Re-revisiting Anjappar @ Race Course Road

Dinner at Anjappar (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六).

Rose milk was pretty sweet. That's the pink one and if anyone's actually wondering, it does taste like bandung. Sweet lassi appears to be the lesser of the evils.

Starter of tandoori prawns. Pretty good smokiness in the meaty prawns. Not bad.

Ordered their keema dosa because...keema.

But it did not contain keema. It's just curried mutton. Anjappar lied. Now we know. Chutneys were still good though.

Tandoori sea bass was decent. Not as smoky as I imagined but reasonably good eating with crisp on the skin and moist meat.

We had egg briyani. Basmati, not seeraga samba rice today. According to the menu, the spices and other flavouring in the rice comes from their mutton dum briyani. Couldn't tell if there was any difference between the rices apart from texture but both were deliciously savoury with a blanket of heat.

Hard boiled eggs beneath.

This was palak chicken...their spinach had texture that felt more hand chopped than machine blended. Loads of cream and maybe ghee/butter infusing it with a heart clogging richness. This was the closest resemblance to creamed spinach for a palak dish we ever had. 😬

Pistachio kunafa tiramisu from Sugar Mama Lah

Heard about the pistachio kunafa tiramisu from Sugar Mama Lah (Curbside Crafter, 730 North Bridge Road) and was curious if they were good.

Tasted kinda hollow. Flavour reminded me of hazelnut chocolate and there doesn't appear to be enough or any mascarpone in it. Also a little dry-ish. Now I know.

The one with the peanut sauce from No Ordinary Chicken

This was the peanut sauce topping at No Ordinary Chicken. Tasted exactly like satay sauce. Mildly spicy, and I mean really mild, some sweetness and pretty nutty. If they could find a way to keep the both the bird and the rice moist, it could have been pretty good. I prefer the shallot one from the last time.

Tori Sanwa (鶏三和), Great World

This Tori Sanwa experience (B1-K117 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6219 1271) was a better one than the previous one at Raffles City. I don't normally do this but, kudos to the Chinese lady working there who exemplified good service attitude in spite of being swarmed. 👍🏼 That's over and above the bespectacled middle aged looking Chinese dude who behaved like he doesn't deserve a job there. 👎🏼

Chicken yakitori's actually pretty tasty. Meat was well grilled with some burnt ends and moist. Nicer than the ones from the neighbour that mostly sells yakitori. 😂

Wanted to try this...the oyakodon with mentaiko. Love the flavour infusion from the mentaiko into the bowl.

The other thing I was curious about were their Scotch eggs. It's obviously not the English variety and is wrapped in minced chicken. The surface was browned with a bit of chewiness and glazed with a savoury sweet tare. Not bad.

Pudding's not fantastic. Custard's not eggy.

Mahmud's Tandoor, Kandahar Street

I've been wanting to try the tandoori chicken burger from Mahmud's Tandoor (20 Kandahar Street, tel : +65 8849 9182).

Their tandoori chicken doesn't come from a tandoor. Would have been awesome if they were. These were oven baked.

Buns were really soft. Flavour profile with the mint/coriander yoghurt and sliced onions made it pretty classic tasting. Fries were decent but I'm not big on the masala powder.

Chicken's tender. All thigh meat. Nice flavour though it doesn't have the smokiness that would have been inherent if it had been cooked in an actual clay oven. No qualms coming back again though.

Not a fan of their chai peng slush. There's an oddish vanilla flavour flavour to the tea that tasted extra artificial.

D'RIM Korean Steak House, Mandarin Gallery

D'RIM (#02-14 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 9660 9964) is run by the same folks that manage Modu - that samgyetang place which everyone has the hots for lately. What's here then? I guess an upscale KBBQ joint would be a pretty accurate description. We ended up here because the queue at Modu was a little crazy and we managed to snag seats here during the pivot.

Something sparkling while waiting for the food.

Were curious about their pricey minari jeon (water dropwort pancake) which featured barley shrimp. One might wonder what's the latter. That was what we were trying to discover. The wait staff thoughtfully positioned this for photos before they scissor-ed up the pancake.

There's a lot more crunch and batter mouthfeel than what we could see from the thin layer of fried batter. Not a complain. This was delicious. Not excessively greasy from the frying.

There's a great salty sweet dip on the side which brought out the flavours of those barley shrimps that tasted much like sakura ebi.

That's the Jeju yukgaejang. Our first yukgaejang.

The broth was beefy, viscous and filled with shredded beef brisket. Instantly reminded us of the moum guk from Jeju Sanghoe. Sliced chilli added a nice layer of heat to it. Those green stuff on the little dish were pickled sea asparagus.

Yukhoe mulhoe bibim naengmyeon - beef tartare salad spicy cold noodle if my interpretation is accurate.

Is gochujang slushie even a thing?

Awesome-est cold noodle I've had. All of it was chilled all the way till the end. Imagine an icy broth with a fruity sweetness coupled with a respectable tangy heat. All that paired with loads of textures and subtle flavour layering collectively from the cold firm noodles, minced beef, julienned pears and vegetables. Very nice! 👍🏼

We were given some complimentary refresher shots at the end. Think it was some plum tea/juice thingy.

Saravanaa Bhavan, Centrium Square

 

I last ate at Saravanaa Bhavan some years ago. Their previous location as I recall included a stall at the food court at Westgate and a restaurant at Syed Alwi. They seemed to have disappeared for a bit and have reemerged at their current location in a relatively new mall (Centrium Square, 320 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6957 7184).

Pretty good medhu vada. Crisp crusty skin and pillowy inside flavoured with black peppercorns and cumin.

Guess what's this sev covered chaat?

Dahi papdi sans coriander. There's slices of potatoes in it.

Pongal was listed as pongal in their menu but printed as ghee pongal in the receipt. I don't know which was it. The ghee flavour was a little weak - no match for the one at A2B Veg Restaurant.

Benne cheese masala dosa. I found out moments before I ordered that a benne dosa is one made with butter. Dosa was served with a chunk of that melting over.

Awesome. Mozzarella cheese as well.

The masala tea here tasted different. Don't know specifically what was it that I'm tasting but I think it's the tea. Not sure how I feel about it.

Tasty Corner, Verdun Road

Noticed Tasty Corner (24 Verdun Road, tel : +65 8054 1998) some months ago when we were in the vicinity.

We were curious about their supposed banana leaf wrapped kili prata from the picture in their IG. Deliberate misrepresentation of products should be made an offence methinks. 😐

The actual product was wrapped in aluminium foil. When we asked about the banana leaf, the proprietress disappeared into the kitchen awkwardly and returned shortly, mumbling some excuse about not being able to serve them in banana leaf.

That aside, it's pretty tasty. Even though it's really just a two kosong banjir with curry chicken and egg.

The other special they had was their coin cheese prawn prata. From the picture, I was scratching my head over how the cheese or the prawns would come about.

Actual product. Looked like canapé. Appetiser portions. Prawns were pretty meaty, cheese toasty and those coin pratas were unexpectedly sweetened. Not bad tasting.

Pesarattu dosai. Made with mung bean flour. I like the one at Kalam Restaurant better. My guard has been lowered in recent times and I've started forgetting to remind about omitting coriander. This was filled with surprise coriander. Lots of it! 😢

Masala tea's pretty balanced, including a sweetness that was pleasant and not excessive in my opinion. Didn't have a strong hit of the spices but it was a nicely done cup of chai.