Chwee kueh from Tangs Market

Tangs Market is a small cache of local goodies. It's probably a little more expensive than the ones that one can get at hawker centres but it's far from being a tourist trap. Not to mention that some of the stuff are actually pretty good. Like these chwee kueh. Steamed piping hot rice cakes topped with chai por and the option of delicious savoury/spicy chilli sauce with that bit of kick from the heat. In the words of an old horror flick, enough is never enough.

Yomoda Soba, Japan Food Town @ Wisma Atria

This was yet another shop from Japan Food Town. The previous occasions when we were here, Yomoda Soba (#04-53 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6262 3467) had a queue which looked long and slow moving. By a stroke of fortune this time, we managed to walk in and got ourselves the last empty table. Shortly after we were seated, the queue appeared. Phew! 

It seemed that the majority of the non-soba/noodle items were not available. Out of what was, we decided to try the tori tempura. I guess these weren't too bad, but didn't seem to quite match up with those from Menya Takeichi.

There was a hot spicy soy milk chicken soba. This was pretty good. The creamy broth was savoury and came with a little heat from the rayu and ball of spicy miso minced meat. I think there were little chunks of chicken inside too. I liked this enough to come back again for it.

This was their hot tomato soba. Not that it wasn't any good but on hindsight, it might have been a better idea to have gotten the cold version which would have been much more refreshing. That dashi broth that came with the soba had tomato flavours in them. And just that tiny hint of yuzu too. I'll definitely be interested in getting the cold one another time.

Fresh figs, big ebi tempura and others at Suju

A dinner at Suju. Also our first time after having had lunch here twice.

They had fresh figs with goma sauce on their seasonal menu. These were not bad but I lament over the fact that we have somehow never encountered ones that were as awesome as those that we once had at Valentino's.

There was gyu suji on the seasonal too. Braised beef tendons in dashi with radish. The beef was so tender that it was falling apart when I picked it up. The broth inherited that beefy flavour from the cow. Delicious stuff.

Fried pumpkin tempura was creamy and sweet.

We ordered their ooebi tempura which also came with tempura-ed nasu and maitake mushrooms. The prawns were huge and meaty. These bugs probably had more flesh than most crayfish we've encountered.

Another year, another Lawry's

Another year has passed. These guys have maintained their status quo as one of the best if not indeed the best prime rib guys around in this sunny island. I'm not sure how to feel about that these days but I suppose it does make deciding a little easier with the dearth of options. In further development of old news (the oxymoron!), Lawry's has also been raising their prices. Their Diamond Jim Brady has gone up by more than $60 over the past 9 years and it is almost $160 before tax and service these days. Ouch!

Heng Kee Curry Chicken Noodles (兴记咖喱鸡米粉面), Hong Lim Food Centre

So here's a bowl from Heng Kee Curry Chicken (#01-58 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross St). The competitor to Ah Heng which is located just one floor up in the food centre. Both stalls have been around for many years and seem to share the same thin curry broth, but this one seemed to taste a little nuttier and sweet. Which can be remedied with their accompanying chilli paste. The noodles have also soaked up the broth allowing the flavours to permeate pretty much every mouthful. What I didn't quite like about Heng Kee is the way the chicken was chopped up. There were bone fragments that one had to be careful with and the texture of their tau pok was spongy and rough. If I had to choose between the two, I'm definitely going with Ah Heng.

That being said, the curry noodle which trumps for me in Hong Lim comes from Cantonese Delights. I know they're a different style altogether. But hey, they're all curry noodles right?

Paddy Hills, South Buona Vista Road

This spot used to be Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice which has relocated to somewhere in Little India. Today, it's Paddy Hills (38 South Buona Vista Road, tel : +65 6479 0800) - I suppose contemporary international fusion kinda fits the description of what they do. Food that's more fun than serious. One could simply also drop a moniker like 'a cafe' to describe them as well. Albeit one with a little more interesting food than the run of the mill establishments that we have everywhere.

What have we here? A sheet of seaweed with a bit of wet rice poking out at the corner, some white powder and an ivory dollop of something? 

It's what they're selling as ramen risotto. A tonkotsu ramen in risotto form. A paradigm shift of a dish with ingredients that many of us are familiar with.

It took some seconds for my mind to register, but in the end, I thought it was quite good. It's a lot less heavy than most risotto because there's no cheese and butter. The stock was pretty flavourful and it came with thinly sliced Japanese styled kurobuta charshu that was torched briefly and pickled shimeiji mushrooms. I rather liked this.

The powder is what the menu described as tonkotsu powder. I have no idea what it was and it didn't register as anything familiar when I tasted it. The ivory globule was a quail egg's yolk.

Here's their crab roll. Real crab meat stuffed between a sweet squid ink roll topped with ebiko and some other fish roe. Came with a kimchi slaw on the side. This roll was quite good. It's all crab meat and the sweetness of the buns work with all the toppings. I liked this too.

That's some Parmesan croquette served with jam. Couldn't taste much of the Parmesan to be honest and the potatoes are chunkier and less creamy than the usual Japanese croquettes. That's not a bad thing though.