Hong Kong Jin Tian (香港錦田), Havelock Road Food Centre

Been quite a long while since I last got food from Hong Kong Jin Tian. The last time I did, might have been when they were still operating along Jalan Bukit Ho Swee. Their current premise is at Havelock Road Food Centre (#01-03 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A Havelock Road).

This was takeaway with char siew, duck breast and duck liver. Some thoughts - char siew was dry-ish though not tough. Duck breast was pleasantly tender but there's bits of bone on some ends. The kailan was not fibrous like last time. Rice was moist and tender. Not bad as a whole.

Song Fa Signatures (松發家己人), Paragon

Song Fa, the bak kut teh brand has a new restaurant at Paragon (B1-06 Paragon, 90 Orchard Road) that...have expanded on their offerings beyond their regular bak kut teh shops.

We had sliced snakehead bak kut teh. Basically slices of the fish in bak kut teh broth just like what we had previously. Fish appeared to be much softer than what I know of snakehead. This was reminiscent of dory. Just not as mushy. Not bad though.

Much prefer the pig's stomach in chicken soup which had a more robust flavour and peppery kick. Tripe was tender and chewy. The broth in one was much more satisfying then the fish bkt.

Pickled mustard/kiam chye.

There's a signature pig's trotter fried rice. This was basically like the fried rice version of pig's trotter bee hoon. Pretty decent.

Teochew orh nee crème brulée. In between the top caramelized layer of sugar shell and bottom layer of custard, was orh nee. Tasted like how it sounded. 

Outlet exclusives and nostalgia at PS. Cafe Paragon

How should I begin? PS. Cafe has outlet exclusives which are dishes that are only served in respective outlets. They're also currently reviving a series of previous limited edition dishes as part of their 25th anniversary. We came to the branch at Paragon for their outlet exclusives, getting a blast from their past and I'm embracing my personal nostalgia with them.

But first a honey milk latte. I was almost ready to write it off but it was actually kinda nice with decent coffee layered with flavour from honey.

One of the two outlet exclusives here is their Original Laksa Leaf Pesto - spaghettini with king prawns, fishcake and sambal Kenya beans. Noodles were tossed in a sauce of cream with laksa leaves and something tangy I couldn't put a finger on. Prawns were pretty tasty and so were those sour and spicy sambal Kenya beans. Not bad if I might say so.

The other outlet exclusive was their turkey cranberry sandwich. Remember that one? My nostalgia. It's still around. From my virgin PS. Cafe experience like 18 years ago. I cannot be sure if it tasted similar but I thought it did. I still love this. Smoked turkey, mozzerella and bacon bits rounded up with mayo & cranberry jam between buttered bread.

Said cranberry jam also made salad on the side less boring. 😏

So that's the lemon steamed pudding. Apparently from 2009. Same kind of pudding as their ginger one with earl grey sauce and sticky date ones; both of which I've had a number of times and have somehow not talked about in this blog. 😳 Anyways, sweet and lemony and I like it like the other two.

Milky pickled vegetable soup noodle from GO Noodle House

Came across the milky pickled vegetable (奶香酸菜) broth option from GO Noodle House recently. Got a bowl with sliced fish and beef tendon. It's pretty darn good with the salty tanginess from those pickled mustard, some creaminess and a bit of heat that left a prickle down the throat. Will come back for more.

Surrey Hills Grocer, Raffles City

Stopped by Surrey Hills Grocer (#03-42 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 8332 1024) for...sweets.

Maple bacon twist was not bad with the maple sweetness and salty thing going on. Those cinnamon donut balls on the other hand were a little hard and dry. I was thinking they might have warmed these up since we were eating in but I guess it did not bother Surrey Hills Grocer that someones out there were getting fried bread that's cold, a little stale and not exactly in the best way experienced.

Really? I'm not feeling it.

This coconut lime tart was pretty good. Lemon curd tangy sweetness and bitters from the lime on a buttery crust. Not so different from PS. Cafe's key lime pie.

The Mini Pecan Manuka Matchabon at Cinnabon and the...

We've been missing the Bon Of The Week from Cinnabon mostly because I never knew that there was a list for them. The last we had was the mini maple blueberrybon. We came across this mini pecan Manuka matchabon by chance. A mouthful of a name.

Much better than I imagined. You could taste that Manuka honey along with a noticeable hint of bitter from the matcha kneaded into the rolls. Nice this one. 👍🏼

Never been into Biscoff flavoured stuff much but this flavour works for their buttery mini Biscoff cookie butterbon. Another nice one.

Meet 4 Meat, Ubi Crescent

Meet 4 Meat at East Coast Road is no longer in business. This outlet (#01-05 Excalibur Centre, 71 Ubi Crescent, tel  : +65 8290 3605) is their only other one around.

I was curious about their Burger Wellington from the last time, having the idea that it was an entire cheese burger encased in the pastry.

Turned out that it was just the meat patty, cheese and onions. No bread, no pickles. Pastry crust was more buttery than I remember of their Beef Wellington. Not much different from a meat pie here and not bad tasting also. Fries were nice and crispy on the surface.

Mensho Tokyo, Raffles City

Finally got around to Mensho Tokyo (#03-43 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel  : +65 8380 8467). I was initially excited about them opening up because of the lamb ramen I've read about in Tokyo but apparently they aren't doing any of that here.

Got some stuff from their menu which sounded like they were worth trying. Like their A5 Miyazaki wagyu caviar sushi which was actually pretty good.

Aji fry has a solid crispy breading and good quality fish beneath.

Not a fan of their signature tori paitan bowl. I've had a few tori paitan before and this tasted like none of it. This was heavier, grittier and had more going on than the other renditions like say Brothers Ramen or Marutama which I prefer. I also thought I tasted something like mushrooms and detected a sweetness that bothered me a little. Don't think I'll get it again. 

