Lamb shoulder chops from Ryan's Kitchen

I didn't enjoy this. The meat was chewy and had quite a bit of sinews. In spite of appearances, I also think it didn't stay long enough on the grill to have enough charring for flavour. Now I know what to avoid or not from them.

Popeyes' chicken sandwich

Finally got to try the chicken sandwich from Popeyes. Looked a little squashed after delivery from Grab. I had the impression that they were available on a limited run and I never got the chance to try them before they were sold out previously. Seems to be available again. 

Between the cajun sauce and the fried chicken thigh, I couldn't exactly taste the "butteriness" in the brioche. Would definitely ask for more pickles the next time because those added a different crunch and tanginess which I liked.

Soi Thai Soi Nice, Raffles City

I've read about Soi Thai Soi Nice (#B1-14/15 Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6261 7106) some time back when they had a restaurant at Alexandra Central. They seemed to be known for their Thai hot pots. By the time we wanted to go, that had closed. We stumbled upon this new outpost at Raffles City so here we were.

Their prawn cakes were nice. Crisp breading with no excessive grease. The prawn paste insides were tender and light.

That's their Thai mango sauce tofu. Wasn't sure how to reconcile the name of the dish with the dish itself. Egg tofu with green mango salad in what tasted like rojak paste/sauce. Maybe it's meant to be Thai mango, sauce and tofu. Not Thai mango sauce on tofu. It's not bad, just unexpected.

We ordered their chilli petai with minced meat to see how they were like compared to our local stir fry renditions. Also to compare against our benchmark. Flavour profile was different. The sauce was more tangy and the petai were a bit more crunchy. While they were generous with the petai, it was less meaty.

Steamed sea bass. Broth was refreshingly lime-y. Not a bad rendition but this didn't pack as much heat as those in Bangkok. If I had to compare with another local rendition of this dish, the one from Kra Pow was better.

Wen Dao Ji (文道记), People's Park Complex Food Centre

There's mixed information about this stall (#01-1014 People's Park Cooked Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) but from what I could piece together, they used to be known as Toh Kee which had been operating for a long time. Toh Kee closed and reopened as 文道记 and are still selling the same mixed roast. I've no idea if the owners are still the same but I suspect not.

We got ourselves a mixed roast meat - char siew, duck and roast pork. Pretty good. Liked the tender roast pork and duck. The char siew bits that were nicer were the ones that had burnt ends. The other parts of it were so so. I asked for fatty char siew and duck breast; those guys either didn't hear me or didn't care. Anyways, it's not bad. Would not mind coming back for them again.

The rice was drizzled with a dark sauce. I'm guessing dark soya sauce, their mix of spices and drippings from the meat they roasted.

Asked for extras because it was good with the rice but beware, it's pretty salty.

Tsuta, Funan

Tsuta's first outpost at Pacific Plaza is gone. I have some fond memories of their kamo soba which doesn't seem to be available anymore. They have a few shops now so presumably business is doing well. This one was the shop at Funan (#01-04 Funan Mall, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6734 4886).

They have sui gyoza on the menu. These ones that they do were flavoured with shiso. I liked it. The flavour of the perilla bumped the boiled gyozas from ordinary to pretty good for me. Tempted to say that I'll be back just for the gyoza but they were kinda pricey at $1.36 a piece.

Their shio soba listed a lot of ingredients. Like kurobuta loin, Iberico belly, white truffle oil, bottarga sauce, black olive powder, dried grapefruit, dill, spring onion and bamboo shoots. There was a fishy aroma (in a pleasant way though) which might have been the bottarga sauce and there was an appropriately subtle flavour from the truffle oil. Not a bad broth but the noodles were too soft.

The crab ramen had a pretty good broth as well. Nice crabby flavour that was smooth and refined as opposed to one that's in your face. Not so impressed by the crab meat which were pretty minced. For what they were charging, I would prefer to get my fix from Keisuke's Kani King instead if I wanted crab broth. Again, noodles too soft for my liking.

Tried their luncheon meat onigiri. It was okay.

Vegetable briyani with paneer tikka from Komala Vilas

I was truthfully thinking of getting something else but I saw the special while waiting in line and got suckered into ordering it. Yes, it's just a couple of pieces of the paneer tikka with onions added to their usual vegetable briyani. Not exactly special. But I liked it. It's been a while since we were here and it was great getting re-acquainted with their flavours - like the savoury vegetables, beany dal and creamy korma. Not forgetting the mellow sweetness from their payasam. Loved those toasty chunks of cottage cheese.

Nothing like a masala chai to wash down all that heavy vegetarian food. Who am I kidding here?