Niku Kappo, ION Orchard

Watami has thrown in the towel at the basement of ION for whatever reasons. The current tenant which has taken over is Niku Kappo (#B3-23 ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 9366) - brought in from Tsujiki in the land of the rising sun by…*Dave Lombardo drumroll*…Watami! Apparently another one of those first in the world outside of Japan kind of places.

Lots of beef options here and their niku nabe seems to be central to their offerings.

The thing that Niku Kappo does which isn't so common is niku sushi. Meat sushi of the wagyu variety served raw or torched in various styles. The wagyu uni gunkan and the wagyu rossini (the one with foie gras and truffle) are the tastier ones. The rest of the meat that wasn't aburi-ed weren't particularly outstanding even though the wagyu toro was fat marbled and supposed to be flavourful.

This was their yaki tetsu Kobe. A shiro miso based niku nabe. One gets to choose the type of beef used and this was their Akagi wagyu option

The ingredients were brought to the table and cooked by the server.

The beef and negi are first seared.

Then set aside.

The first portions that were served included the caramelized negi and a little of the Akagi wagyu. We were told that the yellow stuff in the bowl is a tamago sauce - something to downplay the intensity from the shiro miso.

The rest of the ingredients are simmered in the shiro miso and what I think might have been dashi.

The remaining miso after we were done with the nabe was made into a sauce with egg.

Which is then ladled onto the rice that comes with the order of their niku nabe.

Taste Affair, Amoy Street Food Centre

This stall (#02-128 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) is by Joshua Khoo, one half of the duo behind Saveur/Saveur Art. Apparently these couple of guys are no longer related to that Saveur Group they had created and are currently treading their own beaten paths. 

The food's pretty easy to figure out. A few meat/ingredient options to choose from and then a choice of either flavoured (saffron) rice or capellini. This was shrimp and chorizo with capellini. Plenty of umami going round from the bits of kombu, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, tobiko, chorizo and mushrooms underscored by a luxuriant coating of their soft poached egg. But a particular edge seemed missing from all the flavours.

I don't mind coming back to try their sake butter clams.

Zion Riverside Food Centre

For some reasons, I seldom eat here (70 Zion Road). This food centre is a landmark, albeit a small one, with a decent variety of local eats. While I'm pretty sure I've been here before at some point in the past, I don't remember when was the last time.

Lau Goh Teochew Chye Thow Kway (Stall 26) was something that was recommended. I heard these guys used to be a legend half a century ago but I couldn't taste the fish sauce or chai por in their chai tau kuey. The current guy running the stall is the son of the original owner. 

I suppose a little bland would be an appropriate description but it didn't taste bad. By the way, the way to place an order for their carrot cake would simply be to point at what you want from the pictures.

No 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow (Stall 17) always has a queue as far as I can remember. A lot of people come here for this particular stall. The noodles were sweet, peppered with bits of fried lard and a little wet. I prefer something that's dryer. It's not bad but unless I get a serious craving for char kuey teow, I'm not queueing for this again.

The pleasant surprise was Soon Lee Pig Organ's Soup (Stall 13). These guys are a little different from the regular pig organ's soup stall. The dark speckles that you see in the soup are fried bits of garlic which lends their aroma to the soup. Don't know of anyone else that does that. The broth also doesn't inherit much sour from the kiam chye - which is normally not the case for most pig organ soup. The flavour profile is hence not the usual. With some pepper, this bowl kicks ass.

Soon Lee's soup includes tender thin slices of pork belly. This is mention worthy because most stalls that also have sliced pork belly in their soup tends to also mean rubbery pork belly.

London duck with summer truffle sauce from Grand Mandarina

We wanted to try this the last time we were here. They were out of duck and we were out of luck.  I'm not getting much of the truffle from the sauce. I would normally feel cheated but - the duck itself was really good. The skin was thin and crisp with a bit of fat for the flavour while the meat was tender and moist. As cliché as those descriptions might have sounded, it was true. I would come back for this.

That and also their char siew which we did not forget and even had seconds of this time round.

Gandos from House of Gandos

We've never heard of gandos before. We came across these kueh from a neighbouring table at Geylang Serai Food Centre and thought it look both interesting and tasty so we ended up with a plate from the aptly named House of Gandos (#02-157 Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre, 1 Geylang Serai). From what we were told by the stall, these were made with rice flour and coconut. They're kinda like pancakes. The texture was soft, creamy on the inside and was lightly salted. Yes, you dip them into the orange sugar before popping them into your mouth. I'm sure they'll be excellent for breakfast.

Izakaya Nijumaru after 2730 days...

It has been a very long while since the first and last time we were in Izakaya Nijumaru. Little has changed as far as I could see and the restaurant seemed as packed as I remember. I think perhaps, this particular re-visit was steered by a subconscious drive to understand the popularity behind this joint. Today, we sat very close to where we did the last time. Right at the opposite end from their little counter where one could steal occasional glances at a window into another world while waiting for the food.

The servers recommended that we try their grilled beef on skewers claiming that it was very juicy. We topped that suggestion with an order of asparagus wrapped with bacon. As far as grills went, I couldn't say that it was bad. But we've been pampered by great places and as long as one doesn't start comparing with the King two floors up, these were actually quite edible. That comparison almost never ends well so we will not start.

Won't be ordering that beef skewer again though. I'm usually a meat with salt and pepper kind of person usually and this was very marinated.

Their teishoku are well received here. We had one with gindara teriyaki. That particular one was quite sad. Two points to be made here. The quality of the fish was mediocre and it was doused with that same garlic sauce used on the beef skewers which pretty much buried any teriyaki flavours - not that I could even tell that there was teriyaki sauce. The second was that one could easily get very decent stuff at a similar cost or less at Nakajima Suisan Grilled Fish.

Fortunately there was a omureto (omelette if you didn't catch it) set that made up for the cod. Who would have thought this? The egg was light, tender and piping hot with bits of mince pork inside. An almost childhood-like simplistic tray of comfort food. By the way, the stewed hijiki that's part of their teishoku was forgettable. These don't even come close to those that the old Wasabi Tei provided.

We had a horensou salad which the menu described to be a bacon and spinach salad. I'm not sure what the vegetable was but I was imagining baby spinach. After being thrown off for a little bit, I realised that these were actually pretty similar to baby spinach. Meaning that there wasn't much flavour in them and after I had accepted that, this was actually a pretty good eat. Thanks to the bacon and their rendered fat of course.

And a nasu dengaku that arrived right at the end. The grilled juicy eggplant glazed with sweet miso was definitely something to be enjoyed while it is still hot.