Caffé B, Club Street

We first noticed Caffé B (64 Club Street, tel  : +65 6887 3311) years ago when they were at MBS. They've moved to Club Street since, have been operating there for some time and eventually announced that they were closing for good at the end of September 2021. We visited about a couple of weeks before that. 

These guys by the way are Japanese Italian. Like Trattoria La Vita, Trattoria Pizzeria Logic, goo Italiano, Luka and Enoteca L'Operetta.

That's salad.

And bread. They were served to everyone who ordered food.  

We ordered Farmer's Egg with sea urchin. This was good. The menu description was clam cream espuma, shio kombu, lemon jam, chives, caviar. Pretty sure most of the ingredients were lost to me. I identified the lemon jam, clam cream, uni and molten yolk. 👍🏼

Loved the sea urchin capellini with ikura. There's a lot more stuff in it though. Like shoyu, white truffle oil, julienned ohba leaf, shio kombu and chives. Pretty sure there's EVOO as well. The flavour is not unique. There're plenty of restaurants, especially Japanese ones that have a few tweaked recipes of their own which tastes similar. Doesn't stop these from being good though.

What I thought was outstanding was their pepperocino shirasu spaghetti. Look at how fine those shirasu are. The flavour was a good balance between the light heat from the chilli pepper, toasted garlic and the brininess from those shirasu.

This came after the pasta because we ordered it midway. Cold cuts of prosciutto di Parma, speck, coppa/capocollo and Mortadella. Prosciutto was very good. There was a sweet and full body to the taste that was beyond many of the cheap hams that gets put into a generic salumi platter. Loved the smokiness from the coppa and speck.

Lobster risotto also pretty good. There's a whole lobster of meat pairing with the flavour in the rice which was a good balance of tomato, butter and crustacean. That and the parmesan cheese crisp.

I liked Caffé B. A pity that they aren't going to be around anymore.

又来莆田

The Eel Festival is happening at Putien again. We didn't come here specifically for that though. It was coincidence that we happened to be here for dinner when it started. Eels are flown in from farms in Guangdong, China live and showcased in the form of dishes for the run of the festival.

So we tried something called crispy eel in red wine sauce - what I gathered to be a traditional Fujian dish cooked by coating fried eel fillets with red rice wine from Fujian. The deep fried eel that wasn't very crispy though. For some reasons, the aroma from the red wine sauce reminded me of 排骨王. Lightly sweet, slightly tangy and savoury like a subdued rendition of sweet and sour pork with the earthy flavour from the meat of the eel. Served with a generous portion of kailan. Nice.

I thought the small portion of the red mushroom seafood lor mee was a little small the last time so we upgraded it to the medium sized portion today.

This deep fried yam stuffed with duck has been on Putien's menu for the longest time but we've never had it till today. We thought it was more delicious than it looked. This dish was a showcase of how a proper deep frying should be done - creating sufficient crisp without trapping excessive grease. There was a crunchy exterior layered underneath by piping hot creamy yam and chunks of duck meat stuffings that were more tender than they looked. So good with their chilli sauce.

The milkfish from Milkfish. And other stuff....

We came back to Milkfish and ordered one of their sets which featured the eponymous dish - grilled belly of milkfish. From what I gathered, it's the same as the Filipino bangus. Tender, somewhat flaky but not so firm in texture. Cooked with a glaze which might have been sweet/dark soya sauce with some garlic. Pretty delicious but doesn't have the intensity of say a well done gindara teriyaki. 

Deep fried prawn rolls/hae cho were pretty good with their light crispy skin and was packed with moist pork/prawn stuffings. No unpleasant bits of herb/vegetable that I didn't like hiding inside and ruining the taste.

Chilled tofu, century egg and pork floss...tasted like they looked. These are pretty common these days and this was just another one of those.

Springleaf Prata Place, The Rail Mall

Service was slow. With the restaurant half filled during off peak, it took them a half hour to get a couple of pratas and some tea/coffee to us. Didn't think that their coffee halia was very gingery so here's a note to myself never to get it again. Guess which one was that coffee halia.

This was the Praclette - their Ultimate Hawkerfest prata for 2021. I've previously had their Prata Blaster (2015), Murtaburger (2013) and Ultimate Murtabak (2012). The ideas that they've thrown out for each year gets progressively humdrum-ish. It feels like each year's entry is done for the sake of doing. 

The Praclette was kinda small. For almost 10 bucks, it felt like a light snack. Onions, olives, shiitake mushrooms, turkey ham and truffle oil I couldn't even tell if I had tasted or imagined. What else is new? Oh - raclette cheese. Not bad but not worth my dollars for the portion.

Even the portobello mozzarella prata looked kinda small. For that price, one might have scored a murtabak which would likely be more satisfying. Again, it didn't taste bad.

Hong Li Mei Wei Xiao Chi (鴻利美味小吃), Holland Village Food Centre

Pretty decent local fried rice from this stall (#01-17, Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong). They even have char siew in there, tiny as they were along with a couple of prawns for just $3. As opposed to say a $5 plate which one can easily find that's too cheap to even use real crab sticks. Without comparing, the fried rice was serviceable and not fancy. Forget wok hei or even egg coatings on individual grains. It tasted simple and homely. Pickled green chilli's great for breaking the monotony. That chai por omelette on top is another dollar by the way.

Barakhath, Dalhousie Lane

Came to know of this eatery recently (11 Dalhousie Lane) and came by for lunch. These guys serve Indian rice meals. There's a menu with a bunch of dishes one could order and then there are specific items that are available on each day of the week. I got their fish kurma which was a Wednesday dish.

