Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian (興記肉脞面), Bedok North

I'm a dry ba chor mee person.

Have always been and will always be in the foreseeable future. Hence, I was really curious about magnet to the crowd for the soup rendition down at Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian (#01-07, Fengshan Food Centre, Blk 85 Bedok North Street 4). Other than the fact that nothing gathers a crowd like a crowd that is. And I guess it helps some that they have a competent neighbour which is a competitor selling pretty much the same thing in the same style.

It was all okay. I don't mind eating this if I'm in the vicinity and if there's no queue. But otherwise, I don't think it'll be worth the time. The sliced chilli adds that bit of kick and aroma which helps with the relatively flat broth and the meatballs have dried sole in them which results in that particular brand of fragrance. I would have preferred mee pok but one cannot choose the noodles at this stall. The soup was....well, okay. I've had better.

Lao Beijing (老北京食堂), Velocity @ Novena Square

Lao Beijing (#02-11/12, Novena Velocity, 238 Thomson Road, tel : +65 6358 4466) serves arguably what can be termed as Northern Chinese food. They have a couple of outlets and is run by Tung Lok Group. I'm not intimately familiar with Northern Chinese food locally since it mostly looks generic but what we had seemed better tasting than a few of Tung Lok's other outfits which I've tried.

We've been here a few times over a number of years (no, I'm not a regular at all). The previous visits were for their lunch buffets which had pretty decent food, albeit small in variety. This was an impromptu dinner from the a la carte items which we haven't had for years.

Their cumin scented lamb was quite delicious. It was listed as braised lamb on menu but it's probably also deep fried after the braising. A tad greasy but tender, nicely spiced and slid off the bone easily. I don't think I would have minded if there was more of the natural flavours of the lamb. The green stuff on the side was mint jelly. 

The other item we liked was their minced pigeon soup. Not so greasy, tasted clear and if I might say so, heart warming. 

It tasted better after you've mixed up the minced meat patty/mousse at the bottom.

These were crab meat xiao long bao. I didn't think they contain enough crab to deserve to be called crab meat xiao long bao. While they were competent as regular dumplings, the word 'crab' in the name raised the bar. And in this case, also my ire.

I couldn't help but think of the spinach filled crystal dumplings from Red House Seafood as we ate these. These here were no match for those in terms of texture of the skins and the flavour of the fillings.

A monkfish stew with bean sprouts from Your Woul

As much as I enjoyed eating at Your Woul previously, I'm not about to recommend their monkfish stew. Unless paying $42 for a plate of mostly spicy sprout is your thing. There was little monkfish in it and half of that was rubbery skin and bones. I had imagined that filet or the tail portion would be used but I guess I was dead wrong. Dead as the monkfish on the plate. Whatever meat that was in it was tough and stringy. Certainly not what one would expect from the poor man's lobster. To be fair, the rest of the vegetables were enjoyable.

They're a family restaurant. Stick to the regular items on menu with ingredients that this part of the earth can easily obtain and it's generally fine. Forget the ugly fish that comes from the lightless depths in a sea that's half a world away.

Beef rice bowl from Tamoya Udon

Tamoya Udon has lost some of the allure for me. For some reasons, they don't seem to taste as good these days compared to the first times I had them and the only item that seems to work for me is their kama-tama udon. Recently, they seemed to have included rice bowls that are topped with their regular sliced meat toppings which are these days appearing more like bits of trimmings that are overcooked. Well, I did score some tempura asparaguses which are really quite good. Those don't seem to be available all the time though.

A walking brunch at Isetan

Here're some chopped toro maki and fried scallops from another one of those Japanese fairs at Isetan. One can generally get better quality tuna at the fairs than those from the regular pre-packed sushi section and these were actually quite good. The price of course, commensurate with said quality. The scallops today were fat and freshly fried.

inItaly, Craig Road

inItaly (38 Craig Road, tel : +65 6423 0918) has been around for a couple of years. I remember reading about them when they first opened but the place somehow didn't generate enough interest for me to check out. Then. At the helm is a Mario Caramella from Milan. A chef of some repute around these parts. I noted that the team section of their web page describes only the chef Mario. I thought there was no 'i' in the word 'team'?

The first starter was a simple boiled asparagus, pan fried egg and Raspadura cheese. The latter which I learnt is a light salty and crumbly cheese that goes through 6 months of ageing and is served usually, in shaven form. This method allows the cheese to be in..... well, shaven form which basically melts easily onto warm food. Or in the mouth. The flavours are akin to Manchego. This was quite nice.

The other items on menu didn't look very interesting to me so we ended up with prosciutto di Parma with compressed cantaloupe and Acacia honey. They were pretty generous with the shaven ham, which meant that there was not enough melon to go round in spite of us rationing each mouthful.

We asked for additional cantaloupe which they obliged. The flavours of the fruit was heady and sweet. I'm not sure if the honey added to the sweetness as we couldn't really taste it. The dominant flavours were the saltiness from the ham and the aroma of the melon. Actually, the melon was the star.

There was a risotto with beetroot and red berry. I'm not sure what red berry in particular though. I like this in a way which isn't so simply described. There was no grassy flavour from the beetroot which was a good sign. The berry portion was well balanced to be present and yet not overpowering. There was little to no sweetness that went along with a hit of citrus and the rice as a result, wasn't heavy in spite of appearances. The use of tarragon was also well moderated so there were only touches of that aniseed taste. Smoked eel on the risotto was quite nice. The eel was fatty and smoked to the point where one could get the flavour, but those flavours weren't overwhelming. Like I said, I like it some, but I don't think I'll come back just for this. I remain faithful to my favourite fruit based risotto.

Off the menu, they had some black truffle items. This was probably the best item from the off menu lot. Pappardelle with fried egg and butter and shaven black truffle. And it definitely reminded us of the tagliatelle we had back at San Miniato in Osteria L'upupa.

Here's some gratuitous molten egg porn.

Dessert was a Rosolio soufflé. Rosolio is liqueur made with rose petals. This particular liqueur was Venetian according to what the menu described. 

This was nice. The rose flavours were pretty distinct and the soufflé itself was competent enough. It sank a little while we were trying to get its picture taken. This, I could see myself come back for.