Astons' prime tenderloin

I've been curious about the prime tenderloin at Astons for a long time. It looked thicker on the pictures that they have and these were a little disappointing. I would have liked it better if they had done a single thick cut than these two slices they did which were a kinda thin. Didn't taste bad but it also wasn't memorable. Wouldn't get them again.

Chimichanga, Dunlop Street

I've read about these guys (36 Dunlop Street, tel : +65 6293 3314) but never got interested enough to look them up. Happened to be in the vicinity and came in for a light bit of lunch. Their carne asada tacos to be precise. It's not bad. Corn tacos enveloping a bit of that smokiness from the seared skirt. With the hot sauce, it was tangy, creamy and spicy at the same time so it went down pretty fast. Don't mind coming back to try other stuff. 

2280 changes their milkshake

The order kiosk stated milkshake without any indication of flavour so I thought it would be the vanilla one like the last time. But we got chocolate today. Milk chocolate-y, not bad tasting. Menu seems to have expanded a little. There's a fish burger now but I ended up with the beef anyway. Maybe will try that the next time.

Extra 不见天 char siew and dumpling soup from Zhong Yu Yuan Wei Wanton Noodle (忠于原味云吞面)

It's been more than a couple of year since we've last gotten wanton mee from Zhong Yu Yuan Wei. While we've seen them and their consistent queues pretty much every time we were at Tiong Bahru Food Centre, it was those very queues that have deterred me all those times. Those wanton mee slipped past my defences this time round so I gave in an joined the queue. Here's an order with extra 不见天 char siew and sui gao.

They were pretty generous with 加叉烧. The 不见天 wanton mee goes for $7 a plate. This one with additional char siew was $13. I get it. Damn the char siew was good. Tender, fatty and properly caramelized with burnt ends and their delicious sweet glaze.

Great wiry noodles and superb chilli. I say this as someone who is usually not a fan of local wanton mee.

Pretty competent sui gao from them too, nicely packed with minced pork and prawns. They don't do water chestnut and black fungus here but I've no qualms getting these again.

Hiroshima oyster soba from Healthy Soba IKI

Healthy Soba IKI had gotten Hiroshima oysters with hot soba on their menu for a limited time. Those oysters were plump and nice and no, the flavours of those didn't get infused into the broth. These guys have been quite prolific with their specials and limited time bowls that we've never had much of a chance at ordering something from the regular menu. Here's a bunch of stuff we've previously had in their sobaverse. (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四)

Say, there wouldn't be anywhere else where one could get some freshly made on order soba and also have them with a side of burrata, would there? Probably not.

Something about prosperity and strawberries

This Chinese New Year's Prosperity Burger. Dark, spicy, sweet and sauce-y. Much more sauce-y than the McPepper they resurrected some months back. This might have been my third one this year so I guess I'm happy - if happy could be the appropriate term here...for getting a McD sandwich thrice. Albeit one that's limited to this time of the year only. 😬 

Anyways, I liked the strawberry pie they're doing for this CNY. It wasn't excessively sweet and I suppose it was strawberry-y enough. I don't know why strawberry pie and the lunar new year though - or perhaps I'm trying to read into a connection that doesn't exist.

Cod fish maw & black pepper chicken noodles from TamJai SamGor (譚仔三哥)

This appeared to be some CNY limited time bowl from TamJai SamGor (譚仔三哥) which featured cod's maw and black pepper chicken. I added pork belly so there's that and this was with their Wu La soup at 小辣. I got exactly three pieces of the cod's maw just like their picture showed. Liked those and I wish there were more of that cod's maw - would have made this bowl more memorable.

Sonny's Pizza, Circular Road

Came across Sonny's Pizza (17 Circular Road, tel : +65 9822 4825) some weeks back by chance. I remembered them because they looked the closest thing to a NY pizza shop I've been to (I'm excluding Lombardi's obviously) and in retrospect, also had pies that tasted the closest to a NY slice. While I'm no expert in those, gut says that Sonny's more legit than John's Pizzeria.

Despite what the menu shows, there're only 18" pies. One can get them by slice(s) or by the whole. There's a pretty good pepperoni one; lightly smoky and I'm noticing for the first time, a faint anise flavour from the pepperoni. Fennel?

One can extend the flavour of the pepperoni slices by drizzling them with their hot honey which added a bit of heat amid the sweetness on top of the savoury smokiness.

Mundane tasting I'm Going Green slice with Béchamel, mushrooms and herbs. Don't know what herbs were those though.

The other GM Pizza was a little rich tasting and got cloying after a while from the Hollandaise.

Other than the pepperoni pizza, the other one that I liked was their Saigon Stunner - a tomato slice with minced beef, a betel leaf pesto and fish sauce. This was kinda like a bo la lot in pizza form. Something about the earthy betel pesto and the pungent fish sauce made this appealing.

Hot honey and ranch - that's what I thought they said. The latter which was recommended for the cornicione had plenty of dill. Nicest tasting "ranch" I've ever come across.

There's a bunch of beer in their fridge. Tried a few and this Black Kite Golden which was the cheapest was also the better as a light beer without fancy flavours and had a smooth floral finish. Tasted like the Golden Ale from Brewerkz.

Revisiting Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee

We're back for more curries and post lunch coma inducing stuff at Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee.

