Hakumai, International Plaza

I've been wanting to come down to Hakumai (#01-50A International Plaza, 10 Anson Rd, tel : +65 6224 4790) since they opened up so I guess it took quite a while for that to happen. Here's a truffle tekka don for lunch which featured ingredients that are a little contemporary for Japanese food; their truffle sauce being the first obvious ingredient for the bowl. That sauce over the slices of yellowfin tuna with the finely chopped negi was rather pleasant and the flavours were not overpowering. I also suppose this would be the first donburi I've had that featured arugula in them. And if you looked a little more closely, there was dried sakura ebi to spruce up flavours in the rice too.

Hakumai is not so traditional as traditional goes for Japanese food. That has been said and done by its chef Gary since the days of Hinoki so I ate what I had without much surprises. While the basis of the food stems from tradition, the ones here have definitely gone through evolution; an evolutionary bent for the locals if I might say so. And I say that passing no judgement.

More sandwiches from Park Bench Deli

Quick update. This cold cuts sandwich from Park Bench Deli was quite nice, but I realized that I could easily make this myself at home.

Their vegetarian sandwich was a warm one. It wasn't so much fresh greens rather than processed vegetables of some slaw, tomato salsa and guacamole (which had cilantro!). While this was nothing like the one from Sarnies, I'd have to admit it was pretty good especially with the cheese and egg. There was also a flavour which I would associate with a commonly used spice in Indian cooking, but can't for the life of me recall what it was at this point.

An update with Two Blur Guys

I had thought that Two Blur Guys have been doing a fine job of keeping their basic Prime beef burger simple in their own ways and affordable until the past weekend. Prices have gone up by about $3 since my last recollection and the menu seemed to have evolved with more options which kept me wondering if that was really what people had wanted?

The part that bothered me was the change in the setup of their burger. That Prime beef patty did not taste as good as I remembered it while the requested medium doneness of the patty was hovering just past medium well. In fact, it did not taste of very much. To further complicate things - they've added a slice of tomato and even a pat of sweet relish into the burger. Sweet relish? Was that even necessary? Maybe that's what that $3 was about.

Hajah Maimunah this year

sayur lodeh

sambal goreng

gulai nangka

siput sedut

paru balado

This was a pretty good lunch down at Hajah Maimunah except for one little thing. The rice was kinda dry in spite of appearances and couldn't even quite absorb the curries or sauces well. But the paru belado was tender, sambal goreng was surprisingly creamy and the siput sedut was kinda fun to suck out of their shells up to the point that the lemak gravy was burning my lips. Those begedil were delicious too.

More of that hon maguro nodo from Nakajima Suisan

Yeah, I guess I got lucky and scored myself another serving of the flavoursome oily nodo. As much as I enjoyed the food, the queue at this grilled fish shop is still a pain.

Back in Pizzeria Mozza

It's been more than three and a half years since the last visit to Pizzeria Mozza.

I don't remember if these fried pig's ears were available the last times. They were pretty good for snacking. Those ears tasted like they had been braised in something flavourful before deep frying and the cartilage weren't as crunchy as I thought.

There was lardo which I had wanted to get previously. Thinly sliced melt in your mouth fat which was so agreeable.

These are crostinis with butternut squash puree/mash, bacon and shredded cheese. Actually, I thought the best tasting component was the butternut squash. 

That's the pizza with Yukon Gold potato slices. I never understood why it was so expensive compared to the rest, considering the ingredients. I still don't understand why. Doesn't taste bad at all, just that the ingredients don't quite justify the cost.

And we have the pizza with fennel sausage. This was pretty good though. The meat wasn't as salty as I had thought. The scallions and onions really made it work.

Olive oil ice cream. I'm not sure if it was the temperature but I didn't think that this was very flavourful olive oil. Still enjoyable though.