Cô Hai Bánh Mì, Beach Road

Came to know of this Vietnamese (359 Beach Road, tel : +65 6291 6435) joint recently. They're located near to Mrs Pho.

There's soursop smoothie on the menu. Chilled, sweet and citrus-y. Just the thing for our weather.

We ordered a gỏi xoài (mango salad). How the salad looked reminded me of the goi du du from Moc Quan. For a moment, I was a little wary but it turned out to be delicious. You know - the salty fish sauce with a bit of sweetness and citrus tang coupled with fresh crunch kind of delicious. There was also something that tasted like laksa leaves. Pretty sure they were those.

They had a variety of banh mi on the menu so we tried their bánh mì cô hai. There was pork belly, some sausages, ham and pate. Sans cilantro/coriander of course. I thought it was ok. Tasted pretty much like how it looked. I had expected to be more impressed since banh mi was in the name of the restaurant. 

We got their fried banana spring rolls because we've never had them before and were curious.

I'm very often biased against cooked bananas that aren't of the pisang raja variety. This wasn't. Hence the lack of pisang raja's brand of balance between the tanginess and sweet. The bananas they used were just sweeter. Definitely didn't need all that maple syrup that they had drizzled over the spring rolls.

This was called xôi thập cẩm. Sticky rice with shredded chicken, ham, something like lup cheong, meat floss and a couple of quail eggs topped with peanuts and sesame seeds. I liked this. I couldn't identify the flavour in the sticky rice but it was pleasant and almost like chicken rice.

There's a pretty good cháo gà (chicken porridge) on menu as well. It's light on the rice and more on the broth which was lightweight yet increasingly addictive after each spoonful. This one had laksa leaves as well.

Himonoya, Robertson Walk

In the era before refrigeration and canning, fishes were salted and dried. These salted and dried goods were referred to as himono. The techniques are still in practice today but the purpose is for flavour rather than preservation. Himonoya (#02-14 Robertson Walk, 11 Unity Street, tel : +65 6235 9110) is an izakaya. They have a few himono of their own and I wanted to try them. 

We started with some of their little plates. That's potato salad with bits of crab, ikura and kani miso.

Followed by shishamo. Not the most pregnant ones we've had. These were pretty good though.

Ankimo ponzu was delicious.

So was the creamy shirako ponzu.

The himono we chose for tonight was kinki. Not so impressed by the flavour. Then again, we didn't really know what to expect since it's the first time we've had it. The meat was a little fishier than I had expected. Perhaps I shall stick to kinmedai the next time.

Surprisingly good was their shoyu butter onigiri. The rice ball was infused with shoyu, grilled and butter was melted over. The grilling created crusty caramelized bits on the surface that had flavour that was akin to coffee. The savouriness from the soy sauce and the bit of richness from the butter crept up from behind and killed it. Would eat this again.

Then came croquettes with more bits of crab meat and kani miso. I'm not sure I even tasted crab from the creamy innards of the croquette but the kani miso pretty much saved it.

Slices of buri and chutoro they served were nice. Both fishes were fatty.

The aburi-ed wagyu roll with blobs of uni we couldn't taste much of served as a filler to close the meal. The maki wasn't exactly a flavour bomb on it's own but with the left over ponzu from the shirako, the rolls became pretty tasty.

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.