Lai Lai again!

No surprise I found myself heading back for late evening grub again since the last visit left us with a favourable impression. We ordered almost exactly the same today. The tasty lu rou fan, braised intestines and their signature beef noodles. In this second run in with their lu rou fan, I managed to eat them slowly enough to notice that the gravy contained minced pork besides the braised pork belly. To digress out of the blue at this point, we've also noticed that there is a shop by the name of Taiwan Delights along Bugis next to the entrance of Liang Seah Street that is doing similar Taiwanese food. I'll probably check them out when I'm next in the vicinity.

We opted for the potato noodle option for their beef noodles. They appeared similar to what I thought were glass noodles. Rather "Q" to coin a Taiwanese term, which meant that they were springy in consistency. The texture was smooth and coupled with the chewiness, reminded me that crab tang hoon in Geylang. Pretty easy to slurp without even actually chewing which I though was fun.

Hyang To Gol Korean Restaurant, Amara Hotel

I was told that this restaurant (Amara Singapore Hotel Level 2, 165 Tanjong Pagar Road) was pretty good by word of mouth from a friend who heard it from a Korean guy. I suppose that's as good as any a reason to give them a try. That being said, I'm still of the opinion that I prefer Japanese is even though I don't mind these now and then. Maybe it's too much of that similar taste of spicy and sour which makes many of their dishes a little difficult to distinct from one another. But I suppose it could also be the fact that my palate isn't quite as discerning for all things kimchi.

small array of condiments

spread shot

spread shot II

cold appetizer soup

Kimcheejeon

Here's the almost obligatory pancake. I'm not too sure of how good these are against the original things since I've only had them once in Togi, but the ones here were pretty good. Crispy exterior and hot soft insides. These pancakes were quite similar to Chinese carrot cakes in texture. Except for the onions and chilli and that it's orange. One could imagine them as a hybrid between Indian dough fritters and Chinese pan cakes in some strange manner.

vegetables for the grilled meat wrap

Saeng-Galbi (non marinated beef short ribs)

Yangnyeom-Galbi (marinated beef ribs)

The marinated meats here were pretty much like how they're done in other Korean places. There's a choice of cuts and quantity and the meats were served and grilled at the table by the servers. After which you eat them as they are or attempt to wrapped them in lettuce. The meats were quite pricey here. The more expensive options costed more than some steaks Morton's. And those didn't even look to be as good as what I've had back in Aburiya. I recommend to do the wrap and enjoy the kick of the spices. I don't think they're big here on the original flavor of the meat.

Gopchang-Jeongol (beef mixed innards with noodles in soup)

The gopchang-jeongol was recommended. This dish was essentially a beef innards stew with intestines, tripe, tofu along with some vegetables and noodles. I was surprised by the fact that the flavour of the beef was strong in the broth and not drowned out by all the spiciness. This was definitely a reminiscence of a beef kuey chap.

Jajangmyeon

As you may gather from the name jajangmyeon which sounds similar to the Chinese zha jiang mian, this noodle was basically very much the same. A bowl of noodle topped with thick sticky gravy that's filled with diced meat (probably pork) and vegetables. The main difference was that zha jiang mian, doesn't have vegetables besides shredded cucumbers. Instead of being savoury, this jajangmyeon's gravy was actually sweet. The viscosity along with rather generous portion made these noodles cloying after a bit. I much prefer the Chinese version to this.

what do you think?!

ginger drink

Some loot from the Japanese Food Festival

You didn't think that I had visited the Japanese Food Festival without buying anything did you?

sabazushi roll

sabazushi roll with konbu kelp

mixed fried seafood (scallops, smelt and squid)

squid in sauce filled with eggs

smoked squid

fish soup bags

Ah Chew's Desserts, Liang Seah Street

So far, I have been here twice in the span of a few days. I noticed that this shop (1 Liang Seah Street, 01-11) stays crowded well past 10pm. There's a bunch of Cantonese desserts including some variants which I have not seen elsewhere like green bean soup with seaweeds and steamed milk egg with hashima. Those options, no doubt piqued my interest at Ah Chew's.

