[SG] Lavender Food Square - carboloading for Stanchart Marathon begins!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
After collecting our Standard Chartered Marathon race pack from Expo earlier this afternoon, we were deciding a dinner place to start our carbo-loading session. While we were excited about the upcoming 42km (painful) run, we were looking forward to the makan session a whole lot more! After some deliberation, we settled for Lavender Food Square as it had been a long while since my last visit!
Kok Kee Wanton Mee (国记云吞面) - S$4/-
Patrons of this food centre would be familiar with this wonton mee stall that perpetually has a long queue. Spotting a five men queue, I simply had to join the bandwagon and succumb to being the classic 'Food Nazi' - poor customer service but supposedly good food.
Offered in two sizes, we went for the smaller portion which came at S$4 while the larger was S$5. To be honest, I thought that was rather exorbitant, considering the amount of food served; two wantons, six thin slices of char siew and few strands of greens.
While I felt that the price was not proportionate to the serving size, the wantons were well marinated and flavourful. What scored points was the al dente noodles which were bouncy and springy. What I particularly fancied was the mildly sweet sauce that the grumpy uncle poured on the noodles which made all the difference. The char siew however was dry and while we liked that it was thinly sliced, the much desired savoury taste was sorely lacking. I would also have preferred a stronger punch with the chilli sauce, which seemed too watery for my liking.
Kok Kee Wanton Mee (国记云吞面) - S$4/-
Patrons of this food centre would be familiar with this wonton mee stall that perpetually has a long queue. Spotting a five men queue, I simply had to join the bandwagon and succumb to being the classic 'Food Nazi' - poor customer service but supposedly good food.
Offered in two sizes, we went for the smaller portion which came at S$4 while the larger was S$5. To be honest, I thought that was rather exorbitant, considering the amount of food served; two wantons, six thin slices of char siew and few strands of greens.
While I felt that the price was not proportionate to the serving size, the wantons were well marinated and flavourful. What scored points was the al dente noodles which were bouncy and springy. What I particularly fancied was the mildly sweet sauce that the grumpy uncle poured on the noodles which made all the difference. The char siew however was dry and while we liked that it was thinly sliced, the much desired savoury taste was sorely lacking. I would also have preferred a stronger punch with the chilli sauce, which seemed too watery for my liking.
Verdict: 7.5/10
Tian Qiao Xia - Whitley Road (天桥下): Fishball and fishcake noodles - S$4.30/set
In comparison, the fishball and fishcake mee pok noodles were a lot more value for money, coming in at just 30 cents more compared to the wanton noodles. The offering and spread was certainly a fair bit more but how does it fare in terms of taste?
While the chilli sauce was solid, which gave a good oomph and a touch of savouriness, the noodles was a little on the dry side. It would help to drizzle some of the accompanying soup into the chilli-tossed noodles just to enhance its texture. What nailed it for us was the handmade fishcake and fishballs which were firm yet elastic, which gave an overall bouncy touch to it. You could have the fish cakes on its own at S$1 without the noodles and the calories were certainly well worth it!
Verdict: 8.0/10
Chinatown Beef Noodle - Signature beef noodles (dry) - S$4.50/-
This was another one of my personal faves and quite frankly, it had been years since I last tried it. While we were feeling pretty full by this time, we decided to pile on the carbs with another bowl of noodles to share among the two of us.
The first thing that struck us with the beef noodles was that waft of strong herbal fragrance from the accompanying soup. It however was not as rich a broth as expected though it certainly fared above average and had a slice of radish in it, which could have been simmered further to make it softer. What I liked about the dry noodles was the crushed peanut bits that you could help yourself to. The gravy was savoury, viscous and rich. The portion size was decent with a few large chunks of beef which was not exactly tender soft but was fairly palatable.
Not a must-try but if you have some spare calories, this might be worth it.
Verdict: 7.5/10
Long House Miow Sin Popiah & Carrot Cake - S$1.50/-
I am not sure if it was just me but I noticed that the prices for popiah have been on the increase island-wide. Is it really that hard to make popiah and is it really worth the price tag? This popiah place has been a popular hunt alongside the adjacent carrot cake stall as they are co-owned.
Quite frankly, there was nothing too spectacular about the popiah that makes it a screaming wow or must-try. I always enjoy a good popiah regardless of how full I am when it has a good variance in texture with crunchy bits but unfortunately it lacked that in this rendition.
Overall, it just came across as rather pedestrian and while we managed to stomach it, we surely were not left impressed.
Verdict: 7.0/10
Ah Long Pancake - Peanut (S$0.90); Corn & Peanut (S$1.20/-)
This has always been a dear place to me as I never fail to come here for the pancakes as part of my carbo-loading routine over the past years of racing. As all the pancakes are made to order, you have the liberty to choose how crisp you want your pancake to be and on this instance, I requested for it to be a little more chaota (toasted) for that extra crispness.
I always enjoy the original peanut pancake which is well mixed with a fair share of sugar. While the edges of the pancake was crisp and brittle (in a good sense), the middle portion of the pancake remained warm, moist and soft. The crunchiness from the finely diced roasted peanuts just complemented the texture wholly.
Verdict: 9.0/10
The lady always enjoyed sweetcorn and seeing this on the menu just prompted me to order one for her to try and thankfully she enjoyed it! It was not too different from the original with the addition of canned sweetcorn.
Verdict: 8.5/10
There were a few other nice food stalls at Lavender Food Square such as Kin Turtle Soup which also serves Herbal Crocodile Soup and not forgetting the popular Eminent Frog Porridge! Between the two of us however, we were stuffed full to the brim with a glass of fruit juice each to top off a sumptuous meal.
We are looking forward to carbo-reloading post marathon already!
Lavender Food Square
380 Jalan Besar
Singapore 209000
2 comments
the beef noodle is no longer the stall that used to be there. it has changed hands long ago.
ReplyDeletethanks for the info! has it moved or simply changed hands altogether?
Delete