A bowl of bakkwa you mian from Yo Banmian

Yo Banmian (coffeeshop @ Blk 654 Yishun Ave. 4) looked no different from the numerous ban mian stalls that dot our sunny island. I'm normally not a fan except for that stall down at Toa Payoh Central which I know is good. The commonly seen soup rendition is way too hot for our weather. At least for me it is. So I got intrigued by their dry ban mian bowl with bak kwa. Yes, you heard that right. Bak kwa. It's chopped/cut into little bits like minced pork so one eats them like minced pork noodles. There's some dark soy sauce, some lard and the minced bak kwa with some vegetables and a poached egg.

And because of those ingredients the noodles were a little sweet. Interesting.

Revisiting Spring Court

Dinner at Spring Court. I suppose part of the appeal here was that the restaurant does what it does in the ever-changing nature of our constantly evolving food landscape. There is a certain character and a small measure of their charm created by that character. It's a little pricey but there are a bunch of things that are uniquely them that cannot be found elsewhere. Sweeping statements - I know.

This was a second go at their poh piah. The stuffings were not well drained again. Maybe that's how they roll here. Lol. The spring roll skins got soggy after a while. It's not bad tasting, but I don't think I'll develope much cravings for them after today

These are crab meat "rolls" with chicken liver and salted egg yolk. A signature deep fried egg shaped dish of theirs. Freshly fried, no residual grease and crispy on the shell. Each ingredient could be tasted individually and it's more delicious than the looks suggested. I'd get these again.

Their claypot lamb brisket were another good call. Tender and tasty and would have been great with white rice. There's even sliced water chestnuts and some tau kee (dried bean curd sheets) in there.

The carbs for this time round was their ee meen. The menu mentioned shredded chicken and crab but there were only mushrooms with the noodles. Strange. It's not bad, not too greasy but I personally felt that the noodles were a little too soft.

Tuna belly, collar and monkfish liver at Kuro Maguro

We were reeled in by the JPassport redemption for their tuna bowl. Only $9.90. It's not as big as their regular donburi but hell it's still a good value for that price. Rice topped with minced hon maguro toro, toro cubes and ikura. Temptation's the one thing we'll never resist.

Ankimo was in season. This one that they served was lacklustre in flavours (saved by the ponzu) for some reasons and was poorly handled - or manhandled. The liver was crumbling at the sides and not neatly portioned out. 

We had tuna collar. A medium sized piece that costed a pretty penny. It was good. We enjoyed it. But I suppose there's other collars that wouldn't cost so much for so little which represents better value.

Makan Sutera Nasi Lemak Pandan Rice, Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

I was at Tanjong Pagar Market in the morning looking for breakfast. For some reasons, nasi lemak was the thing in my mind. Seeing that the Pandan Leaf Nasi Lemak stall was closed till the next year, I went for the only other option which was Makan Sutera (#02-39 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza). It was okay. For what they charged, I couldn't complain about the ingredients. They do need to get themselves a better otah supplier. 

I did feel that their rice had enough aroma and salt that I didn't even need the sambal though. I'm normally not a fan of ikan bilis with this dish and strangely, they also didn't give me any today.

Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine, Tanjong Pagar Centre

Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine has caused some stir in recent times. The original premise at Takashimaya has shifted to ION Orchard while in the recent year, they've rubbed off some glimmer from a French tyre company. Quietly and not quite under the radar, they've also set up a branch at Tanjong Pagar Centre (#02-01 & #03-01, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6384 2722).

We ordered a combination of their marinated meats because it seemed that these were something they were good at or known for. At least that's the impression that I have. Here's duck tongue, sliced duck and pig intestines. Hmm...more offal than meat. The braising sauce was flavourful. Not very good at describing how that was but it was a lot more spiced than what I'm used to experiencing - in a good way that is. The meat was tender with just that little bit of bite except for the tongue which are by nature chewy. Not bad. 

The menu described this as a Teochew styled stewed mee pok with mince pork and pork liver. There's some mushrooms and bean sprouts in there as well. The first thought I had was that this was a glorified and expensive ba chor mee - which wasn't very far from the truth. Hear me out. This was a very nice glorified ba chor mee. 

In retrospect, they nailed a couple of things well which made this plate of noodles lip smacking. The stewing liquid which coated the noodles was savoury and mildly sweet kind of delicious. Second, the texture of the mee pok was superb. Thin and springy with bite all the way till the last bits. I would order it again.

This wasn't so much fulfilling the greens quota than because I generally kinda enjoy mustard greens. And oh yes, chestnuts too. They managed to make the vegetable so tender here.

We made it to desserts which generally meant that everything else we had early made us feel good enough to spend more money on sweets. But that orh nee was quite nice. The piping hot yam paste was smooth and refined, fragrant with the scent of the cooked tuber. A teaspoon of lard or shallot oil would have seriously up the ante on this, but it's merely wishful fantasy on my part.

Sri Rajya Lakshmi Narasimhan, Serangoon Road

I've been meaning to come down to this place (436 Serangoon Road) since that time I was recommended to their food court stall down at Changi Business Park. This was where things got a little confusing. That food court stall was Sri Lukshmi Naarashimhan which was exactly what the decal spelt here. But the sign for the shop said Sri Rajya Lakshmi Narasimhan. I'm assuming it's probably just a little change in the name and how things are spelled.

But there's more. Google lists their contact as 9051 6326 while Happy Cow has both 6292 7740 and 6292 2434. Meanwhile the sign on the shop goes 6299 1424. Not that I tried calling any of them.

I was looking forward to giving their Andhra meal another go today but apparently they didn't have it. The proprietress simply said that it would be available next month. I ended up with a South Indian meal instead. The question I have is - is there a time of the year when such meals are available or am I just unlucky?

Anyway, the meal was quite delicious. They spooned some ghee onto the rice after it was served and also gave a little dollop of some pickled thing which was pretty sour. There's the usual sambar, rasam, yoghurt and a spiced yoghurt. The latter I've not seen served around before. That ghee definitely added an additional delicious depth to the rice. I'm pretty sure I'm coming back again.