Tiong Bahru Hainanese Curry Rice (中峇鲁海南咖喱饭), Tiong Bahru Food Centre

I've never eaten from this stall (#02-78 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) previously as there always seemed to be a queue that was long enough that I didn't care for them. I don't know if it is because of the current dining out restrictions or that I was early today but there wasn't a queue so I decided to try.

Let's navigate this - for a start, their curry was a little bland. A little viscous with some curry flavour but not satisfyingly savoury. Stewed cabbage I asked for consisted of mostly tau kee (dried bean curd sheets) and tung hoon, not much cabbage. Am sure many are excited about the verdict on the pork chop. It's not bad per se - detected a very light flavour from five spice and unexpectedly, vinegar. So it's a little sour as well which wasn't what I had imagined. It was also one of those that was mostly flour and little meat.

There's a few of these Hainanese styled curry rice in the vicinity. I'd rank all of them above Tiong Bahru Hainanese Curry Rice. From my old favourite defunct Block 38 Curry Rice, to Beo Crescent Curry Rice to Loo's or even Hong Seng and Traditional Hainanese Curry Rice at Redhill. For an overall curry rice experience I'd pick them over this. They definitely have better tasting curry. Notice that the fried egg didn't even have a drizzle of dark soya sauce as well. Little things count.

山, Havelock Road Food Centre

The name from the signage just says 山 (#01-18 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road). They're the only duck rice stall in this food centre. I'm usually inclined towards the Teochew styled braised duck but I needed to get lunch in the vicinity.

It was okay. Nothing particularly special about them. I was given some pretty standard dry-ish slices of duck breast meat and rice that was somewhat beady. That being said, it didn't taste bad.

A couple of pies from Swisslink Bakery & Cafe

We've had pies from Swisslink Bakery & Cafe from Sunset Way (#01-07, 109 Clementi Street 11, tel : +65 6778 7858) a couple of times previously so here's blogging it. They could be considered a neighbourhood bakery which is known for their pies and puffs. Has been around for a couple of decades or so. 

This was part of a take out dinner of pies with curry fish head from Springleaf Prata Place just around the corner.

We were shooting for the regular chicken pie which were sold out so we ended up with the chicken sherpard's pie. Stuffings under the mashed potato were pretty generous but here's a couple thoughts. I couldn't tell that the minced meat was chicken and the stuffing was a little too sweet. I didn't dislike it but I don't think I'll get them again.

But it did pair well with the tamarind based fish head curry which we got from Springleaf. 

I like their apple pie and it was the main reason I wanted to come here. It's made with a buttery pastry crust encasing sweet tangy chunks of sweet apple fillings that are infused thoroughly with cinnamon. Raisins too. Don't know if there were any other spices though. If one were to be looking for a simple well made apple pie minus frills, this would be it. 

Takeaway from Shen Ji Chicken Rice

Have been meaning to come back to Shen Ji for their chicken rice but it never happened. Fortunately, chicken rice survives travel pretty well so not being able to eat at the stall is not necessarily a problem. Liked it as much as I did the last time we ate at the stall. I also liked that they deboned the drumstick. Anyways with the additional livers and hard boiled egg, it was a reasonable $5.

Keria Japanese Restaurant - before dining out is out.......again!

It has been a while since we were last at Keria and since we have somehow gotten ourselves into an impending lockdown again, this was a last dinner eat out. We've eaten here a number of times (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一 十二 十三 十四) and it's always been a little pricey but we've always left happy. Speaking of lockdown, how in the world did we get to where we are? KTV activities that were previously so hidden in the shadows that no one knew it was happening?

Today's otoshi was spinach with tofu and some strips of salmon with ikura. Looked very put together in short notice compared to some of the previous ones. But then again, there's no need to prepare them since we won't be able to eat in the restaurant anymore for a while.

Nursing some Kirin while waiting for the orders to be processed.

While browsing the menu, we found something we were definitely gonna order. Lumb ruck!

We didn't forget our favourite mentaiko cabbage. Today's cabbage looked like it trapped a lot of the mentaiko. It was also a little less smoky than usual.

We've seen the natto omelette on the menu for some time but had never ordered until today. This was very loaded with natto and their nutty/coffee-ish flavour. Nice.

Here be the lumb ruck! They were a little small but it was $12 for two ribs so we couldn't complain. But while the ribs were small, they were tender and appropriately greasy with some good flavour. Just salt and pepper with a light hint of rosemary.

Stir fried gyutan from Keria has always been pretty dependable.

Who can begrudge uni ikura don eh? We didn't.

Because the lumb rucks were tasty, we had seconds as a pre-dessert.

And finally the coffee jelly. Till the third week of August then.

Café Ma Maison, Mandarin Gallery

Café Ma Maison (#02-33/34 Mandarin Gallery333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 6411) opened a while ago taking over the unit that was previously occupied by Antoinette. As the name implies, this was a cafe outfit from the Ma Maison group so it doesn't have the same range of food as their other restaurants.

I was curious about their truffle katsu sando so we got some while wondering if these were really gotten from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison just next door. One could choose between rosu or hire. This was the former with the tell tale strip of fat. The katsu had been brushed with tonkatsu sauce, a smidgen of mustard and a bit of the fine strips of cabbage - but the truffle flavour was barely discernible. Meat was a little hard. Maybe hire minus the tonkatsu sauce would be a better configuration.

Fruit sando was awesome. There was a lot of cream though.

Gotta remember that Ma Maison's Americano isn't the run of the mill diluted brew. This was stronger and more fragrant. With a couple of spoonfuls of the excess cream from the fruit sando, this was reminiscent of the Café Antoinette Crème that Antoinette used to serve here. A ghost of the past.

As mundane as their root beer float looked, it was actually pretty nice. As nice as root beer floats could get that is.