Thailand Chicken Rice, Golden Mile Food Centre

I've only come to learn about this stall (#B1-39 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) recently. Even though they were located at the unit directly facing Ah Xiao, I hadn't noticed them before. I don't know if the name refers to their style of chicken rice but I couldn't really put a finger to what was Thai about their chicken rice. As far as I knew, this tasted quite local to me.

This was roasted chicken thigh (鸡尾) with a hard boiled egg and liver. It was accompanied by soup which is much better than the commonly seen bland cabbage crap. Pretty decent and for a princely sum of just $4.

There's a chicken oil flavour to the rice which was sufficiently greasy, beady and just a little bit dry. Not the most enjoyable one out there but wasn't bad neither. But if I had to compare with Thai chicken rice I've had in Bangkok, the ones in Bangkok were tastier in my opinion.

Back to what I mentioned earlier, I don't know what about this made the stall Thai chicken rice. The main difference I'm aware of were the chilli sauce used and how the chicken is treated. 

The chilli sauce from this stall was unlike the sweet and sour kind or the ones with dark soy sauce and cut chilli that I've come across before in Bangkok. This one was deliciously full of flavour from lime and garlic. And a bit of coriander which I would have preferred not to be present. There were elements that could qualify it as a local chicken rice chilli but it's also not similar enough. Beside the coriander, there was also a sweetness that one could associate with Thai sauces. 

I'll come back after the food centre is done with the renovations next year and try them again.

Gaston, Keong Saik Road

Chance had some trivia come by me. Apparently, the Burgundians (people from Burgundy) were an East Germanic tribe thought to have originated from Scandinavia. The region which they now live in is called Bourgogne (French), Burgundy (English) or Burgund (German).

Gaston (25 Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 6909 8120) the French bistro is self proclaimed to be Burgundy styled. I can't claim much familiarity with food from that region beyond boeuf bourguignon, the eponymous stew which isn't that uncommon here.

Bread was a nice sourdough. While it reminded me of that one from Belon, it's not in the same league. Liked the soft chewy insides though. So nice with salted butter.

We had Oeufs à l’Epoisses. I wanted to try it because it was something different from Oeufs en Meurette. This was poached eggs in Epoisses cheese sauce instead of red wine sauce. 

Some gratuitous yolk porn. The Epoisses sauce was slightly stinky like that cheese. What I didn't expect was that after the liquid yolk was mixed in, the slightly stinky flavour became muted. Still delicious with the sourdough.

The other Burgundian specialty they had was jambon persillé - a terrine of ham hock simmered in white wine and lots of parsley. Jellied. I enjoyed the savoury porcine quality in the meat they used but there was far too little parsley.

Pleasantly surprised by how nicely done was their chilled capellini St Jacques. There was an eggy quality to the noodles which were scented with mellow lemon. That lemon was in the flavour as well. Appropriately salted. Noodles that had texture like freshly made ones. Scallops were sweet. I would eat this again.

Gaston's steak tartare was not bad. Hand chopped and chunky with a generous shower of sour from the gherkins and caper and maybe mustard. Didn't detect any heat from this one so maybe no Tabasco. The egg wasn't raw but cooked at 60 degrees Celcius as emphasised by their server. So it's not so runny and doesn't spread very well. Fries on the side were quite salty but addictive. They had a nice crisp on the outside.

Finished with a buttery and eggy lemon tart and raspberry sorbet.

Gubak chor mee from Gubak Kia

Gubak Kia has a beef rendition of bak chor mee. I got curious and tried it for novelty's sake. Didn't fare as well as the regular pork noodles because it lacked the flavour from lard which made ba chor mee appealing. The bowl also didn't compare as well to their kuey teow from the lack of aroma and flavour from sesame oil. The toppings of the bowl included minced beef, beef ball and sliced beef - the latter had a mouthfeel like it had been processed by tenderizer. Not to mention those really lousy fried shallots which tasted like it came from a packet. Underwhelming.

