Guzman Y Gomez, Star Vista

Guzman Y Gomez (#01-32 The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, tel : +65 6694 2044) is a chain Mexican taco/burrito shop from Australia that opened up here a few years ago. Their initial outlets were located at places I never needed to be so I never got to try them until this one at Star Vista opened recently.

You know what? I rather enjoyed what I had. And it was cool that you could choose different fillings for their set of tacos rather than having all of the same. The grilled chicken and carnitas tasted better than their flank steak which was oddly tasteless as a meat. But three tacos didn't exactly fill me up so we tried their burrito bowl with barramundi. I liked their chicken and pork options better.   

Chee cheong fun with chai por

That's steamed rice rolls (chee cheong fun) topped with preserved turnip (chai por) if anyone needed translation. Story goes when we were trying to get ourselves some chwee kueh from a particularly popular stall down at Whampoa Market Food Centre and they happened to be sold out. Which exacerbated the craving for them. There was left over chai por and the stall still had some steamed rice rolls and so the improbably inevitable happened. It's actually quite nice; nothing unexpected or surprising with the flavours since it was precisely flavours of those chai por over a starch cake.

Hambaobao, Beauty World Food Centre

I’ve been hearing/reading about this stall (144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #04-49 Beauty World Centre) for a while and decided to check them out. I’ll describe their product (their classic hamburger) as a more Americanized Ramly burger. With better meat patties, none of those overly sweet combination of sauces and there's option for hand cut russet potato fries. Greasy buns a la plancha with cheese, pickles, butter head lettuce, an in house tomato ketchup and I added bacon. The meat was about as exciting as those at the old Botak Jones so it's not Omakase Burger for sure.

A lamb shoulder sandwich from Porsena Deli at PasarBella

That's the Pasar Bella at Suntec (#01-455 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard) and not the one at The Grandstand in case you didn't realize. While I've aired my opinions in the past on what these guys were trying to sell of themselves versus the reality of who they actually are, this relatively new outfit at Suntec is nothing like that. This one is but a Pasar Bella branded food court. Nothing more.

But Porsena Deli looked interesting and we decided to try their lamb shoulder sandwich. They have a "stuff it" option for $2 which we exercised for "more ingredients". Anyway, this wasn't bad at all. 6"-ish sized freshly toasted soft white roll with a generous stuffing of that tender chopped lamb shoulder meat in that....red tikka-ish sauce, cucumbers and yoghurt. You know what? I would come back.

Kee Hock, Clementi Market & Food Centre

I've never had beef mui fan before so here's my first from Kee Hock (Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-43). While I wasn't exactly floored, I think there's a few reasons why I think these guys are one up above the rest. At least for me they are. 

For a start, their gravy wasn't overly starchy and actually has flavour. The other thing that impressed me was that they didn't sodium bicarbonate the meat to death; which was actually a rarity amongst the local Chinese stalls. One could actually taste that it was sliced beef rather than a formless protein matter with little texture. 

A bit more intensity from a richer beef stock, a bit more generosity with the greens and perhaps with the spiking of a little sliced chilli padi and/or fermented black beans - this could have been much more impressive. Their sliced fish hor fun looks pretty good too, maybe the next time.

Salmon en croûte from Saveur Art

I saw somebody at the neighbouring table eating this the last time and I thought it looked good. So I got myself one this time round. A medium to medium-well done salmon with spinach encased in a puff pastry and dill cream sauce on the side. Could taste a bit of parsley in that sauce too. While it wasn't about to floor anyone into a stupendous state, we found ourselves enjoying it. Of course there were little things that could have been better, but good was good enough.

Chicken Head (雞頭), Clementi Market & Food Centre

I remember eating at this stall (Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-18) quite a while ago but only had a very faint recollection that I liked it. Which is strange. Anyway, the reason why I remembered them was because the name of the stall translated into 'chicken head' and I found that amusing. So here's another go at that chicken head. It was actually not bad. Their boiled chicken was fairly tender and smooth while the rice was lightly flavoured. Just sufficient flavours from the oils without being too greasy. I couldn't decide if I liked the rice better with or without their chilli so I guess that in a way, I did enjoy that rice. 

While I wouldn't make a special effort to come here just for this, I certainly have no qualms getting a plate again if I'm nearby. Judging from the queue, they seem rather well received.

Kuriya Dining, Great World City

Kuriya (#01-28 Great World City, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6736 0888) has been around for a number of years now. I’ve been wanting to come by and have been asked by friends who seemed to like the place to give them a go. Somehow, it just never happened until today. Sounds familiar? I have this relationship with many places.

In retrospect - their food was pretty good quality, portions weren't very generous and it was actually more expensive lunching here than Aoki. But we did enjoy the grilled oysters with uni and the fried mehikari which were nicely salted and delicious. That wagyu/uni/ikura don was pretty good but I wouldn't have scored it very high because of a couple of things. I genuinely felt that it could have been improved if they had just used a little bit of shoyu or salt on those thin sliced beef rather than that sweet sauce which also confused the flavours of the sea urchin. For what they were charging, I had expected portions that are more substantial.

Toro porn and some seasonal stuff from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru

Yeap, this is a post with gratituous toro porn and a couple of other items off the regular menu from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru at Liang Court. The ones with the clear streaks running across the marbled slices are hon maguro and the other one with more homogenous marbling is albacore tuna. We ate a lot more toro than this, but I guess there's only so much pictures I should be putting up. And while it was cheaper than eating at a formal sushi restaurant, the cost does add up. Not to mention that the prices weren't indicated clearly. So, caveat lector!

Shirako was on the non regular menu as well since it's the season and it was actually pretty good. Nice and creamy kinda good. Unfortunately the oyster chawanmushi was mediocre. They mentioned it was Hokkaido oysters and I thought it was rather small ones at that. None of the oyster flavour went into the steamed egg so perhaps they were steamed separately? Anyways, not that it would matter. It was oyster-ly and not in a good way.

Black truffle ramen from Kanshoku Ramen Bar

As far as I could gather, Kanshoku (#01-06 Orchard Central, 277 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6384 4770) is formed by two local guys. Not that I don't support the local guys venturing out into foreign food, but my opinion is that their shop brought nothing new to the table considering that there's already loads of ramen shops around. And already, a handful of those shops are clearly superior (read as something I prefer) to this one. I know it's Dutch pork for the charshu, Japanese egg for the ajitama and Hakata styled noodles made in house; it doesn't change the status quo that I described, no?

Island Cafe version whatever...

Island Cafe has recently completed renovations. The place no longer resembles the tropical retro stained restaurant that had been its look for the past years. It’s now clean, white and almost colonial-industrial from the expose pipings without the false ceiling to conceal. Along with the facelift was also a change with the kitchen crew.

Kay Lee Roast Meat, Upper Paya Lebar

Truth be told, I've never heard of Kay Lee (125 Upper Paya Lebar Road) until the recent years when they were mentioned online about the sale of their stall/name/recipe which went for 4 million SGD by the way. Living in the smallest country in the world and blogging about food I've been eating in general for almost a decade; I have never prior to that buzz heard of this apparently famous roast meat stall. That about sums up my relationship with them.

Dehesa, North Canal Road

This was an eve of the eve Christmas dinner at the newly opened Dehesa (12 North Canal Road, tel : +65 6221 7790) helmed by a Joe Pantoliano-esque (Cypher in the kitchen!) chef/owner Jean-Philippe Patruno. Apparently, they are claiming to be the first nose to tail dining in this country and I'm giving them credit for it. This restaurant kicks lupine ass for what it's worth!