Lunch Mashup

We tend to head out from the office at 12 every day for lunch, just by clockwork. If you don't know what time it is, just wait for the call to arms and you'll know its 12 on the dot! As they say here, "Makan time!" ('makan' = 'eat' in Malay).

There isn't too much exciting fare to be had in the office surrounds, just a couple of hawker centres and a foodcourt. "Downstairs", as we call the tiny hawker centre just below the office, is always the fallback, as its closest, but by now everyone is getting a little sick of the food down there! I usually snap a couple of pics of lunch before tucking in, here's some of the highlights:

Mixed Vegetable Rice - there are many hawker stalls selling this kind of mixed "vegetable" rice (sometimes called Mixed Curry Rice), it's a smorgasbord of sorts - you just choose what you want and the server dumps it all on a plate of rice. Though they call it vegetable rice, half the available dishes are meat or fish options so.... idk.. Above we've got mapo tofu, omelette with onions, curry potatoes, sweet and sour pork and veges. This huge plate only $4!

Dumpling noodle soup. Pretty self-explanatory really. The ikan bilis (fried anchovies) adds a nice salt and crunch hit.

This is what we call the "Daily Special" - one of the Chinese stalls downstairs has a whiteboard with 3 specials on it daily at $3.50 a pop. Good for a surprise and a bit of variety. Above is Nonya Fish with rice and fried egg.

Another Daily Special: Rojak Chicken with rice and fried egg. Yum! Fried chicken (my fav) with a tangy sauce, julienned onions, and crushed peanuts.

This one wasn't actually lunch, but breakfast one day when I was feeling especially peckish in the morning (I don't usually eat breakfast.. sorry mum). This here is "Fried Bee Hoon" or fried rice noodles (米粉) with toppings - fried tofu skin, vegetables, a different kind of fried noodles and vegetarian (??!) BBQ pork (叉烧). Why would you make vegetarian BBQ pork?! It doesn't make sense! It's not right!

Beer for lunch?! Actually this is just ice lemon tea in a beer glass...

Grumpy old man serving up multiple bowls of.....

Fish Noodle Soup! They actually just call it "Fish Soup" here, even though it is always served with noodles.. A great tasting fishy stock with fried fish, noodles and vegetables. Very popular locally!

Mee Rebus. I have no idea what this is, I just ate it. Soft yellow noodles in a slightly sweet, curry-type gravy, served with bean sprouts, fried tofu bits, fried shallots, green chili, calamansi lime and a boiled egg. A Malay/Indonesian dish. Not bad, but the sweet flavour is not my favourite.

Extra veges! Yes mum, 5+ a day!!!

I found this great place just downstairs of where I stay in Simei (四美) called Snack Shop. It's a Hong Kong eatery!! All the servers speak Cantonese! Gosh.. feels like home and makes me miss HK so much! I haven't so far come across many HK places around. This was one of the first. Serving typical HK style fare (roast meats on rice), with a Singaporean twist (note the rice is actually Chicken Rice (!!) and cucumber slices).

Another Mixed Curry Rice, this time from the foodcourt, Koufu. Chose the eggplant because it was a beautiful purple colour but it wasn't cooked well - sorely disappointed!

That was lunch for the past couple of weeks, look forward to more! :D