Coco Ichibanya, Star Vista

It's been a number of years since we've last eaten at Coco Ichibanya (#02-06 Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green). Since the weather has been uncharacteristically cooling these recent nights, the thought of some curry sounded like a good idea as we were in the vicinity. Because we hadn't had it for such a long while, I also forgot what was the spiciness level that I liked from them and got a level 2 instead of a 3 which I think I would have preferred.

Quick one here. The first picture featured their pork cutlet with cheese curry rice - to which I added extra cheese and clams. Not bad. As I've mentioned earlier, a bit more heat would have been more satisfying. Loved the flavour of the clams. The other one was scrambled eggs with added hot dogs. The eggs were poorly done. More omelette than scrambled eggs and not enough to go around. In this case, texture and butter is important and they were both lacking.

Tried their chicken gyoza which tasted pretty much like most gyozas. Skin looked a little pale.

Kai Duck, Ngee Ann City

We came across Kai Duck (#05-10/11 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 5419) by chance while looking for dinner. 

Started off with some refreshing chilled tomatoes in sesame sauce. I couldn't figure out what those jellied bits below the tomato were.

Their innocuous looking minced duck and tofu soup was quite nice.

Peking duck skin on crackers were pretty tasty too. I noticed that they scraped the flavourful fat off beneath those crisp skin. Why?!

We got stir fried lettuce with dace and fermented black bean for the obligatory greens. The flavour from the dace and black beans made this pretty good eating.

Liked their braised tofu with preserved mustard green.

The steamed patin with preserved olives was not bad too.

Noticed that the dishes that came after the soup and small bites were all robustly flavoured and generally great with steamed rice. This was not by accident. 

The Penny Black, Boat Quay

Penny Black (26-27 Boat Quay) has been around for years. I've always had the idea that if an establishment has survived as long as they did, they must be doing something right.  We noticed that they had some English pub grub going on in their menu and we decided to try.

Like these bacon faggots. I gathered that they were made from left over cuts and offal. The bacon that was wrapped around those had the hallmark flavour of stale oil. Unforgiveable. It also wasn't smokey or salty. I was expecting more texture based on the constituent ingredients of the faggot but it was just mushy.

We were hoping the pork pie would fare better.

The fillings were soft and mushy. Like 狮子头 but much more loosely packed. Not much flavour going on except for seasoning. Could have been largely bread crumbs. I'm not an expert in English pork pies but I expected better. Expected something like a pork pie I once had.

I've read some recommendations from TripAdvisor for Penny Black. Positive ones that is. Now I see how appalling the standards of those recommendations. Wouldn't recommend it.

Oso Ristorante, Oasia Hotel Downtown

This was our first visit to Oso after they had shifted to the current location (27th Floor Oasia Hotel Downtown, 100 Peck Seah Street, tel : +65 6327 8378). The last time we ate at the restaurant was a long time back.

Bread has changed from what they served previously. The onion focaccia tasted fresh and the flatbread cracker thingy were good with salumi.

Cioppino was not bad. It's a prawn bisque flavoured with some orange zest.

We had some beef tenderloin carpaccio with black truffle puree and crushed hazelnuts. I found this to be somewhat addictive with those flatbread that I mentioned earlier.

Oso has venison tenderloin cured in house. The product was tender and smokey and paired pretty nicely with those sour berry things on the side.

Curious about how limpets would taste like, we ordered their Atlantic limpets with pink pepper on angel hair. Like clams. Those pink pepper had a different aroma from the common black variety. While I didn't dislike it, I prefer the black.

It's truffle season so we got some tagliatelle with Parmigiano Reggiano and tartufo bianco. Creamy, cheesy and buttery.

In our opinion, we make better tiramisu than the ones Oso serves. This was dry and a little lacking in flavour, salvaged mostly by the mascarpone cream.

We'll remember to skip their regular coffee the next time as well.

Un-Yang-Kor-Dai, South Bridge Road

Thai Isaan restaurant (#01-02, 57 South Bridge Road, tel : +65 6787 8575) located a short distance from China Square and Raffles Place. I'm not too familiar with Isaan style except for the Laos/Cambodian influence and the omission of coconut milk in comparison with the central Thai food that we've been having.

These were some spiced crackers which was served before the food. Something to keep our mouth busy. It's pretty good. It's a more complex rendition of our local keropok because of the spices.

The first dish to arrive was their kor moo yang. Grilled pork neck. Possibly one of the better if not the best rendition we've had out of Thailand. The meat was marinated, nicely browned from the grilling and had a dominant pepper aroma which I liked.

What I didn't expect from the fruit salad was the burning heat from their chilli. The heat picked up from a low burn rather quickly. Think I would prefer this with much less heat.

Gai yang was delicious. It seemed that the restaurant is known for this dish and the bird didn't disappoint. Meat was pretty tender and the marinate was quite tasty. 

The only dish that we didn't think was impressive was the squid stuffed with tom yam fried rice. It wasn't bad, just didn't wow. 

Sujulicious

Always something to look forward to eating at Suju.

A chilled Suntory would be one of those things.

And some sweet corn tempura today to keep the Suntory company while waiting for the other food to arrive. Not the sweetest corn out there but still not bad.

That's their Iberico pork misozuke. Pork that's been marinated in the miso that Suju makes. The outcome of the meat after the grill was sweet and salty. Actually, the flavour profile is quite similar to the Martini grilled pork from Pastaria Abate. That one was perhaps a little sweeter. This one was more intense. Both were delicious.

Not forgetting their always delicious gohan set to complete the meal.