Boneless Chicken Rice near Yishun MRT

I hadn't eaten at this coffee shop for quite a while and didn't realise that the chicken rice stall had changed. This one was so much better than the previous. Their boiled chicken was tender and smooth and frankly, deboning the bird usually scores points with me. There was that sprinkle of deep fried garlic bits to differentiate from the usual stalls. 

Their beady rice was decent if not extraordinary. Works with their garlicky chilli sauce. This was one competent stall which while doesn't rank in the top of my list, made good eating if one had the craving. Which is actually saying something considering that there are literally tonnes of chicken rice shops in the country. And oh yes, they threw in a complimentary bowl of peanut and chicken soup as well. Very drinkable stuff compared to what many pass off as soup.

This shop is located just a minute's walk away from the train station (Yishun St. 72, Blk 744, S-11 Coffeeshop).  By the way, the stall is really just called 'boneless chicken rice'. Watch out for the queue.

Rosita's Deluxe @ Meatsmith

This was a pop up cheeseburger and beer event seemingly by the folks from Cajun Kings & Meat Smith. I did spy David Pynt of Burnt Ends out in the back rubbing shoulders near the kitchen. Anywayyys, those cheeseburgers that they did were actually pretty decent stuff. They had used two slices of different cheeses for good measure (I can't tell what kind) and their juice filled, well salted and crusty patties etched with char was properly treated and delicious. Very much like how it was done in Butchers Club Burgers. I'm not sure how often are these things happening, but I think they've gotten things done right. Much better than that Wildfire Kitchen place at that.

Nakajima Suisan Grilled Fish, Takashimaya Food Hall

tuna cheek shioyaki

gindara teriyaki

This was a lot better than I had expected. I've always seen this grilled fish teishoku shop (#B2-01-1, Takashimaya Food Hall, 391A Orchard Rd) at the corner with their relentless queue and never understood why that was. So today, we finally found out it is because they offer one of the best valued quality grilled fish meals in town. The cod that they served was smooth, tender and flaked off beautifully by the grain and their tuna cheeks grilled with salt was such a pleasure that I'd be hard pressed not to order it again the next time.

Komala Vilas this year

We hadn't been back to Komala Vilas for a while. But today, we managed to break out of the usual rice meal orders and had gotten a rice plate instead. The difference between the meal and the plate would be an additional piece of chapati or poori (of your choice) and that the rest of the food was not refillable. Which actually works as well since the portions were pretty generous already. But we didn't get any thoveyal today

Below's dosai meal served with exactly the same vegetables on the side as the rice plate. I was thinking those vegetables that come with the meals could be a seasonal thing depending on availability, but I don't know if they do seasonal here as opposed to rotating another dish in just for variety. In any case, it was all very tasty.

Joo Chiat Beef King, Chinatown Food Centre

Here's a bowl of beef tendon kuey teow soup from Joo Chiat Beef King. I was initially thinking that the broth could do with a little more flavour, but this light broth slowly grew onto me with each mouthful. The tendons were suitably tender and rocked with the chilli sauce. This could also be the first time I've had these beef noodles with boiled radish.

The best of Good Years

I think I've figured out what are the best things to order from Good Year Chicken Rice (at least for myself that is). Meat from the thighs (also known as ji wei) and breast, a serving of livers, braised eggs and tau kwa. And of course, their chicken rice balls. 

Murugan Idli Shop, Syed Alwi Road

If you didn't already know it, Murugan Idli Shop (81 Syed Alwi Road, tel : +65 6298 0858) is based off a chain from Chennai selling stuff like idli, vadai and dosai. This shop in Singapore has been around for some years and I've been wanting to come down for the longest time. The design of the shop sign is a platter of five steaming idli, so guess what's good here?

We started with a couple of idli. Their ghee podi idli were those steamed rice cakes coated with spice powder and ghee. It was pretty damned good with the chutney that they had ladled over the tray. So good that I scraped the banana leaf clean of them after I ran out of those delicious idli. See the bowl of sambar over at the side? That rocked too.

Some tasty lemon rice in a little plastic bowl served with a helping of delicious chickpeas in an even smaller bowl. Both were easily inhaled.

We tried a meduvadai. The Indian donuts were piping hot and tasted freshly fried with a crisp exterior that covered the moist, dense and soft insides. These fried snacks sure helped us mop up the chutney.

And in the spirit of adventure, I tried their jigarthanda; a sweet milky drink made with agar agar.and The name translated into "cold heart"? It didn't turn up looking like what I had expected, but I guess it was pretty much the same thing. Something sweet and cooling for our recent sweltering heat.

Same old comfort food from Komala's

I've had a recent craving for something quick and dirty and Indian recently and hey, this briyani poori set looks exactly the same as what they served some years ago. I enjoyed it as much as I did back then, especially that payasam for sweets. By the way, this was also the first time I've ordered their badam milk. This stuff was thick, spiced up, milky and sweet. I almost choked on those sediments in the drink.

Mentai butter udon from Tamoya Udon

Hmmmm...yum, how could I say no to mentaiko and butter in that warm slippery udon? And the added bonus to this was the left over mentaiko infused broth which functioned effectively as a dip for their tempura. Speaking of which, their tempura broccoli was quite good and it seems that there's tempura-ed tamago these days as well too. 

Gyo gyo gyo gyooo....za! Gyooo....za! Gyoooooooo....za!

