Red Eye Smokehouse, Cavan Road

American styled barbecue joint located a short distance from the main Lavender Street (1 Cavan Road, tel : +65 6291 0218) that also dispenses brews from RedDot BrewHouse on their taps. This would be the second and possibly only other American styled barbecue specialist here other than Decker Barbecue down at Robertson Quay. 

We picked up some Brandt briskets and lamb chops along with their maple corn bread and mashed potatoes with bone marrow butter. The food was pretty good. I liked those briskets which were smoky at the edges, tender and flavourful from the fat. Lamb chops were full of bite and pretty lamb-y. The latter was my kind of thing for lamb so no complains from me on that.

Buns and pickles are served on request with no additional charge. I'm pretty sure I'd like to drop by again sometime.

Covent Garden Kway Chap, Havelock Road Food Centre

Came across this stall (#01-05 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) while looking for breakfast over the weekend and decided to join the queue.

This was delicious kuey chap. Old school and delicious. Their cauldron of ingredients had been simmering to the point where the flavour of the braising liquid was in every morsel of offal and meat. Braising liquid tasted like how I remembered kuey chap broth as a kid. Flavourful yet clean and balanced without any particular spice being predominant.

Riverside Grilled Fish (江边城外), Raffles City

Riverside Grilled Fish (#B1-06/07 Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6352 2035) opened about a year back. From what I could gather, they're a chain from China. This was suppose to be their first outlet outside China. Yes, it's another one of those again. 

Food's not bad. We had a garoupa with black bean sauce and we topped it up with bean curd sheets and luncheon meat. If you're wondering what happen to the latter items, they were mostly under the fish. The black bean sauce was just a little bit spicy, buffed with the aroma of Szechuan peppercorns and fermented black beans. Salty and moreish and would have been excellent with white rice. 

There was fried rice from their menu was unexpectedly addictive and nicely done. Only gripe - the garoupa was much smaller than I had imagined and maybe it's just not the tender flaky fish that I was hoping for. Will try another fish with another sauce the next time.

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?