Millennium Glutinous Rice (千年糯米饭), Chinatown Food Centre

Millennium Glutinous Rice sells only glutinous rice. The only choice one has is between sweet and salty. I was introduced to them (#02-092 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) in the past year and what made the stall memorable was the sweet glutinous rice option. They're so rarely found that uncommon is an understatement. I've tried both and I think I like the sweet variety a little better. Nicely paired with the fragrance and pronounced flavour from the freshly fried shallots in oil. 

Babas Peranakan, Chinatown Food Centre

I hadn't noticed this stall (#02-225 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) until the recent few years when they were written about. About the owner who's of Peranakan descent who had previously been from the hotel industry and how he's set up shop in Chinatown. Bloggery ensued. You know that's how it goes.

Anywayyys...I wouldn't have known that they were of Peranakan origins had they not been mentioned. To me, the stall looked very much like another cai png shop. The operative word in the last sentence was 'looked'. 

This is where I go into what I enjoyed. The onion omelette was tender light and had a sweetness from the onion. All the sweetness will of course be subdued if you eat them with the sambal belachan which was also good accompaniment to pretty much everything on the plate. Chap chye looked pale but had the prerequisite flavour I expected. That fried chicken thigh was exceptional. Meat was moist, no undercooked parts, tender that you could get it off the bone easily and generously flavoured with spices and salt.

Ask for their lemak curry to be drizzled on the rice.

Dim sum lunch at Spring Court

It seems that Spring Court has undergone renovation. The old school decor has been updated. I'm not sure exactly how but there seemed a lot more stone than before.

Their har gow has skin thicker than what I generally prefer. Wouldn't rank it anywhere amongst the better ones we've had but it didn't taste bad.

Liked their char siew bao. Just enjoyable on the whole with the sweet sauce-d char siew and thick fluffy buns.

Pretty skinny fu pei quin. Couldn't really tell what was wrapped in those beancurd skin. Most of the flavour came from the sauce. Not bad per se but not outstanding.

An okay rendition of glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf. Rice was soft. That aside, I think the ones from Ikea were better with more ingredients and flavour. No kidding.

Siew mai were also okay. Getting the pork and prawn flavours so I'm happy. At this point, you get the idea that their regular dim sum items are......okay. But YMMV.  

I think the menu described this as beef innards. Tripe, tendon and brisket. Very delicious. Would have paired so well with rice. All the beef parts were suitably tender in a deep savoury broth. In fact, the briskets were more tender than most if not all of the Cantonese dim sum places I've been too. Not that I've been to that many.

We were impressed by the claypot lamb the last time so we decided why not one. Still as delicious. The meat was flavourfully fatty and unctuous. Yet to discover a better rendition of this.

Gotta get their signature rolls made with salted egg yolk, crab and chicken liver. No one else makes these like they do because no one else makes these.

I'm generally not big on vinegared pork trotters but I loved their take. The primary reason was the sweetness that I've never seen in other renditions and the lack of a strong ginger flavour. The sauce was reduced to a viscosity that it reminded me of balsamic vinegar. Didn't taste that far from that as well.

Today's poh piah was much more tasty than the last two times we were here. Hmmmm........

And we wrapped it up with a prawn and omelette hor fun. Nice wok hei flavour that was reminiscent of those that I had as a child. Sold by the nostalgic flavour.

Iyokan (伊予柑) flavoured KitKat

Curiosity of course. The trait that supposedly killed the cat. What do we have here? Iyokan and cats printed on the bag.

You get the orange-y flavour and then just creamy sweet like other flavoured KitKat. No citrus tang. I was hoping it might have tasted like those yoghurt coated dried fruit but it didn't.

Burger & Lobster, Raffles Hotel

Burger & Lobster from Mayfair, London, became another one of those restaurants which I've seen around, heard mention numerous times and have never visited until now. The primary reason was because their first location at Jewel is a pain in the ass to get to. Now we have another one at Raffles Hotel (#01-25 Raffles Arcade, 328 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 69 716 127). Wheeee.....! 

Nursed a whiskey sour while waiting. The rendition here was topped with charred lapsang souchong. Imparted a mellow smoky aroma which wafted up my nose every time I took a sip. Very nice. None of the smokiness was infused in the drink though. Would have been great if it did. #justsayin

B&L has pineapple tea. Very nicely done one in fact because I'm definitely getting a good pineapple flavour along with some decent astringency from the tea. I just wished that the glass was twice as big.

I didn't keep expectations high when we walked it. We just wanted to know if the food might be good. Quite impressed with the B&L Beast Burger. There's that Nebraskan beef patty, lobster claw(s), Brie and truffle mayo with fennel and Chinese cabbage. My opinion was that the slaw was unimportant. 

Of the other ingredients which I opined, held more weight, I was pretty surprised that I could taste them all. Except for the Brie. Was a little disappointed. Sure the lobster was subdued but it was there. Medium doneness in a tender charred beefy patty. I liked this.

The lobster roll didn't impress me as the one Luke's did. One could easily also contest that Market Grill has a more impressive one. But those were also more expensive. This one was loveable because the lobster wasn't overdone with what they put in and importantly, the subtle sweetness from the meat was came through. A little more butter in the buns would seriously up the game but I'm not complaining. 

AFURI (阿夫利), Funan

We've finally made our way down to Afuri (#B1-29 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6970 1386). Ironically with less seating space due to the post circuit breaker social distancing measures, we managed to find a seat.

Loved the bowl with the yuzu shoyu broth. Savoury with a nice citrus fruitiness that was refreshing. The other ingredients were okay. Would have preferred to have more bite to the noodles but there wasn't an option for that.

The tsukemen had a saltier and punchier citrus intensity. Understandably so because it was a dip rather than the broth. Liked it. But the charshu cubes were disappointingly hard. 

Didn't think much of their gyozas. Ordinary at best with soggy wings.