Revisiting Xi Yan Shaw

A second visit because we were in this part of town and wanted something Chinese and quiet.

That's their kou shui ji (口水鸡), or also known as saliva chicken; a Szechuan dish of poached chicken drenched in lip burning chilli oil and a bunch of aromatics. The rendition here looked and tasted little like the regular versions. There wasn't much heat and there were chunks of century eggs in the dish. I'm not sure if that little chilli they had placed on top was just decoration. Comparisons aside, this didn't taste too bad. Just not like how the dish is normally done.

That's the same three egg spinach dish that we had the last time. Decently done and pretty much the same comment I have on their garlic. I was actually surprised by the consistency.

One of the dishes we didn't get to order the previous time was their black truffle prawn omelette. The truffle flavours barely registered. The dominant flavour in the egg was actually from the spring onions. Can you imagine? Spring onions. But this tasted not bad.

Rang Mang Shokudo, Japan Food Town @ Wisma Atria

The tipping point that landed us in Rang Mang Shokudo (#04-50 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6262 3504) today was pretty much because they didn't have a queue. And yes, this shop is another of the 16 eateries that are located in the relatively new Japan Food Town at Wisma Atria. They do buttermilk marinated tori karaage. 

The fried chicken comes by its own or in a set as featured in the picture above. Actually, there are two different types of sets. This one (above) is the regular set with a bunch of vegetables for salad and there's a economy set which has only leaves of lettuce and curry flavoured potato salad that the regular set does not have. Hmmm....

The variety comes from the toppings or sauces that one gets to choose for the fried chicken. This one's mentaiko mayo. The mentaiko was weak in the mayo so hindsight whispered that I should have picked something else. We tried the salt and pepper rendition which was tasty but pretty salty. Otherwise, the karaage was pretty decent. The chicken had a crisp exterior, was served piping hot and was thankfully not overly greasy. Don't mind coming back to try another flavour.

A mentaiko kaisen don from Teppei Syokudo

To be honest, the offerings from Teppei Syokudo has lost most of its allure for me. Their marinated kaisen don doesn't have the same appeal as it initially did and those breaded fried offerings from their stall were frankly kinda boring - not to mention that you can often find better in those Japanese fairs inside Takashimaya. But today, we walked past and saw that they now have an option for their kaisen don with mentaiko. I was half hoping that those would be grilled and sliced, but they weren't.

The truth is, they were rather generous with that one sac of roe and that got to a point when it was a little overwhelming at the end when one is out of rice. If I ever patronize them again, I'll just stick to the ikura don.

Senso 2016

It's been almost a decade since the last time at Senso (21 Club Street, tel : +65 6224 3534). Time certainly flies. And right under our noses it did.

Their bread basket seemed to have shrunk a little from what I can recall. But these folks still do a better bread basket than most. Except for maybe Oso.

Tonight's amuse bouche was a lightweight blue cheese and crostini.

There was green pea soup with ricotta and black summer truffles from the truffle menu. The creamy was nice in a green pea-y sort of way. Little chunks of the ricotta cheese gave richness and the black truffle aroma was a nice addition.

We had burrata with prosciutto San Daniele and grape tomatoes. That's a half portion already split up.

From their summer menu, Amalfi lemon risotto with prawns and Tropea onion coulis. The rice had a lemon fragrance and was cheesy at the same time. Prawns had a nice bite to them and those red onion coulis tasted like fruity dollops of jam. I liked this.

From the truffle menu, veal medallion with truffle mascarpone, artichokes and more shaven black summer truffle. I would describe this as silence inducing good.

The meat from the veal was tender and lightweight. Paired nicely with some fruity sauce they described as Senso puree and whatever one could mop off the plate with.

And we ended with a very satisfying affogato. I think we have been missing out much from here.

Starring Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

This was my first visit to Tai Hwa after they have gotten their Michelin Star just nine days ago followed by choruses of divisive opinions on that outcome. As much as I would tell myself that this is likely my favourite ba chor mee stall in the whole of the island from the first time I had it nine years ago, the truth is that I do not come eat here as much as I would like. Or even with any regularity. Once a year or so sounds about right. Why so? The two hit combo of being located where they are and that I really dislike queueing would be a good start. And there’s a whole lot of other things to eat out there. Singapore. But that’s just my excuse. 

Still, the memory of the flavour latches on for theirs, as attenuated as it may be, that I eventually return. Albeit with very low frequency.

This is my first time trying their mee sua. So I've pretty much had all the noodle types from them. I didn't dislike it, but also didn't feel that it's as satisfying as the other noodles. I'm after all a mee pok man. Lol. Pun not intended. My sequence of preference would be mee pok, mee kia, kuey teow and mee sua. The other first time event in this visit was the wait time. Previously it averaged 30 minutes. The queue today was about five times longer at 2 hours 20 minutes. The longest I've ever queued in my life for food. I'm resigned to say that I will not be coming back if the wait time does not go back to the previous duration. Damn you Michelin.

So is it worth a Michelin Star? I don’t know. I liked them before the luminance and getting starred doesn’t do much to sway much of my opinion of them even amongst mutters of lowered standards. While getting starred does raise an eyebrow, the guide is far from being the holy grail of opinions in the ocean of subjectivity. That guide is mortal. Or a conglomerate of mortals. Subjected to preferences, personal idiosyncrasies, the strictures of life (yes that’s very general, but that’s the point) and failings of mortality. One needs not treat it like a bible. It’s just a guide. And for us locals, a whole lot of us know better what’s good anyway.

Chatterbox, Mandarin Orchard

So here's Chatterbox (Level 5, 333 Orchard, tel : +65 6831 6288), the place described as the home of the legendary Mandarin chicken rice. I just realized that they've been in operation since 1971! And look at those wide eyed chickens spacing out in the presence of their slaughtered kin. 

We had lobster laksa. Man, this was actually pretty good. The luscious gravy was rich and fragrant with the aroma of hae bi. Rather refined without excessive oil, a light heat from the spices and there was quite a few chunk of lobster meat. It's about ten times the price of a regular bowl of laksa though. Rice noodles were a little soft and the tau pok from Ah Heng Curry Chicken was more delicious and tender than the ones in this bowl - but what the heck. I think we may just have found our replacement for the crayfish rendition that Island Cafe used to do quite well.

There was a limited time abalone kolo mee on a limited time menu so we had a bowl of it. Noodles were wiry and with bite. Nicely done if I might say and we expected no less. Those portions were probably about twice what one usually gets from the regular kolo mee stalls. We were kinda hoping for something outstanding from the minced meat sauce since it barely costed less than the lobster laksa. The chilli vinegar on the side added a zesty zing to the noodles. Wantons that came in the accompanying bowl of soup was big, fat and had coriander! Soup tasted like a weaker version of the kind found in Hong Kong styled wanton noodles.

This was a $9 tau suan. Decent but also very expensive for tau suan. I suppose the only thing that they did that was an extra effort was making sure that the dough fritters were nicely crisp.