Some more firsts at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

Despite having eating at Din Tai Fung for years, we're still seeing ourselves ordering stuff from their menu for the first time. Like their soya bean milk which I'm guessing is pretty new because we haven't noticed it before. Not a bad one and I hope it stays on menu.

Not this...hahaha! We've been having these 素菜蒸饺 almost every time we've been here for a while now.

Did not expect to find sweet and sour pork at Din Tai Fung. Think they're relative new on the menu. The flavour was unexpectedly old school and nicely done with chunks of fat laced fried pork.

First time ordering the egg fried rice without anything else.

First time getting crab meat & pork xiao long bao (蟹粉小笼包). Not bad. The crab flavour in the dumplings made it more interesting than the regular xiao long bao which I've been avoiding.

There's something called mama mochi chocolate xiao long bao on a limited time availability. Xlb that's filled with scalding hot chocolate. What set these apart from other molten chocolate dumplings/cakes were that these tasted like hot chocolate and there's chilled salted cream on the side you could eat them with.

Said salted cream is pretty salty, but they pair well with the chocolate xlb. These are freaking good.

Chicken claw noodles from (New) MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles (麦波申肉脞麵)

Another bowl from (New) MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles - this time it's their chicken claw mee pok. Getting a good flavour in those claws from the braising sauce. Each of them also had different levels of tenderness so while they were arguably slurp off the bone tender, that tenderness probably might not be consistent. Also will not be in the same leagues as places like Imperial Treasure. 😂 

The minced pork on the side was an add on if anyone was wondering.

A beyti kebab from Sultan Kebab

I couldn't identify much of what this was from the menu at Sultan Kebab but ordered it anyway because there was a lamb option. I had thought it to be pastry but it turned out to be lamb kofte wrapped in bread with cheese; toasted, sliced and then slathered with yoghurt and tomato sauce. Tasted much like how it looked. Kofte wasn't very fatty so not so much of the lamb flavour coming through. But now I know.

Tomato tart, lamb rump and tartare de beouf from Le Bistrot du Sommelier

Recent dinner at Le Bistrot du Sommelier. It's been a couple of years since our last time here.  

(un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze).

A salade de tomates typically sounded mundane. Not something I'd usually pay attention to. Le Bistrot du Sommelier's salade de tomates was outstanding. Tomato was well chilled, salted and then drizzled with olive oil - very refreshing and nice pairing with the rich creaminess of burrata. Came with a slice of tomato tart which was suitably buttery and pleasantly flavoured by the porcine sweet savouriness of Bayonne ham. This was so good. 👍🏼

We had tartare de boeuf. This item has remained consistent since we've first had it here. This beef tartare has similar seasoning flavour profile as the one at Atout. 

Marrunga lamb rump with grilled celeriac, black garlic purée and coffee infused lamb jus. Nice creamy sweet tanginess from the black garlic and lovely coffee lamb jus. Those grilled celeriac were smokey tasting. 👍🏼

First time getting sorbets from them. The lime is nicer than the apple. It's more refreshingly robust with the citrus in comparison to the apple which also started to taste less like apple after a bit.

Prata Galaxy, Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre

Prata Galaxy (#02-93 Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre, 31 Commonwealth Crescent) took over the unit left behind by Hammee's.

Tried a piece of their masala vadai. Tasted the lentils, onions and green chilli amidst the spices. Not bad but this for some reasons reminded me of the one at Hajjah R.S.A.. Which was strange. I like the one from Hajjah R.S.A. better and no, they don't taste similar.

Coincidentally, I also had a ghee egg thosai just like that time at Hajjah R.S.A..😅 Not getting much of the tang from the flour and I've had non-ghee thosai that has more ghee flavour than this ghee thosai. Surface of thosai was soft and devoid of crisp except for some light bits at the browned edges. Coconut chutney wasn't coconut-y - some flavour in that chutney which reminded me of oats.

Nan Yang Dao (南洋岛), Bugis+

Visited the branch at Bugis+ (#04-08 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street). Comparisons are abound.

Ice coffee was not bad because it was sufficiently thick through the ice. We could taste the evaporated milk in it so it's kopi c. Gotta remember to siew dai it.

We had something on the menu called Penang prawn noodle. We were trying to figure out if this was a dry-ish hae mee tng or was it a soupy Hokkien mee. Turned out to be the latter. Not bad tasting in a pretty decent broth. Prawns had natural meaty texture and were sweet even. Fried lard was a little bitter, not very fragrant and hence, also not the better ones around. That being said, the lard wasn't a deal breaker and I could eat this again.

This was petai fried nasi lemak with fried chicken from the petai series of their menu. We were expecting savoury and this turned out a little sweet. Sweetness that annoyed me. Sweetness that came from the sambal and possibly onions. Who puts onions in fried rice or nasi lemak? Especially these which are neither caramelized nor raw. Even the turmeric infused batter of the fried chicken on the side was sweet. Dislike. 👎🏼

Yam rolls - floury and filled with bits of vegetables. Like some of the fried bread in Indian rojak. I have no idea where this was standing with that Nanyang themed food. Don't know where the yams were because we couldn't taste them. Also don't know why there were carrots. This was largely a filler fritter which was saved by the rojak sauce on the side. Pleasantly surprised with that sauce but that did not vindicate anything with these "yam rolls".