Revisiting Al-Ameen

Haven't eaten at Al Ameen (4 Cheong Chin Nam Road, tel : +65 6465 1000) for ages even though we've been in the vicinity from time to time. 

Got suckered by their date milkshake. One could definitely see and feel the bits of the skin from the dates but I wouldn't say I could taste it. The milk tasted like evaporated milk and it was pretty watery. In the end, I felt like I was just drinking cold sweet milk with a little bit of flavour which I couldn't identify. No more milkshakes from them.

Heard good things about their cheese naan.

Hell yeah these were good. You could tell how much mozzarella was in there from the cheese pull. Not to mention as well that there was a glaze of butter on them. These were good enough to eat on their own. 👍🏼

Still we had a palak paneer to go with those naan. Decent tasting and garlicky.

What pleasantly surprised also was their mutton murtabak. It didn't look like much and we were initially a little bit disappointed by its appearance. But it was delicious. Great mutton-y flavour and finely diced onions that paired with it. Good enough to eat on its own without the curries as well. 👍🏼

Iced teh halia was nice and creamy with an enjoyable sweetness. I guess it's safer to stick to something more traditional than a date milkshake.

Sabar, 100AM

It has been a long while since we last ate at Sabar. That would have been the time when they were still located at the defunct Japan Food Town at Wisma Atria. Remember that place? This was our first time at their current location (#03-14, 100 AM, 100 Tras Street, tel : +65 6443 8827) which used to house the also defunct Nadai Fujisoba Ni-Hachi. 

Their grilled saba teishoku at lunch was a good value. $18.80 on weekends and $13.80 weekdays. Get a load of the size of the fish. 

There's a lot more meat than most if not all other grilled mackerel served in any teishoku out there. Skin was crisp, meat was moist and the belly fatty. The fish had been thoughtfully deboned. Most of the head was crispy and edible as well. The mouthfeel was satisfying because this was a fish you could eat large mouthfuls.

They have saba fish & chips. Batter's crunchy and nicely flavoured. Not bad.

Tried their shoyu marinated saba toro sashimi which was kinda how I expected it to taste. Smooth and infused with with the flavour of the soy sauce marinade. Wasabi's a blend of the grated root and paste.

Saba miso tartar. Has a much lighter flavour than the sashimi/grilled/simmered ones. 

Cheese egg prata from Ali Fatimah Food Stall

My first cheese egg prata from Ali Fatimah Food Stall. Prata's as it looked and has consistently been - a tender chewiness with a light crisp. I think it's sliced cheese in there which was nice because of the saltiness.

Bee tai bak from Tai Wah Pork Noodle (大華肉脞麵)

First time getting the rat's tail noodle/bee tai bak from Tai Wah at Holland Drive. This tasted like it was of totally different standards from the previous visits. Today's bowl was noticeably more bland and less vinegary. Quantity of the toppings appear to have lessened significantly - noticeably so was the minced meat which looked pathetic. I'm hoping this was a one off which shouldn't be happening in the first place. Definitely not worth what I paid for. 

Revisiting Fu Xiang Chicken Rice (福翔鸡饭)

It's been a long time since we were last here for chicken rice. Too long perhaps. This was dinner, so the rest of their meats like char siew, roast pork and poached chicken have been sold out for the day. Only roast chicken was available. No matter that, since it was these that they were known for and also one of the things we wanted to eat from them.

Half chicken with a couple of hard boiled eggs. Chicken was fresh out of the fryer and we had to wait for them to be sufficiently cooled before they could chop up the bird. One could tell just how recent they had been cooked from the heat within the meat. What's notable about Fu Xiang's roast/fried chicken is that they're not dry like most tend to be.

It can be hard to settle for just one serving of rice when we're here.

The knot beneath the green butterfly

 The ties that bind. From Tai Wah Cooked Food.

Abalone Black Pepper Fried Rice Max from Wok Hey

This was the Chinese New Year flavour of fried rice from Wok Hey. Who would have thunk? Black pepper fried rice with little abalones and pineapple. It's not bad tasting as well because the rice was suitably peppery and spruced up with a bit of their chilli with occasional burst of sweetness from the pineapple. The abalones weren't the rubbery ones as well.

PPP Coffee, Funan

PPP Coffee (#02-19 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road) used to be known as Papa Palheta. We've been to Papa Palheta once years ago in a back alley setup and I remember not disliking their coffee. We stopped by their current outfit today. Mostly because we were curious about the cakes. 😂

Like this one which was a pistachio lemon cake. It's nutty from the taste and texture but I couldn't definitively identify it as pistachio. I know it was because they said so. The only lemon came from the layer of lemon curd on the top. So lemony was only for one section of the cake. We didn't dislike it though. Cake was pleasant as a whole with the slightly dense crumbly texture.

Lychee rose cake lived up to its name. Similar texture to the pistachio lemon one. So far cakes ok.

Got a couple of drinks to go with those cakes. Mocha was very coffee-y and not much chocolate. Pleasant drink but mocha wouldn't be the first thing that came to mind. The one in the glass was their espresso tonic. Hell yeah this was good. Espresso + tonic water....not rocket science I know. But I liked how they did theirs. Pretty sure the coffee they used made a difference.

