Guang Fa Laksa, Havelock Road Food Centre

Guang Fa Laksa (#01-08 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) is just the next unit to my previous go to curry rice stall. Previous because that curry rice stall has shuttered for good. From what I've heard, the elderly folks that were running it had retired.

Anyways I've probably gotten myself used to the Katong-esque style of laksa in the past decade or two so I generally expect the gravy to be lemak. This one wasn't so much. It felt thin. Thin need not necessarily be bad but I didn't feel this gravy had sufficient character. Nothing particularly pronounced.  

Sum Kee Food, Telok Blangah

I don't remember if I've even been to Sum Kee Food (Yeo's Building, 2 Telok Blangah Street 31, tel  : +65 737 3233) before even though I used to stay relatively close to this area for years a long time back. This place I gather is an institution of their own. They're old school. The place looked old school. 

A friend had once recommended me to give them a go to try their Ultraman chicken. *snigger*

Sum Kee is pretty well known for their curry fish head. I could understand this. Creamy and flavourful with enough heat. What I particularly enjoyed about it was the pronounced flavour of hae bi (dried shrimps) in the curry. I was drenching my rice with it.

Pleasantly surprised by the simple and innocuous looking bitter gourd omelette. Well fried with no excessively grease trapped in the egg. The texture was firm yet light with a nice light bitterness from those bitter gourd slices that worked with the savoury egg.

We ordered their X.O. sum lou hor fun because X.O. sauce. Never had these two together before. But first the hor fun. Not bad. Had wok hei and firm slices of fish paired with enough savoury in the gravy. A little oily but was otherwise pretty competent. I felt that the X.O. sauce worked with it. The umami spiciness added something to the rice noodles. I just wished they gave more of it. 

I normally avoid these gloopy gravy dishes because in general. The people who cook them these days never learnt how to make them properly. The majority would taste like an unidentifiable flavour with msg, salt and starch. 

That being said, this crab meat tofu wasn't too bad. Maybe the result of being steeped in old-school-ism also meant that the chefs had to make dishes the old way.

That's stir fried green dragon vegetable (a variety of chives) with bean sprouts (青龙银芽). Not bad. Would have be awesome if there were salted fish.

If you've actually been reading (not just swiping/scrolling through pictures) and have had your feathers ruffled by the mention of the Ultraman chicken, this was it. They're bite sized battered and fried chicken coated in a sweetened salted egg sauce. It was kind of addictive. I suppose I like them. Not doing my heart any favours though.

I've only learnt in recent years the reason why they're called Ultraman chicken. Ultraman is also known as 咸蛋超人. One could consider that as a....term of endearment rather than direct translation of meaning or the words. 咸蛋 is salted eggs and dude's got eyes like the yolks of salted eggs.

Their sambal prawns were the weakest link in this dinner. Prawns weren't very fresh with meat that kinda stuck to the shells. The sambal had absolutely no character. It was mildly spicy and mostly oily. For some reasons, I had been imagining the sambal to be like those with the crayfish at Liang Kee. Guess this was not like that.

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.