Hybrid duck broth ramen from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke

I finally got round to trying the basic hybrid duck broth bowl from Keisuke's Kamo Soba shop. This was the normal duck oil, normal flavour and hard noodle configuration. You know what? This would probably be my favourite of the lot, comparing against the mazesoba and their tsukemen. The broth tasted expectedly like a less intense version of the really rich dip from the tsukemen. I like that gaminess from the duck in there. This would be where I remind myself that I'm not a fan of their menma. 

Finally got that monkfish at Greenwood Fish Market

Feeling relentless on that monkfish, we came back to Greenwood one of the oyster nights again.

Shot straight for the dozen.

With some warm lobster bisque.

And it turned out somewhat disappointing. The meat from the monkfish was flat - definitely not as springy as I had been expecting. Certainly expected better out of a fish purveyor. This portion which cost a pretty penny by the way was for two. It was a little too little fish for two methinks. I didn't like that they didn't even salt the fish and I detected rosemary. Those pickled onions were odd. They looked and were textured like onions but tasted like grapes.

The serving came with a ochre sauce that tasted familiarly nice but we couldn't quite put a finger to it. Miso, butter and soy? Anyways, very poor value for money from Greenwood Fish Market.

Cai png

Cai png for lunch. Hey I eat these stuff too.

Lao You Ji Seafood Restaurant (老友記), Outram Road

Yet another one of those spots (245 Outram Road) we've passed by on countless occasions and wondered if they were any good until we finally visited. Local cze char.

We decided to get their luncheon meat fried rice because. I mean - when was the last time you saw luncheon meat fried rice from a cze char shop? The short of it - this was tastier than I had imagined and these guys know how to do fried rice. It was pulled off nicely with a light moisture, some egginess and no excessive grease.

Our vegetable for the evening was nai bai (奶白) stir fried with garlic. Pretty competent.

I haven't had braised pork trotters bee hoon for quite a long while. This wasn't too bad but I'm pretty sure there are renditions with more robust flavours around. I didn't realise that the ingredients included chestnuts until today.

I bet that most of you would think this was sweet and sour pork at first glance.

It's not. This was a dish they named pineapple chicken. Essentially it was a sweet and sour chicken with more pineapples and none of the other fillers. I wanted to feel like I was duped into ordering it from the name in the menu but the chicken was actually pretty good eating. Deep fried chunks of meat that are subsequently stir fried in their sweet and sour sauce. The pineapples were pretty acidic though. Made my teeth squeak.

Raj at Soho @ Farrer

The old spot that Raj used to be at is the current Murugan Idli Shop. For a while, I thought that the business had folded but they've actually just relocated to Soho @ Farrer (172 Race Course Road). A more convenient location methinks.

We came by for a late lunch and started off with a refreshing raj kachori - some say the king of chaats. We've had one previously at Balaji Bhawan which was a sad representative of the snack. This one was way better. The giant puri shell was filled with beans and lentils and nuts and spiced potatoes before being slathered with curd, tamarind chutney and mint/coriander chutney followed by a sprinkle of sev. A giant dahi gol gappa, chilled and a party of flavours.

Raj has something call a guchi pulao. What I could discover from the overlord whose name ends with 'oogle' was gucchi pulao - which was a pulao made with morel mushrooms. It would seem that the loss of a 'c' resulted in this one being made with canned button mushrooms. What a world of difference.

It was delicious. Rich with the taste of ghee, a little aroma from saffron and flavoured with bits of sweetness from dates. I'd eat this again.

We wanted something with gravy and this was their butter daal fry. A dish of spiced simmered lentils which we ate like soup.

Raj's onion cheese tomato uttapam looked more like a pizza than uttapam. It was pretty good. Especially with that orange coconut chutney which was kickass tasty. 

It was just too bad that their masala tea was quite tasteless. Won't be getting this the next time. Not getting much flavour from the tea or spices. I'm surprised that their chai was a weak link since the food had been enjoyable every time we visited.

Jaggi's at Chander Road

Jaggi's shifted to their current location (37/39 Chander Road, tel : +65 6296 6141) some time ago after operating for quite a long time at their original spot. This was our first visit to the current location.

Also our first time ordering their fish tikka. I believe those are mackerel. Having done time in the tandoor slathered in marinade made them smoky, tender and quite delicious.

We got ourselves some vegetable kourma - or what we jokingly refer to as the vegetarian dish equivalent of their butter chicken because of their creamy rich flavours. I don't think this dish does anyone's heart any favours.

Of course, we also had the real butter chicken. It's still good, but something about the flavour has changed and I am not sure what.

Some aloo gobi and palak paneer were ordered as well. Today's palak had only one miserable piece of paneer. Grrrr......

