IAAI Malay Food, Havelock Road Food Centre

IAAI Malay Food (#01-32 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) serves traditional Malay food. I've had their epok epok and lontong more than a few times before so I though I'd mention the lontong this time. Theirs came in a gravy of savoury sweetness that's prominently flavoured with dried shrimp (hae bi). Not viscous but still rich and creamy. Within were the mainstay of soft stewed vegetables, a boiled egg, a couple of pieces of tau kwa and some sliced ketupat. I missed having a molehill of serunding over the bowl but I'm not complaining. Tasted very homely and pretty satisfying.

Tandoor, Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre

I've been wanting to come to Tandoor (B1,  Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre, 11 Cavenagh Road, tel : +65 6733 8333) for a while but this place has been one of those that was out of mention, out of mind for me for the longest time. From what I could gather, they've been around for the past three and a half decades. Respectable considering how many eateries are merely just the flavour of the week.

Getting into retrospect, these guys didn't feel as earnest as Punjab Grill, wasn't as classy as Rang Mahal and well, they aren't anything like The Song of India. If anyone was wondering why these specific comparisons, it's because it'll cost you about the same to eat at all these places. Just didn't feel that the cost of eating at Tandoor commensurates the experience.

Some papads to start while waiting for the food. These were only free for the first serving.

The menu described these as potato barrels stuffed with nuts, marinated and chargrilled. Aloo ki nazzakat. The stuffings were mushy and not particularly nutty. For $22, it looked like it was something a little better than what one can get from local Indian rojak stalls.

But their mango curry, which is a signature dish of theirs was fucking awesome. Rich, creamy and full of fragrant ripe mango that's been simmered down so soft that no teeth was necessary. That's paired with some spice and a light bit of heat along with sweetness from the fruit. Not sure what's in there but I saw mustard seeds and a bit or dried chilli. I would come back just for this.

I've had tastier jeera pulao at the defunct Chella's. This wasn't bad. Lacked salt, lacked punch from the cumin. It just wasn't impressive for $18. But it also made that much more sense that we were eating this with that delicious mango curry.

The menu described their khusk tandoori raan as leg of lamb spiced with rum, pot-roasted in a heady stock spiced with cumin, cardamom, peppercorn and bay leaf, grilled in the Tandoor. Sounded exotic. If I had to describe it I'd say it tasted like lamb tikka. Meat was a little dry but pretty good munching. Good thing we took their advice to get the half portion as there was quite a bit of meat.

We took a gamble with their rose & cardamom panna cotta as mundane as that flavour pairing might have sounded for such an establishment. The texture was kinda dense for panna cotta. Not wobbly. Not getting the cardamom as well. Kinda expensive at $18 for something pre-made and taken out from a fridge to serve.

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.