Chinatown Teh Tarik, Sago Street

I've only noticed Chinatown Teh Tarik (40B Sago Street) some months back. I think. They're located in a shophouse at the junction of Sago Street and Trengganu Street - right behind Smith Street Food Centre. A stone's throw from Buddha Tooth Relic Temple as well.

I swear this could have passed off as a place like Taiwan. But we're not there. Did not look as picturesque in real life when I was taking the shot.

Anyways, they're a mamak stall. Looked Indian Muslim and we're familiar with what they generally offer. That's a masala prata with egg and onion. The masala component of it was curried potatoes. It's not bad tasting. Prata wasn't overly crispy and had a bit of chew. What was odd was that in spite of how much onions they put inside, there wasn't much of the acidity from those.

Also tried an uttapam with onions. Also not bad. Coconut chutney was a little gingery while the orange chutney was.....I like it. Spicy savoury and something in it oddly reminded me of bean sprouts. That last part was unexpected.

We had a thosai too.

If you're still figuring out, those bits inside are canned mushrooms. There's cheese in it as well. The plastic ones. Pretty decent.

What was obvious though from both the uttapam and thosai was that the rice flour batter they used barely had any of the tang normally associated with fermentation. Those flavours which I had been looking forward to felt toned down.

满族全羊铺 Manchurian Lamb Hot Pot - 羊肉汤火锅

The name's a little confusing but these guys are Restaurant Manchurian. They've rebranded themselves with the name Manchurian Lamb Hot Pot - 羊肉汤火锅 but have for some reasons not updated their signage. Don't know when this happened. Menu's changed as well - some of the old stuff we used to have aren't available anymore. There's also a bit more emphasis on hot pot. 

Fortunately the lamb skewers are still on the menu. Like their tendon/meat thingy (烤羊筋皮) which seem to be chunkier than I remember them.

The regular 羊肉串儿 seemed to have lost a bit of their edge. Spice powdering was less intense and a bit more browning on the grill would have been great.

There's lamb brains which as I recall wasn't in their old menu. Came in a nice salty mala-esque sauce which was surprisingly light on the heat. No 麻 and not much 辣.

Yang zhou fried rice - pretty bland. Needed the sauce from the lamb brain dish which did it wonders.

Trying their lamb belly with mutton 草原肚包肉 for the first time. It's minced lamb that's bagged in lamb tripe - the closest thing to haggis for all the 'haggis' that they like to use on their menu which actually describes offal.

Pretty good. Both the minced mutton and the stomach were tender. That green sauce on the side - I don't know what it was but it was refreshingly herbaceous and savoury. Kinda like a Chinese pesto.

Got ourselves some grilled lamb ribs. These were good.

There's 油茶面 on the menu; something I am acquainted with from childhood as mee teh. It's mostly powdered fried onion, flour and sugar that one mixes with hot water to form a broth/paste. From experience, I know the decent ones can be difficult if not impossible to get these days because I've tried some and they're all lacking in the aroma from the fried onions.

I don't remember sesame seeds in the one which I grew up eating. This rendition even had raisins in them. Not bad tasting but the flavour didn't pack the punch I was hoping for and it wasn't as gooey as I liked.

We ordered this because it said sheep milk tea (自炒羊奶茶) on the menu. I thought it would be tea with sheep's milk. Did not taste like tea. I was imagining that the milk might resemble goat's milk but it didn't as well. And it was salty.

More desserts from Yat Ka Yan (一家人)

Trying a couple of stuff from Yat Ka Yan (一家人) which we haven't before. That's mango with ice cream - it looked a lot more yellow and refreshing from the picture on the menu. Mango was kinda sour which offset the sweetness from the ice cream. Nicely done but I don't know if that was by accident or design.

Almond barley beancurd - which was essentially fu chuk yi mai (腐竹薏米) with almond. This one was nice. Beancurd was pretty shredded though.

