A nasi goreng from Habib's Mee Stall

Here's a rather random pick from ABC Market (#01-08, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah). I'm aware that this food centre is a local hotspot, but I've found myself at a loss for what to eat more than a couple of times whenever I'm here. This was nasi goreng from one of the stalls that looked it it had a little queue going on. I requested for a little more mutton and an egg. The portion turned out little smaller than I had expected. I think it was rather decent nasi goreng; I remember having had better but at least this was rustic and properly fried up as I had been expecting. The thing I couldn't get past was how brown the edges of the egg were. The oil they had been using definitely needs a change.

Gindara mentaikoyaki from Chikuwa Tei

There are talks on how standards of food have declined in Chikuwa Tei after the founding chef Peter Ho has left and started another restaurant, Mitsuba by Yurine (I hear he split from that place too). Even before he had left, there had been comparisons on how Chikuwa Tei was different from his first gig, Wasabi Tei. I happened to be one of those that have been eating his food from the days of yore at Wasabi Tei so I guess I can personally attest to those degrees of truth.

So it's been a while and we decided to drop by to check out how things are with what they are serving these days. Sadly, while food remains very edible, it wasn't on par with ancient history. The ankimo servings were dry and minuscule in portions. The chirashi don looked like it had gone on a diet as well. But I found their gindara mentaikoyaki good. It was a very nicely grilled cod that was flaky, juicy (or oily) and tasted like it was good cod along with that nice salty flavourful crust of mentaiko. But it sure was pricey at $28 for a set option. For that price, I had hoped for a fish more substantial. And I was disappointed that the rice that they're serving these days aren't even close to the quality of what they did in the past. Barely sticky. Not to mention that there's less of it these days in the bowl too.

Sometimes, one cannot blame the older folks from missing the good old days eh? There's probably a very good reason why the word 'nostalgia' exists in the dictionary.

Sushi Kou, Orchid Hotel

It was actually supposed to be Sakari Sushi at the other corner, but they happened to be closed for lunch without notice and thus we decided to give Sushi Kou a go (1 Tras Link, Orchid Hotel #01-16, tel : +65 6444 8433). This wasn't too bad at all. I've been hearing excessively about their affordable omakase (which we did not have today). Instead, we went the a la carte route getting their spinach with a creamy goma sauce and also trying their otoro nigiri which was priced...... at a rather unbelievable point. The latter was actually pretty good. The tuna belly wasn't very large or thick, but it had good marbling and was noticeably cheaper than anywhere else I've had so far.

Their kaisen don was definitely worth the dip. There was a nice variety of fish and pretty decent quality at that for what they charged. Even their mekajiki was fat laced and the only fish that disappointingly wasn't belly was the salmon. Well, maybe that and the knife work has room for improvement, but I quite sure that icing isn't the point at Sushi Kou. 

Grilled cheese ramen from Buta God

This was the other seasonal cheese ramen that got my attention from my last visit to Buta God. I think it was cheddar that they used. Like the snow cheese, the portions of the cheese were moderated so as not to overwhelm the flavours of their broth. Meaning that while you could taste that cheese, you're not getting a whole load of them. The grilling helped impart additional flavour but this didn't dissolve like powdered Parmesan and hence, no even distribution. I did like the bits of melted cheese over the noodles and sliced pork. Today's soup tasted intense with very pronounced sweet and salty. The flavour of the broth felt really rich. I'm probably going to lay off Buta God for a while now that the sweetness has gotten to me.

This sounds wrong

The Prata Place, Thong Soon Ave

I've seen this place around (1 Thong Soon Ave., tel : +65 6459 5670) but the first time I've actually visited was sometime in the past year to try their thosai stuffed with mozzarella cheese and portobello mushroom. It didn't leave much of impression at that time and my attention was drawn to them again recently because these guys were participating in the Ultimate Hawker Fest 2014; a third year in participation for them. They were running with a dish that was essentially a prata based eggs Benedict with masala Hollandaise. No less.

The humble flatbread that originated from India, paratha, which was the predecessor of the local prata that we have today has evolved. It's survived a few decades as prata by the grace of the immigrants from India that had settled in this part of the world with little frills generally beyond eggs and onion until it further juiced up into the multi flavoured/stuffed pastry that we know from the past decade plus. Think Milo, cheeses, Nutella, bananas, condensed milk, chocolate sauce, canned fruit, ice cream and even more.

Today, I'm plunged my fork into an Ultimate Murtabak (their dish from the Hawker Fest two years back) with mozzarella cheese, portobello mushrooms, chopped onions, eggs and chunks of tandoori chicken. Check out the Frankenstein-ian patchwork we have done to that street eat. If anyone's wondering, it tasted pretty much as good as it sounded, but I'll have to remember to ask for no onions the next time. The large chunks of their onions didn't work for me because doneness was inconsistent due to the inconsistent sizes. But having the tandoori chicken in the murtabak rocked.

The other "contemporary flavour" we got was a red bean paste prata. Which resembled very closely the Chinese red bean pancake. Except that this one had a much thinner and crisp pastry skin and I think I liked it much better because of that. This was pretty unique as flavoured prata went since I don't think any of other shops do that. 

Will come by again another day but this would not a place I see myself coming to with frequency. There must be a ton of oil in the food, seeing that it also made me feel greasy after eating.