Tai Dong Teochew Braised Duck Rice, Lorong Telok

I'm not normally one for braised ducks because of the flat pieces of meat and the boring starchy gravy, but Tai Dong's (No 9 Lorong Telok, City Front Kopitiam, tel : +65 6532 3226) Teochew styled braised duck was a different beast altogether. For starters, the sauce accompanying the duck was a flavorful herbal concoction that tasteed much better than the gooey ones commonly available everywhere else.

Boiled peanuts which I normally don't pay much attention to. I still don't.

Their take on simmered cabbages was excellent, redolent in the flavors in both the aroma and taste of dried shrimps. We enjoyed this so much that we ordered another after another. Three plates of them (amongst 4 of us) if you had lost count.

When one opts for sides along with the duck, the livers, tau kwa and boiled eggs should never be forgotten. These items contribute to the heartiness of the meal. I have little doubt that the eggs and liver helped to the "hearty" effect. The soft and piping hot bean curd paired up excellently with the herbal sauces that came with them.

The main stay of the braised duck here as I've mentioned was the flavorful herbal sauce that comes with the bird. Notice that the skin of the duck is much darker than the common braised ducks.

Rice with that meal that made me eat more of my usual intake of carbs. It's the gravy's fault.

Home made stews

Zan Ji Mixed Veg Rice, Whampoa Food Centre

After several visits which I gave this stall passes, I've finally decided to give this neighbour (Block 90 Whampoa Drive, #01-67) of Uncle Sim a go and it turned out to be a pretty good recommendation. The food tasted better than I had initially thought, especially with the simmered cabbage that was like a fresher nonya chap chye. We were also fortunate to arrive at a timing when they had just brought out a fresh batch of crunchy stir fried french beans and warm fried chicken. They had a rich curry (which I had to request separately for) to go with the rice too which sealed the deal for me. While I don't write about mixed vegetable rice often, this one was just one I had to bring up.

Seventh Heaven, Raeburn Park

the itsy

This place (10 Raeburn Park, #01-24, Marketing Institute of Singapore, tel : +65 6227 7787) was an unusual setup. They had a fancy looking website, a shop that looked like a deli (even equipped with a ham slicing machine) and were touted as a shop that did artisanal ice creams. They were apparently also making what they called manwiches - sandwiches with a conglomerated mess of processed meat fillings. Something that I probably would have tried doing at home.

The differences between the manwiches were basically the meats. The Doobies Debris which they described as Dagwood's ultimate sandwich was filled with smoked turkey, pork roulade, ham and farmer's meatloaf and the Itsy was corned beef, roast beef, pastrami and salami. Even though there was about an inch thick of processed meat after compression, I didn't think they fit the depiction of what I used to see Dagwood Bumstead make for himself. Lol.

Jokes aside, the meat and cheese sandwiches were all cold cut. They looked hearty and generous but probably weren't the best behemoth I've had. Would have benefited from warm fillings but there didn't seem to be much of cooking facilities in the kitchen. The bread wasn't toasted or even warmed. Tasted a little sweet and milky and had a dry crumbly texture which couldn't hold the contents very well. Couldn't understand why the home made coleslaw. It tasted quite good but used as a filling made eating messy. Not one of the better built sandwiches out there. Some PLT or mustard would have been great.

doobies debris

Ice cream tasted a little dodgy. Textures were a little undulating. The peanut butter flavour wasn't particularly peanut-buttery but it was creamy. It also seemed like they ran out of a number of the other alcoholic flavours which were under the recommended list.

Don't think I'll make the effort to come out of the way unless there're doing warm sandwiches. Service without a crowd was excruciatingly slow for food that required little preparation.

Fresh Fish Seafood Soup, Sembawang Hill Food Centre

This place (590 Upper Thomson Road, #01-36 Sembawang Hill Food Centre, S574419) is a little hideaway for fish soup introduced to me by a friend which we could go to, off the lunch hour since that time of the day does away with the horrendous queue under the usual relentless and sweltering humidity of the afternoon.

We normally grab the fish soup with instant noodle option and I like mine with an additional topping of fish eggs. I couldn't really say what is truly compelling for me in this particular stall. Perhaps, it was the clear tasting soup lightly flavoured with pepper, garlic and fried shallots that could be spiced up with accompanying chilli padi. Perhaps, it was the rustic looking and fresh tasting fish slices and curly instant noodle. Not that those noodles were undercooked as I normally would enjoy them. But I've always found this stall to be a nice sanctuary for a late lunch.

New Victory Restaurant, North Bridge Road

I've been wanting to come down to this place (701 & 703 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6298 6955) for the longest after Zam Zam to see what were the differences between the two since they had similar looking murtabaks. Funny thing was, according to them, this shop was also a hundred years old this year too. We have by happenstance, visited two neighbouring stalls that are well known for the same food in their hundredth year.

To be honest, it has been more than a year since Zam Zam and there were so much similarities in their murtabak that I was hard pressed to detect much differences between the two. Both had the signature look of folded prata layered with egg and crusted with bits of ground mutton. Both were also loaded with sweet chopped onions and were served in pretty large portions. Perhaps New Victory lacked a little punch from the flavour of the ground mutton. I cannot be sure. I think I'll need to head back to Zam Zam again soon if I had to differentiate them. This locale at North Bridge Road offers an unparalleled option for murtabak which probably cannot be found elsewhere.