Dry chicken noodle from Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles (舌尖尖兰州牛肉面)

So it seems that chicken has been introduced into their menu. I liked the chicken. It looked like it was nicely browned in a pan, was pretty tender and they had that char grill flavour that made them delicious. I guess that nets the other people who don't eat beef.

The clear broth bowl from Keisuke's Tori King

I've been curious about this clear broth bowl from Keisuke's Tori King since they introduced it and never got about to try until now. 

I had been imagining a more resonant clarity from that broth. Something that had a cleaner chicken flavour rather than this which was pretty undistinguished. Imagination often brings disappointment. The "hard" option for noodles wasn't very hard and I'm no longer infatuated with the chopstick tender chicken thigh. 

Looking back through the various shops that Takeda-san has setup, I've pretty much nailed my favourites even though I haven't tried the Lobster King. I'm pretty sure it's not going to blow me away. Their crab bowl wasn't bad though but Tonkotsu King and Kamo Soba gets my vote.

Kampong Chicken Eating House, Outram Road

Another chicken rice shop (247 Outram Road, tel : +65 6221 2522) we've been passing by on numerous occasions telling ourselves we'd try them. That obviously had happened and we're kind glad we did because this was not bad.

We had a side of stir fried sweet potato leaves with....well, that's either their sambal or hae bi hiam. Either ways, there's spicy dried shrimps in there which totally made the dish. I would come back for this. This by the way was served from the kitchen in surprising quick order. Less than 5 minutes after we had ordered. Hmmm......

To get a better sensing of their range, we had an order of boiled chicken livers on the side. Creamy chicken livers they served, doused in sesame oil and light soy sauce. Not bad at all.

Those yellow skin are a characteristic of kampong chicken if you didn't already know. Meat's pretty tender and it doesn't taste very different from regular chicken if anyone was wondering. It's just a leaner and smaller bird with more intense looking skin.

On the side, those braised eggs had quite a bit of flavour having absorbed all the braising liquid. The rice that they had was nicely flavoured, clean tasting and not overly greasy. 

Didn't have any particularly strong feelings about the chilli. It's zesty and had a bit more ginger than I normally prefer. But that's definitely not a deal breaker for me.

More from Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine

It's normally difficult to pass on the dim sum on the weekends at this place so we got a little something on the side plus dim sum so that we could have both. Their braised cuts of offal/meat were tasty as usual. Today was pig's tongue, some duck and duck liver. All nice. Thinly sliced for tenderness and to pick up the spiced braising sauce.

We tried a kuey teow dish which presumably is what's also commonly referred to as chai por kuey teow from restaurants that do Teochew food. This was more refined, had a lighter hand with the salt and altogether pretty enjoyable even though I could barely detect any of the preserved radish bits in there. Pretty sure the bits of deep fried pork lard helped.

A pizza with prosciutto di Parma, burrata and figs from CiBO

The menu at CiBO doesn't change. At least it looked like it didn't change. There's nothing in particular that they do that's outstanding that it gives us a reason to come back much. They do have specials and in my opinion, they aren't very special most of the time. But I got suckered back by a pizza with prosciutto di Parma, figs and burrata. A crusted configuration of meaty saltiness, a light fruitiness from the figs/tomato paste and creaminess from the cheese.

Meatsmith Western BBQ, Makansutra Glutton Bay

I was intrigued by this stall (#01-15G Makansutra Gluttons Bay, 8 Raffles Avenue) after reading about them because it was a venture by Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends and the name of the stall was a also reference to his other joint Meat Smith - both of which are from Loh Lik Peng's Unlisted Collections.

I hadn't been to Glutton Bay for years. I didn't think much of them the last time I was here. It looked a little better these days. Prices have gone up and it still felt like it's meant for tourists.

Before I digress further - this stall was neither Meat Smith nor Burnt Ends. While those represented higher end barbeque somewhat and the obligatory name dropping had already been done, one shouldn't expect a similar standard. It's a hawker stall in a expensive touristy spot trying to do better than the regular western food stall.

The salted egg chicken chop was pretty good though. Not going to comment on the quality of the salted egg sauce beyond saying that it's not bad. The chicken was properly grilled with the prerequisite char aroma and some juiciness. Garlic rice was okay. Those sour that seeped from the pickled cucumbers actually elevated the rice. Too bad about the coriander. No idea why they had even thought that coriander would have made this any better.

Didn't think much of their suckling pig. I wouldn't eat this again. Meat was a stiff, dry and tasted like it was prepared hours ago to be reheated on serving. The texture of the skin was more hard than crisp. Nothing like the properly done Spanish or Chinese versions. Glutinous rice was okay. I found myself missing the ones from Ikea while eating this though. My thoughts speak hidden volumes. *gasp*

Since Makansutra's review was pretty positive, I will only attribute this experience of the food as either inconsistency or incompetency.