't remember where the last picture was taken. 

I know I took it on 31st December, I know I was clad in the red sweatshirt that I had found in the cupboard (whilst doing the move) and track pants, but I don't remember where I'd gone or where I'd snapped this shot. 

What's more, the floor, and the furniture behind don't seem to leave much of a clue! 

Oh well, doesn't matter. 

However it was- despite the months of what it had been leading up to the 31st- I still looked enough. 

And that was good for me. 

Of course, the most memorable selfies here have to be of me clad in the blue-grey linen top that I'd purposely worn for the early-morning BNI meeting at Chui Huay Lim Club on River Valley Road. 

So rare is it for me to be able to pay a visit to a place of heritage and culture like this that I just had to grab a selfie.

But adrenaline was running high that morning, my hair for some reason didn't look too smooth, and the lighting where I sat needed a bit of creative angling on my part before I could look presentably well. 

Skewers @ Oriental Food Bedok

I thought I'd posted the picture of the skewers. 

Apparently not. 

I had been so enthusiastic writing about the Mapo Tofu and the Salted Egg Pumpkin here at Oriental Food the other time that I decided I'd keep the skewers for another time.

So, here we are.

I don't know if I'll be writing more and more about the same dishes that I've had at this place here in Bedok, but chances are I might. 

I have been coming here for meals more often than I realized.

But this was the first time we had skewers here. 

What's funny is that I don't actually remember what meat they were. 

I, umm, don't pay attention. 

Most of the time I am just there to eat, so whilst I do look through the menu to see if there is anything that catches my fancy, more often than not, I just stick to what's familiar, and let it be. 

My guess is that they're either beef, or lamb. 

It don't matter which is which; either meat I like, either meat I love. 

There is no gamey feel to the skewers served here at Oriental Food. At first we had been concerned that their skewers might be too oily, too greasy, or not prepared in the way we liked. 

As it turned out, they were grilled to perfection the way we liked. 

Hot, warm, little bit oily, lightly spiced with the pepper and the cumin and some other spices which I don't know what they are, the skewers were the exact kind we'd eaten at elsewhere and which we loved. 

There's something comforting about having beef and lamb skewers as these to go with a bowl of rice. Yes, they might not be the recommended way (you're supposed to have them with beer) but these are good as they are, and since there's this bowl of rice sitting in front of me.... 

It is very special how tender the meat is, especially since somehow they have managed to balance each skewer out with a mix of meat, and fat so that you get one cube of meat, one cube of fat, one cube of meat, one cube of fat, or sometimes, five cubes of meat, and one cube of fat. If it doesn't sound very healthy, well, it is just random, and you never know how much of the fat you're getting anyway. 

This afternoon we ordered a plate of what we have come to describe as their signature dish. 

The Salted Egg Pumpkin, or rather the Golden Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Sauce. 

As always, it was good. 

I don't know what kind of batter they use, or how they make their batter, but it is crunchy, crispy, with a hint of sweetness (maybe it comes from the sweet potato) and that distinctive flavor that one recognizes as with anything that gets coated with salted egg sauce, or seasoning, whatsoever. 

This pumpkin dish has become one of our new favorites whenever we eat here at Oriental Food, by the way, and if it be the day that we decide to have vegetarian (or something light) this dish will be it. 

Gu Zao Ren's Beef Hor Fun

To be honest I'm not really sure whether this post should be in the December of 2025, or the January of 2026. 

Technically it ought to be 2025, because I had it on the 27th of December last year, but I guess the end of last year has somewhat blurred into this year and so I am sometimes not really sure whether whatever happened was last year or this. 

That being said, I actually do remember this meal quite well. 

We were moving out from Steppyhouse that day. 

And because Steppyhouse is one of those places where the nearby 'hood doesn't offer much that's worth the tummy, we decided to make our way down to Gu Zao Ren on the Changi Road side. 

It had, actually, been a very, very long time since we went to Gu Zao Ren. 

Not that the food wasn't good or that we didn't like the food. 

Just that there was so much we wanted to have and we tended to (accidentally) order all the fried stuff which we were not supposed to have.

During one of our early times here we had a plate of fried chicken wings, then a plate of fried something else, with two bowls of porridge between us. Only when the dishes had come to our table that evening did we realize just how much of the Fried we'd had had. 

After that we didn't come here that much anymore.

But today we were leaving this zone, and chances were, unless we biked down this road, we very likely would not be coming back. 

