Yunos N Family, Ang Mo Kio Central

This shop was a local Muslim food stall (#01-01 Ang Mo Kio Central Food Centre, 724 Ang Mo Kio Ave 6) in the heart of Ang Mo Kio. We had mee rebus which was one of the things to eat here. What’s different about the mee rebus from Yunos were the "add on" options on menu which generally aren’t part of the usual offerings from others stalls. For this particular case, it was lamb ribs. I had three pieces in my bowl. Those ribs weren’t as tender as I was hoping for though. Their nutty kuah/gravy had a smoky flavour which I'm guessing is from the little burnt bits. Pretty decent mee rebus located just 10 minutes from Rahim Muslim Food, the other popular stall.

Gado gado was okay. The ingredients weren't sloppy at the least but I didn't think there was anything extraordinary.

The Rendang Chicken’O from Old Chang Kee

I haven't had curry puffs from Old Chang Kee in a long while because their puffs were shrinking along with the quality of the fillings while the prices have being going up. I don't particularly understand nor like the bulbous knots at the end of the pastry crimp. I don't remember them being so large in the past. Very obviously, they're trying to stuff us with more fried flour. I'm also lost as to why are the curry puffs known as Os these days. Anyways, there's a green rendang chicken puff that they're doing lately. Didn't taste very much of rendang if I might say so. It wasn't bad tasting, the fillings were just a little differently flavoured from their usual puff though I couldn't quite point out where. And it's not rendang.

Kite, Craig Road

I took notice of Kite (53 Craig Road, tel : +65 9729 7988) when they opened up late last year as they were by the same owner of SPRMKT. For some reasons, the restaurant went out of mind until recently so here's what we had from the visit. I was trying not to use the fusion tag but in the end, made peace with myself in agreement that they are fusion in many ways like many of the small plate joints that have been thriving in recent years. There's Japanese, Indian and even local influences in their food.

The other thing I learnt was that Leandros Stagogiannis is involved at the helm. Sounds familiar? Yeah, because he is.

Kite offers Tennent's beer aged with whisky oak. A smooth ale-ish brew from Glasgow of moderate bitter, some maltiness and interestingly beyond the other subtle complexities which I didn't bother with - a hint of whisky that came just before the aftertaste. I'm not sure if I had imagined the last part but that was what I thought registered. I liked it.

chicken skins, bourbon glaze, juniper salt

The chicken skins were quite nice. Crisp, flavourful - but not necessarily of the obvious ingredients that were mentioned. To describe it simply, it was salty and savoury. 

char siew wagyu

This did taste like char siew marinate and pretty much the only thing wagyu about it was the texture. Couldn't taste any of the natural flavours of the beef through the marinate. I don't think char siew flavour works so well with wagyu.

bread & butter

Actually, brioche and seaweed butter. The butter was nice in a salted umami kind of way, but I couldn't actually tell that there was seaweed. 

salmon trout 42Deg, seaweed, apples, sesame

Trout was very good. Tender, flaky and full of flavour. The sesame description from the menu was a bit of a misnomer as the dominant flavour on the presumeably sou vide fish is the furikake, not just sesame.

mentaiko somen, Hokkaido scallops, unagi, tobiko

The somen was also pretty good. I'm not sure what about it was mentaiko though. The torched scallops were awesome, cubes of unagi very nicely charred and flavourful as well while the spicy noodles kept us digging in until the very end. While this was a unique dish from Kite, the approach and flavour profile isn't so. Other restaurants have created similar noodle dishes with varying amounts of success simply because this flavour profile is well received.

Mangalica pork collar, you tiao veloute, spiced broth

The pork was buttery tender and I thought the creamy you tiao veloute was pretty impressive. If the idea was to create a progressive/contemporary update to ba kut teh, they've succeeded rather well.

lamb saddle chaat potatoes, spiced jus, tamarind mango chutney

I thought the Indian flavours were quite nicely done here. The lamb saddle was wrapped in a thin layer of fat which brought a nice lamb-y flavour together with the char on the exterior.

New Lucky Claypot Rice, Holland Drive

We've had the claypot rice from New Lucky Claypot (44 Holland Drive, tel : +65 6778 7808) from the time they were located in Clementi to Commonwealth and now, Holland Drive. It's generally been pretty good except for occasional inconsistencies in how far the rice is cooked. Their rice is generally more moist than dry as far as claypot rice goes which is the way I prefer it. I've never really been a fan of the "soccarat" which many people seem to enjoy. Today was one of the inconsistent times where the crusty rice on the surface of the claypot was carcinogenically burnt. Too many burnt ends spoil-th the claypot rice, no?

BBQ pineapples from Shami Banana Leaf Delights

I spotted these on the menu at Shami's some time ago but didn't get the chance to order them until very recently. I'm guessing that it's just the regular chicken tikka marinate with extra heat on the fruit? The juicy pineapples were spicy and sweet. I kinda liked them.

New Rasa Singapura, Tanglin Road

I’m not sure how to describe New Rasa Singapura (56 Tanglin Road, tel : +65 9818 8102). It looks like a bar/watering hole with al fresco seating. If not for having read about them on the web, I would not have been able to tell that the establishment had a proper kitchen that did local food. Or at least their rendition of local food. And I also would have been puzzled as to why would they name a bar after an old iconic hawker centre that had been closed more than two decades prior.

So now that we’ve cleared the facade, here’s a few things.

1. It’s also a social enterprise that employs those that may have impairments.
2. It’s local food, no doubt about that. The price just falls under the tourist spectrum. And I'm inclined to feel that the flavour profile for the food is made for tourists too.
3. They have Asahi Kuronama on tab.

We wanted to try the satay because we were hoping it’ll be good. As iconic as those marinated skewers of meat are for us locals, they’re really not so common these days in places that are priced for locals. These satay here were decent, but there was a sense of refinement in it that made them passable rather than not bad. These had no char and I’m doubtful if they had been graced in a proper charcoal grill. The dipping gravy was decent. Better than most, but there are better. In a local colloquial, mai hiam buay pai.

There was a dry laksa they called New Rasa Laksa. Possibly something they wanted to do as a signature dish? Honestly, it didn't taste too bad. It just tasted like Hokkien mee with rempah and minus the lard. Those laksa leaves that they used are in another local colloquial, lao hong. Could barely taste them.

Moving on, we also had soup kambing. Can't say that I did not enjoy it. There were also pretty generous portions of tender mutton and boned in rib. But this simply didn't taste like soup/sup kambing as it is everywhere else. I don't pretend to know what are the spices involved in the cooking but the ones here do not use exactly the same or have the same ratio. Don't mind having it again though.