Angry Tomato Tsukemen from Marutama

Marutama has a limited time Angry Tomato Tsukemen. Noodles with shell on mussels, clams, olives, cherry tomatoes and asparagus. Together with the cheese that's shaven table side and the garlicky tomato dip, it looked like they were going for the Italian flavour profile. Noodles weren't the usual thick tsukemen type but more like thicker mee pok.

All the rage came though, from the bottle of Tabasco Scorpion Sauce. Seriously extra hot as the label puts it and supposedly going at 23,000-33,000 SHUs which is 8-10x hotter than Tabasco. Packs a serious burn once you have shaken enough in.

Brinda's, Bukit Merah Central

I've passed by Brinda's on numerous occasions and have been curious. They're another one of those places that have become out of mind when they're out of sight. We eventually visited. They're kinda like Komala's - Indian fast food. We got a South Indian meal and a mutton keema thosai. Mutton keema thosai! Where else can I find them?!

South Indian meal  - there's sambar, lauki dal (bottle gourd with lentils), rasam, vegetables (sabzi?) and buttermilk. One notices the vadai and payasam on the side as well. I thought the lauki dal was delicious...there was something about it I couldn't put a finger to that I liked. Vadai's not very spiced but was nicely done and great sponge for the gravies. Straight up comfort rice meal I couldn't argue with.

Mutton keema thosai - nice curried minced mutton wrapped in thosai. I'm surprised that I haven't encountered this before but now I know where to get one. They a la plancha-ed the keema where they were making the thosai so know that it was served piping hot. Thosai didn't have the crispy edges but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Less than a week later...

So I tried their North Indian meal. The little plastic cups from left to right contained chana masala (curried chickpeas), vegetable korma, gobi manchurian (I think), payasam and raita. Was expecting briyani but this came with white rice. There were a couple of other differences from the South Indian one. There's chapati instead of vadai. Today's payasam was also creamier/milkier. 

Mushroom murtabak from Victory Restaurant

Whispers speak of the mushroom murtabak at Victory and I was curious, hoping against hope that they were going to be cutting a swathe through the neighbouring competition by using portobello mushrooms. Even fresh brown/white ones would have made a distinction.

Alas, as the voice deep within had warned, it was canned button mushroom. Not much flavour coming from those mushrooms as well. Then again with the dalcha and fish curry, it's all the same. Seems like the mutton murtabak is still king. But curiosity has been satiated.

Gong Yuan Ma La Tang (宫源麻辣烫), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Gong Yuan Ma La Tang opened up at Tiong Bahru Plaza (#02-113 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) pretty recently. Our also recent kindled interest in mala tang steered us forth so these were a few of the bowls we've had over a couple of visits.

Mala soup's not the same as the one from Zhang Liang. This one didn't look/taste as milky. The flavour was cleaner but a little less smooth if you catch my drift. If I had to choose, I prefer the broth at Zhang Liang. They have a larger variety of ingredients to choose from as well. This one wasn't bad though. 

There's a dry rendition with sesame/peanut sauce which we got in 小辣. Pretty good nutty sauce. Would come back for this again. 👍🏼

Suan cai (酸菜) broth was sour but not so intense compared to the 酸菜鱼 around the corner. Maybe that was the point since this was meant to be eaten with everything else that you could pile into the bowl. That being said, those cubes of 酸菜 were more sour than the broth. Can see myself getting this again.

A couple of other noodles from Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (樑成香菇肉脞麵)

So I came back a couple of times more to Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle. Mee kia's nice and wiry. I'd rank it the same as their mee pok for enjoyable texture.

Here's another bowl from another visit with regular yellow noodles that brought back memories of another era. No kee taste and that's good. As yellow noodle bak chor mee goes, I like the one at Lai Heng better.

More 双鱼-ism and crème brulée at The Ship

More fish soup bee hoon at The Ship. Here's the boiled fish bowl...

...with added on fried fish. 😬

We were given a choice for crème brulée as dessert today. Never knew that they had it. It was unexpectedly delicious. Thin sugar shell and creamy custard beneath. I hope this stays because it's so much better than the mango pudding.