Recently at Healthy Soba IKI

It's been over a year since we were last at Healthy Soba IKI (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).

Their August special was a chilled unagi shirayaki soba.

Thick cuts of unagi with a sprinkle of matcha and salted black peppercorns. Green leaves on top were shiso. Couldn't taste much of the matcha though.

There's also a summer mango salsa duck soba featuring cubed mangoes and mango jelly with a fruity soba broth. Those chunky slices of duck were smokey. Nice.

Kinmedai saikyoyaki teishoku with natto from Nakajima Suisan

I've been lamenting over the portion of the kinmedai at Nakajima Suisan (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) for some time. I think they have gotten a little bigger. 

The slice was thicker and it now comes with bones as well.

Now I just have to wish for them to put the shioyaki version on the regular menu. 😬

Natto and shoyu with rice today.

This has got to be the first time I've noticed the grooves on the backrest of their seats.

Rat tail noodles from Teochew St. Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (潮州街香菇肉脞面)

Seeing as Teochew St. Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle's style is a little sauce-y, I got the bee tai bak today which I thought worked better as a noodle type. So I guess this is as much confirmation as any that their dry bowl is the wet and pretty vinegary type.

Revisiting Pu3

Been some years since we last ate at Pu3. Came back recently for a plate of deliciousness which had (anticlockwise from 11-ish) begedil, assam pedas ikan pari, sambal goreng and lemak turi. Assam pedas packed more heat than I was expecting and was pretty peppery. 👍🏼 Love the savoury richness from the lemak turi too. Very satisfying plate washed down with a sweet creamy teh tarik.

I thought these were fried bananas but turned out to be plantains.

Uncle Penyet, Bukit Merah View

Nasi lemak from Uncle Penyet (#01-253, 116 Bukit Merah View). Portion was pretty generous. This one has butterfly pea basmati rice - there's flavour from the santan, but not impressively lemak so it's an easy decision to eat with their sambal. Otah and fried chicken's decent. Luncheon meat was not good.

bad habits., Orchard Central

I heard about bad habits. and their New York slices previously when they were only located at Mohammad Sultan. They've now set up shop at Somerset (#01-16 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, tel : +65 8066 6316).

Tried a couple of slices. Above's their limited time corned beef with capers and whole grain mustard.

This was triple cheese featuring both fior di latte and buffalo mozzarella with 24 months Parmigiano Reggiano

Both featured much thinner crust than I was expecting for New York style slices. They were delicious though without being heavy. Kinda pricey.

Ah Seng Durian, Alexandra

Stopped by Ah Seng Durian (#01-22 & 24, 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1) for....dessert.

Tried their MSW durian sago. Frozen puree on mousse with sago and shaven ice. There were cubes of nata de coco inside.

Pretty creamy. Wouldn't say it's not good but neither durian puree nor mousse were at the level of the ones from 99 Old Trees. Or Dessert Bowl. Or Yat Ka Yan. There's just something odd about that frozen puree that didn't taste exactly like MSW that I couldn't put a finger to.

More breakfasting at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada

Seems like the menu at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada  (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八) is evolving. There's a bunch of new stuff I haven't seen before up there.

Behold their chocolate prata. Just chocolate sauce in it I guess.

With their muttony dalcha...not weird at all. 😏 Lamb and chocolate have been a proven thing. 😬

Double egg banjir with some jiggly chunks of lamb fat from the dalcha and sambal. Ini bagus.

One week later......

Strawberry prata - with strawberry syrup like any other strawberry prata. Barely discernible strawberry flavour from it beyond some sweetness.

Udon Shin, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

Managed to snag seats at Udon Shin (#B2-32 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road) without a ridiculous queue today. They're from Tokyo and this outlet is apparently the first outside of Japan. Another one of those.

From what I gathered, their udon are not cut or boiled in advance. Each portion is rolled, cut, and cooked on order. Gotta admit the texture's smooth, firm and chewy.

This was their seasonal Arrabbiata bowl which featured a tomato base. Because of the name, I had the impression that it would be spicy. Wasn't really. It was cheesy and tomato-y though. And unexpectedly sweet. Came with some vegetable and snow crab tempura on the side. Those snow crab legs were puny. 

Their Carbonara bowl was topped with a strip of tempura bacon. That bacon was not bad tasting and wasn't as thick or salty as I had imagined. I'm not sure if I'd associate the flavour of this bowl with carbonara but it was eggy, buttery and cheesy. Kinda enjoyed it. Don't think I'll be getting it again though.

A couple of weeks later......

Butter shoyu udon with tempura. Tempura was sliced chashu and cheese. 

Cheese was gooey and salty so I liked it. Charshu was dry-ish and flavoured from the marinate. I think there was considerably more punch from the udons the last round because of the cheese in the noodles. This butter shoyu bowl felt less intense.

Mamita's Kitchen, Lucky Plaza

Food from Mamita's Kitchen (#02-60 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Rd, tel : +65 9222 8894).

This was sinigang na bangus - milkfish in sour soup. Broth was savoury and tart.

Got ourselves some ginataang gulay which was vegetables in coconut cream. That coconut cream was a sweet and rich so this almost tasted like a dessert. First thing that came to mind was bubur cha cha. Mostly pumpkin and long beans in there.

Because the ban on pig's blood has been lifted recently, these guys have already started making dinuguan - a blood stew made with pork or pig innards, vinegar and chilli. Amongst other things. Texture was creamy and there was some livery/offal-y taste in it. There were chunks of meat which tasted like pork belly. Don't know if there were any actual offal. Looked kinda swampy. 😬

That dinuguan was so good with rice. That rice portion they served was pretty generous and I wiped it off the plate.

Some sinigang on the side. These were pretty sour.

For some reasons, the proprietress offered us a serving of tortang talong on the house. This was deep fried eggwashed eggplant and it was fresh off their fryer. The tortang was piping hot, had crispy eggy edges and the eggplant was tender and gooey. A little greasy but nice.

This needs mention - the rice we had today were really moist. Some of them have even compressed into lumpy chunks and I love those parts. Reminded me of ketupat that's warm and tender.

Taste of Sri Lanka, Sims Place

Another Sri Lankan stall (Mei Cheng Coffee Shop, #01-150, 53 Sims Place) has popped up on the radar.

This was their chicken curry meal which came with some salad, dal, potatoes (I detected cumin I think), papadam and choice of another vegetable. I went with beetroot. The curry was light with little to no coconut milk. Dal's delicious. There's loads of texture in this plate.

There's some kattal sambal which you could help yourself with which packed some heat, salt and something seafoody. The flavour of those reminded me of hae bi hiam. From what I gathered online, there's supposed to be fish in it. 👍🏼

Curry puff & goreng pisang from Selera Restaurant

I remember getting curry puffs in the vicinity many many years back. What I couldn't recollect was if they were from Selera Restaurant or Old Chang Kee across the road.

Tried a puff lately and based on impressions (aha!), I like these better than Old Chang Kee. But then again, I'm also biased against Old Chang Kee for their gimmicks and increasing prizes.

The skin was a nicer hue of golden brown and the fillings seem to taste "nicer". The oil in the fryer didn't inspire confidence though. Lol. 

Goreng pisang was awesome. Skin wasn't excessively thick or oily and had a good crisp to boot. The melty pisang raja inside was sweet and banana-y.

I need to come back for more of these.