Hajah Maimunah Mini, Hawker's Street @ Clementi Mall

The last time we ate at Hajah Maimunah Mini in Clementi Mall, the food court was Boleh Boleh!. It's now Hawker Street and Hajah Maimunah Mini ended up being located in the same spot as they did previously. Anyways we got a plate with some favourites -  ayam goreng, sotong hitam, quail eggs sambal and sambal goreng. Still as delicious. Am pretty sure the food quality's better at the flagship but we took what we could get here.

Sushi Dorobo, Bugis Cube

Got wind of Sushi Dorobo (#03-17 Bugis Cube, 470 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 8344 2811) and was intrigued by their aburi engawa don which was a lunch only item on their menu.

It looked a lot more impressive as a picture on the menu.

The first thing that came to mind was that it wasn't as aburi-ed as I imagined. I was hoping that it would be smokier. But it's savoury and unctuous with melty fat. That egg layered a smooth richness while spikes of brininess from the ikura cut through with some character to the flavours.

The engawa was not quite as exquisite as Sakari Sushi but way better than the one from Tsukiji Sushi at Avenue K.

Revisiting Paradise Classic

Back at Paradise Classic for more of their "classic" zi char. Started with a pretty smoky braised bee hoon with assorted seafood. One could see those scorch marks in the noodles and also the gossamer of eggs from the decently done up 滑蛋 in the gravy. 

Egg with sliced bitter gourd. Competent, a little greasy.

Kung bao chicken was sadly disappointing. The flavour leaned towards tangy and was missing body - not so much sweet, dark and assertive with heat like how I like kung bao sauce. 

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.

A prawn only bowl from Blanco Court Prawn Mee (白蘭閣街大蝦麵)

Haven't had hae mee from Blanco Court Prawn Mee in a while. Here's a bowl with just prawns. This was still as satisfying as we remember it. Great crustacean-y broth and texture from those firm thick bee hoon layered with the aroma/flavour of both fried lard and shallots. Umai!

Revisiting Dian Xiao Er Prestige (店小二臻选)

Back at Dian Xiao Er Prestige. The duck of choice today was the Ten Wonder Herb (十全药材烤鸭); a departure from our usual Angelica flavoured one. Flavour's different but had a similar herbal sweetness in the sauce. Couldn't say I didn't enjoy it but I have a feeling we'll probably end up choosing the Angelica again the next time. 

Pretty good tasting seafood bee hoon with fish sauce (海鲜鱼露米粉). But I'm not so sure about the fish sauce part because I'm not tasting it. Note to self: Gotta ask them to exclude the 芹菜. 

One week later......

Didn't get duck today. That's the claypot shrimp paste cauliflower (虾酱干锅花菜) - savoury and garlicky with a hint of ginger and a bit of heat flavoured by small dried shrimps and bits of pork lard. 

Sliced fish with soy sauce and fried shallots. Decent tasting but portions felt kinda tiny. The cooking method was simple and the dish was light that we inhaled those slices of fish with ease. 

Not bad Iberico char siew. Nice caramelization and one could taste the nam yu flavour on them. More savoury than sweet so they appeared to be more Hong Kong styled than local/Malaysian style.

Noticed their steamed white rice for the first time. The texture was grainy yet moist and tender. Nice.

Khoon Kee Tasty Prawn Mee (坤記大蝦排骨麵), Redhill Food Centre

Pretty good tasting hae mee from Khoon Kee Tasty Prawn Mee (#01-58, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane). Prawns were fleshy and sweet while the saucing was deliciously salty. Will come back again.

So we're back to Man Man again (formerly also known as Unagi Tei)

For some reasons, Man Man has decided to call themselves Man Man again after an attempted rebranding to Unagi Tei (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九).

We were here tonight for their fleshy tare glazed Hyogo oysters. These were creamy and plump. Stole all the limelight from their unagi. I'm pretty glad that they're no longer giving us the ends of the wasabi root and grater to make us sweat work for it. On the other hand, I'm sad that the Suntory kuro has been taken off their menu.

Itaewon Jjajang, Peck Seah Street

Korean Chinese food here at Itaewon Jjajang (64 Peck Seah Street, tel : +65 6223 1600). Have noticed them numerous times whenever we're around the vicinity.

Their banchan look poised to cut grease (or attempt to) from our palates. Each one of them was a pickled vegetable. The last dish was their rendition of Sichuan preserved mustard greens (四川菜).

I was curious about their jjampong. Clean seafood flavour from the broth where one can choose from 3 levels of heat. This was level 2. Was manageable at the beginning but was definitely burning by the time we were done. Heat was cranked up by chilli padi/bird's eye chilli. Seafood's pretty good quality. Don't have anything against it but I don't think I'll get it again. I like the smoky rendition from Jeong's Jjajang much better.

Saeu bokkeumbap's a little bland on it's own but maybe the intention was that we should be having every mouthful with the jjajang - which by the way was velvety, full of bean flavour and layered with the aroma and sweetness of melty onions

Those pieces of fried pork from their tangsuyuk were coated with a layer of something soft and chewy... like mochi.

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.

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.

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.