Here's more gyoza from Gyoza-ya. There're now toppings of cheese, mentaiko miso and one with snow crab stuffings. The former which is actually not on menu has both sliced cheese and shredded mozzarella. With all these intense flavoured toppings and aburi, I'm pretty impressed that they managed to not overwhelm the pork fillings in the dumpling. The one with the crab isn't too bad as well.

So I finally got to try their jya jya men which was basically a bowl of flat noodles tossed with sliced cucumber, scallions and a miso meat sauce. I liked this, I think the combination of textures were pretty good and the miso made everything savoury and tasty. 

63Celsius, Asia Square Tower

It's a little less straight forward categorising 63Celsius (12 Marina View, #01-03 Asia Square Tower 2) and their food, but I guess a simple description for the former would be a specialty coffee and gastro bar of sorts. 

The food as they claimed is supposed to be "without borders". International in variety and techniques which simply places it as one of numerous of the small plate joints that are still trending these days. Word out is that this place is helmed by one of the owners of the defunct Foodbar Dada, which I never had the chance to visit before it evolved its way out of business.

Stracciatella Cheese, Artichoke Caponata, Taggiasca Olives

We started out with the small plates and this stracciatella cheese was nice. A bunch of flavours married with a bunch of textures coming from the creamy shreds of cheese, sweet and sour softness of the artichokes, tartness from the olives and the fruitiness of the olive oil. Very Italian. But also a very ingredient based starter that largely depends on the quality of the produce.

63Signature Baby Squid In Enoki Egg Nest

The baby squids on enoki mushroom was designed for umami impact and comfort. Both the squids and the mushroom were roasted to bring out flavour. Reminded me of the eggs on potato nest at FoFo.

money shot for the egg I suppose

And these flowy molten yolk would be the reason why these things are so well liked. That rich liquid velvet of comfort across the textures of the umami nest of flavours.

Hokkaido Scallop, Smoky Pork Bacon, Spicy Squid Ink Sauce

Scallops were medium done, which retained a good bite while being tender. The smokiness from the bacon suggested that it wasn't mass produced. Spicy squid ink sauce actually had a respectable kick to the heat. Like. Would eat this again.

Black Rice With Deshelled Prawns and Tomato Air

The black rice was painted black with squid ink. Flavours were robust though very a heavy hand was had with the salt. As much as it looked like risotto, it was more of a squid ink mui fan. With gold flakes and tomato foam which really contributed nothing but aesthetics to the dish since the delicate flavours of the latter were literally a whisper among waves. If anyone's wondering, those deshelled prawns were buried under the rice and tasted pretty good. 

a dissappointing burrata burger

Things started going downhill at this point. The menu described truffled burrata, but it didn't look like it had much of burrata and what truffle? The meat was well done and was derived of all the beefy aroma. It's sad when the tastiest things were the fries. This was a waste of money.

Salted Egg Custard Lava Cake, Balsamic Berries, Tahiti Vanilla Gelato

We weren't too convinced by dessert. There was too little salted egg in the custard that they would have been better off just doing the filling without it. What's good were the sesame tuile and the pile of Pop Rocks on the cake. Think we'll pass on the desserts if there would be a next time.

SweetSpot., Marina Bay Sands

I was previously under the impression that SweetSpot Deli had closed for good and was wondering what was wrong with this world. Until a little bird whispered and I learnt that it's just been moved across the road from The Shoppes to the lobby of Block 3 in the hotel. Have you not yet been enthralled the golden sheen of butter on the toasted bread already?

This new shop has noticeably less space for eating in and prices have gone up by a dollar. The sandwiches felt a little smaller as well. But who am I kidding? I'll still come back for these. Again.

To digress, I think I've figured out what's wrong with how they serve the pastrami at Sacha's. The sample that they lure you in with aren't the same state of meat as the one they serve you in their sandwiches. I'm pretty sure the sandwich goes into the oven and the result is dry chewy pastrami. 

LeNu (樂牛) Taiwan Beef Noodle Bar, Bugis Junction

This was a Taiwanese styled braised beef noodle shop by the Paradise Group (#B1-22 Bugis Junction, 200 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6336 7965). I noticed them some time last year and got curious but didn't manage to try them until today. The options were pretty simple; one chooses from the type of broth, the cut of meat and the noodle based on what's available on the menu.

This above was a bowl with broad noodles and the spicy broth.  Pretty enjoyable except for the broth which was something I hadn't experienced before. It's like mala without the 'ma' nor the 'la'. Chilli oils and spices that had some of the aroma and none of the heat. Not like what I had come to expect from my previous experiences with Lai Lai either. I managed to try the other two broths and I kinda liked them, even though everything was pretty salted.

Not very impressed at this point but I guess I liked some things enough that I wouldn't mind coming back to try something else.

A burger and a hotdog from The Brat

I've been passing by their grill behind the glass whenever I'm at the basement of Plaza Singapura and each time I did, I wondered if their burgers were any good. They did look promising in a basic sort of way so we dropped by. The smell was pretty enticing and honestly, there were only two things that didn't quite settle well with me. 

The first was the cheese. They need to use something better like proper aged Cheddar or even American cheese; the latter tastes better than these things they use here. The other thing that just didn't quite work out enough for me to want to return for them was the flavour of the meat. There was something inside that was more than just salt and pepper. Perhaps a marinade? I couldn't tell, but it was a not so subtle detraction of the beefy flavours which the grill aroma had suggested.

Well, at least their hot dogs are still good. 

More tuna from Isetan

Happened by on a weekend with tuna slicing demonstration going on so we decided to get a box of mixed cuts. It was certainly a lot cheaper eating out here without the additional cost of a restaurant with service. That aside, it tasted pretty much as good.