Hon maguro fin shioyaki set from Nakajima Suisan

Here's grilled hon maguro fin with salt. Nice char and unctuous tender meat beneath that. As enjoyable as their nodo.

Fakruddin, Desker Road

I understood that Fakruddin (19 Desker Road) is a Bangladeshi restaurant and they are known for their briyani.

That plate above was their lamb/mutton briyani. What was different about it was that these guys didn't use basmati rice that we're used to seeing for briyani. The rice here was a short grained variety and there was even potatoes along with the mutton. The flavours of the rice was a little buttery (from ghee) coupled with the aroma of the spices they had used to cook it. I thought this was delicious. I meant "I'm definitely coming back again" kind of delicious.

The other rice that they had was bhuna khichuri. From what I managed to discover, it was rice with dal (lentils). Pretty tasty, but this was not buttery like their briyani and the mutton in the rice was measly. Actually, it was mostly bits of bones. But still tasty the same and comforting.

We had vegetables. Spiced and stir fried sliced gourds of some sort with egg. Tasty stuff.

And a spicy mash that packed a little bit of heat which the proprietor mentioned was made with yam. Due to the intensity of the spices, we couldn't actually tell that it was made of yam. But it was delicious. 

We spied kheer in the refrigerator out back and got a serving. This if you didn't already know is a dessert of sweet and milky spiced rice pudding. It's mostly cardamom flavoured, but there is occasionally saffron and nuts as well. In the rice were also a bunch of really plump raisins. We were already pretty stuffed at this point and if you have noticed, this meal was carbs heavy. But still we managed to finish it. Mmmmm....

BeerThai House Restaurant, Golden Mile Complex

It's been quite a while since the last time I stepped into this building. For some reasons, we had never headed this direction for Thai food even though it was one of the things that Golden Mile was known for. So today, it's BeerThai House Restaurant (#01-96, Golden Mile Complex, 6001 Beach Rd, tel : +65 6297 7644).

We tried their boat noodles. While we weren't expecting it to be anywhere close to the standards of the last one we had, this bowl here turned out not too bad. The vermicelli had soaked up all the flavour from the broth.

We had tom yum goong nam khon. The version of the tom yum goong with milk. And that's evaporated milk, not coconut milk in case you were wondering. In this dangerous looking bowl, were bits of sliced fish, squid, shrimp and fish balls. The tom yam broth packed quite a bit of sour and heat.

That unwittingly triggered a certain, usually dormant inner masochism which prompted me to spoon mouthful after mouthful of it into my mouth even though my lips were already burning. 

I don't know what's the name of this dish but it's essentially a krapow moo with century eggs. Quite salty, rich from the eggs and bits of pork fat and good with white rice. 

And there was som tam with salted egg. A salad of papaya strips refreshingly spicy with squeezed lime, crunchy textures and full of bold flavours.

This was a steamed squid dish with chillis and lime. It was a lot more zesty than I had anticipated.

Changing lanes at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

Here're some stuff that I haven't actually eaten before. A relatively new mixed mushroom dumpling (shimeiji, shitake, oyster and enoki) with a light infusion of truffle oil. I kinda enjoyed it. It was more mushroomy than truffle-y which was really what I was looking for. All wrapped in their signature 18 folded dumpling package. The other thing's the beef broth noodle. No beef with this at all and pun fully intended. As much as I enjoy cow, Chinese styled preparations have generally not been my thing so the broth was actually good enough for me. A little bit of heat, a little bit of spice, some bovine aroma and comforting slurpy noodles.

Revisiting Jia Yan Restaurant

In the midst of chuckles drawn from the hilarity of the menu's English translation, here's some stuff we had at Jia Yan.

That's stir fried cabbage with dried chilli and a sauce that contains fermented beans. The flavour was not bad, growing onto us as we ate and the cabbage didn't taste as undercooked as it initially looked. 

This was suan cai yu where the pickled mustard greens were buried at the bottom of the bowl. The fish was I'm guessing, dory. The cheap and plentiful fish with soft crumbly texture that is commonly found locally. This didn't taste bad even though I generally don't like dory. But the texture was exactly the way it was, almost disintegrating as it was picked up with the chopstick. Those pickled mustard tasted like preserved Szechuan vegetables minus the heat.

Here be boiled dumplings (水餃) with egg, chives and little shrimps (三鲜). These dumplings were pretty juicy and the dominant flavour was the "green-iness" from the chives. Or should I even describe that as verdant? o_O Not bad.

