Makan Makan in TB

My cousin from the USA came out to visit recently and asked to meet up with some old friends with whom she climbed Kilimanjaro. So, we met - eight of us. She requested for our favourite sea food alleyway at Tiong Bahru (TB). However, it is no longer just in an alleyway. Sin Hoi San is now in a proper two-storey shop house with fans and air-conditioning. The tables in the alleyway are still there for those die-hards who must eat in an alleyway for the atmosphere.

The conversation revolved round our 2004 climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. (Go to Jalan Jalan Mana? - Climbing Kilimanjaro - for full story of our record making climb) We recalled the tough times and the good times. We laughed a great deal as we recounted our experiences with the cold, the climb and the altitude. There were some gaps with lapses in memory ... oh well, we were all seven years older!

Then the "hak cheong kai" (shrimp paste fried chicken) arrived and the talking stopped as the eating started. We stuck to our true, tested and tasted dishes of fried water cress, drunken prawns, clay-pot liver, chili crabs with fried "mun toh" (buns), salted egg crabs and crispy noodles. We rounded off the meal with "or nee" (pumpkin, yam paste with ginkgo nuts in thick coconut milk). We had a bottle of champagne to toast to each other's health.

The food was superb with the prices being a little higher than what it used to be. It was a night to remember as we sat and ate and talked. This is what friendship is all about. Burp!

Sin Hoi San

55 Tiong Bahru Road

#01-59 (opposite Link Hotel)

Rating: 5 BURPS for me!

Rating by BURPS

5 BURPS - worth every burp - MUST go.

4 BURPS - try to go

3 BURPS - if got time then go

2 BURPS - let other people go

1 BURP - anyone also no need to go

0 BURP - DON'T go