A dry kuey teow bowl with tendon and tripe from Empress Place Teochew Beef Kway Teow

I noticed that the stall now has stir fried beef kuey teow and beef fried rice on top of the regular kuey teow options they normally do. While I'm quite willing to admit that this is currently one of my favourite non-Hainanese dry beef kuey teow stall on the island, I realized that it's a little difficult for me to give those other items a chance since I don't come here often enough to even get past their kuey teow bowls.

Anyways, here's a tendon and tripe bowl. I seem to remember that their large bowls were going for $7 the last time and today, it's $6. Still yummy with fragrance from sesame oil, light tangy bits from the kiam chye and moderated heat from the chilli. One can always get more to of the chilli sauce to ramp up the heat but I'm happy with their default portions for now.

The Fisherman with scrambled eggs at Two Men Bagel House

Two Men Bagel House has renovated into a larger space. The menu has also gone through a revamp. Little changes but noticeable ones. Some of the old stuff don't seem to be around anymore. I finally got to try one of their smoked salmon bagel this time round. It's called Fisherman with cream cheese, red onions, capers and tomatoes. Topped it up with scrambled egg for a protein rich breakfast between cheddar bagels.

Not bad but I think I prefer salmon that's a little smokier and perhaps with dill. While I had nothing on the generosity of the ingredients which were literally spilling out of the bagel, it was also obvious that little thought had been gone through to construct it properly. Everything was falling apart and spilling as I ate. By the time I was done, my fingers had all been cream cheesed.

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.