Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Fifteen

So it's been 15 years and still counting. Small potatoes still making the steak look bigger. 

How many think that the Akatsuki has 15 members? Do the Taka guys even count? How about Orochimaru?

Revisiting Soi Thai Soi Nice

Dinner at Soi Thai Soi Nice.

For some reasons I had ordered the green curry thinking it was tom kha gai. Wasn't until it arrived that I realized that mistake. Pretty edible but we've had creamier ones which we thought were nicer.

Got those prawn cakes which we though were pretty good the last time round. Today's were served with achar - very similar to the ones from my grandma that I grew up eating. Nice. 

We've been trying to order their omelette with cha om since the last time but haven't been successful since they claimed to be out of cha om on both occasions. We ended up with the one with oyster which was pretty good stuff as well. The floury crisp on the surface and edges were deliciously savoury while the moist eggy interior were loaded with bean sprouts and more plump oysters.

They do a pretty tasty khao kha moo. The meat and skin from the trotters were slurp off the bone tender in a herbal stewing sauce served with boiled eggs and tau kwa.

Quattro formaggi pizza with anchovies from Pastaria Abate

It's been a while since we've had anything from Pastaria Abate. They have pizzas on their menu now. This was a quattro formaggi pizza with additional anchovies through GrabFood. Stinky right? Actually not so. At least it wasn't for me. It wasn't as cheesy as I had expected but it redeemed itself by having the prerequisite blue cheese flavour while having thrown in some crisp walnuts and dried figs as well. The anchovies added bursts of briny saltiness in random bites. What's more, there's sweetness from honey drizzled over. Not bad.

Butterknife Folk, Funan

I've gotten gelato from this shop (#02-02 Funan, 107 North Bridge Rd, tel : +65 6970 9151 ) a couple of times previously and I remembered them having unusual flavours. We got ourselves a three mini cone sampler thingy today selecting another bunch of uncommon flavours - local ones like laksa, muah chee and hawthorn flake. There was a lot more hae bee in the laksa one than I thought but couldn't detect any of the laksa leaf which I had assumed would be somewhat prominent. Muah chee one was mostly identifiable by the sweet sauce ripple, not so much that of rice rolls. I liked the hawthorn one the most.

Revisiting Phat Burger Bro.

Came back try more burgers from Phat Burger Bro.. Eating at the shop, one could sense the greater care in the construct of their burgers. They weren't slapped together in a hurry. This BBQ bacon cheeseburger was delicious. Nice beefiness that was paired thoughtfully with the bacon, cheese, pickles and sauce where the ingredients came through. I liked that they didn't destroy it with too much sauce. Burger was kinda small though.

Southern fried chicken burger was not bad. They used breast meat so it was a little tough. Liked that they did not over drench the slaw. The fries that these guys do were really nice but the "make it a set" option didn't have so much of them compared to the a la carte order I had previously. Now I know how it'll be the next time.

Did the Yahoo team that reviewed this get a much bigger piece of fried chicken?

Get the spicy chilli dog from MOS Burger. That one is much more satisfying than this was. I don't think un-pickled jalapeño worked here.

Milkfish, Raffles City

Stumbled upon Milkfish (#B1-44F Raffles City Shopping Centre, tel : +65 6254 4946) at the spot that used to sell Thai food at the basement of Raffles City. It also happened that we were looking for something that wasn't heavy and seafood soup sounded good. So we took a closer peek at their menu and decided to give them a try.

Milkfish has signature soup set that comes with a drink. This was their tomato plum soda - basically tomato and preserved plums in some...soda. The tomato flavour came through but I couldn't taste the preserved plums - which was odd. 

So that signature set came with a bowl of seafood soup with some condiments, an "oriental salad" and a choice of carbs. I was thinking of no carbs this time but because of their chilli sauce, my brown rice vermicelli was the first to be inhaled. That chilli sauce was vibrantly lime-y - kinda similar to the ones they have at Putien.

