So Good Char Chan Tang, TripleOne Somerset

We've been recommended So Good Char Chan Tang (#01-16 TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road, tel : +65 6493 0338). Prior to the recommendation, we've also heard a bit of online chatter about how their food was "authentic". Curiosity prevailed and we wanted to be the judge of that "authenticity". What we did not see coming was a 40 minute queue on a late afternoon. A number of items on their menu were also sold out then.  

That's their bolognese sauce with rice and a fried egg. It's actually not bad. Hence the first wall breaks. The sauce was a little sweet but not annoyingly so with bits of meat and had some umami. Wouldn't mind eating this again.

They ran out of char siew so we got the duck and roast pork. Duck was decent and the roast pork was okay if one was okay with soggy crackling. I expected better from things we've heard. While the flavour wasn't bad, you can get better ones from the Imperial Treasure dim sum restaurants.

Cheong fun with beef briskets was nice. The stewing sauce of the briskets was competently flavourful. Liked that there were also pieces of tendon in it. But, the quality of the briskets aren't the same as the ones we've had in Hong Kong for sure. This was the leaner cut that local businesses use. Probably why beef brisket dishes here will never be on par with those in Hong Kong.

Tried their prawn dumpling noodles (水餃麵). Those sui gao were not bad. Didn't expect the gloopy oyster sauce on the noodles. This came with a bowl of soup on the side that tasted like it was flavoured with conpoy. Loved that. While I didn't think these were the better noodles we've had in terms of texture, I also didn't mind them.

Wanted condense milk bun but they were out of it. We settled for their French toast. Also not bad. That little dish on the side, I don't know what it was. Probably syrup with something because it didn't taste like maple syrup nor honey.

Breakfast at Ikea

I hadn't realized that Ikea has vegetarian bee hoon for breakfast in the weekends until we happened by one morning during said weekend. We tried it out of curiosity. There's mock char siew, some bits of fried crispy bean curd sheet and very measly strips of cabbage in it. They offer pickled green chilli as well. Didn't taste bad but it had less ingredients that what most would expect out of vegetarian bee hoon.

There's pancakes too but these have been around. Just that I've never had them before. They're like a big breakfast thingy from McD with pancakes, eggs, sausage and hash browns. McD's hotcakes are nicer. These were a little stiffer and they didn't give butter/margarine. The eggs here tasted more like eggs though and those chicken sausage patties on the side were actually pretty tasty.

Obanyakis from 108 Matcha Saro

I've been wanting to try the obanyaki from 108 Matcha Saro (#B1-K5 Suntec City, 3 Temasek Boulevard) since I heard about them opening up last year. Never happened until now because it's never in the way.

I liked the one with matcha custard fillings. Gotta love that there was enough of the green tea flavour in that custard which also gave that hint of bitterness after the creamy sweet.

There was this other double chocolate one with green tea dough. Didn't think so much of the chocolate custard and chocolate combination. 

Tenjin, Raffles City

Les Amis' tempura shop Tenjin opened more than a year back. They're a relatively wallet friendly tendon based shop. Did not manage to try them until the opening of their second outlet at Raffles City (#B1-46 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 9663 1365).

There's truffle chawanmushi. It's okay-ish. I kept thinking about the much more expensive one from Aoki as I ate this. This one was obviously not as good as that was.

This was the Inaniwa cold udon set with the tempura. Not bad. I like the tempura here much better than the grease logged and oft mentioned Tendon Kohaku which I never understood. Loved the chilled udon and equally chilled smoky tsuyu that came with it.

Teh and steak au poivre from iSteaks

We came back for some food at iSteaks. Had an unexpectedly decent teh with milk served in a beer mug. The hot tea had the right amount of condensed milk and creaminess that I thought was enjoyable. 

They had a a steak au poivre on limited run which came with salad and prawn bisque. Salad's not bad. Tasted better than it looked and I liked that it wasn't drenched with dressing. As for the prawn bisque......we've had better. 

They did do a pretty decent striploin au poivre. Had a properly done peppercorn crust and sweet peppercorn sauce to pair.

The steak came with a dessert which was their pot de creme. I hadn't much idea what it was based on the menu description and probably might never have ordered it. It's actually pretty good. Tau hway soft vanilla flavoured pudding with sea salt and maple syrup.

Fu Ming Cooked Food (福明熟食), Redhill Food Centre

I've heard a bit about this Mickey Mouse flanked (#01-49, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) Bib Gourmand chai tow kuey stall and decided to give them a try. During one of those days when I saw that there wasn't much of a queue of course. Apparently their radish cakes are made by themselves laboriously the day before instead depending on the factory produced variety. That alone differentiated them from most of the other radish/carrot cake stalls out there.

You know what? I thought it was pretty good. I liked how much char they imbued into the the fried radish cake, especially for the black one. The only thing that I didn't feel so comfortable with was how greasy it was. There was oil pooling at the bottom of the plate. I'm not against giving them another go the next time though.