Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon 金华鱼头米粉 (Maxwell Food Centre)

Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon 金华鱼头米粉 located at Maxwell Food Centre, specialises in serving Cantonese style fish soup. I have read many positive reviews on this stall and was looking forward to trying it for myself.

Despite being there on a weekday evening (615pm) for dinner, there was a long queue of more than 10 people. This is one of the only two stall with such a long queue. The other stall with a similar long queue is none other than Lao Ban Soya Beancurd. 

Menu

Fish Porridge, Fried Fish and Sliced Fish soup and bee hoon are available.

After queuing for half an hour then was I able to order and receive my food. The reason for the long queue? Well, there is only 1 person cooking and he is cooking only 2 bowls at any one time.

Slice Fish Bee Hoon $5

Slice Fish Bee Hoon $5

The Sliced Fish Bee Hoon was filled with ingredients such as bee hoon, fish slices, vegetables and fried shallots in a milky broth. The broth was tasty and flavourful. The sesame oil added on top further enhance the flavour of the broth.

Slice Fish Bee Hoon $5

As for the fish slices, they were sliced way too thinly. It was hard to get a good satisfactory bite of the fish. The fish texture was rough and tasted bland. Disappointing.

Even after we have finish our meal, there was still a long queue at the stall.

I doubt I will be going back any time soon with or without a queue as the fish was disappointing.

Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon 金华鱼头米粉 (Maxwell Food Centre) 
1 Kadayanallur Street
#01-77 Maxwell Food Centre
Opening Hours: Fri to Wed 11am to 830pm
                         Closed on Thurs
Location

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Yong Xiang Home Made Noodle (Amoy Street Food Centre)

There was a long queue at this stall during week day lunch time, at least 15 people in the queue! Well, part of the reason why there is such a long queue is because there is only 1 person mending this stall. One aunty in fact. She takes the order, cook and collects the money. I wonder how she cope with preparation of ingredients and handle the whole stall herself. Her stall is one of the few in the food centre given a Grade A!

Menu

Handmade noodles for $2.50. Wow, this is the cheapest I have seen. This is even cheaper than Qiu Yun Ban Mian at Golden Mile Food Centre.

Yu (You) Mian $3.00

Despite the crowd, the aunty stilled chatted with customers as she was collecting the money. She informed me to leave the money on the table. Before I picked my tray up, I told her to keep the money. Her reply was 'do not worry about the money, your food is more important'. Wow, what a reply!

Yu (You) Mian $3.00

I upsized the Yu (You) Mian to $3.00. The hand made you mian was fragrant. However, some of the strands of noodles were lumped together. The broth was light, clear and flavourful. It came along with a small prawn, a slice of fish, pork meat, egg and leafy vegetable. I was most impress with the slice of fish as it was fresh, firm and sweet! A very decent and cheap bowl of home made noodle! Cheap and Good. I will not mind queuing for this again.

Yong Xiang Home Made Noodle (Amoy Street Food Centre)
7 Maxwell Road
#02-88 Amoy Street Food Centre
Tel: 9863 5815
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri 7am -3pm
                         Closed on Sat, Sun and PH
Location

Hum Jin Pang 中国街咸煎饼 (Maxwell Food Centre)

This Hum Jin Pang stall located in Maxwell Food Centre is different from the typical Hum Chim Peng / Hum Jin Peng stalls. This stall requires customers to fry the Hum Chim Peng by themselves. Yes! You saw this right. (When one of my friend told me about this, I was wondering if she was joking.) This is a fry-it-yourself Hum Chim Peng Stall.

6 Hum Chim Peng for $1! What a bargain! I visited this stall at 4pm on a Saturday. There was a short queue. I was surprised to find out that there was only 1 person mending this stall!

Firstly, you queue and wait for your turn. If this is your first time, take the chance to observe what the person in front is doing.

