Jia Ji Mei Shi (佳记美食), Chinatown Food Centre

I've had food from Jia Ji (#02-166 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) a few times. They are a pretty decent stall serving what could be construed as traditional Chinese breakfast in this country. Some people swear by them. There'll be others that claim that the food's overrated or had been better in the past. Me? I don't know. I don't eat them very often. But I like their steamed yam cake (芋头糕) with the sweet sauce. It leaves an aftertaste that I like. 

The other thing I don't mind from them are their chee cheong fun. Sometimes I like them sauced and sometimes, the clean tasting combination of soy sauce and sesame oil is good enough. Luncheon meat and fried eggs are bonuses to add that extra oomph for the breakfast.

Hua Kee Chicken Rice has changed!

I joined the queue because it was short. Didn't see the signs until it was my turn to order that I realized that the people running the stall were different. It was at that point when my mind reached back *cues echoes of flashback of what had been previously mentioned about the same management running Margaret Drive Chicken Rice and Hua Kee*. Dots connected again. Drawing another outline.

To be honest, it wasn't half bad. It was different though, in a way that wasn't immediately as impressive as before. The rice didn't quite get the ratio of flavour and lightness the way it was previously and they were definitely more greasy. Otherwise, the chicken and livers that I had gotten were competently tender. 

Hei Lun Shi Tang (黑輪食堂), Queensway Shopping Centre

I've heard about this shop selling Taiwanese styled lu rou fan (卤肉饭) sequestered in the second storey of Queensway Shopping Centre (#02-47, 1 Queensway). Decided to check them out since I was nearby. Now I haven't tried any of these in Taiwan so I haven't a frame of reference for comparison except some bowls I've had ages ago at Lai Lai and the defunct Peng Lai Ge. If anyone hasn't noticed, the ones here were served in a metal bento box.

What did I think of it? It's not a bad eat. I had imagined the minced meat gravy to be a lot more flavourful for something that supposedly contained much pork and fat with spices though. Liked the salted vegetables on the side which was appetizing. As a whole, I haven't any complains. Wouldn't mind eating it again. If I can resist the force from Janggut downstairs that is.  

Craterous plaster

I noticed that my plasters from Ali Fatimah looked particularly craterous today. And in spite of appearances both the eggs had molten yolk. Now that's a showcase of skills right there griddling pratas on the fly and yet knowing exactly when you needed to get them off that griddle through that seemingly endless queue.

The Masses X Heavens Appam brunch and other stuff

The Masses currently has a collaboration with Heavens serving appams for the weekend brunches. Because of the nature of The Masses, one would expect a woven cross cultural cuisine......thing. EuroIndian above the usual Franco Asian that they like to call themselves perhaps.

We discovered today that their kombucha is made in house. The flavour is potent with a vinegary punch. Loved it. These were their mango & cinnamon and the white peach & mint. Guess which is which.

C&C&C&C pasta. Reliable dish which has evolved and come ways since the lean and trim rendition from the old Saveur days. It costs more compared to the old days obviously and even has option for uni. 

There's char siew lamb rib on the menu so we couldn't ignore it. It's nicely done with a sweet dark glaze and caramelized exterior which one could reasonably construe as a char siew marinade.  Meat was fall off the bone tender. It's delicious. If there was anything I thought could have been improved, it was that the the flavour of the lamb was subdued due to the glaze.  

To the appam. This one had prosciutto and on the side, mushroom ragout with egg. There was no instructions on how to eat them so we had it however we thought was appropriate. 

There were a couple of sauces/chutney. One red that tasted like chilli with passionfruit and a burgundy that tasted like it was chilli with some burnt onion thing. I'm just guessing at this point. Both were delicious in their own ways but were overwhelming everything else on the plate.

The prosciutto alone with the appam was already delicious.

What we thought the better was their triple cheese appam - which looked to me like an upgraded take on Heavens princess appam. Nice mix of cheese (Mimolette, Parmesan and Halloumi) with egg in the middle of the appam.

Back in Black (spicy and Keisuke's)

Been wanting to come back to Tonkotsu King for another bowl of their Black Spicy which I didn't remember thinking much of years ago. Now that I've dug it up, I've also realized that last time occured more than eight and a half years back. Oh the stealthy march of time......

I enjoyed it today. I hated the queue to get into the shop under the sweltering humidity. But I appreciated the bowl much more than I did that last time. The black peppery warmth that made me think of a richer, oilier and cloudy bak kut teh minus the herbs and a lot less garlic. Am not sure why I didn't enjoy it the last time round but I won't be dwelling on it.