A little too out of the way. 

The choice was between meat and rice, or noodles. 

I had felt we might be ordering meat and rice, you know, like Venison with Rice, or Salted Egg Chicken with Rice (I think that's something they had) but my friend didn't want a whole plate of rice, so instead we ordered a plate of noodles to share. 

The choice was between Yi Mian or Hor Fun, but with me being Hor Fun Queen that I am, that's what we got. 

The dish came rather fast, something I liked. 

Today was not a day I wanted to sit and chit chat and wait. 

But was the hor fun good?  

Frankly, I don't know.

I don't know how to tell. 

How does one define a good plate of noodles? 

Is it by how smooth the noodles are?

Is it by the wok hei? 

Or the amount of oil? 

Is there a benchmark one must adhere to when it comes to determining if a plate is good, or otherwise? 

I never can tell. 

To me it is a good plate of noodles just so long as the noodles are huge and smooth and well fried with just a hint of wok hei but not so much that everything ends up looking blackened and burnt. 

The one thing this plate had a lot of was egg. 

The picture here might only show one strand, but underneath, hidden beneath the small mound hill of noodles there were much more. Surprisingly these little fried bits of egg actually gave a bit more of oomph to the noodles than I thought they would. 

There was also a lot of tougay, which, to my surprise, was less crunchy than I thought it was supposed to be. 

Guess I'm not completely familiar with how accessory vegetables in such zichar dishes are supposed to be. 

Nevertheless it was a great meal. 

It was nice, being there in the afternoon, having a plate of fried hor fun- with beef- may I add- that satisfied a quiet craving with even a little hint of burnt wok hei taste 

It didn't matter if the noodles had a bit more oil than what I these days have been accustomed to or that there were a tiny little bit of grease aftertaste. 

Different chefs have different ways of cooking, different customers have different tastes, and maybe this distinctive vibe, made complete with big round tables, kitchen in the back, practical furnishings on the wall, and bright dine-in ceiling light, created them deep feels of a 'small-town coffee shop in a shophouse' feel that in HDB Singapore we don't always so easily get anymore.  

The Bugis Claypots

A friend thought it would be fun to go try this place at the Bugis area on the Liang Seah Street side.  

It had been featured on Tiktok and IG, he said, and the videos made the food look extra nice. 

I was partial. 

It isn't that I don't like claypot. 

It is that I don't know which claypot to like. 

Many people tell me that there's nothing more comforting than a steaming hot dish simmering in a solid claypot, and to that, I definitely agree. Except that the dish inside the pot is of greater importance, and more often than not, I have no idea just what dish I ought to have. 

There're a lot of dishes to be had here at Fat Bird Chicken Hotpot, particularly their Signatures, which include Fragrant Chicken Hotpot, Mushroom Herbs Chicken Pot, Pork Rib Pot and Beef Brisket Pot. There was also a Bullfrog Pot, the likes of which are popular at many a claypot porridge place. 

These here are just the signatures.

Their list of ala carte, on the other hand, is tremendously long. 

There're dishes like Herbal Prawn Claypot, Lychee Pork, Pork Floss Eggplant, Egg Yolk Coated Corn, Sichuan Hand Shredded Cabbage, San Bei Chicken, and dishes like Sizzling Braised Fish Claypot. 

I don't really know what it was we ordered today, but pictures show that all three dishes we had were spicy.

There was, if I'm not wrong, a dish of tofu- the Sichuan Mala Tofu- where the cubes were big and soft and the gravy was a thick, spicy soup bright red to the eye and bright hot on the tongue. 

The tofu here belonged to the stewed style, so the texture was a little less pong pong and mushy than it were elsewhere, but the cubes were big, tasty, and it felt like I were having it with soup. 

The other dish, I think, was either beef or lamb. 

I don't know which was which. 

Might have been the Sichuan Double Cooked Pork Slices, or maybe the Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin and Chilies. 

This doesn't look like San Bei Chicken.

And I don't think we'd gone for any of the Signature Dishes this afternoon either. 

What's funny is that whilst I might not be able to remember which dish is which, or even which meat is which (I don't know how to differentiate between beef and lamb) but I can certainly remember how spicy each dish was, in particular the last one at the bottom. 

So spicy was it that whilst most meats don't have the spice adhered to them, this one, it did. The gravy stuck to the tender meat, went into the crevices, so much so that biting into each individual piece made you feel like you were eating a wee bit of chili at the same time. 

