Hup Choon Seafood, Binjai Park

I was brought here once by a friend previously to this stall (1 Binjai Park, tel : +65 6468 4081) sequestered along a Y junction a little off the main Bt Timah road. I had thought that the food here was a rather good representation of local cookery (cze char) coupled with very affordable prices. The food was not different or fancy in any sense, there were the dishes commonly seen in such stalls and were rather well executed.

Sweet and sour pork was fried before being stir fried in the sauce. This left the pieces of meat with an outer layer coated with the sweet and sour sauce and yet was still a little crisp. This was one of the dishes I had the first time I was here and it's one of the better done ones I've had around.

The prawn paste mid wings were also well fried without excessive grease in the battered skin. Unfortunately, the flavour of the prawn paste could have done with a little more strength. What I personally liked about this was that the meat was quite easily removed from the bones without the use of fingers.

Oyster omelette was pretty decent with a good portion of the smallish fat oysters scattered into the fried egg. Again, I enjoyed this because it wasn't overly oily and the eggs were not fried to death.

These butter squids didn't taste very buttery at all and were in fact, just battered squid that were again, nicely fried with a crispy exterior and a hint of garlic and chilli.

Suitably greasy and spicy, the sambal kang kong was both crunchy and flavourful. I've had some pretty bad soggy greens from this dish on various occasions in the past and this was definitely not one of those knock offs.

Another obligatory vegetable dish of stir fried abalone mushrooms and spinach.

For a table of six with a round of drinks and rice, the bill came up to a mere $58. Very little for me to complain here. If not for the fact that this was a little out of the way, I could see my us coming down with some regularity.

Go! Go! Curry!, ION Orchard

Another chain restaurant that hails from the Shinjuku district of Tokyo which has been brought in by the En Group. Go Go Curry (2 Orchard Turn, #B4-54 ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 4555) is one of several tonkatsu places that defines itself with their special blend of Japanese curry which is quite the different thing from the usual. For one, it was barely even spicy.

The rich tasting gooey stew like sauce (the curry) had a thicker consistency than regular Japanese curries. The flavors were both sweeter and also perhaps meatier? There wasn't any option for the choice of cuts for the pork katsus, which along with the chicken versions, featured a thinner breaded crust which I kind of liked. The lean meat was still a little juicy on the insides while the cheese options as an addition paid for topping wasn't as appealing as I was hoping for. The gravy could have been much warmer to facilitate the melting of those strips of mozzarella.

Still I thought it was a decent option for curried (or gravied) katsu rice to be had in town and until I've had my take with more from Ginza Bairin, I couldn't really say which one is the better.

Hup Lee Fried Bee Hoon, Chong Pang

Here's a couple of servings from Hup Lee fried bee hoon stall at Chong Pang (Blk 101, Yishun Ave 5, Swee Sian Yuan Eating House, #01-03). What I liked about this stall was the fact that the add ons on the side are not steeped in excessive amount of grease and for most of the them, taste freshly fried with that light crisp. Not soggy. Usually. Their eggs were also not over fried to the point that there's a chewy border of idontknowwhattocallthem. Hup Lee also makes a better ngoh heong for a non specialist place where one could taste the bits of water chestnut in them. 

Debatable as to whether they're the king of their hill, but the queue and crowd definitely speaks for itself.

Italiannies, TripleOne Somerset

I first encountered Italiannies (111 Somerset Road, #01-02 TripleOne Somerset, tel : +65 6736 4211) a few years back in Kuala Lumpur at The Curve. Little had I expected that a few years later today, they would be setting up shop here. In spite of what they claim, this was strictly American Italian styled food. Portions were hearty and surprisingly for me, there were certain items on the menu that agreed. Still, this place was a family restaurant chain of sorts. One should keep expectations moderated here.

This spinach and artichoke formaggio was quite hefty for a starter. The dish was a dip with bits of artichokes, mushroom and spinach in a creamy cheesy sauce. It didn't taste bad at all. I suppose it was a wee bit heavy on the grease. It was rich, salty and I thought it was a little too much cream and salt for a single serving.

Clams in olive oil, white wine, garlic, parsley and something that made it spicy. Generous amount of decent tasting clams which were made much better by the delicious broth. It wasn't amazingly good, but it was unexpectedly very tasty.

The Napoli Bianco was a non tomato based meat lovers pizza that didn't exactly have the thinnest thin crust out there. The pie was loaded with ground sausage, salami and bits of chicken. The weight of all that protein and fat simply folded the crust as each slice was lifted off. All that salty meatiness with cheese had me sold.

Grape Shake. Surprisingly very refreshing and clean tasting. We were told it was made with nothing but ice and blended grape. With skin. Definitely one of the better fruit slushies I've ever had. Not to be missed if you want a thirst quencher or make believe that you could actually be scouring off all the richness from your arteries.

Ippudo Singapore, Mandarin Gallery

It was the most fortunate thing that I arrived here before the queue started snaking out from the entrance at Ippudo (333A Orchard Road, #04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery, tel : +65 6235 2797). A few moments later, and I would have been on of those standing in line wondering why are the seated people taking so long just to finish a bowl of ramen. One of the main reasons that prompted me to try them out were that it was recommended by some friends and that Ippudo does Hakata styled ramen which was the type of tonkotsu (pork bone based) broth with straight noodles which I liked. I must admit that the owner, being dubbed Ramen King did intrigue me a little. Still I told myself to set realistic expectations of what I'd be getting.

To start off with a couple of broad strokes, the option of the hard ramen was certainly appreciated and the shoyu flavors in the egg were barely perceptible. The latter was certainly unexpectedly so since Marutama did their egg so much better.

The shiromaru with egg bowl was basically the straightforward tonkotsu based ramen with no frills. Interestingly, the soup had a depth of porkiness which is often not very noticeable and despite being so, it was not overly heavy. The sliced pork that was used also came with a stronger flavor of pork than the pork belly that was included in the akamaru bowl.

The akamaru ramen had a more interesting broth in terms of the blend of flavour. It definitely had more dimensions coming with the faint taste from the blackened garlic oil and that dollop of miso. The diced onions that came with each spoonful of broth added to that effect and it turned out to be quite balanced without any of the flavors being overwhelming. That also seemed to reduce the porkiness of the broth which the shiromaru had.

Couldn't find anything to really fault the thin slices of soy infused pork belly slices in this ramen except for the fact that they were a little small.

Interesting pork buns with delectable meat. The meat was in really small portion.

I suppose I liked Ippudo but the queue as it seemed to be still, would probably keep me away. I could always drop by places like Tampopo or Ichibantei for a quick fix of tonkotsu ramen instead. Those guys are pretty decent too.

Monster Green from RedDot

Here occured the unlikely event that I headed back to RedDot Brewhouse and I managed a glass of their spirulina infused Monster Green brew for the sake of curiosity. I couldn't say that I could taste anything out of the ordinary and all the green did make me anticipate a seaweed flavor of sorts, but it was all very ordinary instead.