Tong Ah Eating House (東亞餐室), Keong Saik Road

I was recommended by an aunt to this place (35 Keong Saik Road) and it was specifically mentioned that their kaya was buay pai. The home made lumpy type that's filled with pandan flavours minus the additional flour or whatever things factories add to make them unnaturally smooth and silky. And that I could only eat them there because they don't sell them as takeaways. It's not bad but doesn't beat the ones that my mum used to make. Didn't that make me sound like an old fogey? Oh, those French toasts were okay. Didn't look at picturesque as IG has made it out to be though. Lol.

Anyways, their queue system is rather chaotic. One could simply hijack a prepared order of toast and add on additional orders simply by having thick skin. There were only a couple of people churning out the bread and coffee while the weekend queue was in full strength. We got a pack of nasi lemak which was probably not made in house. It was surprisingly edible and featured that sweet and spicy sambal that I didn't find off putting because it had enough heat. The portions of the rice was unexpectedly larger than usual.

Coffee was a pretty thick local brew but it's not especially fragrant. Which works for some people but not quite so for me because the strength is just one half of the quality I look for. It's not bad per se, just not fantastic. And ooooh...testing Google Map embed into this post.

Super Mummy Hainanese Chicken Rice, Chinatown Food Centre

This chicken rice shop (#02-169 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) was one of a few Super Mummy branded stalls down at Chinatown Food Centre. I rather liked this. Their white chicken was slurp off the bone tender, smooth and doused with a fragrant mix of sesame oil and light soya sauce. They also had one of those lime-y chilli sauces that worked very well with their beady rice. Altogether greasy, but deliciously so. I'd eat this again.

25 Degrees Burger, Hotel G

Man this was disappointing. At the same price point, Omakase Burger beats this hands down and I actually get more bang with a McD double quarter pounder at half the price.

Oops, did I type that out loud? This was 25 Degrees Burger (200 Middle Road). Yet another unremarkable import - this time from Los Angeles. 

Their tomato soup was not bad. I think that might have been parmesan foam on top.

I decided to just try to build my own burger because I thought it didn't make sense to have Thousand Island and blue cheese and bacon together. What better way to hide poor quality meat. Instead, I went for a basic burger with American cheese and arugula.

We had three orders for them burgers - one medium rare and two mediums. All arrived like they were well done. Obviously the guys flipping in the kitchen know nothing about cooking patties to even not get doneness right. Obviously management doesn't give a flying fuck.

Let's compare American cheeses. Here's Omakase Burger and here's McD. And the one from 25 Degrees is in the picture above. Could barely taste it.

The bright spot to all of this? I don't even have to remember this place exists the next time I want a burger.

Le Bistrot Du Sommelier 2017

Le Bistrot Du Sommelier has always been a dependable venue for French food. At least for us it has. By some chance, we've stumbled upon the end of their winter menu again. The spring one starts next month according to them.

So we grabbed the French beet salad. We had something similar last year around the same time. These multi coloured beetroot were mostly sweet. The yellow ones less sweet than the orange and red ones. This year's rendition of the salad included something they called a celery "cannelloni". I'm pretty sure it was celeriac rather than celery.

Anyways, there were two rolls of those "cannelloni" under all the beets. Looked like they were steamed as well and stuffed with some creamy goat's cheese. Good stuff!

Can you tell what this is from the picture? We couldn't neither. It's their andouillette, made in house by their chef Brandon Foo. Not much of these gets served here so it's rather easy to remember the ones we've had.  

Looked like a mess mash even when we portioned it out. Nothing like the tightly packed sausage of intestines it was suppose to resemble. Between the one made by Patrick Heuberger at the defunct Casse Croûte, the labelled A.A.A.A.A. ones from L'Angelus and this one - the former two beats this hands down. I'm sorry to say that this wasn't good at all. The flavours were as messy as its appearances and that mustardy green marinate didn't help.

The unexpected thing from this serving was that the potatoes au gratin tasted of ginger. I know, right? Who the hell puts ginger into these things? What was ginger even doing in this restaurant? And I don't even like ginger unless it's for desserts. But actually, this tasted pretty good. Didn't see that coming did you? Neither did we. Maybe the cream made the difference. It could have been a mistake in the kitchen for all we knew and it will be the only one time ever that a gingered potatoes au gratin is ever served.

This andouillette was the first time we've ever had something that was disappointing from Le Bistrot Du Sommelier.

We've seen their Welsh lamb saddle on the menu for a while now and decided to give it a go since it was recommended by the server tonight. It was lamb saddle cooked in a bread crust. Cool huh?

The saddle was served with lamb jus along with a very smooth and very creamy buttery mash. The kind that would coat your oesophagus and trigger thoughts of seizures and heart attacks.

We were wondering if they put the lamb into a hollowed out baked bread of was the lamb encased in the flour and baked together. The inner top part of the bread seemed to have absorbed the lamb juices and flavours from the herbs turning itself into a crusty garlic bread of sorts. 

The meat was pink and tender. There was some chermoula which didn't taste very French-y but worked with the lamb.   

That's the bone that's cooked with the saddle in the bread after we were done with the meat.

Not enough room for desserts today.

More food from Ananda Bhavan

One of the times I'm having a dosai with no stuffings. It's usually been with masala or onions or cheese or a combination of those. Today, it was just a simple ghee rava dosai. Made with clarified butter (ghee) and semolina flour (rava) if anyone was wondering. They sprinkled some sliced green chillis in them. I like how these rava dosai texturize which ends up with that mix of a little bit of chew and the crisp from the browned portions - spiced up with those chutneys and sambar that they provide.

The last time we stopped by here we had their pav bhaji and it was only after I ordered that I realized that they had the cheese version as well. Something that I've not had for ages so here's one. I think they might have added less ghee compared to the regular one because there was cheese in it. Still a pretty tasty snack it made.

