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Broadly speaking, Cantonese food isn’t hard to find in Singapore. Dim sum joints are a dim(e) a dozen. And if we’re talking larger names/chains, Swee Choon, Tim Ho Wan, and of course, Canton Paradise, are the first to come to my mind. Even hawker centre/food court staples, such as wanton noodles, or sweet and sour pork at caifan stalls, have their roots in Cantonese cuisine. Traditional Hong Kong-style diners, however? Those require more conscientious hunting. Also known as 茶餐厅 (cha can ting in Mandarin, caa can teng in Cantonese), these feature a distinct, functional style of interior decoration - tiled walls, rounded metal chairs, etc - and importantly, also a wide ranging menu including virtually every diner-favourite you can imagine. Naturally, we're talking milk tea, bo luo bao, egg noodles, cheese baked rice, toast and of course, dim sum. The perceived rarity of these diners in Singapore is perhaps the reason why I routinely return to one specific spot that I feel captures the magic so well: The original HK Legendary Restaurant and Cafe outlet, housed on the third floor of Jurong Point (which - yes - is confoundingly located at Boon Lay MRT station). For context, I live in Punggol. The length of even three entire blog posts would still not do justice to the breadth of delicacies you can eat here. As such, I'll just list some of the dishes my mum and I got to eat during our most recent visit: Starting out with some iced milk tea (the tea leaves are flown in directly from HK!) and garlic kai lan... My mum loves her sliced fish porridge HK style fishball soup! Everything here - the taste of the soup, the consistency of the fishballs, and of course, the inclusion of yet more kai lan - makes this really different from the sort you find at bar chor mee stalls What would an outing at a caa can teeng be without some har gao? And of course - some proper indulgence! The cherry on top of the icing (or the sweet chilli on top of the har gao, if we want to remain on-theme) is that your orders are taken and filled out via coloured A4 sheets - in pink, green and yellow - which list down the entire menu of options available. In all, as charmingly close to the experience I've gotten from my few trips to Hong Kong. Ruminating - again I started reflecting more deeply on my previous food outing about why certain culinary spaces stand out to me, and in this reflexive process of documenting my weekend adventures, it has increasingly become clearer to me that I tend to associate emotions with the act of eating. As with DMQ Ban Mian and its sleepy Ubi environs, Legendary Hong Kong and Jurong Point both also hold a special place in my heart. (Notably, this isn't the only Legendary Hong Kong outlet. The one at Funan - a cart noodles-only joint - feels like a feeble, watered-down version of the original outlet; a distant offshoot un-seasoned by the franchise's stardust. The one at Rochester Park, while pleasantly quaint, feels too polished.) For starters, you feel like you've been transported outside of Singapore even before stepping into the restaurant. The reason? That entire corridor along Level 3 - also known as Mongkok Street - is decked out in glaring neon signs that evoke the bustling lanes of downtown Hong Kong. Then, the very fact that it takes 40 minutes by car to get here (yes, I know how indulgent it is, and how privileged I am, to be able to drive so far just for a special meal) means that any visit here has already been preceded by a mental state of serenity. When I make the cross-island trek, I am often relaxed; restful in the knowledge that my evening is not beholden to any other appointment, piece of work, or activity. Having found it increasingly difficult to consistently carve these spaces of rest out for myself in recent years, the comfort that the restaurant envelops me in is hard to put into words. There are also the memories that the restaurant evokes: Tea break after fetching my sister from NIE; dining with my mum after finishing my last exam of my final year at uni; and even just transporting the entire family over at last, when business resumed for the first time after the pandemic. Once again, I admit that a lot of this has been heavily romanticised by me. Legendary Hong Kong would just be another fancy dining spot if I were a denizen of the West - its food, too overpriced to be enjoyed regularly; Mongkok Street's neon lights, too garish to evoke any un-Singaporean magic. Yet as mentioned previously, it is precisely these reliable - if irregular - spaces of solace that feel so precious given how mundane and trying the weekly hike from Monday to Friday can be. Incidentally, Legendary Hong Kong at Jurong Point underwent a significant refresh sometime within the last two years. I remember lamenting to my parents that the place had lost a bit of its charm when we returned for the first time after; a part of me fearful that the place would soon befall the fate of every other site in Singapore by relinquishing its old-time allure. I hope the once-in-a-decade round of renovation is the only thing that will befall this place. I'd hate to permanently lose this other world, in which - in turn - I feel the weightlessness to lose my worries in. - Matt P.S. If anyone has any HK-diner style places to recommend, please feel free to do so! (Again, Xin Wang does not count...)

