Tian Tian Seafood Restaurant (天天海鲜), Outram Road

Like their neighbours Lao You Ji and Kampong Chicken Eating House along the same stretch of shophouses, Tian Tian Seafood (239 Outram Road, tel : +65 6324 1083) was yet another one of those we've passed by countless times and have been wanting to try. These guys are open up till 3am!

The restaurant fried up a sambal petai that tasted almost exactly the same as the one from Sin Hoi Sai.  We almost couldn't tell the difference. Almost. What set this rendition apart was that it was discernibly saltier and that we noticed that they used hae bi in the dish. So good with white rice.

We ordered gung bao prawns because I hadn't had these for a long time. Pretty decent gung pao sauce with cashews. They didn't toast the cashews though. The prawns were de-shelled (虾球) and pretty meaty.

Couldn't resist getting black pepper mutton considering that it was a rarity in cze char to have lamb/mutton these days. The dish was a stir fry of thin shabu slices of meat with a punchy black pepper sauce of their concoction. Not the sweet "black pepper sauce" that's laden with starch.

Spicy coconut chicken wah-ffle from Popeyes

I was suckered into this spicy coconut chicken waffle because the poster mentioned kaya. I guess I've only myself to blame for failing to realize that the coconut component likely came from the kaya - which looked green on the poster but was actually the brown variety (hence the coconut flavour). Technically, they lied. Or misrepresented their products wilfully. Or whatever euphemistic phrases that people use.

The actual product wasn't as pretty as the advertisement. No one's surprised here. There wasn't any nacho cheese sauce on the waffle. Only some on the chicken. Some was a quantity small enough that I couldn't even quite taste through that waffle, chicken and kaya. The latter was just coconut-ty, nothing rich and creamy like they described. 

Lino, Binjai Park

I first heard of Lino (7 Binjai Park, tel : +65 6463 7800) back when they opened sometime late last year. For some reasons I had the impression that it was a restaurant by Lino Sauro of Gattopardo. My interest in them was low until recently that I've realized that I had been mistaken. This restaurant was another venture by the Les Amis Group.

Capri Trattoria is but a 7-11 away from here.

I thought that their Brussels sprouts might have been part of contorni rather than antipasti but what do I know. These were nice though. There's bacon, pine nuts and raisins.

Also munched on meatballs while we were waiting. These were flavoured with fennel seeds. I thought there was an Asian quality to how they tasted.

Garganelli was awesome. The texture of the pasta was great and the sauce tasted like a lobster bisque. With cheese. To top on that, the accompanying chunks of lobster meat were firm and sweet.

Lino's mushroomy barley risotto was delicious. Great pairing with the cheese and olive oil. Couldn't understand those fried mushrooms though. I thought they did nothing to make the dish better.

We got ourselves a sea bream. The fish was stuffed with lemons and herbs to impart their flavours into the meat. The fish had been deboned. Burnt lemon was very sour. Salsa verde paired nicely with the fish. Liked this.

Cannoli was okay. Nothing I'd come back for again. I'm still waiting to stumble upon one of those that would. Those roasted cherries on the side were pretty sour.  

It seemed appropriate that there was a doppio espresso to end this satisfying lunch.

Breakfast before Endgame

Kuey chap breakfast at Covent Garden Kway Chap.

And after, to spoiler proof ourselves for the biggest movie in cinematic history.

Suju it!

Lunch at Suju. Yes, it wasn't that long ago since the last one. Just happened this way.

Today's special was negitoro don. So I got reeled in just like the last time. Suju does a pretty good one though. It tasted especially luxurious with the smooth and finely minced toro, aroma from the negi and sesame seeds along with the vinegared rice. Portions were a little small.

So I topped it up with their ooebi tempura. Chunky and full of bite.

Uni tsukemen from Menya Sakura

The first time we came across Menya Sakura (#01-07 Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Link Road, tel : +65 9469 3366) was when they were located in Boat Quay. They were doing a foie gras ramen while we wanted to take advantage of that with a 1 for 1 deal from JPassport.

These fellas are currently doing a 3rd year anniversary menu with an uni tsukemen. Yep, you heard that right. I knew enough not to have hopes but I was still curious. 

There wasn't much uni going on except for the tiny pile on the noodles. Definitely far from the prettiest looking ones. We've also tasted better. Putting good quality sea urchin is apparently not a priority for these guys. The creamy tsukemen broth had a flavour akin to fermented bean (豆瓣酱) or miso. That was actually not bad.