Lao Ren Jia Roasted (老人家燒臘), Chinatown Food Centre

We happened by this stall (#02-003 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) the last time we were around. It was the name that caught our attention. So we ordered their soya sauce chicken thigh (鸡尾) and char siew on rice.

Not bad. The thigh meat was slurp off the bone tender. Flavour from the soya sauce on the skin was savoury without the sweetness that Hawker Chan has. Not a bad thing, just different. I added char siew because it was intrigued by their redness and the lack of char. And that it looked like it was all belly meat. It's not bad too. Just doesn't have the char that added a level of smokiness.

Rice was lightly flavoured but sufficient to the point I could eat them on their own. Chilli was slightly ginger-y but also had quite a bit of lime.

The ABC of pratas

While coin prata is nothing new, I don't remember if I've ever had them. Yeap, that would be those little round fried pastries up there. This was an order with mutton masala and fish curry (top left) from ABC Food Corner. I thought they did the coin prata well. Crisp on the outside with a chewy tenderness beneath.

I wondered about the curries with their Milo prata previously. Today, we've graduated into having them with dalcha and even the tamarind based fish curry. Wasn't weird at all. One just has to free the mind.

Guang Li Wanton Noodle, Havelock Road Food Centre

Have eaten at this stall (#01-01 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) a couple of times.  They're only open for a few hours in the late evening/night. Even when there isn't a visible queue, the wait time can be considerable because they are probably preparing for orders which have already been taken. 

Char siew and wantons were boring. I didn't think much of them.  The flavour was old school and frills free. What made me eat here and revisit were the noodles and their chilli sauce. Love the wiry texture and bite of them noodles. 

Even more pasta and pizza from Trattoria Pizzeria Logic

Here's us back in a particular neighbourhood's friendly Japanese Italian trattoria/pizzeria/thingy. I've been wanting to try their burro e acciughe for a while so that's finally happened. Butter and anchovies, didn't that already sound good? Loved this pizza for how all the component flavours which also included Mozzarella and basil came through. 

On the specials menu was a fettuccine with porcini sauce. Sauce that came with chunks of porcini. Topped the pasta with additional 5gs of black truffles. Grams not grands. Enjoyed it. Pasta was well tossed which did a good job with coating the noodles with the sauce. If anything could be improved, it would be more shaven cheese for more salt. 

Tried their lamb chops. Medium doneness turned out more like medium well. They also neglected to mention that there was rosemary in it. It's not bad per se but we prefer our lamb chops unadulterated beside salt and pepper. Their tomato sauce was great though. The chunks of tomatoes in it were so sweet. I wonder if that sweetness was natural. Anyways, I liked it enough to wipe the plate pretty much clean with the cornicione of the pizza.

鱼鳔猪肚鸡, Chinatown Food Centre

Was attracted to the pot of bubbling soup at the front of the stall (#02-006 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street). I don't know if I got the name of the stall right, but that's what it says on the sign. 鱼鳔猪肚鸡, also refers to that bubbling pot of soup by the way. 

Flavour's not bad at all but falls short of being outstanding. Pig's stomach was very tender, fish maw was..... not special and there was also piece of chicken thigh that had all the flavour and tenderness boiled out of it so I guess it all went into the soup. My opinion is that places like Ah Er Soup can do something similar with seemingly lesser ingredients. While it may not be fair or an apple to apple comparison, 藝 also had a much better tasting pig's stomach soup.

Getting Oktoberfest-y with pigs ears, livers and shoulder at Brotzeit

 

It's that time of the year again. Brotzeit has got a bunch of items on the menu for that time of the year. Read that they will be around till the end of the month.

There's deep fried pigs years. Those ears had a bite and crunch (cartilage!) along with a light crisp from the breading. Accompanied by a porcine flavour with what might have been some fat. It's the one on the right if you're still trying to figure out which those are.

Liked their roasted pig's liver with apple dish. Those livers were tender. They wouldn't oblige when we asked for more of those poached apples claiming that the portions are fixed. Such inflexibility. What happened to the festive spirit?

The other Oktoberfest menu item we tried was their pork shoulder. A change from the usual schweinshaxe. Meat was much dryer so it needed the jus on the side. Speaking of which, the flavour from the jus was much milder than I had imagined. Much preferred the more flavourful one that Marché has. I liked those potato dumplings though. Dense, spongey and very potato-y tasting.