Tried the beef rendang today. Meat was dry and a little tough and if you asked me, it was largely saved by the gravy. Wouldn't get this again. The mutton rendang was much better.

Kang kong's pretty decent.

Their sambal goreng, for a lack of better descriptions, tasted Chinese. Firm crunchy beans and chunks of prawns in there. The latter I have never encountered in the commonly found Malay renditions of sambal goreng.

I like their curried chicken liver/gizzards. Loved that the gizzards were tender and not the crunchy type.

Our begedil today didn't come from a freshly fried batch like the last time. These ones were cold and had more muted flavours from the chicken and black pepper compared to the hot ones. That could be the reason why these things are thought of differently. 

Cucumber salad.

This was the best dish today - sambal fried fish. The sambal was slightly sweet and not very spicy. What made this dish was how crispy the surface was and how freshly fried it tasted with a delicious seasoning on the flour that coated it. I liked that flavour but how to describe it eludes me. Meat was not dry at all.

Astons Specialities, Cross Street Exchange

We learnt of this branch of Astons Specialities (#01-105 Cross Street Exchange, 18 Cross Street, tel : +65 6970 8177) some time ago while we were in the vicinity and had wanted to see if they were on par with the Cathay branch. We've ended up at Zazz Pizza every time we've been in this building. Until now. 😬

They have Spanish chestnut pork on menu. Looked to be a limited time item so we tried. The meat was bone on, pleasantly tender and had delicious bits of fat around for flavour. I hope this pork stays on for much longer because I would love to get it again.

Trying their cheeseburger for the first time. Pretty hefty and basic. I liked that there wasn't much to mess up that cheeseburger profile flavour. A couple of things bothered me. The cheese wasn't melted onto the patty when they served the burger - not a biggie but that kinda revealed that they had likely rested the meat before putting on the cheese rather than having the cheese on while the meat was still on the grill. Unless it was the latter and the cheese still hadn't melted. 😱

The other thing was that the burger came with a salad. I know that they're a business and sometimes they need to charge us for a side which some might not appreciate. I would much prefer it if they allowed us to choose a side we wanted (like what they do for their other plates) rather than force the salad on us.

Mansor D'Cafe, Far East Plaza

Pretty good nasi padang stall (#04-34 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, tel : +65 9421 7005) tucked at a corner in Far East Plaza. There was a lot more dishes than we could have tried in a single seating. A few things were memorable. Liked that fried fish (ikan selar goreng) because it was sizeable enough to be meaty. Sambal goreng had a creamy savoury sweet sauce and large chunky pieces of tofu in it. That lemak cili padi gravy that was ladled over the rice was rich tasting and packed a respectable heat at the same time. Gotta come back another time. 

Where Kopifellas doesn't measure up

So like every other such business that has done well enough for themselves to have branches, quality more often than not meets inconsistency because the coffee's standards are pegged largely to the maker - not the branding. Today's coffee looked good, smelled good but didn't taste as good as the smell suggested. Was more enjoyable the last time when it was another brewer. Also I've had a taste of the butter they used from their butter sugar toast. Pretty generous slice between the bread but kinda lacking in that butteriness.

Another go at Meng Kee Fried Kway Teow

I decided to give Meng Kee another try for a couple of reasons. This place is constantly hailed as one of the better char kuey teow and that I had just recently caught the episode of Greg's Big Eats featuring this place. That got me thinking so I thought I could give it another chance. A hum-less $5 plate with chilli. Nope, not impressed with the plate. A decent plate? I could go with that. But it wasn't exceptional. At all. Not getting the smokiness or char on the noodles that people described. Dark soy sauce wasn't especially rich nor fragrant either.  

Zaiton Satay, Adam Road Food Centre

There were a couple of stalls selling satay in the food centre and we ended up getting some from Zaiton Satay (#01-14 Adam Road Food Centre, 2 Adam Road). Their satay weren't as caramelized as I would have preferred so some texture and flavour were missing without those carcinogenic burnt ends. Heh! Still, they were pretty tender and moreish with the sweet marinade - notably the mutton ones which were better tasting than what I had imagined. Liked that the viscous dip had sufficient crushed peanuts.

Getting cheesy at Tokyo Sundubu

I didn't think that I could definitively discern the mentaiko from the bowl I had the last time so I went straight for just the cheese sundubu with extra cheese. It's one portion more of that shredded mozzarella.

Today's namuru was different. I was thinking that these things don't get changed up but apparently they do. The vegetables for this round were pretty peppery. 

Didn't look like there was that much cheese even after that extra portion but it was enough to manage some stringy cheese pulls.

Like I mentioned the last time, it was a better idea to just get the rice into the sundubu pot and eat after mixing.

Tried their potato cheese chijimi. Loved those crispy crusty edges which were not very salty. The pancakes had slices of potato in them so that was mostly what they tasted of. This turned out better than I had imagined. Wouldn't mind them again.

Egg ghee thosai from Hajjah R.S.A.

So I got the egg ghee thosai today from Hajjah R.S.A. instead of two separate thosais like I did the last time. It felt less substantial but I guess that's what I wanted because I remembered getting two felt like a bit much. Also pretty sure that there was more ghee flavour in the ghee thosai then than this combo one with the egg. The masala vadai though... it's fried chicken good. 😬