Taichiuo shioyaki teishoku from Nakajima Suisan

Came across a taichiuo shioyaki teishoku 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).

Taichiuo is commonly known as beltfish. Never had them before.

Meat's tender and flaky. Doesn't seem to be distinctive otherwise. Lots of bones along the edges.

Les Ducs, Ann Siang Hill

A few bouillon styled eateries have popped lately. Les Ducs (8 Ann Siang Hill) along with Bouillon Gavroche were a couple of them.

Sourdough was smoky. Nice with butter.

Foie gras terrine's...okay. A bit pricey methinks. The foie flavour seemed muted, not like what I remember of them from Brasserie Gavroche.

Pretty meaty steamed prawns. Love their cocktail sauce that we even saved them for fries.

Not a fan of their roast chicken leg with mushroom sauce. Skin's a bit chewy and the meat's pedestrian. Sauce felt a little thin didn't taste particularly mushroomy; definitely wasn't the creamy variety that I had in mind. Also not something that I'd associate with French and sauces. I'd rather the roast chicken leg from Cold Storage. Seriously.

Not bad tartare de boeuf.

Tartar was tangy, a little herby and creamy. Didn't seem to have capers though.

Their ham and Comte cheese coquillettes was basically a French mac & cheese. Nicely done.

Pretty nice chocolate mousse. Had the expected smooth creaminess with dark chocolate notes and importantly, not overly sweet.

I like their crème Mont Blanc. White pudding-y bottom reminded me of yoghurt. Top's chestnut cream and meringue.

Bouillon Gavroche, Mandarin Gallery

Brasserie Gavroche has opened a less pricey Bouillon Gavroche (#01-16/17 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 8522 0998) in town. While the restaurant is definitely easier on the wallet, one also needs to understand that the price tag commensurates with the quality of the food.

Decent warm goat cheese salad but that goat cheese...let's just say we've had better flavoured ones. These were crumby and tangy but not so much....goaty? Which I thought was the point.

There's crevettes sauce thermidor - or prawn thermidor. Not bad crustacean-y bechamel and those prawns were nice and smoky. Liked the mushrooms in it too.

Ordered their butcher's cut steak with peppercorn sauce. The cut of the day was sirloin. Meat's dry-ish...almost like dry aged meat on the interior surface but minus the funk and flavour. Quite disappointing. Going on record here that Ma Maison has better sirloin steak.

Redhill Prawn Noodle (85红山蝦麵 ), Redhill Food Centre

We were intrigued by the queue we saw Redhill Prawn Noodle (#01-95, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) whenever we passed by. With that visible constant queue every time, it's gotta be good right? Right? 🤔 Ingredients were decent. Soup's lightweight, not the gao type but still adequately flavourful and pleasantly rounded. Mee pok was sadly soggy and saucing not memorable. The noodle quality is important - at least for me it is since that's the majority flavour/textural experience there. Maybe the thing here is not to go for the mee pok. 

Hajah Maimunah Mini, Hawkers' Street @ Clementi Mall

The last time we ate at Hajah Maimunah Mini in Clementi Mall, the food court was Boleh Boleh!. It's now Hawkers' 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.