Thursday, April 21, 2016

Mushidori Original Curry Rice from Washoku Goen

Mushidori Original Curry Rice, Washoku Goen

This branch of Washoku Goen down at Clifford Centre's Foodfair (#B1-01/10 Clifford Centre, 24 Raffles Place) features a Mushidori curry rice which uses their rendition of poached chicken instead of the usual tori katsu. I kinda liked it. It was pretty tender, well flavoured and while it might not have rivalled the best of local chicken rice we have for the chook, it didn't taste too shabby at all. Too bad it's only available at this particular outlet.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Tim Ho Wan, Westgate

So I've finally visited Tim Ho Wan (#01-13/14 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, tel : +65 6686 2000). And yes, it had taken me a while. But I didn't see any reason to hurry to a cloned proxy of a Michelin starred dim sum joint, be it a deserving luminance or not. 

Tim Ho Wan, century egg minced pork porridge

Their century egg and minced pork porridge was quite nice. It was a good effort having the porridge as close as the ones in Hong Kong. I shall not compare.

Tim Ho Wan, baked char siew buns

These baked buns with char siew are apparently one of their signatures. Or one of their big four heavenly kings as they term them. The crusty exterior doesn't preserve their crisp texture very well over time so we've learnt after doing a takeaway. I didn't dislike these but I don't think I'll be keen on ordering them again.

Tim Ho Wan, har gow

Har gow was good. Fresh firm chunks of shrimp found in these steamed dumplings.

Tim Ho Wan, spinach dumplings

The steamed spinach dumplings with shrimp were also good. In fact, it was one of the more outstanding items we've had in this visit and I intend to get them again if I ever come back.

Tim Ho Wan, cheong fun

Steamed rice rolls were decent. Pretty sure it was the sweet and sesame sauces that did the trick.

Tim Ho Wan, pan fried radish cake

Tim Ho Wan's pan fried radish cakes are also another of their four heavenly kings. Sadly, these don't come close to those from Imperial Treasure which are superior with a tastier crust and creamier inside.

Tim Ho Wan, ma lai ko

The third of the four heavenly king of theirs we tried was their steamed egg cake. Or also commonly known as ma lai ko/马来糕. The texture was light and fluffy but these didn't quite taste like the usual eggy ones. I'm not sure if they have been localized but there was a distinctive flavour of gula melaka in them.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

A mega maguro katsu don from Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining

Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining, mega maguro katsu don

It's always a mouthful handful trying to enunciate type the name of our friendly neighbourhood hon maguro specialist. Here's a hefty maguro katsu donburi from Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining which features tuna wrapped in seaweed and then battered in panko before the deep fry. The resultant crust was rather firm, crisp and dry while the meat on the inside was moist and fully cooked. It was probably much too thin a slab for any lesser doneness which I was actually hoping for and I was glad that they didn't overdo the tonkatsu sauce. In retrospect, I very much prefer tuna that is less cooked or even raw.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Fish paste noodles in shark cartilage broth from Cove99


Well there's wolfberry, some pieces of cod and bitter gourd as well. I've been kinda fascinated with fish noodles after being introduced to them years back. The fish flavour and the springy texture are what sets them apart from the regular flour ones. This one was pretty good. I thought it was a much better deal than the cod fish soup noodles at Amara. I'm definitely coming back (72 Peck Seah Street, tel : +65 6224 0991) for another bowl sometime.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), Smith Street

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), Smith Street

This space (18 Smith Street, tel : +65 6225 8663) was previously occupied by Yang Gui Fei, another Chinese restaurant that also served lamb. Now that Restaurant Manchurian has taken over, the decor of the interior seems to have been upgraded - albeit into something touristy tackier looking. But the menu still has a lot of lamb so giggity giggity goo! Manchuria if my interpretation holds, refers to a northern region that covers China and Russia. The part that falls under China is commonly referred to as Dong Bei (东北). And hence by association, I could assume there would be similarities between the food here and those from Dong Bei Ren Jia?

Anyway, here's a scratch on the surface of what they restaurant serves over two visits.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), lamb skewers 羊肉串儿

Here be lamb skewers. These here were more expensive than those skewers that can be found in the main road shops. But from the aroma that hit us when they arrived, we couldn't complain. 

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), stir fried long beans eggplant

They had stir fried long beans and eggplant which were really good. The flavours of both vegetables came through even with the seasoning. No mean feat since these vegetables were light on the palate in the first place. Those eggplants were also really tender.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), lamb dumplings

Imagine xiao long bao with stuffings of minced lamb rather than pork; in flour wrappers that were thicker like mee hoon kuey. Wrappers that were filled with "juices" from the meat/fat stuffings. That was pretty much how their boiled lamb dumplings were like.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), dry pot cauliflower 干锅花菜

Something they described as dry pot cauliflower (干锅花菜) that came with little strips of pork belly. Another tasty vegetable dish.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), lamb hot pot

We had a lamb hotpot somewhere along the way. Delicious spicy herbal broth filled with root vegetables, generous potion of meat and a flat noodle portion that was cut from a single strand.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), boiled lamb ribs

The above lamb chops were a specialty of the restaurant. They were boiled lamb ribs served with two dips. A garlic infused soy sauce and a fragrant chilli oil. One was supposed to dip each rib of meat into the soy sauce and then the chilli oil for flavours. I thought that these were quite similar to the boiled pork ribs from bak kut teh minus the broth and using mutton instead of pork.

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), rou jia mo 肉夹馍

There was braised pulled lamb served in griddled bread. To be honest, this wasn't one of the dishes I had preferred, ironically because of the well done braising. The flavours had permeated the meat so much that I couldn't tell that it was lamb. But otherwise this was a pretty good Chinese "burger".

Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺), spicy sour potato strips 酸辣土豆丝

And there were crunchy vinegared strips of potato that the menu describes as potato silk. Vinegar that made us believe that we had cleansed ourselves of the grease and fat from all that mutton after a few chopsticks-ful of the potatoes. This stuff was good too.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Poh piah from Tangs Market


Ouch, this was the most expensive poh piah I've ever had. $3.50 a roll which is more than twice what most people usually charged. Then again, I thought it was pretty good. What's more - the roll was packed, thick and was larger than the size they're usually rolled into. Each slice could barely fit into my mouth.