Deli's Kitchen, Sunshine Plaza

From what we could gather from the shop, Deli's Kitchen (#01-54 Sunshine Plaza, 91 Bencoolen Street, tel : +65 6926 6176) is a front that represents 11 other shops from Japan. Hence the huge menu. Assuming that all the other shops are atypical of good restaurant owners who are specialists in their own rights for the food that they cook, what would that say about the cook in this particular kitchen?

I suppose I could say this is Singapore. One man can do the jobs of eleven. #lmfao

One of the eleven was Shibaura Genghis Khan from Hokkaido that features grilled lamb donburi. That lamb looked like it was pan fried than grilled. Even with the sauce on the side, the marinade alone detracted from the limited natural flavours of the meat. It wasn't bad per se; just not good enough that'll make me look forward to returning for. That onsen tamago styled egg was also probably the egg with the least amount of whites I've ever seen.

That's the Trump-Kim summit item on a limited run created from their Fukuyoshi menu from the Kanagawa prefecture in Kantō, Japan (remember that the eleven menus?). A wagyu hambagu patty topped with kimchi and nacho cheese. On hindsight, it might have been more appropriate as a Abe-Kim summit item I reckon by the style of the hamburg. 

The patty had grill marks, was nicely browned but was also mushy on the inside. Didn't taste bad but it was definitely not American styled hamburger beef. The kimchi was sour (read nice). What could the nacho cheese be symbolic of? Those are American aren't they? Wait, wouldn't that make this be for the Abe-Trump-Kim summit then? Portentous! 

We needed a little more food which gave us a little more excuse to order another item to try. So it was the black curry topped with a skirt steak from Ryu's Bistro. Something from Hakata. There seemed to be a mild garlic flavour in the curry which left an aftertaste like MSG. The handling of that skirt steak clearly showed how little the cook knew. The steak was sliced along instead of against the grain which left the chunks of meat chewy. Each of those slices were also too big. Not to mention that the skirt would have benefitted from a bit more char to bring the flavours out. 

Greenwood Fish Market, Valley Point

Greenwood Fish Market has just opened up at Valley Point (#01-21/22/23 491 River Valley Road, tel : +65 6732 3788); which is a much more centralized location than their other two shops - the original being Greenwood Ave. and another at Quayside Isle in Sentosa. I just realized that it's been quite a long while since I've had anything from them.

We happened to stumble in on their oyster day which is every Tuesday. Those oysters are no longer a dollar each. It's almost double that these days. Still a pretty good deal considering how much oysters cost here. We had half a dozen and realized that these went down far too quickly and ordered another half dozen. 

They have a lobster bisque on menu. Deliciously salted and competently flavoured if you asked me.

Greenwood does their own version of aglio olio which also comes with some fried shallot, spinach and anchovies. Those melted anchovies added a punch to the flavours. Not to mention a bunch of saltiness as well.

I wanted to get monkfish but they weren't available so I thought why not the curious sounding fried smoked chicken. Applewood smoked and then deep fried sans batter. I liked that all the smokiness managed to get into the meat but the meat was a little dry and the chicken was a little too salty. Not feeling it for their fries which were really pale.

We had to get a fish since we were here so it was a pan fried barramundi which was their recommended style of preparation for the fish. While the fish was delicious and of good quality, this one had the soggiest skin. Running a fork through that skin doesn't make that scraping sound. It was silent and merely ruffled up the fish skin.

Tai broth ramen from Tampopo

Tampopo has a tai (red snapper) broth ramen this month by a certain award winning Kawase Yuya. It was actually kinda nice. That broth had a certain light fishy sweetness which one doesn't find in their other bowls. There was a bit of yuzu peel in there for flavour as well. What's also cool was that those menma didn't have the least bit of pungent taste at all.

For some reasons, I was expecting slices of the fish in the bowl but that turned out to be just charshu.

Din Shan Vegetarian (鼎膳素), Tiong Bahru Market FC

I'm not sure if I've ever had vegetarian noodle from this stall (#02-14 Tiong Bahru Market, 30 Seng Poh Road) previously. There was a constant queue and business looked brisk so I thought it was worth a try. It wasn't bad at all. The proprietress even successfully upsold me with an add on of their "drumstick" - the ones made of rolled tau kee (dried beancurd sheet) which I liked. Their "char siew" was sweet and smoky too rather than being salted pieces of rubber. If my memory serves, the food was also less oily than Seng Kee Vegetarian down at Beo Crescent.

Xin Heng Kee Chicken & Duck Rice, Pek Kio Market Food Centre

I came across this stall (#01-14 Pek Kio Market & Food Centre, 41 Cambridge Road) by chance on the rare occasion I found myself in this area. It seemed that not so much of the stalls are open in the afternoon. Anyways this was an easy pick since nothing much looked interesting and chicken rice is generally a pretty safe option. The quick verdict? It's not right there at the top in my rankings but it definitely passed muster for something reliable and frills free that fills the stomach - sitting comfortably in the category of the everyday food for the average person. Enjoyed their chilli.

Astons Steak & Salad, Centrepoint

I found myself enjoying the food here and a part of that was because of the nostalgia of the old days of Ponderosa and later on Sizzler - the restaurants with the bottomless salad bar and beverage experience. Astons Steak & Salad (#03-28/28A The CentrePoint, 176 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 0556) had recaptured those old moments and replicated them at a cost which I thought was very reasonable for today's standards.

The other part that made this memorable was the availability of lamb short rib. For a limited time only since it wasn't part of the regular menu. The meat on those ribs were reasonably fatty, moderately spiced from the dry rub and importantly, had a good combination of flavours (including the natural ones from the lamb) that made them enjoyable. I'm actually thinking about coming back already.