The state of the mentaiko rosu katsu at Imakatsu

For some reasons, standards of the katsu at Imakatsu seemed to have slipped. I wonder if it's just this particular outlet. I remember them being much more tasty back at the original outlet at Star Vista. The taste of the pork felt muted and was less moist while that strip of fat was more chewy and less flavoursome.

More Nirai Kanai-ing

Believe it or not, the motivation for this dinner at Nirai Kanai was their chahan with preserved mustard greens. Good stuff. A little pricey but always a treat.

We came across the aosa seaweed tempura on the menu. One of those things that we've overlooked in the past visits and we've been missing out. This was pretty good stuff. It tasted like a fried vegetable cake with anchovies and onions. Light on both the salt and grease.

This trip also was an opportunity to get re-acquainted with their rafute again in the form of their teishoku. Tender, sweet and with fat that readily fell apart in the mouth. I still maintain that it's not as good as the ones from the defunct Mimigar.

We've never left without a serving of their chanpuru ever since we re-discovered this place.

Some peachy drinks and an orange tea from Iroha Mart

Some drinks from Iroha Mart at Chinatown Point, picked up I have.

Let's start with that orange tea. It had the expected orange flavour which made them not very different from lemon tea. Flavour's okay, not something that I'll be excited about getting again. That peach flavoured Coke was....unusual. I'm not sure about how I feel about it. It's just peach flavour (artificial probably) in Coke and it's a little more sour than the regular drink. Now that peach flavoured Calpis. I guess there was just enough peachiness in the drink that it could've been another peach soda since I couldn't tell that it was a Calpis drink.

I guess I enjoyed them all. Just won't be getting them again.

Kinmedai saikyo yaki and a grilled hamachi head from Nakajima Suisan

So it's our favourite grilled fish teishoku spot again. I was intent on trying their kinmedai saikyo yaki since I've had the fish in shioyaki previously. Surprisingly I couldn't really detect much of a difference even though it was a miso based marinade. I still loved that fish and wished that it were a bigger portion.

These time round, there was also a half head of their hamachi on the grill. Only two portions served a day as they claimed so we snagged one of them. This was really good and I daresay that it was one of the better grilled fish heads I've had. The flesh which slid off the bones with ease was deliciously moist and appropriately salted for flavour.

So France, Duo Galleria

I'll be straight to the point on this. I didn't think very much of the place (#01-51/56 Duo Galleria, 7 Fraser Street). The people were nice but that niceness felt like a veneer. 

The shop and bistro brought nothing new to the table that others haven't already done and done better. We had a fish soup which was not bad but the same could also be said of those bottled stuff that used to be available at Carrefour which could also be spruced up to taste similarly. 

I didn't like how they charged for additional bread especially when they didn't give much in the first place for their Camembert and charcuterie. Speaking of which, those charcuterie tasted very...... pedestrian. They were also sliced too thinly and we can find better at the same price point. Maybe these guys oughta take a page from Le Bistrot du Sommelier.

Wan Xing Nasi Lemak (万兴椰浆饭，炒米粉), Albert Centre Market FC

We chanced upon this stall (#01-62 Albert Centre Market Food Centre, 270 Queen Street) while looking for food and decided to give them a go. Sadly, this was another case of a contemporary nasi lemak where there wasn't much fragrance in the rice. It seemed that a lot of people liked them though since the queue appeared relentless.

On the brighter side, their sambal was kinda nice. Spicy and savoury that seemed to be without much sweetness. This meant that I didn't have to worry about having them overwhelm any of those coconut flavours in the rice since there wasn't much of those coconut flavours in the first place. The fish we got today wasn't dried out. In fact, it was surprisingly moist and even had some roe in the belly.