A run in with white asparagus at Marché

Seems that the white asparagus season is upon us again. Marché has the asparagus offerings in almost all their stalls. Even a cream of white asparagus soup in their normally unchanging soup stand. It was actually pretty good with sliced pieces of the shoot. The flavors were rich from the cream and quite full of the sweet asparagus in spite of a very mundane look. A little Paremesan cheese and some spring onions were all that was needed to complete the bowl.

These guys also under tremendous order load, grill up one of the nicer budget steaks in town. The only problem with their rib eye usually is the quality of the meat which lacks the beautiful marbling of fat that is found in the more expensive steak places. Otherwise, we almost always get a medium rare spot on and sauces are always on the side.

From the pizza counter, one with white asparagus, egg and Black Forest ham. The sweet crunchy pieces of asparagus were paired nicely with the light salt from the cheese and ham. This topping profile was designed to allow the flavors of the white asparagus to shine.

Unfortunately, they didn't have white asparagus for desserts or we would have swiped one too......

Menya Musashi, Raffles City

This (252 North Bridge Road, #01-16 Raffles City Shopping Centre, tel : +65 6336 6500) is another one of numerous ramen-ya that has been making headlines in the past year that I haven't yet had a chance to visit until today. A ramen-ya that originates from the Shinjuku ward in Tokyo. This one, comes with a odd story where the shop was named after a certain samurai with a double sword style. Much like a certain Drizzt Do'Urden I guess. Maybe not. I'll explain below.

So here goes their black thunder and a Tokyo Akiba curry ramen.

The former bowl of noodles was advertised in a poster with a large head of the oni on the back of what seemed to be a potent bowl of spicy ramen. An oni that perhaps Miyamoto Musashi was not skilled enough to defeat in the breath of his mortal existence and now permanently torments his spirit by appearing in bowls of his ramen. Lol! It wasn't as potent as it had looked. If I could break it down, I'm guessing that it's the regular tonkotsu broth that they have in the shop plus a little alchemy with what makes their reds and blacks and a small sprinkle of sliced chilli padi. Am I close? Not such a challenge for us locals. I've had more potent ba chor mee. Not delicious enough to have again too. 

Drizzt would have kicked oni butt. Easily. If not, there's always help from Wulfgar and Aegis-fang.

The latter ramen was probably a little more interesting. I'm thinking the regular broth with Japanese curry. The regular broth, being salty takes the sweetness off the curry - resulting in a broth that was still both savory and flavored with the curry. Nice portions of those shabu thin slices of pork in there and a half boiled egg to up the ante.

The noodles here are a class of their own aren't they? Needs more bite to gain my nod of approval. 

MexOut, Far East Square

Here's a rice bowl (mess tin actually) and some corn tortilla tacos from MexOut. I'm not sure how American Mexican this place (39 Peking St. #01-01, tel : +65 9770 7441) really is, but I actually quite like the food here. Those chopped up carne asada simply works on the tacos and I liked the heat from their salsa picanto. It's just too bad they were out of lamb today (already on a Wednesday afternoon?!). I'm not sure when's the next time I'll be able to come back. Food like these needs to be a little cheaper too.

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant, Joo Chiat Road

Delicious Vietnamese food to be found here (159 Joo Chiat Road, tel  : +65 9105 8519).

We had the obligatory goi cuon which was......rustic. The rice paper skin was a little soggy and chewy.

The serving of oc nhay or boiled conch was sweet and fresh tasting. Very tasty with and without the accompanying dip of fish sauce, pepper, salt and tamarind with sliced bits of chilli.

Following, was a very perky green mango salad with strips of pork belly and shrimp. Flavored with basil. The sour notes provided by the fruit were excellent and appetizing. I like this stuff.

And then a bo tai chanh, described as an underdone beef salad. This was basically beef that was cooked to medium doneness, enlivened by lemon and what appears to be a bit of sugar. A little salt would have upped the flavor profile noticeably, but I'm not sure how these are usually had.

My main bowl of a bun thit nuong cha gio. Rice noodles with grilled pork and a fried spring roll. Doused with the accompanying fish sauce and lime sauces with peanut, this rice noodles ended up a lot lighter and much tastier than it appears. The only thing I didn't quite take to were the raw bean sprouts.

I forgot what this is called, but it's rice noodles in a light savory broth that is loaded with ingredients like sliced pork, pork offal and shrimp. Also tasty this was.

And to finish in the sweltering humidity of our merciless sun, a milk and egg soda.

Food here feels very authentic Vietnamese and importantly, delicious without being expensive. Would like to come back again.

Yang Gui Fei (羊贵妃), Smith Street

The play of words involved in the name of this shop should bring a smirk or a chuckle at least. Yang Gui Fei (18 Smith Street, tel : +65 6100 0629) does food from the city of Xi'an, a northern region of China that is the home of a large Chinese Muslim population; and I hear too, famed for the discovery of the thousands of buried terracotta soldiers that served standing as sentinels to the soul of the first emperor of China.  The latter point not withstanding, it means there will be lamb! Was it anything like the real McCoy? I can't say because I don't know. But the food was pretty good.

Chilled tofu with with diced century eggs and soy sauce. The equally chilled bits of century eggs had developed an interesting texture akin to cooked mushrooms.

These pickled string beans were an excellent wake up for the taste buds. Boldly sour and packed some heat in the midst of their crunchy textures.

The gui fei deep fried lamb ribs were a signature from this shop. Basically deep fried lamb ribs in a savory cumin (amongst other spices) batter. Cholesterol bomb. Sure. Delicious. Sure as well. Batter was tasty and crispy, wrapped around fatty lamb meat on the bone.

All that grease also meant that it doesn't take very much before you'll want to stop.

yang rou pao mo was a very nicely done broth, made with broken bits of flatbread that will soak up all the flavor and slices of lamb. The broth was really nice. I meant, it was close to ramen grade broth kind of nice. Like a sort of lamb rendition of tonkotsu. Someone start making that already!

And some sour plum or haw juice to cut through all that grease. Who's kidding whom?

Emerald Green Tonkotsu option from Ramen Bar Suzuki

So, I guess I came back here much faster than I expected. And at it, was their Emerald Green which was a powdered Parmesan cheese and basil flavor of their tonkotsu ramen.

In spite of the sodium bomb that it was, I actually liked it.  Pity that they don't entertain requests for additional cheese. The cheese added a dimension to the broth which was countered by a light touch of basil that skimmered on the surface. Their 'harigane' option for hardness was really not much harder than the previous visit.

Liked it enough to finish up.