Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Seven

Seven years of talking about what I eat. And the adventures go on!

Laksania, JEM

Laksania (#03-09 JEM, 50 Jurong Gateway Road, tel : +65 6734 8908) is apparently the business part of a social venture that engages marginalized people and helps get them into the workforce. The theme of the food is obviously centralized on laksa along with various renditions of the dish that are either regionally based or simply a fusion of their own.

This was a laksa goreng I got at lunch. It didn't quite look like what was featured on pictures in the menu/media. The flavors were admittedly pretty decent but I gripe over how little ingredients they had added for how much they were charging for a plate of this. The tau pok was minimal and one could certainly also count on one hand the measly strips of fishcake which were present. The prawns were also not de-veined and didn't taste fresh.

As noble the idea behind this venture is, I certainly felt that they could do better with the food. Rental aside, their margins must be really fat.

Ma Maison, Bugis +

We stumbled upon this branch of Ma Maison (#01-12, Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6884 4471) not realising that there was one here. Later it dawned upon me that this was the Aloha Ma Maison that I heard about some months back that came with a Hawaiian theme. How did I figure that out? The decor couldn't have been more obvious with those surfboards and tiki carvings. I'm not sure if the Hawaiian food options have been removed, but this turned out to be serving the same stuff apart from the acai berry pancakes. But there was a seasonal menu card that drew us in.

Firstly the gyu katsu which is the second of sorts that's been around here as I know it. This one by Ma Maison did better by the virtue of having a thicker cut compared to the one at Tampopo. So you could actually taste that it was beef even though they hadn't been using wagyu. The other thing was cuttlefish ink curry with a regular but respectable rosu katsu which to their credit, managed a Japanese curry that did taste of the ink. Their grape tart was pretty good. Those grapes don't taste processed. I wonder how they perform those surgical precision slices.

Boon Tong Kee, Boon Keng

  

Boon Tong Kee has been around for well over three decades and is possibly the most famous name for branded chicken rice chains in this country. Their rise to fame back in the day in Chinatown came from making chicken rice which is by the way still pretty decent these days; in the recent decade, it's also a bunch of other tze char options from their menu. Very much the way Pow Sing is.

This is the branch that most people refer to as being in Boon Keng (Blk 34 Whampoa West #01-93, tel : + 65 6299 9880). The outlet with decor that could have been a blast from the past and the service crew hasn't been overrun by foreigners.

I was about to comment that the boiled/poached chicken that they serve was just passable. After a bit more thought, it was actually not bad. I've had worse in many other places. Places that survive by the virtue of them being the only shop in the locale and people didn't really have another other choice. In Boon Tong Kee, the residents in the vicinity have that choice and I'm sure they chose here because they did like the smooth and tender chook sitting in the soy and sesame concoction. The rice was grainy, not excessively greasy and rather light. But I seem to recall better flavours coming from them back in the past. I'm not a fan of their chilli sauce.

This kailan stir fried with minced garlic was the obligatory green of the day. It was ok, I'm not particularly a big fan, but I don't dislike it neither. It was really just okay.

I liked their crispy skinned tofu. They have somehow managed a crispy skin, lightly salted that is separate from the silken steaming tofu that is on the inside.

Stir fried pig liver in claypot was good. The doneness of the livers were perfect. 

We ordered their deep fried shrimp toast out of curiosity as they cost $16 for four pieces and that was the minimal quantity per order that one could make. It was actually rather good in spite of some minor apprehension. There was a lot of real shrimp that was pressed into what tasted like shrimp paste. 

Beef Nikumashi Ramen from Buta God

Ramen Champion (201 Victoria Street, Bugis+ #04-10, tel : +65 6238 1011) has concluded the results of their second year and it seemed that Ikkousha has won for the second consecutive round. Three stalls were rotated out for newer competitors. Buta God, with their young chef Mamoru Kanaya is one of the new entrants.

What Buta God brought to the table in their bowl of noodles was notably different from the rest. 

The pork component featured thinly sliced marinated pork belly rather than charshu and their eggs were poached rather than hard boiled. On top of that Buta God simmers a tonkotsu based soup with some sort of sukiyaki blend; I'm detecting the trinity of shoyu, mirin and sugar. The result was a broth that was rather sweet, reminding me more than a little of Yoshinoya.

I picked the beef option because they seem to do limited runs of 20 bowls a day. As expected, it was like a ramen version of a gyudon. That was pretty much the only difference between this and their regular pork based bowl. As much as I generally dislike Yoshinoya, those guys actually struck a better savoury balance with the flavour and their sliced beef were also thinner than this one. I guess a buta god was simply not so good with gyu. I managed to finish my broth so I guess it wasn't terrible. But something about the sweetness makes me think that they're going to have a difficult time against the current reigning champion.

Shin Kushiya, VivoCity

I've been spoilt by Kazu, so most kushiyaki to me are trying to get there. Except for one or two others (or perhaps three) that are noticeably above the crowd, the rest are well...... trying. Shin Kushiya (#02-120, Vivocity, 1 Harbourfront Walk, tel : +65 6275 8766) has been around for quite a while and I've never had to chance to drop by until recently. I've been told that while they aren't they best there is, they're better than the most. I personally think having multiple branches brings the questions of quality and consistency into the equation, but I'll not dwell on that here.

Since there's pictures, I'll try to summarise. I will strongly recommend against the calamari and lamb persillade. The former is 60% batter, greasy and belongs to somewhere at the top of the list of worst deep fried calamari I've eaten. The latter is just overwhelmed by the mustard and frankly, for what they were charging, I expect better quality and quantity of meat.

The rest are decent. Their foie gras seemed to be dusted with a super thin crumbly skin which gave another dimension to the texture of something that generally just liquifies in your mouth. Don't mind having their grills again, but doesn't exactly make me hanker for their food. I think I could attribute that partially to their quality of char aroma which wasn't really quite up there.

The uni/roe/truffle oil pasta was a pretty nicely done plate of noodles. I can only gripe about how little uni one gets for the money they are charging. Pretty expensive I must say.

Their mochi desserts are actually pretty nice.

hamachi 

fried calamari 

foie gras 

kawa 

gyu

quail eggs, mentaiko sake, pork belly

 lamb persillade

chicken filet with mentaiko 

pasta with uni, a couple of roes and truffle oil