YY Kafei Dian @ 37 Beach Road

Was staying at Naumi Hotel and YY Kafei Dian is nearby. Like just a few minutes walk. Plus, I heard about YY Kafei Dian from Fiona. I remembered something she was sharing with me about their bread which is of the old school bun type. Hence, I trudged the next morning of my staycay 

YY Kafei Dian

One orders the breakfast set directly from the cashier of the drinks counter inside the shop. She will ask you for your table number. So don't be like the noob me whom luckily, still managed to point to an empty table during her visits.

waiting to be buzzed to collect

While waiting, one could observe the other patrons having their breakfast here. There was one uncle whom I saw on my two visits in the morning, so I reckoned he probably is a retiree who likes to have breakfast at the same shop most of the days. Back in my hometown, my dad used to do that as well but he hasn't been able to do so for the past one and a half years due to the pandemic. And yes, am checking out retired persons activities for future references.

traditional breakfast set of kopi and kaya toast

Actually, the only thing that I needed to pick-up from the counter, was the bread. The rest of the stuffs were brought to the table by the staff.

am ready

slurp worthy

I liked the size of the soft-boiled eggs here and how perfectly it was boiled. Both eggs had perfect liquid yolk. Do you break the eggs and mashed it up then dip the bread in? For me, I don't like breaking them up. Straight up slurp them in! Happiness!

kaya and butter

It has been a while since I had a toasted bun. They did it pretty good at YY Kafei Dian with its outer part crisp while the inside of the bun was still soft and pillowy. Kaya tasted of caramel and coconut.

Loved the kopi here for its balance of bitter-smokiness plus the milk taste not too strong. Good!

Their breakfast noodles are popular. Come on a weekend after 9am and one could see the long line outside the shop.

all these for just $4.80

bee hoon mee combi

A packet of noodles with 4 extra added ingredients costs less than $5, hence its priced reasonably. So one could add their favourites like luncheon meat, chicken drumlets, ngoh hiang, vegetable, egg etc. 

ngoh hiang

When you're adding the fried egg, can let the staff know if you prefer more cooked or more runny yolk and she will try to accommodate. I think shops that allow you to choose to this extent, are pretty nice. I added egg (with softer yolk), vegetables (turned out to be tasty chap chye, and it was yummy!), ngoh hiang and a longish looking fish cake. The ngoh hiang here is smaller than others but still packs a nice taste. The sambal chili was towards the sweeter side with some spice.

Came back during lunch and tried their Hainanese Pork chop. It was cooked upon order and served with chunky fries. The wait was about 10 minutes and it came piping hot. No extra sauce was served.

Hainanese Pork Chop @$10

The tomato sauce underneath the pork chop though watery, it was slightly tangy sweet. Soothing taste. The pork chop meat was tender, not too thin and its batter was crisp and well fried.

closer view of the meat

I spied other tables and most officer workers ordered claypot noodles , or chicken rice during lunch time. I felt like a tourist with the pork chop. Hahaaa!

Overall, YY Kafei Dian is a popular place for breakfast and lunch, with a nostalgic vibe.

YY Kafei Dian 

Address: 37 Beach Rd, #01-01, Singapore 189678

Website: https://www.facebook.com/yykafeidian/

Contact:  6336 8813

Business Hours:

Mon - Fri: 7:30am–7pm

Sat - Sun: 8am–7pm

[Tasting] Clementi Tze Char 金文泰煮炒 @ Clementi Tastebud Eating House

Located smack right in the middle of the newer residential blocks, Tastebud Eating House at Blk 208C would likely be the go-to place when hunger pang strikes for those who stays near Clementi Ave 6. There is a bus stop near the coffeeshop and one could get there via bus #188 or #51. Have you noticed the new tzechar (zichar) stall nestled amongst the other familiar ones? Clementi Tze Char 金文泰煮炒 has been in operation for over a month now and we were invited to have a taste. My interest was piqued by its claim of authentic traditional KL Hokkien Mee. Suddenly, there was a need to try!

the stall, and the people

First item to arrive on our table? The Hokkien Mee (yasssss!) nonetheless. Served in a steel pot, the portion looked pretty generous for one pax worth. There were lots of deep fried pork lard, fishcake slices, cai xin, prawns and pork slices. The noodles were on point but the colour was lighter than the actual ones.

Authentic Traditional KL Hokkien Mee  真宗KL福建面@$4 (U.P $4.50)

"Do you have the sambal belachan?" I asked. No, they don't have that. Whaaat! Now, that was an immediate minus-ing of points (imo only).

"Why don't you try it with this chili sauce instead? Not the one that you were looking for, but Chef's homemade version."

Ohhh, the taste was legit on first bite! Noodles done right, sauce and flavour were on-point! The chili sauce was nicely tangy and spicy and complements the noodles. Yes, finally! A place that serves up the taste of legit KL Hokkien Mee.