I'll stick to their kuey teow in the future.

Chung Cheng Chilli Mee (崇正), Golden Mile Food Centre

I've never heard of chilli mee until recently. All signs pointed to this and only this stall (#01-59 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) on the island so I took the bait and got myself a bowl. Mine's $4 mee kia. The $3 doesn't have pork ribs while the $5 has more portions for the prawns and ribs. It looked and tasted like a bowl of dry hae mee with their brand of in house chilli sauce.

Speaking of which....that chilli was more of a paste than a sauce. I picked up fried shallots, hae bee along with some sweet nuttiness which reminded me of satay bee hoon. Those and the heat. It's not so spicy in spite of appearances. Ingredients tasted fresh - that included a single prawn, pork ribs which were tender but has relatively little meat, crunchy bean sprouts and some tau pok. The bowl of noodles came with some sweet herbal-ish prawn soup. Not the powerful kind mind you. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this chilli mee. Maybe another bowl another time to decide.

Teochew Fish Ball Noodle (潮州魚圓粿條麵), Crawford Lane

I've come across the menion of this stall (Wiseng Food Place, 462 Crawford Lane) a number of times. Curiosity got the better of me and I came by for breakfast. There isn't a name for the stall beyond a sign which indicates what they sell and the portions they serve their noodles. Nothing else to be ordered here as far as I can tell. The queue was sparse before 9am so if one was looking to avoid them, you have been told what a good time is to be here.

I got the mee pok. It's not bad. Noodles weren't clumped together or overly soggy, coated with a sheen of oil (lard!). The toppings were generic plus orange fish cakes I don't often see. Chilli was pretty good. There're toppings of fried lard and chopped garlic added after the bowl was assembled. I'd put this bowl as savoury and a little spicy. Can see myself eating this with regularity if only I was nearby often enough. 

Revisiting Cicheti

Getting reservations at Cicheti seemed to be a little more difficult than I remember. But then again, I've only been here once. The other time was delivery.

Haven't gotten calamari in restaurants for a while. Thought these looked nice at a neighbour's table. It was just okay. Don't like them with too much batter. Don't think I'll be ordering them again. Regretted ordering this after seeing that the restaurant was currently serving figs with their burrata.

Was curious about their pizza carbonara. While the flavour didn't so much remind me of carbonara, it was a pretty tasty pie. Nice smokiness from the bacon. Liked the mild sweetness which the caramelized onions imparted. I think more pepper and Parmigiano Reggiano could have nudge it up the carbonara-meter. See all that cornicione that wasn't covered with topping? Eat those with their olive oil. The oil they use was pretty fruity.

Was thinking of getting a pasta from their menu but got distracted by their seasonal white truffle tagliolini with brown butter and cheese. Damn it's good! They used fresh pasta for this. Very expensive but also very nice.

One Prawn Noodle (一號蝦麵), Golden Mile Food Centre

My interest in One Prawn Noodle (#01-93 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) was piqued by the same reason as everyone else - the owner chef Gwyneth Ang was formerly from Burnt Ends. Morbid trivia - prawn noodles would be her choice of a death row meal.

I've heard from people whom have tried, saying that their broth was too sweet. I'm not sure what has changed since the time they've had theirs and I have had mine but I didn't think that. Sure it leaned a bit more towards crustacean sweetness than savoury/salty but I didn't think it was excessive. Prawn balls weren't as prawn-y as they were peppery. Odd. That single prawn tasted fresh and sweet. Only one prawn though so I guess the name of the stall meant something. Heh!

But altogether a pretty enjoyable bowl. Wouldn't mind another the next time.

The breakfast before breakfast

These Digestive biscuits tasted a little too wholemeal-y. Don't remember them tasting like that in the past.

Venison, beef tartare and more berried double Gruyere cream meringue at Coucou

This was our second visit to Coucou. Bar counter seats tonight - it was very much more crowded compared to the first time we ate there.

Got their curly salad again because we liked them from the last time. It's the dressing.

