Men-ichi, Northpoint

Men-ichi (930 Yishun Ave 2, #01-22/23 Northpoint, tel : +65 6794 5125) is a casual family joint run by the RE&S group which operates a spectrum of Japanese restaurants. It includes Sumiya which I am rather fond of for their lunch, the Ichiban chains which I do not like and even someplace rather respectable looking like Kuriya which I have never eaten at. I had never given this place beyond an occasional glance until quite recently I had ended up eating there.

I still wouldn't order from the most of the menu but their ebi yakimeshi was an unexpectedly decent fried rice with shreds of real prawn, lots of egg and not excessively greasy. I actually kinda enjoyed their aburi-ed mentai-mayo sake harasu sushi also. The latter reads thick slices of torched salmon belly with mentaiko mayonnaise draped over vinegared rice.

Some charcuterie from Carne Meats

Carne Meats are apparently a house brand of Indoguna Singapore, a local food purveyor which I've never took note of before. Anyway, they had a counter where they were handing out samples of their charcuteries and pan fried sausages down at Meidi Ya and we were impressed enough to get some of their smokey air dried meats back. They were actually pretty good.

Butahage, Liang Court

This shop from Hokkaido has got to be the first butadon specialist that has been set up on our shores (#02-32/33 Liang Court, 177 River Valley Road, tel : +65 6268 4821). It's taken over the corner where Shakey's used to be. Good riddance to that since this shop was a much worthier use of limited space.

Their menu is pretty straight forward. There's just grilled pork over rice bowls with literally a couple of sides that you could order. Those rice bowls come in various size options and a Premier version featuring Japanese pork which is supposedly limited to 30 servings a day. That's the Premier version up there; tender, fatty and savoury sweet slices of grilled pig in their tare glaze resting on top of Yumepirika rice. Which I inhaled in no time. We definitely liked this and will back to try the USDA pork bowls.

Udon Goen, Food Republic @ Wisma Atria

Yes, that is indeed a big assed pile of katsu from Udon Goen (#04-02/14, Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road) in Food Republic. And no, we did not try out any of the udon because it would have meant passing up on this katsu curry. A tonkatsu and torikatsu rice plate with curry made with tonkotsu broth. All that for an affordable $10.80. How's that for something different?

Here's the part where I mention that there are indeed differences with their curry with say, the generic Japanese curry. It was more savoury than sweet-ish from the undertones of the tonkotsu base. The big assed slab of chicken katsu had a rather bland crust while those pork katsu tasted a little salty. While these guys might not hold up in comparison versus the old guards of fried pork, they do represent an uncommon quantity to quality value. Udon Goen charges a dollar for additional curry which one is likely to need since the regular serving doesn't quite have enough to go around.

The unadon from Nakajima Suisan

This piping hot teriyaki glazed eel freshly off the grill was not bad at all. The meat was tender and well, the picture speaks for itself. My fondness for this place grows. By the way, those yellow shreds scattered on the plate are eggs.

Some sushi from Oceans of Seafood

Here's some nigiri sushi from Oceans of Seafood (200 Turf Club Road, #02-06 PasarBella @ The Grandstand) down at PasarBella. The cooked food area seems to have revamped a little with some of the older stalls disappearing and some new ones taking over the previously empty spaces. This order of sushi was actually not bad if I might say. It was very affordable for one (that chutoro was merely $3 because of their ongoing bluefin tuna promotion) and it tasted very decent. I'm aware that the tuna was barely not-akami. And there was an interesting kurogoma tamago that had a nice sesame aroma in the grey-ish sweet egg.