Sushiro, Thomson Plaza

This was a small local Japanese shop (#01-113F Thomson Plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Road). Very small space that doesn't seat many people but apparently accept reservations. They looked family run. Sushi there doesn't look very enticing as they appear to be the same quality as the mass market variety. So we haven't really tried anything else except their donburi which were pretty good.

Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House, Amoy Street

Some of the older folks will know this restaurant as Ka Soh (96 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6224 9920). An institution with a claim to fame for their fish soup noodles. I recall only one prior visit to them before today and that was just early this year if my memory serves.

The food was not bad, but places like this tends to get expectations up because of reputation. I thought their sum lou hor fun was a decent stir fry of flat rice noodles, bean sprouts and sliced fish; but nothing particularly memorable. I liked this dish in the first place so I suppose I'm generally not hard on them as long as it's competent. But there was really little that would make me think that this was better than another decent rendition.

I generally like kung bao frogs. The ones here were a little unexpected because they frogs had been deep fried to a crusty exterior before the stir fry. The result was tougher meat which was less succulent than I had been hoping for. With the kung bao gravy being forgettable and a rather expensive charge per frog, I'd have to be paid to eat this again. The last part was a joke. Haha. But I wouldn't order them again.

We had their stir fried kailan the last time I was here. The vegetables were fresh and sweet. Better quality than many a same dish that one can get in a nicer Chinese restaurant. It's what many people would classify as a "must try".

This was bean sprouts stir fried with fish liver and stomach or intestine. We've definitely had better and I guess I was kinda disappointed since not many people do this particular dish much these days.

Har cheong kai. Competent too. Greasy enough without being excessively so and had sufficient flavour from the prawn paste.

Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant, Purvis Street.

Clinton Street Baking Company (31 Purvis Street, tel : +65 6684 4845). From Manhattan's Lower East Side to Southern Singapore. We were definitely intrigued. Breakfast styled food has a certain inexplicable appeal anywhere in the world.

Here's their Southern Breakfast. Eggs, fried green tomatoes, sugar bacon and cheese grits. We liked this. Everything about it I guess. Those sugar bacons were literally sin incarnate. Sugar to make you fat, burnt ends to infuse you with carcinogens, both to feed cancer cells and the hardness to wreck your teeth. But sin was delicious.

We got pancakes because CSBC was known for them. We liked them too. I'm going to save myself the archetypal descriptions of nicely done pancakes because I'm sure we know what they're like. And they're like that. These lemon curd and coconut pancakes do have curd that's a little sweeter and eggier than it was citrusy sharp. But still very enjoyable. 

And sides of ham steaks (seriously steaks?) and rosemary maple sausages.

We had ran out of space but their apple pie and bourbon shakes looked and sounded good. With what we've ingested in a single seating, it's already enough calories that'll last an Ethiopian for a couple of weeks as all those richness crept back up our throats to settle into our double chins. So I guess we'll have to come back another time for those.

Apfelbaum

We got this from Juchheim at Takashimaya, the stall that sells baumkuchen or the cake probably known as Japanese kueh lapis to many. Just to clear the air, Juchheim is Japanese and that baumkuchen that looks like kueh lapis ring is a cake of German origins. So it's a Japanese brand doing a German cake in Singapore.

Anyway, this Apfelbaum has an apple inside; an apple marinated in lemon juice they said. Very nicely balanced sweet and tart while retaining more crunch than we had expected.

Japanese Restaurant Suju, Mandarin Gallery

I've been wanting to try Suju (#04-05 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 6737 7764) since I discovered them a few years back, but I haven't had the chance until very recently. Their food is not exotic by most stretches of imagination. They do not serve unusual frutti di mare or bugs. But they do deliver a solid teishoku experience.

tamago yaki

premium tempura course

australian wagyu sirloin steak teishoku

The quality of the food spoke for itself. Which was good. And so was that spoken for by the crowd during the weekend lunch and a tell tale sign of a rather large percentage of Japanese clientele. Their tamago yaki was bouncily delicious, piping hot with a sweet and savoury taste. Steak was competent and tasty while the sashimi from the tempura course was pretty good quality. Hell, even the tomato from the 6 appetizer tray was sweet. Loved the miso topped nasu too.  I think you get the idea.

But as much as I thought that their quality commensurated the prices they charged, the food can cost quite a bit. But hey, it's not like I'm not willing to drop a little more dole for good food. The only gripe I had was the pickles that came with the rice. I had expected radish but this place serves cabbage - spiked with ginger.

I wished we had started coming earlier though. 

Janggut Laksa and the Queensway Original Curry Chicken

I've had the Katong styled laksa (an appropriate description?) at Queensway Shopping Centre (1 Queensway) from some years back but have only taken note of the names of the stalls in the more recent ones. This Janggut stall which claims to be the original Katong laksa started off in a push cart stall from the 50s. And there's the other 328 Katong Laksa stall located in the same floor nearby which also claims to come from Katong. 

I'm not about to go into which came first or into their history. Just this Janggut stall which also shares its triangular premise with the curry chicken stall. This laksa was fairly rich with coconut milk, flavoured with the aroma of dried shrimps and had a humming heat from the chilli. Pretty good stuff. Pretty generic of me to describe as such as well but I know of no metrics to measure the quality. 

The chicken cutlet rice with curry ladled over coming from the curry chicken stall kinda surprised me by how delicious it was in a homely sort of way. Even if the chicken cutlets were mostly pre-fried. And yes, I had both servings in a single seating. A guarantee if any to send one into a post lunch coma.