TacoCat's TrEats #84: Farming, Filming and Food! 👩🌾
Hey Steemit!
Now that it's been quite a while since Singapore has has been out of lockdown, or what our government has termed "circuit breaker", restaurants have been operating pretty much as usual aside from implementing safe distancing measures. But of course, we've still been limiting our time spent eating out, or just being out in general, to be safe.
Since I've been writing about Japan and Japanese food for a while, I thought I'd switch it up a bit.
A couple months ago, my friend who owns an insect farm here in Singapore said she needed some help with filming as they were gonna be featured on Nas Daily! I offered to help since I was available, and aside from visiting a real life TV set in Japan I never really got to experience a filming before. It sounded pretty interesting and I thought it'd be cool to see the Nas crew in action irl!
My friend, Kai, told me she heard some notorious stories about Nas' working style and mannerisms and unfortunately we got to experience that in the farm that day. But regardless, I guess it was still interesting being on set and seeing how a filming is done.
Here's the video if you're interested!
Anyway, after the filming we were pretty hungry and to thank me for helping Kai treated me to lunch! We headed to the nearest shopping centre which was called Alexandra Central Mall. I actually didn't even know about this place since it's hidden beside a huge fancy hotel, and I never noticed this sign before since it's quite high about street level.
Source: Auctionjia
Anyway, it looks nice on the outside, but the inside of the mall is actually a huge contrast. It reminded me of old shopping centres from my childhood, before they got revamped into the modern malls you'd see today.
I can't find any history on it but I think it was probably built in the 2000s or so. There are definitely older shopping centres still here in Singapore, but for being right next to a fancy Park Hotel, it seems kinda dinky.
Anyway, the few food places we saw near the entrance were either packed or too expensive, until we found this place right in the middle of the atrium that practically screamed classic Singaporean.
The place itself is called Sizzling Woks and they actually have quite many big tables for their customers. I guess they must be the most popular restaurant here. The plastic chairs are very reminiscent of coffee shops. In fact, I think most coffee shops still use the exact same chairs today.
But I realise the reason why all the tables were outside in the middle of the mall was because the interior of the restaurant was so narrow and crammed with all their supplies that there was only space for two small tables inside.
I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant like this before, but it reminded me of some tzi char stalls in Malaysia or something. Albeit cleaner and air-conditioned of course.
It was quite odd to see the restaurant with so much stuff just out and about. It was still quite neat, all things considering. I assume this is because the back room was used as the kitchen and they ran out of storage space. At least the aisle was clear for the staff and customers to walk in.
Just like in fast food restaurants, you'd head to the counter to order and pay up front. The menu is up on the wall of the counter and they had a range of Chinese rice and noodle dishes, such as fishball noodle, lor mee, laksa, etc. They'd then hand you a number stand for your order that you'd take to your table so they know where to find you.
A lot of the menu pictures were also pasted on the walls so you could see what to order while queuing.
Anyway, it was well past lunch time when we arrived so we were pretty much the only customers there, which was good so we didn't have to queue up or wait long for our food!
Just a few minutes later, our food arrived! Kai ordered the Crispy Noodle, which is a Cantonese style dish that consists of deep fried crunchy noodles topped with a stir fry of vegetables, meat and seafood cooked in broth.
Tbh I'm not a big fan of crispy noodles in general, because the noodles aren't that great and the broth tends to be a little too sour for my liking due to the citrus fruit peel they typically add. But Kai seems to like this one so I guess it tasted alright for what it is.
I ordered the Hong Kong Noodle, which is basically stir fried vermicelli noodles with vegetables, chicken slices and prawns. It was actually pretty decent albeit a tad oily. But it was quite yummy, especially after a sunny morning on the farm.
I think both dishes are about 4-5 bucks each, which is alright but I would personally preferred a little more quantity. Maybe I was just really hungry, but we both finished our dishes in under 10 minutes.
I think this place is more famous for their Chili Crab, but obviously we couldn't order that with just the two of us.
I'd say Sizzling Woks (or Juz Eat) is a pretty suitable place if you're in the area looking for some affordable Chinese food. Granted, there's a whole food centre just across the street but that hawker centre is not air-conditioned and in the middle of a hot sunny day it's not as appealing.
So check it out if you wanna Juz Eat! Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
