$13 steamed fish head at Chinatown Food Centre and others...

There's a number of Chinese cooked food stall cloistered at a section of Chinatown Food Centre selling steamed song fish (a freshwater carp) head in a lard bolstered hot sauce of fermented beans, ginger and plum for a very affordable $13. A few of them seemed to have staked their claim to fame by either having appeared on the newspaper or television locally at some time (should one even trust those?).

Here's one from Cheng Ji (Blk 335 Smith St, #02-190, Chinatown Complex Food Centre), a stall that is located one just one fruit juice stall away from what seems to be a competitor, An Ji which I've eaten at once before.

What's common for these steamed fish heads is that one does not only just get fish heads. The dish actually include a generous portion of meat that makes about a quarter to a third of the entire fish. I would have loved for these steamed fish heads to have been done using a salt water fish instead, but the plum and ginger sauce does help mask some of those muddy earthy flavour. I daresay what gets people coming for the steamed fish heads was the freshness of ingredients which might have been a result of a very fast turn over in business for these stalls; which in turn is because of the quality ingredients. Virtuous cycle.

 

A very decently fried and fat juicy mid wings they serve with no excessive oil found soaked in their crispy batter. This must have meant that they have fried them in really hot oil? Unfortunately these were also suppose to be prawn paste chicken wings and the flavours from that prawn paste was lacking. Everything else was perfect, especially with a squeeze of lime that added a refreshing zing.

Like the wings above, the belachan on their kang kong cuttlefish was really mild. Would have liked them more if the sauce had a more robust flavour.

Sigue siendo mi número uno del arroz con pollo?

So, I went again over the past weekend for lunch. I'm guessing that it's been at least 10 visits in the past year or so. And I have been making comparisons to the other mention worthy chicken rice stalls that I've eaten at.

I suppose Sin Kee still works for me placed in the top of the list. Chilled tender chicken that one can slurp off the bones while maintaining meat texture. Tangy and semi spicy chilli sauce. Light but well flavoured rice. I wouldn't suppose that they were the best in each, but synergistically still the reigning lead for me. But wait.... I didn't quite like the thick bumpy skins that they have sometimes on the bird. But that's just me being picky.

Strange that I never felt so strongly about them years ago when they were down in Margaret Drive. Nevertheless.

Tapas at 126

Wan Tou Sek (126 Eating House, 126 Sims Ave, tel : +65 67464757, +65 67454869) is a local hotspot for rustic dim sum that has managed to evade my mentions even though I've eaten there on a few occasions. What makes the place a magnet is that it's open 24 hours daily and the food options have no lack in variety. Here's a short on one of the visits which just scratches the surface of the menu.

century egg porridge

Century egg porridge could be considered a staple in dim sum joints. Find myself liking this bowl quite a bit. What I particular enjoy is the light clarity of rice perfumed with sesame oil and scatterings of the spring onions. There's pretty generous portions of century eggs in there as well.

char siew bao

Another main stay of dim sums. The taste of the barbequed pork fillings was nicely caramelised with sweetness and slight smokiness. Definitely not mediocre like some.

pork belly rolls

The skins of these are the same flour used for the char siew bao. Those are rolled thinly, draped onto strips of sweet marinated pork belly and steamed to the point where the fat is soft and melting. Definitely to be enjoyed hot.

steamed chicken claws

These sweet and savoury steamed claws weren't shabby at all. The soft and flavourful skin came off the bone pretty easily.

chee cheong fun

I believe the sweet brown gravy for the rice rolls at 126 are unique. I've never had anything like or similar to them anywhere else and they're the reason why I like them here. Another item to be enjoyed piping hot.

steamed pork ribs

Pork ribs here bolstered by fatty meat and lots of garlic.

otah

The steaming otahs here were spicy, lemongrass-y and packed with fish meat. Need I also say, delicious?

glutinous rice

I was initially a little wary of the glutinous rice since they appeared dry rather than plump and moist. Upon first taste, I found them to be a very nicely done rendition. The fried shallots added flavour upon flavour.

deceptively named as just steamed chicken

This was just described as steam chicken on the menu - which was an injustice to a steamed chicken that was cooked to the point where the meat was tender and easily fell off the bone. There was a balanced herbaceous sweetness that was present in the meat and the jus at the base. Great dish to order with rice.

deep fried frog legs

Might have found the frog leg rendition of Ikea's deep fried chicken wings here. The flavours on the fried exterior were deliciously savoury.
  

deep fried pig intestines

Crispy, savoury and chewy these were. Definitely one of my favourite things to order here.

