Tomato broth tsukemen from Menya Musashi

This sure was disappointing and things seemed to have gone further downhill since the last time. I'm talking room temperature noodles with a barely lukewarm tomato broth that was a lot less tomato-y than I had been expecting. The consistency of that broth was so thin that barely anything clung onto the noodles and I've always had the impression that the broth, for tsukemen, ought to be a lot richer and saltier since it was for dipping. Even the just passable grilled pork neck was cold and their charshu was still stiff and dry.

What with all the competition around, I'm getting the impression that these guys trying hard to wind down the business.

Scalloping at Itacho Sushi Changi T3

Itacho Sushi (#03-03/31, Changi Airport Terminal 3) seems to be having a scallop festival ongoing right now with the said shellfish going on sushi for a little less than the usual price they're charging. What had actually bowled me over (pun initially not intended) was the butter scallop small rice bowl that was part of the promotion. Shoyu, pan fried scallops and salted butter over rice...one doesn't even need to do the math to know it all adds up to something comforting and delicious.

And I couldn't resist a little bit of their wagyu nigiri while at it. A few more moments under the flame and a bit more salt would be nicer. This was barely browned.

A Philly Submarine from Yellow Submarines

Well, it doesn't look very pretty all opened up but it actually tasted quite good. This time round, I peeked through the collection counter and verified that the meat was actually griddled with chopped onions and not boiled. The only difference between this and their classic sub was the cheese (mozzarella for this and cheese sauce for the classic). The bread was warm & lightly toasted, the thinly sliced beef was actually a little juicy and the only thing that bothered me was, this was simply too damned small.

Hainanese Delicacy, Far East Plaza

This shop (#05-116 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6734 0639) remains a sort of an institution to locals for chicken rice. That being said, I collect myself with a little refrain by acknowledging that I don’t really know the history behind the stall and if in the past decades, ownership remained the same. But the first times that I had eaten here was a long time back (yes, I was once a school kid with little money to eat better while hanging out in town) so I know it has been around. Straightforward, fuss free and occasionally, a little brusque.

To trim the proverbial fat of verbosity, to the chicken rice! It’s not bad actually. I liked it then and I still find them a decent rendition now. There’s no excessive use of sesame oil (not that it’s always a bad thing but…) and the tender meat tasted clean flavoured with the light soy sauce. Rice wasn’t overly greasy or heavy which is on hindsight a good thing. The after-burps will not be a bother and it also simply means that there’s less guilt when you silently exclaim to yourself ‘...I like it. Another!’. The chilli was just okay, nothing particularly memorable. But then these guys are old school and sometimes, old school simply means stopping at just adequate.

Ghost Pepper Wings from Popeyes

I'm not sure if any real ghost peppers were involved in the flavouring of these things, but they're only a little spicier than usual. Which means that it's not getting anybody looking for a level up excited about the heat. Seems that the biscuits are honey glazed these days and they've stopped giving out the jams because of that.

London Fat Duck, Scotts Square

The name was a little misleading upfront. For a start, this fairly new restaurant (6 Scotts Road #B1-16/17 Scotts Square, tel : +65 6443 7866) was not from London, hadn’t anything to do with that Four Seasons (which has also opened here recently by the way) from London that is famed somewhat for their Cantonese styled roast duck and was certainly in no way associated with Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Bray. What I read was that the ducks here were imported from Ireland. Otherwise, this place was local as local as can be - a joint venture by the Akashi Group and the Fei Siong Group.

Compared to the other Chinese restaurants of their market, food was passable and service was pretty atrocious. The wait staff looked like they were reluctant to serve and importantly, overwhelmed by a morning crowd that filled only half the restaurant. The crew looked like they didn't have experience running the shop and every request took a long time. I'm rather surprised at the management considering that the groups that collaborated have more than a fair bit of experience across the ranges in the F&B sector.

Obviously, what they are known for are their roast ducks amongst other things. Those weren't bad, but I honestly thought I had a better time eating ducks at Dian Xiao Er. Truly. I'm not even sure what getting ducks from Ireland had brought to the table here.

We tried egg tarts. Those were rather boring. The crust was neither fragrant nor buttery.

Har gow was decent but very small. Not something I can see myself looking forward to.

It sure took quite a long time, but I'm seeing local restaurants starting to up the ante for char siew in recent years. This was actually quite nice. But you do get better portions and equal if not more satisfaction for the same price at Grand Mandarina.

Pan fried carrot cake was passable.

This was their black pepper London duck bun. The other thing that was quite nice because it was different from the other crusty buns with sweet fillings. The strength of the black pepper was quite moderated for balance. Very present, but not overwhelming as many black pepper items can be.

We had originally though these "signature" rice rolls from London Fat Duck to be regular zha leong, which were steamed rice rolls wrapped around dough fritters. As it turned out, the dough fritters themselves were also stuffed with shrimps.

There was actually more food that we had ordered, but they never arrived and we decided that with the poor service and the generally average quality of food, it wasn't worth wasting our lives waiting further and shortening already shortened fuses by trying unsuccessfully to get the attention of the overwhelmed (and clumsy too if I might add) wait staff whom obviously didn't want anymore attention from the crowd.