A mid day break with hot herbal jelly and cold papaya milk

This was just a quick dessert stop to recharge with something sweet or refreshing or both in a little shop selling herbal teas and jellies (218 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, tel : +857 2398 1183) at the adjoining junction of Sai Yeung Choi Street South and Bute Street.

After having had guiling gao for so many years, this was a first for me slurping them piping hot and it was refreshing in its good way too. I ordered a cup of the cold papaya milk as I spied them in the chilled dispensers at the front of the shop while walking in and it was actually pretty good, filled with the all natural flavors of the fruit in creamy milk.

After the hot bitters of the guilling gao, the cold and soothing sweet milk was juxaposed to be the unexpected but perfect tempering of this dessert stop.

A return to the Dragon Garden

Truth be told, we harboured some sentiments for this place because we had stumbled upon it near the place we were staying and it did fulfil a a much appreciated need with their tasty and frills free food that came in generous portions. Besides, anywhere that offers offal raises my brows and scores themselves one up in my book of good graces until proven otherwise.

So we hit this location again for our first evening meal, beaming ten miles wide after seeing that the place had not by some misfortune ended business. More offal and tendons it was then. I had almost forgotten the size of the mountains of carbs they heaped over the plate, topped by one's choice of cow parts with a helping of token boiled greens (you get lettuce here, it's always the same) for dietary fibre. 

For the first time in a while, I had to admit that a single serving was way too much for me and I had to stop before I found myself keeling over from excessive rice and kuey teow washed down in milk tea and seaweed soup. The beef tendons were great if a little inconsistent in the doneness and the little cow intestines were chewy and delicious as well.

A skewer through the soul with the Dancing Blue Seal

I started this blog back almost 7 years ago back in 2006 to catalogue some of the things that I've been eating since I eat out pretty often. It has actually served as a diary for me to look back and sometimes recall events that were tied to the meals. Which was something I hadn't seen coming when Small Potatoes had started out.

Back then at about the same time under the same moon, another disturbance in the force emerged elsewhere in this very same world and from it, coalesced the Dancing Blue Seal and her overlord D.

Both of us had been reading about each other's eats and subsequently communicated via comments left in each other's site. Fast forward almost 7 years to today, we met up in person for the very first time to share the communal human ritual of having dinner.

At Kazu!

This return to Kazu has been very long overdue and I'm really glad that the food is still as good as I remember them. The kushiyaiki numero uno. Still!

ankimo

First to arrive was the ankimo, or monk fish liver. Pretty decent quality served chilled with a ponzu dressing.

seared cod shirako

The seasonal menu offered seared shirako so it just made sense to order them. I quite like these for their toasty aroma coupled with a faintly sweet and creamy innards.

uni and bean curd skins

Next up and the last item before the grilled sticks started hitting the table was sea urchin and tofu skin. While it sounded like a nice idea as a dish, I didn't think the delivery was ideal. It was nice that the uni was aburi-ed very briefly. However, the morsel was too little and the flavors became overwhelmed by the shoyu based dressing that came with the dish. More uni and less dressing would have made this much more enjoyable.

a cluster of hatsu

Chicken hearts were the first to arrive and they were nicely salted and peppered as I remember them.

oysters in bacon

Next to be served were the universally loved oysters rolled in bacon. Bacon generally makes things taste better. Bacon with hot juicy oysters.....one doesn't need a far stretch of imagination.

lamb chops

The prices of the lamb chops here risen slowly over the years. Today, it isn't even numerical anymore. It was 'seasonal'. The taste was still as greasy good with the prerequisite flavors of lamb and I certainly didn't hear any complains over them.

scallops and prawns in bacon

I like these so they usually end up as a staple order. Again, bacon helps makes things taste better than they already are.

pork belly and apples

The tontoro ringo has also changed a little over the years. Back when I first visited, I remembered the little strip of apple sauce that was laid on top of each stick of meat and fruit. That strip progressively went the way of runway models and now, it doesn't look that they have that anymore. I wonder if it's just today.

gyutan

Nobody has ever chastised me for ordering ox tongue here. But then again, I usually come here with people that enjoy them in the first place.

foie gras

This doesn't require further words from me. Still as good.

