Back at Ma Maison Kitchen

Dinner at Ma Maison Kitchen.

That's the onion gratin soup. Beef stock with onions and a slice of baguette in a cup covered in cheese. It's their rendition of the French soupe à l’oignon and a weak one at that. 😂

They changed their recipe for their deep fried gyutan. We know because we've had them previously. The breading was oily and there's a discernible flavour of ginger which was never there before. Today's tongue was also hard and chewy. What was that expression about mending things that are not broken again? 🤔

Pretty good Camembert beef stroganoff. I mean, their beef stroganoff has always been nice in a rich wine-y beefy manner with sweet onions and moreish chunks of beef. Having it was some Camembert in no way diminishes that. Even though it wasn't one of the better Camembert we've had.

I've been curious about their Napolitan spaghetti for a while but have resisted ordering it because the primary flavouring ingredient is ketchup. Did not expect the egg in theirs though. We finally tried it today. It's not as bad/sweet as I imagined. Also no bell peppers in it. Actually very edible with powdered cheese. 😬 Don't mind getting this again.

More eating at Jew Kit

Been a while since we were last at Jew Kit.

There's Hokkien mee on their menu. Did not taste like the kind of Hokkien mee that one usually gets from Hokkien mee stalls. Seemed more soupy and appears to have less infusion of the stock into the noodles. While the bee hoon tasted like it had soaked that flavour in, the yellow noodle did not. Stock was quite nice tasting though. The sambal/chilli tasted like the kind of lime-y chilli sauce that Putien uses. I like them but the flavour was pretty overwhelming.

Man their chickens are good. This was a single serving portion with thigh meat which we ordered from their Set A which oddly appears to be cheaper than the single serving portion of chicken for one.

Chicken rice set came with a bowl of meatball soup. These meatballs were delicious. 👍🏼 No dried sole flavour in them but they were gently sweet.

Coffee's fragrant but unsatisfyingly diluted.

More drinks from TWG

This was the TWG at Takashimaya. We broke out of the Dulcet Rose routine and tried a Hawaiian Breeze. The menu described it as a mocktail of fresh pineapple juice, creamy coconut milk and Number 12 Tea. Definitely getting the pineapple juice and the coconut milk wasn't as creamy as I imagined - which was a good thing. I don't know what's the Number 12 Tea but it tasted suspiciously like rooibois. Anyways, we liked this.

This was Indian Night Tea shake. Menu described it as black tea with spices, vanilla & caramel. Personally, it reminded me of payasam. Or any of the numerous Indian desserts made from rice/cottage cheese, milk and sugar. Milky, sweet and gently spiced for this one but I'm not sure if I'm getting cardamom here. Will come back for it again.

Orh-Kee Noodles (潶志麵家), Killiney Road

I've passed by Orh-Kee Noodles (65 Killiney Road) a number of times and have been wanting to try their noodles for a while. It finally happened.

Got a bowl of their signature minced meat and the one with fishballs and meatballs. Everything's a lot prettier on the picture on their menu and the actual portions felt small. 

The scallops for one did not come with shells. 😂 But I love their mee kia. These were the flatter variety that were of better quality. Note to self : ask for extra noodles the next time.

What struck me was for minced meat noodles, I found it odd that the minced meat was in the soup and not the noodles. 😕 That being said, soup had a nice porcine infusion and was delicious. 

Meatball & fishball bowl had a lighter tasting broth unlike the one from the signature bowl. Meatballs were good. Stinky with ti poh and were not the regular factory bought ones. These were larger and more rough hewn.

Orh Huat Bak Chor Mee (烏發肉脞面), Chinatown Food Centre

This visit to Orh Huat Bak Chor Mee (Yellow Zone, #02-033 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) came about after I read about the owner being linked to Ah Orh - the man behind a Teochew institution Ah Orh Seafood Restaurant. Which I don't think I've ever eaten at. Anyways the proprietor claims to the the younger brother in their pool of 11 siblings. 😮‍💨 It appears that this stall has nothing to do with Ah Orh and his restaurant.

I'm not impressed by the bak chor mee. Mee pok's a bit too soft. I ordered a bowl with chilli and it also had ketchup...why?! The rest of the ingredients were decent. Pig liver's actually pretty well cooked and that "meatball" thingy was not bad tasting. But it's not incentive enough for me to want to come back considering that there are plenty of bcms out there that's pretty good eating.

