The North Carolina State Fair 2026

I'm back in Raleigh today, and it happens to be the last day of the NC State Fair, so I hopped on over. It was pretty big, with not just endless food stalls and amusement park rides, but also exhibits showing local agriculture and livestock. That included gigantic pumpkins and watermelons as well as huge turkeys and cows, and even award-winning bales of hay.



There were a dizzying amount of stalls selling food, a lot of which was fried. But then I saw this local barbecue stall called Lawwrence & Perry that did deep fried ribs. Yep, that meant smoked ribs that got battered and fried...and in my case above, also slathered in a Carolina Gold mustard-based sauce. In retrospect, I should have skipped the sauce, as it was a bit too much. But it was interesting to try.



There was another stall called Fat Boys that has won a lot of awards at the state fair too. That "Boss Hog" platter above was a new one for this year, featuring pork belly on top of beef tallow fries and covered in a sauce. The individual components were OK, but putting them together overdid it. Then again, I suppose that state fair food is supposed to be outrageous; I was a bit bummed that I couldn't find any deep fried butter.

Taqueria Milagro in San Jose, California

This is a nice family-run Jaliscan place in Willow Glen that I was quite happy with (2222 Lincoln Avenue, 408-978-3665). That's their molcajete above, featuring a bunch of proteins and beans sitting in a piping hot volcanic stone mortar. It was salty and was a ton of food (two people could have shared that single portion), but I liked it, and they have good quality chips here too. I can see myself coming back here.

Johor's Bai Jia Le in Singapore

When I realized that this leichafan stall in the basement of CIMB Plaza was actually a Malaysian chain, I made sure to head over (30 Raffles Place #B1-28). The ingredients themselves were fine, but what was more interesting was the green leicha itself. It wasn't a cold paste, but also wasn't a diluted broth unless you asked them to add hot water. Instead, it was a warm sauce that was generously portioned enough that it could still coat most of the items in the bowl. It was savory and fragrant with aromatic basil, and I was happy with it.

Jamaica Jerk Chicken Co. in Singapore

The folks behind Gourmet Park are running food trucks at Ocean Financial Centre now, and one of them is serving Jamaican food from the former chef at Lime (10 Collyer Quay). The jerk chicken above was tender, smoky, and served on a very generous bed of rice. But it was also a bit sweet, which was odd. The hot sauce in front was potent, but also a bit sweet.

Tokyo Onigiri Singapore by Ichiryu Manpuku

An onigiri chain from Japan called Ichiryu Manpuku has opened a stand in the basement of One Raffles Place under the rather generic-sounding name Tokyo Onigiri (1 Raffles Place #B1-36). The food is fine, if aggressively seasoned. But there is no seating, so everything is packed up in a bunch of clear plastic. My preference is for Onigiri Gon for the seating and notch up in quality, including the miso soup.

The Wondersub from Subway Singapore

Subway in Singapore has started to do these protein keto sandwiches. Yes, that's two chicken patties in place of bread, which basically makes it their version of a KFC Double Down, except it's obviously much healthier. It tasted like you would imagine it to taste, as it was still composed of Subway's usual ingredients. Either way, it was cheap, fast, and guilt-free aside from the slices of processed cheese in there.

Yuki Duyên Chay by Ăn Là Ghiền in Singapore

The Ăn Là Ghiền folks have opened up a vegetarian place a few doors down from their location near the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown (12 Sago Street). It was surprisingly good.

They were running a promotion for that broken rice plate above at just S$3.90 (US$3.05). To reach such a price, you'd think that it was just a bunch of lukewarm stuff that had been sitting around all day, but this was done with enough care that the eggs and tofu were piping hot, while the little salad thing on the right was seasoned just right, inclusive of some fragrant white pepper.

To be sure, that price was a promotional one, as most other dishes were multiple times that price, including my drink. But I liked the kitchen's output enough that I'll happily go back to pay regular prices.

The Cordyceps Steamed Chicken from Hup Lok

I grabbed this steamed chicken from Hup Lok today, which took a painfully long time to come out. But it was good, with super tender chicken bathing in a wonderfully light and savory broth along with cordyceps mushrooms (yep, I'm still thinking of Joel and Ellie). The chicken was bone-in, which made it a little harder to eat, and the broth was slightly sweet from the Chinese dates. But it was also heavily accentuated with ginger, which is a plus in my books. Shoveling down their firmly cooked rice with the remaining bits in the pan was the best part.

Hong Kong's Ging Sun Ho King of Bun in Singapore

That looks like a mouthful of a name above, but it's basically Ging Sun Ho, which does shengjianbao, and thus is a self-proclaimed "King of Buns." It's from Mongkok but has a small basement outlet at Tampines Mall (4 Tampines Central 5 #B1-K17).

The quality is pretty good, with each item cooked to order so that everything is piping hot and crispy, with decent skins and fillings to boot. They had not just the shengjianbao above, but also gyoza and even a big soup dumpling that comes complete with a straw.

That is also the biggest challenge with this place: it's so scaldingly hot that one can't rush it. One has to eat it very slowly and carefully nibble on the side of each dumpling so that all of the soup inside doesn't burn your lips nor squirt all over your clothes. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I'm here.

Hanoi Pho 89 at Sultan Plaza in Singapore

I exited from my usual Gate 1 after the F1 race again, and Hua Jie Dumplings at City Gate had a good number of customers this time. I thus charged forward to a little Vietnamese shop that was open until 2:30 AM in the corner in the next building over (100 Jalan Sultan #01-08). It was a tiny place, but they did that very clean and crisp North Vietnamese bowl above, which was not only soothing but also very affordable. The menu was quite extensive, including things like snails, that would be worth exploring one day. One lady walking by tonight mentioned that they do good bánh mì too.

The Aburi Nodoguro from Sushiro

The nodoguro is back on the list of specials at Sushiro today, and it was deliciously fatty. They actually had quite a few other buttery cuts available today, including little silver mehikari as well as a bright red cut of kamatoro tuna jaw. It was a pretty good list of specials this time.

estiatorio Milos at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

I've been wanting to eat here for a very long time, as this Montreal-based restaurant flies in seafood from Greece and lays it all out on a glorious-looking ice display (10 Bayfront Avenue #B1-48). MBS was conveniently near me during F1 tonight, so I tried my luck and was able to get a walk-in at the bar.

That's their namesake special above, featuring thin and crisp slices of deep fried eggplant and zucchini with saganaki cheese, plus tzatziki underneath it all as a dip. I also had a small lithrini fish that was done with olive oil and capers. Being at Marina Bay Sands meant that it wasn't cheap, but I needed to pamper myself.