One Night Only, River Valley Road

This (397 River Valley Rd, tel : +65 6235 1248) would be probably the closest we have ever gotten to an American styled diner. 'Styled' being the operative word here. Serving what could be considered a curated selection of "diner classics" with a touch of the Southern cooking from the US of A. Brought to us by the people behind Muchachos and The Daily Cut? Sure, why not?

We had their chicken fried steak. Liked it because it was exactly what it claimed to be. The meat had a nice spiced breading, tasted like a tender beef schnitzel and was doused with a quite nice cream sauce. Flavours were much better than I had imagined. That corn bread on the side was moist and crumbly.

There was also a shrimp étouffée - something definitively Cajun/Creole that is rather uncommon in this part of the world. Which was by the way, also much better tasting that the looks suggested. That spicy sauce had a good crustacean flavour. While I'm may not be any expert on them, I know enough about food in general to declare that this dish of shellfish gravy over rice was pretty tasty. Loved those shrimps. Mac and cheese was likeable and I dug those beans for some reasons.

In the words of a certain ex-governor spoken once upon a time in shades and black leather jacket, I'll be back.

Chen's Mapo Tofu, Downtown Gallery

The namesake Chen could probably be referring to Chen Kentaro (grandson), grandson of the founder of the Szechuan restaurant Shisen Hanten, Chen Kenmin (grandfather). In between the both of them is son to the latter and father to the the former - Chen Kenichi (father), formerly one of the Iron Chefs. Shisen Hanten by the way has an outlet on our shores which also happens to have gotten themselves two Michelin stars last year. Chen's Mapo Tofu (#02-29 Downtown Gallery, 6A Shenton Way, tel : +65 6221 3206) would be the casual outfit to that.

I've never had mapo tofu Szechuan styled so this would be a first for me. With little frame of reference, I can only describe it with what I perceive to be a moderate amount of heat and a fragrance from the chill oil/paste/Szechuan peppercorn. Something I simply associate with mala spices. It was a rather enjoyable bowl there. I'd skip their Szechuan popcorn chicken because KFC popcorn chicken and a bottle of La-Yu could actually be better. 

A return to the Les Bouchons at Ann Siang

It's been years since we've last stepped into this outfit of Les Bouchons (7 Ann Siang Road, tel : +65 6423 0737). For the previous times we had eaten, it had usually been the Rive Gauche branch at Robertson Quay. Tonight's food was good. Creamed spinach was tender and not fibrous like the last visit. Fries were not overly shrivelled. Prawns were delicious and the nicely charred tenderloin couldn't be better with their blue cheese sauce.

I should order something other than just steaks and prawns the next time but it's so hard to break out of these reliable options. Fear of change stems from not wanting to lose what currently is good about things isn't it?

Hua Kee Chicken Rice (華記雞飯), Redhill Food Centre

Woah, I liked this stall (#01-72 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane). I was initially apprehensive in spite of the queue which honestly, was formed through a rather leisurely pace of preparation rather than a overwhelming crowd. I had barely moved a couple of metres in the queue for the first 20 minutes. But all was forgiven when we started eating. 

Hua Kee's rice was flavourful, suitably greasy without being excessively so and it didn't taste heavy. Sounds familiar? Yeah, it reminded me of Sin Kee too. So good that I was torn between chilli or no chilli. Speaking of that chilli sauce, it had a nice heat with ginger and garlic. Totally respectable if not outstanding. 

What about the chicken, you might ask? I believe they were chilled before getting acquainted with the cleaver. Bird was chunky and tender, skilfully chopped up without accidental fragments of unwanted bone. Not quite Sin Kee's slurp off the bone tender in that regard, but still tender - even for their breast meat. All propped up by a pile of thinly sliced cucumbers. The ladled over sauce seemed to taste different from the usual variety. Soy sauce, sesame oil and maybe something else. Different but still enjoyable and wasn't overly salty. I'm definitely coming back again.

The mentaiko spaghetti from Ma Maison

Ma Maison's mentaiko spaghetti is tasty for some reasons - in spite of the fact that it doesn't have as much mentaiko as one would usually expect for a mentaiko pasta. There's enough of them for the flavours to come through and I'm thinking the stir fry adds on something akin to a light char aroma. The noodles have a clean flavour although it's usually a little greasy. And there's the other stuff they put in like mushroom, onions, clams and shrimp.

Imakatsu, Guoco Tower

Imakatsu has opened up another branch at Guoco Tower (#01-06 Tanjong Pagar Centre, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6822 7912) not too long back. The menu hasn't changed very much. I'm actually pretty happy that they retained some of the things that I liked their old menu.

One of which was the rosu katsu with garlic. It's a little smaller in size than the other tonkatsu options which they have. A thin slice of garlic is wedged between the meat and the flavour of that goes into the pork. This set comes with shoyu and wasabi which the other sets do not. Sauceless, mustard or shoyu is the way to go.

Their mentaiko rosu katsu is another one of their tonkatsu offerings that I liked. It didn't used to be on the regular menu. Now it is. Yay to that! The portions of the mentaiko are still as generous as ever. There's enough of the roe to go around the katsu and rice.

I don't remember noticing their cheese katsu before so we ordered one to try. It's actually quite tasty. Slightly stinky in a cheesy way and I think there is a layer between the breading and the cheese that tasted like mochi.