The nameless Beo Crescent Hainanese Curry Rice

This nondescript front in the old coffee shop (40 Beo Crescent) has its reputation defined by the snaking queue that stems from the stall front. If not for that queue, I would have walked past without realising that they were there. I haven't any idea if there had been any point in my life where I might have eaten anything from them but I'm going to have to go with this being my first time.

The stall goes by Beo Crescent Curry Rice or No Name Hainanese Curry Rice because it doesn't have any names or signage.

I was recommended by a friend to try their crispy pork. A lot of stalls does this. Most of them aren't very good. Coupled with the fact that I grew up eating meatier pork chops from these Hainanese Curry rice stalls like those from Loo's, I had never thought much of these crispy types which were more crust than actual pig. But these here were unexpectedly tasty. There was a particular fragrance to the crisp and it was actually crispy rather than soggy.

There were prawn fritters which were also kinda nice. It tasted like it has that old school biscuit crumb batter.

Tau kwa was pretty nice too. They reminded me of cooked food from a couple of decades ago. A brand of flavour that many stalls today are unable to replicate for some reasons.

Here's the curry rice that people come for. I'm having it with stewed cabbage and a fried egg on top. Awesome comfort food. The sauce that is ladled over the rice is a mixture of a couple of sauces that they have plus curry. Coupled with the sweetness from the stewed cabbage and the dark soy sauce on the fried egg, it's a party of flavours. Even better if you're lucky with the egg and get one with molten yolk. 

This stuff is actually much better than most other Hainanese Curry stalls I've tried. I do mean most. I'm definitely coming back again. 

Some Oktoberfest items from Huber's Butchery Bistro

The Oktoberfest menu for Huber's is available. Here's a bunch of stuff we had.

That's the leberknedelsuppn - I don't even know how to even pronounce it. Anyways, it's a veal liver dumpling in a beef broth. Awesome cheesy and livery tasting dumpling. I'd eat this again anytime.

The obazda is a cheese spread with beer. This was topped with paprika and chives, something to go with bread or pretzel. The spread was pretty pungent - it tasted like there was perhaps blue cheese or something aged and slightly funky in it. Not for the cheese-squeamish.

We had grilled pig's ear. Nice crunchy chewy pig ears with sweet mustard.

Dessert was known as zwetschgakuacha on the menu, but after a little searching online, it would probably be a zwetschgenkuchen - a traditional German plum cake. While it looked like it might have been a heavy tart, it was actually a pretty lightweight cake topped with cooked plums with a nutty crumble top. Pretty good stuff.

Pistachio Grill, Zhongshan Mall

We heard about Pistachio Grill (#01-15 Zhongshan Mall, 20 Ah Hood Road, tel : +65 6262 6400) down at Balestier by an Egyptian-born chef Khaled Elelimi who was previously from Four Seasons in various parts and Shangri La Singapore; hence decided to see if the food was good.

This was what was described on the menu as Egyptian chicken soup. Kinda nice - sweet from the vegetables just like minestrone without the dried oregano and with little cubes of chicken.

Munched on some sambousk jebanh while waiting for the main item to arrive. These were the same things as sambousek - little pastries filled with feta cheese and mint. I think the mint needed more work. The flavours were okay rather than wow.

That's the couscous royale for two - with some harissa paste and vegetable bouillon on the side. The lamb sausages and grilled chicken were pretty good but the lamb chops were disappointing because the lamb flavours in the meat had been lost in the marinade. Wiped out. Pity. Cous cous was delicious - my beef with this was that this should have been called couscous royale for two light eaters. Portions were kinda small.

And because we had more than enough space for dessert here's baklava with ice cream. It didn't taste bad but the filo pastry was quite chewy at the base. It was also unexpectedly not as sweet as we thought.

Sin Swee Kee, Seah Street

Sin Swee Kee (25 Seah Street, tel +65 6337 7180)is named after a chicken rice institution, Swee Kee. The latter has not been in operation since the 90s. This shop from what I know has no relation to them despite having a very similar name. The setup is pretty much like how Chin Chin works at Purvis Street. The mainstays are cze char, Hainanese pork chops and chicken rice. I'm pretty sure I have visited this place at some point years ago but couldn't really remember much from that time beyond that it was not bad.