Longer operating hours at Sap Thai Food

Good news, Sap Thai Food is now open for dinner these days and even in the weekends. Hence here's another amongst a handful of stalls that's still available at dinner time at Amoy FC. They're located just next door to Quan Ji who happens to be more "aggressive" with getting their customers.

We got a plate of their yum mama noodles, tom yum-ish curly instant noodles in a lime-y broth. This was pretty good but I would probably want to dial the heat down a notch to the less spicy option the next time since this left me with burning lips.

The last time I ate here, I saw larb gai and wanted to try. It was called mint chicken salad or something. There was something else in it other than mint. Some jagged leaf thing that reminded me of coriander even though the stall claimed that it was only mint since I've already requested for no coriander. Ack!

Here's a pad krapow gai where we opted for basil minced chicken to be non-spicy. Pretty darned good I must say even without the invigorating heat that it is normally prepared with.

Brotzeit, Raffles City

Brotzeit's (#01-17 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) menu doesn't change much. Or perhaps I should say didn't change much. With the exception of a few things. I think. It's been largely the same since they opened years ago and the mainstays, stay. People usually just come for the schweinshaxe, sausages and beer anyways. Me, I dig their spiced red cabbage. Or rotkohl.

Also enjoy their fladen. I've always referred to them as German pizza which is pretty much what they were. Good munching it made. There's one with pulled beef cheek that's actually pretty good. Now I know there's another one that I like other than the Black Forest one.

The other thing which I thought was worth getting were their pork medallions. Something I don't remember from their old days but it's been around. Bacon wrapped pork....medallions and some garlic butter I think. Meaty and hearty. It doesn't always have to be schweinshaxe just so that you know.

Shun Xing Wanton Noodles, Beo Crescent Food Centre

This stall (#01-89, 38A Beo Crescent) was old school kinda tasty. Noodles had bite, didn't have that horrendous alkali taste and weren't clumped together. They had char siew which were the lean and red dyed kind that used to be ubiquitous when I was a kid. Nothing extraordinary, just what they are. Their wanton were not bad though. Smooth, slurpy skinned and definitely not the size of your thumbnails. For a local wanton mee stall, they are pretty decent and I'd eat this again. 

Winter is here....at Fika

We've returned! There's a blueberry soup (blåbärssoppa) on the menu. It's sweet, tastes like warm juice. Mmmm.....

After trying their räksmörgås the last time, we decided to try their skagen on a baked potato. I thought this was quite tasty even though I would have preferred more dill.

This winter plate was the only item we tried from their seasonal menu. It was like a mini-smörgåsbord if you would. Let's see - some chicken sausages, meatballs (today's was floury and not nice) on a beet salad, some smoky ham and salmon, spice rubbed turkey breast, a pomegranate salad, some rye bread and a chicken & pistachio terrine. 

Re-revisiting Baba Wins'

A quick one from a recent eat at Baba Wins'.

We had the sambal lady's fingers again. 

And something that was called nonya scrambled eggs on the menu which was eggs stir fried with tomatoes, mushrooms and those crispy grago. This would really benefit from a bit more salt.

We tried their ngoh hiang. It's got a nicely fried skin and bits of water chestnuts amidst the minced pork in the stuffings. While these were competently done, I'm not such a fan of these rolls when the five spice powder is the predominant flavour. 

One of the current updates to their menu are pepper squids in dark soya sauce. Those squids were exceptionally tender.

Basilico 2017

The last time we were here was about 3 years ago. I remember that that episode didn't leave such a good impression. Fast forward 3 years to today, we found ourselves back again. I think we liked the antipasti and dessert buffet. There was Ghedetti Provolone Piccante which was outstanding, sweet rock melon that paired off beautifully with their prosciutto di Parma and truffle honey which was kinda nice with almost everything. 

The mains were still not up to scratch as much as they sounded good. Execution simply fell short compared to the idea of the dishes.

Like the haddock fillet wrapped with smoked pancetta. It was a reliable setup. Possibly infallible too. It even looked good on the plate. But the fish was dry and being the main item, it was kinda disappointing. Edible disappointment. 

I ordered the persimmon risotto mascarpone because it was one of those things that was a "what? I've never had that before....gotta try it!" Couldn't identify the persimmon nor mascarpone in the rice. That's a total failure when the primary and secondary ingredients end up being unidentifiable. Reiterating that while the idea was good, execution floundered.

Marinated tofu bibimbap from Paik's Bibim

My thoughts on what draws me into Paik's bibimbaps are the vegetables and the fact that their bowls taste like a savoury warm rice salad. Something I can see myself falling back to on a fairly regular basis. Yeah, I kinda enjoy this stuff. Here's the bowl with marinated tofu, a meat free configuration which in retrospect, didn't taste very different from the minced pork bowl that I had previously. It's the vegetables.

Quan Ji (權记), Amoy Street Food Centre

Seems like I've found a good spot (#01-56/57 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) for black bean sauce hor fun. This changes things now, knowing that there's a very decent cze char that opens in the even at Amoy FC and it located just right beside SAP Thai Food which also operates these days into the evening too.

Anyways, it was supposed to be a sliced fish black bean sauce hor fun. For some reasons, there were also chicken and prawn in there. The flavour of the sauce was pretty good. Not as intoxicatingly potent as those from the days of yore but what the heck. I'd return for this.

Quan Ji makes very competent prawn paste chicken. The golden brown and crispy (sounds familiar?) skin dry without excessive grease and the meat's really moist. What's more, sufficient flavouring from the prawn paste. There's nice kang kong too but the sambal needed more aroma. Maybe a step up with the heat and more hae bi would be great.