Frog bak kut teh from Old Street Bak Kut Teh

Old Street Bak Kut Teh has recently pulled something out from their bag of herbs tricks that I didn't see coming. Bak kut teh with frogs. The parts of frog they served included both body and legs in what tasted like their regular broth - the regular peppery garlic one they use for their pork ribs. What worked was that those frogs were really tender that you could simply slurp the meat off them bones. That being said, those were pretty small frogs judging from the size of the bones.

Dabbawalla, Robertson Quay

Indian food in the heart of Robertson Quay. These guys - formerly known as Curry Culture are located in between Super Loco and Decker Barbecue (#01-10/11 60 Robertson Quay, tel : +65 6235 6134).

Curries and cocktails are indeed part of their repertoire but we weren't really having any of that in the mid day. We did order a ginger lassi which I kinda liked. The ginger tasted fresh and there's definitely a bunch of other spices in the lassi as well. There's also another one with mango and saffron which I felt was also pretty good because it had a good balance of flavours from both the fruit and the spice.

I've never quite understood the concept of the Indian appetizer or starter which can often be a pretty heavy. Like these hot plated sizzling lamb chops which had been grilled with a nutty spice paste. There was quite a bit of nice tender fat along the rib. I can't say that I didn't enjoy this.

We had masala prawns with a gravy that tasted very much like butter chicken gravy that's been folded with a lot of shredded coconut. Both the coconut and prawns looked to be added at a later stage into that gravy rather than part of its cooking since their flavours were on their own rather than with the gravy. This was delicious though.

The other masala we had was okra. Very firm and fresh lady's fingers that weren't wilted by the cooking as I had imagined.

Some butter naan made their way to help mop up the gravies.

And some pretty awesome Kashmiri naan which were eaten on their own. Other than the very visible cherries and cheese, there were dates and also bits of nuts. I don't remember the last time I've had Kashmiri naan with nuts. Sweet and dangerously addictive.

After seeing the masala Coke served at the neighbouring table, we were suddenly parched and decided we needed one. I definitely liked this. Couldn't recall what were all the spices (like black salt, mango powder, pepper....and ermmmm) that the proprietor mentioned but it tasted very much like those added into buttermilk along with a slice of lemon. This was a pretty robust drink. Very nice.

Masala chai to finish up. The chai was kinda balanced. Not too strong a tea with milk that wasn't too creamy and masala mix that wasn't too intense. I generally prefer something(s) to be stronger but after all the rich food, I didn't mind the low intensity tea at all.

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.