Chef's homemade chili

tai lok meen

Satisfaction was pumped up with the authentic traditional KL Hokkien Mee. We sampled another noodles dish and that's the sang meen (生面) which is done up ala Penang 江南生面, which I'm not that familiar with.

Penang 江南生面 (Jiang Nan Crispy Noodles) @$6 

The noodles were well fried and crispy without being oily. The sauce was lovely and not too overpowering. Loved the mix of ingredients on the plate. Plus, it has broccoli and black fungus! Now, that I don't see from the zichar stall at my workplace.

side profile

Now, if you're with family and would like to dine out, what would be the dishes to order from this stall? Let's get started with the rice dishes or what I'd call 吃饭叫菜 (in Cantonese).

First up was Marmite Chicken but the non-deep fried version. Served with chicken thigh meat (much like gong bao chicken) and the sauce was sweet and salty. Eaten together with the rest of the ingredients; julienned cucumber, sliced onions and sprinkled with sesame seeds, I was reminded of rojak somehow.

Marmite Chicken (S/M/L) @$10/$14/$18

We had the signature curry fish head and wow, the curry fragrance was so enticing when it was brought out. I could feel my saliva glands activated. The sauce was lemak yet not too over, flavour was awesome and rightly balanced. Doused the piping hot curry onto the white rice and scooped up some into the mouth. This dish earned a resounding yes from me, just by its sauce alone. It was that yummy.

Curry Fish Head 咖喱鱼头 @$20

The vegetables retained its crunch for a refreshing bite but I do prefer them slightly more cooked through. The fish was red snapper and its quality was superb. Meaty, firm and sweet. And very filling!

plenty of meat

For the finale, we had a preview of an upcoming dish (not in the menu yet) called 帝王富贵鸡 or Imperial Prosperity Chicken. Sounded like a CNY dish!

Half a kampong chicken (free range chicken) was wrapped up nicely with a loads of herbs such as 当归，杞子，玉竹，泡参，当参，维山，北其，川弓 before steamed for hours, resulting in slightly viscous soup and a very tender chicken in which the goodness from the herbs had seeped right into the meat.

Imperial Prosperity Chicken 帝王富贵鸡 

Depending on the size of the chicken, the soup could get oily. Indeed the essence from the chicken but preferably with lesser oil, ya.

Thank you Hence for the introduction and Royston for the invite and hosting the dinner. Compliments to the Chef and the service crew for the delicious food and friendly demeanour.

Tastebud Eating House and Clementi Tze Char

promotion

Watch out for upcoming dishes next month, and one of it I heard is the fish steamboat 鱼头炉. Happy eating!

Clementi Tze Char @ Tastebud Eating House

Address: Blk 208C Clementi Avenue 6 #01-01 Singapore 123208
Website: https://www.tastebud.com.sg/tastebud-eating-house-clementi
Business Hours:
Mon to Fri:11am to 2:30pm and 4:30pm to 11pm
Sat to Sun: 11am to 11pm

Yi Dian Xin Hong Kong Dim Sum ( 一点心港式点心 ) @ Kovan

I love having dim sums. Dainty in bite-sized morsels (usually), easy to share plus there's variety. Ranging from steamed to deep fried and sometimes baked. A group of my friends wanted to meet up and someone suggested dim sum, so we Googled for one that is of a reasonable price. Yi Dian Xin was suggested and readily agreed.

We met on a weekend at about 11am and the coffeeshop was rather packed. Teo Seng Eating House (潮成餐室) is a smallish coffeeshop within walking distance from Kovan MRT. About 8 minutes walk.

stall front

various photos with artists / newspaper clippings

Yi Dian Xin is nearer towards the drinks stall. To order, one just need to fill up the order form and indicate if you'd be dining-in or to take-out.

order form

wait for it to buzz

As the food may not be ready at the same time, we took what we could and the rest was delivered to our table by the friendly staff. We tried carrot cake, chee cheong fun, steamed pork ribs, chicken claws, siew mai, lo mai gai (x2), porridge, fried beancurd fritters, fried you tiao with mango, fried prawn dumplings, and lava buns (x2). Lots of food for four pax for brunch.

dim sum spread

porridge (house special)

The porridge that we ordered was indicated as Chef's choice. Basically, it is somewhat like a 艇仔粥 (ting zai porridge) with the inclusion of squid strips, fish strips, pig skin strips, and peanuts. Natural tasting, so put a few drops of soy sauce if you'd like. As expected, porridge was thick, smooth and gooey.

lo mai gai 糯米雞

My favourite of the lot, was the 糯米雞 (steamed glutinous rice with chicken, char siew, and mushrooms). Perfectly dark, tasty and chockful of ingredients. Each grain of the glutinous rice was good and none of the 生米 (uncooked rice) nonsense.

The biggest surprise was in the form of the carrot cake. The version here is soft, round and steamed. The usual Hong Kong dim sum versions are those square, pan-fried versions with diced dried shrimps and chinese sausage bits.

