Nasi kerabu from La Porpo

Came back to try La Porpo's nasi kerabu which was a different rendition from Kantan by the SIB'S. This plate featured a less smashed up fried chicken with not much of the salad and there was a lemak gravy ladled onto the rice along with a red sambal on the side. Quite a bit of flavours going on from the gravy, sambal and salted egg. I can't tell if this was equally as spicy as the sambal ayam geprek plate but both were pretty satisfying. 

Yat Ka Yan (一家人), Fortune Centre

We came by to 一家人 (#02-08 Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Rd, tel : +65 9631 2359) for desserts one evening. The name yat ka yan translates to "whole family" in Cantonese. Business appears brisk and these guys looked like they are about to give shops like Ah Chew and Mei Heong Yuen a run for their money.

We had a black glutinous rice with ice cream and durian. It's pulut hitam if anyone is wondering. Chilled and so good with the durian pulp.

This was a refreshing ice jelly dessert with soursop and passion fruit. I had assumed that the ice jelly was 愛玉 - or what some older folks might know as ogio. It's not. The jelly was pandan flavoured. Still good though with the citrusy fruit sweetness of the toppings.

Dickson Road Chicken Rice, Jalan Besar

Although the name is Dickson Road Chicken Rice, the address of the coffeeshop Shing Boon Hwa Food Centre in which they're located is Jalan Besar (43 Jalan Besar). Technically, both are correct since the location is the junction of Dickson Road and Jalan Besar. 

This stall is also neighbour to Hock Prawn Mee (福蝦麵). Remember me mentioning then, that this place was also the coffeeshop that used to housed the stall that sold Hainanese chicken rice balls? That unit that used to do the chicken rice balls has been taken over by Dickson Road Chicken Rice. Said chicken rice ball business has shifted across Dickson Road and is now literally facing their old premise.

Not a bad plate of chicken rice. This was a plate of 白鸡尾 with livers and both were competent. I liked that the livers were tender, creamy and not overcooked. Flavour from the rice was a little light but was compensated with the generous squeeze of light soya sauce and sesame oil. That and also their tangy chilli.

La Porpo, Jalan Besar

I read about La Porpo (29/31 Jalan Besar) some time ago. Said to be endorsed by a local chef of a restaurant named after the edible flower buds of a type of thistle. I was curious and ordered their sambal geprek - basically ayam geprek slather with both their sambal merah and sambal ijo which featured respectably tender fried chicken on a plate with green pandan rice, some fried triangles of tofu and crispy bits of stuff.

I liked it. The heat was perspiration inducing yet got me spooning mouthful after mouthful. Now I'm curious about their nasi kerabu.

&Joy-ing more ramen & pizza

It's been a while since we've gotten food at &Joy. I've always wanted to try the cheese-less tomato broth ramen from Ramen Kiou and now that I'm ready, it's no longer on the menu. That had always been on the menu for the longest time and I never expected that it would get "rotated out".

Anyways there was a green chilli tonkotsu bowl. Didn't see this coming and it was actually kinda good. The heat from the sliced green chilli seeped into the broth after a while and also added spikes of heat. That green chilli sauce at the corner contributed more flavour than heat. All in all, I enjoyed it.

The snow crab ramen sounded like it might be good. It was...unsettling and disjointed. The tonkotsu broth had obviously been flavoured with a crustacean flavour which in no way paired well with those paltry minced crab meat. Not to mention those small candied crabs they threw in. Those were awkward and added sweetness to the broth. Not in a way I liked. Didn't understand how the strips of carrots made this bowl any better.

In other news, there was a seasonal shirasu & sakura ebi pizza at Pittarino. Nice garlicky and umami flavours on this one. 👍🏼

More McRambles

That's the original Angus cheeseburger from McD. Got that sans ketchup. It's actually kinda nice - at almost double the price of their double cheeseburger. Pretty sure McD would get a lot more respect if the regular cheeseburger tasted like this. I liked how the slight sweetness from brioche-y bun worked with the rest of the ingredients in the sandwich.

Years ago they used to have a matcha latte with espresso at McCafe. It only remained on the menu for a while before they took it off and subsequently, I continued to get the drink by just ordering a regular matcha latte with additional couple of shots of espresso. Same drink. 