The flavour of the soup tasted more fish than seafood. Pleasantly tasty but it's not the very intense type. Seafood quality was good. That block of meat patty in there (the thing that some might mistaken for a cube of yam) - that was delicious. 

There's marinated chilled tomato in the set. That's what the menu called it anyways but the tomatoes tasted like they were macerated.

The "oriental salad" looked like something from a popular neighbouring restaurant. Said neighbouring restaurant has more salt and vinegar and hence, was much more tasty.

A fishy end on their chopsticks.

Koong Woh Tong, Funan

Mmmmm...the chilled herbal jelly/gui lin gao (龟苓膏) was nice. The jelly had that crisp herbal bitterness that left a dry bittersweet aftertaste. Just needs a tiny bit of syrup for a layer of light sweetness. I chased the jelly with a warm five flower tea (五花茶). This shop (#B1-11 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road) is a branch to their other outpost at Toa Payoh. 

So Good Char Chan Tang, Capitol Piazza

So Good Char Chan Tang has opened another outlet at Capitol Piazza (#01-17/18 Capitol Piazza, 13 Stamford Road, tel : +65 6570 2266) recently. Which was a good thing because the one at Triple One Somerset is often a pain in the ass to queue for and has limited seats. This space was much larger.

Nothing like creamy ice milked tea and astringent lemon tea to make like having the real deal in Hong Kong. Milk tea was not as strong and lemon tea packed less punch here.

I like the sesame sauce in their cheong fun. Thick and creamy.

Hor fun with prawns were better than I imagined. The egg drop in the gravy was generous while the rice noodles were smoky. Prawns had a natural crunch to the texture. It's not visible in the picture but there were also bean sprouts in the hor fun - which made this dish reminded me of sum lou hor fun. With prawns that is. 

Pork chop fried rice with eggs - similar to that baked tomato rice thing we had previously with black pepper sauce instead. Pork chop was tender and nicely browned from the pan fry. Liked the black pepper sauce which was savoury and not sweet.

Char siew bao was pretty decent.

Steamed radish cake was also not bad. Without making any cost comparisons, I like the one from Victor's Kitchen a bit more and the one from Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine much better. Need I even mention that this rendition definitely didn't have the radish sweetness like those from the defunct Wai Kee or even Sai Kee in Hong Kong

Mee kia from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle

Still trying to figure this bowl out from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle with the $4 order of mee kia today. The differences I discerned from the $3.50 bowls previously were that this had prawns with shell on the tail and a larger portion of noodles. Though I'm not sure if it was luck of the draw that had gotten me those prawns with shell-less tails the last time or does cheaper bowls get one those. 

I asked if I could exclude the pork slices, they said yes and I told them I didn't want pork. In the enduring enormity of 5 seconds, the order taker forgot my request to omit the slice pork. Which was technically the only "customization". Simple one at that. *billows forth a long sigh*

Belly Lucky Noodle (招财面), Hong Lim Food Centre

What attracted me to Belly Lucky Noodle (#02-25 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) was their kolo mee and their fatty char siew. On hindsight, the noodles were a little soft and lacking in the bite I was looking for with a sauce that was a little too sweet for my liking. The meat in their dumplings were also marinated to the point where it was also sweet that much of natural flavour of the ingredients in the stuffings weren't there. What basically helped me to finish the plate was their chilli sauce.

Speaking of the chilli, it had a good bit of heat but not exactly super hot as they had claimed. I recall the chilli from Eng's being more potent.

Sabamiso teishoku from Suju

(一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四)

It's been more than half a year since we ate at Suju. The last time was our last dinner of 2020. 

I ordered their sabamiso teishoku this time because I've seen in on the menu for the longest time and have never tried it. Mackerel that was stewed in their house miso. I don't recall the last time I've had mackerel that was so moist. This was definitely a first pairing with the salty sweet miso. Not bad at all but beware the bones.

Teishoku means rice and miso soup and pickled daikon for me at Suju. It also means seconds for the rice and daikon. It can also mean nama tamago. The fermented beans are finally back!

Itadakimsu!

