Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant (Burlington Square)

Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant dishes out fish soup and cze char cuisines. Located at Burlington Square, just directly opposite Sim Lim Square's food court and also LASALLE College of the Arts. It is located about 15 to 20 minutes walk from Bugis/ Dhoby Ghuat / Little India MRT stations. 

When you are here, take a quick look at what people are eating. Chances are more than 80% of the people here ordered from the fish soup stall. In fact, the fish soup business is so good that they have expanded taking up another unit inside. So now there can serve twice as many customers. So don't just queue blindly, chances are that the queue inside (2nd queue) is much shorter. 

They have also just revised the prices to account for inflation.

another view (taken on a different occasion)

Displaying the sliced fish, fried fish, squid, prawns and also beaten fried eggs.

Sliced Fish Soup (thick beehoon) $4

Sliced Fish Soup (thick beehoon) $4

The Sliced Fish Soup with thick beehoon came with something unique, which we seldom get at fish soup stalls! It's the fried egg. Besides the fried egg, there were toufu, vegetables, tomato, seaweed and of course the slices of fish. The slices of fish were very fresh and the milky broth was sweet and tasty. The fried egg gave this dish another positive impression. Yummy!

Fried Fish Tom Yum Soup (thick beehoon) $5

Fried Fish Tom Yum Soup (thick beehoon) $5

I ordered the Fried Fish Tom Yum Soup with thick beehoon. It was served with fried fish, tomato, toufu, vegetable, onion and a piece of lime. What I liked about this stall was that they were very generous with the ingredients, giving lots of fried fish which were fresh. 

The broth, in this case the Tom Yum Soup was delicious with its well balanced spiciness and sourness. Ideal for savouring when it is raining.

The standard of the Fish Soup and Tom Yum Fish Soup is quite good. Let's hope standard can be maintained.

Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant (Burlington Square)
175 Bencoolen Street
#01-34 Burlington Square
Tel: 6835 7752
Opening Hours: Sun to Fri 1030am - 4pm
                         Closed on Sat
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The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

Another visit to The Prata Place for supper. The first post can be found here. As the name of the eatery suggests, The Prata Place specialises in serving delicious Prata and Indian Cuisines and is Halal certified!

The place was packed as usual. We sat outside as we did not want to be come out smelling of prata and curry. This will happen if you sit inside (enclosed air-conditioned area). 

Plain Kosong Prata $1 (each)

I ordered 2 Plain Kosong Pratas. This is something which I think they did fantastic in. Cooked upon ordered, the pratas arrived pipping hot and were simply delicious! The pratas were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The texture and flavour was wonderfully managed, it was a joy tearing the prata into smaller pieces and eating it without any sugar or curry.

Curry

Alternatively, the prata can be dipped into the curry gravy given. The curry gravy had a good balance of taste that is a good hallmark of a good curry gravy. Much better than those at other prata shops and not overly spicy or oily. My favourite! 

Egg Prata $1.70

The Egg Prata was huge! It was crispy but not as fluffy as the plain kosong prata. Nevertheless, it was delish and one of the better egg pratas around.

The Prata Place is still a good place to satisfy my prata cravings. I will certainly recommend this eatery as the calories gained here is absolutely worth it! Hope that the eatery continue to strive. Many more good years to come!

The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

1 Thong Soon Ave

Springleaf Garden

Tel: 6459 5670

Opening Hours:Daily 7am to 12am

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Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice 阿仔海南鸡饭 (Maxwell Food Centre)

Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice 阿仔海南鸡饭 is a chicken rice stall set up by Mr Wong Liang Tai, more commonly known as Ah Tai. Ah Tai was actually the former chef of the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice and has been working there for the past 20 years. He had differences with the owners' daughter who took over the management of the business in 2010. After several incidents and heated arguments, Ah Tai was sacked in October 2011 (Both Ah Tai and the owners are relatives). Subsequently, he and a partner (who was a key helper in Tian Tian) set up a chicken rice stall just 3 stalls away from his former employer (Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice) at Maxwell Food Centre. 

Chicken Rice is a de facto national dish of Singapore. If you still have doubts, visit Maxwell Food Centre, and you will notice that there are already so many chicken rice stalls. One will be spoilt for choice when it comes to chicken rice as there are more than 6 such stalls in this food centre. With Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice being the new kid in the block, the chicken rice war at Maxwell has escalated. Several other chicken rice stall owners have expressed their unhappiness as they were concerned about their business. The least they need now is for another strong competitor next to them.  

As mentioned earlier, Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice 阿仔海南鸡饭 located at Stall No. 7 is located 3 units away from Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice which is located at Stall No. 10.

I visited at around 630pm on a weekday for dinner. There was no queue then. (By the way Tian Tian was closed that day). Anyone knows if there's a queue during lunch hours? 

Chicken Rice $3.00 + Gizzard $0.50

Chicken Rice $3.00 + Gizzard $0.50

What makes a good Chicken Rice? Well, there are three factors; namely the rice, the meat (chicken) and the chilli. I can't help but compare using these three factors to compare Ah Tai's chicken rice to Tian Tian's chicken rice which I had previously. 

In terms of rice, Ah Tai's rice was indeed fragrant and flavourful. However, it was hard and very dry. I prefer Tian Tian's rice as it was softer and more moist. 

In terms of meat (chicken), Ah Tai's version was decent. The timing was grasped nicely as the chicken was tender and tasty, not tough. However, all the good work was undone by.. well the way the chicken was chopped. Yes, the chopping style does makes a difference (ask the older generation or professional chefs on the way to cut meat, be it chicken, duck or pork and you will know what I mean). I have not gotten to the point where by I am such a professional foodie that I can point out this is a wrong cooking style. What makes it so obvious in this case was that it was so terribly cut that there were small pieces of bones protruding out or small pieces of bones that came off and was mixed with the rice and chicken. When I mean small, a comparison will be the size smaller than a half of the rice grain (in the photo above). Seems trivial, but it matters. With that being said, Tian Tian's version was much better as their chopping style was better and their chicken was drizzled in their special sauce that made it more fragrant and tasty. (The gizzards given were hidden below the chicken.) 

In terms of chilli, Ah Tai's version fared better. It was more tangy with a stronger oomph of spiciness.

(For the sake of comparison) In terms of presentation, I am very sure that Ah Tai's version loses out to Tian Tian's. Just take a look at the above picture and compare it to Tian Tian's version. Ah Tai's version was more sloppily done considering the fact that there was no queue... hmm..

Personally, I still prefer Tian Tian's chicken rice. The chicken and rice are better than Ah Tai's version. But despite all these, I still prefer my chicken rice at Golden Mile Food Centre.

For the record, if the taste is good and the presentation is lousy, I certainly do not mind! After all, never judge a book by its cover, appearances can be deceiving. 

Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice 阿仔海南鸡饭 (Maxwell Food Centre)

1 Kadayayanallur Street

#01-07 Maxwell Food Centre

Tel: 8137 6559 

Opening Hours: Wed to Mon 11am to 730pm

                         Closed on Tue
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