Le France pear from Yamagata at Takashimaya's Japan Fair

We came across this booth at the Japanese Fair this weekend that sold those Le France pears which we had bought in the past. Nope, can't remember from whence. But we recalled that there were good so we popped a couple of those samples they were giving out. These were exactly like we remembered them. A fruity and clear salty sweet with a fragrance. So we bought a pack of four.

Re-re-revisiting Nirai Kanai

Came by Nirai Kanai for dinner after some groceries at Meidi-ya. A glass of grapefruit beer to slake the thirst while waiting for the food to be served.

These were some sort of deep fried taco spring rolls with minced beef and cheese. Freshly fried and piping hot. I didn't dislike them but I don't think I'll be interested in eating them again.

We got a large serving of their chanpuru this time round. This stuff is pretty good if you didn't already know.

There's chahan with mustard greens. Tasted pretty much like how it looked. Simple and pretty satisfying. More mustard greens would be nice too.

They do pretty tasty fried somen with mustard greens too. I liked that those noodles were sufficiently salted and their thin firm textures definitely agreed with me.

Publico Deli, Nanson Road

Not really sure what's the background behind Publico (Level 1 InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay, 1 Nanson Road). They're a three establishment setup with the deli (or so they claim), a ristorante which is probably opened by now and a bar - with a website that's more style than substance. While the theme is Italian, I'm not so sure how much of their food really are. 

The deli does have a sparkling espresso. A what? You read it right the first time. Espresso with fizz and a sprig of mint to go with. It's actually pretty enjoyable, thanks to the coffee.

We had their Mediterranean Scramble. Scrambled egg whites, apparently free-ranged and kale on sourdough with grilled chicken breast. Not that I could tell that it was free-ranged but the eggs and kale were kinda nice. Those chicken tasted like they were cooked, frozen and then popped into the microwave. Pretty generous portions of meat but not very nice to eat.

But their beetroot salad was delicious. Roasted beetroot with what appeared to be beetroot puree with goat's cheese on toast sprinkled with a little fresh thyme. 

That goat's cheese on toast became even better with a generous drizzle of honey. We had to ask for the honey which the restaurant obliged. It didn't come with the beetroot. I'd eat this again.

Tsuta Japanese Soba Noodles, Pacific Plaza

Much had already been said about Tsuta (#01-01 Pacific Plaza, 9 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6734 4886) and its world's only Michelin starred ramen parentage from Tokyo so none further of that is going to be printed here. The queue as I've heard/read was quite mad at the start but nature took its course to normalise things. Not much of a queue this particular evening; we barely waited for five minutes before we got a seat. 

New on their menu was a kamo abura soba and a kamo paitan soba which were said to be new bowls to commemorate the passing of their first anniversary in Singapore. This above was the kamo abura soba - no soup and tossed in their mixture of duck oil and shoyu...perhaps also amongst other secrets that might not have been revealed. This was pretty good. The noodles were slick from the duck oil and texturized by the crunch from bits of cashew and diced yellow onions. I thought the noodles had a umami nuttiness to it. 

The portions were kinda small though. If I had realized that it was only two slices of that duck, I would have gotten additional.

This was their shoyu bowl which had tongues wagging. There was some truffle in it. It was a nice amount of truffle that added to the bowl rather than destroy the broth. Very easy to drink and enjoyable as well. Noodles were thin. Charshu was thin sliced, tender and had a nice texture from the grains of the meat.

I'll definitely be back to try more another time. 

Green goddess pizza and fish & chips from PS. Cafe Petit

The last time we were here, we noticed a number of neighbouring tables with their Green Goddess pizza. Peas, beans, spinach and capsicum. I'm not usually a fan of the latter. The flavour doesn't resonate well with me but I didn't mind them on this pie because it wasn't very strong. With the bits of goats cheese, it was delicious. And that roasted sambal to go with the cornicione is definitely starting to grow on me.

We also picked up a fish and fries chips this time. Fish was white, firm and flaky. Red snapper the menu said. It wasn't bad per se but it's also not Smiths or Oxwell's. Still, it was quite edible and definitely way overpriced for the portions and quality.  

Tiong Bahru Fried Kway Teow, Tiong Bahru Market FC

We had previous tried the other char kuey teow stall nearby so we thought to give this a chance too. This particular stall has been around (#02-11, 30 Seng Poh Road) judging from the news clippings at their front so there's the possibility that I might have had it some time in the past...decades? Anyways, it looked very light. We were expecting it to be in a more luxuriant coat of dark soy sauce. It would not be untrue to say that were a little disappointed by the appearance.

But good news was, it tasted much better than it looked. Even though there was probably no lard in it. There was more flavour than the colours suggested and in the end, we liked it. Even those usually neglected lup cheong were well fried and flavoursome.