Not the 50 Best tour day 2: pandan day

I got up this morning and pondered what to have for breakfast. Surely I would go grab a cup of kopi C, but the question is where. Do I go back to an outlet from one of the established chains, or do I wander into an unknown local shop and try my luck? In the middle of checking out the area around my hotel, I remembered that Goldfinger was staying nearby, so I pinged him and asked him about breakfast. This is his first trip to Singapore, so I figured I could take him to one of my favorite places for breakfast.

I have been coming to Killiney Kopitiam for about 25 years, and it was a ritual for me on my frequent trips to Singapore back in the day. It may not have the best coffee or kaya toast in town, but I'm a sentimental guy and a loyal customer, so I've never batted an eyelid about paying more for the taxi ride there than the cost of the actual breakfast.

I started us off with a couple of soft boiled eggs, adding a few drops of soy sauce, of course.

Classic kaya toast is a must. With a small pat of butter inside.

And yeah... I take mine with a cup of kopi C, which is my favorite type of coffee in the world.

I also love the French toast, but then I do love the "regular" French toast, too.

It was good to catch up with Goldfinger outside his restaurant, but it was time to head back to the hotel and change for lunch. My highlight of the day - and indeed, of the trip - would be Gogaden lunch.

Mikacina is in town for the 50 Best festivities like many of my friends, and we managed to meet up between my lunch and her late dinner at Gogaden. Since neither of us could eat much, I asked her to meet me at The Coconut Club for coffee and dessert. I still very much regret not having tasted the nasi lemak before the founder's passing.

This coconut water cold brew was nice. I need to have this more often.

Gula melaka chiffon cake - meh. Not enough gula melaka flavor. Waste of calories.

Chendol - I really loved the chendol when I visited the original location on my last trip right before the pandemic, so I wanted to come back for another round. Unfortunately it just wasn't as good today. The coconut milk wasn't as rich, and they skimped on the gula melaka. Yes, it was still a pretty good bowl of chendol, but nowhere near as stunning as before.

I strolled around with Mikacina and soon found ourselves at the Ramadan bazaar outside the Sultan Mosque. It's now after sundown and people are now buying food to break their fast. We saw a few interesting things but neither of us were able to eat.

I went back to my hotel for a scheduled phone call, and after I was done I made a beeline back to The Coconut Club. Unfortunately they had sold out of the fried chicken by now, so I would not get the nasi lemak I wanted to try. Bummer.

It was getting late, and my options were getting slimmer on a Sunday night. The logical thing was to go back to the Ramadan bazaar and hope that the stuff I saw earlier were still available. Off I went.

My first stop was the stall from The Original Vadai, where I picked up a prawn vadai. This was cooked some time ago but the dough was now a little greasy.

This was a big cup of fried chicken skin, and despite being cold they were still very crunchy.

But the pièce de résistance was certainly this skewer of bishop's nose, a.k.a. CHICKEN ASS. Normally these aren't my thang, but I had to post a pic to make the Great One jealous. And Little Meg, too.

For dessert I went over to Loco Loco and got myself some ondeh ondeh churros. These were just OK. I tasted some pandan flavors but there wasn't nearly enough gula melaka...

It was only afterwards I realized that every single part of my dinner was deep-fried... and this was way, way too much grease. Thankfully I had been walking around earlier in the evening, and now decided to walk back to my hotel in Bencoolen Street. Gotta burn off some calories!