Mala kampua noodles from Swan City Noodle House (天鹅城面家)

This was the mala (麻辣) version of the kampua noodles from Swan City Noodle House. Possibly the weakest "mala flavoured" rendition of local noodles I've had. While in the past I've been thinking that most of these were generally not much 麻 or 辣 - this was the mildest. Wouldn't have registered compared with Shiok Shiok or  Gimee Face.

It wasn't bad, just not mala and the chilli was pretty weak. What I discovered though was that their vinegar pickled red chilli did a nice acid introduction to the noodles. It's similar to the commonly found pickled green variety. Will get more of those the next time.

Honbo, Chijmes

I probably wouldn't have taken interest or walked in if I hadn't known anything about Honbo (#01-09 Chijme, 30 Victoria Street). But we did from their shop at Wan Chai a few years back.

Setup was diner-esque, looking like a burger restaurant with table service. Run by a guy with a Hong Kong accent who obviously bases his behaviour on whom he thinks he's talking too. Nice and patient with a chiobu at the bar while brusque with others. I meant curt. Anyways, they're at the spot that used to be Tonkatsu by Ma Maison.

We had apple pie tea. Cinnamon flavoured tea with a slice of apple?

Honbo 2.0 was delicious. I mean it kicks Shake Shack in the ass and connects solidly kind of delicious. 😂 Burger looked thick with the 4 X 2oz smash patties but was tender and beefy and cheesy. Oozing juices like Omakase burger dripping their liquid cow into the wrapper. Pretty greasy but gratifying $28 there.

There's a limited time scallop burger. Just two sizeable scallops with pesto. I'm sure it tasted nice. If not for the cilantro/coriander in the pesto they've conveniently neglected to mention. 

Fries nice. 

Blue cheese dip which on hindsight wasn't necessary because the fries were good enough to eat on their own.

Jun Yuan House Of Fish, Clementi Central

This was a bowl of XO 双鱼汤 from Jun Yuan House Of Fish just next door to Texas Lone Star at the Kopitiam in Clementi Central (#01-271, 450 Clementi Avenue 3). Don't know if the XO meant that there's liquor in it because I couldn't taste any. 

What was apparent for me was that it's better tasting than the recent bowl from Jia Li Seafood Soup with a deeper flavour. There's a more rounded savouriness if you would. Also less expensive. That being said, we didn't get red grouper this time. But we were much happier with this one.

Texas Lone Star, Clementi Central

Pretty decent chicken chop from Texas Lone Star (#01-271, 450 Clementi Avenue 3). They're a local western food stall in Kopitiam. What made this memorable was the creamy mushroom sauce the slathered on top of the meat. Tasted like the ones from Botak Jones. Coleslaw's a little more sour than I imagined and that pilaf rice on the side tasted mostly of the brown onion-y sauce. This plate was a bit more pricey than I expected for a coffeeshop.

Jia Li Seafood Soup, Holland Village

I've been seeing the mention of Jia Li Seafood Soup quite a bit of late so we checked out the branch at Holland Village which was located in the same coffeeshop as Pepper Castle (33 Lorong Liput).

It's okay. I wasn't sure what to expect but I didn't think it was impressive. This was the sliced red grouper soup. I wouldn't classify the flavour of the soup as great. Just passable. Measly quantity of slice red grouper and the texture was suspect. They're normally pretty firm and these were falling apart when I picked them up with my chopsticks. Meat patties were not bad tasting though. Should I have ordered the seafood soup that they're supposedly known for instead of fish soup?

Revisiting Pavilion Banana Leaf

Back at Pavilion Banana Leaf. Mango lassi's nice in a way where the flavours of both the mango and curd were balanced with each other. Delicious but not a lot of volume though and it did look very yellow.

We've seen a number of people ordering the lamb shank briyani. It wasn't bad tasting. Lamb was tender and the rich masala was spicy and nutty. But for at about $40, the portions of both the shank and the rice were pretty small.

This was masala chilli prawn. From the name, it sounded red or brown and smothered in a thick gravy. The dish turned out in an off-white (albeit very) and spicy coconut gravy.

The coconut-y gravy was infused with sweetness from onions, the crustacean flavours from the prawns and heat from chillis. 3 large meaty prawns with head fat. This was more delicious than I had imagined.

Some butter naan to soak up the masala chilli prawn's milky richness.

Lontong with paru and begedil for breakfast at Nusa & Tara

This lontong from Nusa & Tara was so satisfying. Savoury lemak from the coconut-y gravy, saltiness from the paru goreng and some spiced sweetness from the serunding.

Kuey teow dry from Ethan My Prawn Noodles

Came back to try the dry kuey teow from Ethan My Prawn Noodles. This was their classic bowl that includes sliced pork.

It's very light on the salt. Even so after I've emptied the soya sauce into the bowl. What really added salt for me though was their sliced chilli. Their version of dry kuey teow also came with some dark soya sauce. Hmmm...

Soup's like the last time but I thought it was better drinking today.

Re-revisiting Ramen Hitoyoshi (ラーメン人吉)

Ramen Hitoyoshi's spicy tonkotsu isn't very spicy. It is however savoury in a different way from their regular tonkotsu bowl from the spicy meat paste. Can't put a finger on exactly what brand of umami that added. Haven't quite identified it.

