Etna from Etna

This was the pizza that I've been wanting to try for the longest time from Etna and it never happened until quite recently. Yes, the name of this particular white pizza was Etna. Topped with mozzarella, cream cheese, mushrooms, prosciutto di Parma and powdered pistachio. I wasn't sure what to expect and it turned out to be pretty good if a little heavy. That cream cheese was nice especially when the pie was fresh and hot from the kitchen while those mushrooms lent a lot of their flavour. I'll come back for this again.

Hybrid duck broth ramen from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke

I finally got round to trying the basic hybrid duck broth bowl from Keisuke's Kamo Soba shop. This was the normal duck oil, normal flavour and hard noodle configuration. You know what? This would probably be my favourite of the lot, comparing against the mazesoba and their tsukemen. The broth tasted expectedly like a less intense version of the really rich dip from the tsukemen. I like that gaminess from the duck in there. This would be where I remind myself that I'm not a fan of their menma. 

Finally got that monkfish at Greenwood Fish Market

Feeling relentless on that monkfish, we came back to Greenwood one of the oyster nights again.

Shot straight for the dozen.

With some warm lobster bisque.

And it turned out somewhat disappointing. The meat from the monkfish was flat - definitely not as springy as I had been expecting. Certainly expected better out of a fish purveyor. This portion which cost a pretty penny by the way, was for two. There was too little fish for two methinks. I didn't like that they didn't even salt the fish and I detected rosemary. Those pickled onions were odd. They looked and were textured like onions but tasted like grapes.

The serving came with a ochre sauce that tasted familiarly nice but we couldn't quite put a finger to it. Miso, butter and soy? Anyways, very poor value for money from Greenwood Fish Market.

Cai png

Cai png for lunch. Hey I eat these stuff too.

Lao You Ji Seafood Restaurant (老友記), Outram Road

Yet another one of those spots (245 Outram Road) we've passed by on countless occasions and wondered if they were any good until we finally visited. Local cze char.

We decided to get their luncheon meat fried rice because. I mean - when was the last time you saw luncheon meat fried rice from a cze char shop? The short of it - this was tastier than I had imagined and these guys know how to do fried rice. It was pulled off nicely with a light moisture, some egginess and no excessive grease.

Our vegetable for the evening was nai bai (奶白) stir fried with garlic. Pretty competent.

I haven't had braised pork trotters bee hoon for quite a long while. This wasn't too bad but I'm pretty sure there are renditions with more robust flavours around. I didn't realise that the ingredients included chestnuts until today.

I bet that most of you would think this was sweet and sour pork at first glance.

It's not. This was a dish they named pineapple chicken. Essentially it was a sweet and sour chicken with more pineapples and none of the other fillers. I wanted to feel like I was duped into ordering it from the name in the menu but the chicken was actually pretty good eating. Deep fried chunks of meat that are subsequently stir fried in their sweet and sour sauce. The pineapples were pretty acidic though. Made my teeth squeak.

Raj at Soho @ Farrer

The old spot that Raj used to be at is the current Murugan Idli Shop. For a while, I thought that the business had folded but they've actually just relocated to Soho @ Farrer (172 Race Course Road). A more convenient location methinks.

We came by for a late lunch and started off with a refreshing raj kachori - some say the king of chaats. We've had one previously at Balaji Bhawan which was a sad representative of the snack. This one was way better. The giant puri shell was filled with beans and lentils and nuts and spiced potatoes before being slathered with curd, tamarind chutney and mint/coriander chutney followed by a sprinkle of sev. A giant dahi gol gappa, chilled and a party of flavours.

Raj has something call a guchi pulao. What I could discover from the overlord whose name ends with 'oogle' was gucchi pulao - which was a pulao made with morel mushrooms. It would seem that the loss of a 'c' resulted in this one being made with canned button mushrooms. What a world of difference.

It was delicious. Rich with the taste of ghee, a little aroma from saffron and flavoured with bits of sweetness from dates. I'd eat this again.

We wanted something with gravy and this was their butter daal fry. A dish of spiced simmered lentils which we ate like soup.

Raj's onion cheese tomato uttapam looked more like a pizza than uttapam. It was pretty good. Especially with that orange coconut chutney which was kickass tasty. 

It was just too bad that their masala tea was quite tasteless. Won't be getting this the next time. Not getting much flavour from the tea or spices. I'm surprised that their chai was a weak link since the food had been enjoyable every time we visited.