45 minutes at Keria

Why was this post titled 45 minutes at Keria? Because we came by without reservations and they had two seats for us if we could finish up in 45 minutes for their next reservation.

Today's otoshi was okura topped with a mixture of tororo and uni. So vibrant yellow.

If you've been following my Keria trail, you'd know what this is. A plate of umami wok hei.

There was a promo for uni items so those were going for less than what they normally charge. So we got ourselves uni don. Umai.

Thinly sliced gyutan stir fried with negi. Savoury and delicious as well.

Fried oysters are on the menu. You know it. These were fat, creamy and piping hot sealed inside the fried crisp batter. Nice.

I'm ready for natto so we ordered natto tempura (left). Natto doesn't taste bad if you asked me. If you asked me more, I think there is something like coffee about them. Those rolls on the right were sardines with ume rolled with shiso and fried. Pretty fruity ume there.

We didn't order desserts but they gave us coffee jelly on the house as a form of apology for having to rush us. In the end, we even got additional 10 minutes because the next person was late.

Radish cake from Heng Heng Cooked Food

Got some chai tau kuey to go for breakfast from Heng Keng (#01-72 Beo Cresecent Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent). To get the better of the illusion of choice, we usually order both the black and the white ones. Extra eggs and chai por too.

The white radish cake is generally savoury. The black one is more smoky sweet than savoury because of the dark soy sauce and has a creamier texture because of the moisture. While I generally like it more caramelized and dry, this wasn't bad at all.

Bedok Bak Chor Mee (天下無敵之勿洛肉脞面), Circular Road

It wasn't until I had gotten the receipt that I realized these guys called themselves Invincible Bedok Bak Chor Mee (13 Circular Road). With a name like that, how could I not give them a chance?

Anyways, these guys do what is known (to me lately) as Bedok styled ba chor mee. I hadn't realized that the soup variety was also known as "Bedok styled". Then again, I've always been a dry ba chor mee person.

We tried a dry bowl and another that's with soup. The dry bowl had some burn from their chilli sauce. Didn't taste like the regular variety that I'm familiar with so I guess it's their own mix of condiments. Not bad but not so good that I'll be yearning for another bowl soon. Actually preferred the soup bowl which featured a lightly sweet broth. No intense flavour in that broth like Tai Hwa though.

They also have wu xiang on the side. Decent tasting, nothing remarkable about them.

Aoki 13 years after the first

It has been 13 years since I discovered and visited Aoki for the first time. In those 13 years, I've never gotten past lunch because...well, it's Aoki. Kinda expensive. And it's always easy to just fall back onto their mazechirashi. Not today though.

First time we had gotten counter seats. It has a great view for the busy hands and sharp knives at work behind the counter.

Otoshi was simmered vegetables. The sweet type with mushroom, lotus roots, carrots and konnyaku.

The salad has ice plant. Very crisp. Tomatoes were really sweet. Their salad has blown other restaurant's lunch salads out of the water. 

First time ordering their tekka don. Goma dare tekka don. With sesame dressing and handful of chopped mitsuba. Best tekka don I've had. Just imagine shoyu marinated akami in goma dressing coated in molten yolk from the onsen tamago.

Tsukemono was pretty. I like that pinky crisp pickle marinated in something that gave it a shiso flavour. 

What do we have here?

Black truffle chawanmushi. Piping hot, savoury and so damn good.

We saw them making the sweet tamago with the caramelized sugar top so we ordered some. Nice!

Dessert was sweet edamame mochi, matcha monaka and umeshu jelly.

Swiss National Day menu at Huber's

This was the first time I had ordered not a Grevensteiner at Huber's. I thought I'd switch out for a Schneider Weisse for the chilled citrus which might be a better foil to the sweltering humidity. There's a Swiss National Day menu happening in the meantime.

With something called a chalet soup which involved pasta, beans, some vegetables, Gruyère, cream and saucisson vaudois. Delicious cheesy soup which wasn't too rich.

Got ourselves a kalbsadrio just like the last year when they had it.

This chicken schnitzel sandwich was from their regular menu. While it looked like it had some cheese, I couldn't taste any of it. Pretty decent piping hot fried chicken sandwich though.

Got ourselves an order of bsoffni öpfel.

A dessert of a baked apple stuffed with cheese, raisins, mango chutney and Calvados. The apple and stuffings were mostly tart. But that's what the scoop of vanilla ice cream was for.

Revisiting Niku Kappo

It was over three years ago when we first visited Niku Kappo. Today, over three years later, the menu didn't look like it had changed much if at all. This visit today was driven by their niku sushi. I wanted to get some.

We also ordered a bunch of stuff to try that we never got to the previous time round. Like this ajitama foie gras dish which was served with foie gras that was cold and hard. We ended up pan frying the foie ourselves later.

Along the way to the niku sushi, we also made short work of their aburi mentaiko potato salad. Mentaiko which added umami to the creamy potato salad while the onions cut them through with sharpness. This was better than I had imagined.

Pleasantly surprised by the beefiness of their wagyu tsukune. Both the cheese filled one and the negi shio topped stick were delicious in their own ways. 

Truffle cheese udon was better tasting than I had expected. With the cheese, egg sauce and black pepper, this was more carbonara than most carbonara around. Note to self : this should be shared to avoid surfeit from the richness.

We were actually disappointed when we finally got to the niku sushi. The slices of beef were too thick and chewy. Couldn't even swallow some of them. Ended up a la plancha-ing the rest. Tasted loads better after searing them on the hot pan.

If anyone had been wondering about the pan frying of the foie gras and the beef from the niku sushi - we had a hot plate from an order of gyutan. Gyutan was fatty and tender and good after a short sear with either the negi shio or a dip of shoyu.