Avo-baco from Two Men Bagel House

Bacon, avocado, fried egg, tomatoes, some greens and an aioli I couldn't quite identify between sliced Cheddar bagel for breakfast. Delicious and a little messy. The Cheddar bagel's not bad. I could actually taste some of the cheese. For reasons, this shop reels me back once in a while. So far the bagel experience is improving.

Pig's organ soup (猪什汤) stall at Toh Guan's Broadway coffeeshop

Have had lunch at this stall located at Broadway Coffeeshop (286E Toh Guan Road) a couple of times recently. If my memory serves, the stall sold pig's organ soup and soya sauce braised pig trotters. Their mee sua with mixed pig's organs with sliced bitter gourd (above) was pretty good. Nothing life changing but a straightforward tasty bowl of salty porcine deliciousness.

One could get the soup and rice option as well. Apparently a choice was provided between bitter gourd or salted vegetables for this. I got the latter. Loved the bits of fried garlic and its oil that they added to the broth. The soya sauce eggs and tau kwa were well flavoured too. What I didn't expect was that they used short grained rice rather than the regular longer grain variety. 

Shi Li Fang (食立方), Tiong Bahru Plaza

I'm generally not so big on hot pots. Not that I don't like them but the weather is usually hot enough as it is and I prefer if possible to eat in comfort rather than induced perspiration. There has only been a single experience when I've had these and never broke sweat and it is till this day a little surreal. I was curious enough about Shi Li Fang (#02-112 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6870 8898) a Taiwanese hot pot chain after having seen various of their outlets numerous times though.

One of the fun things about these hot pot places are the condiments available which one can concoct their own sauces/dips. Each time is a unique flavour even though the ingredients may not vary much. There's always something that you could decide to add on a whim, forget or even get wrong the proportions. Look at what I made for myself this time round.

Tried the Australian beef. Not so good. There was barely any beefy flavour so I'll skip these the next time or get the wagyu.

Pork was pretty decent. Because of the nature of its light flavour, works well as a platform for the sauces.

There's some prawn paste thingy with ebiko I believe. This was surprisingly good. The paste had quite a lot of prawn in it.

Luncheon meat was the unhealthy but usually welcomed option.

These were rolls of fried tofu skin which one could dip in the broth to soak up. The lighter tasting broths are usually better because the flavour of these tofu skins still get through.

The pictures on the menu showed scallops with corals. The actual serving didn't have them. Were frozen. But after we cooked them, they were delicious. Sweet even. Pleasantly surprised.

A couple more of tofu items. The ones on the left I believe are the frozen tofu (冻豆腐) and the ones on the right which were called mock chicken were actually 百页. The frozen tofu wasn't as good as those I've had before. These were a little thin and it ended up tasting a bit like tau pok.

O-b-l-i-g-a-t-o-r-y. But those nai bai were nice and even the Chinese spinach were surprisingly good after being cooked in the chicken collagen broth.

There was lamb so we had gotta get some. These thin sliced ones were good with its natural flavour from the meat. The better (or best) option to get compared to the next.

This lamb was marinated. Salted. Tenderised but fortunately not so much that it had become an unidentifiable protein matter. Didn't have much flavour of lamb though. Anything that didn't taste good on their own makes a good vehicle for the DIY sauces. Will skip these in the future.

Godmama, Funan

I’ve read posted sentiments which briefly echoes a shallow poignancy about the loss of appreciation for Peranakan cuisine followed by how much the Peranakans have contributed to the history and culture of our country. The purpose of that writing I deduce, was a feeble attempt to craft a pseudo-erudite image as there wasn't even any attempt to explain how the two were related. 

I have more than a couple of thoughts on this matter. I do feel that Peranakan food deserves a bit more attention. I think it’s not so much of a problem in recent years with the new (and old) restaurants getting some spotlight. Even starlight as things were. The other part of me simply thinks - come what may. Peranakan food and its makers intrinsically doesn’t lend itself to survival well as a cuisine because of the effort it takes to create their food and that the people who do it love to - I repeat, love to upscale their take. Not gonna fly if you want to be popular because it’s priced out of the budget of many. 

