Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant, New Bridge Road

We've eaten at Long Phung at Joo Chiat once years ago. Left the place pretty impressed with what we had. This wasn't so much the case for their new setup at Chinatown (239/241 New Bridge Road). Their noodles kinda derailed everything we had expected.

Ordered a tomato smoothie out of curiosity. It was more like an ice blended drink with tomato and milk than an actual creamy textured smoothie I had been imagining. 

Vietnamese iced coffee was aromatic, strong and sweet. 

Disappointed with their phở đặc biệt. There was way too much broth for the rice noodles and said broth was more sweet than savoury. It took a few squeezes of lemon and fish sauce to get through this bowl. Anyways, this was what we got when I asked them to leave out the coriander. They apparently left out everything.

Mi kho tom thit also had a sweet-ish sauce which we did not see coming. It looked like a plate of savoury egg noodles.

I remember that there used to be pork belly in their gỏi xoài. This one didn't but as a mango salad, I didn't see that as a deal breaker. I liked this.

They have pretty good chả giò. I haven't paid much attention to these much until recently and I'll be ranking these ones just below those from May Pho Culture.

More lunch at Beauty World...

Lunch at Beauty World Food Centre.

Many would agree that this lamb kofta thingy from Hapiha doesn't look the least bit appetizing. No shit on that. Pun intended. 😂 There's some flavour from the caramelization on those but I would have preferred them to be more fatty for a bit more pronounced lamb flavour.

Got myself a bowl of sui gao soup (水饺汤) from Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice. Haven't had these in a while. There'll be no more innard pics here because we all already know how the stuffings look like. Did not expect them to throw in a couple of chicken claws though. Those were pretty slurp off the bone tender.

Nasi lemak extra rice and egg from Nusa & Tara

I mentioned doing extra rice and eggs from Nusa & Tara. What I didn't expect today were the hard boiled eggs. They gave me fried eggs the last time and I thought I'd be getting the same. It's a little more carb-y than what I usually do with all the extra rice so I shouldn't make a habit out of it. I achieved my goal of having half of them with and another half without the sambal. It's all good here.

Lady M, Orchard Central

Our first time at Lady M (#01-27/#02-07 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6509 3673). We've seen the crowds and have never understood it until today.

They're known for their mille crêpes. This one's with pistachio cream with a faint salty nuttiness amid the sweet creamy butteriness. Nice.

Here's another which has pineapple and layered with pineapple cream. Those stuff on top are white wine gelée. Also nice.

Erm......creme de la rose on top left. Needs an extra shot (which we wisely added) or otherwise, it's wouldn't have risen above being a "coffee flavoured milk with rose syrup" than the milk coffee with rose syrup it was supposed to be. Matcha latte was pretty thick but the matcha quality was suspect. Tasted questionably not aromatic.

Ye Olde Cow, Nepal Park

This relatively new burger truck at One North (80 Nepal Park) sells dry aged Australian Black Angus smash burgers. I read that one of the owners has written a thesis on dry ageing. Intriguing. These guys apparently 35 days dry age the meat themselves. Hmmm......

The menu's simple. 3 options for cheese burgers, fries and a salad. I wanted to taste the meat so I got the one with the least frills and doubled the patty. So just meat, cheese, caramelized onions and some mayo. To add a thought, the single patty might be a little thin.

The fries aren't bad. I like the flavouring from those beef crumbs. Tasted like beef bacon.

It's pretty good. The truck was perfumed by the beef flavours once cooking started. Meat was crusty like smash burgers should be, creamy from the cheese/mayo and dripping with juices. That soft bun held up till the end. Would love to come back but the Tuesday to Thursday opening hours make it difficult.

Omar Shariff, 6th Avenue

Have been wanting to try the food at Omar Shariff (#01-02 Sixth Avenue Center, 805 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 6466 7318) for a long time. They have been around since the 90s and have a menu that has a pretty large spread. The restaurant is just a couple of cartwheels away from Meat n' Chill.

They serve papadum, like most Indian restaurants here do. The accompanying yoghurt mint dip for the papadum has cumin in it. From experience, they usually don't. This was nice.

Trying tandoori prawns, for the first time I think.

These were awesome. The spice and yoghurt coated prawns were firm, meaty and smokey from their time in the oven. Amidst the smoke infused tanginess, they also packed more heat than we expected.

Samosa.

These were the regular variety with peas, curried potatoes and there's also chilli. Not bad tasting.

First of their curries was fish korma Kashmiri. Creamy, sweet and filled with chunks of fish and fruits. The latter tasted like they came from cans and the only fruit I managed to definitively identify were pineapples. In it's creamy sweet manner, this was delicious with both rice and naan.

This was called mutton rara. Never had them before. It's kinda like a spicy and nutty Indian bolognese made with minced and chunks of mutton. The meatiness was pretty intense. Here's where I repeat that they're great with rice and naan.

