A B.L.A.T. from Bundt by The Backyard Bakers

I've never heard of these guys (#01-22 Havelock II, 2 Havelock Road) until recently. They don't exactly have a menu beyond what they update on Instagram. Most of the stuff are sandwiches and bakes; the latter appear to be mostly brownies which I've gotten a couple of to try. Picked up their B.L.A.T. (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) in between raisin toasts since I was getting the brownies. Not bad. Enjoyed it. Bacon was candied.

Shake Shack, Neil Road

Shake Shack like Five Guys are the burger joint darlings of this era. It's firstly because most people here hadn't had them and have heard loads about how good they were. Secondly, they're now here. The other reason I believe was that there was truth to the chatter that they were really better than the other options that we have had. 

I've never tried nor bothered with the queue that was previously at Jewel. This newly opened one (#01-01, 89 Neil Road) was more convenient.

Double ShackBurger with the creamy cheesiness that I liked and the Shack-cago Dog which I'm trying for the first time. Not bad. I seem to recall not being impressed with their fries previously. In fact, the one I had at Woodbury was outright mediocre. Today's fries were.....nice. Yes, that is indeed the ShackMeister ale in the corner. 

Being a sucker for exclusives, I had to try the pandan shake. Even if it's an "exclusive" from my own country.

We tried. At least I know I tried. That's the best two of us could do. It's that sweet. It's that bad. More coconut than pandan. Waste of money. Hong Kong's nai cha shake trumps this shit.

Fong Sheng Hao (豐盛號), Paya Lebar Quarter

I've read about this shop but never really gave them much though until I stumbled upon the shop (#B2-04 Paya Lebar Quarter, 10 Paya Lebar Road) by chance recently. The following thought that came to mind was that a sandwich and a coffee in the middle of a day never killed anyone. At least I don't know of any that did.

I was hoping for the pork floss to be less fine and also a little sweeter. Didn't expect the sandwich to be dripping condense milk. Wouldn't say that I disliked it but I wouldn't order this again. Don't mind trying the other sandwich options that they have if I happen to be nearby again though.

Coffee's drinkable stuff. Reminded me of the ones from Han's for some reason.

Shiokoji Tonkatsu Keisuke, Paya Lebar Square

Keisuke is mostly known for his ramen shops. That being said, there also seems to be some diversity in his newer businesses. I didn't see a tonkatsu shop (#01-02/03 Paya Labar Square, 60 Paya Lebar Road, tel : +65 6214 3345) coming though. Making not just a regular katsu but ones that are marinated in shiokoji for that extra flavour and fried in some state of the art fryer that results in a less oil absorption I heard. I can't verify nor pretend to understand much about the latter so let's just take this with a pinch of shiokoji.

I tried a few of their colas through the years. Have found them all to be a little disappointing except for the sakura flavour which I kinda liked. A little. This yuzu cola reminded me of Chinese preserved plums. Not that it's bad. Not that it's yuzu flavour either.

Oooo....what have we here? O-o

A breaded fried egg with golden orange molten yolk. Drizzle a little shoyu and it's good with the rice.

I thought rare salmon katsu was a good idea. The fish was light and went down easily. Might have been a better idea if they could use a cut that had a little bit more fat but I suppose that could be a lot more effort than what they're charging right now.

The rare maguro katsu was lacklustre. Some slices were just a little mushy. Not much flavour from the tuna so you could knock yourself out with the variety of sauces they have over there and not worry about missing out on what ever is "intrinsic". Tartar sauce is good by the way and so is the sweet miso.

What I personally found most impressive was the shiokoji marinated pork. This was their 200g rosu. The katsu was chunky, tender and moist. Outstanding flavour from the meat. I'd come back just for this alone.

Revisiting Mak Hong Kee

Have been wanting to come back to Mak Hong Kee for a cze char dinner for a while but that hasn't happened until recently.

Today we tried their green beans stir fried with preserved vegetables. Both greens provided their own crunchiness among the spicy, salty, umami and a bit of sour. This dish begged for steamed white rice.

Their pipa tofu looked deceptively unassuming from the mundane appearances. The tofu was mashed together with minced prawn and pork before being formed into their shape fried. To add on, they were sitting in a flavourful savoury stock (上汤) that made me scrape the plate clean. Did I forget to mention there was also ebiko?  

Sweet and sour pork. The meat was lightly fried so it didn't have the sturdy crunchy exterior that other renditions do. Sauce was sweet and vinegary. Not bad.

We liked the lobster ee fu noodles more than we had initially thought we would. The texture of the noodles was the first thing that won us over. Secondly, I was quite impressed that the stock for the noodles had the crustacean flavour from the lobster infused in it. Nicely done with just a light hint of ginger that I didn't even mind.

An update at Nakajima Suisan

It's been a while since we ate at Nakajima Suisan. They've added some stuff to their menu which weren't there before.

I was reeled in by their akauo hiraki teishoku this time round.

The main reason was that I've learnt to appreciate this fish in the recent year. The fact that I've figured out a better way of eating them by stripping off the spine first helped. The other reason would be that there was something about the meat that reminded me of kinmedai.

There be oysters too and these grilled ones were pretty good. I'd get them again easily. But the shishamo today wasn't as egg stuffed as I was hoping for. Hmmmm......

They even have gindara shioyaki these days. A refreshing change from the usual teriyaki version.