Grain Traders, 100AM

I've been wanting to check out Grain Traders (#01-03/04 100AM, 100 Tras Street) since I've heard about them opening up at Market Street. Never made my way there. I was kinda glad that this outlet at Tanjong Pagar opened since it was a lot more convenient.

It's a plate meal approach where one picks a protein, a starch/grain and some vegetables along with sauce/toppings. The food tasted pretty good. Mushrooms were flavourful, butternut squash sweet and creamy, coconut curry was fragrant and had some nice heat and blah blah. Maybe the pulled pork was a little stringy and boring. What did not work out for me was $16 for small portions. 

I've nothing against paying more for food. What irks me is inadequacy. In this case, portion was a little small for a supposed plate meal. I fail to see the point of eating here when I'll have to go somewhere else after to grab a snack. So as much as I enjoyed the food, I don't think I'm coming back with any regularity.

Tonkatsu Agedoki, Suntec City

Another tonkatsu specialist (#03-310/311 Suntec City Tower 1, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 6333 4386) has opened up and it's part of the the Eat at Seven cluster at Suntec. These guys are managed by the Kings Know inc. group which is responsible for Tempura Kohaku just next door. Apparently, both tonkatsu and tendon shops share the same kitchen.

There's the usual pedigree marketing. Nanatsuboshi rice from Hokkaido, pork from Nagano and yada yada. But along that way, they had neglected to mention that they also served a rather nice tonjiru. The broth, much sweeter than other tonjiru I've had was filled with bits cabbage, onions and sliced pork. This was unfortunately not refillable.

Cabbage was refillable. But the stewed seaweed that is served with the cabbage is not. So manage your seaweed portions, mix them up with some of the dry cabbage, add a few healthy squeezes of the goma dressing and toss before eating. You'll get yourself some amazing salad. You heard it here first.

The prawn wrapped in pork katsu was pretty good. Nice crisp on the exterior, tender thin sliced pork and crunchy prawn. All that's needed was a little bit of salt and perhaps some of the mustard that's provided on the side.

As you can see, the bandages of thin sliced pork went all the way to the tail. This was some tight wrapping accomplished there.

What Tonkatsu Agedoki offers that the other tonkatsu-ya doesn't is a spicy tonkatsu sauce. Haven't seen that anywhere else before. A drizzle of that plus another of the goma sauce on the rice is a much better use of the sauce than on the tonkatsu itself.

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.