The Cajun Kings, Jalan Riang

This visit to The Cajun Kings (15-1 Jalan Riang, tel : +65 6284 4426) was a first on a few levels for me. For one, I believe that there has yet to be a Louisiana/Creole fashioned seafood boil establishment on our local shores before as I can remember. And I'm eating Dungeness crabs for the first time!

What can one expect from this joint you ask? A focused smattering of shellfish like clams, lobsters prawns and crabs along with Cajun-y sides of dirty rice, spicy gumbo and deep fried okra to name a few for starters.

Wading through our first dips, some of the deeper impressions were their thick, hearty and spicy gumbo which was another first for me. Having no basis for comparison, I would venture to guess that they're probably as good as the original stuff gets since recipes as such are often sundered to myriads of renditions. The chopped liver filled dirty rice gets a thumbs up for flavors and I certainly had no complains for the buttermilk frog legs. Except maybe larger portions?

Seafood was great. Those Red Sea prawns were so fresh that the natural sweetness of the shellfish shone through a rich sambal sauce that had already packed a respectable amount of heat. I think the trade off with Dungeness crabs versus the regular mud crabs are their smaller claws; in comparison with the latter which tends to be "meatier". However, there're loads more meat in the legs. Freshly executed from the tank with dips of lime and salt/pepper to go with.

I hadn't enjoyed eating this messy in a while.

Taka No Tsume from Ramen Champion at T3

Here's a new contender for this year's Ramen Champion, Taka No Tsume from Chiba at Changi Terminal 3 (65 Airport Boulevard, #B2-58 Changi Airport Terminal 3, tel : +65 6214 2958). Or rather a bowl of their Takanotsume Ramen Deluxe with Sichuan styled sauce. In localspeak, spicy chicken chop noodles.

What's loaded in the bowl of milky chicken and pork broth were crunchy cabbages, bean sprouts, wood ear fungus, eggplant, minced meat and the something not usually seen in most Japanese ramen, deep fried chicken thigh cutlet. All these with a wad of chewy yellow noodles of medium thickness. One can definitely imagine the play of textures from all the ingredients. I admit to liking the crispy fried chicken dipped generously with mayo and I can imagine it to become an uncommon guilty pleasure for me there. The challenge of course would be to have them finished before they all turn soggy from the soup.

I had found the broth to be rather flat tasting with a moderate dose of spiciness and aroma from the Sichuan peppercorn flavors. That opinion did not really change by the time I was done with the noodles, but there was something about that broth, that drew me in with each spoonful in spite of the lack of deep impressions. Before I knew it, I had pretty much drained the bowl of it. How did that happen?

They have a Mapo fried chicken don which I don't mind checking out the next time.

Deer murtabak from Zam Zam

Having little experience with venison beside the overly tenderized Chinese stir frys, I couldn't tell how the meat tasted after all the spices. What I could tell was that it definitely didn't have the aroma of mutton and in the end, turned out to be a rather ordinary murtabak. Shall stick to the mutton ones the next time. On the bright side, Zam Zam has a rather tasty fish masala briyani which I liked.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Six

Another later than usual annual marker for this year. While there are no actual ends in sight, it's been six years of foodography!

Jaded

 

This was a second time at Jade (1 Fullerton Square, GF Fullerton Hotel, tel : +65 6877 8188) for dim sum. The first occasion was a couple of years back where it was a 2 month wait with reservations. Thinking back, it was actually kinda ridiculous considering that after these two visits spanned some short years apart, I had gotten the same impression that the food was really unexceptional for what they charged. I could easily go a la carte in many places which would fare better and cost less.

To gripe, they had a braised birds nest with truffle egg white in superior broth (a one order per guest item) which was really extra-ordinary with both the quality and quanity of the ingredents. It was pretty much a dressed up starch filler that one would normally douse with splashes of vinegar and a generous blanket of pepper. For credit that was due, the truffle flavoring did not come from truffle oil.

