Sour mustard roasted pork rice from O Banh Mi

O Banh Mi has spruced up their menu recently. Some of the new stuff include banh xeo, grilled prawns and even added instant noodles as an option for their pho. I'm not sure how to feel about that last part. Anyways, here's their sour mustard roasted pork rice from their cơm tấm section. The name's a handful and the sour mustard refers to pickled mustard greens (a.k.a. kiam chye) rather than actual mustard. Those pickled mustard were quite salty and definitely needed the rice, but it was actually as a whole pretty enjoyable. I liked it. No, there wasn't much of a crisp going on on the roasted pork belly because it was all covered in the moist pickled mustard greens. But still.

$10 cheeseburger Tuesdays at MeatSmith

I haven't been to Meat Smith in a while. These guys are obviously by virtue of namesake - meat smiths. Couldn't say that I've eaten enough from them to agree or disagree but since cheeseburgers have meat and it's a $10 Tuesday for those from them, I thought why not?

So, the cheeseburger. It looked good. The buns were soft and the patty was tender. I was a little disappointed that the patty didn't have much char so that it would impart more of that smoky flavour. That meat was dripping with juices as I ate. I'd also classify the quantity of cheese they used to be sufficient than luxurious. What ruined this for me was the sauce which I felt was too much. A sparing use of that or the lack of it would have allowed the cheese and meat to come through.

The verdict? I don't dislike it. I wouldn't come back specially for it too. It wasn't as memorable as the one from their Rosita's Deluxe event. Still looking for the place that will bring on the solid crusty beef patty and cheese minus them frills.

Keria Japanese Restaurant 2018

Dinner at Keria Japanese Restaurant. It's January so the seasonal dishes are what's available for winter.

Today's otoshi was marinated salmon cubes. Not very exciting for otoshi so I spiced it up with a splash of La-Yu and wasabi.

We got thick slices of buri sashimi.

And their kani kama meshi which was served with a thin shell of a crab.

The pot of rice had kani, uni and ikura. Flavour was light. Tossed with a drizzle of shoyu, it became a comforting hot pot of rice. 

Their anko karaage was unexpectedly outstanding. The freshly fried meat from the monk fish was piping hot, tender and had a nice crisp on the exterior. The only thing that was needed to spruce it up was a squeeze of lime or a dip in the ponzu. Both of which were provided

We had shirako soup. It's basically shirako in a slightly smoky miso soup filled with negi. The milt was expectedly soft and tender like tofu. Very nice.

And to those we added our favourite order of stir fried mentaiko cabbage. It would be hard not to.

We noticed coffee jelly on their menu for the first time and decided to try it. Served with cream. I had initially dismissed the flavour to be similar to coffee candy but after a couple of spoons it started to grow on me. I actually enjoyed it.

Al-Naj, South Bridge Road

If you had done a double take, yes - those were indeed bits of noodles inside the murtabak. Curly noodles. Maggi mee. This was a Maggi murtabak from Al-Naj (217 South Bridge Road) - a local Indian Muslim stall. And no, these guys aren't anything like Zam Zam nor were they trying to be with the egg coated exterior. The mutton that they used in the stuffing with the noodles were those from mutton masala rather than the keema variety that one usually gets in murtabak. I would have preferred the latter.

Was it good? Well, it was the carb bomb as one would surmise. What made this work was their fish curry which was pretty delicious.

A kinmedai set from Nakajima Suisan

So here I was back at Nakajima Suisan and this time, with their grilled kinmedai which I gather is in season at this time. Firm, tender and oily it was with an almost prawny aroma on the charred parts of the skin. Again, another satisfying quick meal. I'm really starting to like this fish. I wished it was bigger.

Revisiting The Market Grill and the post lunch teh halia

This was the eve of New Year's Eve lunch at The Market Grill. I came here thinking burgers but clearly, we got distracted.

There's the black Suntory on tap here. It's rekindling my fondness of the place already.

We had lobster salad. Not the mess that many people pass off as lobster salad. This one was cleaner, pronounced and didn't make any attempts to hide the fact that there's really lobster in the salad. Think some of the liquorice flavour from the fennel got onto those tails or I'm tasting lemongrass. I'm confused. But I'm liking the goat's cheese and burnt grapefruit.

Their onion matchsticks was something I typically wouldn't have given a second look or thought on the menu. We actually ordered it today. This stuff had a great flavour on its crispy batter that made it addictive. 

Venison had me there with that spiced black current jus. Meat was tender with a nice sear on the exterior. Too bad it's only available for the Christmas period.

We don't typically order much chicken at places like this but Market Grill's sakura chicken deserved a mention that it was delicious to say the least. The meat was tender, moist, nicely brined and aromatized by the browning on the skin. So tender was that meat that I managed to debone the thigh with fork and knife.

We moved next door for some teh halia after lunch. Only in this part of the world can this be possible and I give thanks for these little blessings. So now I know their ginger isn't spicy but it's good enough that I wouldn't mind it again.