Oysters at Ootoya

Perhaps, it had been the initial excitement of having discovered that seasonal Hiroshima oysters were available on the menu at Ootoya that we came down with eager anticipation to try them. Such levels of excitement are usually no good because we tend to get disappointed. Which was what happened here. We left the place feeling not satisfied with what they had served. For one, the fried oysters weren't as juicy or creamy as I had expected and perhaps, being seasonal had made me expect much more out of them. Even the nicely breaded shell didn't save them from the fact that they were lacklustre.

 

Likewise with their steamed oyster rice which was shrivelled looking in comparison with the fat succulent shellfish we had imagined. Freshness was probably not the issue since they did taste pretty okay. They just appeared visually disappointing and while at that, had the textures of how they looked like. The flavour of the oysters did not so much permeate the rice as they had claimed and in fact, the hijiki seaweed were more pronounced.

 

What salvaged the dinner was the charcoal grilled pork rice bowl and a chicken karaage with stewed root vegetables served on the side of the oyster set. The former was a consolation with a nice char grill flavour but had too little rice to go along with. Guess I'm down to just one option for fried oysters for the time being. This episode has developed me a craving.

Cafe de Hong Kong, Balestier Road

The name Cafe de Hong Kong (586 Balestier Road, #01-01 Eastpac Building, tel : +65 6255 3865) seemed something of a misnomer as I had the impression that it was just one of the numerous Hong Kong cafe places. A friend who had eaten there on a couple of occasions before made mention of the place to me and shed some light on what I had been missing about that place. Apparently, it was not just another one of the char chan teng. This particular restaurant had a spread of offerings on menu that was much larger. Dinner plans were then drawn.

We were informed that the roast chicken had to be pre-ordered and I thought that it was quite unusual for such a common dish need that. It was ok. To me, if felt like a competently done roast chicken with thin crispy skin that was devoid of fat. Pretty enjoyable but not exceptional. There was an accompanying sauce that was made with fermented beancurd. Didn't really do anything to enhance the flavour of the tender bird. In fact, it robbed the chicken of it's aromas.

One of the highlights of the dinner which also require pre-order was their lup mei fan. These were waxed meats cooked in claypot rice and are usually seen during the Chinese New Year festive seasons. I don't know if one could get them in any other times of the year since I haven't had these very often. The waxed meats were apparently prepared by a chef from Hong Kong who had flown over to do them for this season. The lup cheong, liver lup cheong, pork belly and duck were pretty good. Greasy in a nice way, paired with the beady grains of claypot cooked rice that was pretty well done. Exceptionally tasty eaten with the very good chilli which they had provided.

What caught my eye from the menu was their braised crocodile paw. Not something that one gets to see often in restaurants here. This was essentially a stewed dish of a whole crocodile paw with strips of pork belly and some vegetables. I am guessing that some effort had been made for the cooking process which ended up with a rich tasting broth that was slick with collagen that our lips remained sticky after they were wiped clean by paper napkins. The meat tasted so much like chicken that I would not be able to tell if I had to identify it. The skin was soft and textured like sea cucumber. I was pretty impressed by the flavour.

Their French toast was an ad hoc decision after we were told that it was good. For the record, this was probably the best Chinese French toast that I've had. Despite the greasy appearances, the fried exterior was crispy and the bread was light to the point that I could simply stick a butter knife going right through smoothly without a fork. The rest of what made it good was accomplished by the drizzle of honey, butter and the fillings of the creamy peanut butter in the middle of the bread. 

This was one of the dinners that had turned out much better than I had anticipated. Would look forward to returning again some time to try something else. Thanks Alice, for the arrangements and introduction.

Lechon @ the Youth Park

I think we might have over greased ourselves by a bit this time from all the roasted pork belly at the Mang Kiko's Lechon stall down at the Kopitiam at the Youth Park (121 Somerset Road, National Youth Park, tel : +65 9646 6444). It all started with an order of a half kg of pork belly while we were waiting for a friend to arrive and we had jokingly said that it was just the appetizer to start. After the arrival of the friend, we picked up another half kilograms of the same and another whole roasted chicken with rice to go along. At the end of it, I couldn't help but feel that my arteries were clogged. I had actually been wondering about the amounts of cholesterol and carcinogen I've ingested for tonight. At the same time, we were lamenting about how the only beer that was available at this place was just canned Tigers.

Commonweath Cresent Fei Zai Eatery, Holland Village Food Centre

Here's a massive bowl of ba chor mee from this stall (#01-14, Holland Village Food Centre) which I had for lunch. Even though I had requested for the large bowl of noodles, the portions was still unexpectedly big and loaded with meatballs, fish cake, mushrooms, minced meat and liver. In fact, there was so much liver in it that I actually couldn't finish them all. Imagine a ramen bowl size almost filled to the brim. The taste was unfortunately nothing beyond ordinary and the noodles which were a little too well cooked were a far cry from the standards of Tai Hwa. The wad of mee pok was so large that there were some strands of them still clumped together. The rendition from this stall also does not seem to include vinegar which I had to request for separately. Still, it made a cheap ($4) and filling lunch.

Affordable prime ribs...

A heads up if you do not know already that Hog's Breath is having a promotion of sorts for Mondays where the prime ribs are going for a one for one deal. That in short means that two persons can snag themselves a 300g slab of All Natural prime rib (sans the unnecessary toppings) at a nett cost of approximately $20 a person which I honestly think is a pretty good deal. This kinda puts things at the prices that Aston's is selling their steaks for.

Speaking of prime rib, I guess after all these years, Hog's been a fairly reliable place to fall back to for relatively inexpensive prime rib. It's quite unfortunate that the cheapest option that I know of is usually not available to myself, but this place is second best. A change that I've noted though was the increased options of sauces on the side which they now charge a dollar for (free previously). The brown sauce is no longer listed on the menu, but was available at no charge when requested for.

And I am not affiliated with them in anyway, so don't even ask.

Mentaiko katsudon set from Tampopo

This was a tonkatsu that featured mentaiko stuffings within the cutlet. As good as the idea might have sounded, the execution fell short in the department of flavour. That was not to say that this wasn't a piece of enjoyable tonkatsu. I thought that the flavour from the roe was insufficiently pronounced. Truth was that there was more of that leek/onion aroma while the mentaiko was barely discernible. Even though it looked like there was quite a bit of them between the layers of sliced pork. That being said, this layered tonkatsu was pretty tasty. The meat was more tender than the usual hire katsu.