Poached rice from Da Shi Jia

I didn't recall seeing poached rice on the menu of Da Shi Jia when we went there previously. Decided to give it a go since it was on GrabFood. Man it was good. Very much like how I imagined it. Which was basically their garlic-ky and crustacean-y broth with rice. Came with a few slices of pork and two large prawns. It's a little pricey but I wouldn't mind eating this again.

Food from Lechon Republic

Trying Lechon Republic (#01-09 Novena Regency, 275 Thomson Road) for the first time.

The lechon was not bad. The crisp of the skin held up quite well through delivery. I would imagine that they would be even better if we had them fresh at the restaurant. The meat was very tender and had some fat for flavour.

Tried their bopis. If you didn't know what bopis was, it's a sautéed offal dish of beef and/or pork lungs and/or heart. The sauce was a little sweet, a little spicy, tangy and creamy even. It was good pairing with rice. 

Here's a sizzling sisig which is obviously not sizzling anymore. Because delivery. Heh. Deliciously savoury that is enhanced by a citrus-y tang from the limes. That and some spikes of heat from the green chilli. Obviously so good with the rice.

Delivery from Blue Label Pizza

I've been wanting to give Blue Label Pizza another try since the previous time.

That's their Blue Label salad - Brussels sprouts, dried blueberries, Manchego and a mustard vinegrette. 

Very tangy, liked it. This tasted a lot better than it looked.

We went for the rather expensive J-Dog ($38) with pepperoni, bacon, pork sausage and jalapeño. Very salty. The crust was so thin in the middle that it couldn't hold the weight of the toppings. That crust also didn't survive well having gotten soggy in the middle parts and a little tough and chewy at the cornicione. The flavour of the cornicione was still nice though - made better with those sesame seeds but that by itself couldn't make me think better of the pizza. 

The Mango Tree Indian Coastal Restaurant

We had eaten once from Mango Tree years ago. It's a little farther out than where we normally venture to but since we're all ordering in these days, I thought it would be nice to revisit them

I noticed a Erachi ishtu on the menu which immediately brought to mind something very similar I had once at Swaadhisht. Didn't regret it. Nice creamy coconut broth with spices and tender onions and a bit of heat. Those sliced bits of green chilli in them added a great aroma. Mutton in the broth was tender as well. I think the one from Swaadhisht was more peppery.

I enjoyed the murg makhani - seemed like more than I did the last time. My thoughts of it might have changed a little. I enjoyed the balance of the cream and tang. I wonder if the recipe has changed from that time. It was too bad that I had too little naan or rice to finish up all the gravy.

I didn't remember it but apparently I had ordered their mango mapas previously as well. Still liked the tangy creamy flavours of this green mango curry.

Their lemon basmati rice. There was some nutty aroma - maybe from the spices and lentils. Sadly, not not detecting any lemon in there.

I wanted to get another opinion on the mango naan that Mango Tree after all this time. It was tastier than what I recalled from the last time. The fragrance from the mango along with some butteriness wafted out as soon as I opened the foil wrap. Also unlike the previous time, I tasted mango. I'm not sure what dip it would be suitable for since every gravy option would be overpowering the mango flavour on these naan.

Home delivery from Kok Sen Restaurant

Kok Sen (30 Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 6223 2005) has been around for years. The place has been a popular cze char spot for a long time too. I've only heard of them some years ago. Never bothered because the queue was a major deterrent. But we're in delivery season and they are sometimes available on GrabFood.

So I ended up with an order of the beef with black bean sauce rice. Why beef? Because I wanted sliced fish and they were out of it. So I settled in spite of apprehension. Besides, what was important for me was to discover if their black bean sauce was any good. It wasn't. Not enough of the black bean flavour and also not enough salt. Beef was also "unnatural" if you catch my drift. For black bean sauce and proper beef in Chinese cze char, I'd go with Maddie's Kitchen. 

Kailan with roasted pork on rice was significantly tastier. Garlic and oyster sauce were most of those flavour. That was the intention and pretty much all that was needed in a dish like this. Nice crunch from the kailan but pork was a little chewy.

I heard they were known for their prawn paste chicken (虾酱鸡). Pretty decent rendition if I might say so. I think Sin Hoi Sai might have just a little edge over Kok Sen but don't knock it till you've tried this. Liked the good spread of the prawn paste flavour.

Market Grilled @ home

Market Grill has some new items on their menu. Lure was cast on social media and I took the bait. Heh heh. While I maintain that their food would probably be more enjoyable eaten at the restaurant, they did survive delivery pretty well. Well, most of it anyway.

Jambalaya's new on the menu. Seeing it reminded me of the etouffee from the defunct One Night Only. No they tasted different. If my memory serves, the gravy from the etouffee packed more of the crustacean punch compared to the rice here. Not that this one didn't have any. Loved the smokiness from the bacon that got into every bite of those tiger prawns. Pretty sure it would have tasted better straight from the kitchen.

Lamb shoulder didn't survive well. Meat was drying up and badly needed salt. The spice was not well distributed so some bites tasted more potent than the others. But I'm mostly disappointed by the lack of salt. 

Prawn roll was also new on menu. Liked the chunky sliced up tiger prawns in the toasted & buttered brioche. Odd thing - I tasted quite a bit of dill in there but couldn't see any at all. In any case, I enjoyed the unexpected heartiness from this. Would definitely get it again.