Lunch at Shukuu Izakaya

I've always wanted to come here (8 Stanley Street, tel : +65 6327 9240) but have never made it due to myriads of distractions. Managed to drop by for lunch. Tried their surume ika meshi. Grilled squid stuffed with rice and tobiko. Not bad. That puddle of simmered (dashi flavoured?) egg was nice.

Lunch also came with a go at their salad bar. Just one serving. Liked the nasu with sesame dressing. Tofu and potato salad weren't bad too. Gonna try to come back in the evening some day.

Leftovers from Two Men Bagel House

That's the leftover turkey bagel from Two Men Bagel House. I don't know if the name's meant to be literal. To their form, it's stuffed. Turkey, cranberry jam, candied bacon, Brie, holy grail gravy dip (whatever that might be) and Pommery mustard. 

Falling apart as I ate. Was hoping for a bit more sweetness since there's cranberry jam and candied bacon. Bacon didn't have so much candy after all. Couldn't even get the Brie.

Here's the leftover though from this. I've exercised my share of disdain over the quality of local sandwiches. Things have gotten better in the recent years. No complains about the quantity of what's between the sliced bread. I mean, look at this bagel. The irony was that I liked the bagel better than the fillings.

Yu Mei Mei Shi, Havelock Road Food Centre

A few people have asked me if I've had the fish soup at Yu Mei Mei Shi (#01-03 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road). I haven't. But I decided to give them a go for breakfast recently. Here's a bowl of ee mian with chunks of red grouper. Soup's sweet and pretty light tasting. The fish was F³. Fresh, firm and flaking. And it's a whopping $10.

Here's also a call out to those old fogeys who like to comment on how people are willing to shell out dollars for ramen and won't do so for local food.

While arguably a bowl with minimal effort in the form of a thin broth, instant factory bought noodles and fish that only needed scaling and slicing in a cheap rental, I'm pretty sure they'd easily double the charge of such a bowl if they went to town; along with the people who actually use hand made noodles, undergo the arduity of making charshu and the numbing hours of getting a rich broth.

Chicken rice from Koufu at Fusionopolis

I've eaten from this chicken rice stall at the Koufu food court (#B2-02 Fusionopolis, 1 Fusionopolis Way) a couple of times so I thought it was worth a mention. It's not bad. Chicken was respectably smooth and tender. A little greasier than what I generally prefer after it's been plated and oiled up but still enjoyable. Chilli was more garlicky than gingery which is what I also generally prefer. I wouldn't recommend the roasted pork though. While it was edible, it also wasn't particularly flavourful nor tender. A little dry and stiff was what they were.

Chicken rice bento from Duck Master

Beside their duck bento, Duck Master also has one for their chicken. I haven't gotten anything from them for a while because their duck bento has gone up by a dollar and on top of that, they've switched their rice to regular white rice from the chicken rice. So that's more than a simple dollar of inflation right there.. 

I thought to give the chicken one a go since I've tried their chicken previously and didn't remember disliking it. Apparently, the way the chicken is done has changed. Well, at least I'm pretty sure that I didn't remember it being like this. Didn't taste bad if you didn't compare them to the ones that one can get in restaurants. It also seems that they've swapped out their chicken rice to regular rice for good. One more reason not to come back.

Revisiting Matsuo Sushi

Wow, it's been 11 years since we were last at Matsuo Sushi. Matsuo-san has been quietly operating his little sushi shop almost under the radar for a long time. For some reasons, I thought of them that thought was what prompted this return.

I did a little Googling and came across their nigiri matsu online. Thought it looked good and they had a set for that at dinner. The set which included just a miso soup.

But it looked nothing like the picture I saw online. There were no scallops and the umaki was served separately. I had almost mistaken that for otoshi. The maki that came with the sushi was cucumber and not kanpyo. Both the uni and ikura weren't on a gunkan, just piled on top of a little dish of rice. Speaking of rice, the shari seemed very lacking in vinegar. What's happening?

Miso soup was a bore as well. I had difficulty identifying it as miso especially with the flavour from the salmon muddling it.