Taste Of The Bay at Ming Fa (明發) @ Upper Thomson Road

Came across this at Ming Fa at Upper Thomson. Squid ink mee pok on a limited run.

Basically a 小碗面 with seafood and squid ink mee pok topped with onsen egg and tobiko.

For all the dark intensity, there didn't seem to be any squid ink flavour. Kinda disappointed there. This tasted like regular mee pok.

Soup has half a crayfish, a couple of prawns, clams, sliced pork and minced pork. Ingredient quality was pretty decent. There was a light sweetness from the prawns and crayfish.

They used to shell the prawn for their regular bowl of mee pok in the past. Now it's a slightly bigger prawn with shell still on. 

These fried sotong were part of the limited time menu. The lady at the stall insisted that they were good and that if it happened that they weren't, she'll help me eat them. 😂 She's right, squids were pretty tender under the batter. Came with some lime-y mayo which was not bad tasting.

I remember thinking little of their coffee the last time I was here. Today's kopi peng was actually decent-ish and tasted better than I remember of their coffee. 

Compose Coffee, One Raffles Place

Dropped by Compose Coffee (#01-02 One Raffles Place, 1 Raffles Place) for some flavoured caffeine alchemy.

The banana coffee above was just iced Americano with banana milk. Not bad tasting if you didn't mind artificial banana flavouring from banana milk. We didn't. The coffee's actually pretty drinkable stuff.

Amangchu - their rendition is peach tea with cubed mangoes and espresso. Wasn't expecting the peach component but turned out to be great for the sweltering heat.

Pan's Kopi, Amoy Street Food Centre

Came across Pan's Kopi (#02-98 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road, tel : +65 8598 8182) recently and decided to try their taro toast set.

Taro paste was slightly sweetened, thick and had bits of yam/taro in them. Tasted mostly like how I imagined. If I had a gripe, it would be that it could have been improved with more butter. 😬 Portion was substantial. Love that the soft boiled eggs were served cracked.

Butter kopi's drinkable stuff - it's not bad but I prefer a roast/bean that has more aroma/body. I thought it was great that they kept the sweetness level lower than most.

Le Bon Funk, Holland Village

The last time we ate at Le Bon Funk was at their original branch at Club Street. This one at Holland Village (277 Holland Avenue, tel : +65 9833 9867) is at where Fosters Steakhouse used to be.

The decor had a 60s-ish vibe which contrasted against the intersperse of more modern appliances/furniture. Lighting was a warm with hues of yellows and browns with the exception of areas at the front and back with tinted blue by the sunlight filtering through the window panes. I'm not sure if I'm getting this across.

Shaken iced tea with hibiscus, orange and sage - tasted fruity, couldn't tell that there was tea in it.

This was their foie gras toast. The fluffy stuff on the top was shaven foie gras. Beneath them was some roselle jam/jelly; the previous time we had it, it was cedar jelly which I couldn't tell. Roselle came across much more discernible. Nice.

Couldn't resist their beef tongue and gribiche sandwich. As good as we remembered it.

Cast iron pancake with maple syrup topped with caramelised bacon and banana. Nice. Served piping hot with crusty edges. Pretty sweet. Bacon was smoky sweet like bak kwa. Bananas tasted like they have cumin in it.

Les Canons, IOI Central Boulevard Towers

Les Canons (#01-07, IOI Central Boulevard Towers, 2 Central Boulevard, tel : +65 8926 0726) by the il Lido Group is the 3rd bouillon styled restaurant that's open up lately together with Bouillon Gavroche and Les Ducs.

House lemonade was fizzy, has some mint and infused with maybe elderflower? Thought it tasted like elderflower.

Tartare de boeuf was not much tangy and didn't have much in the way of flavouring. Not one of the well flavoured ones around. The bread was very hard. Will not get again.

Pan fried foie gras on pain perdu. Nice. Thought I tasted orange in the sauce.

