Prata with coconut chutney and sugar from Anwar's Kitchen

The coconut chutney usually accompanies thosai, vadai and idli. We had this with prata at Anwar's Kitchen. Chutney's lightly salted, coconut-y and with a little bit of spice. Wasn't an odd pairing with prata - just not usual. Sugar with prata has been a thing here since...I was a kid so it's the next natural thing. What's not usual is sugar mixed with said coconut chutney on prata. 👍🏼 I gotta do this again someday.

Pandan cheese milk martabak from Smile Martabak

Finally got to try a sweet martabak from Smile Martabak (#02-34 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road). This was the pandan cheese milk - product photos looked somewhat better. Pancake felt kinda thick compared to the fillings so it ended up feeling floury. Cheese also tasted really cheap. Not impressed. Prefer those at JTown Cafe.

Stinky Roll from 99 Old Trees

So these Stinky Rolls were pretty much the only thing from the menu at 99 Old Trees we haven't tried yet. Until now that is. They're good. Pretty generous layering of some sort of creamy mao shan wang custard in there.

Wagyu beef broth ramen from Keisuke Plus

I did not like this bowl from Keisuke Plus as much as the other wagyu broth from Mashi no Mashi. While it did taste beefy at the start, the flavour suffered from diminishing returns. It got less beefy as we went through the bowl. Noodles were also too soft for their 'hard' option.

Wagyu's thin sliced and pretty tender.  See that lump of minced ginger camouflaged in there? I did not like it. Why would that be necessary if the key component to this bowl was the wagyu. Did not make sense to me.

There's a wonton hidden in it. I'm assuming it's beef as well but the dominant flavour that got through was sesame oil. Tasted very Chinese. Now that I've tried it, I know. Will not be getting this again.

Mee kia from Ah Seng Teo Chew Minced Meat Noodle (亞誠潮州肉脞面)

Tried the mee kia bowl from Ah Seng Teo Chew Minced Meat Noodle. Saucing was pretty dry today. Noodles were a little soft. Will likely stick to the mee pok in the future. They've also removed the option for portions so it's just $6 bowls now.

Uncle Peter Hokkien Mee, Lengkok Bahru

Don't know who Uncle Peter (#01-387, 55 Lengkok Bahru) is. The Hokkien mee was okay tasting. Not as dry as Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee which is the style I prefer.  Nothing about it was outstanding. What got me through the plate were the squeeze of lime, the sambal and those fragrant crispy fried lard. Would have gotten monotonous if not for those. The coffeeshop seems to have seen rotation of the tenants. Sim Lim Square Bak Chor Mee and 6th Avenue Nasi Lemak are no longer around. 

Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee (歐南園炒粿條麵), Hong Lim Food Centre

The mark of a master stems from the ability, the will and the exercise of both in their craft. Sounds fancy but I think that appeared to be the way with Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee (#02-17 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street). One of the basic premise of those mastery is oil control which I found is excellent here. Not excessive yet sufficient.

For context, I've known of their existence for a long time and have never entertained the thought of queueing for a plate of their char kuey teow. Today was happenstance. There were two people in the queue so we thought, why not?

It's not bad tasting. This was the $4.50 plate. Like I mentioned, not excessively greasy. Can't discern the wok hei. No lup cheong because they don't do that. I requested for no hum. This plate has chilli. Tastier than it looked with a moderated sweetness from the dark soya sauce.

Podi & Poriyal, Serangoon Road

I've been wanting to come to Podi & Poriyal (486 Serangoon Road, tel  : +65 9711 2400) for some time. They're a contemporary South Indian vegetarian restaurant. Got their Podi's Signature Lunch which involves what one normally gets in a thali with dishes that get rotated weekly. Why did I mention 'normally'? Because they don't serve it in a thali here. Food from the lunch set was refillable.

Kinda like the upmarket take on Komala Vilas.

A paanagam to sooth the afternoon heat while waiting for the food. It's ginger, lime, jaggery and cardamom. Nice.

Instead of papadum, we get...rice crisp I guess. Flavoured with jeera/cumin.

This was the first part of the lunch set - the appetizers which consisted of a spinach vadai, some really delicious gobi/cauliflower which I cannot be sure is a pakora or a 65. Possibly a 65. On the side were pickled garlic, some powder which I couldn't identify and coconut chutney. Great munching.

The mains were some vegetable dishes that accompanied the starch of either ghee infused rice or millet of your choice. Today's were curried potatoes, snake gourd poriyal and some salad thingy that had starfruit. Actually with the sambar ladled over, it didn't make much of difference if it was the ghee rice or millet. 

Cup o rasam accompanied the food. Their's was nice and sour from the tamarind.

Add on order of cabbage poriyal. Not bad tasting with lots of shredded coconut. The odd thing was the lack of coconut flavour in it.

Another add on order of their edamame sundal. Loads of coconut flavour in this one with cashews and shredded coconut as well. This was outstanding. 👍🏼

A third add on of their podi idly. Podi was salty and nutty and fragrant but hadn't much heat with the spices they used. I liked this. It's a signature dish of theirs and apparently the podi changes weekly.

