More snacks from 108 Matcha Saro

More snacks from 108 Matcha Saro.

This was their shiro mochi obanyaki...a mochi skinned variant of their obanyaki filled with matcha custard and chocolate. Bittersweet creaminess predominantly from both the green tea infused custard and chocolate. There's also the chewy mochi skin which I'm normally not such a big fan of. Gotta try their red bean filling some day.

These kurogoma warabi mochi were pretty good. Tender, springy and aromatic from those crushed black sesame coating them.

A red bean butter bun from Kamome Bakery

Stumbled upon (193 Joo Chiat Road) Kamome Bakery. Seem to recall having read about this them before so we walked in an walked out with a red bean butter bun. Was torn between this and the one with mascarpone cheese. Needs more butter to match the surface area of the red bean paste and that would have been perfect - still that saltiness from the butter pairing with the sweetness from the bean paste in the soft bun was delicious.

Braised pig's trotters and intestines from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh (豐香肉骨茶)

Not bad tasting pig's trotters from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh. The meat might not have been those super tender renditions like a melting khao kha moo that got scraped off the bone or those from Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh, but it also wasn't hard so I easily finished it. What I found impressive though was the dark soya sauce it was braised in that was packed with flavour. It had a deep intensity which tasted like what my mother's mother used to make.

We tried the fried intestines the last time so got the braised ones today. The braising sauce which was good with the rice (not as good as the dark soya sauce from the trotters though! 😬) had a offal-y flavour - which was not necessarily a bad thing.

I also noticed that these guys used short grained rice.

 

Tiann's (甜), Seng Poh Road

The Chinese character for Tiann's (#01-35, 71 Seng Poh Road, tel : +65 6222 1369) is 甜 which means sweet. These guys are one of those gluten free and sugar conscious shops. I'm ambivalent towards gluten free but I think better in general of a place that avoids refined sugar. Not that I'm totally against refined sugar but....it's not a conversation I want to have. 

Tried a slice of their banana bread. Kinda dense, dry-ish but not hard. I was hoping for more banana flavour. The butter saved it. 😬

Thought their tea cakes looked good so we got a slice of their orange marmalade to see if they tasted like how they looked. Not bad. Moist, dense and had a good flavour of oranges from the bits of peel in the cake. 

Simply Bread, Guthrie House

Haven't eaten at Simply Bread since they were at Robertson Quay. This was breakfast at their shop at Guthrie House (#01-03 Guthrie House, 1 Fifth Avenue, tel : +65 6466 7767). Munched on their orange fantan, which was some sort pastry flavoured with orange zest, while waiting for the food. Apparently the sticky buns weren't available that early.

Halloumi sandwich was not bad. Milky and deliciously salty cheese in between their ciabatta cut through with purple onions and sliced tomatoes. 

Their breakfast plate of yore is still around. Would have been great if there were more eggs than those portions.

Ikkousha's God Fire Level 4

My way of the hot and spicy meanders into Hakata Ikkousha Ramen. I haven't thought much of their tonkotsu bowls since their days at Ramen Champion. There are better players these days in my opinion. But I've had their God Fire bowl years back. Since I've this spicy thing going on lately, I thought I'd revisit that bowl. Sweating in the warm haze already?

I didn't remember the bowl having different levels of spiciness in the past but there apparently is - 4 levels of them. This was the Level 4 bowl with extra hard noodles, extra charshu and ajitama. Savoury and pretty spicy but manageably so by my standards. I had thought that this would do me in but I guess the heat wasn't as intimidating. I may have found a reason to come back to Ikkousha after all.

Spicies at SBCD Korean Tofu House

It's been a while since our last eat at SBCD Korean Tofu House. Looking back, there was some sort of love/hate relationship we had going on with this place because there were times the food was agreeable and in others, they were disappointing. Today seemed to be one of those good ones. It was our first time with their combo meals which featured a sundubu and a main meat dish.

That's me and the mandu sundubu at Crazy Hot spicy. Notice the glossy and almost electrifying red bubbling in the pot. The fourth chilli. 

It was spicy but nothing near crazy in my opinion. I liked it.

There were at least a couple of mandu, bits of pork and a lot more tofu than I remember having ever gotten from here before. Also noticed some some chilli padi. Thoroughly enjoyed this spicy savoury stew.

One of the meat dishes we picked was their spicy BBQ pork. It looked like a pork bulgogi but there was some smokiness that indicated that the meat had been grilled. Tasted better and also a lot less spicy than the look suggested.

The other meat we got from their combo was their spicy octopus. In spite of the spicy appearances, it was mostly nutty and sweet. Almost reminiscent of satay gravy which are in general more nutty and sweet than spicy. The hot plate toasted vegetables were also much nicer eating with the sauce than I had imagined.

Employees Only, Amoy Street

I've been wanting to come to Employees Only (112 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6221 7357) even before getting their smash burgers on delivery a couple of years back.

Drinks are expensive here. No cocktails for me.

Did not expect them to serve bread and steaming hot ones at that. 

Maguro kueh pie tee was not bad. Couldn't tell what the tuna was marinated with but this was a delicious mouthful of great munching texture with the crispy pie tee shells.

