Bakuton ramen and a couple of other stuff from Ippudo

Ippudo has a limited time Bakuton ramen which was a Jiro styled bowl. I was skeptical but I decided to try it anyway.

Looked pretty but there was far too much fat in that thick slice of chashu. Even after soaking in the broth, the fat wasn't melty. Far from it. For many, this doneness and texture would fall within the "gag zone". Think the base broth had the flavour of soy or dashi. This has nothing on Keisuke's Jiro bowl and Brothers Ramen's Megamen (regular or dry).

I'm leaving this at their chahan was uninspiringly mundane. Wasn't a bad fried rice. Just...ordinary. 

The tastiest thing we had were crispy fried button mushrooms with truffle mayo cheese/sauce thingy which had an infusion of truffle flavouring that wasn't overpowering. 

Tsujiri Premium Tanjong Pagar, Tanjong Pagar Road

Ducked into Tsujiri Premium Tanjong Pagar (94 Tanjong Pagar Road) to escape the heat. This space was a lot more zen-esque and pretty than the old spot at Great World. The world 'sanctuary' might be appropriate here.

Some matcha beverages.

Matcha Yakult latte - nice. Tasted much like the name described. A pretty gao matcha with Yakult.

Their strawberry matcha milk cap was pretty good too. The pic above was before the extra shot of matcha. Better with the extra shot methinks because of the stronger green tea intensity. 

Some stuff from Hoshino Pancake

Stopped by Hoshino Coffee at ION (#B3-22 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, tel : +65 6509 8638). Mango pancake's nice. Odd thing was, it was the smell that caught my attention. It smelled like bananas.

There's a "Paris Brest" on menu. Did not taste anything like one. There's barely any hazelnut flavour. Instead of praline, there's just real nuts stuck on top of the pastry. This was merely a cream puff that may or may not have looked like a Paris Brest.

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.

Hokkaido aburi cheese katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I was initially thinking that the aburi cheese katsu had made a return but I realised that they called it Hokkaido aburi cheese katsu this time round. I'm not sure what was the difference between this and last year's version but the cheese topping beneath the torched surface was a lot creamier than the last time. Heart cloggingly delicious. The actual katsu looked better than their product shot.

Hvala, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

First time at Hvala (#B2-28, 391 Orchard Road).

I'm not sure how I feel about the yuzu warabi mochi. I didn't dislike it but I'm also not sure that I did like it. Maybe it's because I've never had it citrus fruit flavoured. The yuzu flavour was pretty prominent. One also doesn't get the same consistency as those from Warabimochi Kamakura which I like better.

This was....probiotic apple matcha. Apple juice and green tea. Not bad.

Shiikuwasha Fair at Nirai-Kanai

We were at Nirai-Kanai quite recently getting some stuff we liked.

Stuff like their mustard leaf fried rice, the meaty gyozas and the chanpuru. Speaking of which, their chanpuru has improved considerably. The bits of pork were no longer hard and dry. These today were pretty tender.

And we chanced on their Shiikuwasha Fair which featured the citrus fruit. Got a shiikuwasha beer and juice. These were deliciously refreshing.

Ma Maison, Anchorpoint

Some food from Ma Maison (#01-12 Anchorpoint, 370 Alexandra Road, tel : +65 6479 1670). These guys have been around for ages and have generally been pretty decent. They're also my first exposure to Japanese styled western food.

Onion gratin soup which was made with beef stock was not bad tasting. Sufficiently savoury and beefy plus pretty cheesy as well.

Their sirloin's generally not bad. I like that they get doneness correct and the crust that they give to the steak. This one has tamari sauce which was actually pretty good pairing with the meat. The only thing that they haven't quite gotten going well is the consistency of their meat. There's silverskin sometimes which can be a bummer. 

Yummy ikasumi omu rice. Creamy but not excessively because they didn't overdose with that cream sauce.

There's seafood and mushrooms about with squid ink rice in the omelette which was delicious. One can taste that squid ink flavour in it.

Love their chocolate strawberry shortcake too. These tasted better than their appearances belie. Pretty chocolate-y from the combination of the cream and sponge and the chocolate flavour's quite nice. Have mentioned liking them before.

Kinmedai from Grilled Fish Keisuke

Back at Grilled Fish Keisuke for the kinmedai.

Kinda like how I imagined it to be with that firm flakiness that's a little prawny.

Quite a bit of bones to navigate though.

Mashi no Mashi, Pickering Street

Mashi no Mashi (#01-42 Nankin Row, 3 Pickering Street, tel : +65 8957 8620) relocated from their previous location at Guoco Midtown to China Square. Place downsized physically from what looked to be a full restaurant to a ramen bar. The menu kinda went the same route and streamlined. I guess a few hard lessons were learnt there.

Some refreshing lemon soda water.

A la carte orders get a complimentary serving of of their charcoal grilled edamame. Wagyu fat is apparently involved. Most of the flavour is on the pods.

Something(s) has changed with their ultra wagyu bowl. I remember the broth being better. Beefier. I'm getting mushroom elements in the broth today. Like those from the gyukotsu bowl at Ramen Makotoya. Except that Ramen Makotoya did it better. Visually, one can already tell it has changed from their previous bowl.

The hard noodles weren't that hard as well. 😮‍💨 

There's a summer truffle bowl.

It's oddly a little sweet. Maybe it's the snow peas.

I decided not to continue putting up with the sweetness. One's made with Habanero and the other, Carolina Reaper. I recommend the latter if you enjoy heat. Instant scalp prickles. But it dragged the summer truffle bowl out of the annoying in the sweetness.

Their wagyu horumon featured offal in some sweet sauce that reminded me of those from bulgogi. I recognised tripe. There was another thing in there that was super chewy. I mean, super chewy.

This was Mr Mashi. Banana sherbet according to the menu with pecans and maple that tasted like ice cream rather than sherbet.