Today, a McCafe lady told me that I would have to order it through the kiosk and only when we confronted her about the lack of options in the kiosk that she admitted that she also didn't know how to process the order. Now why would she have attempted that feeble misdirection? We were subsequently directed to another staff who told us that such an order was not possible. She lied. McDonald's must have taught her to lie. Because another someone else that looked like she was in charge came by to help us process this.

Supreme Prawn Noodle from Hock Prawn Mee (福蝦麵)

That's the name of this configuration from Hock Prawn Mee which included the works - prawns, pork ribs, intestines, pig's skin, sliced pork and pig's tail. It's a $10 bowl. The noodles were different today in way that they didn't have the same texture as the previous time. They were noticeably softer which in my opinion was not a good thing. So we have inconsistency. Not much complains about the rest of the ingredients except for the prawns which I've just noticed were not de-veined.

Ah Ma Chi Mian (阿嬤吃麵), Plaza Singapura

I got wind of this brand which was supposedly a "heritage brand inspired by the founder’s grandmother" a while ago. They've a few branches around so as with such branding, there's always a caveat lector behind it. Had never gotten a chance to try their noodles until today at the Kopitiam food court at Plaza Singapura (#06-15/16/17/18/1920 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road). The guy that was preparing my bowl looked like he wasn't sure around the kitchen. Hmmmm......

I got the bowl with meatballs. Meatballs were nice. Nice dried sole flavour that added loads of umami. Soup was also pretty good with the flavour coming off the fatty bits of minced pork inside. I'm gonna say that the noodles were okay - not exactly impressive like how I had in mind based on what I've heard about them. I think there was some sweetness in the chilli that bugged me. Wouldn't mind eating this again but I wouldn't go out of the way for it. 

WOW Bistro (威旺美食酒馆), Bencooolen Street

Read about WOW Bistro (#01-02/03, 47 Bencoonlen Street, tel : +65 9654 7947) and got curious because of some of their featured dishes. They're located at the side of the lobby of Hotel Bencoolen. We tried a walk in one Saturday and were turned away because they were filled up. So we made reservations for the next one and it was mostly empty when we were there. Hmmm......

Kwirk Belgian White on tap for $11. Pretty good deal in town. Note to self : can come for beer.

We ordered radish cake. Black one. I expected it to come with cheese but it didn't. Instead there was a lot of coriander on it. Who the hell puts coriander on radish cake? Anyways the wait staff tried to explain that only the white radish cake had cheese.

Really? I wouldn't have known. No one told us. 

The black radish cake was actually pretty good. House made fried onions, a hae bee infused sambal, loads of egg and not excessively greasy. I wouldn't mind coming here for these.

The dish I was curious about was their durian curry fish. I know right? Durian curry sounds kinda out there. But it was also kinda good with a lot of richness, some heat and spices. First in the world they said. I detected curry leaves, laksa leaves, black peppercorn and chilli padi in the creamy durian infused curry. The portions were huge.

While it tasted unusual, I thought it kinda worked. There was sufficient flavour from durian and we even found a couple of seeds of those D24 that they used. Which was awesome while the dish was still hot. 

The pan fried sea bass felt left sidelined even though it was a huge piece. Not bad tasting but my mind was still trying to reconcile the savoury fish with the sweet-ish spicy durian curry.

The other dish that got my attention was their lamb kut teh. Basically lamb rendition of bak kut teh which was something I had over a few occasions in the past wondered if they existed. Now I know it does. There's a rich herbal broth infused with lamb flavour and a herb infused rack of lamb. That fork tender rack of lamb had at some point been on some grill because we could taste the caramelized parts which were delicious.

I prefer the broth to be more savoury rather than the dominant herbal sweetness that this had.

The dish had a couple of cloves of garlic on the side which were....melt in your mouth? These definitely qualified that description. To think of it, they were already borderline melting before they were in our mouths.

Aloha Burger from Jollibee

The Aloha Burger from Jollibee has the same beef patties they use for their "burger steak"/Yumburger - which tastes semi mysterious in a cheap manner but also strangely addictive to the point that I might describe them as delicious. That and lettuce, bacon, cheese and a ring of pineapple with their Aloha sauce. I don't actually know what's in that Aloha sauce but...

