Recently at Suju Takashimaya

Buri daikon from Suju ( 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). Yellow tail fish head with large chunks of daikon in a sweet-ish mirin soy broth. In retrospect, I liked the meat from the head more than the body.

Took me a while but I realised that their rice set alone makes a warm and comforting light dinner. Just rice, takuan (one time refillable) and a bowl of smoke-y good tasting miso soup (not refillable).

Lobster Buldak Ramen from Liu Lang Mian Noodle Bar (流浪面)

This was a limited time bowl from Liu Lang Mian. Included half a mentaiko mayo lobster, seafood Buldak tare, ajitama, scallions, tobiko and seaweed.

I was initially a little bit concerned because I've had some experiences (mostly enjoyable though) with Buldak's hot sauces. Turned out that the noodles were manageably spicy (for me), but still packed substantial heat. I liked it. Pretty satisfying with those thick noodles. Loads of umami from the toppings. Lobster was decent.

Supper Inn (宵夜店), Celestial Avenue, Melbourne CBD

This old school Cantonese restaurant (Level 1/15 Celestial Avenue, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9663 4759) which opens late into the night is apparently an institution in Melbourne's Chinatown. From what I gather, it's been in business for almost half a century.

The portal and the path beyond was filled with scripts from past visitors that attempted to immortalise their visits in very small ways.

We had half a roast duck. The bird was much better tasting that its mundane looks suggested. Fat under the skin, tender even for breast meat and adequately flavoured. Plum sauce was the proverbial icing on the cake if one was into the icing.

A popular dish from their restaurant was their pippies in XO sauce and Chinese donuts (it's 油条/油炸鬼 and a separate charge applies). Pippies are clams if anyone was wondering. These were sautéed in a mildly spicy umami brown sauce with 油条 below. Clams were plump and not bad tasting. The XO sauce didn't taste like the ones that I am familiar with.  

I was looking forward to their blood curd congee. Did not like it. It has a flavour like pig intestines that hadn't been properly processed and that flavour was also present in the blood curds. I was disappointed by it.

There's a special fried rice on their menu which is what many would typically recognise as yang zhou fried rice. Eggs, bits of char siew, prawns, bean sprouts and spring onions. Flavour's passable, not memorable. I think it lacked smokiness or fish sauce. Or both.

There was a claypot braised lamb brisket special when we were there. Sauce was nice and there's adequate intrinsic flavour from the lamb. Would have been great if the lamb was much more tender but it kinda stopped being good there. Pity.

A fish briyani

This one was a home cooked special. Apparently this briyani was a blend of Indian and South African styles. Notice that there are chunks of potatoes in it. Deliciously savoury with a great spice infusion.

Country Cob Bakery, Springvale, Melbourne

One of the things we've been looking forward to this trip was pies. After some "research", I had to concede that the options were overwhelming. Country Cob Bakery (890-892 Princes Highway, Springvale, Melbourne) looked like a good shop as any for a newbie because...... 

......it's home of Australia's best pie? 😂 Even the options here was overwhelming.

We settled on a few. They all looked mostly the same on the outside with that buttery brown pastry shell.

Curry scallop pie's not bad. The curry appeared to have a lot of green peas in them and was a little coconut-y. Not as much scallops in it as I thought but I'm not complaining.

The Malaysian prawn pie tasted like an creamy and less spicy version of laksa. Most people back home will never identify this as laksa. It tasted like laksa rempah. Just not exactly laksa. And no laksa leaves. Not bad. Chunky prawns in there.

My favourite was their plain beef pie which had a intensely flavoured, creamy and velvety filling of beef gravy. There's small bits of beef in that delicious gravy and I liked it. 👍🏼

Vanilla slice - or what I also discovered was named "snot block". Our first snot block. The layer inside between the pastry tasted custardy like how I imagined it.

Tutto, Jewel

Dinner at Tutto (#02-246/247 Jewel, 78 Airport Boulevard, tel : +65 6035 7880) by Da Paolo.

Calamari's a little hard. Kinda disappointingly mundane considering that these guys (meaning the Da Paolo Group) have been in the business of restaurants for ages and a pedestrian rendition of a common starter was all they could manage. Lemon aioli's not bad though.

What we thought was memorable was their limone e stracciatella - spaghetti with stracciatella, Pecorino Romano and lemon zest. Pasta was creamy, cheesy, lemon-y and light at the same time. Only available at Jewel.

Quite impressed by their pizza cotto e funghi - the simplicity of it brought out the flavours from the ingredients which were the ham, mushrooms and tomato sauce. Like that their sauce wasn't tart.

Our pizza had a broken blister like a popped pimple. 😬

Burrata gelato with chilli - I liked the creamy spicy combination.

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.

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.

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.

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.