Maguroya, Lau Pa Sat

As the story spins from a certain lifestyle oriented niche on the web that christens itself as some kind of fat husband, this tuna themed joint (Stall 79, Lau Pa Sat, 18 Raffles Quay) facing Robinson Road came about from a certain sustainable seafood expert Alistair; also a supplier of the fish who has decided to cut loose the middle men from the maguro supply chain after himself so that he is able to sell them directly to consumers at a more affordable price while providing bang for the buck quality. Smart man he is.

That was the good piece of story that brought me down for lunch.

One certainly doesn't get the most amazing or pretty looking cuts from Maguroya, but that's not the point of eating here. The name of the game is affordability and freshness and I think their otoro don was really pretty decent with soft buttery slices of tuna belly over vinegared rice. Speaking of which, these guys were more heavy handed with the vinegar than what is normally experienced.

Which actually works when we're eating them with their thick and crispy skinned kabuto yaki; the oven baked head of tuna with its sealed in oils trapped in nooks and crannies of slippery and glistening parts, often gelatinous and soft. That extra vinegar-y rice helped cut through, strangely as a starch, all that rich oil. From the largest fish head I've ever had the fortune to disassemble. With eyes the size of golf balls. This would have easily fed 3-4 even though it's described to be for 2 persons.

All the rice sets came with fruit and a cloudy and robust fish soup from boiled tuna bones that they call maguteh. Which was at the same tasty and really quite different from the generally clearer ba kut teh, its Chinese and porcine etymological parent.

Burlamacco Ristorante, Amoy Street

This marks the first and probably the last time I'll be eating at Burlamacca (77 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6220 1763). To first disclaim, the food was mostly not bad and the service was pretty good. What the place didn't represent for me was the value of money I had to spend and the approach to how the food is presented.

Bread was warm and crusty. Refills were offered and appreciated because it took them a very very long while between the starters and pasta. To add on, one of the orders was made erroneously and then there was another wait. But as I had mentioned, service was good. The wait staff was very obviously doing his best and I didn't take issue to any of this even though I was really hungry. Even though he was quizzically trying to convince us that the food was "Italian portions". Now I had wondered that that really meant......

Speaking of starters......

...their Borlotti bean soup was really nice. The undercurrents of the savory flavours were robust and even invigorating. A very rustic taste it held, texturised by the spinach leaves and bits of chopped mussels. I was expecting bits of beans, but this looked like it had gone through a food processor. Which was fine.

The portions however, were not. What you see in the picture was pretty much all of it. A couple of millimeters of soup was all there were in a big white plate. 3 gulps it would have made. And it looked like one mussel worth of meat there. $14 for 3 gulps is expensive. Be that bean soup or lobster bisque. Now I know what Italian portions mean.

Next up came the trippa alla Fiorentina which was excellent. The flavors of the tomato based were a mellow tart with a very discernable cheese flavor from the Parmigiano Reggiano. The tripe was tender yet chewy. But, it was a little too little and the portions were anything but rustic.

Their tagliatelle with black pig ragout was good. Not Oso good as they have done for their stracci in comparison for the red wine marinate flavors, but good nonetheless. I was pretty impressed by the well timed texture of the noodle here which was impressive.

Gnocchi which were light and soft came in a basil flecked spicy pink sauce in overtones of garlic which was unexpectedly pleasant. Sadly, scampi that came with them were pitifully small. All the meat from those crustaceans wouldn't have filled one of my cheek. What was frustrating here was that the seafood had in spite of the sauce, retained their natural sweet flavors which were holistically, if I could use that word here, ruined by the fact that the slivers of meat were too small to even qualify much for the word texture.

I would have been happier paying more for full sized scampi (they aren't even that huge in the first place), but for $28, this was an overpriced wannabe. Even with the tasty sauce and light gnocchi.

I'll not waste too much words on their "scottadito" styled lamb. $32 for a biteful of meat in each rib, I need not say further on the pitiful portions. What was worse, was the overmarinated treatment where the natural flavors of the meat were totally lost. This was not what I had ordered lamb for.

The brighter spot at the end was their coconut creme brulee which was smooth and creamy good.

I'm very sure I can do better for myself finding another place which will cost less and put a smile on my face when I walk out. I can understand the Tuscan style and flavors, but much of the heartiness was lost in an attempt to do something else here that I do not understand.

Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

As messy as this plated heapful of proteins looks, it wasn't just another ordinary plate of mixed roasted meat. This was with certain honours, roasted pork belly with a light (believe it!) crispy crackling, char siew with beautifully caramelized exterior and aromatic charred edges; and succulent roasted duck of a non herbal variety that was certainly tasty and moist enough without the need for any additional sauce. And it was beany braised tau kwa too.

My father used to tar pow mixed roasted meats from this stall (30 Seng Poh Road, #02-60 Tiong Bahru Market) on the weekends home for our lunches when I was a kid. One of the secrets that I almost never hear mention which made them so appealing, was their rice. Which was ordinary by itself. Drizzled in a magical combination of fragrant dark soy sauce mixed with, yes, lard.

Koh Brother Pig's Organ Soup, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

I remember a stall that sold pig organ soup back from the days of the old dingy Tiong Bahru market when the food centre was but a single story and had stood side by side with the market. I was but a child. Grimy floors, stone tilings that were in the process of being uprooted by tree roots and when rainy weather didn't make eating the best of experiences. But hey, it had that charm that can no longer be found anywhere in this country today.

Since then, I've been told that the mentioned pig organ soup is Koh Brother (30 Seng Poh Road, #02-29 Tiong Bahru Market). I don't recall having eaten at their stall since the current food centre was in operation so I guess this visit was a clean slate. These guys are even on the most inescapable social media space of our time today.

What I do remember vividly was the tangy broth flavoured by the pickled mustard greens with a base of clean porcine aroma that simmered just beneath the surface. What went into the soup were slices of lean pork, stomach, liver, meatball and was that heart or tongue there? I'm guessing that in the past, the steaming bowl would have included cubes of pig blood as well. 

Those glutinous rice with chestnuts stuffed in intestines what-you-call them were pretty interesting. A food craft from yesteryears fading away as the decades move along.

I'm loving it.....

....no, that would not be entirely true.

It's actually more of a love hate relationship. The love because I did grow up eating them quite a bit and there is always that little bit of nostalgia in the flavour there. What disagrees with me is the ever shrinking portions and leaps in prices for their food, some of which hasn't changed for literally decades. I would also very much prefer real pork bacon rather than turkey ones.

This McGriddles Supreme thingy. Small stuff for the supreme label. I made up for it by drizzling more of the maple syrup. Wet sticky hotcake sandwich it became.

Gula melaka ice kachang from Chinatown Food Centre

This deserves mention. In spite of its ordinary appearance, this was actually one of the better ice kachang I've had for years. Granted that I do not actually go searching for good ice kachangs on any basis. What differentiated the bowl from most of the other rainbow hued syrup concoction was that there is only palm sugar and evaporated milk. Instead of just being sweet, there was also the fragrance from the gula melaka. The little chunks of fairy grass that they included tasted like real fairy grass instead of ambiguous bits of obsidian agar agar. 

And I've only been introduced to this stall (#02-104 Chinatown Complex Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) in recent years.