Pizza and saltimbocca from 2it & drink

For reasons, we've eaten at 2it & drink a number of times but yet have visited their parent Otto Ristorante. Anywaysss....Romano pizza from their menu topped with additional buffalo mozzarella. One gets to choose if those mozzarella go into the oven with the pizza or are served freshly slice on top of it. Those olives sure were juicy.

There was a saltimbocca for the weekend special. Pork was lean but the masala wine sauce and the truffle mash helped. Deliciously salty and savoury perfumed with sage. 

Tora Tora Tora, Oxley Bizhub 2

I had to get lunch here (#11-19 Oxley Bizhub 2, 62 Ubi Road 1) so I ended up with a kaisen don. One with vinegared rice. Not bad tasting if I might say so. Those maguro chunks was pretty good eating and there were scallops and ikura as well. What pleasantly surprised me was the wasabi - it's the grated stuff. All these in a bowl less than $20 at the roof of Oxley Bizhub 2. They even have Asahi Kuronama on tap.

Rose flavoured Lay's potato chips from Scarlett Supermarket

Picked up a bunch of unusual sounding snacks from Scarlett Supermarket (思家客) at Chinatown Point. We haven't been here for a while and some new things have snuck into their shelves. Can you see it? The rose potato chips...

Here's a closer look at it.

The speckles make them look like whole grain chips. There's definitely rose flavour in there so what I was trying to get used to was saltiness because I've only experienced rose with desserts or bandung. They're also a little tangy.

Fish and strawberry bagels with dirty chai at Two Men Bagel House

I've gotten bagels from this Holland Village branch of Two Men Bagel House (into the bagel-verse! 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一 十二 十三 十四 十五 十六) only once. Back then, their outlet bagel was chocolate chip. It's become strawberry bagel for some reasons. Their menu has been revamped to include a bunch of what I guess are historical top sellers and those are available in all their shops.

Curious about their dirty chai. It's chai with a shot of espresso. So the strawberry bagels......

Here's the Lox in one. A smoked salmon bagel that's kinda similar to the Fisherman I've had previously at Tanjong Pagar. The strawberry flavour in the bagel came through for this one so that was nice. Unlike the next one...

...which was What She Order? featuring fried fish, tartar sauce, capers, cheese, dill and some sambal which I couldn't detect. Because this had more going on, less strawberry flavour. Not none. Just less. This reminded of Filet O Fish. Maybe it's fried cod? Both bagels were not bad tasting. 

Blanco Court Beef Noodles, Chinatown Point

I don't remember if I've ever had Blanco Court Beef Noodles but they have a number of branches across the island. This was the shop at Chinatown Point (#B1-52/52A Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 8816 1979). The bowl at the top was their mala beef noodles - something they did as a Father's Day Special for this month. Hot and numbing spicy according to them but if you asked me, it was definitely not 麻 and probably just 小小小辣. Needed a bit more salt as well but otherwise, not bad tasting.

Their soup tendon kuey teow was more impressive. Those tendons were chunky and tender. While Blanco Court Beef Noodles didn't have the most memorable broth, it passed muster with sufficient saltiness that made it delicious.

What you'll find upping the game are the condiments which one can help themselves to. Peanut's good for dry noodles and lime's good for everything. Chilli sauce with chinchalok = delicious dip for the meats or spicy flavour enhancer for their soup. Even though they didn't have the most impressive beef broth out there, they didn't leave us without options to zhng it as well.

Ab Undance

It's been a while since our last visit to Abundance. We made the queue shortly before the place opened and shortly after we were seated, that queue became discouragingly long. Business looks good.

One of the current brews on tap was a Peach Sour. It was sour and fruity but not exactly peachy. Not bad for our sweltering weather though. The other glass on the right was some lychee oolong concoction. Not getting the tea for that one.

I wanted to try the crispy chicken bun. It's kinda like som tam mamuang with peanut sauce on a fried chicken in the buns. Seeing that I much preferred the spicy mango slaw over the fried chicken, I knew this wasn't for me. Which means my favourite bun from them is...

...the gua bao. Sans coriander of course.

Wanted to get their red hot chilli dumpling noodles because I liked the mala-ish dumplings and their springy shaven noodles from the previous visits.

They do a pretty decent XO fried rice. Needs a bit more salt but it was not bad otherwise. I couldn't help but to keep thinking about Din Tai Fung's fried rice as I ate this.

While waiting for our vegetable to arrive, a pint of their Scottish ale on tap. This was a bit more sour than what I was expecting.

So the vegetables. Chilli oil, wok seared cabbage and bacon.

Briyani set from Gandhi Restaurant

Came back to Gandhi Restaurant for their briyani set meal. We tried the the regular one previously so this was just natural progression. 😅

Pretty regular tasting briyani with their spice infusion. Not that it was bad but I could not pinpoint anything distinctive about their flavour.

We ordered onion chicken which was a fried chicken thigh with caramelized onions and curry leaves. Chicken was a little dry. It's the onions that were tasty. Will probably not get this again.