Eddy's (艾迪1号), Hong Lim Food Centre

The dish that caught my attention at Eddy's (#02-52 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) was their chicken chop laksa spaghetti. That laksa gravy was rich, creamy and savoury with a sweetness that I hadn't been expecting and a nice laksa leaf flavour infused in it. Didn't taste like the traditional one but it wasn't half bad. Chicken chop needed a lighter hand with the salt though.

Kyoten Japanese Cuisine, Yong Siak Street

I have mixed feelings over Kyoten Japanese Cuisine (5 Yong Siak Street, tel : +65 6223 0213). First that comes to mind was that they're pretty expensive for a representative experience. That being said, we picked their Kyoten omakase at $280. Second highest tier in terms of cost and I would assume, what they choose to deliver with us leaving up to them.

To be clear, the food's not bad. For what they charged, we weren't expecting entry level ingredients and they did deliver on that front. Ambience is pretty local, not so much Japanese-y. Or at least it was for the night we ate with raised volumes of conversation from whom appeared to be regulars in Cantonese and Hokkien punctuated by occasional hyena-ish guffaws. We were sharing the counter with a rich old uncle and a Rolex wearing ah beng character that were buying rounds of drinks for the staff.

Anyways, here're the pics. I missed out one of the ishigaki gai nigiri.  

No alcohol tonight, just iced matcha.

First of the starters was some citrus-y jellyfish and squid with roe.

Followed by uni tofu with...some shiso flower buds, dashi jelly and a tiny bit of wasabi. I couldn't taste the uni in the tofu.

The otoro appeared fast. Oily and melts mostly in the mouth as one would expect. Again, shiso flower.

There was kanpachi with a blob of house made seaweed puree. That puree was quite nice. Punchy flavour but it kinda overwhelmed the fish.

Pretty impressed by their Kumamoto abalone topped with abalone liver sauce. Both the abalone and sauce were good though the latter reminded me a bit of pureed century egg yolk that's common in pitan tofu. I liked the tender chewiness of the abalone.

This we did not see coming. Shark's fin in seaweed soup. Since it was part of the omakase, we ate it.

Their grilled nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) was delicious. Tender and flaky. I had embarrassingly thought that the pink squiggle for some sort of sauce (maybe beetroot?) and attempted to prod it with my chopsticks. The chef noticed and added that I'm not the first to have mistaken the plate design for something edible. 

This was tachiuo (silver belt fish). Another white fish with flaky tender meat which happens to look like a silver belt. Hence the name...ahem. This was the item I liked least because it was fried like a katsu with in my opinion, bad ratio of fish to crust. What's worse, it was drizzled with tonkatsu sauce which overwhelmed the fish.

A5 wagyu. Portions were small. But delicious. 

Tsukemono was served at this point as a palate cleanser. This was a citrus-y daikon with a bit of yuzu zest. The chef mentioned that we need not finish them. But I liked it so much that I cleared my plate fast. It must not have gone unnoticed and they gave me another portion.

The sushi starts at this point. They're all a little petite if you asked me. The first was a nicely done akami with shari that was a little lukewarm. This has got to be one of the better akami nigiri I've had.

Next was botan ebi. So so.

The smoky kamasu (barracuda) was tender and delicious.

Tai with kinome (pepper leaf). As I've discovered kinome are harvested young leaves from sansho.

This was a briefly torched kinmedai. I've previously voiced my opinion on preferring them cooked to raw in sushi. I guess this might constitute semi-grilled because it wasn't entirely raw. This was good.

Nodoguro - liked this.

I was told that the uni handroll is their pièce de résistance. T'was a yummy uni surge. Never had so much in a portion before.

The sweet tamago castella marks the end of the sushis. Cake egg cake. I've been confused about what these things are called. There's the term atsuyaki tamago which I've come across and I'm not sure if that's the name for them. I've also been told that they can be simply referred to as tamago.

There's fish in their miso soup and that flavour from the fish came through. I liked this.

Dessert was musk melon and peach. Both were sweet and juicy but the peach wasn't as fragrant as those Yamanishi ones I've previously gotten.