Spicy shrimp fried rice from Machida Shoten

The last time we were here at Machida Shoten, the neighbouring table had ordered this spicy shrimp chahan and we had thought that it looked pretty good. We didn't like it much. It was greasier than we had imagined. Whatever chilli they had used got inevitably compared to hae bi hiam which was invariably much tastier. Stick to the regular chahan we will.

Sens, Raffles Holland V

Seems that on certain spectrums, there are restaurants that are lacking of confidence with whom they are. Or perhaps I am mistaken and that these guys are simply inarticulate. With social media profile and website states next to nothing but meaningless marketing drivel about what they represent, it feels as though an effort is made to mask themselves behind anonymity while pretending to introduce themselves - at the risk of sounding much like the next restaurant.

We were here at Sens (#B1-12/13, Raffles Holland V, 118 Holland Avenue, tel : +65 6262 5618) for a meal. Food was pretty decent.

Their grilled fishes were quite nicely done and there's a kaisen chahan that was unexpectedly peppery. The latter wasn't a bad thing.

I'm glad they didn't gut their sanma so that we could still enjoy those bitter sweet innards.

Got ourselves a grilled kinmedai which had a flavour that reminded me of toasted shrimp or crab.

Yi Jia Chun (一家村), The Arcade @ Collyer Quay

On the occasions that I've reason to find myself at The Arcade (11 Collyer Quay), I've noticed this cooked food stall (#01-24). Always, I've been captivated by the steaming pots of food and soup at the stall. Little did I realize that they've a few outlets about in the vicinity until recently. Anyways, we stopped by for lunch before the lunch crowd came by.

One of the things that attracted me to the stall was their pumpkin rice. They were not bad - as ambiguous as that might have sounded. The kind of not bad where I wouldn't mind having again if I'm in the vicinity but not specially visit for.

There's pickled Szechuan mustard which was tasty in their mildly spicy and salty kind of crunchy way. I liked these.

Thick sliced luncheon meat is always good. I always felt that most places slice them too thin.

Didn't like their chicken curry. The curry itself was thin and flat while the pieces of chicken in there were bland. They weren't exactly slurp off the bone tender either. We didn't finish the most of it.

For some reasons, I got reminded of the lotus root soup at Big Bird while sipping this one. Anyone remember those guys? If anyone was wondering, this bowl has got nothing on the one at Big Bird. Big Bird's soup was bold and flavoursome while this rendition was lightweight.

Fu Shun Shao La Mian Jia (福顺 (锦记) 烧腊面家), Maxwell Food Centre

Noticed the queue at this stall the past couple of times we were here at Maxwell (#01-71, 1 Kadayanallur Street). While I generally don't subscribe to the wisdom of crowds in the context of our local food centres, our curiosities occasionally gets piqued. And sometimes, that doesn't end with the death of a cat.

These guys do a very competent roast duck. As all well done and properly roasted birds of such nature went, the meat was tender (even for the breast), moist and there were a little bit of tasty fat under the flavourful roasted skin.

The roasted pork belly was unfortunately a bore. Some of the crackling weren't crispy and the meat wasn't anything to write home about. But their char siew was very nicely done. Tender, fat laced and savoury sweet while texturized by a bit of delicious char on the surface and the grains of the meat. This and the duck I'm coming back for.

More eats at Tampopo

Been a little while since we were last at Tampopo.

Sweet corn from Hokkaido was in season so we got ourselves some of them in tempura. These ones here were a lot tastier than the ones we had at Keria Japanese Restaurant not a couple of months back.

Tampopo's wafu steak has always been a welcomed sight. While we don't order it every single time we're here, we've had it enough times that it's possibly the most ordered beef item that we do.

Their beef and potato croquette was lacklustre. Not quite getting that beef.

While it can be argued that we have enjoyed their negitoro don, I think I've figured out what has changed. The negi is still there but there's not much toro anymore. The portions of the minced tuna have increased, but it's no longer so fatty. Once upon a time, it used to be good.

White peach is in season and there's a chilled and refreshing salad on the menu currently which was delicious. Most of it because of the sweetness and aroma coming from the peach.

Remember their hon maguro don at a good deal? It's still available.  

Some Oktoberfest food from Huber's bistro

It's that time of the year when the kitchen at Huber's whips up a little something different for their Oktoberfest menu again. Breaking from tradition, I got myself a bottle of Paulaner's weissbier instead of the usual Grevensteiner. The last two sentences did not have any relations by the way. 

This year there was potato soup with smoked eel on menu. Amazing depth of extra smoky flavours those bits of eel lent to the soup. Nice.

Unfortunately, this year's leberknedelsuppn - for the lack of a better word, sucked. The broth simply wasn't beefy. Compared to that cheesy liver dumpling ball last year, this was sad and barely mention worthy.

 

The kitchen did some braised beef oyster blade a red wine sauce this time round too. The meat was fork tender while the sauce rich and flavourful. Delicious creamed cabbage on the side too.

While meatloaf on rye didn't seem to be particularly special, their honey sauerkraut with Schmand rocked. Especially tasty paired with sweet mustard on the rye. 

Dessert was a Morello cherry filled eclair with whipped cream. Both the pastry and the cream were very light.