Fried Egg Power from Park Bench Deli

I happened to be in the vicinity during breakfast hours so I thought it made sense to stop by for a breakfast sandwich from Park Bench Deli. It did sound good on paper. A couple of eggs, tater tots, bacon, cheddar and PBD sauce. I'll disclaim at this point that I do not actually know what's in the PBD sauce.

It's not bad. Greasy, carb-y and salty - texturized between two warm rolls. But for $12.85 I definitely felt that quantity needs work. #pricey. A bit more cheese, a bit more bacon and possibly another egg would have been so much more satisfying. Couldn't taste any of that PBD sauce after half the sandwich so some strategically squeezed Sriracha came to the rescue with their nice vinegary warmth. 

Spicy shrimp Tambun Biscuits from Penang

These were quite tasty. One could definitely get a good hint of those flavours from the spicy dried shrimps (hae bi hiam) in the mung bean stuffings which made these tau sah piah more savoury than the usual already savoury sweet ones.

Another Slavic Day at Beerfest

Apparently, this Slavic Day events happen on the first Sunday of the month so it's not such an uncommon occurrence as I believed the last time we were here.

Their fish platter has improved greatly since the last visit. More fish and it seems that they're all cured in house.

Great munching with their toasted rye while waiting for the food to arrive.

I managed to get the lamb shashlik this time round. Good stuff which was as delicious as the pork ones if not better. I liked that a lot of it was the natural flavour from the meat. The potato is missing now though.

A good time too - to toss back a couple of kvass while getting food here.

A quick update on Etna

We were here for lunch over the weekend.

Tuna tartare was pretty good. Refreshing with their avocado cream.

There was a squid ink pasta with orange scent. A weekend special and a robust flavour from the flavour of the ink coming through. The orange scent was apparently made by crumbled desiccated orange peel (those powdery stuff that might have looked like bottarga) which lent their flavour to the pasta. I thought it might have been improved to have some fresh orange peel grated over the noodles too. Speaking of oranges, I still wonder if their orange risotto will ever make its way back to their menu.

The presentation of their ciriole alla Norcina has changed a little. They've gone with the truffle puree smudges on the sides of their bigger plates which has made it a little fancy but not much else has changed. It did feel less saucy previously and the old presentation had a more rustic appeal.

Etna seemed to be using capsule coffee machines. Honestly quite surprised at their rather untraditional option. The strongest capsule that they had unfortunately couldn't make a good affogato. There simply wasn't the strength and aroma that could sufficiently pair with the creamy ice cream. Senso is still the king here. Hell, even Otto's Deli Fresh has better.

Revisiting Hokkaido Izakaya

We came back to see if Hokkaido Izakaya have had any kind of updates to their food. Apparently apart from the seasonal items which seemed to be just a small selection, not much has changed.

This time round, scallop liver sashimi was available. We ordered some. Thy were pretty good. There was some natural sweetness from the meat which paired nicely with the sesame oil and salt dip it was accompanied with.

Tomatoes were nice too. Firm, fresh and sliced up with a sprinkle of salt and some mayo to smoothen the flavours. 

Their chilled chawanmushi with snow crab didn't look like the picture in the menu which showed a little mound of crab meat. This looked like it had a pinch of it. There were more flavours coming in from the bursts of the ikura.

The waitress sold us their yanaginomai yaki (known as yellow rockfish on the menu) claiming that it was good. The fish was a little small and had meat that was more crumbly rather than the ideal firm flakiness. Sure it was tender but there was not so much flavours going on beyond all the salt on the skin. Maybe this simply wasn't my kind of grilled fish.

Warm potato salad was actually pretty good because of the smoked egg they mashed in it. I could understand why this was a popular item.

Here's a supposed bowl of asari boiled in sake and dashi. I'm not sure if I could taste anything from the latter two ingredients in the broth. Maybe only a little bit of clams which made it quite a disappointment. The clams were tasty though.

We ordered their salmon milk miso nabe again.

Still nice like I remember it. A milky broth with cheesy and miso flavours that eventually will be sweetened by the vegetables that accompanied it. I wouldn't recommend for the salmon to be cooked all the way through. Those slices definitely would have been over cooked by the time the greens are sufficiently wilted.

Fish and Fries and Chocolate Pie from McD

Hit the brakes for a moment y'all. I know, McDonalds. The widely and maybe globally reviled/adulated pair of golden arches mascot-ed by a clown that’s equally as horrifying as Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard. In fact ol Ron could be worse. Sunken deep into various recesses of generations, our childhoods - that us the weak ones still subconsciously subscribe to what it hands out.

So today's the launch of McD's fish and fries here. Slightly stiff battered frozen fish with just a little of what I thought might have been a hint of garlic and lightly salted. Meat was predictably a little dry. So if anyone's wondering, this isn't gonna dethrone Long John Silver's also frozen fish. Not that those were good in the first place but maybe their batter is a little better. First and last.

The chocolate pie is apparently talked about. Viral even as some grapevines on the web described after it was launched in Korea (and Bangkok and Japan) earlier in the year. It's not bad for a fried pie with the same crust as the regular apple variety. Not as sweet as the fudge that they used in their sundaes. It's pretty much as they described with the hot gooey chocolate lava. That chocolate was actually a little better than what I thought it might have been. I honestly wouldn't mind it again but it's not exactly going to get me any cravings.