I've also found a new favourite. It's papaya boiled in fresh milk and these things tasted pretty awesome served hot. The fruit was boiled in the milk to the point that they are soft and basically breaks apart easily in the mouth, allwith the nice aroma of hot milk. I had expected their steamed milk egg to with red beans to contain the beans within the steamed egg itself, but apparently, the beans are just heaped on top of the eggs. It wasn't too bad, but the red beans didn't taste as good as azuki beans. The coffee flavored steamed milk eggs was a first for me too and surprising the coffee flavour weren't as weak as I had expected. There was enough of it to mask the egginess in the pudding. I've a feeling that I'll be back again.

Hawaiian papaya boiled in fresh milk

steamed milk egg with red bean

coffee flavored steamed milk egg

Lai Lai Family Restaurant, 20 Liang Seah Street

Though it says Lai Lai Family Restaurant, the Chinese name of this Taiwanese eatery actually reads 'Lai Lai braised beef noodles'. And a pretty good braised beef noodles this place did. The specialty of this shop is apparently Taiwanese beef noodles and the service staff here were real Taiwanese. Having never been to Taiwan, I had no idea how it stacked against the original beef noodles from the country but I found myself liking the ones served here. Then again, localisation improves on the original in some instances for me. I'm referring to their lu rou fan, a Taiwanese dish which by name describes 'braised meat rice'. That name is a little misleading because the original dish usually contains just rice drenched in a fragrant braised meat gravy with no meat at all.

The ones here are served with braised pork belly.

Lai Lai has various options for noodle type in their noodles. One gets to choose between Taiwanese noodles, glass noodles, kuey teow and potato noodles. I haven't a clue what are potato noodles,but I would presume that they are made with potato flour. One can opt to top up with beef tendons and additional meat. There's a choice for portion size and whether one prefers the dry or the soup variety.

This was a first visit. We grabbed the small bowl of soup Taiwanese noodles; which were thick noodles with a chewy consistency similar udon. Came in a broth that was spicy and savoury. Which was coincidentally what we were looking for in the recent cool weather. The braised egg in the bowl had mild herbal aroma like the tea eggs. As a whole, the flavours were spicy and clean. I thought it was pretty good.


And this would be the abovementioned lu rou fan. Rice with braised pork belly and its gravy. Would have been one step from close to perfect if there weren't those sprigs of coriander in them but they were easily removed. What I liked about the braised pork belly were the flavour from the stewing and the soft fat. There's the use of the starchier short grain rice which by its own was sweeter. Served hot with these braised pork toppings, it was a "lethal" combination of comfort food.


This was braised intestines. Pretty similar to what one can find from kuey chap stalls. They were served piping hot with texture that was tender and chewy. I'm thinking that these here were way better than what we've had from kuey chap places. Worth a try if you're one for offal. Will get them them again the next time.


Another side dish from the menu was the braised pork ribs. I'm not normally into Chinese herbal stuff but I have to admit that these ribs with easily slurped off the bone meat were pretty tasty. The starchy sauce was unremarkable, I was just glad the herbal part wasn't overpowering.

Have a 'rock melon' break!

It's been quite some time since I had one of these things. They are actually some limited edition flavour of Kit Kat from Hokkaido. And yes, it is rock melon flavoured as illustrated on the box. Upon unwrapping the foil, one can actually catch a whiff of the light drifty aroma of rock melon. The taste of the wafers were lightly accented with the said rock melon flavour. Noticeable but wasn't overwhelming. Pretty interesting. I wonder if it is just coincidence that I'm getting these rock melon flavoured stuff at this time of the year or is it because the season has brought forth a tide of such items. I had received some rock melon jellies about this time last year.