Pretty good tasting crevette Nantua - prawn bisque-esque sauce over mash and some meaty real prawns. Comfort food that's good enough to come back for. 👍🏼

Had a steak au poivre. Smallish Angus sirloin.

Fries were pretty good. Steak did not have much taste and very little salt. The meat was mostly dependent on the pepper sauce for flavour. Was more medium than medium rare that we asked for. Sauce was quite creamy and peppery.

Mashed potatoes was creamy, flavoured with browned butter. Nice.

I like the mousse from Les Ducs better. Tasted more like dark chocolate compared to his one which seemed to have much more milk in it. Not that it's bad. Love that creme Chantilly.

Nicely done thin apple tarte. Was served hot. Love the caramel on creme Chantilly on the side.

Coffee's smoky, bitter and nice.

Bintang Coffee (星咖), ICC Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Tried a claypot coffee from this stall at ICC Pudu (Jalan Kijang, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur 55100). The taste was similar to Claymug Coffee - meaning Hainanese styled and not particularly fragrant. Not a fan.

Claymug Coffee, Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

Came across Claymug Coffee (Lot G65 Wisma Cosway, 88 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur) and stopped for some after beef noodles at Mama Lek.

While we witnessed the brewing done in actual clay pots, we couldn't tell what exactly about the process that made them different. What we could tell though, was that it tasted similar to the Hainanese coffee back home and it wasn't particularly aromatic.

Mr Naan & Mrs Idly, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

Catchy name there (190 Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, tel : +60 17-762 9070). Though for a restaurant with idly in the name, I was expecting them to open early enough for breakfast. 

Nice salty spicy masala lassi with cumin and a bit of burn on the throat.

Wanted a go with their special idly even though I had a good idea how it tasted. What with the nice drizzle of ghee and all. The texture's a little less dense than what I'm used to though. Still delicious with the chutneys and tangy sambar.

Their dal tadka was delicious. Believe it or not, it was deliciously savoury in a manner that reminded me of fried chicken. With a bit of heat as well. Nice one. 👍🏼

Some cheese naan to go with their dal. Good pairing if I might say so.

Vegetable briyani was well spiced and moreish. Portion didn't look huge but it was pretty filling.

Masala tea's milky and a little weak on the spice.

Madam Kwan's, KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

Haven't eaten at Madam Kwan's for a very long time. The last time might have been that one at Mid Valley. This was us getting re-acquainted at KLCC (Lot 420 / 421 , Level 4, Suria KLCC, 50088 Kuala Lumpur).

Was looking forward to a robust and creamy teh tarik from them. It's adequately milky but not as kaw (😂) as I was imagining. The first description that came to mind was the description 'textbook teh tarik'. To be cautioned that you and I may have used different textbooks while schooling 😂. Didn't suck. In fact it passed muster. Drinkable.

What's really good was their petai fried rice. Calling it petai fried rice was a bit of a misnomer because what stood out apart from the stink beans was the deliciously umami and shrimpy sambal they used for the fry.

Pretty big portion too.

Green chilli on the side had a lot less heat than I thought. But it's kinda good with the fried rice.

This was our first nasi lemak from Madam Kwan's. Never had it before. Closest thing to it we've tried was the one from the defunct Grandma's. It's not a bad rendition but after the recent Together Nasi Lemak and having tried the likes of Village Park, I don't think I'll put this at the top of my list.

Otak otak's chunky and has bits of fish inside. I wanted to describe them as being similar to Muar otah but these didn't taste like those.

Didn't think much of their fruit rojak. I'm surprised that with so much sesame seeds and crush peanuts, very little of those flavours came through. No you tiao also. The fruit consisted of just sour crunchy mangoes and equally sour pineapples - unless one counted chunks of turnips and cucumber as fruits. Tau pok was dry and crunchy like biscuits.

Ice coffee's thick but not fragrant.

Liked their ice campur better than I thought I would. The shaven ice was topped with rose syrup and milk. So it's bandung-y.

Surprised to find a bunch of cashews and raisins in there.