Coocci Contemporary Japanese has shifted

The stall has shifted to the ground floor of one of the shophouses surrounding the food centre that they were located in previously. The kitchen space had gotten bigger and there were definitely more people running the show, but the wait for the food and the sorting of the payment were still at a snail's pace.

Well, the menu has gotten much bigger. They're doing drinks/shakes now and there's some ice blended black sesame and banana drink that's pretty decent. The menu options had expanded to include lamb and beef. Unfortunately for me, their ribeye was pretty poor quality stuff even though it didn't look that way. They got the medium rare at medium well, meat was riddled with sinews and for a ribeye - it didn't have much of that beefy flavour I was looking forward to. Thankfully the smoked chicken still tasted good.

A recent couple of fried rice

That above was a bacon fried rice from Han's. Their technique of the stir frying as well as the ingredient that colours the rice differs in comparison to the egg coated variety which is generally regarded as superior. But this bacon fried rice did taste more satisfying that the last one that I had at Aberdeen fishball noodle shop which was of egg coated variety.  Yes, I just couldn't resist the comparison since we don't get so much bacon fried rice around. Maybe it's the smokier and crispier bacon.

This one below is from Cafe de Hong Kong. An often overlooked place with gem. That fried rice is signature of theirs and the ingredients include tobiko. This stuff is pretty darned tasty. The excellent dispersion of the roe guaranteed that every mouthful was filled with the bursty fish roe. For something that's traditionally well coated with grease, it sure felt light and got inhaled easily. Those brown stuff over the top were are dried scallops. 

A couple of pies from Pies & Coffee

This chain opened up a few years back selling…..well, not to be Captain Obvious - pies & coffee mostly. Their bakes look like stuff that’s pre-made from a central kitchen and delivered to each of their shops. So don’t expect that "artisanal bakes hand crafted in house by our pastry smiths" crap. 

Here's their duck confit and laksa seafood pie - the latter is of the shepherd variety with a mashed potato top. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to tell it was a duck confit or just pulled duck filling with the former. There was a generous portion of meat, but it was meat that lacked much flavour and salt to be confit duck. I had expected something salt cured and cooked in its own fat to taste a lot better. Wasn't very moist too.

I kinda liked their laksa pie. Those flavours in there were very basic where one could tell it was laksa, but didn't quite have any nuances beyond. I'm guessing that the flavour profile was chosen to be internationally safe rather than adjusted to local preferences. The heat was very mild and there wasn't any aroma of laksa leaves to be found. Seafood tasted like frozen stuff so there isn't so much going on for flavours or textures. Certainly not an impressive representation of those flavours. Still, I kinda liked it.

Masala chai latte from The Providore

These guys certainly know a thing or two about their hot beverages. I'm almost certain that this is probably the best rendition of masala tea in this stretch of town. A smooth & creamy concoction aromatized by the warmth of their blend of spices (predominantly cinnamon) that was surprisingly bold.

A kouign amann from Tiong Bahru Bakery

We had this in the mid afternoon which probably meant that the pastry had been sitting at the display for a while throughout the day already. I was actually a little surprised that I quite liked it. I was thinking that it could have been pretty good thing if only we have had that kouign amann fresh out off the baking tray, but with none of the actual baking done in-house, there would never be such a thing as fresh pastries from the oven. 

The last of the crisp was still clinging on for this one. The buttery caramel flavours were largely what held it together and I’d have to admit that stripping this apart by its banded layers and dipping it into coffee was still a pretty good thing going on.

Wong Kee Noodle, Depot Lane

This shop (Blk 118 Depot Lane) was an interesting find online that represented a break from the mindless monotony of local wanton noodles. The last of which in turn represented a facet of what might be wrong with the hawker identity today with most of the current stall owners doing what has been done for a long while without evolution. A sure sign of laziness or a lack of will simmering under a veneer of risk adversity (there are exceptions). Most of them run of the mill wanton noodles aren't even that great tasting 

Perfect cosmic alignment for the enactment of the Darwinian law.

But I digress, Wong Kee serves pretty decent wanton noodles. Coupled with a good location, natural selection would not be harsh on them. The quality of their wanton are easily a couple notches above the local garden variety - bearing more resemblance to those found in Hong Kong in size, filled with gristly minced pork. Not necessarily the best I've had but the best should never be the enemy of the good. Their char siew was the variety that was more savoury than sweet and had what I considered to be sufficient prerequisite burnt ends to make enjoyable char siew. At least mine had. 

Their mee pok had a good firmness. What differentiated their noodle offerings were the spinach and tomato variety. The latter (those red ones) was served with their house made tomato sauce which I was sure I had tasted oregano in them.