Wei Jia Ban Mian Fish Soup - Chicken Cutlet Noodle @ Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3

Wei Jia Ban Mian Fish Soup is located inside the same coffee shop as Wan Jia Xiao Guan Zi at Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3 behind Clementi Mall. In case you are wondering, no, the two stalls are unrelated.

The stall offer variations of handmade noodle such as ban mian, u mian, mee hoon kway, koka noodle, ee-mee, bee hoon/mee sua, tom yum noodle, dumpling soup, dumpling noodle dry/soup, qq noodle, chicken/pork cutlet noodle, kimchi noodle, steamed dumpling and fried dumpling. 

Strangely, there is no sign of fish soup on the menu. Perhaps they used to serve it but not anymore? Or maybe it is a off-the-menu item which you have to ask for? 

I do not have the answer.

Wan Jia Xiao Guan Zi - Roùjiámó @ Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3

Update: Wan Jia Xiao Guan Zi has permanently closed.

Roùjiāmó (肉夹馍) is a meat sandwich that has been around for the last 2,000 years.

From my understanding, it is a specialty of Shaanxi, Xi'An - one of the oldest city in China.

The name, roùjiāmó literally means "meat giap bun" but if you had not already noticed, the reality is quite the opposite whereby its "bun giap meat" (mójiāroù/馍夹肉) instead.

So, how did that come about? One explanation is, its original name was actually 肉夹于馍, which means "meat giap within bun" however for some reason, the "于" was omitted hence, it became 肉夹馍. 

Another reasoning was 馍夹肉 sounds a lot like 么夹肉, meaning there is "no meat". Nobody would want to buy a bun with no meat so they rearranged the sequence of the words by putting the roù (肉) in front to emphasize on the presence of meat.

It is my first time trying this and I am going to visit a stall named Xiao Guan Zi (小馆子) located inside Food Loft coffee shop at Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3. It is the coffee shop behind the bus interchange where Sheng Yi Fa Lor Mee and Ann Chin Popiah are.

This stall does not have any media presence but that is exactly the aim of this blog which is to seek out the lesser known stalls and give them some exposure. Even though I do not have a big following or the influence to do so, I just do what I can to the best of my ability.

The guy taking my order seems like a Malaysian but the lady who prepared my order is a bona fide Chinese National. All it took her was just about a minute or so to assemble my roùjiāmó ($4), put it into a paper sleeve and handed over the counter to me in a basket.

Xin Peng La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ Blk 442 Clementi Ave 3

Ask anyone for food suggestions at Clementi and chances are, the majority would direct you towards Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre. 

However, apart from the food centre, there are quite a number of coffee shops in the vicinity which are worthy of a visit too.

Bgain 442 Eating House - the coffee shop within the closest proximity, is located just across the food centre at blk 442. 

Xin Peng La Mian Xiao Long Bao is one of the more notable stall here and as its name imply, offers a variety of la mian and xiao long bao.

For la mian, they have:

• fried bean sauce la mian (aka zha jiang mian)
• dumpling la mian (soup/dry)
• five spices beef la mian soup
• chicken chop/pork chop la mian (soup/dry)
• vegetable meat wanton la mian (soup/dry)
• preserved vegetable shredded meat la mian (soup/dry)
• vegetable meat wanton soup
• spicy shredded chicken la mian soup

As for dumplings, they have:

• Shanghai xiao long bao
• Shandong dumpling
• Shandong fried dumpling
• red oil wanton

Frozen dumplings are also available at $12 for 30 pieces. That is good news for your hotpot party!

After a quick scan of the menu, I was impressed by how affordably priced the food here are.

I got greedy and decided to order the dumpling la mian dry ($4.50) and a steamer of xiao long bao ($4.50 for 6 pieces).