Hot corn juice from Yuen Kee Dumpling (袁记云饺)

Got this hot corn juice from Yuen Kee Dumpling in the Food Republic at 313 (L5, 313@Somerset, 313 Somerset Road). This might be the only place we know of that still has this after the limited time ones from Tsui Wah. Putien doesn't have them on their menu anymore.

Chef Lup Roasted (立师父烧腊), Golden Mile Food Centre

I didn't realise when we ate at Chef Lup Roasted at Lau Pa Sat that the brand was started by an ex-Kam’s Roast executive chef who's had considerable experience under his belt. The first shop that was set up is this one at Golden Mile (#B1-56 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road). 

We had plate of triple roasts with eggs this time round. Char siew was as good as I recall with smokey sweet gumminess from the caramelisation and fat with meat. Not forgetting too the nice crisp on the tender siu yoke and their tender roasted duck breast in herbal sauce which were also exceptional. 

I like their 油饭. Great savouriness in the rice which ended up being both good with and without the sweet/limey/garlicky chilli sauce. That's a nice pickled mustard greens soup on the side.

Kunafa pistachio min jiang kueh from Munchi Pancakes

No surprise here that Munchi Pancakes is on this bandwagon. No disparagement in that previous statement too. This one's quite nice - milky, nutty and sweet with crunch from the kataifi between the jiggly pancake layers.

Revisiting Tiong Bahru Bakery @ Raffles City

Been a while since we were last at Tiong Bahru Bakery - mostly because I never liked what I had that much from them previously. Menu's updated a little since.

There's a coconut pandan financier (for SG61) and another one with hazelnuts. Pleasantly surprised that both these were kinda nice. They were buttery enough and I liked the pandan infusion from the former that wasn't overshadowed by coconut. Also liked that saltiness we were tasting from the hazelnut one.

Pretty pleasant custard-y canele.

Found a cream shio pan - gotta admit that I rather liked it. It's a little different from the one from Noci Bakehouse. Something about the cream maybe.

Okay-ish houjicha latte. This one was actually kinda smooth going down and a little more milky rather than a more robust tea flavour I was hoping for.

Yeastside, Somerset

Been wanting to come to Yeastside (#01-02, 10A Exeter Road) since their first setup at King Albert Park. Yes it's been that long.

Their Caulihummus was delicious. Roasted/torched cauliflower on hummus with pomegranate flavoured with cumin and honey. 

Liked their Foursome With Honey pizza - there's fior di latte, cheddar, parmesan and blue cheese. Don't know which kind of blue cheese it was but it was adequate and that much cannot be said of many pizzas that claim to have them.

Crust's not bad, but the cornicione didn't seem to be as good (combination of chew, puffiness and aroma) as what one can get from Casa Vostra or the defunct Zazz Pizza.

Ramen Shoshiji, Orchard Plaza

If one were in the know, Ramen Shoshiji (#03-42 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road) is a buzz about town now. What they bring to the table is a never seen before (at least for me) ginger shoyu ramen. The standard bowls on menu here appear to be said ginger shoyu and a Hakata tonkotsu. There's also tori paitan, Iekei and Jiro styled on rotation based on availability.

Availability is determined by updates on their IG.

Tried their pork shumai. These were huge, freshly steamed, moist on the insides and tender. Nice. 👍🏼

We were given plate with a smudge of mustard for the shumai. I enjoyed the pairing.

The other condiment(s) which worked with the shumai are the doubanjiang or doubanjiang with garlic.

I'm typically not a ginger person but I thought the broth from their ginger shoyu ramen rocked. This bowl was with extra ginger. Brought about a nice bit of prickle at the back of the throat. Did not expect to take to it but I ended up liking it and being amazed by myself enjoying it.

The Hakata tonkotsu bowl was somewhat more pedestrian. There seemed to be an underlying sweetness in the broth which I preferred without. Charshu's lean-ish. Nothing particularly special about this.

Interestingly, they have a wider range of hardness for their Hakata tonkotsu noodles than the other ramen-ya around. I got the ultra hard which wasn't very hard at all.