Here's a half chicken along with kailan stir fried with salted fish. They are using kampung chicken, so these birds are somewhat smaller, less fatty and are possibly older than the younger GM chickens that are bred to grow fast - and hence, a yellower hue to their skin. Also, we're don't see the dousing of light soy sauce with sesame oil as many regular chicken rice stalls tend to do. Using chickens that are not engineered to grow fast also means a longer turn around period since the rearing of each batch would be a longer cycle. Which translates to more expensive chicken. It's $19 for a smaller half chook here. 

As chicken rice go, this wasn't bad at all. The rice itself wasn't excessively greasy and had their savoury flavours. Chicken was tender enough - just not as slurp of the bone tender as the ones from Sin Kee. There's also a bit more aroma of lime than usual in their chilli sauce. The kailan was a competent stir fry but one could imagine them better if they improve on the quality of the vegetable they were using. Speaking of Sin Kee, it's about time I checked out their new shop down at Holland Drive.

Old Street Bak Kut Teh, Tiong Bahru Plaza

I've never heard of Old Street Bak Kut Teh (#02-105/106 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 9812 9346) before until I saw them for the first time some years back at Funan Centre. My first impressions were that they might have been an old and possibly respectable stall in the past and have franchised just like a number of other old and possibly respectable local stalls. I didn't pay much attention on them then.

It seems that they have expanded their business into a number of malls since then and have even ventured into Surabaya and Jakarta in Indonesia. 

These guys have updated their business and have installed iPads on their tables for order taking. While that was a nifty thing to have, there wasn't a way we could have indicated the sequence of the dishes that arrived. And hence, the first item from our order list they served was what people normally get for desserts. Tau huay (bean curd). It was not bad though. Light weight and a little "rough" in texture.

We ordered their rice with minced meat braised in a spiced dark soy sauce because we had previously seen other people eating them and they looked pretty good. This was comfortingly delicious. Possibly the local standard for the equivalent of the Taiwanese lu rou fan.

These are the premium loin rib options for their bak kut teh. While the bone was longer and looked more impressive, the meat on the edges were dryer compared to the rib meat from the regular bak kut option. Still it had the prerequisite fall of the bone tenderness and tasted pretty good. The broth was deliciously garlic-ky and peppery.

There was of course the condiment not to be left out as dips for the ribs. Sliced chilli padi in dark soya sauce.

Their you tiao/you char kway (fried dough sticks/crullers) were the soft and bready variety with only a faint crisp on the exterior. These were good for soaking up the peppery broth from the bowl of ribs. 

Braised tau kee was also pretty darn good. They were tender and one could taste the flavour from the bean it was made with.

We were honestly apprehensive initially but I think this visit has gotten us convinced that the food was worth coming back for if we needed a fix without navigating into the inconvenient places some of these bak kut teh stalls are located at.

Revisiting Restaurant Manchurian (满族全羊铺)

This was an anticipated return to Restaurant Manchurian after the promising past couple of visits. We missed the barbecue lamb the last time round so this was the opportunity we had been looking forward to.

We started with their barbecued tendon. The wait staff had described it as tendon with some meat. The texture of the meat was layered in a manner like tripe and their spice mix was awesome. Like their lamb skewers, they were a dollar-fifty a stick. We’re gonna be getting more of these in the future because they were really good.

That’s stir fried cabbage with dried chilli, some spices and thinly sliced pork belly. Aromatic, nicely salted and the doneness of the cabbages was impeccable. By that I had meant that the vegetables retained a healthy crunch while it was cooked past any residual rawness.

Here be the barbecued lamb. Seasoned with what might have been their regular barbecue spice rub with extras on the side for more flavour. The meat was pretty tender and the portions hearty.

The letdown in this visit was their yang rou pao mo. The broth was thin and because of the heavily spiced dishes before, tasted bland. We could hardly discern any flavours of lamb in the broth compared to the robust bowl that the defunct Yang Gui Fei made.