Yan Ji Seafood Soup, Alexandra Village Food Centre

If anyone was wondering, the seafood soup from this stall (#01-71 Alexandra Village Food Centre, 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1) was definitely not the same bowl as the one from Woodlands Centre FC. I've heard mentions on how this stall was opened by one of the workers that used to be from that original stall and that the real McCoy is the one at Marsiling. No idea what was the truth and I didn't really care.

None of it mattered since this was a much more convenient option and it wasn't too bad.

For a start, each bowl tasted a little different because of the ingredients since they were cooked to order. The broth from the first bowl on the top had a bit more crustacean-y flavour while the second bowl was infused with the aroma of fish maw which the crayfish bowl didn't have. And through the differences, the broth from both bowls lack the depth of the original at Woodlands.

There's more - those meat nuggets were less uniformly flavourful from the ti po (dried sole) and like the broth had less dimensions to their flavour.

What does this all mean? It could maybe just mean that if one didn't compare, this stall would still have the most flavourful seafood soup and meat nuggets for miles around. And while it might not have lived up to the old stall, it was pretty tasty in its own right.

A takeaway from Leek Hainanese Chicken Rice (力海南雞飯)

I've eaten from Leek (#01-73 Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent) a few times but haven't had the chance to mention them. One of the reasons was probably because I've never ranked them highly amongst my list of options. Here's a take away packet of breast + chicken thigh (鸡尾) and an egg. The rice was just a little more greasy than what I like and a little less flavourful as well. For these guys, the chilli definitely helped as that rice wasn't exactly so good that you would want to eat it on its own. 

Still Leek was not bad in any sense of the word. They're just not exceptional. Just not something that I see myself looking forward to. 

Pork chop fried rice from Supreme Pork Chop Rice

We hadn't been here (#B1-01 Bulkhaul House, 67 Beach Road) for ages. So this was the first time I ordered the fried rice version of their pork chop with rice. Came with some cole slaw instead of the salted vegetables with corn/peas/carrot. It's not good fried rice if anyone was wondering. There was little flavour, the rice was dry so the dark soy sauce and chilli sauce were pretty much what saved it. I'll just be sticking to the regular white rice plates in the future.

Cheesy-licious Chicken'O from Old Chang Kee

Old Chang Kee has a new limited time curry puff called Cheesy-licious Chicken'O. Black pastry crust with base fillings that were presumably curried chicken and potatoes like their regular puffs. This one allegedly has mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The puffs were slightly cheesy but not enough to be food porn worthy. I still think lowly of their pastry to filling ratio. But hey, whatever the sheep love to pay for right?

Autumn sushi omakase with matsutake at Kuro Maguro

This wasn't so much of a traditional omakase as one would expect but a selection of the commonly available fish options for sushi at Kuro Maguro along with one matsutake nigiri. Going for $28.20 with the JPassport redemption rather than $70.50. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have paid that "usual" price. The sushi was reasonably tasty and their hon maguro - especially that otoro was delicious. I liked the matsutake but it was a little small to be satisfying. 

Sanma is in season so we got one grilled. I remember that these used to be bigger when I had them last year and that they had totally cleaned the innards. Today's smaller fish was filled with those fishy bittersweet dark bits of meat.

Revisiting Tong Kee Chicken Rice (東記雞飯)

I've been meaning to come back to Tong Kee (#01-25 Tanglin Halt Food Centre, 3A Commonwealth Drive) for quite some time to re-acquaint myself with their chicken rice which I remember enjoying. It's also a chance to better catalogue what specifically I liked about them. Never made it for reasons until recently.

I've previously mentioned that Tong Kee only does roasted/fried chicken. There's no white chicken to be had. We got ourselves a half chook. These guys have been making this one specific style of chicken for a long time so one can reasonably expect that they're pretty competent at what they do. Rice was good enough to eat on its own.

I had also previously mentioned their brown sauce. I used to get them with their hard boiled eggs but they were out of eggs already today. The owner then added that they still had the brown sauce if I wanted them. Couldn't say no. This sauce is a unique characteristic of this chicken rice stall. Do not judge it until you have tried them. The sweet caramelized flavours are much better tasting than appearances suggest

Tong Kee's chilli packs a bit of heat and also some zest from lime. Good stuff.