Speaking of rice, we ordered a serving of their sultana pulav. Basmati with sultana raisins and a bunch of spices like cardamom, star anise and cloves. And saffron. It's pretty visible from the picture that the pot of rice came with very generous amounts of raisins.

Not forgetting some freshly baked butter naan which are perfect with the gravies.

Why am I back in Sushi Tei?!

I don't eat here much. For my own reasons. The last time was quite a long while back. But after years, I tend to "forget" why I never come and I get suckered into something seasonal.

So that yuzu buri from their Yuki Matsuri menu. Couldn't taste the yuzu as much as I tried to. By even trying, I'm already trying too hard. If I had to try that hard to just discern a single flavour, I guess it just isn't there. But they can always blame it on their supplier. 

Why did they waste so much ice on a bowl just for these?

Pitan tofu was edible. Not one of the better ones for sure.

Menu calls this truffle yuzu mayonnaise ramen. I'm not sure why they would think that truffle would pair with yuzu well. That truffle flavour was synthetic with an 'S'. To strip it apart from the name, it's just noodles in ponzu and bits of tempura-ed prawns. Portion was pitifully at 3-4 mouthful of noodles at best so......it was a waste of money. I'm calling it what it was. 

I ordered their Miyazaki wagyu fried rice with the lowest of expectations even though the menu mentioned A4. Really? All I expected was just fried rice with beef and they failed to deliver even just that. Couldn't even tell the A4 Miyazaki wagyu was beef. For all the browning, there was no flavour. Pepper Lunch is way more beefy than this. 

What was truly odd was the lack of salt in it. Even after a couple of splashes of shoyu, it still tasted bland. That blandness was just...a case for Sam and Dean. Or Mulder and Scully.

Now I remember again why I never come back.

D'Link Stall, Golden Mile Food Centre

Chanced upon this stall (#B1-26 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) and was intrigued by their potato beef rendang curry puff. These were larger than the usual sized puffs and was packed pretty generously with the minced beef and potatoes. We got one that hasn't gotten off the fryer for long. Nice. Will come back again and try their other puffs.

Tsuta, 313 Somerset

I remember Tsuta some years back when they set up shop at Pacific Plaza with their kamo soba. It was new and it differentiated them. Especially their kamo abura soba which I liked. The place looked classy as a ramen-ya and the menu was focused. 

Fast forward a few years, their duck soba is no longer on the menu. There's expansion with a Funan shop and this one (#01-17, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road, tel : +65 9650 5495). Both of which felt kinda generic and didn't have the same vibes as the original.

Anyways, a bowl of their premium truffle shoyu soba. I'm not sure if this was exactly the same as their truffle shoyu bowl from the past. I'm getting tanginess from the broth and if I'm not mistaken, sweetness from fig compote made it taste a little herbal. Never remembered these from then. Menu mentioned kurobuta charshu - a slice each from the loin and belly.

Belly charshu was pitifully tiny. It just about covered the spoon.

This was their pepper bowl - kurobishio tonkotsu soba which featured black garlic oil, garlic and black pepper in the pork bone broth. There's minced pork in it. Flavour was robust and porcine, heavily bolstered with the garlic and pepper. Nice one.

I remember their sui gyoza because of shiso. Still like it.

The Bargers and The Cider Pit

Remember De Burg and their choco lamb burger? It's been at least a decade back. Apparently they're still around. The chef currently operates his current joint, The Bargers, right in the bowels kitchen of The Cider Pit (#01-03, 328 Joo Chiat Road, tel : +65 6440 0504). In the pit but not swallowed by the earth. A literal stone's toss from East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle.

The Cider Pit is a watering hole. Think they've been around and are doing pretty good. More ciders than other watering holes on tap definitely and while at that, the majority are non sparkling. Tried a Westons Vintage Reserve with a middling dry profile. Interesting but not my usual pour.

The bottled stuff from Brother Cider were nice. These had a commercially agreeable flavour and I liked the lemon and the caramel-y sweet honeycomb. 

What pulled the rug off my feet was their trio of calamari. Awesome fried squid with a flavourful crunchy batter that clung tight and meat that wasn't chewy. Each bite was clean and none of that thin batter loosened or fell apart. No excessive grease as well. Anyone who's had enough of fried calamari would know these don't come together on squid often. Rings, body and geso.   

So the choco lamb burger......

...or Choco LamBARger as it is known these days. Chopped onions, sliced tomato and some greens on that hefty 200g lamb patty sitting on a Nutella-ed heel.

Meat's dusky pink inside. I liked this then and I still like this now.

The other item that was unexpectedly good was their bitterballen. Beef stew in croquette form if you would.

Underneath the crunch was creamy tender beef piping hot and savoury. Mustard was a nice touch to cut through that richness.