Titan Tsukemen from Tonkotsu Ikkyu

It's been quite a while since I've eaten at Tonkotsu Ikkyu. Since the blueberry bowl. Since the spinach bowl.

Today was something they called Titan Tsukemen - presumably 'titan' refers to the size of the large slice of aburi charshu that is served with the noodles.

Didn't taste bad at all. I liked the bonito flavour from the dipping broth punctuated by bits of chopped negi. The chew on the noodles were quite on point. Egg was more cooked than I was hoping for. The yolk wasn't well done but was definitely way past the molten stage. That charshu - pretty tender and a little smokey. Not exactly the fall apart in the mouth type though. All the richness did get to me a little at the end because of the size.

Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant, Clarke Quay Central

Man Man has set up shop at Clarke Quay Central (#B1-52/53 Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street) just next to Don Don Donki.

The above was their hitsumabushi with foie gras from France and Himalayan black truffle.

The foie was overcooked and under charred. Not as buttery or quivery or nicely browned as I had been hoping for. Pity. Those black truffle were subtle so after a while, none of their flavour registered. Like their uni bowl, it's a clear indication of how much Teppei has slipped with his standards for good value and how poor his quality control is. Wasn't worth what I paid for.

The bowl below is a collaboration with Teppei (hah!) featuring their barachirashi with their unagi. Tasted like how it looked. I am still of the opinion that the original restaurant at Keong Saik grills better eels.

Huang Da Fu (黄大福), Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre

Demolished a bowl of ba chor mee from 黄大福 (#02-94 Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre, 31 Commonwealth Crescent). This was the large portion of noodles which was loaded with ingredients including fish dumplings (her giao) which I didn't expect. Loved the doneness of the pork liver which I thought was almost perfect and I couldn't argue with their ratio of chilli paste to noodles.. 

There were a couple of things which I thought would have inched up my like-o-metre. The fried lard could do with more aroma. I also didn't think this was the better representation of texture for mee pok and that's probably because of the type they used so it's not entirely their fault. Bottom line is, I thought these guys were pretty decent I definitely wouldn't mind eating again if I'm ever back.

It is not always good at Sin Hoi Sai

Their fried rice today definitely needed improvements. Too much moisture and too much residual grease. I had imagined that they'd at least do a competent one but we couldn't finish this. The generous chunks of chicken couldn't save it. Note to self, never get this again. Not for those cheap and teeth wrecking hard bits of salted fish.

We wanted to order fried eggs with luffa and they were out of luffa so we settled for bitter gourd. It's not bad.

The Margherita DOC pizza deal and other stuff from Trattoria Pizzeria Logic

This deal at Trattoria Pizzeria Logic comes from J Passport or even their social media. Dinner at the bar with one drink ordered nets one their pizza Margherita at $9.90 for this month. Which is in fact a good deal considering how much one of those normally costs.

Their pizza Margherita is more expensive than many because these guys use the richer buffalo mozzarella instead of fior di latte. The outcome was not bad at all. Not purist traditional as pizza Margherita go because it has additional cherry tomatoes. Still a very nicely done pie.

Was curious about their lemon cream fettuccine with shrimp. Sauce was creamy and lemon-y. A little too rich as it got to the end and in my opinion, not as refreshingly perky like the lemon cream pasta from goo Italiano. If I had to pick one that I preferred between the two, it'd be easily the latter.

Almond cake was pretty sweet. Not memorable. If I were asked, I wouldn't get it again.

XO fried rice with shrimps from Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

This XO fried rice with shrimp from Din Tai Fung appears to be a limited time item for this month. Made with an XO sauce they have concocted in house. It's not bad. There was a smokey umami thing happening from the dried shrimp/scallop and a very mild heat just in the background. Just enough of those flavours to be noticeable and nothing was overwhelming that original flavour of their fried rice.

Because of that XO sauce it was also a little more greasy than their regular fried rice. I wouldn't mind having this again.