Ho Jiaks

Kaisen Don

This is a gem. I say this because it really is. Tucked away on the second floor of International Plaza at Anson Road, nobody would have ever guessed that there will be a Japanese restaurant hidden.

Sad to say I still don’t know the name of the restaurant, plus this is my second visit and I still don’t know the name. So I will call it the nameless Japanese restaurant.

I had just finished my lessons and was just thinking about what I would have for dinner and wah-lah I thought of nameless and decided to go there. I can only tell you how to go if you saw Joe & Dough. Up the escalator and look for Domba Coffee and it’s a right turn and then a left turn and there it is. Alternatively, you can look for a Japanese sounding restaurant name on the second floor at the building directory.

The boss is this Japanese guy. And his Singaporean Wife who speaks fluent Japanese and Cantonese. Sadly again, I don’t know their names. I call her “Aunty” and I call him “Uncle”. Sorry for not being very helpful here. But just a clue, they have operated the business for over 30 years already. And some of their regular customers have been eating their Japanese food since they were students and now they are back with their own children to “carry on the tradition” of eating Japanese food. I thought it a little strange to talk about their business in that manner, but I guessed they were just proud that their customer branding is that strong. I asked Aunty what it was that they specialised in and she said we prepare “ordinary Japanese food, nothing fancy“. I think Aunty was just being modest.

Anyway, I said all that to say their Kaisen Don so totally rocks. Damn good quality sashimi. And everything right down to presentation basically bought me over. It’s a tad expensive at $29 (SGD) a bowl, but heck, I rather pay a little more for quality than to have low-quality Japanese food (think Japanese food in a food court).

So I was chowing down my Kaisen Don and the guys behind me who were pretty drunk started laughing and telling off-coloured jokes to each other. I didn’t care about what they were saying until they mentioned Dstllry and about their Omakase and I thought wow. Not bad at all. To get a bunch of drunk guys to talk about your business in someone else’s Japanese restaurant must mean you guys are doing something right. Keep it up Lum san.

Breakfast at Jo Kwon’s

Seriously I can’t bring myself to call this bus interchange breakfast place it’s proper name, I have always called it Jo Kwon and the name kind of stuck. And my friends know instinctively the quality of the foods there and if they want to spend their precious money there.

I love Jo Kwon’s for various reasons. The family operating the business, the no nonsense home-cooked food that they prepare and the aloof friendliness of the people working there. It’s cordial and not over the top friendliness. They serve an army of bus drivers who ply Singapore’s busy roads to move people, these guys are always on the go, cooking, serving, feeding, and then it’s back to cooking again.

The little kitchen behind is always alive with a hustle of activity and busyness, Jo himself is always whacking the wok with his old school soup ladle, working out those biceps and forearm curls with each hurl of sauce and toss of bitter gourd. It’s like a free gym right where he stood. Left hand lifting up the cast iron wok and continually tossing the greens over high heat. It’s a sauna in there.

Who needs the gym?! Seriously.

And occasionally you have the stray magpie wandering into the little eatery and picking off bits of chicken meat and noodle leftovers. These birds also know how to enjoy good home-cooked food.

I usually would eat their Yong Tau Foo Chilli and bitter gourd stir fry and sunny side up with a mixture of Bee Hoon and Egg Noodles. Not filling but very fulfilling. Like coming home feeling. Definitely Ho Jiaks!

Hainanese Chicken Rice


Hainanese Chicken Rice 

If there is nothing else to eat, Hainanese Chicken Rice is the go-to meal for me. If the world runs out of other types of foods, I can survive on chicken rice everyday. If the world runs out of chickens. Then I guess I will just have to make do with rice. But God won’t let that happen so I will still have chicken rice.

So is this Chicken Rice any better than the famous ones like Boon Tong Kee or Chin Chin at Purvis Street? Yes. This chicken rice and the accompanying Sio Bak is nothing short of tok kong. For $4.50 (SGD) it is cheaper than the branded ones and much much better than the Sambal Petai Fried Rice my woman had yesterday at Yishun Ring Road.

The Chilli sauce is shiok and the soya sauce sweet and savoury. Mixed together, it’s just perfecto! Best part is the coffee-o is only 70 cents (SGD). Best sia. 

Wanna know where? It’s this coffee shop at Block 531 Bedok North Street 3. Hai Tian 531 Coffee Shop. 

Sambal Petai Fried Rice


Sambal Petai Fried Rice 

I met my woman against her wishes for dinner. Haha. She wanted her own “me time” which was a foreign concept to me. We are married! What “me time” or “your time“, it is now “we time; all the time“.

Anyway, she said she was gonna eat this special Sambal Petai Fried Rice and that she was gonna eat it all by herself. Haha. I was so not gonna let that happen. I sneaked up on her at Block 848 Yishun Ring Road, at the coffee shop where we would usually eat our favourite Kway chap. 

It seems there was this littlest unknown stall that sold this Fried Rice dish.

When I got here, the Fried Rice just arrived. Just nice. I tried a little. And wow. It was nice. But liao very little (Very little ingredients for my international friends). Literally nothing visible except for the few petai beans and some bits of scrambled eggs and salted fish. In terms of value, lunch at Warung aka Rumah Makan Minang was much better.

Was it Ho Jiaks? It was okay-lah. Would I order it ever again? No way. At $5.50 (SGD) a plate, I rather pay $2.00 more for my Warung.

Warung


Warung

A new shop opened at Our Tampines Hub (not mine; our!) basement one and it was rumoured to be the best warung from the famous Arab Street. Or so they say. Don’t ask me who are they.

I queued up, stomach grumbling, can’t wait man! But the queue was sooooo slow. There were about six persons working behind counters but for some reason they seem quite disorganised. I waited in line for 20 minutes at least! This better be good.

When it finally came to my turn, half of the 20 item display were finished. Wahhh.. must be damn nice. Or maybe someone bungkus 10 packets?!

I ordered a fish in yellow curry, a salted fish with petai beans and a spinach dish. And asked them to add my favourite kuah assam pedas. The salted fish and petai is my favourite. Very different style. I like. The vegetables was so so nia and the fish was delicious.

Someone asked me whilst I was eating, “expensive right?” I thought about it, “hmmm.. yah” $7.50 (SGD) for 3 items. And the portions were just enough, so it was a little pricey.


Minang 

The funny thing was someone else came by and asked me where I got this from. And I replied confidently “Warung, just open at the basement of Our Tampines Hub”. The lady had a bemused look on her face and said “there.. it says rumah makan minang on your plastic bag”.

Minang? What does that mean? The lady shrugged her shoulders and left.

Alamak.