Re-revisiting Dancing Fish Signature

Dancing Fish Signature has yet to disappoint in the visits we've made. Their sambal and sauces have altogether made this a very dangerous place.

We just discovered that there's home made barley with lime on the menu that's free flow.

One of the kickass items we had from this visit was their belimbing (starfruit) salad. The fruit was chilled and refreshing, invigorated by a spicy tangy sambal and punctuated by the sharpness of raw onions with the aromatic crunch of the crispy flat fish.

Their tahu tempeh goreng was better than I had imagined. The tempeh tasted refined. Both that and the tofu were addictive with their sauce of kecap manis with sambal belachan.

Grilled duck was also pretty good. The meat was quite tender encased in its skin that been layered with their caramelized basting sauce. We had this with the sambal matah option because that sambal was awesome with their steamed rice.

Another go at their gulai pucuk paku. Gotta try the stir fried version the next time. 

Ali Fatimah Food Stall, Redhill Food Centre

Man, this prata stall (#01-28 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) was good. Another queue that I understood. I liked how the kosong was light and fluffy going for a mere 80 cents. The one with egg, onion and cheese was kinda expensive considering their prices but it sure was also delicious with the melted sliced cheese and fragrant softened onions. Very tasty with sugar or the curry or even both! Definitely gonna come back again.

Ootoya this year

It's been a while since the last time. While we were of the impression that Ootoya was no longer the standards it once was then they had first started business here, some of the items that they have on menu were still enjoyable.

We never recalled having bad sashimi here. Today's hamachi was fatty and delicious.

Their salad roll with bagna sauce was a first time for us. It's one of those items that's been in the menu probably since the beginning but we've never ordered it. The sauce was obviously something that they've adapted from bagna cauda. Creamy with anchovies and garlic, it made a delicious dip. I just wished that they packed a tighter salad roll. 

Grilled buri was greasy and tasty.

Their jako gohan was stingy with the shirasu. For $3, I expected at least double the quantity they gave. 

Fortunately I had decided to get an egg to go with the rice.

I maintain that more shirasu would have made this better. It's little reasons like these why we don't come back here as much in recent years.

Today's pork belly shiokouji was a lot fattier than I remembered it.

The Yang Zhou Fried Hokkien Mee at Bukit Merah Lane

Someone mentioned that this stall was the original Yang Zhou Hokkien mee stall that used to be located at 40 Beo Crescent. We made a trip down to see if it was good.

We weren't exactly impressed. While this wasn't a bad plate by any stretch, we didn't think it was outstanding. The flavour from the stock that was used on the noodles wasn't as robust as I had imagined and became one dimensional after a while. I'm not about to be bore and make comparisons with the Serangoon Gardens Fried Prawn Noodle stall at Redhill Market again. Nope, not gonna do that. This wasn't as memorable as Nam Sing from Old Airport Road FC too.   

Seng Heng Braised Duck (成兴福建卤鸭面), Redhill Food Centre

There're gems abound and sometimes, they would elude me. Seng Heng (#01-28 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) was one of those stalls that's eluded me (yes, despite their lines) until I got heads up that they were worth the moments in their queue. 

We headed down for breakfast and I liked it. Nice slurpy kuey teow with tender chopped up slices braised duck. I could even taste some of that duck gaminess in the rice noodles so I knew what they had added. That and coupled with their piquant chilli on the side which was pretty kickass awesome and fried shallots that weren't tasteless. Now, this was a queue I understood.

Keria Japanese Restaurant : shīfūdo to yasai?

Eating at Keria is generally pricey. But we've always walked out of the place satisfied.

While this might have looked like a sashimi moriawase, it wasn't. Or maybe it could have been. The part that might have been were the kanpachi which was delicious, hotate which were nice-but-we've-had-better and the tai which I really liked. Moriawase-ish I suppose. Those shime saba and those Hokkaido oysters were separate orders. It did look prettier served together.

The sashimi were followed by freshly fried ebi tempura.

And then a mini uni and ikura don. These two never gets old.

Our regular order of the mentaiko cabbage which was umami brininess from the roe paired with the sweetness of the vegetable kissed by a light smokiness. The texture was tender with a soft crunchiness.

We liked those Hokkaido oysters enough that we got seconds. Fat oysters which were a mouthful and superb with the ponzu.