More Indian food from Tanjong Pagar Railway

The crowd and queues at the stalls were mad on a weekend, but we persisted and managed to get us some freshly baked chapati with keema and fried Indian rojak. Because they were freshly made and still piping hot, the chapati pieces were airy and light. All of the lightness pretty much went away with the oil drenched keema and with the assorted "deep fried from a trough" items from the Indian rojak. Both made for a greasy lunch. I wouldn't say that these were the best I've had around, but I couldn't complain neither.

Singapore Food Trail, Singapore Flyer

The original intention was to come down here (Level 1, Singapore Flyer, 30 Raffles Avenue) to check out the promotion Guinness had with a couple of the hawker stalls. In the end, we ordered a spread from the various stalls down at the Food Trail. What did I like about the food here? 

The compact poh piah was pretty decent if a little expensive ($2 a roll). Oyster omelette was competently done and I wouldn't mind eating those here again for sure. The satay bee hoon was a little different from the usual in both the flavour and viscosity of the satay sauce. The consistency felt like a watered down version of the sauce, but had an interesting seafood aroma. Portions for the smallest option was dismal. 

Back to the Guinness items, those were simply disappointing. The hokkien mee contained the barest trace of malty flavour and tasted like it was doused with some sweet sauce instead. The regular savoury rendition would have no doubt tasted much better. So I guess the noodles were largely saved by a very nice chilli sauce which broke the cloying monotony. The tiny flat tasting and limp textured Guinness squids (from Boon Tat BBQ Seafood) were pathetic in portions and taste for what it cost. It could have been uplifted with a bit more char. Note to myself to avoid this stall in the future. Even their frozen bbq stingrays were little to write home about.

satay bee hoon

Guinness Hokkien mee

oyster omelette

bbq stingray

poh piah

Guinness fried squid

An eggy lunch at Colbar

ox liver and egg sandwich

Any doctor worth their salt would probably comment that this was an ill advised lunch. But I don't eat like this every day so I think it's going to be fine. I hope. There's enough cholesterol to raise some alarms and enough carbs to induce stupor in the afternoon. 

Health concerns aside, the ox liver sandwich was quite good. The thinly sliced pan fried livers were well browned, appropriately salted and had enough texture for a bit of bite. Adding a fried egg into the the sandwich just made it richer in more ways than one. Knowing that it'll probably be insufficient, there was an order of egg curry which was quite good as well. Nutty, savoury and moderately spicy to be paired up with plain white rice. Quite worth the stupor if I might add.

egg curry

Nasi padang from Tanjong Pagar Railway

Here's a satisfying plate of nasi padang from a stall beside the one that sells chapati down at Tanjong Pagar Railway. This was good stuff with the generous portions of tasty braised squid, a side of cooked cauliflowers and their pan fried omelette that was loaded with onions and green chilli. Not such an easy thing to put into context how comforting all the spice, rice and dishes was for a straight forward midday meal without frills.

On a side note, the chapati seller beside the stall reminded me of our Flying Dutchman. This train station seems to be crawling with people after the news of the closure. I hadn't imagined it to be so crowded in its last days.

A South Indian rice meal from Komala's

I had not expected the deep rooted heartiness found in Komala Vilas but in retrospect, this South Indian rice meal was not bad at all. Satiated my craving for Indian food. It was probably the combination of the best sauce in the world, the savoury sambar, tender spicy vegetables, hot steaming rice (that accidentally steamed the crisp out of the papadum) and yoghurt that did the trick. The relatively fast service meant that this was viable for me as a quick fix without having to travel too far out of my usual routes.

What caught my interest today was the little stalk of what appeared to be dried chilli that tasted pretty salty. Any idea what were those things?

The Jackson Plan, Duxton Hill

This was a new British styled gastrobar (40 Duxton Hill, tel : +65 6866 1988) located but a few units from L'Entrecote. The intriguing name which this establishment has came from a plan which was done to engineer district distribution in this country back in 1822. Shortly after the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Then in recent years, an Italian man Beppe De Vito, who had brought us Il Lido and Forlino decided that it was probably a good idea to turn the name of that into one of a restaurant/watering hole.

How the reconciliation had happened, I did not know.

Westons organic cider

The bar features a bunch of ciders that I knew next to nothing about. I decided on a bottle of Westons organic cider by virtue of name and then decided that it wasn't really what I had been looking forward in a cider. However, their very helpful wait staff did follow up with a recommendation of the vintage cider of the same brand. That was pretty good stuff with what I felt was a better balance of body, apple citrus and of course, more alcohol. We had seconds.

Potted smoked mackerel, rye toast

The smoked mackerel was unexpectedly good. It didn't look like much and I was expecting bits of things I would recognize as fish instead of an oatmeal paste. The aroma of the smoked fish was appetizing and we enjoyed it sufficiently on its own that the lemon was left untouched. But the story of the lemon doesn't end here.

Cured ox tongue, celeriac & caper coleslaw

I had little idea of what to expect for the ox tongue and didn't imagine it to be soft with a velvet like texture on the surface. Much like thick wet cardboard. Lol. Jokes aside, the flavour was a little subdued for my liking for ox tongue. But if you had recalled the lemon that was left behind earlier...a squeeze of it along with a sprinkle of salt did quite a bit to spruce things up.

Scallops, black pudding, smoked cheese

The scallops and blood pudding were enjoyable. Almost everything came across as slightly sweet. The pudding tasted very much like sweet corn with a meaty afternote. The light tasting mashed potatoes were creamy and addictive. What was described as smoked cheese was actually aburied (torched). I'm not even sure if it was just cheese as it was a too fluffy and creamy.

Beef shin, bone marrow, potato cakes

This was probably the least exciting of what we had. The beef shin was tender, but much too lean for my preferences. The bone was a little small with not much marrow to speak of. I think it would be fair to mention that the French guys nearby do a much better job with that. All those capers did nothing to help either.

Real chips

Thick cut fried potatoes. One can even taste the natural sweetness from the tubers. Enjoyed it.

Eccles cake, rum and raisin ice cream

I had never heard of an Eccles cake until today. It is apparently a sort of fruit danish with sugar sprinkled over the top. It might have been great if it were freshly made instead of chewy and cold. The scoop of ice cream which was in all likelihood 50% raisins could have done with more rum. I didn't feel that dessert was much to get excited over.

Would I come back? Certainly.