火山 Chicken Rice Wanton Mee, C&L Cafe @ UB. One

Another chicken rice stall has taken over Soon Soon (yes, that hot dog chicken rice stall) right next door to Aneka Ulam. This current one serves a pretty competent rendition and their soup's quite nice.

This was 烧鸡尾 with extra portions of meat.

That's 白鸡尾 + roast pork and egg. Did not expect the chicken jelly there.

Kuey teow 白 from 参香肉脞面 (San Xiang Bak Chor Mee)

Trying another configuration of kuey teow with vinegar and no sambal from San Xiang Bak Chor Mee.

Sliced red chilli and light soya sauce provided a clean heat. Nice.

Niigata Food Fair stuff and the old black truffle fried rice from Tampopo @ Ngee Ann City

Haven't eaten at this branch of Tampopo for a really long time. The last time we were here might have been that one where we had their gyukotsu ramen. We were reeled in today by a couple of items that were featured in their Niigata Food Fair menu.

One of which was their amaebi rice flour tagliatelle. Couldn't tell if the tagliatelle was made with rice flour through the gravy/broth which had an intense umami sweet crustacean flavour. Think prawn bisque. Those amaebi also had a gentle but discernible sweetness to them. Nicely done this one. 👍🏼

Presentation has kinda...changed for their black truffle fried rice compared to how they used to plate it. Thankfully, it's still pleasantly greasy and sufficiently salty to be moreish.

The other Niigata Food Fair thing we tried was their matcha parfait. Notice a sprig of thyme. No cornflakes in this one. Plenty of intense matcha sauce. Nice.

Ah Jie Hokkien Mee (阿杰福建炒虾面), Ang Mo Kio

Pretty good tasting plate from Ah Jie Hokkien Mee (#01-2811, 721 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8). The stock had more flavour going on compared to the one from S.Park Kitchen. I also liked how eggy it was. Would be remiss of me not to mention those fragrant nuggets of golden brown fried lard which might be one of the better if not the best ones I've had on Hokkien mee. Not averse at all to coming back again.

Dinner at Bangalore Cafe

Happy dinner at Bangalore Cafe. The boss came over and commented that he hasn't seen us in a while. I'm still surprised that he remembered us and could even venture to narrow down to the month when he last did. 😨 Things were off to a good start with their delicious rava idli.

That's the tandoori gobi. Cauliflower. Tangy, smoky and nicely done.

A kichadi is a dish of spiced rice and lentil, texturally not dissimilar to pongal or uppuma. This one was their palak kichadi, a rendition with pureed spinach folded into the rice and lentils. It's both creamy and piping hot with a hint of cumin and garlic amidst other things. And ghee. Flavour was nutty even. Nice. Needs to be eaten hot.

There are possibly other good ways to end this well but...we know this one and we're happy with it. Lightly sweetened and creamy masala chai.

Plain Vanilla Bakery, Cluny Court

We've walked past and sometimes into various outposts of Plain Vanilla Bakery numerous times and have never eaten/bought anything from them until today. Why? The confluence of correct signs never aligned. Today happened because we chanced upon no queues and also an empty table in this tiny (relative to their other stores) branch (#01-03A Cluny Court, 501 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 8363 7615).

So we grabbed a couple of cakes. 

Dark chocolate marble loaf - dry-ish but not bad tasting.

If memory serves, olive oil cake with Earl Grey buttercream and strawberry jam. Didn't taste any olive oil and the Earl Grey was subtle. Tangy sweet strawberry jam was pretty good though.

Aburi chirashi and pitan tofu from Chirashizushi Shou

Been a while since we were last here. Seems that quite a bit of the stuff we've had in the past aren't on the menu anymore. Were the removed items open admission to failures that weren't good enough to stay on? I know I wouldn't remove stuff I knew they were making money......🤔

Pitan tofu to start.

Tried their aburi chirashi. Should have double yolked this. A bit more torching for the char would have definitely improved the seafood topping.

Hong Ji Claypot Herbal Bak Kut Teh (宏记砂煲药材肉骨茶), Ang Mo Kio

Hong Ji Claypot Herbal Bak Kut Teh (First Coffeeshop, #01-138, 107 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4) is in the same coffeeshop as S.Park Kitchen. They serve the herbal style bak kut teh here.