The matcha duck bowl was another thing though. It looked and smelled a little like matcha latte. I have been looking forward to this since reading about it.

I love how the matcha was present in the broth without overpowering the savouriness of the base broth. Love the meatiness in the smooth thin slices of duck. Loved the vegetal sweetness from the torched chunks of negi. Thick curly noodles were nice and chewy. Those were what I enjoyed about this bowl.

Here's evidence of how much we liked it. Will come back for this.

福记怡保特制全面蛋 (Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle), Ubi

I'm not sure which is the correct name from of this stall. The sign says 福记怡保特制全面蛋 while the online reference is 福记怡保驰名煲仔面 or Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle (#01-03 Frontier, 50 Ubi Ave 3, tel : +65 9054 9303). Beneath the cake of fried crispy noodle (is this sang meen or ee meen?) in the claypot were minced pork nuggets, slice chicken, cabbage, some bean curd products and an egg. And also a couple of prawn paste balls (虾滑) I topped up.

I'm usually not big on hot soupy stuff in the blazing afternoon but I enjoyed this. The combination of light savoury sweetness in the broth was pleasant together with the flavour/texture of these toasty noodles. Spiking with their sliced chilli definitely upped the flavour ante. Those added on prawn paste balls were kinda pricey and puny but their quality was good.

The real bom prata from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada?

The bom prata / prata bomb I got today was made in the usual looking form compared to the previous one they gave me which looked like a regular prata, innit? It's salty and greasy from the margarine and sweet from the condense milk. Wondering how many people out there actually eat this with fish curry? 🙃

Mee kia from (大勝) Da Sheng Minced Pork Noodle

Got a bowl with mee kia with extra fried lard this time from Da Sheng Minced Pork Noodle. Not bad too. Noodles were eggy and the sauce clung well to them without getting soggy.

Cheese dakgalbi from Bigmama Korean Restaurant

Thanks to Netflix, we've gotten ourselves a "craving" for dakgalbi recently. Why "craving"? Because we've never had one before and this was our first. Bigmama Korean Restaurant which we hadn't looked at for a while had the honour.

We ordered a portion for two with double cheese. Sauce was sweet but not excessively so and a little nutty with a bit of heat. I recall strips of sweet potato, tteokbokki and cabbage accompanied the chunks of boneless chicken thighs. Not bad. Also glad that we didn't decide beforehand to also get the kimchi fried rice that would be stir fried in it because we were already stuffed by the time we were done with this.

Got some hot omija & yuja tea to wash the dakgalbi down. Tasted a little diluted initially and as we drank more, discovered that they were surprisingly astringent. In other news, banchan today was exactly the same as the ones we had the last time. That jelly I couldn't identify previously? I'm guessing that they could be either made with mung beans (nokdumuk) or acorn (dotorimuk). The japchae and bland boiled spinach were actually great add ons to the dakgalbi.

Rice King (饭王), Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ

饭王 (Food Republic, #01-06/07/08 BreadTalk IHQ, 30 Tai Seng Street) has taken over the unit that used to be occupied by Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork. Appears to be Taiwanese (inspired). I was recommended to try the rice set with pork belly and it turned out to be a good one. The savoury and slightly sweet braising sauce infused their flavour into the tender belly which had fat that pretty much melted in the mouth. The set included small dishes of tomato scrambled egg (番茄蛋) and stewed cabbage. The tau kwa and egg were added on. I liked this. Might come back again for it.

Allora Ristorante & Bar, Crowne Plaza Changi Airport

 

This was our first time eating at Crowne Plaza at Changi Airport. The hotel and their food has never piqued our interest previously but Allora Ristorante & Bar (Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, Changi Airport Terminal 3, 75 Airport Boulevard) has caught our attention recently.

Rosemary and black olive flavoured tonic water was actually pleasant. Then again, YMMV.

Their peach tea was odd. Tasted of jasmine and apple and there was too much syrupy sweetness. Pretty sure there was no beverage on the menu that had jasmine and apple.

Bread's forgettable but the tomato dip was chilled and refreshing.

This was their pizza tartare - a pizza bianca topped with Mozzarella, Castelmagno, Australia Angus beef tenderloin tartare and baby sprouts.

The tartare's not bad. Tasted like a milder rendition of French tartare de boeuf. Could taste capers. As a whole, the pizza was delicious with the combination of savoury cheeses, especially so for the toasty bits. The sprouts I suppose, was a green vegetal foil to the rest of the flavours. We liked this pizza.

The bruschetta mantecato which featured cod whipped in olive oil and flavoured with whole grain mustard came after the pizza. Had expected this to come first since it was bruschetta. This one not bad tasting.

Their lobster squid ink tagliolini sounded good and wasn't expensive for a lobster pasta. The menu even mention that it has "bisque".

Flavour from the sauce was mostly tomato with a hint of seafood; definitely not bisque as we imagined. I wouldn't even use the word 'crustacean' or 'seafood-y' to describe the flavour. It didn't taste bad though and the texture of their handmade black ink noodles was nice. What wasn't was the lobster. Size of the meat was a third of the tail and was a little mushy. The claw also had little meat.

So in retrospect, this was kinda expensive.

Their rendition of tiramisu was named Alloramisu. Tacky if you asked me. Savoiardi is homemade apparently. They wait staff trolly-ed out the ingredients and assembled it tableside, layering the coffee gel, mascarpone in cream canister and the biscuit that was drizzled with espresso before the topping of cocoa powder and flakes.

My thoughts? This was weak. Coffee gel's weak. Mascarpone's airy and weak. We could still get the crunch from the biscuit so it was obvious that the quantity of espresso was sorely lacking. It's a bit of flair and little substance.