More assam stingray from Dalila's Kitchen

More nasi padang from Dalila's Kitchen. Assam stingray and sayur lodeh. I've had these a couple more times and the size of the ray appears to be luck of the draw. Today's portion was sized like a meaty chicken thigh instead of the previous one I had which looked like it was a 2X2 setup of Chicken McNuggets.

The Food Place by Food Republic, Raffles City

The Food Place (#03-15/16/17 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) is another swanky food court venture by Food Republic. They've gotten a few brand names, both local and foreign, to set up a collection of eateries.

Tried the Indonesian nasi padang. Think their name is Padang Padang. Not bad tasting dishes here but kinda pricey at $15.60 for this plate. Got some sambal mussels, scrambled eggs, an arguably tender beef rendang and sayur lodeh. I don't mind coming back to this one for their variety.

This plate from Kam's Roast Express costed even more at $17.10. Char siew, siu yok and goose liver sausage. The latter was delicious with flavour from both the liver and what might be shao xing. But those few bite sized slices of goose liver sausage costed $4+. 😓 The roast meants here were decent but also do not taste similar in flavour or quantity compared to Kam's we previously ate in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

$7 and meatless at Aneka Ulam

I mentioned nasi padang being a better choice for the gravies from Aneka Ulam previously. This was one with sayur lodeh, sambal goreng and quail eggs. Savoury richness from the former, sweet and spicy from the latter two and more heat from the dollop of sambal belancan. With these portions, it was also an invitation for a post lunch coma.

Saayang Sayang Indonesian Nasi Padang, Kopitiam @ Changi Airport Terminal 3

Nasi padang at the food court (B2-03 Terminal 3 Singapore Changi Airport, 65 Airport Boulevard) in T3. Got me some sayur lodeh, sambal goreng and paru belado. Paru was chunky and meaty while the gravy from the sayur lodeh had the pre-requisite lemak-ness. Kicked ass with the sambal. I enjoyed this.

Hjh Maimunah Mini, Food Republic @ City Square Mall

Food Republic has shifted to the basement at City Square Mall (B3-04 City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road). I just realized Hajah Maimunah's stall over there has been called Hjh Maimunah Mini and it's been so since the last time I was there in their previous location. 

Food's great as usual. Paru belado, sayur lodeh, begedil, quail eggs and a generous helping of serunding - which came with their ever reliable melange of savoury, sweet, tangy and warm spiciness. Today's begedil seemed to be more creamy than I remember them.

Got an ikan bakar on the side. Dry-ish meat and I think too much bones for me to deal with so I'm not getting it the next time.

Quentin's, Ceylon Road

Eurasian food - how interesting! I can't say I know much about them but today's always a good time to start finding out more. Quentin's (Level 1 Eurasian Heritage Gallery, 139 Ceylon Road, tel : +65 9008 3802) it seems is the only Eurasian restaurant we have. Food's a mixed bag of influences. While I understand that they're derived in part from Portuguese cooking, I also recognized elements from Indian, Malay and Peranakan cuisine.

The restaurant even have their own embroidered napkins. That's identity right there. No?

We were served fish keropok with sambal. Top one was a spicy and bitter belachan and the bottom one tasted like it was made with dried tomatoes.

We had the most cucumber-y tasting apple & cucumber juice. Just to be clear, the juice didn't just taste of cucumber - we've just never had a juice with cucumber that had so much cucumber taste. Very refreshing with the apple and well chilled when it was served. This was just the drink we never knew we wanted as a respite from the weather.

One of the dishes we were curious about was their Feng - a stew made with diced pork, pig's livers and heart. Something an old friend affectionately refers to as curry feng. Nice. There was a recognizeable offal-y flavour to it, present but not excessive, along with vinegar. Like many dishes, everyone has their take on it. This reminded me a little bit of adobo. Definitely made for pairing with rice. Just like....

...their prawns bostador. Chunky prawns in a creamy lemak coconut laden gravy topped with shavings of toasted coconut. Flavour profile couldn't escape the association with the local laksa or sayur lodeh. Delicious this one.

The vegetable dish was their turmeric cabbage - something not dissimilar to the Indian cabbage poriyal. Turmeric, mustard seeds, curry leaves and green chillies.

Gotta have rice.

Dessert was sugee cake. The layer in the middle beneath the lemon flavoured icing tasted like marzipan. The cake itself was a little salty which paired pretty well with the sweet toppings.

Pretty decent coffee.

$5.50 nasi padang at Oxley Bizhub Part 2

Following up from my previous mention about the nasi padang from FoodHub @ Oxley Bizhub, here's another. Similarly packed and a better look at what was actually in the box.

Scooped the chunks of paru goreng aside so there's better perspective on how much I had gotten. The portions of the paru with bronchioles tends to be chewier.

Sayur lodeh also plentiful. Though I don't know why I get tau kwa sometimes. Gotta be a random/mood thing.

$5.50 nasi padang at Oxley Bizhub

While it may not have looked so from the picture, this take out box of nasi padang was loaded. Both with the sayur lodeh and the paru goreng. Very generous portions of paru goreng which were sufficiently tender that one could work them with flimsy plastic utensils but still with enough bite to be satisfying. They topped those with extra of those salty spicy fried coconut bits that I was forced inhale all the rice with the gravy and sambal belachan so as not to waste all those flavours. I'm not sure if this stall was the same as the one the last time I was here though.