And yeah, we didn't want to skip the lamb/mutton so we ordered some skewers and ribs infused with cumin. And other spices. I need to make comparisons regarding the skewers at this point. Those skewers in Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺) might have cost 50% more but were also better done in my opinion - not to mention that lamb was really their forte whereas Jia Yan does a smattering of what can be loosely described as Dong Bei (东北) and Korean food.

The king of kings or so they say at Lian Hua Chun Fruit at Balestier

We were looking forward to a durian fix at Combat Durian and realized that their stall was not open. So this was an opportunity to check out a neighbouring stall a couple of minutes walk away (279 Balestier Road) by the junction. The seller told us it was wang zhong wang (皇中皇) but the bouquet didn't feel as full bodied, that almost alcoholic bittersweet creamy richness wasn't quite there and the seeds weren't as small as they had claimed. The smell that was left on my fingers was a little off too. 

All in all, it wasn't worth the $56 that they had charged. Maybe it's psychological, but now that I think of it, those guys did behave a little weaselly. You know what they say about being bitten once so I think I'll stick to buying from Combat Durian which by the way isn't going to be opened till the middle of the year. Heads up folks.

Kajiken (歌志軒), Orchid Hotel

So we finally made out way down to Kajiken (#01-07 Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Link) for their mazesoba after passing it by on numerous occasions. That above is their Nagoya styled bowl - with an additional piece of tori karaage. The flavours were pretty much how one could expect with the tossing of spicy minced meat, strips of seaweed and the chopped negi in those noodles enriched by an onsen tamago. Which kinda reeled me in by how straightforwardly comforting it was. I couldn't help but to see it as a Japanese version of ba chor mee. I liked it and will be back.

Gin Khao, One Raffles Place

Gin Khao (#04-29 One Raffles Place, One Raffles Place, tel : +65 6532 2387) serves contemporary Thai. The food that they do is what anyone with some familiarity with Thai cuisine would acknowledge as internationally recognized Thai food - nothing with much surprises going on here. The contemporary element simply redefines the recognisable with refinement on the ingredients, preparation and presentation. The roots remain.

yam mamuang

I liked their mango salad. Nothing unnecessarily fancy, properly made and there was that citrus fragrance from the fruit that was on going there. Not just strips of sour crunchy stuff that you sometimes get. Would have been great if they were more generous with those crushed peanuts.

paw pia tod

These prawn spring rolls was unexpectedly better than I had imagined. There seemed to be nothing but prawns stuffed in the rolls and the flavours of the skin was...much tastier than they looked. Could have easily finished a serving of them myself.

stir fried squid with runny salted egg

Stir fried squid was not bad tasting but the larger pieces were kinda chewy. 

tom kha gai

Their tom khai gai was addictive. It was lightly creamy from the coconut milk with a vibrant tanginess which left me spooning mouthful after mouthful of the broth. I would be willing to return just for this.

khao phat dtaeng moe

The only thing that I probably haven't tried before from the bunch of stuff we ordered was their watermelon fried rice. This was a seafood fried rice which came laden with quite a bit of squid, prawns and mussels and strewn on top of that - cashew nuts, crispy deep fried bean curd strips and chicken floss. Not forgetting, warm chunks of warm watermelon. I liked it.

larb moo

The lard moo was served late for a salad. But it was good. Nice hit of mint and lime over fish sauce in textures of ground pork, onions and leaves.

kang ob woon seng

And we had some vermicelli with crayfish which was pretty flavourful.

For some reasons, our table had a free dessert. It was a Thai tea mousse cake of sorts which tasted like how it looked. I realised that did not really describe anything to anyone who doesn't know how Thai tea tastes like, but...

The other dessert which wasn't free was their green curry gelato over steamed black glutinous rice. There was nice creamy heat that left prickles on the back of the throat from the gelato and the rice was moist and tender. I liked this.

And some Thai coffee to wash the food down. This was a rather strong brew. Strong like how I can remember feeling palpitations when I get my triple grande at Starbucks in Bangkok. But the fragrance of the roast wasn't as full bodied as I would prefer. The coconut cream that came with it made it taste a little salty so I recommend it with a little bit of the syrup that they also provided.

Patty Melt on rye from Park Bench Deli

Here's a quick warm sandwich for dinner. Chuck patty with cheese, bread & butter pickles and caramelised onions between toasted rye from Park Bench Deli. Greasy and a little salty for the most of it, but also delicious.

iO Italian Osteria, HillV2

This place (#02-01 HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise, tel : +65 6710 7150) is by the people who runs Etna. I wanted to check them out because I liked Etna and I was hoping to see what they would do out of the concept of an osteria.

