Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh, Jurong East

This ba kut teh here trumped the one at Founder . If not for the location, I can see myself becoming a semi regular at Joo Siah (Blk 347 Jurong East Ave 1, #01-220, Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre). 

Can't quite put a finger to what exactly about Joo Siah that made me decide with certainty that I preferred them. Perhaps it was a clearer and sharper broth that had bits of white peppercorn at the base and those morsels of tender rib meat that one could easily suck off the bone. That and a combination of those and the excellent braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce. And I really do mean excellent. The medley of textures from the soft meat, fat and skin were slurp inducing and I found a homely aspect to the taste of their dark soy sauce. Tasted very much like how my grandmother used to make them. 

The pickled vegetables were pretty pedestrian. They had unfortunately ran out of tau kee for the day and I hear that the prime ribs are usually sold out by the afternoon. I guess it's good enough reasons for an excuse to revisit.

De Yun Bak Kut Teh, Yishun

Even though this wasn't anything mind blowing, the stall had pretty good stuff going on there (Blk 417, Yishun Ave 11). For one, they were cooking a variety of stuff including boiled pig stomach and steamed fish. The bak kut teh was peppery and not shabby at all. I liked that the cai buay came with thinly sliced bits of chilli padi which added a bit of heat to the salty chopped bits of mustard greens. The meat from the rib was nice and fatty even though it wasn't quite of the "fall off the bone tender" standards.

Definitely more than good enough for a quick fix there with variety to boot at this remote corner of Yishun. Like braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce!

Paradise Dynasty, ION Orchard

Perhaps it had been that very recent trip down to the Ramen Champion stadium that I had felt that the la mian at Paradise Dynasty (2 Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 9118) lacked punch. While the flavors of the broth in the ramen had been salty and "in your face" impactful, this pork bone broth in the la mian appeared to be refined and subtle. Just like the difference between karate and taichi. If that means anything. Hiiieeeyaaah!

This was my first visit down to a restaurant by the Paradise Group. The food concept for Paradise Dynasty, is northern and southern Chinese. I know...it's vague. At least superficially it is.

The egg loaf above was made of century egg, salted egg and omelette. Apart from being egg-y, it was rather bland.

What this restaurant is well known for, are their xiao long bao. These black skinned ones above are black truffle flavour. To be honest, the black truffle was subtle and little. One would have to be consciously tasting the dumpling instead of gobbling them down to recognize that there was actually something else lurking inside them. On the other hand, these xiao long baos did taste a lot like the original versions, not detracting much from their original porky taste.

These are the foie gras flavoured versions of the xiao long bao. Like the black truffle variety, the flavour from the foie was subtle. But I have to admit that this place makes a pretty decent pork and fat dumpling.

These chilled Shaoxing marinated drunken chicken were great. Flavour from the wine was thoroughly seeped into the soft flesh of the bird. Will likely to order these again if I come back.

Regretted ordering the mala beef innards. I suppose I didn't really enjoy the spices and that it was filled with chopped coriander. With all the spiciness, I couldn't really taste much of the beef.

In spite of the earlier comparison, I had actually enjoyed the la mian here. Sure these silky noodles weren't the chewy or firm ones that I normally prefer. But these noodles were suppose to be another thing entirely. This place also did a much better job out of the molten yolked boiled egg. Fresh sweetness of the scallops and crab legs were also very apparent in the seafood here. Surprised and pleasantly so.

Ramen Champion at Iluma

Hey, the annual Ultimate Ramen Championship has made it to our local shores down at Iluma (201 Victoria Street, ILUMA @ BUGIS, #04 – 08/09/10). Seems that six stalls located in a "stadium" will be around until this time next year vying for our votes so that the winner is able to set up their ramen shop. 

The above was a bowl of Bario ramen from the stall of the same name. This stall from Tokyo featured semi squiggly noodles made from bread flour. What's visible from the above picture was but the proverbial tip of the iceberg for the amount of bean sprouts that went into the bowl of noodles. There's more of them sprouts in this bowl than a single serving in some chicken rice stalls!

