Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice (阿仔海南鸡饭), Maxwell Food Centre

The story behind Ah Tai (#01-07 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street) is a local legend amongst these parts. With people who are fans enough of chicken rice to bother with anyway. Word was that Ah Tai used to be the chef at Tian Tian and struck out on his own after a fallout from a disagreement. The rest of the details, you can Google.

Tian Tian as many would know was catapulted into international arena by Anthony Bourdain. I ate there years ago and never had the opportunity to return mainly because I don't come here so often these days and their queue tells me that I have better ways to waste my time. If word was to be believed that the standards of chicken rice between Tian Tian and Ah Tai are similar, Bourdain was definitely missing out on the world of chicken rice.

Let me try to keep this short. What I liked about Ah Tai was their tender slurp off the bone chicken and the lime-y chilli which was a very good accompaniment to their rice. What I didn't like about them was the weak flavoured beady rice which has got nothing on my numero uno stall (I wonder where those guys went) and possibly a slew of other stalls. Which to me was ironic for the oft measured trinity of chicken rice since a lesser rice meant more opportunity for the use of the chilli sauce. Those starchy brown sauce that they ladled over their chicken also didn't quite work out for me.

I probably will not remember them for an awesome chicken rice experience even though they were definitely pretty decent. I've had better. And I certainly wouldn't waste my time over at Tian Tian because as nice as it could be - it cannot be that good.

A tsukemen from Sanpoutei

I was at Isetan over the long weekend and decided to try the tsukemen I had seen on menu and been interested in previously. Their tsukemen used the same type of noodles that they're using for the other bowls, so essentially there's just one type of noodle they're making here. The dipping broth was thick, umami and moderately smoky. Rather enjoyable. I thought I enjoyed the one from Tetsu better but I cannot be sure. What I'm sure about though was that the bowl that definitely works for me here is the shoyu one.

Essen @ The Pinnacle

This space (#01-01 The Pinnacle @ Duxton, 1 Cantonment Road) certainly has evolved much since the last time I passed by. I remember it used to be a generic food court that was more than half empty and looked to be dying. Lo and behold, it’s a lot more spiffy today and a lot more expensive as well. And with it the crowd.

So here's a pizza and fried chicken dinner. The former came from a stall called La Stalla, non-Neapolitan styled thin crust. The menu mentioned mortadella ham, but it didn't look like those to me. And those odd loosely scattered raisins. Wasn't too bad though. Those fried chicken wings were from Two Wings that has another shop at Salut. Speaking of which, the folks from Immanuel French Kitchen at Salut have another French food stall by the name of Garçons here. By the way, there's Asahi Kuronama on tap!

The Sushi Bar, Ngee Ann City

nama yuba uni

My understanding of the word chirashi or chirashizushi has always been the standard definition of “scattered sushi”; representing scattered fish over sushi rice. Later on, I got acquainted with another similar type of donburi known as the kaisen don which is a literal translation of seafood rice bowl. From what I had understood, the main difference for the layman (that includes myself) was that the chirashi - as a variant of sushi uses vinegared rice while the kaisen don uses regular rice. Today, I found out that there was actually a kaisen chirashi don. Yes, this (#05-34/35 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road) was the same place as the one back in Far East Plaza with a waitress asking about a curry fish head order. They’ve expanded and this is the other newer outlet with a lot more seating space and staff.

ankimo tofu with uni and ikura

The menu had expanded with the same magnitude as the seating space. There was quite a lot of stuff and for a casual Japanese joint, it was kudos for effort. Their ankimo tofu was a surprising find and so was the nama yuba which honestly tasted quite nice. Then, their chirashi bowl which was a coalition of the usual suspects of sashimi/sushi - sake, mekajiki, maguro and hamachi....with some scallops. The quality of their seafood was decent if unexceptional and portions were quite generous to boot. I didn't dislike anything in particular, but there was something about it all that didn't quite make me feel that the food was truly satisfying. In fact, as I was finishing up, I thought that I wouldn't have minded at all topping up a few dollars more and dropping myself something that would have more than just the usual suspect variety at Kaiho Sushi over this.

aburi-ed chirashi don

Sanpoutei Ramen, Shaw House

This was a ramen shop from Niigata. I'll admit that in spite of having seen Sanpoutei (#B1-04 Shaw House, 350 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6836 4644) around for a while, I've always avoided them because of the connotations with the Breadtalk Group which brought them in. Eventually I buckled under curiosity and since I didn't even dislike the tonkotsu experience at the other ramen place, why not? 

Here's their Niigata shoyu bowl with a broth that featured a blend with dried sardines. I liked it. The broth was lightweight and savoury while those noodles were springy. The menma fortunately didn't have that pungent flavour that gets most people worried and the lightly smoky charshu disintegrated readily in the mouth. I'm glad that curiosity didn't kill the cat here. Also quite sure I'll come back when I'm considering a light bowl. I did spy a tsukemen which I could be interested in as well.

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully...

Or perhaps not. I just thought that this was an uncommon enough occurrence for me to put up a picture. I've come across these double yolked eggs before but I don't remember the last time. There was also a rumour that these could be specifically requested for in a certain central western part of the island. Unsubstantiated rumours for now. So here's for posterity and the truth out there. 

