The large butadon from Butahage

Here's the large butadon from Butahage featuring what turned out to be a chewier US beef in comparison to the more tender Premier Japanese option. I'm definitely sticking to the Japanese one in the future since that was noticeably much more tender, fat laced and flavourful. There was so much contrast in the flavour that I had even suspected that the glaze that they used for both meats were different.

Chicken rice from The Ship

I had heard about the existence of the chicken rice from The Ship some years ago but have never had the chance to try it since the only time that it was available was during Thursday lunches. So today it finally happened. It seemed that almost every neighbouring table is either having this or their fish soup noodles.

To be fair, it was a competent chicken rice. I would have preferred a bit more flavour in the rice but being lightweight meant that I could decisively use more of the chilli which was lime-y and pleasant. The amount of chicken that came with it was the equivalent of at least two regular servings (or more depending) than if you had gotten chicken rice from a regular shop.

While this is not going to give me yearnings like Sin Kee does, it was good enough to be an anytime fall back option. A go to that I wouldn't think twice about. Assuming that I happen to be here on Thursday afternoons and felt like spending $12.90 for a chicken rice lunch. Oh, it's a dollar twenty for an additional bowl of that rice there.

Dessert today was a cream puff.

And perhaps one last Shashlik

Got swept up with the rest of the lemmings and ended up at Shashlik for lunch for another taste of their shashlik before they are closed for good as reported in the news. I had actually read about this online which happened to have a writer who's more imaginative than factual, describing the trolleys in the restaurant as rickety. The trolleys that are in the restaurant look anything but rickety to me.

But anyways, it's an opportunity for a bowl of their localized borsch soup with an extra scoop of sour cream and their really delicious chicken livers with caper sauce. These are the items that I'll be missing if the restaurant closes. The actual shashlik was fine if not fancy. A flavour of nostalgia which one cannot quite get elsewhere here.

Fei Lou Porridge, Telok Blangah Crescent Market & Food Centre

Although the name goes by Fei Lou Porridge (#01-116 Telok Blangah Crescent Food Centre, 11 Telok Blangah Crescent), this shop serves much more than just porridge.

The stall does serve up a variety of porridges. This one that I had comes with ham and century egg. The texture was smooth and the flavours lightweight with a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Comfort food it was.

Here's some boiled cabbage with cuttlefish. This was nicely done too. The cabbage were just soft enough with a light residual crunch and the flavours of the cuttlefish permeated the dish. The only thing we didn't like were the fried shallots. It came from a plastic pack which meant that apart from a little texture, there wasn't much flavour to speak of. This dish would have been much better served without those shallots.

Fei Lou does poached chicken as well. This came on a bed of toasted peanuts which was a nice addition. The meat was pretty tender but the skin was a tad dimply and for some parts, too thick for my preferences. Decently done but otherwise, nothing to raise brows over.

I read that they were famous for their deboned fried chicken wings and since this was a first visit, we tried them out. I don't think this works for us. This was greasier than I had been hoping for and the flavour of the batter wasn't my thing. Another reminder telling us that long queues sometimes doesn't mean what we think it means.

On the side, the braised tau kee (dried bean curd sheets) with pig stomach was excellent. Both the bean curd and tripe were suitably tender from all the braising sauce.

And because there was bee hoon, we ordered some and it actually quite nice. Both with and without the chilli sauce on the side. The texture had a good bite and the flavours were present. Best of all, it didn't make me feel overly greased up.

Both proprietors of the stall looked dour, worked quietly and never did I see them speak to each other. I don't think telepathy is at play here though.

Kaiware Japanese Restaurant, TripleOne Somerset

shiro maguro don

some pretty smooth seafood dumplings

gindara mentaikoyaki

I found out about this place (#02-15 TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road, tel : +65 6735 2345) from a tip off. The location was actually where Ikkousha used be in the same building. Would not have gotten my attention to if not for that fact that I had been informed that Peter Ho - formerly of Wasabi Tei and Chikuwa Tei, runs this joint. I never understood the reasons for his patterns of running restaurants and then leaving them. But I'm not here to understand his business model. I'm just visiting for a hit of nostalgia.

There's a shiro maguro don on menu here. They only response they could give to my inquiry was oil fish but I'm pretty convinced it's escolar. So proceed to eat with caution and responsibility. The bone white slices of the fish were smooth and buttery, comparable to chutoro. There's some rather tasty seafood shu mai which I've never seen them do before and a very decent gindara mentaikoyaki to be had too. One can even get a similar cod hotpot just like the ones they used to do that came with a fantastic lemon/chilli/soy  sauce dip.

Nobu-ya (信屋), Middle Road

baigai

soy braised hijiki

 what the menu describes as grilled squid tentacles and guts

Miyazaki beef tataki 

tamagoyaki 

 buta kakuni

tempura hamo (pike eel)

tempura maitake 

suji nikomi (soy braised beef tendon stew) 

oden mori

If I had to gripe, I thought the maitake tempura had a bit too much batter and was more grease logged than I liked. That kinda robbed the mushroom of its delicate flavours. But otherwise, I think we rather enjoyed all the other food that we had at Nobu-ya (#01-05 Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road, tel : +65 6338 3450). Special mention goes to the baigai, the rich livery broth that the squids came in and those braised pork belly that simply fell apart even from the chopstick. Will be back.