More mazesoba at Menya Kokoro

Menya Kokoro is currently featuring a bunch of best sellers from their shops all over where they have shops.

There was a double cheese mazesoba which featured charred cheese. Their top seller in Jakarta. I had hopes. Not because of Jakarta.

Didn't look like there was much cheesiness going around after tossing and the taste confirmed it. But I was glad that the other components that formed the base flavour was already delicious in the first place.

The shop offered rice for the left over ingredients after you've finished the mazesoba. Loved how well it worked with rice too.

For reasons, the top seller for Vancouver was their mentai ebi bowl. Very nice as well. I was surprised that there wasn't much of the mentaiko flavour as compared to the flavour of prawns which was pretty prominent.

Discovered ajikatsu on the menu. It was okay. Not as good as those from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison for sure.

Brunch at Publico

Publico Ristorante was the restaurant (Level 1 Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quay, 1 Nanson Road, tel : +65 6826 5040) that opened up after their deli, Publico Deli - which has since been rechristened to Marcello. I suppose they escaped my attention because it's not so uncommon for yet another Italian restaurant to open up here. We came for brunch over the weekend.

Our curiosity was piqued by their squid ink marinated salmon. Hence the obsidian edges of the fish. The dish was served on yoghurt that was heavy with cumin. Which was nice but was also much too much flavour for the fish. A slice of the salmon smudged with the yoghurt would probably register 10-15% salmon flavour. The squid ink didn't do much.

Scrambled eggs with grated black truffle on toasted sourdough. Not bad. I could also tell that the eggs would have been much better if there was salted butter in the scramble.

I admit to being a little apprehensive of the ragu from their conchiglie but it turned out very nice. The sauce was robust and meaty. Not the best I've had as memory served but perfection will not make me an enemy of good. This was good. 

Pretty competent tiramisu that had the ladyfingers well soaked. My opinion was that this rendition could be improved with a higher mascarpone to ladyfinger ratio.

Yan Fried Bee Hoon (焱), Redhill Food Centre

There was some buzz about 焱 (#01-19, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) because of a certain someone whom was seen queueing for their noodles or was it fried chicken wings. The owner of 焱 from then has moved on and the current proprietor is someone else. The bee hoon had a nice stringy texture but I thought it would have benefitted from more flavour. Ivan's Porridge has better flavour. Chicken wings were pretty tasty though. Due to fortuitous timing, I happened to get a freshly fried batch. Those wings had a nice crisp without excess grease and very moist meat. Liked their luncheon meat.

The Wicked Garlic, International Plaza

We've walked by The Wicked Garlic (#01-37 International Plaza, 10 Anson Road) place a few times but have never eaten there because I wasn't sure how I felt about them. While wandering around Tanjong Pagar looking for food tonight with half a mind on getting ramen from the International Plaza outlet of Keisuke's Tonkotsu King, we saw them and decided, why not?

Tried their curry prawn risotto. Curry was thick and had a bit of heat but it wasn't complex enough that the flavour became monotonous after a bit. Interesting but I don't think I'll eat it again. The gnocchi below were small and had some crusty skin. I wouldn't have known they were gnocchi if it wasn't mentioned on the menu. It's okay, nothing that'll reel us back though.

No I'm not writing them off. I intend to come back another time to try more stuff. Their prices are pretty affordable.

Ashes Burnnit, Golden Mile Food Centre

Ashes Burnnit (#B1-24 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) identify their beef burgers as smash burgers. I felt it lacked identity. Why? The patty didn't look smashed to me so it wasn't a smash type burger. No charred crusty edges neither. There was a special sauce just like many other burgers which tasted generic like countless other special sauces. Nothing unique about how it was constructed.

But it's not bad tasting in the realm of hawker centre burgers. Not quite Hammee's. Not sure how those fried shallots were supposed to help because I couldn't taste them and the sauce was probably not necessary. Fries were nice though.

Spiced apple tart tartin from Porta

Not as spiced as I had imagined.

The pastry below was a filo shell which I had been expecting to be well buttered but wasn't. Beneath the filo shell were the stewed apples. Ice cream was rum and raisin. If anyone had been wondering if the brown stuff strewn over was bacon, it was. With maple syrup.  So it was sweet and saltiness going on. Not bad but I expected better fresher flavour from both the filo and bacon. This looked assembled rather than freshly made. From Porta (Level 1 Park Hotel Clarke Quay, 1 Unity Street, tel : +65 6593 8855).