Payasam was part of the lunch. This one tasted like it was made with millet or oats. Yummy.

Not part of the lunch set but we wanted so masala chai to end. Spice infusion was not one of the stronger ones around but the tea was smooth and pretty enjoyable.

Hi Noodle (嗨一碗), 313 Somerset

We've been wanting to check out the noodles at Hi Noodle (#B3-19/20, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road) by Haidilao for a while but they inadvertently ended up being one of those eateries tucked into a corner where when they fall out of sight, they go out of mind. We happened to be in the vicinity and decided that we're getting something here this time.

Not a bad bowl of 酸菜 broth and beef shank noodles. Not memorable as 酸菜 broths go but I wouldn't complain. Nice beefy flavour coming from those slices of shank.

One could choose between three noodle types. These were the Korean noodles which were pretty much instant noodles. The texture was a little softer with less bite than what I normally prefer.

The spicy crayfish bowl packed substantial heat. It was that mala-esque sauce that was potent, not so much those chillis which looked dangerous but didn't appear to be spicy much. Then again, it was all tossed together so I also couldn't tell accurately. While the bowl was called spicy crayfish noodles, those bugs in there were actually Chinese crawfish (小龙虾), not the slipper lobster/crayfish as known in these parts.

Braised pig intestines were not bad. Pretty tender and well flavoured from the braise.

Red chilli sauce was sweet, spicy and tangy - very similar to those from Putien. The pickled sliced green chilli were pretty sour and that was actually a good thing to cut through the heat and oils from the spicy crayfish noodles.

Cempedak appam from Mr. Appam

Haven't gotten an appam from Mr Appam in a while. This was their cempedak appam, the fruit in strips laid over the middle. Tasted exactly like how cempedak is supposed to - which I haven't figured out how to describe yet but if you know it you'll know. What's different today from their appam servings is the bowl of coconut milk. Thick, sweet and delicious accompaniment on top of the sugar and grated coconut. Also noticed that I couldn't taste the fermentation in the dough which lead me to more questions.

Siang Kee Fishball Minced Pork Noodles (祥記), Telok Blangah Food Centre

Old school fishball and minced meat noodle stall (#01-06 Telok Blangah Food Centre, 79 Telok Blangah Drive) just next door to Sabeen Sara Prata & Briyani Stall.

Ingredients appear to be generic and factory sourced. As a bowl of fishball minced meat noodle, it was pretty decent. Both the sambal and the sliced red chilli helped me inhale the bowl.

The only thing I had gripes about were the texture of the noodles. The mee pok was softer than what I normally like. If only those had better bite to them.

Tar powing whole roasted chicken from Golden Rooster

First time getting the roasted chicken from Golden Rooster to go. Finished the whole chicken myself I did. I think it's a bit better tasting when it's eaten at their shop but this survives tar pow-ing pretty well.

Aji katsu at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Headed down to the Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Mandarin Gallery after getting word that their aji katsu is back. It's never around for long so we needed to get some before they disappear from the menu.

They appear to be larger than how I remember them. Panko breading had a good dry crunch and the meat from the horse mackerel was flavourful, flakey and moist. Getting these reminded me of that one time sanma katsu they offered and never did again.

Tip : sprinkle crushed sesame and a bit of salt on rice. That's pretty good eating also.

S.P. Vilas, Tekka Food Centre

Breakfast of a coconut uttapam from S.P. Vilas (#01-286 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). I've only had this variety once before at Kebabs 'n Curries. What's distinctive about this one was the quality of the chutney - they didn't taste generic and were delicious with a home made quality to them. One could say that there was more character to the nuances of their flavours. Especially the coconut one.

Came across some fried balls which the stall has which I believe are known as bonda. They were sweet and bread-y with flavour from cardamom, fennel and cumin. Also thought I noticed some yellow lentils in them. I like these. 👍🏼

Crab ice cream from Donki

There's bits of stuff in it which were presumably pieces of crab meat. Far to tiny to discern much about them but I couldn't help but to think of crabsticks/sumiri. Definitely some crab flavour action going on and the experience was interesting to say the least. While I can't say that I love it, I'm not against giving it another go just to understand it more.

Hundred Grains (百米香), ARC

Hundred Grains (#02-20 ARC, 460 Alexandra Road) appeared a little over a half year ago. Their operating concept is a little similar to economy rice/cai png/菜饭 where one can select from an array of pre-cooked dishes. The difference here was that their selection is larger with an emphasis on mainland Chinese dishes, it's self service and you're charged by weight. There have been parrots squawking about how expensive it was.

That above was about $21 and it was for two. Carbs, drinks and dessert aren't charged and are bottomless. With the latter in consideration, I didn't think it was significantly more expensive than a typical meal in the food court these days. Food's decent. Some items were actually pretty tasty. 

I don't know what this dessert was but it was malty with red dates, raisins and goji berries. The malty soup had a flavour that reminded me of bubur terigu. Kinda nice. Wouldn't mind coming back.