Boon Chiang Hainanese Chicken Rice (文昌海南雞飯), Ubi

A decent rendition to be had at Boon Chiang Hainanese Chicken Rice (302 Ubi Ave 1) which featured succulent cuts of dark meat (白尾) and creamy livers with some bits of toasty fried garlic bits. Soup on the side's lotus root - flavourful but not thick. What's not impressive was the rice. Beady textures and pretty mild flavouring. This one falls under the wing of don't mind having if I'm in the vicinity but wouldn't travel here for them.

Revisiting Rustica

Back at Rustica.

Double shotted their bandung latte today. Liked it better than their regular single shot concoction because stronger coffee.

That's a basil and watercress pesto mee hoon kueh called Green Blanket. Blanketed by chopped kailan and some walnuts. Pesto's gentler than the Italian styled ones which are generally fortified with cheese and olive oil. This one was less rich and salty. Not bad tasting per se but also not moreish. 

Tried their seafood dry laksa which featured rempah without coconut milk. Understandably, it's not lemak. Not bad tasting and the seafood's good quality. 

The other item we had was their white pepper clams & fish soup. Soup's flavour was intense, had hua diao and was creamy. There's bee hoon in there as well. What I did not expect from it was sweetness. Couldn't put a finger to what that sweetness was. Had to soya sauce it to move the flavour spectrum towards savouriness which then made it pretty good. The slices of barramundi in it were lightly floured and fried. I liked this.

Birds of Paradise, Beach Road

Ducked into Birds of Paradise (263 Beach Road, tel  : +65 9820 5763) for sanctuary from the sweltering humidity.

Picked up a couple of scoops in their eggy rosemary flavoured cone. Top's osmanthus pear and bottom's sea salt hojicha. Nice.

Geylang Claypot Rice, Beach Road

Geylang Claypot Rice (361, 363, 365 Beach Road, tel : +65 6744 4574) has been on my radar a while. I've been asked if I've had it and if I hadn't, that I should give them try. We've been indifferent about it for reasons - while we enjoy claypot rice at times, we aren't that big on them. That and that we've never liked their brand of "socarrat" which many bird brains love gushing over.

One day, we came across their beef bone marrow claypot rice on social media. 😲 Nothing ignites a call to action like curiosity.

We finished a claypot kailan with prawn paste and pork lard while waiting for the claypot rice. Not bad tasting. There were adequate flavours from the prawn paste and lard (猪油) but the fried lard (猪油渣) were mostly soggy.

Like regular claypot rice, the beef bone marrow rendition was brought to the table for the final flourish.

Which included the adding of eggs yolk and bone marrow into the pot of beef short plate, spring onions and rice...

The ingredients are folded through the sizzle and crackle as the aromas emanate.

Not bad tasting. Not a fan of the burnt rice bits still. Apparently, one can request for less of the burnt rice which is something we will definitely ask for the next time. Will consider coming back to try other dishes.

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.