But I rant…...

This is Godmama (#04-07 Funan, 109 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6970 0828).

The menu's pretty curated and there's cocktails. This one I had was described to be made with pineapple rum and pineapple jam. It didn't taste much like pineapple so that was disappointing. But the mezcal in it the gave the drink a smokey depth and the cardamom was a nice touch. 

This was our first nasi ulam. Seen it in pictures but have never tried it till now. Godmama's version. Light, herbaceous and I was quite fascinated by the flavour profile which had somehow omitted the mackerel that was in it. The menu mentioned that an order was good for two but the portion looked like it was just good for one.

Pretty good chap chye they did. Broth has a clean prawn flavour. There was just enough garlic in the dish that its use could be detected but didn't come off as strong as many other renditions.

Their babi pongteh was nice. Liked the flavour of the fermented soy bean gravy and those tender strips of fatty pork belly that readily fell apart in the mouth. We ordered extra rice for this.

Sotong masak hitam was also pretty tasty. Squid was tender and the assam in the squid ink sauce made it very appetizing. Great with that extra rice.

Back in ChoWon Garden

We haven't been eating at ChoWon Garden for quite a long while. Precisely the same thought I had the last time we were here.  

The banchan arrived customarily after orders were taken. At first glance, they looked like they were run of the mill and indistinguishable from "the usual stuff that's served everywhere". But one of them actually featured red meat, I can't tell which, that tasted like babi pongteh with gochujang. 

What truly surprised us pleasantly were cow lung egg fritters (buchimgae?). Certainly didn't expect to get those. Took a bit of chewing to get the flavours out. Nice.

That's their yukhoe chobap, a minced raw beef sushi drizzled generously with sesame oil. I thought this tasted pretty good.

Their nakji pajeon (octopus pancake) was not bad. A little greasy with bits of octopus tentacles, egg and spring onions mostly. Didn't look as fascinating as the picture on the menu though.

The other dish we had which was unexpectedly outstanding was their chadol doenjang jigae - a fermented bean paste stew with thinly sliced beef brisket. Vegetables and tofu inside as well. Flavour from the fermented bean broth with rendered fat from the brisket was addictively delicious. Perfect with a bowl of steamed rice. 

Te Mana lamb at The Pelican

We haven't been to The Pelican in a while. If anyone is interested in knowing, the restaurant no longer serve their complimentary delicious seaweed sourdough possibly because people were more interested in them than the other things on the menu.

#disappointedbecausewaslookingforwardtoit

They do have a sort of showcase thing going on for Te Mana lamb from New Zealand which is billed as the wagyu of lamb. A few items on the menu were based on those lamb.

Not their lobster bisque though. No lamb in there. It was still nice. It had a lot less cream going on than many and a nice crustacean sweetness in it. There were also tiny chunks of orange segments in the soup which were kinda nice in a warm orange-y manner.

So here's that Te Mana lamb rump sandwich in more colour saturation and less ideal light conditions for a photo shot. As a whole, I liked it. Nice cabbage and pear slaw in a buttery brioche. But the ratio of ingredients in the sandwich was a poor showcase for the flavour of the lamb. Too much texture and flavours going on. Could have been solved by more generosity of that thinly sliced lamb rump but clearly they failed the showcase here. Brioche was dry and crumbly. Needed moisture or should have picked a sturdy rye instead. But I still enjoyed it. Couldn't tell it apart from a regular lamb though.

There was a shank braised in red wine sauce and blue cheese polenta. Shank was competently cooked. Tender and had the lamb-y flavour from the bits of fat in them. No blue cheese flavour at all from the polenta which was slightly disappointing even though I kept my expectations low on that part. It was buttery and cheesy which made it pretty enjoyable. Tomatoes were juicy and bursting with sweetness. Calling this this the wagyu of lamb raises expectations. The differences between another good lamb shank and this was - well, almost impossible to tell.