Another must-order would be the 流沙包 (liu sha bao or lava buns). I wasn't careful the first time and it 'exploded' onto my palm. Goodness! The fragrance of the salted egg lingered on to the fingers until it was washed off. Very good lava buns.

salted egg custard lava buns 流沙包

For Kovanites, it is good to have stalls selling quality dim sums instead of the kopitiams run-of-the-mill kind, in the neighbourhood area. Just waiting for ex-Chefs of restaurants to open up more hawker stalls in neighbourhood areas. Come to West, ok?

We observed that there is another stall in the coffeeshop that seemed very popular and with long queue. The queue for First Street Teochew Fish Soup stall was never-ending from 11am to 1pm. Let me know your feedback for those that have tried!

Yi Dian Xin Hong Kong Dim Sum

Address: 012 Upper Serangoon Rd, Teo Seng Eating House, Singapore 534750
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yidianxin1kovan/
Contact: 9168 5587
Business Hours: 
Daily 7:00AM to 3:00PM. Closes on Tuesdays.

[Seoul] Happy Days at Hapjeong 합정

One of the things that I like about travelling, is the opportunity to try the one of the many accommodations that are available in each of the places that one visits. Of course, there are some duds and some gems. Am much appreciative of the reviews that many before us had posted, and often, after each visit, we contributed back with our updated reviews.

During the last visit to Seoul, after researching for a long while, had to pick an accommodation for 3 nights in Seoul and my choice was a place called ROinhome (로인홈). It is a 2-star guest house (at least according to Agoda) and costs about $94 per night for a double-room. Yes, I need my privacy.

The reason for choosing this guest house was because it is close to the subway; about 10 minutes walk to Hapjeong. The guest house utilizes Line app to comms with their guests, so I just needed to message them when I exited from Hapjeong and they responded super fast with the right directions to ROinhome.

ROinhome from across the street

It was a pleasant surprise when I was at the zebra crossing across the road. The guest relation officer was already waiting outside of the guest house. Wow. Such customer service! She isn't native Korean (maybe Taiwanese) and she kindly helped to carry my 23 inch luggage to the second floor (my room is at Level 2). So nice.

Check-in was a breeze and there's a nice area to sit at the lobby.

view from guest house lobby

The main gate and door to the second level guest house will be locked after 1am. And guests were supplied with the passwords. Simple breakfast was provided daily and delivered to your room door. It'd be hanging at the door handle around 8am.

The room was lovely and if you need extra amenities such as toilet roll, or toothbrush, those are located at the common area.

double bed

room delivery

breakfast (usually sweet stuffs)

There are many coffee house around this area too. Plenty of restaurants but I was too shy to enter to any of those except for the dumpling shop. There's two shops just across each other and I'd passed by these every day of my stay there.

dumpling shop

am guessing that many K-Stars have eaten here before

The place was a no-frills place and simply decorated. Observed that the diners would just get into the shop, take a seat and call out their order in Korean or order before taking a seat. For me, there was a sudden awareness that am really a dummy in Korean language. But still managed to get the staff recommendation for their bestseller mandu. The lady manning the counter recommended the La Galbi Mandu.

Was pleasantly surprised to get a steamer tray of 10-pieces of beef dumpling, a bowl of seaweed soup and a side dish of pickled yellow radish. Wow. Only ₩3000 for all of these. Good value. Better than street food, in fact.

dumplings lunch

갈비만두

yummy

I must say that I enjoyed the dumpling lunch a lot. So tasty!

Visited two of the nearby coffee places; Beliefcoffee Roaster and Double Harmony plus a tea-shop.

Beliefcoffee Roasters

peek-a-boo from outside

what would be your order?

interior

It was tough balancing the coffee cups and trying to climb down the stairs to the seating area. Spillage was rather unavoidable.

piccolo and latte

affogato

machinery

There was another coffee roaster but it was closed most of the days during Chuseok. Did pass by once when it opened.

Red Planet Coffee Roasters

Double-Harmony was the nearest to ROinhome guest house. The interior was eclectic chic.

entrance

take-out menu

I was there rather late and could only get the single-origin coffee as the specials required a certain barista to handle and that person had already left the shop when I visited.

mostly Indonesian beans

single-origin coffee

ROinhome (로인홈)

Address: 478-7 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: https://www.roinhome.com/
Contact: +82 2-3144-3946

Mapo Mandu 마포만두

Address: 393-1 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: http://www.mapomandu.com/
Contact: +82 2-333-9842
Business Hours:
Daily 24 hours

Beliefcoffee Roasters 빌리프커피 로스터스

Address:384-3, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Website: http://beliefcoffee.com/
Contact:+82 2-322-3100
Business Hours: 
09:30 - 23:30

Double Harmony 더블하모니

Address: 29 Donggyo-ro 12an-gil, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Contact: +82 2-763-0123