Origin + Bloom, Marina Bay Sands

Origin + Bloom (Hotel Tower 3 lobby, Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Ave.), a deli/pâtisserie has taken over the spot where SweetSpot. used to be. I'm gonna miss their cha yen and pastrami sandwiches.

But O+B has mazagran up there. Lemon juice and espresso on ice. Pretty good to sip on for our weather.

There's a sandwich called The Whole 9 Yards. That's the 4 cm portion. Lots of stuff in it. Ham, other cold cuts, pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables, olives and whatnot in many layers. Pretty interesting and stacked but I suppose one time is all it is good for - for me that is.

What wowed us was their Parisian. Generically described on the menu with French ham, Normandy butter and baguette. I asked for extra butter. The sandwich was dripping with that delicious butter. I'd come back just for this.

A third October in Keria that ended with coffee jelly

We came back to Keria again, third time this month. Thrice in a month has never happened before but it was a good chance to get more of some of the seasonal items before they rotate out.

Otoshi was shirasu and pickled cucumbers. Unfortunately, it was also filled with ginger. Couldn't eat this.

Tried their chikuwa isobe age for the first time. Not bad munching.

Today's tonteki was outstanding. I remember that it had been a different experience the previous time we've had this. Loved how the wasabi in the butter flavoured without being overpowering.

Their beef curry has always been good. Packed a nice deep warmth.

Sujiko was in season so here's a sujiko gohan set.

Like ikura, great with rice.

Shirako soup for this season's soul.

Among the desserts we've had here, the coffee jelly is their best.

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.