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.

Tian Tian Le Hainanese Chicken Rice (天天乐海南鸡饭), Beauty World Food Centre

Been wanting to try Tian Tian Le Hainanese Chicken Rice (#04-38 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road) for some time and it finally happened. Just to get it out of the way, the dark soya sauce you can help yourself to are the sweet ones - the type used for soon kueh. Not the regular type that most chicken rice stalls use.

Soup on the side is chicken soup with pandan flavour. 👍🏼

Chicken was unexpected chilled - which was nice. Meat was cut chunky and even the breast meat was tender.

Rice had a light garlic and ginger flavour. Did not mind the ginger in it. Probably because it was "toned down" by the garlic or maybe it wasn't so strong in the first place. Or maybe both. But this was probably one of the rare ginger flavoured rice that I kinda liked. 

Chilli was lime-y and also slightly gingery which I also did not mind. Paired well with the saltiness from the chicken dressing on the rice.

Some protein. The sweet dark soy sauce worked with these.

Thosai and more prata from Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani

Back at Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani. Got ourselves a masala cheese thosai. Or was that cheese masala thosai. Whichever. They used the cheap plastic wrapped cheeses which I thought was ideal from the sharper saltiness and gooey meltiness which asserted itself in the potatoes.

I upgraded from the cheese banana prata to a cheese egg banana prata today. What I took away from today's prata was that these guys don't stick to one type of banana. They one they used was of a different variety today - unlike the tangy sweet ones from the last time. 😢 These were more like plantains. Low sweetness and tasted potato-y. 

Twelve Hainanese Chicken Rice, Kukoh 21 Food Centre

Noticed the chicken rice from Twelve Hainanese Chicken Rice (#01-04 Kukoh 21 Food Centre, 1 Jalan Kukoh) the previous time we were here from a neighbouring table. Not a bad one. There's a light but discernible flavouring in the rice which allowed me to go all out with their lime-y chilli. Will not mind coming back. 

Kit Kat chocolate toast from Toast Box

I am sometimes a sucker for punishment limited edition toast from Toast Box. This one has chocolate fillings made with Kit Kat. Not nice.

Revisiting Holy Crab

A dinner at Holy Crab. To get the cost to quality thoughts out of the way, I didn't think their food was worth what they were charging and my opinion of them dips further from the last time. I accept that it's not cheap in a location like theirs, but pairing that with mediocrity irks me.

This dish was cornily called CapriCorn - corn kernels with salted yolk and curry leaves. I kinda enjoyed this but it's one with those dishes where the enjoyment is subjected pretty quick diminishing returns. At least for me.

Crabtree & Evelyn, I don't know how Evelyn came into the picture. Menu described the broccoli as torched and it was supposed to have chai poh. I didn't even know there was chai poh in it and nothing about the actual broccoli indicated that it had been torched.

Picture on the menu could lead one to believe that there's loads of chunky crab meat in the sauce. Said picture was obviously for illustration only. Not so much crab in there and those chunks didn't taste like freshly steamed crab meat. Sauce was starchy. Couldn't tell what the flavour of it was.

Nemo in Hot Soup. It's a soup with oddly, barramundi belly hanging on a skewer. I thought it would be served in the stone bowl depicted in the menu. This tasted pretty good though. I attribute that partially to the Bistrol Cream Sherry. Honestly, I don't know what else went into the broth because it sure as hell tasted like there was more than fish in it.

Asian Angel Hair. Kinda like xing zhou mi fen (星洲米粉) with bits of chicken. Okay-ish.

Their claypot chicken rice called Smoking Pot has foie gras. The foie gras was dried out and not nice. Otherwise, it's just a $58 claypot chicken rice.

Their sweet and sour pork is stir fried with balsamic vinegar. Meat had a crusty surface from the deep frying and wasn't so tender. Menu mentioned rambutans and pineapple. It's true - it's pineapple stuffed in rambutans like those canned Hosen branded ones that can be found supermarkets.

Their Lamb-orghini was disappointing. Not to mince words, it's a poor showcase of lamb ribs preparation. Meat doneness ranged from almost getting to medium rare to well done. It's obvious they don't have the skills to manage a rack this size. Dry rub flavouring had a sweetness that irritated me. I don't know what's their cooking process here but the fat had already hardened by the time it was served. At $160, it was criminal.

Ri Tao Fu Teochew Pig's Organ Soup (日饕福潮洲猪什湯), Kukoh 21 Food Centre

Ri Tao Fu Teochew Pig's Organ Soup (#01-11 Kukoh 21 Food Centre, 1 Jalan Kukoh) is a coin's toss away from Tiong Bahru Ngoh Hiang Prawn Cracker. They do pig's organ soup and some dark soya braised stuff.

Straightforward bowls of generously portioned porcine bits in a piping hot broth flavoured with pickled mustard greens (kiam chye). 

Loads of scraps in the bowl like tripe, kidney, liver, sliced pork and meatballs.

Got some tau pok and hard braised eggs. Their dark soya sauce stew had a robust flavour and those tau pork totally soaked them up. One can also tell from the colour that those braised egg served their time in the pot. 

Beast & Butterflies, Robertson Quay

First time eating at Beast & Butterflies (Level 1, M Social Singapore, 90 Robertson Quay). They describe themselves as Mediterranean and Asian but there're also European influences.

I was upsold some tequila based cocktail. Pricey and it tasted just like a margarita.

Calamari. Not bad tasting. The menu described scallions so that's all the scallions they have in there. The quantity can barely even qualify as decorative.

We were recommended their Caesar salad. Something I don't order much.

Tasted not bad. What made this was their a la minute dressing which was nicely flavoured with anchovies. The kitchen seemed proud of it and extra portions of that dressing is chargeable.

This was called Breast & Butterflies - sous vide and seared chicken breast with morel and truffle cream sauce. And butterfly shaped pastries on the side. Chicken's pretty tender. What rounded up everything and made this dish for me was the rich velvety sauce with mushrooms.

A wagyu beef cheek rigatoni which they had inconspicuously named beef pasta on the menu. Sauce tasted tomato-y so it's not exactly my thing. The beef cheek texture was spongy which I didn't like. Something about that texture was off. No wagyu-ish taste if anyone was even wondering.

Their crispy pork knuckle was delicious. Crackling was crackling 😂 and the knuckle had enough fat to back up all that meat beneath the crispiness. I love the namjim which packed a invigorating sour and heat - even though there was coriander in it.

What's this? Blue cheese cream sauce made with a sweet white wine. First time having a blue cheese sauce that had a noticeable sweetness in it. Not that I didn't like it but I prefer them without. But what was this for?

I decided that it worked with the pork knuckle too.

Oven baked Mao Tai spring chicken. The bird was stuffed with glutinous rice which had hae bee, mushrooms and lup cheong. They brought it over wrapped in opeh leaf, unwrapped it and flamed the chicken. This was nice on the account that I could taste the wine and the bird was tender through the 4 hour sous vide. 

So Beast & Butterflies has this unlimited tiramisu deal at $6++ on Friday evenings only. We took advantage of it. It's not exactly unlimited serving per se though. You get a plate and there's no limit how much tiramisu you can scoop off their tray as long as you can fit them into said plate.

Round one was a decent pile. Which wasn't enough because there were a few people at the table.

So we got ambitious and scored a second plate. It was messy but I've to admit that their tiramisu was delicious.