Re-visiting Alice Boulangerie @ Icon Village

Quick one from Alice Boulangerie.

Basque bleu cheese tart. 😬

Not as melty as I imagined but the blue cheese flavour was a superb blend with the creamy sweetness and the buttery pastry without being overpowering. 👍🏼 

Nicely done Paris Brest. Choux pastry was a little denser than I imagined though.

Not bad hōjicha cream latte.

Couldn't get past the orange Americano. 😬 While there are probably a few renditions of this drink around, this one was I suppose, a bit more......indulgent. That coming from the orangey sweet creaminess. 

Pin Sheng Chicken Rice (品勝滑雞飯), Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Finally got to try Pin Sheng Chicken Rice (#02-51 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, 163 Bukit Merah Central). If you didn't know what the fuss was about with this stall, word was that the proprietor used to be the head chef at Boon Tong Kee.

All drumsticks today. Meat's exceptional. Smooth and easily slurped off the bone. Reminded me of the chicken from Margaret Drive Chicken Rice. That one that used to be call Sin Kee. 

Tried their char siew and they turned out not bad. They don't look the nicest and it's definitely not the well caramelised and glazed variety that many prefer. This one was unassumingly tender with a light smoky sweet sauce.

Rice was darker than most. Portion feels a little small. Not bad tasting. Fantastic with their lime-y garlicky chilli sauce.

Will come back.

Koo Kee (高記), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Koo Kee has relocated from the food court upstairs to the basement of Tiong Bahru Plaza (#B1-136 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road). I haven't eaten much of their stuff for years because they're kinda like the fast food of yong tau foo. What bugged me mostly were the portions for what they charged.

To be fair, they don't taste bad.

The Koo Kee set's actually not bad. You know...with the chilli and bean sauce and all. They were out of kang kong today so they gave me xiao bai cai. Noodles portions were/are kinda small. That hasn't changed from what I remember. What might have changed was that I remember them tasting more flavourful.

What's also nice imo, is their laksa yong tau foo with chee cheong fun. Gravy's thin - don't think or expect anything close to Peranakan styled laksa. But it's savoury, has some heat and tastes like it has MSG. And I dig this bowl.

They're selling desserts too it seems. The black sesame paste is kinda thin. Not the kind of standard one can expect from specialised Chinese dessert shops.

Otah and afterthoughts at Dickson Nasi Lemak

Been a while since we were last at Dickson Nasi Lemak. The takeaway from this visit was that while they weren't a bad nasi lemak, there were things that I didn't like as much and there are alternatives. Those alternatives reduces the appeal of Dickson's rendition. Things considered, I'd easily choose Punggol Nasi Lemak over this. Also did not like the crunchies that were extra hard. 

Otah was nice. Fishy, spicy and savoury. A little small methinks. 

粥, Amoy Street Food Centre

Not bad tasting pork porridge from 粥 (#02-118 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road). We were here on a Sunday morning and this stall was one of those that was opened. Beneath the piping hot creamy porridge were slices of pork, pig liver and meatballs. Reasonably priced and has option for additional ingredients.

Choon Hoy Parlor (春花馆), Capitol Singapore

Choon Hoy Parlor (#01-84A Arcade @ The Capitol Kempinski, 15 Stamford Road) is by Dylan Ong of The Masses - the latter has incidentally relocated from their old premise at Beach Road to just next door to Choon Hoy Parlor. Story I read was that the restaurant was opened by Dylan in honour of his mother and that it bears her name.

The menu in broad strokes includes classic styles and updated takes on what's commonly regarded as heritage/traditional Teochew dishes. Have been curious since I first read about them.

But first, a Pandan Coconut Highball. Which is alchemised from pandan essence, 海之蓝, coconut water and soda. Took a few sips to get used to it and after that, I kinda enjoyed it. Not sure how to describe this.

Started off with some pork trotter aspic with a dip they aptly named garlic chilli zhup. The aspic didn't wasn't one of the more memorable ones I recall having but it also wasn't bad at all. The garlic chilli zhup was nice - aside from the two named ingredients, there's probably vinegar?

That's the roti bakar - coffee butter and salted egg kaya with lumpfish caviar on toasted bread. Those lumpfish caviar lent a bit of seafoody flavour, so they weren't just salty. Nice.

Mocha prime pork ribs. A lot more delicious than the description on the menu which mentioned Vietnam inspired egg yolk espuma. Sauce was a creamy caramel smokiness that could have passed off as a velouté of pork floss (肉松) or bak kwa (肉干); if you could imagine that. Meat from the ribs were chunky, pretty tender and fell off the bone easily. That and those crushed pistachios.

Found their assam stingray moreish. Good quality ray, great savoury tanginess from the tamarind broth accented by ginger flower and pineapples! 

Morel Silkie chicken consommé's pretty good. Flavoured also with cordyceps and sweetened by red dates.

These was called Taiwan dou miao & taugay. Haven't had dou miao that looked like these before. There's salted egg yolk and anchovy powder to intensify the savoury garlicky flavours. Great stuff with rice. 👍🏼

Speaking of rice, there's one with lard and soya sauce called A Lil Lard, A Lil Soy, A Lil Love Rice. It's been znged with fried lard, fried garlic bits and light soya sauce. So delicious with the garlic chilli zhup from the pork aspic. Super with the assam broth from the stingray. Also awesome with the dou miao & taugay.

We finished with their Trio of Orh Ni. A bit of a misnomer since the main blobs were the paste of purple sweet potato, pumpkin and yam. That's coconut ice cream on the side.