The parsley (or is it coriander) really helped though.

This is a bitter vegetable, mind, but a very different sensation one gets when eaten with spice this powerful. So rich was the sauce that I think I wrapped each slice of beef with one piece of coriander and ate it both together. 

My favorite dish was probably the second one you see here. 

It might well have been the lamb- I really cannot differentiate between one and the other- but I know the meat was tender and moist, full of flavor, and far from the dry, tasteless meat I had (quietly) thought it would be. 

There'll be more dishes that I'll want to try the next time I come. 

The Stout Flavored Pork, the Lychee Pork and the Deep Fried Sticky Rice Cake with Black Sesame sounded interesting. 

I've not tried lychee with pork before, I've not tried how stout tastes when cooked with meats, and I want to know how the sticky rice cake with sesame looks like, tastes like. 

Oriental Food @ Bedok

Life is such that some of the best meal surprises come when you least expect them at all. 

We had not thought of having  a meal here- not once- in the course of these two years. 

It wasn't that we didn't like Northern cuisine, or what we locals sometimes like to call Mainland food. 

Just that we always seemed to go for other options at Bedok Mall, and so never thought of dining here at Oriental Food located right outside the side entrance of the mall in between the town center and the atrium of the hawker center. 

But we have since placed Oriental Food as one of the places we want to eat at, not so much of a reason other than the fact that their food is, in fact, really good. 

There are a good number of attractive dishes here at this diner-restaurant.

Beef, pork, poultry, vegetables, small bites, skewers, you've got them all. 

We found ourselves drawn by the pictures of skewers in the menu this afternoon. Indeed, it was at the top of our head to try, but then whilst flipping through the menu we came upon the sight of Mapo Tofu, and since it being a favorite dish of my friend- who was dining with me today- we ordered one. 

Then I spotted a dish which at other Mainland restaurants I had never seen before. 

Golden fried pumpkin with Salted Egg Sauce. 

So no skewers it was this afternoon, and we got these two instead. 

In recent months we have had been trying a couple of Mapo Tofu dishes here and there- including this place on the ground floor of Bugis+ of which I don't know the diner's name. 

But none of it thus far come close to this one here at Oriental Food. 

I don't know whether it is their cooking method, whether it is the way they've handled their proportion of spice to gravy, whether it is the way they've prepared their tofu, such that not a single cube is overcooked or dry, and is just perfect to eat on its own, or with rice. 

It might have been that we were in need of some tongue-blasting, mouth-numbing food that day, but the very first spoon we took of this dish was the gravy, and it did not disappoint. 

So many places tend to serve up their food in gravies and sauces that are watery, unappetizing, and extreme on the tongue. Either they be too salty or too much of a distinctive flavor, or unbalanced in one way or another.

Not so this dish. 

So good was it that I ladled as much of the gravy as I wanted over my rice, ate it plain first, then scooped up three, four pieces of the tofu over my rice inside my bowl. My friend had suggested that I mash and mush them up to eat together with the rice, so I did just that. 

It felt the right thing to do. 

What made this Mapo Tofu so delightful was that it not only served as a main dish, it opened the palate, stimulated the senses, made one feel alive, and even added a spicy, slightly numbing zhng to that particular day. 

Yet it didn't take away one's desire for anything other, either.

Not only did I have enough stomach to eat up the other dish, it gave me an appetite to do so. 

The Golden Deep Fried Salted Pumpkin has to be one of the signature dishes when it comes to this place. 

Maybe there're variations of it elsewhere.

Maybe different people will prepare it different ways. 

For me, however, this dish here was good enough. 

They had cut the pumpkin into thick strips, a bit like fries, so even if you didn't want to use chopsticks, you could still pick it up with your hands. 

What's more, the dish didn't come slathered in salted egg sauce the way I had at first assumed- like many other dishes of the salted egg kind- it would. This one here felt more like seasoning that they scattered over the battered pumpkin and deep fried. 

This dish wasn't oily either. 

Yes, no doubt, you felt that little burst of oil coming out from the pumpkin when you first bit into it, but then it disappeared, and the natural sweetness of the vegetable itself took over. 

I took a liking to the crunch of the pumpkin batter.

I also took a liking as to how each bite was both crisp and crunchy at the same time yet not so dry that the dish became difficult to eat. 

Not to mention, of course, the presence of bright, cheerful color, and the pleasant contrast of taste, both sweet and salty, at the same time.