A recent dinner at Wolfgang's Steakhouse

Family celebration at Wolfgang's. This was a nice one. Not to mention expensive.

Not impressive crab cake. Texturally or flavour wise, I did not think it worth the $42 they were charging.

Lobster bisque was so so. Can you imagine so so for a $34 soup? Well, at least it wasn't bad.

This might be the only time I get to see a porterhouse for four on my table. It's still the best tasting item from the spread we've had. I was dipping their rye into the beefy butter on the plate. 😬

While I'm curious about their other steaks, I'd be pretty happy just coming back for this one.

Creme brulee had a harder shell than expected. Custard's nice but kinda insufficient.

Loved their apple strudel though. The raisins reminded me of peas and the chunks of apples of roasted garlic. Best pea and garlic pastry I've had in a while. And this with all the tartness actually works with their schlag which I have previously never enjoyed.

Someone ordered tiramisu and I was initially apprehensive. Turned out to be not bad at all. What does this mean? It means that my instincts aren't always correct.

Of stuffed & truffled mushrooms and rare salmon katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Special of the month I believe from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison. It's truffled mushrooms on daikon oroshi on hire and on the left, mushrooms stuffed with prawn paste that's katsu-ed.

This rare salmon katsu reminded us of the one from Ippudo so we had to get it. It's tasted as good as it looked. With or without the tartare sauce.

Curry chicken noodle from Cantonese Delights

It's been a long while since the last time so that's my justification for the 40 minutes spent in the queue.

Got a bowl of their curry chicken noodle today. Chicken thigh was pretty big and meaty.

I personally prefer mee kia over the regular yellow noodle. Was it worth the queue? I would prefer to spend a lot less time in the queue if that were possible. But I enjoyed this.

Topped up the order with some of their fried chicken cutlet.

Burgs, 313 Somerset

I've heard about Burgs (#05-01/02/03, Stall 25, Food Republic, 313@somerset, 313 Orchard Road) for some time and haven't managed to try their burgers until now.

It wasn't bad per se but it was definitely underwhelming.

The mushroom burger had a couple of different mushrooms. One tasted like it came from a can. The other had texture of dried mushroom that wasn't hydrated sufficiently so it was a little chewy. Looked little like what the menu depicted.

There's nothing classic about their classic cheeseburger. It's their rendition that threw in pickled green chilli and fried shallots. Fried shallots that tasted/looked like it came from a plastic bag. Flavour's messy.

Beef patties were decent. Likeable chunky texture in my opinion and there's definitely the beefy flavour going on there. Buns were soft. Fries were surprisingly addictive. 

323 椰浆饭 Nasi Lemak, Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

It happened that I came to another stall with nasi lemak on their name (#01-48 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) and didn't get nasi lemak. I was looking for bee hoon and it was either this or the stall at the other end with an even longer queue.

Taste was okay. It's not the hell yeah I'm definitely coming back for the bee hoon kind of quality but it's edible. Not a fan of their chilli which probably works better on nasi lemak. Maybe I will try their nasi lemak the next time. 😅

Update 13/01/2024

So I did try the nasi lemak. Rice was decently flavoured and a little grainy textured. Fried tau kwa was unexpectedly tasty. The rest of the toppings on this plate weren't worth mentioning. I don't think their chilli is my thing.

More Nanjing Impressions (南京大牌檔)

Been a while since we were last here at Nanjing Impressions. Do I sense some of the enthusiasm from their staff ebbing?

That's bitter gourd lime tea. Couldn't taste any bitter gourd in it.

Salted duck porridge with baby fennel. I loved how the dill-ish fennel leaves and vinegar paired with the appropriately salted porridge. This has got to be the most delicious duck porridge I've had.

One of the oldies is their tofu with shrimp sauce (虾酱豆腐). Didn't taste like those we've had previously. This was was less shrimpy and more garlicky. A little disappointing.

Another oldie was their julienned bean curd (麻油素干丝) which was as good as we remembered them.

Madam Chiang's Beauty Porridge (民国美龄粥) is understatedly good like a non-complicated sweet oatmeal. Tasted like that as well. At least for us it was and did. I don't think we've ever not ordered it.

Trying their Jiangnan Seafood Bucket for the first time. The fishballs in it were intriguing with their super soft texture. Prawns were fresh and in general, seafood quality was good. Broth needs a bit more salt methinks.

Sautéed beef tendons (京葱爆牛筋) which we've had previously. Good with rice but we didn't get any rice today.

We got these lamb and fish dumplings because it sounded like it might be good. While it didn't taste bad, one also couldn't get much lamb or fish out of the meat paste stuffings in them.

