Kanda Wadatsumi, Tras Street

Here's a barachirashi lunch with an additional side of a grilled ayu from Kanda Wadatsumi (50 Tras Street, tel : +65 6221 6264). The rice bowl was rather small and honestly not very impressive at all if not for the uni. We also didn't quite understand not having vinegared rice with the barachirashi. Apparently, they provide a small pot of bonito broth which one could use on the rice like a sort of chazuke. But really, with such a small bowl, how much rice did they honestly expect us to have left for that purpose. 

While it could be argued that one could top up the lunch with an option for zensai/dessert which comes with unlimited refills of rice, I'm not sure the correct idea is to expect everyone to do so. Fortunately, one could easily find a similar and more satisfying option down at Sakari Sushi which was also more straight forward; and in my not so humble opinion, tastier as well just a few literal minutes walk away.

The grilled ayu was quite good. Loved the bitter sweet innards. But it is a little difficult to convince ourselves to come back on the merit of a pricey small grilled fish.

Boca, Bukit Pasoh Road

Don't remember having had Portuguese food before. Not even when I was in Malacca ages ago or at Macau so Boca (6 Bukit Pasoh Rd., tel : +65 6221 0132) sounded interesting for something a little different. Well, maybe it's not all so different.

We started off with some of their bread. The basket came with three types - a regular one, one with pine nuts and the shadowy looking pieces are squid ink with sweet potato. The latter two were good. The former of the latter was fragrant with the nut (that good) and the latter of the latter tasted slightly crustacean. Not what I expected of squid ink, but it was quite nice. Especially with their very fruity EVOO. 

This was their bacalao fritters. I'm not sure if there are good representatives of Portuguese bacalao but they're quite different from the Italian ones. I'm not talking about the fried part. The mixture in the cod was probably just of different ingredients. If you wanted to know, I didn't think these were impressive. 

What got our attentions was their bife à café, or coffee steak. A seared medium rare tenderloin in cognac and espresso cream sauce. The experience of each mouthful felt like a teaser of a strong latte just before it reaches the lip before it transforms into a savoury velvet sauce in the mouth. We liked it. Wiped the plate clean with bread. A little expensive though.

The coffee steak came with almond rice. This was nicely done with the flavours of the nut infused into the rice. With a little bit of salt, it would have been awesome. The rice did have the aroma of almond.

The other interesting looking item on menu was their bread porridge. Made with bread obviously - doused in olive oil and seafood stock and folded in with bits of shrimp as far as we could tell. Quite nice, should be eaten hot or warm. Don't wait for it to cool.

On hindsight, what we ordered were a little too heavy on the carbs. But now we know.

The Hainanese chicken rice stall at Tangs Market

As ordinary as this might have looked, this chicken rice was pretty good (Tangs Plaza Basement 1, 310 Orchard Road). Rice was flavourful enough that one could simply eat them on their own or with the chilli sauce which was pretty competent too. Their roasted chicken drumstick had meat that was smooth and delicious while the soup that they had provided on the side was real chicken soup rather than the sorry excuse for cabbage broth that many stalls try to pass off as soup. I'm definitely coming back again.

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.