Today's bread of choice was their pudina paratha and their Kashmiri naan - the latter an old favourite of mine for some reasons. I got all green cherries today in the naan which I suppose was an aesthetic match (intentionally or not) with the paratha. Speaking of which, none of that mint flavour came through from the paratha. I would have thought that something would with so much mint on them.

Their cardamom-y masala tea is a good drink to wash down the food before checking out.

Yatagarasu, Circular Road

Yatagarasu (#01-01, 72 Circular Road, tel : +65 6221 7785) refers to the three legged crow. It exists as a bird of legend in some East Asian mythologies - namely for the Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Not to be confused with a certain three eyed raven. It is also the name of this yakitori joint. 

What have we here? Small potatoes it seems.

But we got ourselves some simmered eggplant in some sweet soy/dashi broth. These were tender.

We were reeled in by the ankimo which were tender and creamy. Notice that the ponzu is drizzled sparingly over the rough chopped daikon instead of having them pooled at the bottom of the plate. Those daikon also tasted a little sweeter with no bitterness.

The first sticks that hit the table were my favourite of the lot - the hatsu. These were pretty good. Those hearts had a nice bite to them.

Followed up by some crunchy sunagimo.

There was sanma on the menu so I thought why not. The fish was gutted, cleaned and beheaded before it was put on the grill. While I missed the bitter sweet guts and head, it was still delicious.

The way they grilled the reba here left them very tender, creamy and not dried out at all. Kinda like foie gras minus the fatty flavours.

Then came nankotsu and momo. I've never been big on cartilage but am definitely am not beyond eating them once in a while. Just to check if my opinion on them were still valid. The former was crunchy while the latter was tender and juicy.

We had to try their tebasaki since we're doing yakitori. These wings were dripping juices. However they did not achieve what I thought was a more optimal crisp on the skins. No complains though.

Like Otowa, Yatagarasu specializes in yakitori and they aren't so much a kushiyaki at that. There were still a bunch of pork belly items on the menu though. Like this one that's wrapped around spring onions. Those spring onions were pretty fragrant and barely cooked in those belly rolls.

Shiso in pork belly were also in the cards because we thought they might be good and they were.

Apparently their tsukune is an ice cream scoop-ful of minced chicken on each stick. Because we were at the counter, we saw them make them on order. I liked that the mince was a little coarse.

Following that was sasami with a little bit of yuzu pepper. Again, tender and moist. These guys definitely knew what they were doing.

Their kawa had more chew than crisp. Many yakitori here makes them with either a balance of or would have more crisp. 

The score cup.

The state of the mentaiko rosu katsu at Imakatsu

For some reasons, standards of the katsu at Imakatsu seemed to have slipped. I wonder if it's just this particular outlet. I remember them being much more tasty back at the original outlet at Star Vista. The taste of the pork felt muted and was less moist while that strip of fat was more chewy and less flavoursome.

More Nirai Kanai-ing

Believe it or not, the motivation for this dinner at Nirai Kanai was their chahan with preserved mustard greens. Good stuff. A little pricey but always a treat.

We came across the aosa seaweed tempura on the menu. One of those things that we've overlooked in the past visits and we've been missing out. This was pretty good stuff. It tasted like a fried vegetable cake with anchovies and onions. Light on both the salt and grease.

This trip also was an opportunity to get re-acquainted with their rafute again in the form of their teishoku. Tender, sweet and with fat that readily fell apart in the mouth. I still maintain that it's not as good as the ones from the defunct Mimigar.

We've never left without a serving of their chanpuru ever since we re-discovered this place.

Some peachy drinks and an orange tea from Iroha Mart

Some drinks from Iroha Mart at Chinatown Point, picked up I have.

Let's start with that orange tea. It had the expected orange flavour which made them not very different from lemon tea. Flavour's okay, not something that I'll be excited about getting again. That peach flavoured Coke was....unusual. I'm not sure about how I feel about it. It's just peach flavour (artificial probably) in Coke and it's a little more sour than the regular drink. Now that peach flavoured Calpis. I guess there was just enough peachiness in the drink that it could've been another peach soda since I couldn't tell that it was a Calpis drink.

I guess I enjoyed them all. Just won't be getting them again.

Kinmedai saikyo yaki and a grilled hamachi head from Nakajima Suisan

So it's our favourite grilled fish teishoku spot again. I was intent on trying their kinmedai saikyo yaki since I've had the fish in shioyaki previously. Surprisingly I couldn't really detect much of a difference even though it was a miso based marinade. I still loved that fish and wished that it were a bigger portion.

These time round, there was also a half head of their hamachi on the grill. Only two portions served a day as they claimed so we snagged one of them. This was really good and I daresay that it was one of the better grilled fish heads I've had. The flesh which slid off the bones with ease was deliciously moist and appropriately salted for flavour.