Daeng M.Y., Redhill

Lontong from Daeng M.Y. (80 Eating House, 80 Redhill Lane). This stall's in the same coffeeshop as Penang Handmade Pau. Crowd here can be pretty intense in the weekend because the queue never seems to go away during the morning hours. Gravy's fairly lemak. Serunding has to be requested for - seems these guys don't provide them by default. Not bad. And yes, those were paru.

Handmade Carrot Cake (手制菜头粿), Tekka Food Centre

Black radish cake from Handmade Carrot Cake (#01-301 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). Might not look like much and I was even thinking that a better job could have been done with the caramelisation. But there was a nice flavour coming from the kueh and one could also tell that it wasn't a mass produced variety from the texture. I liked that. For anyone that might want to know, they do fried radish cake sticks too.

Prata tsunami from RK Eating House

I remember eating from RK Eating House many years back and blacklisting them. Didn't have a good experience then. This was a prata tsunami which we had recently. 😬 It's one of those numerous banjir rendition with soft boiled egg, curry mutton and chicken tikka doused with dal, curry and sambal.

Chicken tikka's not smokey. But otherwise, it kinda tasted like how I imagined it. Didn't dislike it but I don't think I'll be getting it again.

Penang Handmade Pau (槟城手工包点), Redhill

Penang Handmade Pau was mentioned again to me recently so we came down for some of the bao/pau for breakfast. Stall's located in the coffeeshop (80 Eating House, 80 Redhill Lane) beside Redhill Market.

We got a bunch to try.

That's the coffee bao - tasted like coffee flavoured lotus seed paste inside.

Vegetable bao which has mostly stewed turnip and a bit of carrot stuffing. Not so different tasting from poh piah.

These char siew bao were noticeably better than the ones from Ru Fa Bao Dian. Nicer flavouring in the char siew stuffings and better filling to skin ratio.

Not so much of a fan of their kou rou pau (扣肉包) because the lean meat parts of the pork belly weren't as tender.

Slightly gingery and sweet fillings from their big bao. Not a fan.

Mei cai kou rou pau (梅菜扣肉包) - not bad. While the flavour from the mei cai wasn't as intense or punchy and the pork wasn't as deliciously moist & fatty as a proper dish of it, I thought it was adequate as bao stuffings. Wouldn't mind recommendations of better ones if they do exist.

About the cardamom tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe

I've been trying to figure out the difference between the cardamom tea and masala tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe because they tasted pretty similar. I think I've finally got it. Both have pretty obviously cardamom flavouring. The cardamom tea's cleaner tasting while the masala tea has a warm layering from the spices and heat from the ginger.

Sauerkraut pork belly & pork blood stew from Mincheng Bibimbap

Mincheng Bibimbap has obviously gotten the memo on the lifted ban on blood. There's a sauerkraut pork belly & pork blood stew on menu now. Blood curds, pickled vegetables and thin sliced pork belly in a sour porky broth that was deliciously salty. I enjoyed it.

Re-revisiting Hong Xing Handmade Fishball @ Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Kuey teow mee 白 from Hong Xing Handmade Fishball this time. Just textural and flavour difference in the noodles compared to the mee pok I normally get. The flavours from fried garlic and shallots were also more apparent.

Mom's Touch, 18 Cross

Mom's Touch disappeared from our shores some time back and have made a return. The last time we've had anything from them was their spicy chocolate chicken years ago. They're currently located at 18 Cross (#01-03, 18 Cross, 181 South Bridge Road), the building formerly known as Cross Street Exchange.

One of the Singapore exclusives is their Angus beef burger. This was the double. Pretty sure the beef was not salted because I could detect all the locked it beefiness in there that was begging to be released. If only they had salted the meat.

Then again, I got this sauceless and maybe that wasn't how they rolled. I'd classify this as edible but I'm not likely to get it again.

White garlic chicken burger's not bad. Chunky fried chicken thigh meat, ham, onions, pickles, lettuce, cheddar and some garlic sauce. Though pretty similar to that Incredible Burger I had from them years back, I enjoyed this more. Pretty sure it wasn't just because of that garlic sauce.

These were the least Cajun Cajun fries I've had.

Their banana milk coffee was nicer than the recent one from McD. More banana flavour and better tasting coffee. Shame on McD. What I did not like though was that even though I had opted for less ice, there was still a lot of ice. Like half a cup of it.

Revisiting Otter & Pebbles

I was drawn back to Otter & Pebbles by their PB & Otter mostly.

Osmanthus jasmine with cheese foam. This was nice. Light yet flavourful with nice velvety texture.

Otter's Minty Choco which was basically hot chocolate with mint. Starbucks has nicer hot chocolate and the mint was kinda weak.

I liked the soy milk udon for the broth which was savoury/umami. Pretty sure the salmon contributed to the flavour. Udon was ordinary. So was the salmon.

Like I mentioned, this was what got me back.

Blue cheese soufflé pancake again.

Their black sesame oat latte with an extra shot of espresso was pretty darn good. Loads of black sesame flavour on top of that thick coffee. Note to self: one shot will suffice.

King of Laksa (叻沙之王), Aljunied

King of Laksa (Food Gallery, #02-100, 118 Aljunied Ave 2) opened second half of last year. There's been a bit of social media buzz over them and they have gotten themselves a Michelin Bib Gourmand since. From what I gathered, they're going the "no added salt, sugar, and MSG" route. But before you knock it, you should try it.

It's as lemak as any respectable laksa rendition out there. Broth was creamy, thick and adequately salted but not as oily. Very drinkable stuff in my opinion. Flavour's quite similar to the Katong Laksa variety. The prawns were deveined and meaty.

Gripes? More laksa leave and sambal that you could help yourself with would be nice. The queue was excruciating.

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.