This was an order with small/sweet intestines (粉肠), pig liver and stomach with a side of 油条. Offal were arguably tender and the broth was...not overly herbal. Don't mind eating again.

I was today years old when I realized that I could upsize at Good Pig Trotters Fried Bee Hoon (好猪脚米粉)

So I asked for 加米粉 at Good Pig Trotters Fried Bee Hoon today and realised that there's a larger serving which has always been available. Now I know.

Tempura-EN, Great World

Tempura Makino rebranded into Tempura-EN (B1-112/113 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6257 8733). The a la carte tempura menu appeared to be mostly similar but some of the stuff they used to have previously are no longer available.

Garlic shoyu butter corn - the butter and the fried garlic made it nice. Corn's...corn. Nothing particularly outstanding about their tempura. The rebranding did not seem to have improved the quality of their specialty.

We came here for their kaisen hitsumabushi. Not their tempura. 😬 Since it was a hitsumabushi, it came with instructions on how to eat as well. You know, the one that suggests that you should taste it first as is and then perhaps add a little something as you go along.

The last part is typically where you finish the remaining portion with their broth. Personally, I think you should just eat it the way you want to. The bowl came with cubed seafood including some scallops and a large prawn. 

The broth was tai dashi. It's deliciously umami. Having it over the seafood and rice feels like the Japanese version of Teochew styled fish porridge. It's also great drinking on its own.

S.Park Kitchen, Ang Mo Kio

S.Park Kitchen (First Coffeeshop, #01-138, 107 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4) blipped on my radar recently. They're a local western food stall with a couple of things that piqued my interest. Garlic butter sauce and Hokkien mee. Yup, Hokkien mee at a western food stall.

Said garlic butter sauce looked much like a chopped garlic salsa. It's deliciously salty, garlicky and buttery. Pretty good with their crunchy chicken cutlet which was well fried without excessive grease on the breading. Nice coleslaw and decent fries on the side too. Portion was ample.

I'll classify their Hokkien mee as competent but not the most memorable. Not bad tasting but I prefer more punch to the flavours. The stock's gentler than I imagined from appearances. Didn't pack the same intensity as say Shiok Hokkien Mee and definitely could benefit from more salt. No complains otherwise. Chilli's pretty good. If anyone was wondering, that was the $8 plate with an extra portion of lard (猪油渣) which is chargeable.

Pistach & Morty in sesame bagel from Two Men Bagel House

Rick & Morty vibes much from the name of this one? 😏 Anyways, Pistach & Morty from TMBH ( 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, 二十二, 二十三, 二十四, 二十五, 二十六, 二十七, 二十八, 二十九, 三十, 三十一). According to them - hazelnut, salted walnut, kataifi, Mortadella, whipped Brie, balsamic glaze and cranberry compote.

現実 <- The only nut I picked up was pistachio and I'm not sure if it came from the Mortadella. That green stuff tasted nutty so I'm guessing it's pistachio butter. Nice crunch from the kataifi and a deliciously rich cheesy creaminess from the Brie with the fruitiness of the cranberry compote cutting through it all.

Paradise Classic, One Holland Village

Somewhat surprised that Paradise Classic (#01-33 One Holland Village, 7 Holland Village Way, tel : +65 6551 5558) delivers on its name. It serves classics from the zi char arena. Then again, what's classic might differ from one generation to another. This was recognisable as such for me at least. 

Ice lychee tea. It's classic styled. Tea and canned lychee, sweetened/flavoured with the syrup from the can. Quite nice.

Got a large yang zhou fried rice (扬州炒饭). I did not realise that large feeds 3-4. I was thinking 2. But it's all good since we could tar pow back what we couldn't finish. Decent tasting with real char siew and non-sus looking prawns. Would have been nicer if there was some fish sauce for some of that nuanced saltiness.

Another classic...sweet and sour pork. Crunchy surface, fat in the meat and pretty chunky cut. There's canned pineapples in there, no less. Not bad tasting.

A mixed stall breakfast at Chinatown's food centre

Breakfast at Chinatown!

Bee hoon from Chang Ji Gourmet. Flavour seems a little bit different but still good tasting.

Some braised duck, eggs, tau kwa and pig's skin from Run Ji Cooked Food.

Those bee hoon from Chang Ji Gourmet need to be upsized. While $1.30 appears relatively cheap, a decent portion would be double the regular serving which one could get in two orders and would total $2.60. Not so cheap for just bee hoon after all.