Wo Wo Dian (窝窝店), Raffles City

These guys (B1-13/14/15 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) are some Sichuan pork bun specialist from which opened up not long back. They've been around before JRR Tolkien was born and are purported to use traditional recipes for their food which...I guess is as old as they are. Not that I could tell.

One of the things they're known for are their century old traditional pork buns which are made with a fermented starter akin to how sourdough is made. 

The seasoning for the pork stuffing was light so one can taste a porcine quality from the meat. Wasn't bad but it was kinda underwhelming considering that it was a century old recipe.

Water and tea is complimentary.

Kung bao eggplant and shrimp balls - this dish is a local exclusive. The kung bao sauce was a little tangier and less caramel-y than the local rendition. Those cube things are fried eggplant. Wouldn't say that it tasted bad but I wouldn't get it again.

酸菜鱼 was pretty weak. It's actually kinda sad compared to the recent one we had from Xiang Xiang Hunan Cuisine. The broth was neither as sour nor as spicy and there weren't nuances to it.

Paris Brest avec le eau noire shake at TWG

Mid day escape to TWG at Swissôtel The Stamford.

We had an eclair shaped Paris Brest previously. Here's another in a more common form. Nice. Loved the praline crème and salted caramel amidst the textures and toasted hazelnuts. 👍🏼👍🏼

No, I did not escape the Dulcet Rose today. But we ventured out and also got us their eau noire shake. Eau noire according to the menu is black tea with lavender, flowers and chocolate. I tasted chocolate and spices. Bugged me that I couldn't tell specifically which ones. The shake's a little dry - meaning that it left little aftertaste which I liked. I wanted to say that it's pretty good but in a flash of lucidity, I realized that's kinda vague-ish and subjective so I'll go with I enjoyed it.

Revisiting Shahi Maharani North Indian Restaurant

Revisiting Shahi Maharani North Indian Restaurant with the intent to try at least one dessert this time round. 😬

There's a bunch of fruits other than raisins in their Kashmiri pulao. The texture was akin to unripe papaya but I couldn't put my finger to what they actually were. Oh there's peas too. First time encountering them in this rice dish. Wasn't bad but I'm not getting the "gotta come back for this" feels.

Navrathan korma. Interesting tidbit I found out recently was that 'navrathan' is a Sanskrit word which means nine gems. The menu described the dish to come with nine vegetables. I don't remember if there were actually nine but the korma was delicious. Like the one we had previously here, it was creamy yet did not settle heavily.

Badshahi keema muttar. 'Badshahi' translates from Urdu to royal/monarch. So I'm guessing that the name of the dish means royal keema muttar - which is minced mutton and peas if anyone was wondering. Not bad this one. Tasted like a spicy meat porridge infused with a pleasing warmth from the spices. 

Raita with cucumber. Yoghurt was infused with cumin.

So a little of this and that. Bread would have been great too but we didn't get those this time round.

Dessert was their carrot halwa - I'm pretty sure there's cooked nuts in it as well, maybe cashews and there's definitely orange zest added to it. Yeap, those are crushed pistachios. These on top of the base buttery cardamom-y sweetness. I like this. 👍🏼

米粉面 from Yip Economical Bee Hoon (葉記經濟米粉)

Queue can get pretty long at Yip Economical Bee Hoon. They're out of glutinous rice this time which I initially wanted to get so I ended up with 米粉面 with some fried eggs, nitrites and carcinogens drizzled in chilli sauce for a yummy rainy morning breakfast. The bee hoon can be inconsistently smoky methinks.

Sweet and sour pork from Xing Long Food Stall (興隆菜社)

We were back here to relive the delicious fermented bean sauce fish head and 红烧豆腐 at Xing Long Food Stall. The proprietress suggested a few other dishes for consideration and we ended up choosing their sweet and sour pork. Aka gu lou yuk. Aka 咕噜肉.

So, the sweet and sour pork. Chunks of pork meat/fat shaped like meatballs, deep fried and then stir fried in their tangy sweet sauce which I found pretty addictive. What's different about this plate were the chunks of cucumber. The texture of those were similar to pickles minus the sour - a first time encounter on gu lou yuk. Love the pineapples.