Another dessert idea at HaiDiLao (海底捞)

White fungus and their tau huay from their dessert station. The former's hot and latter is cold so you kinda are still going get that hot and cold with a fresh bowl.

Back to brunch at Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

I mentioned coming back here for their burger. 

The butter with the onion focaccia is like the icing on the cake.

Their crustacean bisque is always a good choice.

One of the first course option in the brunch was an open faced beef gyoza with avocado. Beef's really tender but the flavour was almost totally muted by the yuzu mayo.

There's a Australian wagyu carpaccio which was pretty good tasting. Not so much because it's wagyu but more of the combination flavours with the tuna sauce and sweet pickled onions. That and the textures from the diced onions and not too salty crispy capers.

So here's that double cheeseburger. Special sauce on the side.

Nice, hot and meaty between buttery buns.

Picanha from Pure Black cattle. Meat's beefy and metallic, tender and chewy at the same time. Much like skirt/flank. The sweet glazed carrots that came with it was awesome. 

Sticky coffee pudding with vanilla mascarpone to end. Pretty good.

Revisiting Cenzo

We finally made it back to Cenzo.

Sparkling water is a couple of bucks and bottomless.

Wagyu tartar cannoli wasn't memorable. Wouldn't have known it was wagyu if the menu hadn't mentioned.

The lardo tigelle with truffle honey which we liked from the last time has become garlic bread whipped lardo burnt honey. This one was nice...cheesy, savoury and tinged with sweetness. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the tigelle was nicer. 😅

There's a lot of pistachio stuff going around lately. Most of them are second rate. I'm also being kind by just labelling them second rate because the honest description would conceivably be 'con job'. Not this gramigna with pistachio pesto though. It's not just nuttiness in the pesto, it's pistachio specific nuttiness here. With actual crushed nuts. Enriched by burrata.

What I had been looking forward to was their lamb porchetta. You read that right.

This was awesome. Serious crackling cushioned by a layer of flavourful lamb-y fat over meat. That and its unique blend of bite, greasiness and crunch. Why so? It doesn't have the same mouthfeel as regular porchetta because of the size. Pretty rich and heart clogging. 👍🏼

Tiramisu to end.

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.

Re-revisiting Merci Marcel @ Eng Hoon Street

Been some years since we were last at Merci Marcel at Tiong Bahru.

Got the sweet potatoes & lentils hummus thinking it might be sweet. They weren't. 😬 Tasted like regular hummus packed with cumin flavour and a different texture. There's supposed to be coconut milk in the hummus which I never detected.

Love the roasted feta with the pears, both poached and fresh.

Pleasantly surprised by their beef burger. Meat's nicely caramelised, still moist on the inside and not destroyed by marinates/herbs. Good saltiness coming from the Parmesan cheese and crispy Bayonne ham. Those toasted sesame on top of the buns were nice!

Cauliflower trilogy - had these at Club Street previously. Still so delicious.

Not bad orange confit & cardamom cake.

Revisiting Pizza Studio Tamaki

Been meaning to come back to PST for a while.

Today's soup is mushroom. They're also not chilled like the previous time. Flavour's pretty intense. 👍🏼

Menu mentioned spinach with marinade anchovies, red chicory and pine nuts. I was imagining baby spinach and slivers of anchovies but it's stir fried Chinese spinach I think and the anchovies have kinda melted into it. Pretty umami. Also, the salad's chilled. Actually kinda nice for the weather.

Ended up with a couple of their monthly special pizzas.

This, their Tokyo Odyssey: Singapore Edition, is I quote "Crafted exclusively for our first international home, this pizza blends the spirit of Tokyo with flavors made to celebrate Singapore’s vibrant food culture." It's nice but I couldn't reconcile the name, the theme and the flavour. If you asked me, this tasted much like tom kha gai. I like it but I don't feel the Singapore in it. 😂

One has got to love kani miso to enjoy their zuwaigani miso pizza. While the crab miso bechamel was understandably not as intense as regular kani miso, it's definitely there. Pretty good tasting also with a squeeze of lemon.

Their house made tiramisu's nice and well soaked inside.

初二 lunch from Hajah Maimunah @ Jalan Pisang

Been a while since we last ate at Hajah Maimunah. 初二 of CNY was a good time as any and it also coincidentally marked the last day of their operations for this location before it will be closed for a month to focus on tingkat deliveries during the Ramadan period.

The food has mostly been good pretty much every time we're here - barring occasional inconsistencies which aren't common. We've had most if not all of these dishes before so there won't be much to say.

Except maybe for the terung belado which was squishy and tender. Nice with that belado salsa.

Perhaps just a reminder to self that we'll need to break out of the routine stuff once in a while...

...like their paru belado which I don't want to say no to. 😂

Today's assam pedas ikan pari was nicer than the last time. Stingray meat was less stiff.

We finished with some lopes and a green bean soup with coconut milk