We had porchetta, a roasted layered pork stuffed with herbs. The portions were pretty large so my advice is to share it. As a starter, it could have been easily split two or three ways. I thought it was not bad; super crisp (I do mean super crisp) on the outside while moist and fatty on the insides. But they were very light handed with the salt on the meat. I supposed that worked with the accompanying mustard which seemed to have been nicely salted.

The other thing was their schiacciata, an Italian flatbread. This one was stuffed with ricotta, mushrooms and some truffle oil. Again, the portions were huge. This could have been breakfast for two. But it was also quite nice. The bread was served hot and crisp with the cheese oozing out of the edges.

Feeling adventurous, I tried a home made tagliolini with prawns and lemon. It was something that was probably off my usual flavour train and I was hoping that having lemons would zest up the noodles or the sauce. I couldn't taste the lemons and the sauce was a generic one that was made with the ingredients on the plate. Being adventurous doesn't always pay off. While I liked the texture of the pasta, the rest of the flavours was kinda boring. #disappointment

The steamed bullfrog with chilli is back, now on the regular menu of Paradise Dynasty

I've previously said all there is to say about this particular dish which was on a limited run menu. I'm guessing that it had been well received enough for the restaurant to have included it into the regular menu. Still burning hot and tasty this is, so not for beginners.

Lollapalooza - ɒzoolɒqɒllo⅃

Here's back to Lollapalooza. If there was one thing I felt that they could have improved, it would be to update their menu of the week/day instead of waiting for people asking for them. That's why there is social media, yes? To facilitate incessant timely updates?

But I bear no grudges. Table service was good and the food was enjoyable.

glazed Brussels sprouts with chestnuts

We had Brussels sprouts with chestnuts. Nothing surprising going on here. I just like them

cockscombs braised in veal jus with sautéed sweetcorn

Cockscombs has texture like a slightly crunchy abalone or cockle. Kinda nice to chew on but isn't by itself big on flavour. I don't think it absorbs flavour well too. But the accompanying corn was good. Very nice. As a dish altogether, I thought this worked.

sea urchin and crab tart

This tart sounded good on paper, but I had my suspicions otherwise before ordering it. We ordered it anyway because it sounded good on paper. As it turned out, I was spot on about the part on the uni. It was a waste of a nice piece of sea urchin because the flavour in the stuffings of tart were rich and creamy. Which by itself was a good thing but didn't work with something with the subtle floral of uni. And hence knowing that already, we were ate them apart.

white asparagus (Mazan, France) with diced Bayonne ham and hazelnuts

White asparagus season has started. These ones that Lollapalooza had gotten were amazing. I meant that they were naturally sweet, char etched with a smokiness from the grill and very juicy. I guess that's why they costed so much.

leeks poached in nut-brown butter and vanilla served with hazelnut crumble

Leeks were tender and juicy too. The hazelnuts worked better here than on the asparaguses because there was more and there's no ham here to distract from the aroma of the nuts. But between this and the asparagus, we preferred the latter.

roasted Australian wild-caught scampi (langoustine) with seaweed butter

The scampi was not bad, but it was an odd pair. We had a little difficulty removing the flesh off the first one which had a head full of delicious fat. The second one had flesh that was easily stripped off the shell, but didn't have so much head fat. At this point, I cannot in good conscience say that it was amazing because these were not yet at that level. Our benchmarks had once upon a time been established and sadly may never be met again.

roasted lamb hearts with wild garlic shoots

Lamb hearts were nice. Actually, I'm still surprised that a muscular organ like the heart would be so tender and chewy. I was glad that it was respectfully treated in the grill with little but salt and pepper. That orange blob at the side - I think it's some kind of tomato pesto. I'm not too sure exactly.

spicy dark chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate mousse and chocolate brownie

This triple chocolate dessert was not bad. The brownie was rather fudgey which I liked and the spicy dark chocolate was rich, smooth and spicy enough.

Mushidori Original Curry Rice from Washoku Goen

This branch of Washoku Goen down at Clifford Centre's Foodfair (#B1-01/10 Clifford Centre, 24 Raffles Place) features a Mushidori curry rice which uses their rendition of poached chicken instead of the usual tori katsu. I kinda liked it. It was pretty tender, well flavoured and while it might not have rivalled the best of local chicken rice we have for the chook, it didn't taste too shabby at all. Too bad it's only available at this particular outlet.