Double Banana pancake from Mr. Bean

This was not nice at all. The texture of the stuffing was odd to say the least for mashed banana and I could barely tell it was from the flavour. Tasted nothing like what one would expect from goreng pisang or banana cake.

Back with roasted birds at Tong Kee and their stoner lad taking orders

Today's experience with Tong Kee was kinda mediocre.

We asked if they could debone the chicken and the stoner kid taking orders said they could. We ordered three portions of thigh and drumstick deboned. We asked for some eggs with that order as well. Chicken came with bones. 🤨

For some reasons, he forgot to relay our order of eggs. 😒

Today's rice was dry-ish, clumpy and waxy. 😮‍💨 Not the standard that I remember from them. Good thing there was their smoky sweet sauce and lime-y chilli to get me through.

Cai png from the food court at Oxley Bizhub

Hmmm...pretty good value mixed vegetable rice for $5. Bitter gourd egg, fried chicken and 四川菜 pork. I liked the reduced bitter in the bitter gourd. This came from the same stall as this by the way.

Revisiting A-One Signature

Been some years since we last ate at A-One Signature.

Their salted egg, century egg and minced pork porridge was decent tasting. There's a baseline umami since all their porridges have dried scallops in them. Any other ingredient or topping typically adds to that. A couple of things could have been improved methinks. More minced pork would be great. One thing that bothered me was the quality of century eggs that they used which was pungent and had an gelatinous texture...even for the yolk.

Also decent quality olive fried rice with minced meat. Smoky, savoury and all. They even use real bits of char siew. What this needed was more of the preserved olive leaves which the fried rice is named after. We've had a number of these (ichi, ni, san, shi) and this was probably the one with the weakest flavour from those preserved olive leaves.

Kyoto Ramen Hachicken, Chinatown Point

Chicken broth ramen shop that is sister to a renown poultry specialist brand Hachikian from Kyoto. Opened in Chinatown Point (#01-51 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 8362 0064) earlier in the year.

This was a limited time tan tan noodle. Pleasant nutty and creamy broth with some heat from the chilli oils and I thought I detected a faint flavour from Sichuan peppercorn or something similar. Initially felt the broth to be a little thin but came to realise as I ate, that the consistency/intensity made it very drinkable till the end. Bean sprouts were not entirely cooked and had some of that raw-ish taste still. 

Yuzu shio bowl was lightweight savoury. Not much of yuzu flavour. Chicken balls were quite tender and I thought I detected a faint ginger taste in them. 

More lunch from Fish & Bones

The burger's no longer available at Fish & Bones for lunch. It's...regular Korean food now.

Banchan's refillable. The one with cucumber was refreshing. Bean sprouts have a nice sesame oil flavour. Kimchi's kinda young-ish without the tang I was hoping for.

Hoedeopbap - there's salmon and a white fish which I think might be halibut. Fish here is kinda chewy.

I think this is their gochujang. Didn't taste like most gochujang. Not as beany, tasted more fruity and also more refreshing.

Those vegetables aren't great for mixing. Too bulky and doesn't wilt. Didn't dislike the hoedeopbap but I don't think I'll get it again.

Don't think we've had Korean abalone porridge before. I was expecting something abalone-y but it did not taste like abalone. Tasted like...something we can get from Ah Chiang. 😂 I'm not sure what I'm tasting here.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Decent miso marinated hamachi collar.

Lontong Sedap, Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

I've previously had the lontong from Lontong Sedap (#01-25 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive) back in their old premise at Tanglin Halt Food Centre. Got a nasi lemak for breakfast today. Did I detect a faint lemongrass flavour in the rice? Anyways, pretty decent plate with standard quality ingredients. Rice was moist and savoury with some coconut richness. Sambal's sweet but not annoyingly so with heat and infused with ikan bilis flavour.

Yong Kiang Chicken Rice (永強鸡饭), Ubi

Yong Kiang Chicken Rice (1st Stop Food Junction coffeeshop, Blk 3014 Ubi Road 1) is in the same coffeeshop as Mei Mei Roast and Da Sheng Minced Pork Noodle. What piqued me about them was the minced pork stuffed fried tau kwa which...isn't something that one normally finds in chicken rice stalls. Said tau kwa was slightly crusty edged with meat stuffings which was lightly flavoured with five spice. The chicken thigh I got today was a little boney but the rice had pretty good flavouring. Chilli seems more vinegary than lime-y.

