Revisiting Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant

Back at Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant.

We had an order of their keema briyani. The keema component of the name refers to the mutton kola urundai - fried mutton balls which are also available a la carte from their menu. Keema means differently here compared to the local definition. It refers to minced meat, but not the chopped up kind of mince like those used in murtabak | keema.

More like a meat paste here. A deeply spiced mutton paste. Sadly for this rendition, the natural flavour of the meat was mostly lost in the spices. Will not get this again. Rice was deliciously savoury though.

That's the tawa meen roast - breaded fillet of some fish, most likely dory based on the flavour and soft texture. Breading was spiced, crunchy and packed a bit of heat. Wasn't as bad as I imagined for dory. In fact, the piping heat and spices made the fish kinda pleasant. But I'm not likely to get it again. The dip on the side tasted like garlic mayo.

Masala tea here is good. The dominant spice was cardamon; came in a pretty strong hit in the suitably sweet and creamy tea. We enjoyed their composite.

Chicken briyani from Santapan Padang by Tina Indulgence

Saw that Santapan Padang had chicken briyani today and it's apparently a Friday only special. Came with two fried chicken drumsticks that's drizzled with gravy that looked very much like satay sauce. But said sauce was sour which implied that tamarind's involved. Meat from those well fried drumsticks were a little hard and dry. I'm not sure how the rice tasted since it was drenched in that lentil curry - which wasn't bad tasting. Will not be getting this again though.

Treasure Toast (吃到宝), Purvis Street

Treasure Toast (#01-01, 23 Purvis Street, tel : +65 8817 0865) is by the talked about Bao Er Cafe which in turn, stemmed from Prawnography.

Kopi was thick, bitter and slightly sour with little body and aroma. 勉强 can drink 😬. I don't think it's great as local coffees go. I'll take Toast Box over it anytime. 

People talk about their kaya toast. Not bad. Nice pandan flavour going on with kaya but the consistency was kinda thin. Also not difficult to find ones of similar standards around.

Hokkien mee has no wok hei like Prawnography but did have decent stock flavour which was pretty robust, a little sweet and did not exactly come across as crustacean-y. See the 3 small scallops? Extra $2.50 for those which I wouldn't recommend. Fried lard (猪油渣) was not the freshest. What carried this through was the sambal belachan which I thought was pretty good. 

Bee hoon had a smoky flavour which I like but it was also pretty greasy.

Otah's flat and lacking of any nuances. I don't think it was good. While they look similar, Janggut Laksa's otah is much better tasting.

友全 (You Quan), Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

友全 (#03-35 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive) is one of the "half of the stalls" that's still open in the evenings at the food centre. The other half possibly thinks that their rental is a negligible concern or they're doing well enough that they don't need the support of the residents in that estate.

This was 米粉面. 米粉's pretty edible. 面's thinner than the regular yellow noodle variety but tasted exactly the same. Those tired looking meat patties were actually not bad.

The return of McD's breakfast bagel

These are back. It's been a couple of years since McD started these limited run bagels here and in all that 17,000 hours or so since, they've never bothered to allow add on customizations in the order kiosk which I'm sure somebodies out there would want. Like me.

Revisiting Lee Lai Jiak

Finally tried the lu rou fan from Lee Lai Jiak. Decent tasting but not something that'll get me looking forward to coming back for. I liked the tofu and salted vegetables more than the minced pork. 😬

Tried their zha jiang mian (炸酱面).

Noodles were thick and sauce had what appeared to be cubes of tofu puffs. Lots of them.

Beef shank was less dry and more tender than I imagined. Did not like the sweet sauce though.

Nana's Green Tea, Guoco Tower

Intrigued by the green tea stuff at Nana's Green Tea (#01-07 Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6517 9971).

The Swiss roll was the least memorable of what we had. It was just green tea chiffon with a green tea core in the middle of the cream.

Shiratama zenzai with matcha espresso - mochi balls in red bean soup and matcha in English. Think bitterness from the green tea pairing with the sweetness from the red bean soup. Not bad.

This was a matcha soda float; tasted like how it sounded. Fizzy green tea with green tea ice cream. Nice.

