Tim Ho Wan, Westgate

So I've finally visited Tim Ho Wan (#01-13/14 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, tel : +65 6686 2000). And yes, it had taken me a while. But I didn't see any reason to hurry to a cloned proxy of a Michelin starred dim sum joint, be it a deserving luminance or not. 

Their century egg and minced pork porridge was quite nice. It was a good effort having the porridge as close as the ones in Hong Kong. I shall not compare.

These baked buns with char siew are apparently one of their signatures. Or one of their big four heavenly kings as they term them. The crusty exterior doesn't preserve their crisp texture very well over time so we've learnt after doing a takeaway. I didn't dislike these but I don't think I'll be keen on ordering them again.

Har gow was good. Fresh firm chunks of shrimp found in these steamed dumplings.

The steamed spinach dumplings with shrimp were also good. In fact, it was one of the more outstanding items we've had in this visit and I intend to get them again if I ever come back.

Steamed rice rolls were decent. Pretty sure it was the sweet and sesame sauces that did the trick.

Tim Ho Wan's pan fried radish cakes are also another of their four heavenly kings. Sadly, these don't come close to those from Imperial Treasure which are superior with a tastier crust and creamier inside.

The third of the four heavenly king of theirs we tried was their steamed egg cake. Or also commonly known as ma lai ko/马来糕. The texture was light and fluffy but these didn't quite taste like the usual eggy ones. I'm not sure if they have been localized but there was a distinctive flavour of gula melaka in them.

A mega maguro katsu don from Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining

It's always a mouthful handful trying to enunciate type the name of our friendly neighbourhood hon maguro specialist. Here's a hefty maguro katsu donburi from Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining which features tuna wrapped in seaweed and then battered in panko before the deep fry. The resultant crust was rather firm, crisp and dry while the meat on the inside was moist and fully cooked. It was probably much too thin a slab for any lesser doneness which I was actually hoping for and I was glad that they didn't overdo the tonkatsu sauce. In retrospect, I very much prefer tuna that is less cooked or even raw.

Fish paste noodles in shark cartilage broth from Cove99

Well there's wolfberry, some pieces of cod and bitter gourd as well. I've been kinda fascinated with fish noodles after being introduced to them years back. The fish flavour and the springy texture are what sets them apart from the regular flour ones. This one was pretty good. I thought it was a much better deal than the cod fish soup noodles at Amara. I'm definitely coming back (72 Peck Seah Street, tel : +65 6224 0991) for another bowl sometime.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), Smith Street

This space (18 Smith Street, tel : +65 6225 8663) was previously occupied by Yang Gui Fei, another Chinese restaurant that also served lamb. Now that Restaurant Manchurian has taken over, the decor of the interior seems to have been upgraded - albeit into something touristy tackier looking. But the menu still has a lot of lamb so giggity giggity goo! Manchuria if my interpretation holds, refers to a northern region that covers China and Russia. The part that falls under China is commonly referred to as Dong Bei (东北). And hence by association, I could assume there would be similarities between the food here and those from Dong Bei Ren Jia?

Anyway, here's a scratch on the surface of what they restaurant serves over two visits.

Here be lamb skewers. These here were more expensive than those skewers that can be found in the main road shops. But from the aroma that hit us when they arrived, we couldn't complain. 

They had stir fried long beans and eggplant which were really good. The flavours of both vegetables came through even with the seasoning. No mean feat since these vegetables were light on the palate in the first place. Those eggplants were also really tender.

Imagine xiao long bao with stuffings of minced lamb rather than pork; in flour wrappers that were thicker like mee hoon kuey. Wrappers that were filled with "juices" from the meat/fat stuffings. That was pretty much how their boiled lamb dumplings were like.

Something they described as dry pot cauliflower (干锅花菜) that came with little strips of pork belly. Another tasty vegetable dish.

We had a lamb hotpot somewhere along the way. Delicious spicy herbal broth filled with root vegetables, generous potion of meat and a flat noodle portion that was cut from a single strand.

The above lamb chops were a specialty of the restaurant. They were boiled lamb ribs served with two dips. A garlic infused soy sauce and a fragrant chilli oil. One was supposed to dip each rib of meat into the soy sauce and then the chilli oil for flavours. I thought that these were quite similar to the boiled pork ribs from bak kut teh minus the broth and using mutton instead of pork.

There was braised pulled lamb served in griddled bread. To be honest, this wasn't one of the dishes I had preferred, ironically because of the well done braising. The flavours had permeated the meat so much that I couldn't tell that it was lamb. But otherwise this was a pretty good Chinese "burger".

And there were crunchy vinegared strips of potato that the menu describes as potato silk. Vinegar that made us believe that we had cleansed ourselves of the grease and fat from all that mutton after a few chopsticks-ful of the potatoes. This stuff was good too.