There's steak tartare on the menu. The tartare was mixed table side - but it wasn't as elaborate/complete as the ones from say L'Angelus or Claudine or db Bistro...hahaha. Of course it wasn't. The only condiment that was added table side were the Worcestershire and hot sauce. Not a bad tasting one but also not memorable.

Their spicy smothered shrimp was disappointing. Not even a quarter as spicy as it looked or sounded. Not getting the Sriracha that was supposed to be in it was well. Those shrimps had a battered skin which reminded me of wasabi prawns from Chinese restaurants. If you removed them from their batter/skin, those shrimps were actually pretty puny. #disappointment

I had to get the smash burger again. It was the primary objective of this visit. This was so good.

I've already said all I wanted to about the EO Smash Burger the last time and almost nothing has changed. This burger was still awesome. What was different this time were the buns which weren't squashed or soggy from delivery. They were pillowy tender - somewhat akin to the steamed buns for McD's Filet O Fish. Probably a bit fluffier. This smash burger alone was worth the trip.

Mala spicy noodles from Xing Hua (兴化)

This bowl of mala noodles from Xing Hua tasted like mala spices had been added into their white lor mee. There's a bit of heat and noticeable flavour from the Szechuan peppercorns in the gravy but as a whole wasn't much 麻 or very 辣. I'm on the fence about how I feel about this bowl. There's a bunch of other stuff we enjoyed from their menu so I don't think this will make it to the top of the list anytime soon.

Pong Noodle Village (彭傢面庄), Teck Ghee Court Food Centre

I'm not much of a local wanton mee person but I was recommended to give this stall a try. Seems like Pong Noodle Village (#01-20 Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre, 341 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, tel : +65 9833 3604) has a similar backstory as Chun Seng Noodle House which followed a similar vein of an old established eatery that had closed down and then re-emerged from their ashes with a refreshed branding selling the same stuff, run by the next generation of the owners. 

Noodle texture was not bad. I found the sauce to be a little sweet but that's how they do them. Might try with more chilli if I ever come back. The wantons and sui gao weren't shabby; the latter had minced pork and bits of water chestnut. A competent plate better than many but still ranks lower in my books than stalls like Shun Feng Roasted Delights (顺沣港式烧腊) and Zhong Yu Yuan Wei (忠于原味云吞面).

Una Una, Bugis+

The quality difference between the unagi bowls from Una Una (#05-02/03 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6238 1011) versus Man Man/Unagi Tei was obvious. While I hadn't expected a lot out of the cheapest unagi hitsumabushi in town, I still felt this was a letdown. Portions were kinda small for the double and the eels didn't have the light crispiness nor smokiness. Even the rice felt dry. It was a dollar more for the spicy bowl which basically involved just shichimi sprinkled over the eels.

The only consolation out of this was that two Sapporos were going for $10.

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice has recently shifted from their former premise to the current location (#02-67 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) in Tiong Bahru Food Centre right where Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted used to be. Just next door to Skirt & Dirt.

So this was a late lunch (2-ish) and most of their cooked food were already sold out. Still plenty of their popular pork chop and curry squids for some reasons and there were still people in line though. The stewed cabbage didn't look appealing at all so the pork and squid were it for me today.

Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (來興香菇肉脞麵), Toa Payoh

Finally managed to get a bowl from Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (73 Toa Payoh Lorong 4) after hearing about them for so long. These guys are arguably ranked as one of the better minced meat noodle stalls around. Hence armed with a bit of reading and some real life feedback, I went in with my expectations tempered so as not to set myself up for disappointment.

Pretty solid bowl of bak chor mee by any standards. Chilli has that dried shrimp flavour but didn't pack as much heat as I was expecting/hoping for. Their concoction of the noodle sauce were more balanced compared to shops like Tai Hwa/Tai Wah which tend to be more vinegary. This bowl also had loads of stewed mushrooms. Will definitely try to get another bowl if I'm in the vicinity but I wouldn't go out of the way or endure too long a queue for them

Note to self : Stall has only a couple of bags of mee pok in the weekdays and will usually be sold out by lunch. No mee pok during the weekends.

Bánh Mì Saigon, Ang Mo Kio

I found out about Bánh Mì Saigon (505 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8) a while back and came by for a couple of their bánh mì. Was pretty glad to get in line before the queue became deterring. These folks apparently took their time about the business with the proprietor making the effort to explain to each customer that had queries about what they were selling. On top of that, it was another almost half hour of wait before our orders were processed.

Each of their bánh mì was slathered with some pâté, butter mayo thingy and some vegetables before they were generously stuffed with the ingredients of choice. One of what made Bánh Mì Saigon's sandwiches stand out above many other "bánh mì" out there was the generosity of those ingredients. Our orders were all obviously sans coriander/cilantro of course. 

The top sandwich was their "special" bánh mì - stuffed with assorted hams and I added a fried egg. Hearty and delicious this one was and I thought it made an obvious fall back/go to configuration with the savoury sliced meat and egg between bread I could easily inhale. 

Got another one with stewed pig's intestines and ears. Those innards had their offal-lish flavour coupled with a bit of spice and sweetness from the stewing broth. I didn't think the crunch from the pig's ears felt good in the sandwich though.

Not that I've a lot of experience with these sandwiches but in retrospect, I'd rank this and Viet9 as the better bánh mì around.