Tendon Kohaku (天丼琥珀), Suntec City

Finally down to Tendon Kohaku (#03-310/311 Suntec City, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 6333 4386). The queue that I've been hearing about was still there but we managed to get there early so the wait was much less painful. Just 15 minutes. And another 20 or so after we got seated.

Here's their Ocean Gems tendon which featured snow/king crab, oyster, scallop, squid and shrimps in a aonori batter with a small shower of ikura. And a rather large crabstick. I'm quite sure the large chikuwa-like tempura was crabstick and not crab. 

This particular tendon is apparently on limited serving per day. It passed muster for a lack of a better description. The batter was sufficiently crisp and not too heavy with little residual grease. I liked that fried oyster in there even though I thought it was a little small. The seafood tasted pretty good except for the boring piece of squid.

Dynasty Ipoh Seafood, Bishan

Heard about the fried porridge for quite a while so curiosity finally got the better of me. It's a signature dish - amongst a few others, from Dynasty Ipoh Seafood (151 Bishan Street 11, #01-195, tel : +65 9122 3993). The chef had previously been cooking at a talked about place called Royal J's at Foch Road.

How was that? Pretty good. The flavour from the dried shrimp/cuttlefish and possibly lard made it taste like glutinous rice dumplings. With a viscous porridge texture that's kinda like the dry porridge from Raan Jay Fai.  

The fu rong egg was okay. Neither the better nor worst I've encountered.

This was green dragon vegetable (青龙菜), also known as royal chives. Stir fried. Not sure if I've ever had them before. They tasted like bean sprouts with the texture of chives. Rather fibrous chives if might say so. Very little salt in this so it was a little bland.

We ordered their baby lamb chops because we were curious and lamb is kinda rare in our local Chinese cze char stalls. Almost as rare as a unicorn sighting. It came with what was described as Mongolian sauce. A sauce that was thick and nutty which reminded me of satay gravy. It was also peppery. The flavours were sweet and spicy and it wasn't that much different from a sweet black pepper sauce. The lamb was a little chewy and filled with bones.

We had pickled mustard soup. Flavour from the kiam chye was lighter than what I had been expecting but there was quite a bit of ingredients that made it relatively tasty. Ingredients like dried sour plum, sliced fish cake, sliced pork and tofu.

Their prawn paste mid wings were well fried but quite lacking in flavours from the prawn paste.

What I personally found outstanding was their Thai styled steamed sea bass with lemon and bee hoon. I liked that the lemon-y flavours were well absorbed into the bee hoon. The fish was tender and delicious while that lemon sauce/broth was also deliciously spicy. I don't know what those mint leaves were doing there though.

Wow Wow West, ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre

A few friends and co-workers have been telling me for years about this local western food stall (#01-133, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah Lane 1). The commonality of those mentions was that they were supposed to be good. For reasons, I never had a the opportunity to check them out until today. Here's a chicken chop. 

Barely passed muster if you asked me. There was some browning on the meat but the skin was soft without crisp nor aroma. Sauce was pedestrian. Sausage was nice but they bought it from somewhere and simply pan fried it. Are these guys defining the standards for good these days? I'm don't know what's the big deal here.

Ami Ami by Kuriya Dining, Great World City

While the restaurant (#B1-03/04 Great World City, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6835 9071) has the words tempura and robatayaki emblazoned above their counter, I knew enough to keep expectations lowered. They're in the basement of Great World City, cloistered in a corner with a couple of other restaurants. One doesn't expect to find specialists here. And it's managed by Kuriya Dining. There's more - the place features an award winning chef according to their web site. Must be plentiful of awards going around these days. 

Still I was curious because these guys apparently make their own dried mackerel and perhaps there was something interesting to be had from what's seasonal.

Their house dried mackerel was fine. Charcoal grilled they say but I thought it was nothing that would blow the socks off anyone. It was cool that they removed all the bones from the fish though. The entire thing could be eaten.

I was curious about their tempura onsen egg rice so I upgraded my teishoku with one. Not the same tempura-ed egg as the one from Tendon Ginza Itsuki as this one was wrapped in bean curd sheets. It's molten like what was expected. With a little shoyu or tendon sauce, it's good with the rice.

Scallops were supposed to be fresh according to them. For something that was hot off their grill, it didn't taste very flavourful. The sweetness from the shellfish felt muted.

Tempura ebi was okay-ish. The batter was a wee bit thicker than what I thought would be nice. The fried legs were crispy, crustacean-ly and awesome though.

They didn't feature much of a variety for seasonal fishes. We picked a kodai from what they had. This was very nice. Fish was nicely grilled, tender and moist.

Ramen Nagi, Suntec City

Ramen Nagi (#01-512/513 Suntec City Tower 2, 9 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 6266 1502)  from Japan opened up a couple of months back. Tonkotsu based and looked Hakata styled one at that. Like any ramen-ya with publicity, these guys attracted long lines during the opening.

I got a bowl of their Black King - one with obsidian broth that's been blackened with squid ink, blackened garlic and black sesame. The broth was rich, slightly viscous even after mixing with what appeared to be a ball of black pepper sauced minced meat and was quite delicious. Liked that the squid ink flavour came through along with the garlic. Even though I had opted for their extra hard option for the noodles - presumably harigane, it was still softer than I had expected. Pork belly was tender and had some nice melty fats.

I think I liked this enough to come back to try another bowl.

Din Tai Fung's black truffle chicken soup

Had this? This stuff is liquid gold and a much better application of black truffle than many places. There's enough of the truffle flavour infused into the soup that made the flavour exquisite. Enough salt for that delicious savouriness. Enough clarity to be delicate. And no, I'm neither a shareholder nor employee.