Brussels sprouts with cheese

I haven't had these cheese filled Brussels sprouts here before. I'm not sure if there were available the last time, but the nutty sprouts were pretty savory good in a semi crunchy and slightly chewy way. I'll have to remember to get them again the next time I come.

pork and shiso

Shiso helps break the monotony of the meat. These were also one of those items that has constantly slipped under my K-radar for all the options that have left me spoilt for choice.

kawa

I have a very specific relationship with chicken skins. For many years only ones which I would usually eat are roasted, deep fried or grilled. And in recent couple of years, I've learnt to appreciate some good ones from soy sauce chicken. But I digress. I'm thinking that Otowa will give the kawa here a run for their money. But then again, I'm also thinking that I would need to go back there to verify that.

Japanese sweet potato and butter

These also need no further introduction.

mochi and bacon

Grilled mochi was also a first time for me here. They remind me of a savoury and chewy popcorn.

asparagus in pork belly

These too also need little in the way of more description since they are pretty much available in most of the kushiyaki joints. Kazu just does them better than most.

The Pelican Seafood Bar & Grill, One Fullerton

The seaweed sourdough that they served before meals was very hot and very good with butter!

the pelican chowder

seafood, brown butter, bacon

black peppered candied bacon

brown sugar, lime

the pelican platter

swordfish steak

fresh herb vinaigrette

sea brined baby chicken

gooseberry relish

lobster thermidor

Colorado lamb chops

peas, apricot, mint

Suprette, Jalan Besar

Suprette (383 Jalan Besar, Kam Leng Hotel, tel : +65 6298 8962) is located on the ground floor of a cosy boutique hotel nestled in Jalan Besar right across the main street from Lavender Food Square.

The place is basically a small restaurant with a bar and a small menu. And they serve a very unremarkable salad.

The only thing that I enjoyed about their Suprette Burger is the buns. Sesame studded, toasted and buttered. Well, maybe the Gruyère cheese too. The rest of it was rather ordinary and the heart of the burger, which was the patty, was sadly filled with too much herbs and did not possess a favorable fat to meat ratio. There were definitely flavors going on, but not those that I liked in a burger.

A deft hand with the salt and pepper really elevated their hanger steak which I liked. Even though it was poorly cooked to a medium well doness when I had requested for medium rare. The flavors of the meat shone through and quite a bit of tenderness remained in the grainy textures that tore into delicious slivers. Pity about the doneness. And the bone with too little marrow.

What I couldn't quite settle on was the red onion relish that threw me off by being licorice-ish and brought reminders of star anise. I couldn't help thinking of lor bah (Chinese dark soy sauce braised meat with spices). Didn't taste bad actually, just didn't quite meld into expectations.

Revisiting Ramen Champion

I pretty much had the same stuff from both Bario and Ikkousha the first time I came over to Ramen Champion. The building then was known as Iluma and is currently known as Bugis+. Then, it was suppose to be a championship competition that lasted over the duration of a year with the winner setting up a permanent shop. Ikkousha won. It's been more than one and a half years since and the challengers are all still here.

Which isn't a bad thing since both my favourites are located right next to each other. Having both bowls ramen on the same seating allowed me to taste with more clarity, the differences in the broth between the two. For some reasons, drinking one accentuated the flavour of the other. Ikkousha, my favourite Hakata styled ramen with thin wiry noodle in a porky creamy broth and Bario's garlicky one that I seem to detect flavours of shoyu now that I'm having both together.

If I had to choose a preferred broth, I'd still pick the tonkotsu. But Bario takes the cake for texture with their squiggly, firm and chewy noodles - married in equal portions with their crunchy boiled bean sprouts.