my OPS friends organised a 4pax eat-together at jin hock at tampines 844 coffeeshop on 9.6.2016. ^^

the last time 2 OPS friends bought a bigger group dinner here at jin hock seafood on 19.4.2016. 🙂

that was the first time i had white bee hon WBH 白米粉. after that they were talking about 金香鱼头 here.

& then we tried the 金香鱼头 at canto jumbo 广东珍宝 @ old airport road & my friends all felt the jin hock one was better.  so here we were this evening to try.

i went to get some MSW 猫山王  from ah seng. i ordered 5kg. they gave me 3 durians 5.9kg vacuum packed in 4 boxes. 🙂

we gathered at a friend’s place to have durian first before dinner. we finished 3 boxes among 4 of us. ah seng’s durians were consistently good but not overwhelming.

my friend brought equally good ones from tiong bahru to a scrupmtious 10pax OPS makan & chill some days back…. & i had equally good ones also from clementi mall the evening before. 🙂

tampines 844 was quite crowded & good traffic on a thurs evening. 🙂

before sitting down we saw a durian stall next door with a few pathetic looking MSW & other durians & charging S$16/kg for MSW.

ah seng, tiong bahru & clementi mall all charge S$15/kg. it’s better to buy from bigger, regular durian stalls, they charge cheaper & offer greater assurance of quality la..

my friend ordered 4 dishes – vinegared trotters 猪脚醋, WBH, crispy eggplants with string beans, 金香鱼头.

vinegared trotters 猪脚醋 were good, not super but good!

texture for the skin was great, gelatinous, for the lean meat less so. not too sour & not too sweet either & quite good flavours. my friend felt the vinegar not enuf, basically dish not “pang” enuf. it was ok for me la.

金香鱼头 for this evening we all felt was not great. not enuf sauce & flavours.

if just based on this evening’s version, i can probably make better & certainly the one we had recently at canto jumbo 广东珍宝was better that evening.

problem is always consistency, so never quite definitive. some days better some days not so la.

the crispy eggplants with string beans.

it was a well done dish, nice crispy eggplants. not quite my favourite kind of food, nor the combination appeals much to me.

white bee hoon was very good this evening. very flavourful, well infused with flavours from the broth, very much better than the first i tried here on 19.4.2016.

i have tried making this once as WBH, and 3 times as 三楼米粉. for me the 2 dishes were same in preparation, only you crisp the bee hoon for 三楼米粉.

the most recent i did 三楼米粉for my RI friends 9pax lunch, and they all loved the flavours though i could not create the crispy texture for a 9pax portion.

a friend made orh nee 金瓜芋泥.

it was his first time, and amazingly good for the first time.

the tub looked small but actually too compacted so contained really a large bowl of orh nee.

anyhow i finised the entire tub. yam was flavourful not too sweet, pumpkin, ginkyo nuts were all good. coconut was “pang” & thick. ^^

another friend brought koropok. it was the best for him. we were too full from durians + dinner + orh nee, so i brought the packet home. eating it this few days, not particularly my favourite though.

had a great time this evening, good durians, great company & food & dessert & chit chat.

dinner for 4 dishes 4 pax was S$61, about S$15pax, quite ok!

c.h.e.f andy

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