Hong Kong Street Chun Kee (香港街珍记), Ang Mo Kio Ave. 5

There seem to be a few of these Hong Kong Street Chun Kee outfits around. I have no idea if there's any relation between them or if any of them are the original stalls. Does anyone know? The first one I remember eating at was at Alexandra. This particular stall (Blk 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5) happens to be located in the same coffeeshop as the Soi 19 Thai wanton noodles.

Objectively, the food here was pretty decent. I'm pretty sure many people remember the branding for the sum lou hor fun and their X.O. fish noodle soup. Both of which are competent but seem to lack a little something I can't readily wrap my head around. Meanwhile, the back of my head seems to think that the old stall back in Alexandra was better. Memory can be a fickle mistress.

Honestly, I'm not too concerned if this particular outfit is the original or not. I think the food is good enough for revisits.

Café & Bar Gavroche, Tras Street

foie gras terrine

Le Parisien

tartine with smoked pork belly and Reblochon cheese

I had previously eaten at their brasserie just across the road and liked the food, so here's some lunch from the cafe (69 Tras St, tel : +65 6225 4869). The menu was straightforward with little beyond some charcuterie, tartines, salads and some sandwiches. And in the simplicity of the offerings, I found their Parisien sandwich appealing. Cooked ham and butter between sliced crisp baguette. I think I could probably recreate everything that I had here after a trip to a deli.

Imakatsu, Star Vista

Another quick one. This was a second visit to Imakatsu (1 Vista Exchange Green #01-17,  tel : +65 6694 6148), another tonkatsu specialist that has opened up here not too long ago. I get the impression that they're advertising the fact that their chicken tenderloins are a specialty of the restaurant. Haven't tried those, but probably will another time. While I rather liked what I had so far from the restaurant, I'm wondering if they have what it takes to endure on this sunny island. Actually, I hope they do.

I checked out their tonkatsu stuffed with sliced garlic previously and I thought those garlic flavours came through rather nicely. Enjoyed that. My only complain over that one was that it was a little small. Much smaller than the other fried pork options on the menu. Today, I picked the extra large minced meat cutlet. It turned out to be pretty good too. The minced meat was spiced, peppered and well mixed with chopped onions. Packed none too tightly at that and it was still both moist and slightly crumbly. With a little bit of salt that they had on the table and a smudge of mustard, it was totally enjoyable. I had seconds of their Koshihikari rice with it.

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?