There was a nicely done butternut pumpkin soup with Gruyère and walnuts. Creamy, sweet and piping hot.

Coucou has a beef tartare with Sbrinz cheese. From what I gather, Sbrinz is similar tasting to Parmigiano Reggiano. Couldn't taste it in the tartare so I didn't get the point at all. The flavours in the tartare were also much milder compared to the French renditions we've had. There were also some silver skin in the meat. Not something we would order again.

The most enjoyable thing from this order were the skin on fries. Those were good.

Venison was on menu for this month's special. Though the menu mentioned striploin, it tasted like a tenderloin/filet. Was accompanied by some sweet carrots, Brussels sprouts and chestnuts on the side. Pretty expensive for the portions. 

While the venison could have improved from better crusting, they did manage to get enough browning on the outside for the caramelized flavour of the meat flavour to get through. Was delicious with the cranberry sauce. Market Grill's rendition was better but I enjoyed this also.

Fell back on their meringue with double Gruyère cream and berries for dessert. This was so good.

Ali Corner, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

We noticed this stall (#02-17 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) and their ayam penyet from our previous visits and decided give them a try because it looked good. 

It looked much better than it tasted. Rice was plain, not chicken rice. Meat from the chicken was a little dry. No refrying was done so the batter didn't have a good crunch. They also didn't look like they had applied enough force smashing the chicken. Sambal's okay. Project Penyek was a better quality plate of nasi ayam penyet if you asked me. 

Cheese soba minus tomato sauce from Healthy Soba IKI

So I mentioned previously about wanting to have the cheese soba again sans the tomato sauce. Turns out that it was also the tomato sauce that gave the noodles the truffle flavour. But I knew what I was getting into and I still enjoyed this. Freshly grated cheese, ground black pepper and olive oil. I also swapped out my usual shirasu avocado don with the kaisen one for a change.

Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Skipped the preferred 烧腊 stall to give Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted (#02-67 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) a try. This one looked like has been around. They're two stall units worth of space. They could be good. Or I could be wrong.

Ordered fatty char siew and roasted pork rice. No gravy. Just dark soya sauce. Not impressed. While I admit that specialists like Roast Paradise might have ruined most of the other fatty char siew for me, this was just uninspiring with insufficient caramelization and the cold-ish meat. Roasted pork had crispy crackling but meat was dry. Tangy chilli was interesting though but it's not going to be enough to get me coming back. 

d.o.c, Tanjong Pagar Road

d.o.c (#01-01, 21 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6226 1631) looked promising.

The wait staff recommended us their tuna tartare caviar. Menu mentioned sashimi grade fatty tuna. I thought it would be fattier. Caviar was from Uruguay. The tartare was not bad as a whole, but not $36 nice.

We had their canederli - bread dumplings which the wait staff had described as something like meatloaf. Maybe he thought we didn't know what dumplings were and in the end, we thought maybe he didn't know what dumplings were. These did not taste bad actually. The bread was mixed with salumi and sat in melted butter.

Ordered a tagliatelle vongole with bottarga. As much as I anticipated it, I was disappointed with the quantity of the bottarga. Was hoping against hope that there would be more of the them. What we had gotten were a scattering of some measly crumbs that registered little in flavour beyond saltiness. While we found a few cloves of garlic in the pasta, the dish had little to no garlic flavour. 

Ordered a pizza called mare monti - sea and mountain if translations are accurate. The menu described it as a semi calzone and pizza. A chimera pie. Mentioned porcini mushrooms, ham, prawns and bottarga. I thought all the ingredients would be together but the prawns and bottarga formed the mare component on the pizza section while the porcini and ham made the monti half in the calzone. Portion was huge.

Not enough bottarga again for this one. The texture of the pizza was akin to a soggy prata laden with generous amounts of Mozzarella cheese. One had no choice but to eat with fork and knife. Also, diminishing returns from enjoying the flavour came in real quick.

Sigh......