Hon maguro nodo set from Nakajima Suisan

Tuna has been off the menu for a while (at least times that I've passed by) now at Nakajima Suisan and when I saw hon maguro nodo on their specials, I knew that I wanted one. At that point of time, I hadn't any idea what nodo was. But through the verb that has these days become the representative for 'search' in this era, I realised that nodo actually refers to the throat. So my first bluefin tuna throat.

And the meat was good. Unctuous, tender and flavourful of the fish lined with fat and clad in that crisp exterior from the grill. Speaking of fat, there was even a portion that had charred fat that I got reminded of a sirloin. I'm not sure how long this is gonna be available, but I've a feeling that the next time I'm here, it'll probably be off the menu.

Crunchy peanut butter and crispy fried shallot sandwich

This is definitely not so healthy but the idea was interesting at least. I used crunchy peanut butter which provided some additional texture to go with the crisp of those shallots deep fried with sunflower oil. The latter is home made.

In retrospect, if you're gonna be trying this out, don't hold back on the shallots. I added more later on. Peanut butter needs a fairly strong flavour to complement especially when those flavours aren't of the acidic sort. Both are rich and no doubt contesting with each other, but once you get that balance, it's a world of two aromas.

Glam-ourized

Dependable nasi padang and gado gado for dinner at Kampong Glam Cafe. By the way, their paru goreng rocks. It looked dry but it's actually tender with a nice bite. If you're wondering about that cerulean drink, it's their lime blue Cola. It's not an actual cola per se. It tasted like it had fresh and preserved lime in it. 

Dry curry chicken and dry laksa goreng from Curry Times

Just a quick one. While I wouldn’t consider Curry Times cheap, they do manage to capture slices of nostalgic flavours. Perhaps not all of it but enough that I'd come by once in a while. Sometimes for their interesting specials that aren’t found elsewhere.

So here’s their dry curry chicken which was quite good. For all the times where cooking was described to taste like grandma’s (not mine for sure) and didn't make the cut, this one did taste quite like the ones that my grandma used to make. It had what I thought to be a nice balance of nutty spice and heat. 

There's also a laksa goreng which was...well, okay I guess. I don't have much of a basis for comparison apart from the one back in Laksania. Quite edible but I had expected more out of it.

McGangBang

You can Google it. I didn't make this up. In fact, McGangBang has been supposedly around as part of the secret menu of the Golden Arches for some years already. You can find YouTube videos on them too. Why did I do this?  For fun. Why did I blog it? For posterity.

But I wasn't about to ask the auntie who could barely process an order with a change of drink from the usual soft drink to a green tea latte. Telling her that I wanted a McGangBang and explaining what it was would probably destroy her, so I ordered the components and build it myself.

So it's a McDouble and a McChicken. Some sites say it's a Double Cheese, but it doesn't really matter here. Nobody's getting anal over a McGangBang. Lol!

It's really just as straight forward as it looks. The McDouble is split into two with a slice of meat on each half. Place the McChicken onto the middle of the half of the McDouble.

And the cover goes back on.

A little squeeze on the buns doesn't hurt the McGangBang.

And here're the innards shots. What I didn't expect though, was that the dominant flavour came from the McChicken. I was barely tasting the beef from the McDouble. There was a quite a bit of textures going on from the lettuce and chopped onions and meats, definitely much more than my old favourite. But this doesn't quite do it if you're hoping for more of that taste from the beef or the cheese.

Re-revisiting Pizza Fabbrica

This was just a return trip waiting to happen since we pretty much enjoyed what we had from the last visit to Pizza Fabbrica. This time round, a pasta and a pizza. 

The former - pappardelle made in house with Challans duck and orange ragout. There was a light perfume of orange in the sauce while most of the actual orange bits came from carrots. I had been imagining more citrus from the orange though. The ragout was both savoury and hearty while the noodles had excellent bite texture, just like the ones from Cicheti. What really rounded up all the good flavours were the decent portions which proved that there is much better value to be found here than the tiny servings Gattopardo. Definitely good for returns.

Pizza was one with prosciutto di Parma, walnuts, Gorgonzola and figs. A light punch from the blue cheese bolstered with more saltiness from the strips of prosciutto and a countering touch of sweetness from the figs. I thought we would have done as well without those walnuts.