Mat Noh & Rose, Whampoa Makan Place

Just a quick update on my first visit to Whampoa Food Centre after their recent renovation. Pretty sure that I hadn't seen this stall (#01-27, 91 Whampoa Drive) beside Granny's Pancake prior to the renovation. Certainly not one with an unusual name like that. Anyway, they claimed to sell authentic ginger fried chicken rice. I haven't a clue what that was but it certainly looked like very agreeable fried chicken. That turned out to be delicious. The fried chicken was quite tender and each order came topped with some crispy crumbs which might have been what the ginger was about. There was even option for adding deep fried chicken skin amongst the other offal.

I thought the rice deserved mention. It was moist, savoury and well flavoured. One could pair them with their chilli sauce; which was a nice balance of heat and sweetness rather than mostly sweetness. This won't be the last time I'm seeing this place for sure.

Sakari Sushi, Orchid Hotel

This was a lunch at that other relatively new Japanese shop (#01-05, 1 Tras Link) located at the quieter perpendicular to that "popular" stretch under the watch of both the Dons (not donburi but pun coincidented) Yamashita and Takeda. It's actually kinda quiet for lunch in the weekday in here. The stand out item at Sakari Sushi seemed to be the bara-chirashi. While I may not be the expert, I'm going to have to say that the rendition here was good. It was very much a meticulously put together bowl of diced seafood over room temperature vinegared rice prepared with some effort. I know because saw mine being made. Did I mention grated wasabi too?

They had shako (mantis shrimp) on nigiri too. From what we were told by the chef, these are the smaller variety that are used for sushi. The sushi were dusted with some yuzu zest before serving. The meat was firm and sweet.

And some yaki hamaguri (some large saltwater clam) which were grilled on shell and glazed with sweetened soy just before serving.

COMNAM Broken Rice, Raffles City

The mainstay of this shop (252 North Bridge Road #B1-46, tel : +65 6334 7377) is cơm tấm, a Vietnamese dish made with broken grained rice. Which I liked and felt better about than Nam Nam next door. While I couldn't tell at all if any of the renditions served here came close to the original dish, the food was pretty tasty. I liked the soup option which one could basically trick out in flavours after a few splashes of fish sauce and that Maggi condiment on the table.  The shredded cabbage salad with peanuts and grilled chicken was appetisingly delicious too. 

If I had to gripe over anything, it'd be that I would like more grilled meat options on the menu rather than deep fried ones. And really, charging for chilli padi here?

Sacha & Sons, Mandarin Gallery

I had been wondering to myself after stepping into Sacha & Sons (333A Orchard Road. Mandarin Gallery, #03-02, tel : +65 6735 6961) if there was a difference between a New York-styled delicatessen and a shop that is merely styled after a New York-styled delicatessen. Don't know if that's occurred to anyone but I guess it's food for thought. 

Anyway, to keep this short, the chopped liver sandwich was really good. Comes recommended to anyone who doesn't have aversion to livers. The pastrami in their Reuben was just passable for me. Smoked in house I hear. The meat was somewhat dried out and definitely not so tender. For the quality of the meat, these guys should have used a meat slicer (of the non-human kind) which would have achieved thinner and more tender stacks. 

For what it's worth, the defunct Sweet Spot Deli at Marina Bay Sands had a much more delicious corned beef and pastrami Reuben for probably half of what this place charges; the same sandwich from even Brewerkz was more enjoyable. And for a sandwich experience, I personally feel that Nassim Hill Bakery's hot Reuben was much more worth the while than this was. I'm not too impressed here. But I probably will come back, even if it's just for the chopped liver.

A Murtaburger from The Prata Place

From what I understood, this was suppose to be the amalgamation of a murtabak and a Ramly burger. Which effectively only makes sense in this part of the world since most of the rest of the world would probably have no idea what were those. Hence making this a uniquely regional beast that could only be appreciated (in idea) by the people here and our northern neighbours. It also happens to be the item that The Prata Place had put up for last year's Ultimate Hawker Fest.

The idea I'm sure was to produce flavours and maybe some textures that resembled both. In that, they had quite succeeded. I enjoyed those crusty mutton patties that they had stuffed into the prata along with eggs and a generous portion of gooey mozzarella cheese. What didn't quite work for me were the sauces. It was quite a bit of sweet chilli, mayo and sweet black pepper sauce that they had gleefully squeezed into the pastry and as much as it helped replicate the Ramly flavour, it was also a sweetness overload for me. Perhaps, I should ask for less sauce the next time. If a next time happens. 

Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant, Upper Thomson Road

I've lost count of the number of times I've passed by Auntie Kim's (265 Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 6452 2112) and telling myself that I'm dropping by some day. Now that it's finally happened, I suppose the overarching impression is that they're home styled Korean cooking at CBD prices.

Here's us opting the lazy way out with the saeng galbi by getting them to grill the meat for us instead of breaking out the grill (and our perspiration) at the table. On hindsight, this should be the last time we don't cook our own meat. Their kimchi fried rice with pork was altogether comforting, quite delicious and rather pricey. Certainly not so much value for what we paid in comparison with the one at Kim Dae Mun which was equally satisfying, but what the heck. Those kimchi mandu aren't actually stuffed with real kimchi much?