Noci Pasta Bar, Suntec City

Korean pasta place at Suntec (#01-386 Suntec City Mall, 8 Temasek Boulevard) that opened late last year. They're by a Gold Moon Restaurants Group which has brought in brands like Tonshou and Seoul Noodle Shop.

Complimentary sourdough with whipped butter. Butter's nice. Bread's okay-ish. I prefer them with a bit more tang and texture.

There's baccala. Not as lard infused as I was imagining. Flavour's mostly from the fish which wasn't a bad thing.

Had a couple of pastas. This one featured their in house squid ink tajarin with bottarga and anchovies - understandably umami that way. Not bad.

The other was their cacio e pepe which also used their house made tajarin. What's different from the usual cacio e pepe are the crush bits of pistachio. Would like for it to be a bit more cheesy and peppery but I think I enjoyed this as well.

Both pasta had great texture.

A coffee called cream di noci which had bits of walnut and walnut oil. There was a thick crema but I didn't detect walnut flavour from the mundane tasting coffee which had little worth mentioning.

BatterCatch, Great World

First time at BatterCatch (#01-106 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6485 3841).

Their Longan Tea Oasis drink tasted like some caramel sweetened bubble tea drink thing. Rosemary's entirely decorative. I'm not sure if there was even any tea in this.

This was haddock and chips. The buttery mushy peas was delicious. Love their dill & pickled infused tartare sauce. Curry sauce was also not bad.

The fish was not as good tasting as the one at Smiths. It's about as expensive though, considering cost to portions.

Batter is a little thick and floury around some parts.

Grilled barramundi tasted like it was frozen fish. Skin was chewy, not crispy. Not impressive as grilled fishes went.

Liked the peas enough to get another portion. Out of everything we had, this was probably my favourite. Tasted like lots of butter with plenty of green pea flavour. Would come back just for these.

Dry mixed seafood noodle with milk broth from Hai Kah Lang (海脚人)

Back at Hai Kah Lang. I've had something similar back at the branch at Taman Sentosa with clear broth instead of the one with milk. Topping of seafood appears to have differences. But those springy noodles and the milky broth with 花雕 were what mattered. The seafood quality's decent but not impressive so 21.90SGD (approx. 68MYR) is an experience I'd rather not repeat. Will stick to the sliced fish bowls which are cheaper the next time.

East Coast Lagoon Prawn Noodle • Laksa, Food Opera @ ION Orchard

I remember eating at this stall at Food Opera (#B4-03/04, ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn) a few times in the past decade but couldn't find any mention of those times except all the way back when I thought the stall was called 3rd Generation Laksa & Prawn Noodle.

Anyways, laksa's pretty damn good here. Gravy was velvety, heart clogging-ly lemak and robust with dried shrimp flavour. Quite Peranakan-ish. Hard boiled eggs, tau pok, some halved prawns and fish cake inside with thick bee hoon. A competent representation in my opinion. 👍🏼

Prawn kuey teow soup was okay-ish. Broth needs a splash of soya sauce.

Jumbo aji katsu is back at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Jumbo aji katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison. Crisp, crunchy and hot fish. Has been consistently nice!

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.