Chicken Head (雞頭), Clementi Market & Food Centre

I remember eating at this stall (Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre, Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-18) quite a while ago but only had a very faint recollection that I liked it. Which is strange. Anyway, the reason why I remembered them was because the name of the stall translated into 'chicken head' and I found that amusing. So here's another go at that chicken head. It was actually not bad. Their boiled chicken was fairly tender and smooth while the rice was lightly flavoured. Just sufficient flavours from the oils without being too greasy. I couldn't decide if I liked the rice better with or without their chilli so I guess that in a way, I did enjoy that rice. 

While I wouldn't make a special effort to come here just for this, I certainly have no qualms getting a plate again if I'm nearby. Judging from the queue, they seem rather well received.

Kuriya Dining, Great World City

Kuriya (#01-28 Great World City, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6736 0888) has been around for a number of years now. I’ve been wanting to come by and have been asked by friends who seemed to like the place to give them a go. Somehow, it just never happened until today. Sounds familiar? I have this relationship with many places.

In retrospect - their food was pretty good quality, portions weren't very generous and it was actually more expensive lunching here than Aoki. But we did enjoy the grilled oysters with uni and the fried mehikari which were nicely salted and delicious. That wagyu/uni/ikura don was pretty good but I wouldn't have scored it very high because of a couple of things. I genuinely felt that it could have been improved if they had just used a little bit of shoyu or salt on those thin sliced beef rather than that sweet sauce which also confused the flavours of the sea urchin. For what they were charging, I had expected portions that are more substantial.

Toro porn and some seasonal stuff from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru

Yeap, this is a post with gratituous toro porn and a couple of other items off the regular menu from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru at Liang Court. The ones with the clear streaks running across the marbled slices are hon maguro and the other one with more homogenous marbling is albacore tuna. We ate a lot more toro than this, but I guess there's only so much pictures I should be putting up. And while it was cheaper than eating at a formal sushi restaurant, the cost does add up. Not to mention that the prices weren't indicated clearly. So, caveat lector!

Shirako was on the non regular menu as well since it's the season and it was actually pretty good. Nice and creamy kinda good. Unfortunately the oyster chawanmushi was mediocre. They mentioned it was Hokkaido oysters and I thought it was rather small ones at that. None of the oyster flavour went into the steamed egg so perhaps they were steamed separately? Anyways, not that it would matter. It was oyster-ly and not in a good way.

Black truffle ramen from Kanshoku Ramen Bar

As far as I could gather, Kanshoku (#01-06 Orchard Central, 277 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6384 4770) is formed by two local guys. Not that I don't support the local guys venturing out into foreign food, but my opinion is that their shop brought nothing new to the table considering that there's already loads of ramen shops around. And already, a handful of those shops are clearly superior (read as something I prefer) to this one. I know it's Dutch pork for the charshu, Japanese egg for the ajitama and Hakata styled noodles made in house; it doesn't change the status quo that I described, no?

Island Cafe version whatever...

Island Cafe has recently completed renovations. The place no longer resembles the tropical retro stained restaurant that had been its look for the past years. It’s now clean, white and almost colonial-industrial from the expose pipings without the false ceiling to conceal. Along with the facelift was also a change with the kitchen crew.

Kay Lee Roast Meat, Upper Paya Lebar

Truth be told, I've never heard of Kay Lee (125 Upper Paya Lebar Road) until the recent years when they were mentioned online about the sale of their stall/name/recipe which went for 4 million SGD by the way. Living in the smallest country in the world and blogging about food I've been eating in general for almost a decade; I have never prior to that buzz heard of this apparently famous roast meat stall. That about sums up my relationship with them.