Red Star Restaurant, Chin Swee Road

I've been asked by some friends to give this place (Blk 54 Chin Swee Road #07-23, tel : +65 6532 5266) a try on numerous occasions and I've never gotten the chance to come down until today after shopping for glass jars. 

It was more than just a little disappointing considering that they're treated as an iconic institution that are supposed to be the place to go for old school dim sum. It didn't help at the end of the meal when I realised that it actually costs less to eat a Crystal Jade Golden Palace where the food was much more refined and tasted a lot better. This aged stained place might have been a sight for nostalgia with their decor of a bygone era and trolleys of dim sum in steamed bamboo baskets which are carted around that one had to rush for. I'm definitely not convinced of returning. Not when the best food we had I could pick was just a plate of stir fried vegetables, a bowl century egg porridge and egg tarts.

These har gao deserved mention because it tasted very little of prawns and the fillings were a floury lump that left a chalky feel on the tongue. As a main stay of dim sum, it was very disappointing.

Honorary mentions also had to be made for the ubiquitous char siew bao which had dark and dry-ish minced pork fillings. Like they were unique to this restaurant. Didn't think they were tasty. Even the generic factory made ones in coffee shops tasted better.

I'm normally one for pan fried radish cakes but these were far from the creamy ones I was imagining.

I was hoping to find some salvation in the department of desserts. Their black sesame paste was so starchy that even when it was relatively warm, it had already formed a skin at the surface. The black sesame flavour was weak and it was a little too sweet for me.

Marché, 313 @ Somerset

These pictures were taken over a few visits at Marché. I was a little surprised that the variety of their offerings have increased and the standards of the food was noticeably better than what I remember them. Blue cheese and strawberry crepe with enough of that mouldy pungent milk curd to put a smile on my face....who would've thought?

Ximending, VivoCity

Naming a restaurant that serves Taiwanese food called Ximending (1 HarbourFront Walk, #01-51A VivoCity, tel : +65 6376 8018) is akin to having a restaurant in another country called Orchard Road because it serves Singaporean food. Heh! 

It seems that the entrants of Taiwanese cuisine here are making their play upmarket as well. Most of what was served here came in large portions meant for sharing. What bugged me was that they charged for every bowl of sweet potato porridge (they tasted pretty good but still...) that was ordered. 

The fried oysters were pretty mediocre. Tasted exactly like something that could be bought from the local pasar malam. No way I'm ever paying the prices here again. Waste of money.

We got the cue to order their chai poh (preserved radish) omelette after seeing them on another table. They were tasty albeit a little more greasy than I normally prefer. The browned omelette was loaded with the bits of preserved radish. Looked like a thick pancake and was quite substantial.

Their Taiwanese styled fried kang kong wasn't so much an obligatory dish of greens. We wanted to have some crunchy stir fried vegetables. This plate was stir fried in fermented bean curd sauce. Turned out to be the more memorable dish among the few we tried. Something that I would look forward to if I we came back. Regarding that braised pork belly with mustard greens some of you might been wondering; it tasted pretty much like the way it looked. Quivery, tender cuts of meat layered with soft fat that fell apart when you popped them into the mouth.

Do I spy ankimo on my chirashizushi?

Here's a look at a revisit at Chikuwa Tei. The food here has pretty much kept to the standards of how it was remembered from the last visit and the one thing that was different was that they've started serving their little appetizer dish again to all the patrons. It wasn't the old hijiki seaweed stuff today though, but a stewed soft root vegetables and minced chicken with the same broth as before.

There was an unexpected piece of ankimo for the chirashi which also featured rather surprisingly fatty cuts of all the fishes and some sinewy toro. And a little score off the unajyu having a mixture of regular grained rice and the Japanese variety. The texture of the rice mixture was downright noticeable from the start. I wonder if that's cost savings down there.

Good Chance Popiah Eating House, Silat Avenue

I remember having had poh piah that you had to roll yourself ages ago but can't for my life remember when or where it was. Recently, I had a poh piah craving and it lead me to this old shop (Blk 149 Silat Ave, #01-58, tel : +65 6271 0698) which is a family business being run by the third generation. There was definitely an air of old school about the place from the decor to the food presentation - or lack of. 

The main stay of the business which was poh piah is served deconstructed. Portions are determined according to estimated number of people eating them. What they offered were just the basic ingredients for the spring rolls. Extras like shrimp or lup cheong were add ons that you had to pay extra for. It wasn't really cheap poh piah here.

This was my first attempt at constructing the spring roll as I can recall. Without prior experience, I made them as I remembered from how they were prepared stalls when I bought them. It's actually easy peasy.

And this turned out to be a successful wrap. Shovel in too much fillings and the tends to skin break apart as they are rolled up, so don't. The stewed vegetables tasted quite different from the regular spring rolls outside and the chilli paste here was tongue prickingly awesome.

These hay cho (prawn ball fritters) were also a signature from the restaurant. Tasted not bad as they were freshly fried.

Their otah awesome item number two. While I couldn't identify the ingredients, I thought they had just the right combination of flavours and noticeable bits of fish meat. What made these steamed otahs good as well, was that they were actually spicy.

The yam fish head soup tasted unexpectedly bland. There were bits of yam which were boiled to the point where they were starting to disintegrate. I'm not sure what to make of this dish. Maybe the idea here was for it to be a light tasting soup.

To complete with a carb, we ordered a portion of their traditional dark Hokkien mee. To indulging in a little euphemism, I'd say that it tasted great with a generous slosh of vinegar. The original flavour weren't the least robust. Most of it came from the bits of garlic. Didn't hold a candle to the lard laden and much darker renditions that I've tried in Kuala Lumpur.

Kusabi, The Central

This (6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #01-68/69 The Central @ Clarke Quay,tel : +65 6225 9415) place is a relatively new outlet of yet, another ramen-ya, which are springing up all over town. Kusabi as I read hails from the Fukushima prefecture and apparently, what makes their ramen special is the use of bonito powder for their broth base and the flour for their noodles are apparently also infused with bonito and sardines.

I couldn't say that their uobushi tonkotsu broth bowl of ramen was anything impressive by any standards. The moderated smoky aroma from the bonito turned out to be the dominant flavor and while was actually pretty tasty, took out any traces of the tonkotsu base in the broth. The noodles were thicker than the regular Sapporo variety and much as I tried, couldn't detect any real differences in terms of taste from normal noodles apart from texture. The porky charshu was dismally stiff and the egg was far from what I was hoping for in terms of doneness. Both of which were also lacking in the flavors of shoyu that I was expecting. That was something that Marutama does noticeably much better.

Despite being so, I wouldn't discount this place as of yet since they do have tsukemen on menu and those Nikumaki rice balls that they have look pretty good.