I liked it. The fish they used was Spanish mackerel - or commonly also known locally as batang. The meat was more moist than I had expected. Loved those pickled green chilli and onions that they added in the kurma. 

This rice meal came with regular rice because their basmati wasn't ready. It was pretty good with the kurma, the tangy sambal from the hard boiled eggs along with the pickles they served on the side.

粉肠虾面 from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle

I've been meaning to try this for a while from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle. The last time I was here, they were midway through the cooking of those 粉肠 (fen chang) so they weren't ready for serving yet. 粉肠 are small/sweet pork intestines if you don't know what those are.

The flavour of the 粉肠 was kinda crustacean-y/prawn-y. Could it be because it was cooked in the prawn broth?

Luke's Oyster Bar & Chop House - a return to Gemmill Lane

We've only eaten at Luke's at Gemmill Lane once. That was the first time. That original location was two doors down from here. Before it for a while became Wolf and then Angeleno for too short a time. Technically this was a first visit in this setup (22 Gemmill Lane, tel : +65 8125 5256). Classy looking like they've always been. Less white than the original space two doors down, less dark than my preferred location in town.

Take a time jump the previous occasions we ate at their restaurant. (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八)

There's whispers from a little bird that the corn bread is smaller these days.

I didn't notice, couldn't tell. As far as I am concerned, they've been too small since day one. They still taste good though.

Their steak fries for lunch is generally reliable and delicious. Down to the salad because it was properly tossed with just enough dressing. I swapped out the fries for the coleslaw which is my favourite coleslaw in this country. Bar none as of now. Creamy, tangy and fennel-y without being excessive.

Their steak comes with Béarnaise. Have never been much for that. Today was different. It was a lot more buttery than I remember of Béarnaise. I've found something else to like it seems.

Mee pok at Covent Garden Prawn Noodle

So this time it was mee pok. Got a $4 bowl with extra ingredients. The extra was a dollar more which adds up to $5. Again, I asked for no pork which they registered this time.

They've given me prawns with tail shells so I guess the "larger" bowls come with that. Still 3 prawns though. Maybe a bit more fish cakes as well. I'm not feeling the extra ingredients here unless that additional dollar I paid for was for a few more slices of fish cake. These prawns weren't of better quality than the shelled ones. So essentially I felt like I'm getting a $4 bowl minus pork and a bit more fish cakes. Confused? You're not alone.

The queue has visibly lessened since they've reopened and something has changed though I don't know exactly what. I'd say they're of decent standards and nothing more.

What Miznon keeps (in Davy Jones' Locker)

No, not the fennel. Not that particular locker that is. We managed to get counter seats at Miznon today.

Ordered a portion of their masabaha. Cooked chickpeas with chilli, tomatoes, tahini, hard boiled eggs and maybe olive oil too. I liked how they salted this.

We tried a couple of their seafood stuffed pitas. This was fish & chips which featured seared barramundi and fried potatoes. Loved the tanginess from the vinegar and pickles pairing with the creamy aioli on the fish. 

The other, Adom Yam, had seared calamari; not forgetting loads of sweet crunchy onions with sour cream. The sauce that soaked into the pita was savoury and peppery. Another delicious one as well.

Famous Queens Briyani, Maxwell Food Centre

Can't say that I've noticed this stall (#01-12 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street) previously but their butter chicken briyani intrigued me so I ordered one. It's not the same butter chicken that I'm familiar with in a couple of ways. Instead of chicken tikka, it was a fried chicken drumstick/thigh that's slathered with the butter chicken gravy. Secondly, that gravy was much more savoury and less sweet. That didn't mean that it wasn't rich though.

How was it? Not bad I would say. The rice was fragrant with spices and properly salted that it was good enough to eat on it's own. The sambal from the egg was delicious.

Peanut butter, banana and Parma ham sandwich

I used the seedy Everything Butter from Fix & Fogg from the last time. Ham is from Huber's. Banana for its taste and sweetness because the latter helps with the nut butter. The lesson here was not to hold back on the prosciutto di Parma because the flavour from the banana is pretty strong. I only managed to get the aroma from the ham in some bites while for others, it was just a mild saltiness. Overall pretty tasty. 

Old Village, Tanglin Halt

A small section of social media is abuzz lately with mentions of this stall (#01-265, 49 Tanglin Halt Road) selling what is termed as KL styled pork noodles. Said stall is run by the guy who started Old World Bakuteh. If anyone is wondering about the address, it's in the same Peking Room coffeeshop as Tanglin Halt Roti Prata & Nasi Briyani.

The thing to eat here is their pork soup. I got the mixed pork bowl that came with minced pork, sliced pork, pork liver, pork balls and sweet intestines. Not forgetting bits of fried pork lard (猪油渣) and some vegetables. The soup was mild and it had a layer of oil on top. I don't know if lard (猪油) has been added to that soup but I couldn't taste it.

One can pick a starch of noodles or rice or long bean pork belly rice to go with the soup. This was the latter. Long beans and cabbage in the rice were pretty wilted and actually pretty sparse. There's a prominent black pepper flavour but otherwise, it tasted like a salty yam rice. Deliciously salty in my opinion. Not sure if I tasted any pork belly.

They have a green chilli sauce. It's good. Both as a dip for the morsels of pork or on the rice. Spicy, tangy and there's some sweetness.