Baguette The Viet Inspired Deli @ Square 2

Located at Square 2, Level 2, we kinda stumbled upon this place. Was thinking of having something light for dinner, so decided to give it a try.

One can top-up $3.80 to get a drink and a side dish to go along with the bread. However, to get the Vietnamese drip coffee, one will need to add another dollar. The side dish, can choose either cakes, sushi bread or summer roll. We wanted to get 4 inch bread but apparently, they ran out of it. So we chose a 6 inch grilled pork baguette, top up to make it a set, and add another drink. This feeds 2 not so hungry ladies. We chose summer roll as the side dish, and for drinks, we had soda chanh with plum and a lemongrass soda.

soda chanh with plum

summer rolls

The soda chanh with plum was very likeable. Slightly sweet, sour and salty and a little fizzy. A real nice cooler. The lemongrass drink reminds me of spa.. mild and tranquil.

The summer rolls has lots of of greens in it. It has lettuce and mint leaves. Must eat it with the sauce. Sweet, tangy and garlicky!

refreshing rolls

sauce for summer rolls, loaded with garlic

baguette

6 inch grilled pork baguette (@$6.20), unwrapped

The bread was tasty, but the meat seemed too little. Liked the pickled carrots, and chili. All the ingredients complemented each other well. Not sure how it's done in Vietnam, but perhaps can have more butter on the bread? Or some sauce? It was kinda dry.

They have loyalty card and you get a stamp for every $6 purchase. 

loyalty card

This shared meal costs us $11.90 in total.

Yong Kee Famous Fish Ball Noodles @ABC Brickworks Market

First time trying out this stall. Was not feeling hungry so went for fishball kway teow soup @$3 per bowl. There was no queue at about 1+pm, so I got my order exceptionally fast. Like, under 3 minutes? Hahaa.

fishball kway teow soup

condiments

closer view

The soup tasted simple, and the ingredients were adequate. Good to eat, if the weather is abit cooler, or if you're feeling under the weather. The fishballs were bouncy, but I liked the thinly sliced fish cakes best. More flavour as compared to the fishballs.

Comfort food, for some.

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles @Pek Kio Hawker Centre

Located at Pek Kio Hawker Centre (or Blk 41A Cambridge Road), this stall seemed quite popular. Can see lots of awards displayed (awarded in Year 2003 and 2007) and a poster from "Our Makan Places, Lost and Found."

Today there was a short queue and we waited for about 10-15 minutes to reach the front (there were about 4-5 customers infront). Once we're at the front, we waited for about 5 more minutes before the aunty spoke to us.

To order, you need to wait for the aunty to speak first. Otherwise, she can't/won't remember what you are saying also.

stall front

I've seen the $3 noodles and frankly speaking, you can skip that one. Today we had the $5 noodles. I liked mine soupy.

$5 prawn noodles soup with coarse bee hoon

The ingredients were pretty simple. Big prawns, kangkong, big heap of fried lard, oil, minced garlic and noodles. The broth tasted somewhat like a mix of Penang style and local prawn noodles soup. Tasty. The chili powder seemed like a pricey commodity because the aunty would keep it inside her stall and my friend had to ask from her three times before the aunty entertained her request....

The 3 prawns were big! And in my opinion, befits the $5 price tag. The prawns' flesh falls off easily, succulent and firm. And most importantly, not overcooked.

Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle @ Toa Payoh

Located at Block 22, Lorong 7 Toa Payoh. The stall is closed on Mondays though. Was there on a weekday lunch. There was a long queue and we probably stood in line for at least 20 minutes.

stall signboard

When we got nearer to the stall front, the uncle told us that the dry version had all sold out (probably no more sauces to make dry noodles), and only soup version was available. I took a quick glance at the noodles tray, and it looked dangerously low on supply. Was thinking that worse case scenario, we'll only get to drink the beef noodles soup without any rice nor noodles. We can't give up after queueing for this long!

The customer in front of me, has indeed taken the last of the beehoon when one of the stall uncle returned with one more packet of noodles freshly bought from the market. Phew!

A small bowl of beef noodles slices costs $3 while the mixed part costs $4 per bowl.

mixed part beef noodles soup

Liked the mixed bowl because it has generous servings of mixed parts, beef slices and beef balls. 4 beef balls to be exact! Wow! There's preserved salted vege bits heaped onto the noodles, together with chopped spring onions, as condiments. The soup was tasty, and not overly salty. It has a robust beefy flavour. The beef slices were tender without it being overly thinly sliced. Nice. The dipping chili sauce was good too. Its spiciness tingles but not overpowering. Good companion to the meat.

The stall uncle who prepares our order, although busy, was quite genial. And the uncle who cooks all those bowls after bowls after bowls of noodles, remained cool despite the heat from the stove.

Pao Xiang Bak Kut Teh @ Glenmarie, Shah Alam

Had a chance to visit Pao Xiang Bak Kut Teh when I went over to the Shah Alam office. The shop is set up in a more elegant coffeeshop kind of environment but still airconditioned-less. I've heard that this bak kut teh chain is quite popular in West Malaysia and has many outlets, including one in MidValley shopping mall.

Pao Xiang bak kut teh

interior of the shop

The outlet seemed to be popular amongst office workers. Many people were patronising this shop during lunch hour on a Friday. Drinking tea whilst enjoying bak kut teh is a given. Hence, the shop does have a tea basket with an assortment of teas for customers to choose from. However, my colleague prefers to bring his own.

tea basket

BYO tea

teapots and mini cups

The bak kut teh here is served in sizes suitable for 1 pax. Hence, if you are in a group, you can order a variety of the dishes to try. Unlike many other local bak kut tehs in Malaysia, the version served here whilst still retaining the dark herbal soup, the meats are not mixed. Meaning, if you order pork ribs, then that portion shall contain just pork ribs. In many other places, you'll get a claypot of a mixture of meats, intestines and mushrooms all in one pot. Hence, the difference in presentation.

our table of goodies

We ordered pork ribs, lean meat, pork knuckles, intestines, stomach, stir-fried vegetable and many servings of you-tiao (fried dough fritters). The dough fritters here is nice as the dough skin is thin but one minor problem. The meats are served in a bowl so tiny, it was rather difficult to dunk the dough in and to let it absorb the soup! And oh.. the request to add soup. It is rather a norm to request for additional soup but at this shop, this task seemed rather herculean! The waiter will still bring the soup but in a bowl even smaller and add like half a small bowl of soup each time to each bak kut teh serving bowl...

I found the pork ribs and pork meat here rather lean. The pork knuckles looked much more nicer! The intestines were firm and enjoyable. The soup here is tasty but the serving bowl made it rather precarious to sink the spoon into it to get the soup out! (because if press too hard, the bowl will tilt over!)

The experience at Pao Xiang is a novel way of presenting the common bak kut teh in a modernized setting. However, I still prefer the traditional way of one claypot to hold all ingredients.

The prices starts from about RM$10.90 per bowl of pork ribs.