Once it is your turn, the lady will ask you to choose from the 2 types of Hum Chim Peng available; Five Spice Salt and Sweet Red Bean Paste (differentiated by sesame seeds). Since it was our first time, we went for a mixture of both.

The lady immediately start kneading and rolling the dough. Folding them and also stuffing the red bean paste if required. She did everything very fast and start to fling the dough (Hum Chim Peng) into the wok of hot oil.

Grab the giant chopstick and start cooking your own Hum Chim Peng. You will be required to turn it over the other side (to cook the other side). Everything happens so fast, that you might be cooking for the person in front of you or behind you as it is hard to know which is yours.

Once the Hum Chim Peng turns golden brown, scoop it out of the wok to drain on a tray.The lady will help if she notice that it is becoming overcooked. After that you can sugar coat your Hum Chim Peng and just put it into the brown paper bag available. For payment, you put the money into a white container just next to where the brown paper bags are. It is all about integrity! You take what you order and you pay accordingly.

Hum Chim Peng (6 pieces $1.00)

The pipping hot Hum Chim Peng was crispy on the outside and fluffy in the inside! It was very soft and fragrant. The one with sesame has Sweet Red Bean Paste in it. The others that did not have the sesame contained Five Spice Salt. We prefer the Five Spice Salt Hum Jin Pang! We should have bought more as it was superb and not as filling as we thought. So simple yet so delicious!

Very affordable and yummy Hum Chim Peng! In addition, it was an interesting experience. I will be back for more!

*pictures combined from 2 visits (Hence you may noticed that the lady was wearing different clothes). Visited a 2nd time to buy $3 worth of Hum Chim Peng Yummy!*

Hum Jin Pang中国街咸煎饼 (Maxwell Food Centre)

1 Kadayayanallur Street

#01-28 Maxwell Food Centre
Opening Hours: Daily 1pm to 8pm
Location

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Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花 (Maxwell Food Centre)

Visited Lao Ban Soya Beancurd at Maxwell. As usual, there was a queue at the stall.

Menu with Price

Menu showing what is available and the price.

Now, they display the number the beancurds left in the fridge so that customers do not queue and get disappointed when stocks run out. In the above photo, it shows that there are just 50 Almond Beancurd left. Good initiative! 

Original Beancurd $1.50

A thin film like layer on the top. Anyone knows what causes this?

Well, I have tried many other similar kinds of beancurds, Lao Ban's version is still the best so far. In terms of taste and melt in the mouth sensation, theirs is unbeatable. 

I have tried to made this several times, but I must admit I am nowhere near to Lao Ban's version. Mine is closer to 51 Soya Bean in terms of taste. Click here for the chilled beancurd recipe. 

If anyone has any idea or knows the recipe for Lao Ban's version please let me know! Thanks!

Lastly, they have opened a new outlet at One Raffles Place!

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花 (Maxwell Food Centre)
Maxwell Road
#01-91 Maxwell Food Centre
Tel: 8299 8211 (For SMS orders)
Opening Hours: Mon to Sat 1130 - 4pm (1 batch)
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Location

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花 (Main Branch - Old Aiport Road)

51 Old Airport Road

#01-127, #01-107 Old Airport Road Food Centre

Tel: 8181 2201  (For SMS orders)
Opening Hours: 
#01-107 Mon to Sun (daily) 1130 & 1730 (2 batches)
#01-127: Tue - Sun 1130 & 1830 (2 batches)

Location

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花  (One Raffles Place)
#B1-01C One Raffles Place 
OUB Centre
Opening Hours: Mon to Thurs 8am - 4pm (2 batches)
                          Fri 8am (1 batch)
                          Closed on Sat and Sun

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Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice (Maxwell Food Centre)

As mentioned in my previous post, Hainanese Chicken Rice is a de facto national dish of Singapore. It can be enjoyed in literally any food courts, hawker centres, coffee shops and restaurants. To me, I determine how good a chicken rice is based on three factors. Firstly, Chicken rice. Secondly, Chicken meat. Lastly, Chilli.