Suju in November

Back at Suju ( 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一) getting some stuff we like. And a few other things.

Tai kabura ni - turnip strips simmered in sea bream broth wrapped in soy marinated sea bream sashimi. Thought I tasted yuzu in it. Nice.

Miso marinated cream cheese with grilled white corn, some pickled daikon and soba chips. Also nice. Love the miso flavour in the cream cheese. Saved some for the Hayashi rice.

The cream was kinda measly here and it was definitely a discernible mellowness it brought to the meat/sauce. So the miso cream cheese we saved from the earlier dish accomplished the same. But did better.

Got the herring himono teishoku like the last time because I couldn't get past the roe in the fish. Today serving was outstanding like then. Seems like the roe might not be just chance and that they use pregnant herring here.

Their black sesame cheese cake was surprisingly light. So light I wouldn't have been surprised if they had said it was made with tofu. I don't know if it was but I don't think so since they'll probably mention if it was. This was loaded with ample black sesame flavour though from both the cream cheese and the very kurogoma-y base.

Revisiting A2B Veg Restaurant

Here for dinner this time round. This place was bustling.

Got ourselves some nice warm idlis with delicious chutneys. Noticed that the coconut one was faintly sweet.

Ghee pongal and vadai. The pongal was definitely less viscous than the last round. Flavour's still as good.

Came across carrot uttapam on the menu, something we've never seen/had before. Tasted more or less like how it looked with the shredded carrot which came across slightly sweet. Nice. Also, the coriander which I've forgotten to ask them to omit had no taste so yay! 🙌🏼

They have hot badam milk too. Not bad.

Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant (天府川菜), Grantral Mall @ Clementi

Trying another Chinese shop (#01-17/18 Grantral Mall, 3151 Commonwealth Avenue West, tel : +65 6777 1866) with a pretty extensive menu. Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant is located at the other end of Grantral Mall from where Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights used to be.

Their mapo tofu is one of the better ones we've had. Which isn't much actually. 😂 The memorable ones that comes to mind from before were from Chen's Mapo Tofu and Keisuke's Gyoza King. What ticked the boxes here were the flavour from the Sichuan peppercorn and their prominent presence of fermented black beans. Nice bit of heat too. I could definitely come back for this. 

Love the sour from the broth in their spicy and sour beef (酸汤肥牛). Thought I detected ginger in it. Red chilli's spicy and the green ones aren't much. I'd rank Qing Hua Jiao X Jing Yue Rong a bit higher in terms of preferences but I'll be happy to have both.

Competently done stir fried cabbage with dried chilli. There're also some Sichuan peppercorns in it in case anyone wants to know and wish to avoid biting into them. What I liked about this dish was also how they had gotten the timing of the vegetables just right that they were properly cooked and yet retained a nice crunch.

This was called home style fried rice; or 农家炒饭. The names do not translate into each other. We liked it. It's much better in terms of composite and flavour than the vegetarian fried rice from 鼎泰豐. Lots of chopped greens, egg and adequate salt.

Anjappar, Race Course Road

Anjappar at Race Course Road (76-78 Race Course Road, tel : +65 6296 5545) is located next to Machan's Kitchen. Have been to the branches at Syed Alwi, Changi Terminal 1 and Westgate. First time eating at this one.

Bring it on bring it...pa-pa-pa-padum!

Was intrigued by their prawn dosa. First time seeing one on the menu here. The wait staff did mention that the prawns used were small ones.

They're curried/masala-ed. Actually kinda tasty. Nice sambar/chutneys/dal on the side.

We got mutton dum briyani today. Apparently, one can choose between basmati and seera/seeraga samba rice. The latter's short grained and of lower GI like basmati.

Pretty good. Love the spice infusion which contained a bit of heat. Mutton was tender and had some bone in parts but wasn't exactly moist. Not a deal breaker there for me. We were drawn into spoonful after spoonful by the savouriness.

Delicious mutton brain roast. Think they were stir fried in omelette and the flavour was similar to the brain fry we had previously at Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant. A flavour that oddly reminded me of fish roe.

The masala in their tea was kinda weak. Tea's not bad and not overly sweet which was nice. Would have been great if they had a stronger spice mix.