Todays special charshu bowl had smokey melty charshu unlike the bacon they gave us the last time. It was also significantly thicker than the ones we had in the first visit. Now we know this is inconsistent.

More food at The Hainan Story Chapter One

It's been a while since the last time we were at The Hainan Story Chapter One. There're some limited time Milo themed stuff on their menu.

Like their Hainanese Three Treasures drink which is iced yuan yang + Milo. Pretty impressed that this drink succeeded in balancing the coffee, the tea and the Milo flavours.

Hmmm......fried chicken with Milo. A familiar combination. Methinks the Milo chicken cutlet needs more Milo powder for a more robust malty chocolate taste. That tangy/sweet/slightly spicy bbq sauce on the side paired pretty well with Milo chicken cutlet. If I were to venture a guess, I'd think it was spicy ketchup with Worcestershire sauce. Fried chicken was passable but not impressive. Fries were forgettable.

I like the light tomato flavour in the local Hainanese borscht profile of the beefy oxtail stew. Paired nicely with the buttery mash. Pity the dish failed with the tenderness of the oxtail. It's a pain in the ass dealing with meat you can't easily remove on such bony cuts.

Abalone fried rice from Chef Wang

The long queues are no longer around at Chef Wang Fried Rice. This was my first time eating this at the food centre since the previous times were during the COVID 19 restriction period and takeout was the only option. Since I've already tried the one with pork chop and prawn, I thought why not give the pricier abalone one a go.

Verdict? It's nice. I was also hungry. The aroma of the plate wafted in as soon as I received it. At the risk of sounding cliché, I'm mentioning Din Tai Fung again. Felt like that once more like the first time I had it. Abalones were tender and springy. For $10, it's kinda pricey at a hawker centre considering also that the portions aren't huge.

Western Mahua (西部马华), Holland Village

I first noticed Western Mahua some time back. It was their stall at PLQ. I remember not seeing lamb on the menu but I'm also not sure if I remembered that correctly. Anyways, my interest wasn't there because it's Northwestern Chinese food and any respectable eatery doing that kind of food in my opinion needs to have lamb. Noticed that there was lamb on the menu at their branch in Holland Village (245 Holland Avenue).

Dunhuang Li Guang apricot tea. Not bad tasting but I wouldn't be able tell it apart from regular apricot tea.

I think this was called Lanzhou pickled cabbage. Savoury and a little sour with spices and chilli.

We had stir fried cabbage with crispy naan. Those naan are really crispy. They were more like crackers than bread. This plate of vegetable was not bad tasting.

We ordered grilled lamb thinking that we'd be getting sometime similar to the ones from Manchurian Lamb Hot Pot. These weren't bad but were also not as good as we were hoping for. Ribs need more browning and a bit more flavour from the dry rub would be nice. It also did not taste freshly grilled. I am pretty sure these were prepared in advanced and heated up. 

Don't know why they bothered with the pretence of a grill platter which was visually supported by a tealight below. I mean...what was that suppose to achieve?

Arabian fried rice. There's a choice between minced chicken or beef. This one was beef. The spices in the rice tasted Middle Eastern but I haven't actually had rice from Middle Eastern restaurants that tasted like this. Not bad though. Those cubes on top are the same crispy naan thingies which I believe is similar to the 馍 in yang rou pao mo.

Grilled potato slices were delicious. Why haven't I paid attention to these before?

Yang rou chuan (羊肉串) was chunky, moist and nicely spiced. Pretty decent but a little pricey.

We ended it with yoghurt and honey. The yoghurt was already sweetened and did not need the honey. The ones from Happy Lamb Hot Pot (快乐小羊) are nicer. 

Tsukimi Hamburg, CapitaSpring

Tsukimi Hamburg has a new outlet at Raffles Place (#01-05 CapitaSpring, 86 Market Street, tel : +65 6980 8798).

We've been wanting to try their hamburg teishoku for a while but their previous locations have always been somewhat inaccessible. Until now.

Their teishoku comes with a salad, egg drop soup and tsukemono. The nama tamago was an add on.

Tried the beef hamburg with raclette cheese. Apparently it's wagyu. Not beefy but pretty moist. Not particularly flavourful as well. Also not enough raclette cheese for the lack of beefiness.

This one was truffle omu pork hamburg. Nicely done but I didn't like the hint of ginger in the meat.

One could top up the teishoku with sides. Here's a sad looking foie gras.

Sarada is sarada. Ponzu dressing.

If anyone had been wondering where they get the egg whites for their egg drop soup......

......it's saved from their nama tamago. It doesn't come with egg white which is odd.

Because there is no egg white, the yolk doesn't have enough volume to coat the rice. So basically one would be just paying for the yolk. Speaking of the Hitomebori rice from the Miyagi prefecture, it's dry-ish and a little lumpy. Not impressive in the least.

Suju and Keria has more or less set the benchmark so any lower was just disappointment. Think about that for a moment - a tamago kake gohan depended on just the quality of the ingredient, which is egg and rice, and little in the way of skills of preparation other than the cooking of rice. It's not a very high bar to meet.