Menya Kanae, Novena

Prawn broth ramen aren't common. Haven't had one since the old Keisuke days a decade ago. Le Shrimp Ramen doesn't count. So Menya Kanae (#01-08 Novena Regency, 275 Thomson Road, tel : +65 8123 3661) from Hokkaido was an out of the way trip for me to have a taste.

Shop's not exactly like the usual ramen-ya. It's a little chirpier. They do waffles and some izakaya-ish stuff as well.

This was their tokusei bowl. The special bowl with the works. I can relate the broth to hae mee soup but this has a little more going on. It's creamier and has a little more heat. 

Noodles felt like a slightly thicker version of the thin Hakata styled noodles but I prefer more bite than what this shop is doing. Charshu wasn't the kind that would disintegrate in your mouth. These had more bite. The only thing that was really worth mentioning was the broth.

Had to remove the prawns to eat separately. They were dry and not deveined. For something that looked charred, that char aroma wasn't pronounced.

I quite enjoyed the ebi sando though. That's prawn paste and chunks of prawn meat in the patty. My take was that it could have been better if they had reduced the mayonnaise in the slaw because I felt it was excessive and masked the flavour from the prawn patty.

Meng Kee Fried Kway Teow, Havelock Road Food Centre

I haven't tried the char kuey teow from Meng Kee (#01-07 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) before. This was a takeaway. And maybe because it was a takeaway, the noodles were a little wet. I like them dryer. Hum-less. No scorch on the noodles or kuey teow. Flavour was so so. No strips of fish cake as well. There's a bit of fragrance from the lard but that was about it. Not my kind of char kuey teow. Have yet to define what exactly is the type I like but I'm not impressed by this.

Pu3, TripleOne Somerset

We first noticed Pu3 (#02-20 TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Rd, tel  +65 9272 0034) back when they were located at Bencoolen Street. Was curious about their food but never gotten the chance to visit until now. The name is presumably derived from the word putri - which could mean daughter/princess/woman in Indonesia/Malaysia. What they are known for is nasi ambeng - nasi padang on a platter with an assortment of dishes. Definitions may vary from person to person.

That's their nasi ambeng. This portion serves two. There's opor ayam (chicken with spiced coconut milk gravy), beef rendang, sambal goreng, brinjal with sambal merah (red sambal), paru goreng (fried cow lungs), serunding (spiced grated coconut), begedil (mashed potato patties) and urap (salad) with rice.

Not bad but not as well done as I had been hoping for. Some of the paru goreng were super chewy and the beef rendang was kinda tough. The rest was pretty good. Loved the mixture of heat from their sambal belachan, the savoury lemak gravy from the opor ayam and the sweet from the serunding on the rice. 

Topped up the order with ikan caru sumbat bakar. Hope I got the name right. Grilled fish stuffed with rempah. Moist and warm but I think it was reheated in the microwave. Everything was a symphony of Asian flavours, how could I have stopped myself with the rice?

Luncheon meat pineapple bun from Joy Luck Teahouse

Even though Joy Luck Teahouse (#B4-61 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn) was from Hong Kong, I kept my expectations low on this one. It still wasn't impressive. Pretty underwhelming with the undefined crust which surprisingly lacked crunch. Kinda stingy with the luncheon meat methinks. This bo lo yau has got nothing at all on the one from Kam Wah. 

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun Restaurant, Smith Street

I remember liking Holland Village's XO fish bee hoon from years ago. They used to be at Holland Drive and later moved to Dover. Have had it it both locations. Don't know if they're still the better ones at their signature X.O. bee hoon but I guess it isn't really important. I found out about this shop in Chinatown (15/17 Smith Street, tel : +65 6227 3345) only a few months back so we came here to try.

The X.O. bee hoon was still enjoyable. Haven't had the one from the main shop at Dover for ages so I don't know if there's much of a difference. Whispers seem to indicate so. This one was not bad. Not something that would make me go 'wow' but not bad the same. 

Their stir fried kailan is nice. Not so much the generic oyster sauce concoction than the quality of the vegetables. These weren't fibrous and had a nice crunch at the stems.

We just wanted to know if we would not enjoy their prawn paste chicken because I remembered not being impressed by them all the way back from their time in Holland Drive. It's probably not them but me. Flavour is okay-ish but I don't like the crust on the wings and it's a tad too greasy for me. Now I'm sure that I'll never order these from them again.

Chicken rice from Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodles

I wanted to give Da Po's chicken rice a try after their curry noodles the last time.

Ordered boiled chicken thigh with a hard boiled egg and livers. This was possibly the largest portion of chicken thigh meat I've ever gotten. Livers came with a heart. The sesame oil they used was quite generous and hence, there was a pretty prominent flavour of that in the light soya sauce dressing. Chicken was competently tender.

Liked their rice. There's enough flavour in it to eat on its own - quite similar to the Margaret Drive Chicken Rice stall except that this was greasier. 

There was accompanying soup with bean sprouts. Nothing special about this. But on the whole, I thought their chicken rice was not bad in a rustic way.