Gochi-So Shokudo, One Raffles Place

Tried their (#B1-30 One Raffles Place, 1 Raffles Place) secreto belly don. I know Secreto Ibérico but I've never associated the cut to the belly even though it's supposed to be in contact with the belly. Perhaps there's another vaunted secret belly of those Campovilla Ibérico pigs that almost no one knows about. The meat was delicious. Tender and tasted of the grill. Didn't need the sauce.

Their smoky thin sliced Ibérico pork belly was also good. More of the pork belly were hidden under the curry.

The pictures of the menu never showed that their Ibérico pork jowl would be slathered in that garlic-y/sweet/salty sauce. Meat was delicious. Couldn't decide if this or the secreto belly was better so there's no winner here. But they sure didn't need the sauce. Gotta remember that the next time.

Mmmunch, Timbre+

Learnt of Mmmunch (#01-37 Timbre+, 73A Ayer Rajah Crescent) from a local media publication which penned a lengthy piece about how the previous head chef from the defunct Senso who got inspired from a Netflix show with a recipe and eventually ended up running a "food truck" selling sandwiches. Jon Favreau's Chef started it all it seemed.

Anyways, here it was. Didn't taste bad. Didn't dislike it. Two double negatives in sequence. My over active imagination pictured something with more fillings so that's my fault for having unrealistic expectations. It's also not the kind you would get at Park Bench Deli. So that ex-head chef dude wasn't around as well. Was served by a couple of kids.

A few more items I haven't tried before at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

For some reasons, there's a pineapple drink that's come up on Din Tai Fung's menu. It's one of the less impressive drinks they have. A little too sweet and lacked citrus methinks. I expected better from them.

We'd seen this vegetarian fried rice during one of our visits in the past but hadn't a clue what it actually was and how we could order it because it's not on the menu. Chanced upon it on the online order form recently so we wanted to try. It's not as satisfying as their regular ones. No eggs. No garlic. A little bland. But otherwise, it's not bad with splashes of light soya sauce.

This rice dumpling stuffed with pork has been on their menu for as long as I can recall. Never tried it until now. Flavour's not bad. Read of that what you will. Meat was a little dry-ish but the rice was moist and tender. 

Sanma katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I've never had sanma katsu before. What's neat about these from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison was that they were also deboned. I'm guessing gutted and cleansed of the innards as well because I didn't get any of that tasty bitterness in there, but hey, so nice not to have to deal with their bones. To address the unasked question if anyone was wondering, yes - nice crisp breading and moist tender meat from the fish. Liked it as much as I did the aji. I wished they offered the option of only sanma sans the tonkatsu for their teishoku.

Miznon, Stanley Street

Miznon (#01-01, 6 Stanley Street, tel : +65 6223 0716) as I gathered is contemporary casual Israeli. Meaning it won't be traditional in the traditional sense of the word (heh!) and there will be borrowed elements that originate from other food cultures. The name means cafeteria in Hebrew and they're a chain with presence in New York, Paris, Vienna and Melbourne; run by a Eyal Shani who is a judge in Masterchef Israel.

I don't think they're Kosher though.

Without further accolade brandishing......

...they offer free pita with tahini.

Which we helped ourselves to. The pita was pillowy, better than any I've had so far. Nice munching with the creamy nutty tahini.

That's their Run Over Potato - a flattened baked potato with sour cream, dill, olive oil and salt. That's all my tongue told. Gimmicky but I did enjoy it. There's also a story behind why it's called run over potato that you can Google. It involves a heinous crime once in Tel Aviv.

Pitas are their thing. There's a bunch of them with different stuffings. This one's Folded Cheeseburger. The menu doesn't state cheese but look at that beautiful golden brown fan of a crust there! Ground beef patty, that crusty cheese, tomato, fried egg and pickles. Very hearty. So not Kosher.

We had a chicken liver pita. Liver was pink and tender, lifted by the spring onions and chilli.

Miznon is known, for some reasons, for their roasted baby cauliflower. It's nice. I tasted salt and olive oil. I heard that's grey sea salt (sel gris) they used. That and the cauliflower with the smoky char. The "world famous" status seemed overblown if I might opine. Either this shop did a lousy job and I wasn't as impressed as I should have been or the world has been eating really bad cauliflowers. But like I said, it's nice.

Little House of Dreams, Seng Poh Road

Not the sort of place (#01-15, 58 Seng Poh Road, tel : +65 9030 4959) I would usually hang out but came over I did. Once. One evening. For cakes.

Butter cake's not bad. Not as buttery as the home made ones I used to have as a kid but I don't think anyone makes these with that much butter and sells them without fear of accusations of murder. With this, I was judging how much it appealed by how fast it disappeared.

Carrot cake's not bad too. The cream cheese frosting was whipped and light and it never became cloying. There's definitely better around but I have no complains.

If you've made it here and are still reading, I didn't like their espresso. Sour, acidic and bitter. No smell coffee when we walked it.