A lobster porridge they had with said porridge that was obviously not cooked with any lobster parts and a stiff piece of lobster flesh that was pretty much devoided of flavors from the crustacean. The other assortment of items on both visits had either been passable or ho hum with the exception of a truffle yam pastry which was largely elevated by the truffle oil.

Wagyu steak and chicken rice dinner at Serangoon Gardens

We were getting food from iSteaks (56 Serangoon Garden Way, Stalls 5 & 6) and while waiting for the steaks to arrive, spotted Poh Poh Roasted Chicken rice located at the other end of the same coffee shop which looked good. So what happened was an order of their chicken rice while the cow was making progress on the grill.

This turned out to be pretty good. In fact, I'm going to go on record and state that I wouldn't have an qualms picking this over Pow Sing nearby should I need a fix of chicken rice in the vicinity. The rice was moist, sufficiently greasy without being excessive and also grainy enough for texture. Their roasted chicken was pretty respectable. It's definitely one those where the chilli sauce (commendably decent) was an option rather than a requisite since the rice was good enough to stand on its own.

iSteaks has a lower grade marbling Australian Wagyu on menu and hence, a 200g for $35 fix was available. This tasted much like the one at Aston's - a noticeable more buttery beefiness in comparison to a regular ribeye.  The meat that I had was a little inconsistent in doneness from a shade of medium moving towards a juicer medium rare in the middle. I'm sure this stall gives Aston's a run for their money judging from the crowd.

New Ubin Seafood, Sin Ming Industrial Estate

This was a bit of an unusual spot (Block 27 Sin Ming Road, #01-174 Sin Ming Industrial Estate Sector A, tel : +65 6466 9558) for a weekend lunch. For one, I hadn't known of its existence until quite recently even though I have had ba kut teh just around the corner. The location in the middle of an industrial park amidst vehicle workshops wouldn't quite advertise its presence as well.

Erdinger is served here.

We ordered up a tofu with golden mushroom which tasted pretty much like how it looked except for the gravy which didn't taste as bland as what one would expect the usual renditions of this dish.

What was pretty impressive was their deep fried fish eggs with chinchalok and sambal petai sauce. There was a tamarind base to the flavour of the viscous sauce. Tasted just a little sweet and with a burst of a sour that was very appetizing. That sour helped cut through the richness from the fried fish eggs with a richness of its own.

The unusual, but apparently pretty popular dish to order here was their beef, a platter of grilled and sliced USDA Choice ribeye. The preparation of the dish was rather impressive as the cooking achieved a very close medium rare with the meat suffering from little adulteration apart from salt and pepper. The wedges on the side was made in house of plain cut potatoes and there was also an excellent pile of sweet caramelised onions to go with. Not the best steak by any stretch, but a surprisingly good one coming from a seafood cze char place.

The order of the beef comes with a second component of a the dish, which was dubbed by the establishment as the heart attack fried rice. Essentially stir fried with dark soy sauce and fat trimmed off from the ribeye that are fried to a crisp. This was pretty tasty, but it tasted a lot more like claypot rice rather than any fried rice that I know of.

The next cholesterol bomb was battered and deep fried oysters in salted egg yolk. The flavour of the salted yolk were robust and the oysters were actually pretty fresh tasting. Would make excellent pairing with white rice if I may say so.

This would be the first component of their shovel nose ray which was stir fried meat from the ray with sliced bitter gourd in a sweet and garlicky dark sauce. The sauce was concentrated in flavour and would have been great with white rice. Which I'm glad we hadn't ordered any. The quality of this dish approaches the standards of claypot items we've tried at Imperial Treasure, so I guess that says something about the guy sweating in the kitchen in this establishment.

We ordered a plate of nai bai to help alleviate the guilt from all the rich food that we had. The crunchy vegetables were light and clean tasting.

The last item that was served arrived after we were done with the other dishes. We had been informed earlier at the start that it would take a while. This, was the second part to the shovel nose ray which contains collagen rich gelatinous parts surrounding a proboscis like soft bone structure. Both the outside and the interior were filled with the light gelatinous matter which tasted very much like eating hashima or bone marrow in chicken essence. The last part came from the rich broth that the ray was steamed in which could have been what is normally passed as superior sauce in Chinese restaurants.

I think this place would be for keeps.