Si Chuan Ming Xiao Chi (四川名小吃), People's Park Complex Food Centre

Came across the mention of this stall (#01-1044 People's Park Cooked Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) online which serves Szechuan small eats - or more commonly referred to as 小吃. Was recommended their liang mian (凉面). Damn this was so good. This bowl was a melange of flavours ranging from sour from the vinegar, heat from the chilli and an overall umami-ness that paired with the texture of the firm thin noodles, crunch from bean sprouts and peanuts. And others. Spicy and sour and I need to come back again.

Was intrigued by their hei tang dou hua (黑糖豆花) so I got a bowl to try. Being the noob, I hadn't realized that this wasn't meant to be sweet as 黑糖 might have implied. I had initially thought it to be a dessert until they started adding spring onions and coriander and the proprietor followed up with a '要辣吗?'. It's sour and savoury and actually, pretty good. Same bean curd as the local variety, just not with syrup.

Update: One week later......

We came back again and ordered again the 黑糖豆花. I was reminding them about the coriander that I didn't like and also wanted indicated that we didn't want it spicy. The proprietor looked baffled today and responded that there is only 黑糖 and nothing else. Dum dum dum......so what I supposed happened the last time was that they probaby heard my order wrong and I had gotten that wrong order without any of us being the wiser.

This was nice. This was what we had been looking for with the brown sugar syrup with those ethereal bean curd.

As-Shifaa Cafe with chicken offal and begedil

Same nasi ayam as the previous time but I've added offal. That included some crunchy gizzards, very cooked liver and a heart that looked like it was stir fried in sambal. Not bad. Their begedil seemed to only contain potatoes. Needed a bit more flavour. Possibly the softest begedil I've ever had.

Ponggol Nasi Lemak : The plate with the fried chicken drumstick

This plate from Ponggol Nasi Lemak was satisfying. The combination on the plate simply pushed the right buttons. Toasted peanuts, lightly sugared ikan bilies, sambal that wasn't too sweet, a molten yolk-ed fried egg, chilled slices of cucumber and sufficiently flavoured coconut rice. At about half of what it cost to get a plate at Lemak Boys. Pretty impressed by how they got the crisp on that meaty chicken drumstick while retaining sufficient moisture in the meat that it could almost be called juicy. 

Oyster Festival at Putien

We came to Putien for dinner as they were having their Oyster Festival. I think it's an annual event that they do when the oysters are in season. There'd be a bunch of oyster dishes that would be available. 

Ordered a couple of the juices we liked from them. Some vegetable/fruit one that goes by Nature's Goodness and their warm sweet corn juice.

We picked just a couple of those oyster dishes instead of more of them so that we wouldn't be oyster-ed out. This one was seasoned in salt and ginger. Very oyster-ly. Good for pairing with something else like rice or noodles.

Chilled pork trotter jelly.

Tried their deep fried yellow croaker for the first time. These were really nice. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender. Delicious in their house made chilli sauce. A killer combination if you had those with steamed rice.

Braised luffa was our obligatory greens.

The second oyster dish we had was their pan fried oyster bee hoon. Oysters, egg and bee hoon. This was well done. While many would be tempted to eat this with Putien's chilli sauce, having them without allowed the light flavour of those oysters that were infused into the fine bee hoon to come through.

Can we ever escape steamed rice?

Or their lime-y house made chilli sauce?

Black Marble, Raffles Holland V

Black Marble (#02-01 Raffles @ Holland Village, 118 Holland Ave, tel : +65 9641 6913) used to be Otto's Deli Fresh. At some point between three years back and now, they rebranded. With the rebranding, the decor and menu has changed as well. But the restaurant is still headed by Otto Weibel.

We ordered crab cakes. Breaded and fried. These were okay. You know the kind of okay that isn't outstanding but it's also not shabby as well kind of okay? Better than many but not the kind that'll make you wanna come back for more kind of okay. 

There was a baked Brie. Runny and cheesy and pretty delicious with the rosemary and honey. The bread they provided on the side was just about the right amount for the cheese. Not bad.

We had their wagyu striploin (MBS5). 200g. This was deliciously rich from the marbling. Any larger and it might have been too much richness. They managed to get a good char on the steak.

Thick cut fries with yuzu mayo there.

Lobster and scallop saffron risotto was very good. The stock in the rice was infused with three dominant flavours - crustacean, saffron and cheese. I liked that they struck a good balance between the three. Not getting much out of the bottarga though. Seafood was good quality and the bottom line was that this was a very competently done plate of flavours.

Wanton mee from 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1

The mention of this nameless wanton noodle stall (125 Bukit Merah Lane 1) has been popping up like mushrooms after the rain lately on social media. I was curious because of the fried egg that they have as an option. Apparently there's a story behind why there's the egg but I won't be going into that.

That's the $4 portion above with two eggs and chilli. Loved those eggs because they weren't over fried and had molten yolk. Appreciated the drizzle of dark soy sauce on them.

The flavour of the noodles were nice in a light savoury kind of way - with the wiry noodles (no alkali taste) laced with lard and those red dyed lean slices of char siew. Those fried eggs with molten yolk were what drew me to this stall in the first place and I loved all the golden yellow that bled into the noodles.

This one's $3 with an egg and no chilli.

The portions here aren't big. Not by any far stretch of imagination. Chilli sauce was okay but not particularly outstanding. It lent a bit of heat but couldn't get much of any other flavour from it. Probably because there wasn't so much of it. 

Wanton had smooth skin, were small and meaty. Some salt would make them tastier.

Kopi di lo from this coffee shop was drinkable stuff. I would come back for the wanton mee again because of those eggs.