Tuan Yuan Pork Ribs Soup (团缘肉骨茶), Kim Tian Road

Tuan Yuan (#01-01, 127 Kim Tian Road, tel : +65 6684 0123) is an offshoot of Outram Ya Hua Rou Gu Cha. I've read couple of stories of how Tuan Yuan came about but the details elude me and it's not important here. Some years ago, I've eaten at the Havelock branch of Outram Ya Hua and thought they weren't too bad. Later on, I tried another Ya Hua which opened up at Raffles City. Mediocre would be an appropriate adjective for that one.

I had thought that the Raffles City shop was related to the Outram Ya Hua but from their website, it doesn't look to be the case. My digging stopped there.

I like their soy knots - or alternatively also referred to as simply tau kee. Dried beancurd skin bundled and tied into knots before being braised/stewed. Had a good soy bean flavour, was smooth and tender that paired up nicely with the broth it was stewed in.

There's sliced pig's tongue on the menu. Thinly sliced and tender with a predominant soy sauce flavour.

What I enjoyed about their braised pork trotters is that they're mostly skin and tendon. Barely any meat. The gelatinous parts from the dish in my opinion were good enough.

Meatballs were nice and stinky with the flavour of dried sole.

Fried beancurd skin stuffed with fish paste was nice and salty. These were served freshly fried so they were good.

Tuan Yuan serves airy dough fritters with light bread-y texture with a crisp skin. These airy bread-y fritters were the perfect for dipping into their peppery broth because they soak well.  

Got a bowl of their ramen-teh - noodles in their peppery ba kut teh broth. Enjoyed the simplicity of the slurpy noodles in the broth.

Some fried sides from Eng's Wantan Noodle

I didn't think much of these ngoh hiong from Eng's. I'm not much of a fan of five spice powder in the first place and these just had a bit too much of them for me. Not to mention a mushy texture that was in the fillings. No idea how did those mushy textures come about.

Fried wanton was okay. Just okay and nothing more. Those from Pontian have a much lighter crisp and saltier stuffings which in a way made them tastier.

Grandma thosai from Ananda Bhavan

We were at Ananda Bhavan for breakfast and I was initially eyeing some other breakfast sets they had, but for some reasons, they were out of almost half of the items and everything I asked for. During breakfast hours. So I got this grandma thosai. It's pretty good. Just three pieces that appeared to be a little thicker than the regular variety. Maybe that's what made them the grandma rendition. Very satisfying with the chutney and sambar.

I gotta remind myself again that I enjoyed their milky tea.

Trying more dishes from Kai Duck

Revisiting Kai Duck because we found some of the food pretty good the last time round.

Spanish kurobuta pork char siew was...ordinary. One can find with little difficulty in non-pedigreed barbequed pork that would taste as good or better so I didn't think this was worth the money nor the space in the stomach. Restaurants need to recognize that kurobuta isn't everything. It can be easily underwhelming.

Sautéed sweet corn with pine nuts and diced duck was kinda nice. Would have been nicer if the pine nuts were toasted before the dish was stir fried.

This was the other duck skin dish on fried man tou and cream cheese. Not bad.

Was quite taken in by their braised pork knuckle in fermented bean curd sauce. Those knuckles had a good mix of meat, skin, tendon and other gelatinous parts. Liked the soft peanuts and chunks of lotus roots in the dish as well.

Pistachio Middle Eastern & Mediterranean Grill, Wheelock Place

This restaurant (#02-04/05 Wheelock Place, 501 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6262 6400) was formerly known as Pistachio Grill and was formerly located at Zhongshan Mall. I'm glad they moved out to a more centralized location because it is difficult these days to find a reason to get to Balestier.

I haven't had mohamara/muhamara much. Last I remembered them was from Shabestan. This rendition from Pistachio was more tangy and refreshing and also had a smoother texture. Made short work it with pita.

Pistachio's kibbeh were pretty meaty on the inside. Lots of moist ground beef in that crisp bulgar wheat shell. Nice.

Lamb chops with moussaka was pretty good. The meat from the rib was of medium doneness and dripping with juices. Love the chunky yet tender slices of eggplant in the moussaka with the chewy toasted cheese. Possibly the most delicious one I've had yet.

How the menu described their prawn singary didn't paint an accurate picture of how the actual dish was. Something about them with chilli garlic sauce and salad. Nothing mentioned about the prawn-ception of little prawns within tiger prawns. For some reasons, not much of the grill aroma came through. There were also some tender crunchy stuff with the small shrimps that reminded me of the stewed turnip in poh piah. 

We ordered their konafeh because we thought it might have been kunefe. Which it probably was. It was served with salted caramel ice cream instead just heavy cream. Definitely prefer the rendition with cream over this one. Not a fan of how the texture of the filo pastry was and for a dessert, it was surprisingly lacking in sweetness.

Izakaya Niningashi, Craig Road

Izakaya Niningashi (2 Craig Road, tel : +65 6970 0224) is an offshoot of Himonoya. How did I know that they were? The menu was exactly (well, almost) the same. But since there were other things from Himonoya that we didn't get to try when we were there, it'll be more or less the same getting them here.

Shirasu tofu was nice. Portions were also tiny for the price. They use Otokomae tofu here and the quality showed in the flavour.

There was a smoked potato salad. The smokiness came from the slices of smoked herring which they included. This one wasn't as smoky as the one from Hokkaido Izakaya.

Couldn't resist a bit of ankimo and shirako in ponzu while these were still available.

Shirasu tamago kake gohan. Great with shoyu, great with the leftover ponzu from the ankimo/shirako.

One of the things we had been looking forward to was their cross sectional cut of their hon maguro which featured the trinity of akami, chutoro and otoro. This was so good. If only they had served it with better quality wasabi.

The other item I was waiting to get my chopsticks into was their grilled kinmedai. Yummy.