Revisiting Bakalaki

It's been almost a couple of years since we were last here.

One of the servers told us that were grilled sardines; not on the menu, so we got some. Fishes were served with some salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Chicken souvlaki was not bad. I haven't had much experience with souvlaki and shouldn't be treated like any authority on it. Liked the grill flavour in the chunks of chicken. Today's fries were also much tastier than the last time. 

Moussaka was also not bad, I thought I detected something like goat's cheese in it. The dish was not as heavy as it appeared.

While we haven't had enough similar food (except grilled sardines and lamb chops) to make proper comparisons between, Blu Kouzina does have better variety at about the same price point.

Tang Kay Kee Fishhead Beehoon, Hong Lim Food Centre

I read about Tang Kay Kee (#01-70 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) and their cze char lunch bowls some months ago. From what I could gather, the stall had been around since the 40s serving regular cze char dinner until the younglings in the family dipped the family business into lunch bowls that garnered some attention.  We came over to try their "regular food" one evening because now we know that this would be the other place one could get food in the evening at Hong Lim. Apart from Woh Hup that is.

Tried their chai por fried rice which looked very mundane. What we didn't expect and kinda liked about this fried rice was the sweet-ish chai por that they had included. The rice was also competently fried with a good distribution egg and sufficient oil over the grains of rice without being excessively greasy. I only realized the ensnarement after a few mouthfuls when I continued to shovel spoonfuls into my face wondering what's this new sweet chai por fried rice sensation I was getting. 

I did feel that a bit more of the chai por would be nicer.

We ordered sum lou hor fun (三捞河粉). Not the overall tastiest rendition out there but the folks are friendly and were willing to egg drop (滑蛋) the gravy. The rice noodles had a width that was more tagliatelle than pappardelle and was nicely scorched on wok with a smoky aroma that made this particular rendition noteworthy. Based on the treatment of the rice noodles, I would guess the other hor fun dishes would be similarly done.

Lunch at Bistro Du Vin

The last time we had lunch at Bistro Du Vin (#01-14, Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6733 7763) in town was almost a decade ago. This was from their current set lunch menu.

French melon and Bayonne ham salad. It's not so much different from having prosciutto di Parma with melon pairing saltiness from the ham with the sweetness in the fruit.

Green pea soup with bacon oil that didn't taste like it had any bacon oil. I had been imagining that the peas might have been sweeter but that wasn't the case.

That's their blanquette de veau with pilaf and peas - the first part of the name a white stew of veal with flavoured rice. Not bad. Pilaf was nice.  I thought this dish might have been a lot better if it was ox tongue rather than veal but that's just my opinion. The veal was chunky and plentiful though.

There was a ribeye option with blue cheese sauce so we took it. I couldn't tell what cheese it was but for a blue, it wasn't very strong or stinky. Still had a nice pungent creaminess like a very intense Camembert or Reblochon though. Today's fries were good too.

Didn't think much of the chocolate mousse.

But their French apricot melba was nice. It was mostly the cream and vanilla ice cream that did the trick rather than those apricots since they didn't have any assertive citrus.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Thirteen

It's been thirteen years!

Mrs Pho, Vivocity

I hadn't realised that Mrs Pho had an outlet at Vivocity (#01-171, 1 Harbourfront Walk) until recently so we were here to give the food a try since we kinda liked what we had from the original shop at Beach Road.

I liked their beef and starfruit salad which was tangy and refreshing with saltiness from the fish sauce. That was on top of the combination of textures and other flavours which included those prawn crackers you could eat them with. I did enjoy their rendition of bún mọc which featured a clear light tasting broth, sliced pork and something they called 'Mamma's chicken ham' that tasted exactly like the meatballs the noodles came with. Hmmm. That and the broth for the phở bò tái nạm wasn't as well done as the one at Beach Road. This bowl had flavour was muted with less beefiness and cinnamon.

Note to self: ask them to omit the Chinese parsley the next time.

Revisiting Hong Kong Jin Tian (香港錦田)

It's been a while so I thought I'd give Hong Kong Jin Tian another go. The experience was considerably improved because I had wisely asked for fatty char siew (肥叉烧) rather than the burnt ends. On top of that, a roasted duck drumstick and a stewed egg. I enjoyed it though I did wish the duck was more tender and had more meat. But otherwise it had a nice old school savoury seasoning which wasn't excessively herbal.