Alan Banana Leaves BBQ Seafood, Pasir Panjang Food Centre

Alan Banana Leaves BBQ Seafood (#01-23/24 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road) came about as a suggestion for dinner. I haven't been much to this parts so I thought it might worth checking out.

We had boiled sea snails. These were not bad. Tender and slightly chewy like squids. The sambal provided was deliciously spicy and tangy.

There's sambal petai. These were stir fried with onions and ikan bilis. The onions lent a bit of sweetness to the dish, quite similar to the rendition done at Xin Curry Fish Head Zhu Chao at Tanglin Halt. As opposed to the more savoury and meaty ones from say Tian Tian Seafood Restaurant or Sin Hoi Sai.

Also got ourselves some stir fried kailan with garlic. Vegetables were nicely salted and not fibrous.

We ordered mui fan to see how their's was like. The gravy was starchy and they had decent ingredients but I wouldn't consider those portions generous. Taste was okay but if you added the sambal from those sea snails into them, it became quite delicious. Without that sambal, the one at Hillman Restaurant beats this.

That's sambal lala. Clams. In sambal. Not too bad.

Not forgetting sambal stingray. This wasn't as good as I imagined. Firstly, there was a lack of char on the surface of the stingray which kinda defeated the purpose of getting grilled stingray. On top of that, we could easily tell from the texture that it was frozen. That texture ruined the experience. For some reasons, this triggered the memories of the good ones we've had at Newton Food Centre many years ago. This was not of the same league.

Bai Nian (百年), People's Park Complex Food Centre

I had 百年 once a few years ago at Albert Food Centre. Remembered liking it so I got a bowl after discovering that they had also set up shop at People's Park Food Centre (#01-1144 People's Park Complex Food Centre, 32 New Market Road). Nice as I remembered it. Maybe this one has much less spring onions. But the yong tau foo ingredients that were hand made in the shop was still tasty and good quality.

KS Fruits Rojak . BBQ Rojak, Pasir Panjang Food Centre

Came across this stall (#01-45 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road) selling fruit rojak while having dinner so we ordered one with cuttlefish and century egg. Indeed their rojak had a larger variety of fruits than the usual rendition - there's red/green apples, pineapple and guava; these on top of the standard ingredients of tau pok, cucumber, you tiao. What I didn't expect was that this plate a lot more refreshing than the usual rendition because of the fruits. Would look forward to this again the next time I'm here. 

Gochi-So Shokudo, Chinatown Point

These guys have a branch at Chinatown Point (#02-41/42 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road). They have Iberico pork steaks and what appeared to be chirashi don that the one at One Raffles Place didn't. We stuck to their grilled pork donburi. This was the Iberico pork collar bowl. Garlic barbeque sauce on the side. Meat's a lot leaner than the belly or jowl. They seriously don't salt their meat at all.

Angelina, Marina Bay Sands

I always had the idea that Angelina was just cakes and confectionaries and pastries only so I never paid them much attention when they opened up at Capitol Piazza. Recently we walked past their place at MBS (#B2-89/89A Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Avenue, tel : +65 6688 7218) and also saw them featured on YouTube and I realized that they was more than met my eyes.

 

That's their old-fashioned iced chocolate “L’Africain”. Fruity thick chocolate drink. Had dimensions but I don't know if there was that much cocoa. Not a bad chocolate drink. Will try the hot one the next time.

For some reason, the coffee from our Christmas set came first before everything else from the set did. Thought it would be the last. We asked for cream and they obliged. Because the coffee didn't pack the punch as the one of the defunct Antoinette, it also didn't taste the same with cream. This one was like French kopi gu yu. 

Back to the Christmas set I mentioned earlier, there's a seafood platter that came with it. Seafood plate to be precise. The prawn, scallop and torched salmon rosette were all delicious. There was enough caramelization to for that smoky flavour without downplaying the taste seafood. Those guys in the kitchen who made this must have either been lucky or competent.

This lamb was the main course for the Christmas set. Done medium. Not bad. Flavour's there but not exactly robust and there was also a hint of rosemary which I would have preferred not there. Gratin dauphinois that came with it was creamy and delicious.

They had a delicious slow cooked chicken with morel cream. This was part of their a la carte, not the set. Flavourful chicken was competently cooked and made extra yummy by the rich morel cream. By the way, that morel cream also paired well with the lamb and we knew because we tried.

We couldn't try any of their desserts on menu because the set came with a chocolate fondant which we didn't want to waste. Wasn't bad.

Dumplings.ru, Maxwell Chambers

We tried the food from Dumplings.ru (#01-05 Maxwell Chambers, 32 Maxwell Rd, tel : +65 8875 7033) some time back when they were just Ang Moh Dumplings. They've set up a bigger shop now. It's more of a tavern/bar than a restaurant. Remembered that I wasn't impressed previously at all but someone we trusted tried recently and the feedback was that they weren't bad. So we thought, what the hell - let's give them another try.

Kvass. Quite like this.

Ordered their okroshka because it looked so nice on their menu.

This was how it was served. Tasted like raita with dill and potatoes. The menu mentioned ham but we didn't get any. Nice for the hot weather but when we had this, it was one of those rainy nights.

Tried their kholodets. If you're trying to figure out from the picture, it was a chicken jelly/aspic dish. It was okay. Jelly was salty.

The shuba was not bad. Haven't had much of these before so I can only describe them based on whether I tasted good or not. Liked the mild earthy sweetness of the beets together with the smoky saltiness of the herring. Not as fancy or high quality as the one at Dacha though.