Nusa Indonesian Grill, Collyer Quay

Doesn't the person in the mural look like she's luxuriating in the pleasure of plunging a lightsaber into......whatever might have been that she was intending to impale? Look at that smirk.

Nusa (#01-03 Customs House, 70 Collyer Quay, tel : +65 8711 2181) is by Tambuah Mas. Indonesian, refined and a bit more contemporary than what one might encounter say "in the streets". In local colloquialism, it's a more atas version of Tambuah Mas.

Food's pretty good though. Like this rojak Jawa (Jawa as in Java, not the stunted cowled folks with glowing eyes in a galaxy far far away) which was sliced fruits with palm sugar syrup and finely crushed peanuts. It's sweet, a little spicy and definitely nutty with the citrus from said fruits.

We ordered their urap because the menu mentioned 'boiled vegetables'. Just needed to know that it's all cooked because I don't particularly enjoy the renditions with raw vegetables. Especially bean sprouts. Come and think of it, this looked the almost the same as the one served at Tambuah Mas. 

Paru goreng on skewers drizzled with kecap manis.

Their sayur lodeh tasted a little thin. Something we thought made better drinking than gravy on rice. We never needed that much gravy on rice here. Why?

Because their nasi kuning was good enough to eat on its own.

The sambal helps with most of the things we ordered. Except the kambing bakar.

Because the lamb was also good enough on its own. These were a little more done than what we normally go for and were glazed with something that might have been made with kecap manis. Meat had a good bite, prerequisite fat for flavour and pretty decent charring. Our first lamb in an Indonesian restaurant.

I was initially a little skeptical about their es krim kopi - that's an affogato with coconut ice cream. And something that they call Indonesian coffee. The balance hung heavy on both ingredients because there were only those two. Turned out that the coconut ice cream was sufficiently creamy that it worked and the strength of the espresso was...👍🏼.

More coconut ice cream, this time on avocado milkshake drizzled with palm sugar. It was less sweet than the ingredients suggested. Nice.

Putra Minang, International Plaza

We noticed Putra Minang (#01-33 International Plaza, 10 Anson Road, tel : +65 8262 3535) some months back and have always told ourselves that we'll try it one day every other time we've seen it again. One day has finally arrived by happenstance.

I'm not sure why but the portions were humongous and the price tag was there to match. Beef tendon in sambal ijo, sayur lodeh, begedil and sotong hitam which could have easily fed two for $17 - good thing there were two of us.

Food was pretty good. Solid egg wash on that begedil and I liked that the squid wasn't chewy. Tendons would definitely benefit from a longer stewing. I'm not getting much intensity from both sambal on the side but then again my benchmark is Sari Ratu. 

Siti Rodiah Nasi Padang, Tekka Food Centre

Needed a quick lunch in the vicinity and thought I'd try something other than briyani. Pretty good nasi padang from Siti Rodiah Nasi Padang (#01-261 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). I went for some predictable options; paru goreng, sayur lodeh, sambal goreng with some serunding and sambal belacan on the side. A pretty failsafe combination of savoury, sweet and spiciness. There was actually something I didn't like about this. Those flimsy plastic utensils.

Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee, Clarke Quay Central

We've heard of this restaurant (#02-72/75/77 Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, tel : +65 6339 7508) for a long time. Really long time. Have seen it numerous times when we're in the vicinity but it had never occured to us to eat here until recently.

I don't think there is a finger to be put on the labelling of the food here. One could see influences of Malay, Chinese and Peranakan in the dishes which kinda makes it pretty local. While they're serving nasi padang, they're not exactly Padang styled. But let's not get technical.

The menu's up front so you know what you're getting and at how much. Assuming that one already is familiar with what they were serving. We ordered quite a bit and ended up close to a post lunch stupor. You know, curries and rice tends to do that.

That's their mutton rendang. Not bad. Some parts of the meat were tender and some less so. Altogether pretty well done with the nutty mutton-y gravy which went so well with rice.

Hard boiled eggs with sambal. Always good for me.

These were my second curry fish ball experience. The first time was in Hong Kong and I never liked those there because of the gummy texture. These ones were pretty regular fishball textured. Gravy had a bit of heat and if your palate hasn't been confused or overwhelmed yet, the flavour of the fishball can be detected in them.

Chicken rendang also pretty good. It's another dish with great gravy to go with rice.

Sayur lodeh I think. Or maybe just sayur. Or curry vegetable. I ordered by pointing. I'm not sure what they call it but it's vegetables (mostly cabbage) in a thin coconut gravy. Still savoury and lemak but I generally prefer the gravy thicker and the vegetables less crunchy. 

They have chicken begedil. Basically larger than usual begedil with minced chicken in the potatoes. Peppery and not bad methinks. The flavour's different from the regular Malay renditions of the dish but not different enough to be unrecognizeable as good old begedil.

More curry for the rice. 

And a refreshing lemon or lime infused cucumber salad as a counter to all the rich gravies.

All these dishes were made to be paired with steamed rice.

Chendol's okay. While we wouldn't slap a mediocre label on it, there's better. Out there. What I couldn't understand was why they had to serve this in a glass like this, fill it to the brim and make it so difficult to stir.

Coffee's no good here. For Hainanese styled coffee, one can get better at The Ship. Or even Han's. Note to self : go at 12-12.30pm the next time for the other items that aren't ready at the opening hour.