Their rich nutty masala mutton was kickass. This dish scored with the combination of tender chunks of lamb and a spicy creamy paste. We had originally wanted the ribs which they had ran out of. We were glad to have tried this. Will still try our luck with the ribs another time though.

This was another curry with loads of little shrimps and green peas. Not bad.

Some potato-y fish cutlets.

Not to self - their lassi was thick and creamy. One of the enjoyable ones around.

Curry Kapitan chicken nasi lemak from Uptown Nasi Lemak

I had the idea for some reasons that the Kapitan chicken curry from Uptown Nasi Lemak would be a dry curry chicken. Possibly from the picture on the menu. It wasn't and had a viscous lemak gravy that tasted coconut-y and potato-y. Beneath that creamy curry was the chicken thigh and drumstick - one that was smaller than what they used for their ayam goreng berempah. If anyone needed to know, they've upped their prices by 50 cents for all the chicken items in the current fresh chicken drought.

The indecisive Vadai Shop

We've noticed this shop (#02-84 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) for a while. The name should be The Original Vadai instead of The Vadai Shop or The Vadai Shop @ Amoy. Finally decided to get a few of their vadai. They aren't visually distinct except for the one with prawn. The picture up there features one of those with prawn, one with ikan bilis and another with gragos. I like the latter two. Did not expect so much of the shrimpy flavour from the latter of the latter. Haha! The bread was tender, light and greasy in a good way. Will try more another time.

The basic bowl from Guan's Mee Pok

I wanted to experience Guan's Mee Pok minus frills so this was just the basic bowl with nothing else. Also because I wasn't that hungry but I still needed to get some food. Not exactly the run of the mill bcm ingredients if you've noticed and it's arguably expensive for their small portions, but we're at Capitol Piazza. I enjoyed it. Both the meaty dumpling and fried roll (are those ngoh hiang?) tasted better than they looked. The noodles didn't have the greatest of textures but were especially good with their marinated cut red chilli.

Chilled jello worms, iced bitter gourd and more Duotou clams from Putien

More food from Putien. Been enjoying the food from this branch at Great World (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九). In all these visits, we've never felt that their Michelin starred flagship at Kitchener Road was any better.

One of the new items on the menu was described as chilled jello worms. Don't know what those worms were but they had texture that was akin to clams. Said worms were trapped in a savoury jelly that's drizzled over with finely minced garlic, chilli and soy sauce.

Trying their iced bitter gourd for the first time. These thin shaven and chilled bitter gourd strips were served with a honey dip on the side. Crisp and refreshing they were.

Salt and pepper 蛏 fried in a light flour coat. We wanted to try more of these Duotou clam dishes since since they were still in the season. Those brown strips were tea tree mushrooms.

蛏 steamed with minced garlic. The main flavours came from the pungent sweetness in the garlic and light soya sauce pairing with textures that reminded me of bamboo clams. Nicely done.

Stir fried pig's liver. Not bad.

The other new dish from their menu we picked up were kelp seedlings with minced pork in chicken broth. I liked this.

Gotta do this with all that right?

Brewerkz, Orchard Rendezvous Hotel

Brewerkz has set up shop at Orchard Rendezvous Hotel (#01-08 Orchard Rendezvous Hotel, 1 Tanglin Road, tel : +65 9012 6154). You know, the one that used to be called Orchard Parade Hotel and used to house Black Angus Steakhouse and Modesto's right at the front. 

I remember lamenting over the quality and execution a few years ago. Seems like they've revamped their menu since and it was actually a change for the better.

But first, their craft beer - the Fort Siloso Chocolate Vanilla porter which lived up in flavour to its name. Not the Fort Siloso part.

Their chilled gazpacho with burratina was just the thing to help take the heat off the blistering weather. There's flavour of tomatoes and red bell peppers punctuated by tart sweetness from balsamic vinegar and little cubes of quince. All that with creaminess from the little burrata. Nice.

These were fried sardines in pilsner batter. Tasted a lot better than it looked. The batter was sufficiently light, crisp and enveloped those piping hot tender sardines. I'd eat this again.

Pretty much slurp off the bone lamb ribs with honey mustard. Portions were pretty generous for something under their appetizer section. Those chunks of beetroot on the side were sweet. No complains and definitely no qualms ordering this again.

They have a couple of dishes that are only available in this outpost. This tagliolini cacio e pepe with pan fried quail was one of them. This. Was. Delicious. Would have liked more pepper but otherwise the cheesy pasta was moreish. We had half expected the quail to be tough chewy but it was pleasantly moist, sufficiently tender with a good bite and had a nice flavour from the marinate. Could eat this again too.  

The other outlet exclusive dish was the mangrove red snapper sourced from Ah Hua Kelong. Great pairing from the creamy dashi beurre blanc and ikura. Hmmm...so familiar this one. Believe it or not, I could eat this again. How many times have you heard me say that already? I surprise even myself.

Dessert was their Oatmeal Stout tiramisu. Couldn't say that I could taste the booze but this was a competently done tiramisu. I like the flavour of the mascarpone in it.