Re-revisiting Tian Tian Seafood Restaurant

Came by for a late dinner at Tian Tian Seafood. Pretty grateful that there are places like this in the vicinity that take their business well past 10pm in times like this. So - we ordered their luncheon meat fried rice to see if they were as good compared to the neighbouring Lao You Ji. Can't decide which one I liked better. Both were nice. Properly fried without residual grease.

Couldn't resist getting their delicious sambal petai since we didn't get them the last time. 

That's above is a dish of kang kong stir fried with sliced beef in prawn paste. Pretty good. The prawn paste sauce from the dish would have been awesome with white rice. While the meat didn't taste particularly beefy, it wasn't one of those that had been mutated into some unidentifiable meat substance by tenderizer. Gotta remember to tell them to exclude those ginger shreds the next time.

I guess not all things were so tasty. Like this dish which was described as braised fish brisket and eggplant. It's fish belly I think - cuts of it with many dangerous bits of bone that made it a chore to eat. I had thought that these would be without any bone. The braising did nada in imparting flavour of that braising liquid to the fried fish; which by itself had a muddy flavour. Eggplant was sweet though. Will not get this again.

Impossible™ Juicy Lucy quarter pounder from Oriole Coffee + Bar

If I ever had the need for the little nudge to tip me over into the believer camp for Impossible, this might just be it. But I didn't because I'm already pretty much there thanks to the first/last try at Omakase Burger. So now this. It's been quite a while since we've been to Oriole but I saw that they had a Impossible Juicy Lucy so I thought why not. I liked it. More than I thought I would. While I'll give credit to the other ingredients like the melted cheese, sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions that made the burger, I was mostly impressed by how much the patty resembled meat.

Paint it Black (Tap)

While it may not be very apparent from the photo, this was a Filet Au Poivre burger that featured an 8oz prime filet mignon with crumbled blue cheese between the buns. The meat wasn't a regular minced patty. T'was a f-i-l-e-t m-i-g-n-o-n.

It was an off menu and probably limited time item which was almost the same as the Steak Au Povire that we had previously had; which been taken off the menu apparently. The only difference between this and that was an actual cut of tenderloin versus their regular beef patty and some fried onions.

Meat was so tender that it yielded with ease to the bite. With a nice hit of salty blue cheese and delicious creamy green peppercorn sauce. It all went down pretty easily.

Trattoria Amanda, Stanley Street

Their (14 Stanley Street, tel : +65 6222 5808) bread was hard, didn't have any smell and didn't have much taste. Don't know why the restaurant felt it was suitable for bread gratis. I'm not sure that these could even be used for panzanella. They might have been good for croutons at best but I couldn't even tell if they would actually absorb anything. Strike one.

Tried a foie gras with brandied apples and oranges from their specials menu. The sautéed fruits were delicious. There was a problem with the foie. It looked nicely seared with a crusty browning on the surface but the inside was slightly chilled; with a texture like the terrine variety rather than the soft quivery ones with rendered fat. That meant it wasn't defrosted properly. Strike two.

Scallops were the frozen variety. Had a nice aroma from the sear but didn't have the natural sweetness of fresh ones. But I wouldn't blame them for using those since it was meant to be paired with Parmigiano Reggiano and prosciutto di Parma. Each scallop in a single bite made very good chewing with the prosciutto. Saffron sauce was nice and creamy.

This was their cacio e pepe. Google 'cacio e pepe', click Images, examine them and then come back. Menu said 'rich blend of 4 quality cheeses'. Didn't taste very cheesy. It was creamy though. Much too creamy for just cheese and pepper. There was quite a bit of pepper but nothing beyond what one could achieve with a pepper mill. Not sure if that Kampot pepper made any difference. Strike three.

That's their pistachio and mortadella pizza. Menu mentioned 'buttery pistachio puree'. There were some crushed pistachio on the pizza; not nearly enough for aroma or even texture. No puree of any sort to be found. The flavour was mostly mozzarella, tomato and the mortadella. Strike four. 

Of dancing fishes, spicy apples and cucumber latte...

I've just discovered that Dancing Fish Signature serves star fruit juices with preserved sour plum. Something suitably refreshing for the sweltering heat that seemed worse than usual in the recent weeks.  

We landed ourselves another salad from them. This time it was the spicy green apple which had the same dressing as the starfruit rendition. These two and the mango salad were nice. Something tangy, crunchy and very South East Asian.

Their nasi berempah kuning delicious as always.

Just like the sambal terasi which was also another cornerstone of tastiness.

Chicken satay's not bad. That peanut sauce on the side tasted better than it looked. Actually, it tasted like a competently done satay sauce which is not so easy to find nowadays. It just wasn't coloured like the ones we're normally used to seeing.

Finally got round to getting the pucuk paku stir fried with sambal belachan.  It's as tasty as their cha kangkong probably because its either exactly or mostly the same bunch of ingredients applied onto different vegetables

Beef ribs were okay. The sweet glaze on the surface of those ribs were nice. Tasted very kecap manis-y plus a bunch of spices. Accompanying sambal matah was moreish as usual.

There's a cucumber latte on the menu which I've been wanting to try since the first time we were here and never go the chance till today. Believe or not, it does have cucumber flavour and it's not as weird as it sounded.

He Ji Wu Xiang Guan Chang (合記五香贯腸), Maxwell Food Centre

For all the times we've been to Maxwell FC, we've either never paid attention to this stall (#01-97 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street) or they've never been open since there was a queue for their bee hoon and fried stuff and we couldn't reasonably have missed them. What's more, at least half the queue were the older folks. Where one can safely assume "old taste".

Anyways, the stall looked like a competitor to China Street Fritters. The variety of their selection is curated to a bunch of stuff they specialize in. These include those liver rolls and egg lard things that one has simply got to try.

Speaking of which, their liver rolls do not taste the same as those from China Street Fritters. It was quite different but the ability to convey the difference eludes me. Both were good in their own ways. This stall though had an unexpectedly better sweet sticky sauce. Not the starchy gunk of starch most wu xiang stalls provide.