When we had their lamb pelmeni previously, I remember that they were unimpressive. These tasted different from the last time. We could discern the lamb flavour from the fillings today which was a good thing. A little more salty than I preferred but still quite tasty.

Nana Curry, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Never noticed this shop (#02-111, Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) until recently. It seemed that they were some sort of franchisee for Nana Curry that only serves a limited selection for their curries. What they had were curried chicken, fish and mutton - no vegetable curry, potato add ons or bread for the curry. The have man tou though. Not the same as the regular Nana Curry shops that some of us might be familiar with. The majority of the menu is cze char which has nothing to do with the curry.

Anyway, we tried some stuff.

Seafood tofu was not bad. There're bits of luncheon meat in it. Pretty tasty.

This was the mutton curry. Same old frozen mutton used. Did taste like what I remembered of Nana Curry. The restaurant mentioned that they were provided the curry to use and that they didn't need to be made from scratch in their kitchen. So I supposed it wouldn't deviate much coming from a central kitchen. Pretty salty.

We ordered salted fish fried rice. This was the same quality as one could find in countless cze chars in coffee shops over the island. Meaning not very good. It was a little too greasy for my liking. The fake char siew which were supposed to be crab sticks were made of fake crab sticks. What set them apart were bits of minced chicken and thinly sliced string beans. For some reason, I ate more of it than I thought I would. 

I always felt that fried rice is a reliable indicator for cooking in an eatery. The ingredients reveals the minds behind the owners and tells about the level of quality they endorse. The outcome of the fried rice uncovers the skill level of the kitchen. 

There's fried prawns with pork floss on the menu. No idea how the of combining these two came about or was supposed to work but the floss tasted better on the fried rice.

Kinya Izakaya & Ramen, South Beach

Sapporo Miharu Ramen had been around as I recall from the days in Gallery Hotel and later, Millenia Walk. For reasons, they seemed to have reinvented themselves in their recent relocation to South Beach into Kinya Izakaya & Ramen (#B1-22 South Beach Ave, 26 Beach Road, tel : +65 6733 8464).

We asked how long they had been in the current location and they said it had been about a year. When we tried getting some of the ramen, at least half their ramen menu were still unavailable because they claimed that they didn't have the ingredients for them. We thought it strange for them not to have ingredients since a year would have been more than enough time for logistics to be smoothened out.

The izakaya small plates section of their menu was pretty much like any of those izakaya themed wannabes that's been opening up. Nothing mention worthy because it's mostly templated. We did get some hamachi sashimi which was not bad.

I remembered liking their shiso gyoza previously. They one that we had today tasted disappointing. The shiso flavour was lacking. Seems that Tsuta's sui rendition is currently superior.

Tried their wabushi shoyu bowl...

 ...and their miso tonkotsu bowl. Decent if unremarkable. Not the kind of broth that made me want to finish up after the noodles. Also didn't feel like it digested well for the rest of the day with the greasy burps.

Something feels off about them. I suspect the old Miharu as a ramen-ya is gone for good.

So Good Char Chan Tang, TripleOne Somerset

We've been recommended So Good Char Chan Tang (#01-16 TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road, tel : +65 6493 0338). Prior to the recommendation, we've also heard a bit of online chatter about how their food was "authentic". Curiosity prevailed and we wanted to be the judge of that "authenticity". What we did not see coming was a 40 minute queue on a late afternoon. A number of items on their menu were also sold out then.  

That's their bolognese sauce with rice and a fried egg. It's actually not bad. Hence the first wall breaks. The sauce was a little sweet but not annoyingly so with bits of meat and had some umami. Wouldn't mind eating this again.

They ran out of char siew so we got the duck and roast pork. Duck was decent and the roast pork was okay if one was okay with soggy crackling. I expected better from things we've heard. While the flavour wasn't bad, you can get better ones from the Imperial Treasure dim sum restaurants.

Cheong fun with beef briskets was nice. The stewing sauce of the briskets was competently flavourful. Liked that there were also pieces of tendon in it. But, the quality of the briskets aren't the same as the ones we've had in Hong Kong for sure. This was the leaner cut that local businesses use. Probably why beef brisket dishes here will never be on par with those in Hong Kong.

Tried their prawn dumpling noodles (水餃麵). Those sui gao were not bad. Didn't expect the gloopy oyster sauce on the noodles. This came with a bowl of soup on the side that tasted like it was flavoured with conpoy. Loved that. While I didn't think these were the better noodles we've had in terms of texture, I also didn't mind them.

Wanted condense milk bun but they were out of it. We settled for their French toast. Also not bad. That little dish on the side, I don't know what it was. Probably syrup with something because it didn't taste like maple syrup nor honey.

Breakfast at Ikea

I hadn't realized that Ikea has vegetarian bee hoon for breakfast in the weekends until we happened by one morning during said weekend. We tried it out of curiosity. There's mock char siew, some bits of fried crispy bean curd sheet and very measly strips of cabbage in it. They offer pickled green chilli as well. Didn't taste bad but it had less ingredients that what most would expect out of vegetarian bee hoon.

There's pancakes too but these have been around. Just that I've never had them before. They're like a big breakfast thingy from McD with pancakes, eggs, sausage and hash browns. McD's hotcakes are nicer. These were a little stiffer and they didn't give butter/margarine. The eggs here tasted more like eggs though and those chicken sausage patties on the side were actually pretty tasty.