First time getting their Jingling roast duck (金陵烤鸭). Meat was more tender than it looked and there was a think layer of fat beneath the skin for flavour. Not bad.

Trying their Huaiyang sweet strata cake (淮扬千层油糕) for the first time also. Texture's like bao or hua juan (花卷). Know what's crazy about this? There's a layer of oil in the middle of the cake that tasted like it came from lup cheong. Hell yeah! 👍🏼

Black sesame coffee from Coffee Break

This from the shop at Hong Lim. Notice the mottle surface on the coffee and the black specks along the rim of the cup. Instructions from them were to stir before drinking. Yes it does have black sesame flavour. Did not taste bad. Seems like there's toast on the menu these days.

Matcha soy milk with mochi from Chinese Tofu Magician (半仙豆夫)

This matcha flavour from Chinese Tofu Magician had less matcha flavour than the taro one had taro flavour.

Niu Bi, Amoy Street Food Centre

I came across Niu Bi (#02-98 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) by chance because once again, I've failed at getting my bowl at Teochew Beef Kway Teow. What intrigued me was their Teochew chilli dry bowl. What's interesting here from what I've read, was that the laddie in the kitchen was also previously involved in Gubak Kia. 

This wasn't bad at all. Chilli's not a killer with the default portions and perhaps I could have asked for more peanuts. Otherwise, this was a very decent bowl. Loved the slurpy kuey teow and tofu tender beef tendons. The slices of beef were pleasantly marinated and tender. Will come back another time.

There's a sly reference on their signboard referencing their niu tradition since 1921 - the year when Hock Lam Beef Noodles was set up. So if you understood the linkages that ran all the way back, it's this stall -> Gubak Kia -> Empress Place Teochew Beef Kway Teow -> Hock Lam.

忘不了萝卜糕 (Unforgettable Carrot Cake), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Pretty unforgettable name. 😂 I can't fathom why they thought having 'Lontong Goreng' on their signboard would make a difference though since pretty much no one associates radish cakes with those. (#01-30 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) 

Anyways, there was a queue which I discovered was moving slowly after we've committed to getting a plate. This was the $5 portion. The kuey was chunky and had a nice taste. I think there were four eggs in this plate and some cai por was hidden inside. As a whole, it was lightly salted and I do not believe I tasted any fish sauce in it.

Ah Fong Noodle (亞峯), Holland Village Food Centre

This unit (#01-14 Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong) used to be Ming Fa. Don't know when Ah Fong Noodle took over. Tried their bak chor mee. It's edible.

Noodles were kinda soft rather than firm with a nice bite. I'm not enthused by it. Chilli and vinegar were pretty generic tasting. All these simply coalesced into a bowl that lacked character if you catch my drift. Doesn't suck but I'm also not looking forward to it again.

Bukit Merah View Fishball Minced Meat Noodle (红山景鱼圓肉脞麵), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Not a bad tasting bowl from Bukit Merah View Fishball Minced Meat Noodle (#01-45 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) though this was more of a fishball noodle than bak chor mee. The only thing that made this a minced meat bowl was minced meat. There're no other pork cuts or even stewed mushrooms that many bcms tend to include.

Ingredients were generic factory produced stuff but the chilli saucing appeared to be different. There was something tangy in it if I wasn't mistaken and it tasted noticeably different from other such noodles. Not a bad bowl like I've mentioned but I think I've got to come back again sometime to understand it a little better. 

Surprise update 29/4/2024...

Got the larger bowl today which has one more meatball and a bit more noodles. What bothered me was that the noodles today appeared to be more cooked so the texture's no good. Saucing also felt a little sticky and didn't have the tangy flavour I was intrigued by the last time. I'm ranking this at the bottom end of ordinary.

Master Prata without prata

No prata for us today at Master Prata. They have a bunch of other things on their rather extensive menu which we wanted to start exploring.

Like their nasi goreng hati ayam - fried rice with chicken liver. Devilishly crimson.

Not bad tasting but one has to accept that the fried chicken livers from mamak stalls such as these are generally dry. Powdery kind of dry. Which strangely works when I crushed them into the rice and they ended up adding a flavour/texture that reminded me of fried fish roe. Like I said, strange. 

That's chapati with mutton keema. Keema's texture was kinda different from the usual. These had potato and something else inside. Tasted more like a mutton masala if you asked me. 

The creamy chicken kuruma packed more heat than the looks suggested. Chicken was impressively tender, even for breast meat.

Something sweet and milky to wash down - bandung dinosaur and some halia susu. The hot ginger milk was sweet in a good way.