For those of you who have only started following us along recently, you might not remember that our office used to be located at the Automobile Megamart in Ubi. It might be nostalgia speaking, but our immediate food options were much better back then (compared to where we are at New Tech Park currently) - with one of the highlights being this special ban mian stall. The mere mention of good ban mian is sure to send the mind to the thought of L32 Ban Mian first - and there are certainly days on which I relish the experience of fighting through Geylang’s traffic to plonk myself down at the original store’s blue tables. But from past experience, long waits and a sizable crowd always accompany any visit. This is even more pronounced if you try the Tampines 1 branch (I cannot speak on the Aljunied one as I haven't visited it). All that is a long-winded way to say - if L32 is too far out of reach, DMQ Ban Mian makes for a great alternative too. The food Like L32 - and unlike you bog-standard ban mian stalls in Food Republic or Koufu - DMQ Ban Mian also comes with a variety of ‘sides’ to match your order. Of course, you get to choose exactly the sort of handmade noodles you want too, whether it’s ban mian, you mian, or mee hoon kway. From this amateur’s point of view, a marker of bad ban mian is if it gets soggy or soft too quickly. Conversely, good ban mian should have a certain level of chewiness to it, without feeling too flour-y. Other professional food critic sites have lauded DMQ’s noodles for having a ‘QQ’ (springy? I guess that’s how I’d translate it) texture, and that’s exactly what I feel - and enjoy - about them too. Then there is the soup: Rich, thicker than you’d imagine, and ostensibly true to DMQ's claim that there is no MSG inside. You can tell when a soup's flavour has been artificially tinkered with because the satisfaction of drinking it wears off very quickly. I cannot remember a time I’ve left the stall without slurping every last drop up. In fact, I’ve never bothered ordering my noodles dry, because the soup is just so fantastic. Bonus points, too, for the vegetables inside, which surprisingly, mix hints of sweetness and bitterness for a very tasty result. Finally, the saltiness of the thin ikan bilis and sweetness of the fried shallots balance each other out very well. Back to the sides: As a fishball-lover, and as a person content with eating something I enjoy repeatedly, that’s usually what I gravitate towards. I’m not sure about how exactly the fishballs here are made, but they don’t taste overly artificial (i.e. the frozen sort that clearly lack freshness on your first bite), and go well with the soup. As any self-respecting specialty ban mian stall would do, however, the highlight of DMQ’s menu is undeniably the la la (clams) ban mian. I also order these when I get the chance to drop by, and they are chewy, sweet and fresh. But the bowl of noodles itself isn’t where things end. Ban mian is incomplete without chilli - and the sort that is made in-house by DMQ is perfect: Sufficiently spicy, yet also savoury and tangy. Again, I dare anyone to try finishing up their ban mian here without going through at least two saucers of chilli. Ruminating I’ve mentioned it before, and will continue to do so to make it clear: I am no food critic, and these culinary adventures I write about (as with the previous one at McDonald’s) will probably take on different forms depending on the significance of each meal. And this particular visit to DMQ on a Saturday morning has somehow set me… in a wistful mood. It’s not always the food itself, but also the environment in which you eat that matters. Having lived in Punggol for most of my life, Ubi somehow feels delightfully stuck in the past - unbothered with hip cafes, slow-paced on a weekend, and bearing the unmistakable design of a HDB estate built prior to the 2000s. I put my phone aside and whipped out a car magazine to read after I was done with my meal - just because - and there was no immediate pressure for me to vacate my table too. It's not that these sorts of serene environments don't exist in Singapore... but to have them combined so seamlessly with a space that serves reliably good food feels rare, at least with my normal routines, and within my normal radius of movement around the island. I am also sentimental to a fault - and with all the fear, excitement, frustration and sadness interwoven into it, my first work location after graduating from uni will always hold a special place in my heart. Some will argue that L32 still makes better ban mian - and there will be days when I want to fight the traffic in Geylang for a good meal - but I know I will always make time to return to DMQ too. Address: 304 Ubi Ave 1, Singapore 400304 (Parking is pretty easy to find, but instead of entering the carpark right next to DMQ - which is a never-ending nightmare - drive further along Ubi Avenue 1 to the next entrance instead. Keep going left after that, and you’ll find yourself behind the estate centre, after which a short five-minute walk will land you back in DMQ anyway.) - Matt

Planning a trip up to penang and i am so spoilt for the food choices. What are the top 3 stalls must eat? (just the char kway tiao alone i found 8-10 stalls already.. so confusing 😅)

Happy Vesak Day! Kickstart part 4 with my favorite YTF from Fu Lin!

My goodness! Look at these birds having a feast, machiam a reunion dinner for the feathered species! Always wondered why us Singaporean never thought of catching them to makan or opening restaurants to sell roast pigeons since they are so plentiful here. It is a delicacy in HK. Other than the health risk originating from their faeces, I see no reason why we can catch one & roast it! (Probably feeling a little bit hungry now hehe) Any bros any idea why this bird is not sold as food here? http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sg..._leftovers.html Pigeons invade hawker centre to feast on uncleared leftovers Pigeons have invaded Sims Lane hawker centre to feast on leftover food. This has compromised the hygiene standards of the hawker centre, says STOMPer Lerine. The STOMPer says: "I really felt disgusted and question the hygiene standards at Sims Lane hawker centre. "The cleaners are basically taking their own sweet time to clean up the dirty plates and bowls which contain leftover rice and soup. "Pigeons are flocking to the main area of the hawker centre while some people can still eat beside the table where the pigeons are feasting on leftovers. "My colleague also observed that the pigeons are 'doing their business' while eating on the leftovers. "Gross! I don't want to get infected by any diseases just because the plates are also served to pigeons! "Please get the pigeon exterminator, quick!"