Poh piah from Tangs Market

Ouch, this was the most expensive poh piah I've ever had. $3.50 a roll which is more than twice what most people usually charged. Then again, I thought it was pretty good. What's more - the roll was packed, thick and was larger than the size they're usually rolled into. Each slice could barely fit into my mouth.

A shio iwashi set from Nakajima Suisan

There were a couple of hon maguro parts available last night at Nakajima Suisan and then my eyes fell onto something that was possibly even more uncommon. Freshly grilled sardines with just salt. And I knew I had to order them. 

Was that a good fish? Sure it was. The skin was a nice crisp and the meat was tender and moist and almost boneless. Well, almost because most of those bones were so fine that one could just eat them. What I had enjoyed especially were the regions in the head and the belly just past the gills. Those livery bittersweet dark parts. 

Bakmie and sio may from JTown Cafe

We finally got back to try the bakmie from JTown. This was their bakmie ayam cabe ijo - the one with a green chilli stew and bits of chicken. I liked the green chilli stew. There was sufficient flavour going on to be likeable and heat to keep the flavours interesting. The noodles were okay. Would have like them more springy but they were okay. Wouldn't be in a hurry to come back but I wouldn't mind eating them again if I'm in the vicinity.

The sio may on the other hand I didn't take to. The staff paraphrasing my order had called it siew mai which I guess is what sio may was. It wasn't exactly siew mai as most people here would know of it. It was a sort of fish cake and it wasn't even fish cake that most of us were familiar with. These were basically chewy pieces of flour flavoured with some fish. It was as far removed from what is commonly regarded as fish cake as those mutants from The Hills Have Eyes are from humanity.

A tendon from Kanda Wadatsumi

I don't know if the price had anything to do with it but I'm getting the feeling that this tendon from Kanda Wadatsumi was of a better quality than the one from Tendon Ginza Itsuki just a few minutes walk away. And no, I don't have any proof or appropriate points of comparison. I just felt that there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the tempura for both the ingredient and the batter that they had. Even the pearly beady starch-less rice felt like it was better.

This bowl here had kurumaebi, diamondback squid, takenoko (bamboo shoot) and canola; drizzled with some tempura sauce. The two tiger prawns - separated body and heads were well fried to a nice crisp that none of the shell was chewy.  Bamboo shoots were literally the best I've tasted anywhere (I haven't eaten them that much, so...) and tempura-ed canola was a first time for me.

Their miso soup came with two prawn heads and had flecks of orange bits floating about. I was initially excited thinking that this would be a prawny one, but it just tasted like the regular thing. There wasn't much to suck out of those heads too.

Suigei Sake Salon, Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel

Long introduction short, this sake lounge (#01-04 Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, 320 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 5514) is a collaboration between Ginza Sushi Ichi and the sake producer Suigei Shuzo from the Kouchi prefecture located at the ground floor of Marriott. There is a limited menu which comes directly from Ginza Sushi Ichi just next door. Apparently, some of their sets like the chirashi are limited to 5 servings per day only during lunch.

Hokkaido Izakaya, Tanjong Pagar Road

Hokkaido Izakaya (95 Tg Pagar Road, tel : +65 6221 7118) has gotten quite a bit of buzz recently online, so I guess we have gotten intrigued by what they had to offer. What stands them apart from the rest of the izakaya here is that the focus of their food is on Hokkaido produce. Namely what they term as the best imported from the towns Yakumo, Akkeshi, Furano and Kamishihoro.

Japanese styled curry beef rice at home

It's sometimes hard to beat home made stuff. This one had slices of shabu slices of beef on top of the minced meat plus a scoop of secret sambal to up the heat factor. So while Japanese curry cubes were used, it didn't taste exactly like a traditional variety. I dare say this was better.

Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck (金記潮州卤鸭), Chinatown Food Centre

That's the bento combo jumbo set from Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck (#02-156 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street). A Japanese influenced take on our local braised duck rice upsized with a variety of side dishes that are found in kuey chap. From what I could discover, the current proprietor is a second generation hawker from the stall that's been around for over three decades. Remember what Charles Xavier mentioned on evolution taking a leap? Here's a small metaphorical leap from the relatively unchanging pool of tradition which resulted in an idea taking shape. I'm still talking about the bento duck rice if you're still confused.

Food was in no way bad, but nothing so extraordinary that I'll be back in a hurry to revisit. The only things that were different from the usual apart from the presentation was the egg which was attempted in the style of ajitama (the operative word is attempted) and the yam rice which were served in balls. Also perhaps, that cup of broth which they had also provided was much more spiced that I'm used to.

Revisiting the fish maw soup from Seng Kee

The queue at Seng Kee is much less of a pain during the weekdays it seems. Today's bowl was the large one and it came with a large piece of ti poh (dried sole). The soup wasn't cheap by hawker food standards, but it was a satisfying bowl with little other mettle out there to match.