Koji Sushi Bar, Raffles City

Have heard about Koji Sushi Bar since their early days at Far East Square. This was their other shop in town (#03-28A Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6493 0122) which also has been around for a bit.

The menu's mainly sushi, sashimi, donburi, small plates and there are options for omakase. The seasonal items or specials go onto board.

Enjoyed their ankimo. Their ponzu jelly wasn't particularly intense so one tasted mostly ankimo. Perhaps that's how they do things here.

We ordered their tokubetsu don which came with a salad and miso soup.

The tokubetsu don from what they mentioned are on limited servings per day. There's a variety of fish, ikura, uni, tororo and an egg. Cuts of the fish were small and so was the portion of uni. Would have liked it better if it were served with vinegared rice than the regular one they used for this.

Braised pork rice from Kim Kitchen Braised Duck

Tar pow-ed braised pork rice from Kim Kitchen Braised Duck. The braised pork in question was pork belly - with a caramelized spiced soy sauce layer. Not the "melt in your mouth" kind of pork that many birdbrains are wont to parrot. It has a bite - and a nice sweetness from the caramelized sauce. I added pork intestines to this bowl. The only problem I had was that there was too little sauce for the rice and that rice was the dry and beady kind. Gotta ask for more sauce the next time.

Another Jew Kit

We've had the chicken rice from Jew Kit more than a couple of times now so it was time we gave some of their cze char items a go. These guys were easily as expensive as Sin Hoi Sai.

Got sui gao soup. Not the kind of dumplings I liked. Texture wasn't so nice because there were no prawns or any water chestnut that I could tell. Definitely not one of the better sui gao around. Soup wasn't fantastic either.

Their lychee sweet and sour pork came in balls. Sauce had some lychee flavour but was otherwise not one of the better ones I've had. IMNSHO. Lychees were good though but I wished that they had included more of them. This rendition of the pork was soggy. I'm not sure if it was because of delivery or they were just that way.  I suspect the latter.

Roselle prawns. Nice. Never had prawn balls done with such a sauce before. Would have been more crisp if they were freshly served but the roselle sauce made up for it. Such fruity sweetness....oh, pretty sure there's a lot of sugar in there but that didn't stop it from being tasty. And expensive too.

I liked their sambal kangkong. Their sambal rendition was one that found agreeable. Reminded me of those I had from a long time ago. But the portions were pretty small. #nostalgia Great pairing with the white rice though. Speaking of which, their rice wasn't dry - enough moisture yet beady.

Roasted chicken from Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice (中峇鲁海南起骨雞飯)

So it took us three years to come back to this stall. Got the roasted chicken option this time round just to compare. It's not one of the better roasted chicken I reckon. Not a bad one but not impressive as well. Maybe I'll try the fried lemon chicken one the next time or just stick to the boiled chicken. Today's salted vegetable soup was piping hot and delicious. Note to self : no need for their chilli the next time, dark soy sauce is good enough.

Skirt & Dirt, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

A new stall Skirt & Dirt (#02-66 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) has opened up in the food centre selling burgers. The selection's very curated - if you catch my drift. They've a cheese skirt beef burger that features a crusty "skirt" of cheese on the burger. That crusty cheese was nice and salty. Meat patty was an okay effort but it's basic and not particularly beefy. Nothing that I'll be looking forward to. 

If I had to compare the meat, I'd say that Hammee's does it better.

Lolla this year

It's been a while. Every time we come here to eat, it feels like they're more expensive than the last time. Or we're paying for more food. Or both. But so far, we've always walked away happy.

Tonight was the first time we've been seated in their pretty dungeon in the basement. The past two visits have always been at the counter.

From the specials - burrata with grilled soursop. I liked it. The grilled soursop with all its sweet tanginess took the place of what might have normally been balsamic vinegar. And it worked.

We've always liked their squid ink pudding with uni. It's a little more chilled than what we remember today. More chilled means less wobbly and flavour is also less pronounced. When life gives you overly chilled squid ink pudding, just wait it out for a bit.

Patagonian prawn tartare - nice sweet prawns. The green stuff in the middle was a dill something and those strips were preserved orange peel. The latter tasted like Chinese preserved plums.

That's their steamed crab lasagna. Lasagna with Hokkaido scallop mousse (I thought it was egg white) and chunky crab meat in between along with some lemony butter sauce. This was so good. Lots of chunky crab. There was an almost delicate but very present crustacean flavour.

Nicely done rack of lamb. No nonsense marinate to the meat, just salt and pepper like we like it. The brown stuff tasted like some jus reduction. The blob was parsnip puree. Think it had cream and vanilla in it. Loved it.

Some crusty duck fat fried potatoes.

And then we chocolate-ed ourselves out with their steamed chocolate pudding. Rich stuff.