Pine Garden's Cake 松园

Blk 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
#01-2369/2329

On first glance, Pine Garden's Cake may just look like any typical neighbourhood bakery. Don't judge a book by its cover, because this bakery isn't any typical neighbourhood bakery. 

The bakery has 2 shop units located at the same block in Ang Mo Kio. The yummy Lychee Martini cake has a huge following by not only the folks in AMK, but also other parts of the island. A slice costs $2.50. This cake was rated as the top 12 yummiest cake by local media.  Personally, I find the martini in the cake to be not too strong but yet I can taste it on my palate. It also seems to grow on each mouth-bite. I also find their cakes not being too excessively sweet. 

They sell plenty of other cakes. The one that I also like is the Apple Vera Martini cake (at $3.10 per slice). I enjoyed the martini taste from this cake too. Cocotero cake (with coconut shreds as toppings) also seemed to be "Rated by media".

For nostalgia sake, one could also get these cakes. They have 4 varieties that I saw in the other shop.

I think there will be more opportunity in the near future to update in this blog on the other cakes from them. 

Hong Heng Beef Noodle Soup & Laksa 
宏兴  牛肉粉 叻沙

Kebun Baru Food Centre, Stall no. 01-16,
Blk 266H Ang Mo Kio St 22

My favourite at this stall is the mixed beef noodles and usually I’ll ask for the thick beehoon (the laksa type).

Priced at $4, the bowl comes in the dry or soup version. It has lean beef slices (牛肉), beef brisket (牛腩), slices of tendon (牛肉筋), stomach (牛肚), tripe (牛柏叶) and a meatball (牛肉圆). The dry version has a scooping of thick gravy and generous toppings of preserved vegetable (咸菜) and chopped green spring onions.

Prior to eating, a dash of juice from 1 or 2 fresh limes into the bowl will greatly enhance the taste. Even then, every spoon of noodle and meat will go much better with their chili sauce mixed with "cencaluk" (a paste of fermented dried shrimps from Malacca). I always ask for another $1 of addition tendons. 

Their beef tendons are one of the smoothest and softest tendons around. Some other folks also like their beef tripe. So don't be surprised if you hear an order for a bowl of only tendon and tripe. 

Since their relocation from a coffeshop at Blk 223, the long queue has shortened, or at times, non-visible at the current location. This could be possibly due to a bigger sitting area at the food centre as compared to the smaller coffeeshop. Although some other folks may attribute it to the passing away of the previous owner who has a reputation of being the "Beef Noodle King" Mr. Lim prior to their relocation in 2011. 

The current stall is operated by Mrs. Lim, the wife who does the cooking, even during the times of Mr. Lim's presence. I still like this bowl of beef noodle now and then. 

As to the laksa, I have to be upfront here. If you really want laksa, there are better places. The only Laksa bowl that could be unique here is their Beef Laksa, where all the ordinary Laksa accompaniments are replaced with beef offerings, something that you don't easily get elsewhere as far as I know.

You could also order rice with beef soup or single, double selection of the beef offal that they are selling. If you don't mind cencaluk, remember to add more of them to the chili.