Ramen and Tonkatsu Fair at Tampopo

Hear ye, I'm back at Tampopo. They seem to be holding up some sort of Ramen and Tonkatsu Fair with a bunch of new items on the menu probably for a limited period. This visit actually came about through tip off from a little bird about a certain foie gras tonkatsu that they had.

For a start, we ordered a serving of their steamed black pig dumplings which tasted very much like the Chinese renditions (hong you chao shou) with the moderated splashes of black vinegar and chilli oil. The smooth skinned dumplings were a little smaller than I had expected but they were pretty juicy and flavourful from the fatty pork fillings that we were rather tempted to go for seconds.

The kani ramen was the only ramen item from this fair that looked interesting. Basically a bowl of squiggly yellow noodles soaked in a starchy crab flavoured broth that was filled with a pretty generous amount of shredded Japanese crab meat and shimeiji mushrooms. The extra portions of added vinegar and La Yu on the side made it tastier and easier to go down. That in effect turned it to something akin to Taiwanese mee sua.

The foie gras from their tonkatsu was subjected to enough of the heat that the fat from the livers had seeped into the pork creating an almost subtle heady aroma into the fatty pork from the first mouthful. I was initially hoping for the flavour of the fatty liver to be more prominent, but it turned out to be a balanced equilibrium between the savoury deep fried crust and the foie.

If such a thing could be described by the word 'equilibrium'.

We wrapped up with their innocuous looking chocolate chiffon cake which tasted more strongly of chocolate than the milky hue of the cream suggested. If I had to describe, it was both light and not excessively sweet.

Stall # 15 at Tanglin Halt market

To be more precise, this was stall #15 in the food centre just beside the wet market down at Tanglin Halt. A small food centre that actually had four cooked duck vendors.

If I were asked if this was a great roast meat stall, I probably wouldn't have come back with a boolean response. Great isn't what everyone is looking for all the time and mostly, good is good enough. The stall serves pretty good roasted duck, sliced diagonally across the grains of the meat resulting in tender slices of duck. With enough fat under the skin to render the flavors into each bite. The crackling of the roasted pork belly was crispy to boot.

A very straightforward and down to earth meal prepared by a proprietor that apparently will not be rushed into submission by the queue as he took his time with this knife to neatly arrange the cut meat, fanning them across the edges of the plate.

Forty Hands, Tiong Bahru

I thought that their (78 Yong Siak St, #01-12, tel : +65 6225 4623) coffee was a little on the acidic side and lacked body. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind dropping by again for breakfast, but it'll probably be breakfast with beer!

Prata Wala, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Woah, this was pretty good stuff at Prata Wala (302 Tiong Bahru Road, #01-12 Tiong Bahru Plaza). I remembered their greasy prata and not so spectacular teh halia from the outlet at Nex, but this was really quite a different experience. Definitely a pleasant surprise.

I could start with the vegetable briyani which featured moist and aromatic grains of basmati rice that was good enough to eat on its own. Portions were generous. The sambar was delicious in its own bean-y way and I guess that they only thing that wasn't up to scratch was the limp papadum which I was quite willing to overlook.

Here's another rendition of butter chicken which I would definitely come back for. This one by far, comes the closest resembling Jaggi's. There was a little more tomato flavour and the spice packed just a little more heat. But those were still nicely paired with the characteristic smoky flavour and creamy textures of the gravy smothered over bits of tandoori chicken.

And those delicious squids they had with sauce tasted a little of sardines and sambal. Another great option that we picked up by chance.

Here's their plaster prata that featured slightly molten yolk. The fish curry on the side was actually spicy.

And the milky sweet beverages to sooth out the spices at the afterward.

De Burg, Ghim Moh

I was initially a little excited after hearing about this place (Blk 10 Ghim Moh Road, #01-78, Stall #3) that me and a couple of colleagues headed down during lunch. I opted straight for the larger 200g patty option which sounded much more substantial than the smaller one at half its weight.

I couldn't say that I was impressed on the whole. While it did feature the texture of coarse hand chopped meat for the patty and the burger was sturdily piled up, the flavour lacked definition. The beefiness was subdued even by the discreet application of the BBQ sauce and mayo with bacon strips. I was also expecting a bit more of the char aroma from the medium done patty. The lack of cheese flavors in a bacon cheeseburger wasn't what I was expecting as well.

It's definitely one of the better ones around from coffeeshops, but didn't make the cut that I would crave for them and specially head back again.

Medzs, Orchard Central

I came across this place (181 Orchard Road, #B2-01/02/03, tel : 6238 9028) a couple of weeks back by chance while wandering from Centrepoint to the basement of Orchard Central and made a mental note of it since it looked interesting and was also not open for business yet. So I gather that it must have started out quite recently. The concept of place works pretty much like Marché, but is actually run by Food Junction.

One basically gets issued cards which are used to pay for the various food stations that comprises of food from Turkey, France, Morocco, Spain and some other places. Picked up a platter of salty fatty charcuterie that featured jamon serrano. It seems that they have jamon iberico on the menu as well.

The cheese section was just right next to the charcuterie so I swiped up some goat's cheese, parmigiano reggiano and a savory nutty Spanish one call Manchego.

The salt baked beef from the French station was actually pretty good.

Lamb tagine was very disappointing. I do not remember the last time I've had these things, but the flavours were too diluted and the lamb had virtually lost all its characteristic gamey flavours. Having coriander in them worsened the already present ill disposition. Will definitely have to give that Moroccan/Tunisian station a total miss the next time.

Desserts didn't look like they were really interesting either. I was hoping for some of those milky rice pudding things, but I guess this place was just not ready to go there yet. What we're saw were pretty much the run of the mill cakes, pastries and ice cream.

Still I'm probably coming back again for some of those nice looking kebabs with rice and chilli from the Greek station another day.