Hakata Ikkousha, Chijmes

Our first time at Ikkousha at Chijmes (#F1-07 Chijmes, 30 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6338 8460) and the positive impression imparted today was telling; that my prior opinion of them might be biased, or tainted by the cloistered experience from their shop at Tanjong Pagar which gave me the impression that they have become mediocre through the years.

I didn't feel that way here. What surprised me from this shop at Chijmes was their bonito tonkotsu bowl which had that thalassic smokiness overlaying the pork bone broth, upturning my prior impression of what this bowl was about.

First time getting their mentai don. We knew what it was and while it was probably easily available in ramen shops, we didn't visit ramen shops to eat these. Just didn't happen that way. We did today. Like I said, we already knew what it was. But as I shovelled the first mouthful of that moist warm rice smudged with salty spicy roe laced with nori and spring onions, the thought that came to mind was "fuck me this was good". 😂

This was the tonkotsu shio. I don't know precisely what's the difference between this and the regular tonkotsu aside from the intensity and flavour. This one was cleaner and lighter. Almost like bak kut teh broth minus the herbs and pepper. Not bad when one is in the mood for something less heavy.

God Fire Level 4. Had it previously so I know I could handle it.

Noticed bits of chilli in the broth which I didn't encounter the last time.

Never seen so much gyoza on a plate before.

Single serving with mala sesame dressing from Gong Yuan Ma La Tang (宫源麻辣烫)

This single serving portion came with the same big bowl as the shared ones we've been having previously. 🤔 Anyways, this was 中辣 mala sesame dressing compared to the 小辣 bowl we tried the first time. Rich and nutty as such sauces tend to be. Surfeit does kinda creep in after a while so the trick is a few squirts of vinegar which leaves it still creamy yet much easier to inhale.

At Newton Food Centre after all these years

I haven't eaten at Newton (500 Clemenceau Ave North) for a really long time. The last time was duck macaroni from Kwee Heng. It's been that long. And I felt like a tourist. 😂

As I took in this unfamiliar ground, I wondered which were the stalls that ripped off tourist and chalked up the bad rep in past. 😂

Hokkien mee from Newton Old Signboard 25 (#01-25) was not bad. I like their creamy and robust crustacean stock for the noodles. Not to mention as well their delicious spicy sambal. Might try the clam or oyster version the next time.

Okay-ish black radish cake from Heng (#01-28). Oysters from the oyster omelette were plump and metallic tasting.

Tried the sambal petai from Alliance Seafoood 27 (#01-27). Their rendition has squid and ikan bilis. The petai tasty fume-y. 😂 Like they were emitting gas as we ate them. There were some crunchy bits in the dish which I thought might be crushed peanuts though I cannot be certain. Wouldn't say this was bad tasting but I'm not a fan. That is probably because I've been biased by/used to/spoilt by the no nonsense rendition with just petai and minced pork at Sin Hoi Sai. No fillers like onions to bulk up the plating and mess with the savouriness.

Their weak looking fried rice with the despised red floury goo was actually pretty delicious. Not because of the red floury goo. What's the red floury goo? Old school yang zhou fried rice used bits of char siew. Evolution and lack of pride reduced the char siew component to crab sticks. These red floury goo were even further down that evolution, replacing crab sticks. A replacement of the replacement. A devolution of a devolution.

More eating at Hajah Maimunah @ Jalan Pisang

Was looking forward to this lunch back at the flagship of Hajah Maimunah. Will just be pointing out a few of the notables.

Rice with rawon gravy and serunding. Gravy was a lot less intense than I imagined for something that has buah keluak as part of the ingredients but the serunding compensated with its spicy sweetness. One thing that's definitely not lacking from the food here is flavour.

The stingray here was not as good eating as the one we had at their branch at Clementi. It's not bad by any stretch. Meat's stiffer than what I had expected.

Paru belado was outstanding. Believe it or not, the first thought that came to mind was tenderloin.

Pacuk paku masak lemak - fiddlehead ferns in a coconut rich spicy gravy.

The gravy for their tahu telur seemed different...unless I remembered wrongly. I was anticipating something like kecap manis but this was more like rojak sauce with the belanchan in it. Love it though. Tofu was crispy on the outside and wobbly tender on the inside.

Our first pengat pisang....a sweet coconut soup with sweet potatoes and bananas that were on the verge on disintegrating in it. The tanginess from the bananas had seeped into the soup. Damn this was good.

I'm not sure if these were kueh salat or if there's another name for them. The one with the white bottom layer is made with sago and coconut and the other was pulut hitam. Nice.