...the page that many burger joints can take from this particular humble fast food is not to over-sauce the burger. Especially if the rest of the ingredients in said burger are good enough to sell themselves. Unless those burger joints had never thought that way about their burgers. 

I liked that this wasn't over-sauced. Delicious without being overbearing and there was that tangy sweetness from the pineapple which made sense with the salt from the other ingredients in the sandwich. I'd eat this again.

Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup, Pasir Panjang Food Centre

I've generally never been someone for our local Chinese herbal mutton soup. Usually prefer my mutton soup not herbal and without ginger or coriander to detract from the natural flavour of the meat. But I had also been curious about Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup (#01-14 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road) for some time after reading about them. They looked richer than the "more common" variety around. 

I liked this in spite of the fact that I had just mentioned not being big on herbal flavours masking the flavour of the lamb. The herbal flavour from this one complemented those mutton-y flavour resulting in a delicious rich intensity that was it's own brand of sweet savouriness that also happened to be collagen rich. Thankfully I also couldn't taste ginger and I could order the bowl sans coriander. Love those tender mutton and fruity goji berries.

This wasn't from the same stall obviously. It was a jackfruit shake that I had ordered from a stall that only sold fruit juice nearby. First jackfruit shake I've had in my life. Thought that this one deserved mention because it tasted good with sufficient flavour from the fruit and it wasn't overly milky. For some reasons, I also enjoyed the light pulp in the drink.

Fade to Black (Tap)

Been a while since we last came over to Black Tap.

Decided to try a couple of drinks to get out of the Brooklyn Lager cycle. Not that I didn't like it but I just wanted to see if there was anything else that might have been good. The Yum Yum Yuzu was okay, not memorable even though that yuzu flavour came through. The other was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Milk Stout from Lost Coast brewery. I understand the peanut butter part because I tasted it but I don't get any chocolate milk. Nice for novelty. Not getting them again though.

I was kinda lured in today by the picture of their Reuben Burger that they posted on their social media. Notice the thick moist slice of pastrami they featured. The picture was deliberately misleading and it's kinda sad to know that these guys aren't above doing that.

The actual pastrami looked like this. Flat, pan fried and functioned like a bacon substitute rather than a disintegrate in your mouth slab of smoked brisket I was imagining. Didn't taste bad but this was way off expectations.

Chicken noodles at Lucky Chicken Rice

We came back to Lucky Chicken Rice for their noodles after seeing someone enjoying it online and waxing lyrical about how delicious they were.

But first some stewed eggs in spiced dark soya sauce. The flavour from the sauce was intense and the eggs were tender.

We ordered a plate of 鸡尾 hor fun and 鸡尾 noodles. Both had the same gravy and cut of dark chicken meat so the only thing to compare between the two were the noodles.

I have to admit that liked both through their own merits. The rice noodles were smooth and slurpy while those egg noodles had a texture that was firm to the bite. The sambal that they had was delicious so here's a note to self to ask for extra potions whenever I'm getting these noodles.

Fei Zhai Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (肥仔排骨蝦麵), Pasir Panjang Road

Prawn noodle stall (114 Pasir Panjang Rd) located at the junction of Pasir Panjang and Pepys Road. I was curious because I've read a bit about them and that there's always been some queue when I happen by. I happened to be in the vicinity one morning so breakfast was a bowl of bee hoon mee dry with additional stewed pig tails.

Wasn't a bad bowl of hae mee but I didn't think they were so good that I'd be yearning to come back. 

What I enjoyed from the bowl was the sambal and the generous infusion of flavour from the fried shallots. Those stewed pig tails were gelatinous textured, deeply flavourful from what they had been cooking in and were slurp off the bone tender.

What I didn't like? Noodles were very generic and didn't have the bite I had been hoping for. Prawns weren't de-veined. Soup was sweet with only a light crustacean flavour - not one of the better (can also be read as robust) prawn broths I've had. It was also telling for me that the thing I liked most from this prawn noodle stall weren't the prawns, the noodles nor the soup.