Kotuwa, Wanderlust

Kotuwa (Level 1 Wanderlust Hotel, 2 Dickson Road, tel : +65 6970 7838) of Unlisted Collection is by Rishi Naleendra of the former Cheek By Jowl. They're Sri Lankan - or rather a modern interpretation of it.

A shout out here to the bespectacled Chinese dude/wait staff who was with us and explaining the food. Thank you for the patience, for being discreetly observant and brimming with enthusiasm. We were here for lunch on 15th April.

This drink was Sozo - green orange with sea salt. Tasted like 酸梅.

First item up was their mutton rolls - panko-ed, fried served with tamarind ketchup on the side.

Spiced, packed a bit of heat yet balanced enough that it did not mute the flavours of the minced mutton in them. Delicious with and without the tamarind ketchup.

Rice of the day was with ghee, cashews and fried onions. I liked this one much.

That's the egg hopper - hopper being what locals would call appam. How this differs from the street variety appear to be less fermentation in the rice flour used to make the pancake. Hence it was noticeably less tangy. Edges were crispy and the non crispy parts were...actually kinda small. The egg covered most of it. 

The menu described this as Jaffna duck curry which was cooked in a light coconut gravy. More accurately, according to me that is, it's a duck confit in a pretty intense gravy that reminded me of a complex and intensely flavoured black pepper sauce. Wouldn't think of it as light coconut gravy for sure. Nice. Those crispy leaves were also spiced.

Pol sambol - tangy and savoury shredded coconut. Reminded me of the sambol at Rasa Raja Bojun. 

The lychees pickled in mustard and apple cider were delicious. Tangy, sweet and spicy at the same time. 👍🏼

Hell these were great together with the ghee rice.

Tried their watalappam tart. I tasted coconut, jaggery and spices amid the strips of orange zest in there. The green stuff were bits of pistachio and the cream on top was had a sweet milky cardamom flavour which reminded me of kheer/payasam.

The menu described this as buffalo curd parfait. I kept thinking cheese curds for some reason, totally forgetting that the word 'curd' in Indian food refers to yoghurt. So after the first mouthful I remembered. I'd call it yoghurt kulfi - with crushed cashews and a very understated Kithul caramel.

Ended with a cold coffee - Sri Lankan styled according to the menu. Pretty thick, spiced, sweet and milky. I think this needs less ice. A lot less ice.

"Very Hot" dan dan noodle from Enishi

In spite of appearances and the "very hot" option on their spicy-meter, this dan dan noodle from Enishi wasn't very spicy at all. I thought it was mild. The difference between this and "medium hot"...barely registered. Still delicious though. I've figured out a combination which worked today with this bowl. A few scoops of the house made chilli, some pepper from their mill and a few swirls of their orange vinegar made a rockin' bowl. For me it did. 

To frame a reference - even with that extra heat, it was nowhere close to Ikkousha's God Fire Level 4.

More hot pottery at Shi Li Fang (食立方)

More hot potting at Shi Li Fang. I've never been big on hot pots/steamboats for a large part of my life until this place and Happy Lamb Hotpot (快乐小羊). What likely made me reevaluate them was probably seeded by the surreal experience at Fong Wing Kee Hot Pot years ago. These places have changed my view slowly but surely in the past decade and so now I'll probably need to try Hai Di Lao someday since I haven't already. Hah! 😬

We've kinda stuck to the chicken collagen broth mostly. Savoury yet neutral the same.

I love these concoct your own sauces stations.

Noticed that they have a chilli sauce that I've never seen before. The type that tastes refreshingly spicy/sweet/tangy like those kickass ones that Putien has.

Their thin sliced pork is probably the best meat for the sauces we had.

Unlike lamb which I usually try not to get too much sauce on.

I'm not going to describe everything else because.

The experience here so far has always been pretty good.

It's a place I look forward to for something that is frills free.

Until the day comes when I try Hai Di Lao. I hear they're good.

Gotta get the vegetable game up here.

Frozen scallops are actually quite nice.

You tiao is great for dipping into the broth.

Man we had 15 quail eggs in this seating.