Koka Wanton Noodles

Go if you want: A plate of comfort wanton noodles before you turn in for the night
Parking: Just outside the food centre at 861 North Bridge Road

A Friday night supper in a most unlikely place - a food centre that had but one stall open for business! With incense lingering from a mini temple nearby, the place had more of a yawning than appetizing effect. Yet, nocturnal food hunters streamed in. Placidly and instinctively, everyone seemed to know what to do: order their food at the stall, and go to their tables [ours had no number]... and wait 30 minutes! The ritual is almost cult-like. 

Having good company that night definitely made the wait bearable; we even had to get our tar-pau [take-away] drinks from a nearby kopitiam.

If a picture tells a thousand words, then the pallid appearance of the noodles belied the taste explosion in my mouth at the first bite of the al dente-feel noodles that had an unusually springy texture and dressed with a soya sauce and oil mixture that reminded me of my mom's home-cooking.

When my siblings and I were kids, our parents almost had a ritual of ending a long and tiring day out with us by stopping at their favourite wanton noodles stall at Commonwealth that always had a long queue. I had always wished they would send me home first. Since then, I have disliked wanton noodles for the wait I had to endure. But tonight, something happened. I can now understand why they had to have their wanton noodles. They can be addictive.

Union Farmhouse @ Clementi

Reservation: not required, ample seating
Go if you want: nostalgic open air kampung ambience. The main structure and gaudy green colour of the restaurant has remained the same for decades.
Parking: Free, at open-air gravel ground in front of the restaurant.


It's been a long time since the family visited the farmhouse. Sadly, the critters that originally formed the family farmhouse - dogs, roosters and other domesticated animals - have now given place to altars and objects of worship. It looks more like a backward temple than a farmhouse now.

Nevertheless, the food and kampung ambience that offers a break-away from modern life has remained unchanged through the years - though of course, at a higher price than before. Our all-time favourites: oyster sauce mian and mee fen, paper wrapped chicken [chi bao gai] and deep-fried pigeon. Our two younger daughters, however, thought it too impolite and inhuman to eat a bird.

Revisiting the New Chatterbox

Someone recently reminded me about the sharp crystal shapes of the lighting fixtures in the old Chatterbox that hung precariously over the tables. It brought me back to adolescent days when I had long hangouts with friends there. Those were the days before coffee chains invaded!

Revisiting the Chatterbox where my husband too used to hang out with friends, we naturally expected much. Even my mum had her own reminiscence with my dad there! So the whole troop checked into the new Chatterbox for dinner.

So we ordered what would help with the road down memory lane. The verdict: the totally overhauled Chatterbox holds nothing to lure us back for food or sentimental reasons. The old is completely gone - food quality, atmosphere, prestige, glam.

I ordered Nasi Lemak

Kenny had Kway Tiao

Mum had to retry Chicken Rice while Krystle and Shairel

[born only in the last 2 decades] tried this famous dish for the first time.

Tessa had the Lobster Laksa