Cereal ebi burger with sweet potato fries from McD

So I got suckered yet again last night by the new cereal ebi burger from the Golden Arches. No thanks to them being conveniently located everywhere. The main differences from the previous ebi burger were the buns, sauce and prawn patties. This was a bun with sesame seeds and chives if I remember right with supposedly some sort of spicy shrimp paste sauce and there was some added crisp from the cereals embedded in the crust of the patties. This time round, those little shrimps embedded in the patty looked even bigger than the last one. The sweet potato fries were just that, actually kinda nice whey they have turned cold and a little soggy.

And we seem to have been ushered into an era where their sandwich looks like the Photoshopped models on the menu. What is this world coming to?!

A Nagekomi donburi from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru

This was definitely not as satisfying has I hoped for but I suppose it did the job out of dinner. Apart from being rather heavy handed with the vinegar on their rice, I personally found the quality of the seafood a little shabby considering the number of Japanese clientele Liang Court has. The tuna was especially disappointing; those negitoro bits were nothing compared to the ones that you could get at Tampopo. Considering that this shop does a lot more sushi/sashimi and were a sort of a specialist (I used that word loosely here), I found that disappointing.

Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum and a pandan butterfly at Chinatown FC

I was introduced to Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum (#02-097 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) almost a decade ago by a friend and in that past decade, I've never come back much. This was street food dim sum untainted by glamour served on styrofoam plates. But you do get them as freshly made as one can get and the quality was very decent. They do not have much by the way of variety, but what they do have, are done pretty well. Those fluffy char siew bao were literally bursting at their seams with their stuffings and their chunky siew mai were both savoury and meaty. In the past decade or so of my life, I've also learnt to appreciate the steamed chicken claw dish commonly known as phoenix's claw. The required effort to make them were no laughing matter and these ones here were slurp off the bone tender.

Not thirty seconds stroll away in an adjacent lane is Tai Wah Cooked Food (#02-115). Not to be confused with the other Tai Wah that does ba chor mee at Hong Lim, this stall sold fried Chinese breads. Like the butterflies and the hum chim pang. Well, I couldn't get the pandan flavour out of this pastry but as butterfly fritters went, these were nicely done with the prerequisite crispy shell dotted with sesame seeds and chewy insides. I realised that the "wings" weren't just stuck with each other but were knotted into a pair.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Nine

It has been nine years already. Nine years of perspectives in gastronomical proportions. Did I imagine myself to be doing this for so long? No I did not. I didn't see very far ahead then when I started this blog and I still cannot see far ahead today after each year to a Nazgul. No, there're no auguries cast from chicken entrails or swirling tea leaves to be read of what comes ahead.

How long have you been hanging around?

Nasi lemak at Yishun 645

Yes, this was exactly the same coffee shop as the recent one with duck noodles. Pretty decently cooked nasi lemak if not one at the top of the game. I guess the rice was savoury enough. I'll pass on those over fried skinny chicken wings the next time for something else. This was another satisfying breakfast.

Cicheti, Kandahar Street

People give their restaurants different names for different reasons and mostly, it's for association. But what struck me about Cicheti (52 Kandahar Street, tel : +65 6292 5012) was how inappropriate the choice was. Not that it was offensive or anything. It's akin to calling your restaurant tapas or dim sum when you actually don't quite serve those. If you didn't now, cicchetti are little plates of snacks that are served in Venetian bars; little plates of snacks very similar to tapas or dim sum.

But I suppose after all these years, I'm past names. It is today a mere handle for reference. Any meaning behind them is no longer of much significant or even at all, lost in hubbub.

They have burrata on menu that came with prosciutto di Parma, grilled bread and fruit. The cheese was expectedly milky and light and the ham was quite moreish. Those grilled peaches, or were they nectarines, were a little more tart than sweet. But I thought the plate was enjoyable altogether. I would have liked more bread and fruit and less rockets.

This was their quattro formaggi pizza - a semi blistered chewy crust topped with fior di latte, ricotta, Gorgonzola and maybe Grana Padano. What elevated it was the honey you could request for on the side. Memories. Definitely worked salt from cheese and EVOO. Good for returns.

We tried their pappardelle al ragu because their rendition of the ragu used lamb shoulder. The meat was minced rather than shredded as we had imagined and didn't taste very much of the lamb. The rest sauce was quite ordinary. Not a candle to the awesome one I've had in Rome though hoping never hurt anyone. But - the homemade pappardelle was amazing. The springy textures of the eggy pasta was possibly the the best I've had so far.

And then, a cold smoked cheese cake to end. The smoked cheese was quite pleasant and the buttery crumbles were delicious, but the cake was otherwise not so impressive that we'll ever come back for seconds. Those shards of caramel tuile were quite nice initially, but the sweetness got to me after a while and they tend to get stuck on teeth.

Home made French toast porn

Yeap. Egg soaked wholemeal pan fried in butter, stuffed with cheese and Nutella. Dusted with a little cinnamon sugar. Hand crafted with love, or so the verbiage goes these days.