Blue Ginger, Tanjong Pagar Road

I've been wanting to try Blue Ginger (97 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6222 3928) for a long time. The restaurant has been around for at least a couple of decades but I never really knew how long they've been in business until they were listed under the Bib Gourmand last year.

Each table was served with some achar and sambal belachan. The dangerous pairing of pickles and chilli were just the tip of the iceberg to what makes some eat copious amounts of rice in such restaurants. But if I had to put in another two cents, the achar would have benefitted greatly with more generous amounts of crushed peanuts. I suppose the matriarch either didn't know or didn't care.

We had a serving of their signature ayam panggang which was topped with a lemak curry gravy. It's not bad. I was hoping for a "wow this would make me come back" but it wasn't quite that. The grilled chicken didn't quite have that edge that many freshly grilled chickens do. While I enjoyed that coconut laden gravy, it was just half of what made the dish.

Their sotong keluak was interesting. There was something that tasted like fermented bean in the gravy for the squid besides the buah keluak. The menu mentioned tamarind juice but we couldn't taste any of that. Still those squids were impressively tender and together with its gravy, made very good pairing with servings of their white rice.

We sidestepped the usual chap chye and went for a kangkong lemak that was cooked with sweet potatoes in coconut milk, dried shrimp and whatever spices it was that flavoured the dish. Not bad at all. It was fragrant from both the coconut milk and hae bi. It wasn't not too rich yet still enjoyable. I had secretly hoped that it would be more lemak.

D24 durian kaya toast from Ya Kun

These looked like their regular kaya toast but were actually the durian variety that are up for a limited time. I thought it tasted pretty good but ymmv. There was enough of the D24 in between those slices of toasts that I could barely taste the kaya but I'm not complaining. It was pretty sweet so a good option of their coffee to pair this with I thought was a kopi-o di lo.

Punjab Grill, Marina Bay Sands

Punjab Grill (B1-01A, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands South Podium, tel : +65 6688 7395) opened their doors back in 2011. Certainly didn't feel like it was 7 years ago, but it had been. Both the media and local blogosphere had performed their obligatory coverages but I was curious because I felt that these guys might be a place better experienced than read about in some uninspired and obligatory work literature.

We were served papadums and chutneys along with a shot of mango lassi shortly after orders were taken. The white chutney in the middle tasted like it was yoghurt and garlic. Reminded me of toum. Nice when paired with the fruit chutney on the papadum.

It was unfortunate that their saffron lassi with pistachio didn't cut it. The crushed bits of pistachio were obviously there just to make the drink look good. This couldn't even be compared to the mango saffron rendition at Dabbawalla which managed to coax a surprising balance of flavours between the mango and saffron. Barely getting the saffron here.

Service was efficient. Didn't managed to get a snap of their chicken tikka and lychee chaat before the wait staff started portioning out.

It's a cold chaat of shredded bits of chicken tikka tossed with cream cheese and bits of lychee. This was further enhanced with some tamarind sauce. Not quite getting the cream cheese or lychee individually but as a whole, this was pretty good. Smoky, sweet and sour with texture akin to chicken mayo salad with added crispy bits. Pretty sure no where else here does a chaat like this.

The item that I was looking forward to was their guchchi pulao. Guchchi or gucchi refers to morel mushrooms. The wild morels used here are imported from Kashmir. Harvesting I gather (pun intended) is a labourious process since these cannot be cultivated and quantities can be unpredictable.

Anyways, the mushrooms are dried and rehydrated in water over the course of a day. The water that was used to rehydrate the mushrooms is used to cook the rice - dum styled along with spices which included saffron and cumin. Those morels were large and stuffed with a mix of cottage cheese flavoured with more saffron and cumin. The menu mentioned those stuffings to be milk cakes. Since those are not mutually exclusive with cottage cheese, they could mean the same thing.

Damn this was good. The rice was well infused with the flavours of the morel and it was obvious that the other spices that was included in the pulao was meant to be delicate and not overpowering for the mushroom. The morels themselves were flavourful and meaty.

The supplement to the pulao was a saag gosht. Plump morsels of moist lamb served in a spiced spinach gravy. The palak was scented with the aroma of fried onions amidst the other spices. Lamb was tender and flavoursome on its on. Yum!

To close the meal, we were given a shot of betel leaf with sweet vanilla concoction as a freshener after the food. Service here was pretty good. Would like to come back again.

Soon Heng Hong Kong Style Charcoal Roast, Havelock Road Food Centre

Seems like I've been eating in the vicinity lately. Soon Heng (#01-03 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) got onto my radar a couple of years ago. I know, right? But I've finally dropped by for a quick lunch of rice with char siew and roast duck.

I liked it. Pretty much all of it. Moist and piping hot rice drizzled with dark soy sauce, an ubiquitous hard boiled egg, pretty tender duck breast slices and the unassuming char siew which was tender and a lot tastier than its mundane look suggested. The stall name mentions charcoal roast but I don't know if their meat were charcoal roasted because I couldn't tell. But it was good the same. Like the also unassuming watery chilli sauce which packed some heat and a load of garlic.

I'll be back.

Zheng Nasi Lemak (正椰浆飯), Havelock Road Food Centre

I remember having nasi lemak at this stall (#01-12 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) a few years ago. It's a local Chinese rendition which I recall not leaving much of an impression. I thought to give it another go since I was around and they were actually open for business. 

The plate was of passable quality if you discounted the fact that the rice wasn't particularly fragrant and had a texture that was dry and a little bit waxy. The good that came out of that was one could just simply inhale that with the sambal which was kinda nice - sweet but not annoyingly so and with just a little heat. The fried goods appear to be fresh out of the wok and not overdone.

Wouldn't take any extra trouble to return but I suppose I wouldn't mind eating it once in a while. And those limited opening hours for this stall isn't gonna be much of a loss.

Instant noodles at O Banh Mi

This used to be their bún gà nướng chả giò, but I suppose it's no longer bún since it's not rice vermicelli but instant noodles instead. Remember my mention about the instant noodles before? Not a big disruptor here. After all the squeezes of lime, fish sauce and Sriracha, it was mostly just a change of texture.