We started trying out the food at this place a couple of weeks ago.
It wasn't quite on the radar all this while, but I guess it's true when they said a combination of convenience and laziness leads to new discoveries.
There're only two coffee shops within walking distance of Marine Parade Central.
One coffee shop is close to the newly opened T-Mall.
The other one is here, in between a bicycle shop, the Finest NTUC and the mega Baptist church.
We had had a couple of meals at the other coffee shop but now, this one, we wanted to try.
So we did.
One of the first few meals we had here were the steamed egg, and the steamed pork with salted fish. I can't say if there was anything spectacular, but they were comforting, familiar, and heartening in the homecooked style.
It might not have meant much if you didn't grow up eating them around the family dinner table, but I did, and so at once fell for the flavor and the warmth.
Some people might describe them as simple.
I find them comforting.
So much so that one dish isn't quite enough for one, and actually, two will be better.
I don't have a picture of the steamed dishes.
But I do have a picture of the roasted meat rice we ate a while after.
The rice from this stall needs a bit of assistance from the soup, but the meat from this stall is quite good.
Well, it's not exactly how some would define as really good, but it's not too bad.
We've had those combination plates where one plate is a mix of roast duck and char siew whilst the other is a mix of roast duck and roast pork.
My friend thought the roast pork quite good.
I, on the other hand, felt the char siew a bit better. The meat was thick enough and then there was that distinctive layer of fat which makes char siew way more appealing than they usually are.
The other stall which we've patronized over here is the zichar stall.
As usual, me and my pattern, when we first came, I hadn't been sure- I mean, the quality of zichar can be such a questionable thing and no one knows whether or not a plate is good until you eat it and judge for yourself.
At that point I didn't have the capacity to play trial and error.
It had to be good at first shot, or, minimally, safe.
So I took the safe dishes- basically, the best money for value ones.
After several times, I still can't be sure if this is my new favorite stall for zichar- I haven't tried as many dishes as I would like and I think there might be some better foods from this stall- but so far, price wise, value wise, I'm pretty good.
The Fried Mee Sua Dry was nicer than I thought it would be.
Mee Sua is one of those dishes that is either a do or die.
What it means is that you will either like it, or not like it. There's no in between.
On regular days I would have taken the hor fun over the mee sua- I mean, no secret that I am hor fun/kuay teow queen- but it being my first time I wasn't sure if their Fried Hor Fun Dry would be the very oily, salty type, or the good wok hei type.
What's more, I wasn't in the mood to do trial and error, so I stayed safe and decided to go for the mee sua instead.
It was a good choice.
Smooth enough, with sufficient taste, and sufficient ingredients to make the dish feel happy enough for a dinner meal. For this price one cannot expect a lot, so I was more than happy with the shredded cabbage, the little prawns and the randomly sliced pieces of fish cake.
The Hor Fun with Gravy which I tried a couple of days later wasn't any lousier either.
I chose it because it was $4.80- a good enough price for one to try without feeling like you're throwing money away should it not be up to par.
Portion wise I felt it enough for a single person.
The picture might show a plate swimming with gravy, but under all this sea, there was actually a fair bit of hor fun noodles on the plate.
There were also a good number pieces of fish cake, there were enough vegetables, some bits of pork (albeit a bit dry) here and there and then, of course, the gravy, even whilst a wee bit starchy, appealed to me, and I found it good.
This probably be the dish that I'll continue to have whenever I come for zichar here.
Only thing was that it didn't have much wok hei feeling but I'm not complaining- not when this is a dish I used to look forward to for weekend dinners, and which, only after coming here, I remembered what I had for a long time forgotten.