Lunar New Year Eve's eve dinner at home

Apart from the home made dishes that cannot be found outside like meatballs loaded with plenty of chopped water chestnuts and a fish maw miso shabu shabu broth, the other thing I really like about home cooked reunion dinner is no ginger in the yu sheng. Huat ah!!!

pork belly for the shabu shabu

tower of stir fried leeks and portobello mushrooms

oyster sauce, mirin, pepper

oven roasted prawns

spring onions, garlic, lotsa butter

home made meatballs

spring onions, water chestnut, fried shallots

the shabu broth

miso, mirin, fish maw, carrot

chunky salmon yu sheng

tossed

Hong Kong Jin Tian Eating House, Eng Hoon Street

I found out about this place which was located just across the street from Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice (#01-15, 58 Eng Hoon Street) from television.

The food was at best average tasting. I found the carbs unappealing. It was definitely because of the slightly soggy noodles that came drenched in a starchy sauce (a dislike that I have) and the cooked rice that was dry and beady. Certainly wasn't the vision of food that had come from the claim of being Hong Kong styled roasts. Not with those dry roasted meat it would live up to their claims.

What was interesting from the stall was an item that was called ya jiao bao; a literal translation from Chinese into 'duck leg wrap' and was essentially a portion of duck feet withbone that used the skin that secured a bundle that consisted of pork, duck liver and yam. These were dipped in a sweet glaze before being roasted. While that sounded great, the final product suffered from tough and chewy meat and even chewier skin which involved more than a little effort to eat.

What was done well in my opinion was their sweet and savoury liver sausage that were packed in a slightly chewy casing. That was delicious. 

A breakfast of seafood soup, braised pork trotters and roti prata at the end of Woodlands

This was breakfast at Woodlands Centre Food Centre (Blk 4A, Woodlands Centre Road). A place that I have never eaten at before because of the location right at the end of Woodlands. So close to the border that it reminded me of places beyond the border.

The stall which we were looking for was call Wei Wei Shi Pin (#02-11) and it seemed that they only did seafood soup and braised pork trotters. We were a little early for them so we started the wait with some roti prata (Ahsia Food Stall, #02-76). 

This was the only stall that sold prata and theirs turned out to be pretty mean stuff. There was a small drama of fluffing and crushing of the pastry followed by a little plate assisted ripping before it was tossed onto another plate with a small dish of spicy tomato sardine sambal. Probably a mix of canned sardines and a anchovy based sambal. A refreshing change from the regular assam fish curry to accompany the lightly crisp and chewy prata.

Following those were braised pig trotters which were soft enough that one could easily get the meat off the bone with chopsticks. Chopstick tender it was then. Would have been great with rice if I hadn't been already eating earlier.

The long awaited seafood soup came in two options. The cheaper one which was a fish (pomfret), prawn and meat combination and the more expensive one which included crayfish instead of prawns. I don't eat a great deal of these seafood soup, I'm quite willing to go out and go on record that this one was probably one of the better ones in the country. But then again if I'm ever proven wrong about this, I hope to be proven wrong with a recommendation of a better one.

What was great for me about the soup was the rustic looking meat nuggets of minced meat that contained bits of flavour enhancing dried sole. The broth itself was rich and flavourful of the ingredients. The fish were fresh tasting and the prawns were sweet. Delicious stuff.

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.