Now Noodles +, Square 2

I guess the main reason why we headed down to Now Noodles + (#02-65 Square 2, 10 Sinaran Drive, tel : +65 6251 0177) was for their century egg mee tai mak. Mee tai mak is also known as lao shu fen in Mandarin or lou shi fun in Cantonese which translates to rat noodles or more accurately rat's tails noodles. Because they look somewhat like rat's tails. I grew up knowing them as bee chai bak. The convolutions of dialects but things are as such.

Anyways, it was ok. I've heard it being compared to the X.O. rendition that was previously served at The Canteen by Les Amis but I personally think this has got nothing on that. It's unusual for sure, didn't taste too bad but needs to cost less to convince me to come back. I think that's something missing from this bowl of rat's tail noodles. It needs a bit more salt perhaps and the flavours feel like a heap of good intention with no soul.

The nameless noodle stall at 40 Beo Crescent

This noodle stall was from the same coffee shop (40 Beo Crescent) as the Beo Crescent nameless Hainanese curry rice. Old school with chewy mee pok tossed in a prickly chilli sauce.

The sui gao are minced pork and prawn dumplings wrapped in their skin. No wood ear fungus, water chestnuts nor mushrooms.

Tasty in an old school way because many stalls did them that way back in the day.

The nameless noodle stall also sold chicken claw noodles. Flavourful and tender slurp off the bone chicken claw where the taste strangely reminded me of wet pork floss. Pretty competent, made delicious breakfast.

A couple of interesting milks from Mustafa

You read that right. It does say 'Camelicious' and it is indeed camel milk. How did it taste? It is more similar to goat milk than cow's. There was a certain "meaty" flavour but nothing that was off putting. It was actually pretty refreshing chilled from the fridge. We bought this natural flavoured one because we had wanted to taste how it was going to be like before attempting the saffron and date flavours which the supermarket also had. That'll be the next time.

The other thing which I've been getting from Mustafa is cardamom milk. It's cardamom flavoured evaporated milk for use with our caffeine fuelled beverages. Actually helped me through a mistake purchase of the Nescafe Original freeze dried coffee when I was supposed to be getting the Classic instead. The Original is pretty lousy stuff so having that cardamom flavour kinda made up for it.

Man Man, Keong Saik Road

Hear ye. The Teppei Group have advanced themselves and set up a new Japanese unagi shop Man Man (#01-01, 1 Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 6222 0678). By Japanese unagi, we're specifically referring to eels that are sourced from Japan (from what I've read, a "respected unagi farm in Aichi prefecture") rather than China or wherever else they're sourced from. Imported live into tanks, freshly slaughtered and charcoal grilled. Making Man Man the second Japanese unagi shop here after the pricey Chikuyotei. 

How was it? Pretty impressive I must admit. The unagi had a nice caramelized surface with a healthy char from the grilling with meat that was fall apart tender. That's the kimo don which included a portion of the eel liver. There's even a little root of wasabi on the side for you to grate. Considering that the seating spaces are a little small and the tables just that little shaky, it required some finesse to do the grating. But I'm not complaining. Looking forward to returning assuming that the inevitable queues that will find their way there doesn't kill it for me. 

Tsukiji Sushi Takewaka, Japan Food Town @ Wisma Atria

Tsukiji Sushi Takewaka's (#04-43, Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6262 3247) claim to credit is that the fish is imported directly from Tsujiki Market in Tokyo and that their product uses only the freshest of ingredients. That's what they all say, don't they? So nothing new here. Besides, some fishes go through ageing before the flavour is developed so freshness while applicable to some seafood is irrelevant to the others.

From what I've been hearing, these guys are originally from Tsujiki Market and have been there for about three decades and this is their first outpost outside of that shop.

The menu listed this as crab innards so we confirmed if it was kani miso before ordering. This stuff was awesome with a deep sweet crustacean oceanic flavour.

That's the isobe tempura Camembert. Seaweed wrapped Camembert cheese tempura. The batter was quite light and crispy.  

It's matsutake season and there's matsutake tempura nigiri which we thought could be interesting. This was the cheapest option since the next up which was for a serving of matsutake tempura was priced considerably higher. For $20 a pop, this was more expensive than most wagyu. The flavours were a letdown considering how much each piece costed. These tasted nothing like how I remembered them. 

We took the plunge and went for the maguro zanmai set which involves the common variations of hon maguro. Akami, chutoro, otoro, an aburi toro nigiri, a negitoro gunkan and some toro maki. Tuna was pretty good, but kinda expensive for the portions which we inhaled rather easily. I think we went a little overboard tonight chalking up quite a large bill in the process. Large enough to get pretty decent omakase in some places. Ouch!

Marutama Ramen, Liang Court

I've only eaten Marutama Ramen a couple of times in the past at their shop in Clark Quay Central. I recall being quite impressed the first time I've had it. I thought it might be a good thing to re-visit, this time at Liang Court (#02-01/02 Liang Court, 177 River Valley Rd). Was just thinking to myself what could go wrong with the one in Liang Court right?

The noodles were much softer today. While it wasn't soggy, it didn't have the bite that I remember. Not to mention my preferred harigane. I'm guessing it has been tuned to local preferences. The broth was also much less robust than I recalled. The taste was not much like how I remembered it. While it wasn't bad per se, the bowl didn't quite pack the punch from those first couple of times. The only thing that was still impressive was their shoyu infused ajitama. Did they change or have I? Menya Takeichi blows this out of the water now.