Revisiting Royal Host @ Takashimaya/Ngee Ann City

Have been meaning to come back to Royal Host.

Got their Royal Hamburg Curry Rice which came with some floral iced tea...

...and a soup. This was the clam chowder. Tasted better than what the Campbell-esque appearance might suggest. There's quite a few tender chewy clams in it.

Royal Hamburg Curry Rice featured their delicious hambagu with curry on the side. 

Not bad tasting curry which was spicy sweet but not annoyingly so.

Also nicely done mentaiko seafood pasta with small squids and scallops spiked with pretty potent shiso. 👍🏼

Qiji Traditional Fish Maw Soup & Minced Pork Noodle (麒记鱼漂汤 肉胜面), Sunset Way

Came across the menion of Qiji Traditional Fish Maw Soup & Minced Pork Noodle (#01-62, 106 Clementi Street 12). The noodles with fish maw soup sounded good. Sounded is the operative word.

These guys used a better mee kia than the mass produced factory ones. But I don't think it was handled well because after the saucing and tossing, the noodles ended up feeling a little slimy rather than firm and cleanly coated. While it looked like there were bits of fried lard there, we actually couldn't taste much of them.

Soup's peppery with a some sweetness, possibly from the cabbage. Liked it better with some of the minced garlic which made it more savoury. The fish maw was unmemorable - like soggy you tiao kind of unmemorable. Pork tasted floury and unnaturally textured. Not impressed.

More food from Maddie's Kitchen

Haven't eaten at Maddie's Kitchen for a while. Went zi char style with rice today.

Garlic kailan's pretty decent. Sauce with its savoury/salty garlicky flavour was great with rice.

There's sliced red garoupa with bitter gourd and fermented black beans. Did not expect the fish to be coated with flour and I would prefer that they hadn't been. Not bad tasting with those salty black beans.

Tried the minced pork omelette.

There's like at least as much onions as minced pork in the egg. Maybe more onions than pork. Tasted pretty good though. 

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.

Katsuya, Tanjong Katong Road

This (258 Tanjong Katong Road, tel : +65 9656 8183) was the same Katsuya as Kodawari Katsuya which was previously located at East Coast Road. The primary appeal of Katsuya, at least for me, is their lamb katsu. Don't think it's available anywhere else on this island.

Like a bunch of other stuff that they do, that lamb katsu is not part of their regular menu. 

One can make reservations for those via Whatsapp.

Seating is limited in this new space. Lesser than their older spot at East Coast Road if my memory serves.

Rare salmon katsu's nice. It's not on the regular menu.

The one with wasabi was great with just salt.

Hotate katsu's also delicious. Not on the regular menu as well. One can taste the natural flavour of those scallops under the crusty panko.

Today's lamb was pretty fatty. Salt and mustard or just salt rocks.

Mincheng Bibimbap, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Mincheng Bibimbap (#02-136 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) replaced Paik's Noodle at Tiong Bahru Plaza. These guys are like...Chinese bibimbap?

I'm not feeling for their kimchi. I'm not sure why but I didn't like it.

I'm normally not a dolsot bibimbap person. But technically this wasn't a stone bowl...😂. I picked the one with pork and cheese and I needed the cheese to melt.

Wasn't bad tasting. I guess the main difference from Mincheng's bibimbap and the Korean ones we've had is the flavour of the sauce (I'm not sure what this was but it didn't taste like gochujang) and there's salted mustard greens (梅菜) in it. Still not a fan of these in hot bowls.

There's a seafood tofu soup. Seafood-y tasting with clams and some sus looking prawns.

In retrospect, one can definitely tell the difference between the bibimbap here and some of the nicer Korean variety which will have a price tag that commensurates with their quality and/or quantity.

Fatt Choy Eating House (發財餐館), Haji Lane

Not impressed as a whole with Fatt Choy Eating House (10 Haji Lane).

Pork lard fried rice was a little underwhelming.

There's lard and dark soy sauce flavouring in it for sure but the fried rice was bland and definitely not great fried rice by any stretch of imagination.

This helped.

This was their original Roxy laksa. I've never had the original and I didn't think that those would have tiger prawns. Those prawns were nice and unexpectedly sweet by the way. The broth even had a particularly prawny crustacean dimension to it.

Not a fan of their ngoh hiang. Didn't like the crispy fried bean curd skin. Much prefer the regular skin. One could taste pork and prawns in them but it wasn't enough to save it.

I've had my share of lamb skewers and I'd rank these at the bottom of the list. At $18, they were also the most we've ever paid for lamb skewers. The meat looked aburi-ed, not grilled. While it had the prerequisite cumin flavouring, it didn't pack the oomph and also would have benefit from having a bit more salt. Lamb was chunky, chewy and lacking of a good fat to meat ratio that would have brought out better flavours. Waste of money. 👎🏼

Takumi Sakaba, Holland Village Shopping Centre

Ended up here (#03-28 Holland Village Shopping Centre, 211 Holland Avenue, tel : +65 8843 6765) because I didn't feel like queueing at Tsujiki Kaisendon below. Looks like they're trying to be an izakaya.

Pitan tofu was nice, creamy and chilled. Could have been dessert. 

There's a motsu nikomi which featured tendon, tripe, shin and maybeeee....brisket. Not sure about the last one. But this was pretty delicious.

I've been avoiding shellfish for sushi/sashimi. This might be the first time I'm having hokkigai and akagai in a while. Not as rubbery as I imagined but I it did remind me why I don't order them. Not much flavour going on and quite chewy. The best things in this Nanairo don was the salmon, ikura and ankimo.

Okay-ish hamachi kamayaki. Kinda small methinks.

Maybe I'll just join the queue in Tsujiki Kaisendon and see if I like them better.