I sampled more than a few spoonfuls of the garlicky broth before mixing in the grated garlic that one could help themselves to from the stall. The original broth tasted much like a hearty minced pork soup. 

What I liked about this particular bowl was the play of textures from both the thick chewy noodles and the crunchy bean sprouts. The former when put in a local context, was akin to lor mee noodles - albeit with more bite and none of that yellow noodle taste. I'm thinking this was very much like a Japanese lor mee. Guardian UK apparently put it as "50 best things to eat in the world" list. While I don't know if I would agree to that statement, I also do not think I would mind at all giving this a another go. With much less garlic the next time. On the side, Bario does have some crispy skinned and meaty gyozas which I found to be pretty good.

By a stroke of chance, Ikkousha that does my favourite Hakata styled tonkotsu ramen was just next door to Bario. Didn't have to navigate too far away through the lengthy queues/crowd. What stood out for me in their bowl of creamy broth was a depth of porcine smokiness that created a pretty unique flavour I've not encountered. Their thin noodles were sadly overcooked and weren't as firm and chewy as I liked.

I would like to give this stall my vote since I feel that they're definitely on a toe to toe with Nantsuttei, but I'm also keen on giving some of the others in the competition a go before I decide on it.

What was universal for both ramen stalls were the aromatic charshu that were so tender that they fell apart easily in the mouth. What's sad was that the ajitama from both stalls did not have the molten yolk and the shoyu flavour that I was expecting to be infused into the egg.

A seafood dinner at Greenwood

This seafood platter was a deviation from an old favorite we hadn't had for a while and it all came about from a sudden craving for seafood. It was also quite a long while back since I had last visited Greenwood (34 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park, tel : +65 6467 4950) and I did not even realize that they had an extended unit for seats in their restaurant.


As things would have it, we started off with a mekajiki toro. Also known as swordfish belly.


And then, there was a lobster bisque which was really not too bad if I had to make the call. The crustacean flavors were apparent and while I wasn't close to being blown away by it, I couldn't slam the soup neither.


There was honestly mixed feelings for me on this. While I did enjoy the sweet and spicy dressing of their octopus salad on the aside and the deep fried calamari wasn't as dreadfully boring a grease bomb I was thinking, I felt far from being impressed. The lobster was a little tough and the fish skewers were in need of a little salt. We left the place thinking to ourselves that it was all just okay. Is this one of the better seafood platter offerings to be had on this island?

Saizeriya Ristorante E Caffe, City Square Mall

I liked this Japanese place (180 Kitchener Road, #B2-55/56 City Square Mall, tel : +65 6834 4878) a lot better than I had expected. Perhaps it was the fact that I had came by expecting very little since I believe that one gets what one pays for. The prices at this place were very affordable for what they served and at their price point, I couldn't complain at all. There were no frills and presentation was..... well, perfunctory. But one doesn't come here for prettied up plates.

As you can see, squid ink pasta was generously inked, so to speak. I was really pleased that they did not scrimp on the squid ink and their flavour came through with every forkful of the al dente noodles. There wasn't much but pieces of squid in the pasta, but they were quite generously portioned and I'll probably want to order a plate of these again the next time I come.

The spinach with bacon was pretty much what it was. A bunch of soft wilted spinach flavoured with bits of bacon. I actually enjoyed how straightforward it all was in terms of how it was served and how it tasted.

This was probably the cheapest mushroom soup I've had for as long as I could remember and it was also a lot better than most that would cost twice of it. It's not close to the better ones I've had, but hey, those cost a lot more too.

I could imagine this order of smoked salmon to be something I took off the cold food section at Ikea. In fact, it arrived so quickly that it might have probably been prepared in a similar fashion. There was nothing fancy nor exciting about it. Just a mildly smoked salmon.

Their mushroom pasta was also satisfactory costing probably half of what Pasta Mania charges, but tasting more than twice as good. The flavours of the mushrooms were definitely not found wanting. These guys here didn't use excessive cream sauce and that was definitely a one up there.

Dessert was a panna cotta. It's probably a pre-packed dessert that was imported in bulk, but it was served chilled in a chilled glass bowl and it didn't taste half bad.