More food from Brinda's

These came by from a few more visits to Brinda's.

There was this one time...

I wanted to know how their idli/idly fared. It's not as fluffy as I imagined but then again, I've to disclaim that it was dinner and I don't know if it's because it's been left out. I don't imagine that they make them to order. It's slightly more bouncy/rubbery than the usual texture. Not gonna say that I won't be having them here anymore but they wouldn't be my first pick. 

Decent Kashmiri pulao. I'm not sure if it's all basmati rice and I don't think it was. There's diced maraschino cherries, raisins and cashews rounded up with ghee. That creamy raita on the side was an add on and was absolutely great pairing with the rice.

And then there was this other time...

Curd rice. It's their rendition. Beyond the yoghurt I could only taste the mustard seeds and there were strips of carrots in it for....texture? I found a single lonely dried chilli in there and wondered what its purpose was. Otherwise, can't say I didn't enjoy it.

They have lauki dal this time round. It wasn't bad per se but that something that I couldn't put a finger to previously wasn't there. So I gather there's going to be some inconsistency with it or that previous time was a one off to taunt me with something that I will never get from here again.

Wouldn't get their fish tikka again. Fish wasn't good quality and the tandoor smokiness was lacking. Did not taste freshly made - more like microwaved.

Another one more time...

Not the typical local Indian maggie goreng that was moreishly salty. This one was wet, not red and I could taste some tomato in it.

That's a dosai masala with egg and cheese. The dosai did not taste very fermented and the texture was soft without the least bit of crisp. The quick prep time also led me to believe that they were pre-made and heated quickly on the griddle just before serving. Didn't taste bad though.

Thick milky Bru coffee. Nice.

Yip Economical Bee Hoon (葉記經濟米粉), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Remember me mentioning the stall at the other end with a longer queue? Turned out that was Yip Economical Bee Hoon (#01-33 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View). In retrospect I understood why there was that queue. The bee hoon was much better tasting with natural looking fried eggs and a chilli sauce which wasn't annoyingly/cloyingly sweet. The luncheon meat slices here appear to be coated in a thin egg wash.

Tried their yam cake and chee cheong fun with just the basic light soya sauce, sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Pretty decent rendition which I had no complains about. I may convince myself to put up with the queue the next time after all.

A yam puff from Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (东陵酥皮咖喱角)

So I noticed that there're yam puffs from Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff and was intrigued. Didn't detect any particular additional flavour in the yam paste fillings so it was pretty much just that. What I didn't expect was that the puff was kinda hollow on the inside in spite of the full appearances. I assumed that it would be totally filled with that hot sweet yam paste but this turned out to be like a bag of potato chips. A little disappointed.

Ah Fatt Handmade Fishball Noodle (亚肥), Hong Lim Food Centre

Noticed Ah Fatt Handmade Fishball Noodle (#02-10 Hong Lim Food Center, 531A Upper Cross Street) the last time we were here and came back for breakfast because these guys have the grace to be open on Sundays. This was the bowl with fishcake, mushroom, minced meat and the balls - or what's listed as 1 on their menu. Not a bad bowl though I need to disclaim that their soya sauce marinated chilli helped with injecting extra heat which made everything easier to inhale. The fried fishcake was delicious - pretty similar tasting to the one from Khin Kee at Havelock. Will return.

One week later...

This was expensive. Ordered the shrimp dumpling minced meat noodle (虾饺肉脞面) and there was only one shrimp dumpling. It was delicious, packed with minced pork and a shrimp but for $8, didn't represent value for money. Getting a bowl of regular mince meat noodle with an additional bowl of shrimp dumpling soup would cost a few dollars more and net you more dumplings. Gotta remember that.

Bacon fried rice from King of Fried Rice

There's streaky bacon fried rice at King of Fried Rice. After having them for nth amount of times, I've come to the conclusion that these guys which have gotten popular from their Din Tai Fung styled fried rice, isn't as good as Din Tai Fung. Also, those bacon weren't as browned as the pictures led me to believe and were kinda limp. Pretty bland plate for something that has bacon. What's with the fear of salt with so many stalls these days?

Burning Melanzana, Moussaka and what intimate plate at Miznon

Back at Mizon.

The complimentary pita with chilli and tahini is always welcomed. Great to load up with if not for the fact that we were already ordering more pitas. 

Got a couple of eggplant pitas today.

• Burning Melanzana - eggplant with a slab of toasty fried mozzarella. I couldn't taste much of the eggplant. It was mostly the mozzarella and yeah, I liked it.
• Moussaka - beef ragout, eggplant, tahini, chilli and pickles. Also not getting the eggplant but the rest of it was delicious. Loved how the meatiness from the ragout came through. Wouldn't have known there was eggplant in it if not for the menu.

Ironic how we had gotten eggplant pitas and it was the other stuffings that shone because......eggplant. 😅

Their Intimate Plate was not memorable. I've seen it on the menu for a while now and it was basically the short rib that intrigued. In retrospect, the slightly stringy short rib was right at the bottom of the list on the plate. Not the fatty flavourful beefy short rib I imagined. Will not be getting this again.