Tsuru-Koshi Udon, IMM

Another udon specialist joint (2 Jurong East Street 21, #01-19 IMM). I like their kamatama udon which really trumps the one at Tamoya with a single ingredient. The one secret ingredient that the French use for their cooking. Butter. Uncomplicated and delicious.

Atsu atsu tan tan udon is not too bad as well with that moderated hit of spice and minced meat, but I'll skip the tempura the next time.

A durian Guinness milkshake from Udders

As odd as this combination sounded, it actually worked. This was a combination of Guinness and the mao shan wang ice cream from Udders. The bitter accents and creaminess from the durian got along with that of the stout. The taste was unusual for sure but it worked. I enjoyed it.

A run in with white asparagus at Marché

Seems that the white asparagus season is upon us again. Marché has the asparagus offerings in almost all their stalls. Even a cream of white asparagus soup in their normally unchanging soup stand. It was actually pretty good with sliced pieces of the shoot. The flavour was rich from the cream and quite full of the sweet asparagus in spite of a very mundane look. A little Parmesan cheese and some spring onions were all that was needed to complete the bowl.

These guys also under tremendous order load, grill up one of the nicer budget steaks in town. The only problem with their rib eye usually is the quality of the meat which lacks the beautiful marbling of fat that is found in the more expensive steak places. Otherwise, we almost always get a medium rare spot on and sauces are always on the side.

From the pizza counter, one with white asparagus, egg and Black Forest ham. The sweet crunchy pieces of asparagus were paired nicely with the light salt from the cheese and ham. This topping profile was designed to allow the flavors of the white asparagus to shine.

Unfortunately, they didn't have white asparagus for desserts or we would have swiped one too......

Menya Musashi, Raffles City

This (252 North Bridge Road, #01-16 Raffles City Shopping Centre, tel : +65 6336 6500) was another one of numerous ramen-ya that has been making headlines in the past year that I haven't yet had a chance to visit until today. A ramen-ya that originates from the Shinjuku ward in Tokyo. This shop came with a odd story where the shop was named after a certain samurai with a double sword style. Much like a certain Drizzt Do'Urden I guess. Maybe not. I'll explain below.

So here's their black thunder and a Tokyo Akiba curry ramen.

The former was advertised in a poster with a large head of the oni on the back of what seemed to be a potent bowl of spicy ramen. An oni that perhaps Miyamoto Musashi was not skilled enough to defeat in the breath of his mortal existence and now permanently torments his spirit by appearing in bowls of his ramen. Lol! It wasn't as potent as it had looked. If I could break it down, I'm guessing that it's the regular tonkotsu broth that they have in the shop plus a little alchemy with what makes their reds and blacks and a small sprinkle of sliced chilli padi. Am I close? Not such a challenge for us locals. I've had more potent ba chor mee. Not delicious enough to have again too. 

Drizzt would have kicked oni butt. Easily. If not, there's always help from Wulfgar and Aegis-fang.

The latter was probably a little more interesting. I'm thinking the regular broth with Japanese curry. The regular broth being salty takes the sweetness off the curry - resulting in a broth that was still both savoury and flavoured with the curry. Nice portions of those shabu thin slices of pork in there and a half boiled egg to up the ante.

The noodles here are a class of their own aren't they? Needs more bite to gain my nod of approval. 

MexOut, Far East Square

Here's a rice bowl (mess tin actually) and some corn tortilla tacos from MexOut. I'm not sure how American Mexican this place (39 Peking St. #01-01, tel : +65 9770 7441) really is, but I actually quite like the food here. Those chopped up carne asada simply works on the tacos and I liked the heat from their salsa picanto. It's just too bad they were out of lamb today (already on a Wednesday afternoon?!). I'm not sure when's the next time I'll be able to come back. Food like these needs to be a little cheaper too.

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant, Joo Chiat Road

Delicious Vietnamese food to be found here (159 Joo Chiat Road, tel : +65 9105 8519).

We had the obligatory goi cuon which was......rustic. The rice paper skin was a little soggy and chewy.

The serving of oc nhay or boiled conch was sweet and fresh tasting. Tasty with and without the accompanying dip of fish sauce, pepper, salt and tamarind with sliced bits of chilli.

Following the snails was a perky green mango salad with strips of pork belly and shrimp flavoured with basil. The tangy notes from the shredded mango was appetizing. I liked this.

And then a bo tai chanh - described as an underdone beef salad. This was basically beef that was cooked to medium doneness enlivened by lemon and some sugar. A little salt would have upped the flavour game but I'm not sure how these are usually had.

My main bowl of a bun thit nuong cha gio. Rice noodles with grilled pork and a fried spring roll. Doused with the fish sauce and lime with peanuts, the rice noodles ended up a lot lighter and much tastier than it appeared. The only thing I didn't take to were the raw bean sprouts.

I forgot what this was called, but it's rice noodles in a light savoury broth that was loaded with ingredients like sliced pork, pork offal and shrimp. Tasty this was.

And to finish in the sweltering humidity of our merciless sun, a milk and egg soda.

Food here tasted authentic Vietnamese and importantly, delicious without being expensive. Would like to come back again.