Briyani from Tanglin Halt Roti Prata & Nasi Briyani

I've heard mentions of the briyani from the Tanglin Halt Roti Prata & Nasi Briyani stall. Since I haven't tried it before I decided to come down to see if they were good like how their queues suggested.  

The flavour was local - meaning that it was less intense from the flavour of the spices, be it from the briyani rice or the chicken curry. Didn't taste bad. The food was comforting in an old school sort of way. But I wouldn't say that they were particularly memorable. The meat from chicken thigh was very tender though. 

It was mentioned that their stewed vegetables were good. It's not bad. The first words that came to mind were tender and salty.

I get their prata and wouldn't mind coming back for that. Pretty sure there are more flavourful briyani that can be easily found. 

Steak dinner at Huber's Bistro

We haven't come over to Huber's Bistro for a while and decided to for a couple of reasons. The restaurant has now a bunch of steak options that are dinner only and - nobody wants to tar pow steak home. This was shortly before the prohibition of dining in for restaurants as part of the local government's "circuit breaker" .

Got the Argentinian grass fed tenderloin because there was a Gorgonzola topping option. 220g, so not a large steak.

That's the said Gorgonzola topping - which I had initially imagined to be some sort of sauce like what they used to have. 

The other steak we tried was their Australian wagyu spider steak - a cut near the hip bone of the cow that contains reticular structured fat filaments that is reminiscent of a spider’s web. Hence the name. The flavour was outstanding that I thought it needed nothing beyond salt and pepper. Not that a good sauce wouldn't be nice but....

Ordered an Australian Angus flat iron with mushroom sauce. Because the steaks were small and we needed more. Again, a cut with sufficient flavour that only salt and pepper is required though I kinda enjoyed it with their mushroom sauce too.

Maddie's Kitchen revisited

Remember I said we'd come back to Maddie's Kitchen. Here we are back.

As far as I can remember, their beef tenderloin hor fun in black bean sauce is likely the only one I've ever truly enjoyed. The wok hei infused rice noodles came with seared slices of beef tenderloin that hadn't been tenderized to death like most if not all beef hor fun. It's actually difficult to find in such a dish where the meat had the texture of meat rather than that of an unidentified meat substance. Liked that there was enough of the fermented black bean flavour in the gravy. 

Was taken in by their rendition of oyster omelette. I liked that there was a good ratio between the flour and the eggs and the outcome had a fragrant and savoury light crisp to it. Oysters were fat. While it was greasy, it wasn't excessive to the point that one would easily suffer from surfeit after a couple of bites if you know what I mean. You know you want this.

Enjoyed their slice red grouper soup. Soup had a light hint of ginger, appropriately salted and had a good flavour going on. It's a bit more expensive but a lot more satisfying than the one from Yu Mei Mei Shi.

The dish we didn't think much of was their pork trotter bee hoon. The flavour seemed a little different from most trotter bee hoon we've had. Portions were hearty and the noodles were well coated with the braising gravy; but the taste didn't quite push the right buttons for us.

Ah Er Soup (阿2煲靓汤), Food Republic @ Wisma Atria

I was initially drawn to Ah Er Soup at Food Republic (Level 4 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road) by their olive rice. I didn't like it. Too little salt and there wasn't so much flavour coming from the olive leaves so it needed the soup and their lime-y chilli.

But I enjoyed the peppery pork tripe soup. It was thick with flavour from whatever they had put in the pot. Both the tripe and gingko nuts had simmered to the point of tenderness. Will come back for the soup, not the olive rice.

Tanglin Halt Roti Prata & Nasi Briyani, Tanglin Halt Road

This stall (#01-365, 49 Tanglin Halt Road) looked like it's been around but I've only noticed them sometime late last year when I was in the vicinity. They open early (6 or 6-ish in the morning) and are done by mid afternoon. Service is prata in the morning and then rice with curry and dishes in the afternoon. I think they have nasi briyani on Fridays and/or weekends for lunch as well. The queue can get pretty long here so I guess that speaks for itself. 

I like their egg prata. Light crisp on the exterior and a tender chewiness inside. I got a couple of pieces of unidentified soft chewy mutton bits in my dalcha today. :) 

Every, Havelock Road

Every (#01-03 Isetan Office Building, 593 Havelock Road, tel : +65 6732 8866) is a konbini - or convenience stall. With an attached cafe.

They're located at the ground floor of the Isetan Office Building just next door to Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh.

We came by for lunch and had their keema curry rice. Curry was a little bit sweet but altogether enjoyable. The mince meat they used was beef and you could taste it.

There's mentaiko pasta too which was creamy and buttery. Not the most mentaiko-y we've had though. Still enjoyed it. 

Not a fan of their beef & chips though. Those nuggets of tenderloin weren't nicely charred and there was too much of their sweet barbeque sauce for me.

Picked up some spring munchies since we were here.