There has been claims that Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice along with the likes of Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice, Chatterbox and Fook Seng Goldenhill Chicken Rice are favourites among Singaporeans. Having check out Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice previously, I happened to be near Maxwell and hence decided to check out the Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice.

I visited Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at 4pm on a weekday and was surprised that there was a queue. This stall is certainly famous.

They have expanded and now occupy 2 stalls now. Place your orders at the right (of the picture) and collect at the other end!

Endorsement from magazines, newspapers and even celebrities. They are even recognised internationally! Anthony Bourdain (Celebrity Chef) said that the rice can be taken alone. Although it is simple, it delivers a taste that develops wonderfully and engages the sense!~

'White' Chicken Rice $3.50 with Gizzard $0.80

The chicken drizzled in some 'special' sauce that is mixed by Tian Tian was amazingly tender, fleshy and tasty. It was so good that I found that there was no need for me to dip it (chicken meat) into the chilli sauce. Nevertheless, I did try the chilli sauce. It was delicious! The spiciness and sourness (from lime) gave it an extra oomph! It made me wonder each time when I am eating the chicken if I should dip it into the sauce as either way was equally delicious!

The rice was fragrant and flavourful. However, not all the grains of the rice was soft. Some stuck together and were hard. As for the Chicken Gizzard? It was slightly more expensive than else where at $0.80 and I wish that they were sliced in smaller pieces to aid eating.

Overall, Tian Tian is certainty a place to check out if you are looking forward to a meal of chicken rice.

ps: out of all the places that I have eaten thus far, I would rate Tian Tian's Chicken Rice at second. My top favourite would be the Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice at Golden Mile Food Centre. Main reason is because some parts of Tian Tian's rice were hard.

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice (Maxwell Food Centre)
Maxwell Road
#01-10/11 Maxwell Food Centre
Tel: 9691 4852
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 11am - 8pm
                          Closed on Mon
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Hainanese Curry Rice (Maxwell FC)

Another trip to Maxwell Food Centre during a weekday lunch. There are lots of curry rice or Hainanese curry rice stalls in this food centre. The prices tend to be slightly higher than other Chap Chye Peng (wide variety of dishes with rice) stalls in other hawker centres or coffee shops. Why? I have no idea. Maybe because they are targeting the office crowd and in the area for cheap food its either Maxwell FC or Amoy Street FC.

Hainanese Curry Rice

Tried 2 stalls of curry rice so far. This stall called Hainanese Curry Rice or ‘China Street Hainainese Curry Rice stall’ (#01-68) deserves some time online. A queue of about 7 people in front of me. But not to worry, the workers are quite efficient. Within 7minutes, its your turn to order.

I always order the same dishes when I visit the Chap Chye Peng stalls at Bugis. Now coming here, I changed my style and ordered fried pork chop (which to me is a signature item for curry rice!), chicken wing and bitter gourd (my favorite). And of course curry!

Don’t mind the presentation of the food, appearance can be deceiving! Despite the food being cold, it was irresistible! The meal totally wow me over, something so simple yet satisfying. The fried pork  chop was tasty (well marinated), crispy and thin. I was really wishing that a bigger portion was given. The chicken wing was not over cook, tasted firm and fresh! The bitter gourd (might be baised) was cooked to perfection, the way i like it. It was not hard! It was soft and sliced thinly. It was not salty and also not very bitter. Moreover, it did not taste raw. The curry was another wow factor. You really got  to give this stall a try. My next visit to Maxwell FC, I am going to eat this again to satisfy my craving! After that, I will try out other gems in the FC. =) Oh, I forgot how much this meal cost, but it was certainty worth it!

Hainanese Curry Rice (Maxwell FC) or China Street Hainainese Curry Rice
Maxwell Road #01-68 
Maxwell Food Centre
Opening Hours: Sat - Thurs 1130am - 730pm
                                  Closed on Fri & PH

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