Re-visiting Som Tam

And back at Som Tam we were giving a chance to the new lease of life.

There's grilled squids with mentaiko mayo on their menu. That menu also had pictures that strongly suggested much more mentaiko mayo then what was actually served. Thankfully, it was all salvaged by the nam jim thale which was a way better flavour to complement the squid. Would have been great if there was a bit more char but these chewy squids were pretty good.

Chicken fried rice with preserved olive leaves? Yes please. I thought this was quite nicely done. A little greasy but heartily delicious the same with a squeeze of lime.

The flavour oddity here was their black curry chicken with Musan king durian - or also commonly known as mao shan wang (猫山王). Imagine a consistency akin to black sesame paste with a creamy, nutty almost chocolate like flavour. Kinda like buah keluak. With spices. And a dollop of durian puree. Unusual? Definitely.

D24 Durian McFlurry from McD

A flurry of opinions must have been billowing forth from the D24 McFlurry from McD so here's my take.

The flavour from the durian puree/syrup reminded me of those durian ice cream from the past. I'm not sure if it's Wall's or King's. A hit of nostalgia seeped in artificial flavours for sure since I haven't had those for a long time. Was good for a single try.

My 2 cents was - I'd take those from Udders any day over this. After all, if I were to be burping durian for the next few hours after that, I would want to know that it was worth it.

Guiga Korean BBQ Restaurant (구이가 바베큐 한식당), Tanjong Pagar Road

It's been quite a long while since we've last had Korean food. We've passed by this barbeque shop  (134 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6221 3001) numerous times before and it's gotten itself lodged in our heads when we were thinking of having some.

Nothing too special about their banchan except for the kimchi which we thought was pretty good. Refreshingly tangy with fizz. From what I heard, that fizziness meant the height of fermentation with all the CO2 driven effervescence.

There was a complimentary gyeran jjim. Or simply steamed egg.

There were a few sets of grilled meat from the menu for variety so we picked A which was pretty much the beef set that had briskets and meat from the rib, marinated and nude.

What I like about Korean BBQ are the lettuces which one transforms into wraps with the grilled meat along with slices of garlic and doenjang. I'm always assured of a generous tasty serving of a healthy greens for a more balanced meal. The dip that they provided was pretty fruity and refreshing.

For good measure, we ordered also a sundae guk. Nice chunky cut up bits of sundae in the somewhat murky looking broth which was served with salty saeujeot (fermented shrimp like chinchalok) and some chilli paste. I don't know if that chilli paste is also gochujang or not but they didn't have the fermented beans in them nor the mild sweetness.

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.