Botak Jones at Blk 608, AMK Ave 5

The hottest western food joint is sprouting all over Singapore like wild mushrooms!
I like the casual dining experience you get from the menu, with some humour thrown in. The food is quite decent, comparable to western dishes you get at hooters, BFD etc and other so-called American cuisine. Go for the Botak Burger. The dogs are quite good too. The Cajun chicken is quite tender and not dry for a breast-meat dish. Under $10 for a meal is ok lah..

Adam Rd Nasi Lemak at Blk 603

Yes! The famous Selera Nasi Lemak of Adam Road has a branch here! I thought it was a copy-cat set-up, but when I saw the familiar face of the Adam Road uncle with the mole-on-da-nose preparing food inside the stall, I'm convinced of its authenticity. The same standard of nasi lemak as the No.2 stall at Adam Road, and the sambal is shiok. Funny thing is I've ordered take-away twice but didn't get the complimentary sotong or achar, although it is advertised as free while stocks last.

Now I don't need to travel far to get my sunday morning nasi lemak for the family already!

Char Kway Teow that Rocks!

AMK Ave 10 Blk 520 (I think)..the no-name coffee shop near the end of ave 10 towards ave 5, where a lot of bird-cage poles used to be..I think it's still there.

This is a chance find which deserves special mention. I was driving around and bored of the Blk 530 Fish Head Steamboat offerings, so I thought, why not go for a simple char kway teow? Hard to find one open at 11pm, but there it was. So I ordered a plate and started to eat it without any expectations. I mean, it's just char kway teow, right? Boy was i wrong. This char kway teow is SPECIAL. Ok, how special? Besides the usual cockles, lap cheong, and plenty of chye sim and tow-gay, it has a kick to it. The more I ate, the more familiar the extra something became. Then I realise what the X-factor was - Chye Poh. Yes, the almost invisible bits of crunchy, salty bits of chye poh found in carrot cake is ingeniously fused in this char kway teow! I swear I have never eaten any char kway teow like this! Go try it for yourself. Oh, eating there is yummier. I da bao once and it is not as great, but still yummy.

Claypot Rice

Found at Blk 527, Ave 10 AMK

This is the one that used to be at the old Broadway Cinema at AMK Central. Quite good, as it is the one that cooks in the pot, and not some instant pre-cooked rice with black sauce. OF course, not as good as the Clementi one, but close enough.

Hokkien Mee

Blk 529 Market

Dunno if it is still around. It's called Soon Heng or something. The auntie that fries the noodles has got these pair of 70s Elton John style of huge glasses, while the uncle taking orders and wrapping up has a feint birth mark on half his face. I have been a fan since I was a little boy 20 years ago. The hokkien mee is different cos it is cooked and served WET, i.e., dripping with a thick milky, prawny gravy instead of dry. Hokkien mee connoissers will know what I mean. It is generous with goo-chye, and the chilli sauce is the belachan type, not the sweet dark dried chilli type. Shiok. There are wuite a few hokkien mee stalls in the market, and lately I went there it is not opened, so maybe anyone who stays around ave 10 and frequents that place can update me.

You get generous servings of strips of pork, sotong and prawns, and the mee is not dry.

If you like the dry version, go to the other end of ave 10, near Teck Ghee CC..think it is block 409 market...the one where the Jack Neo Money No Enough was filmed. The Hokkien mee facing the main road is quite famous for the dry version, although personally I don't really fancy it. It is decent though, but not as good as the dry version you get from Old Airport Road market.

3 Babas -Peranakan Food

Found at Blk 118, Ave 4, AMK.

My sis who is also a foodie jio me for dinner one day and I found myself at this HDB block shophouse that is a small restaurant by itself. Run by true blue babas, the ayam buah keluak is not bad...the other dishes like the bakwan kepiting soup is nice, with fragrant bits of fried garlic to enhance the soup. Go try it. Better than Ivins, IMHO.