Getting grilled cheese and hotdog from Five Guys

So we're back at Five Guys. This time with a cheese dog and a grilled cheese sandwich where we've added a beef patty. Hotdog's pretty salty and not particularly memorable. But that nicely browned and appropriately greasy grilled cheese....I'm coming back for.

Today's strawberry and vanilla shake. Another day another flavour.

River Valley Nasi Lemak, Lucky Plaza

Came across this stall (#B1-99/101 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road) that is opened in the morning early enough for breakfast in one of those uncommon times we were in Lucky Plaza early enough for breakfast. I'm guessing by their name that they used to operate somewhere off River Valley in the past.

The nasi lemak was okay. I felt that the standards of their rice aren't great just like everyone else's. Drumstick was dry and sinewy. Otah's actually not bad. Ditto for the dry-ish potato patty thingy (begedil?). Egg's very thin, sambal's sweet and the fish was more crisp than meat. It's not bad that I wouldn't mind eating again if I'm here but I'm not coming back specially for this.

Alijiang (阿里疆) Silk Road Cuisine, VivoCity

These guys (#03-11B VivoCity, 1 Harbour Front Walk, tel : +65 6252 4979) are relatively new and the menu from appearances is focused on Silk Road Cuisine. If I had to summarize into laymen's terms, north western China/Muslim/Middle Eastern would be pretty accurate no matter how one looked at it. I'm pretty sure that there are influences from other parts of Asia that they didn't bother to mention as part of their marketing as well.

I was interested because this meant that the food from the regions of Chinese Muslim regions like Xinjiang would be represented.

Li Guang apricot tea was kinda nice. Tasted very much like regular apricots if anyone was wondering.

We started off with some of their lamb skewers (羊肉串). Flavour was pretty good. While the quality wasn't questionable, they were also more expensive than what I'm used to seeing them go for.

There was a mushroom dish which the English translation called tricholoma matsutake. They looked like regular brown/button mushrooms but were very flavourful. An umami heavyweight that was perfumed by dill. Very delicious.

Followed by a chilled lychee and cherry tomato salad which was refreshing in its own citrus-y manner. Very nice too.

Their 'lamb in a cage' looked like it was meat from the rib. They were served in a contraption with hooks.

Then removed from the contraption and sliced into bite size pieces. Very nice lamb-y flavour with bits of fat.

We ordered some grilled pineapple to go with it and it was sweet and delicious as well from the grilling.

We tried a dish called Xinjiang specialty rice. It was rice cooked in a pot on order after some yellow peppers, carrots, onions and bits of lamb were sizzled in oil. Not much else went into it. 

There was a sweetness from the vegetables that was infused into the rice along with the fat from the lamb. I liked this.

Tried a bunch of their desserts. This rice cake was translated as 'fragrant concubine pastry'. It's not so much pastry than it was layers of sticky rice. In between the rice were cranberries and raisins. The yellow stuff on the top might have been millet. There was osmanthus honey drizzled over it. Not bad.

We also tried something called Turkish milk rice. Rice that was cooked with sweetened milk and flavoured with vanilla. Tasted like how it sounded. This stuff is good when it's hot.

Some fruity yoghurt that has a caramelized sugar top like crème brûlée. The other brown stuff tasted like Coke flavoured pop rocks. Cool. But this was not the end to the yoghurt.

The new flavour to me was what they called 'Imperial pea pastry'. Again, it wasn't a pastry but a gelatinous pudding of sorts that was made from beans. Tasted like mung bean or chick pea but lightly sweetened. Intriguing which kinda latched onto me.

When we got the bill, we were given more yoghurt. With honey. Nice.

Strawberry dango from Isetan

Got these from the dango stand at Isetan. I had the idea that it was some strawberry sauce lathered on top of those dango but it was actually strawberry flavoured bean paste.

Another go at Lau Phua Chay

I happened to be in the vicinity getting lunch and saw that there wasn't any queue at Lau Phua Chay so I decided to give them another try. I don't think my opinion of them has changed. Unless one is enamoured with that sauce, I don't get the appeal.

Steamed oysters and frog legs from Lao You Ji (老友記)

We came back to Lao You Ji for their luncheon meat fried rice amongst other things and noticed that they had steamed oysters on the menu. We asked about their 'market price' and it turned out to be $12 a piece. Pretty expensive but they convinced us that the quality was good and that the oysters were large. We picked the one steamed with black bean sauce. While it wasn't in the same league as the largest I've personally had, it was hefty and the quality was pretty good like they claimed.  

Tried their kung bao frog legs. I was hoping that there would be more luxuriant gravy like those that are sold in frog porridge stalls but the gravy in here was scarce. Rather edible if not remarkable. Somehow, the preparation had dislodged quite a bit of the meat off the legs so we were fishing around in the pot for frog thighs and calves separated from the bones.