A chicken kopi O from Old Chang Kee

I was curious after passing by Old Chang Kee seeing that they have a coffee flavoured chicken puff. The flavour's in the sauce with the fillings. New and gimmicky but I was intrigued. Look at the silly grin.

The lady at the stall said it's good and especially good for those who like coffee. I took that with a pinch of salt. It does have some coffee flavour. Less than what I was hoping for but then again, I'm someone who expects at least half espresso level (make of that what you will) of aroma when coffee flavoured whatever is mentioned.

A chicken nanban teishoku at Suju

As the title goes, I had a tori nanban teishoku at Suju. I can't say that I do tori nanban much but since Japanese tartare sauce agrees with me and even their tori karaage was good, I thought it would be worth a try. This was also our first time sitting at the counter.

So it all started with a wait while nursing a glass of Suntory.

There seemed to be some sort of skin on the tori nanban. I'm not quite sure what it was through the sauce but I thought it might have been dipped in egg before frying. The meat was from the thigh - tender, a little fatty and dripping with juices. 

Their tartare sauce was a more refined rendition - all the ingredients were of a fine mince. That's not a good or bad thing. It's just their thing I suppose.

The tsukemono with their rice is no longer the cabbage/ginger. It's now crunchy pickled daikon. Yay!

And because it was such an enjoyable lunch, I decided to complete it with their annin tofu.

Revisiting Smiths at Balmoral

This was a craving that came about after a recent unsatisfactory episode with fish and fries so we came by for some proper fish and chips at Smiths. It seems that they've upgraded to a nicer looking menu with a little bit of changes and there're also selling Melton Mowbray pork pies now. So here's haddock and chips and fried sausage. Still as good as I remember them, washed down with some hauntingly good beer.

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.