Revisiting Ting Heng Seafood Restaurant

Here's us back at Ting Heng Seafood to try more of their dishes. Before the food, I want to air some thoughts. They were out of some of the items on the menu which we only knew about when we asked. Would have been nice if they would inform us. No biggie.

What's worse was that they processed a dish which we had ordered where they didn't have all the ingredients. While the crowd they had to deal with might be a reason that they've forgotten, I expected better since these guys aren't new to the business. But maybe, it is because they aren't new that they're this way. Who knows?

End of rant.

This was supposed to be chicken and pig's liver in claypot. Until the dish was served and we realized that the livers weren't in and we asked that they admitted that they had run out of pig's livers. Not exactly an ingredient that I would expect an eatery to run out of barring poor planning. We were more disturbed by the fact that they never bothered informing us. We wouldn't have ordered this haphazardly chopped up boney chicken dish otherwise. Dish was garlic-ky, savoury and didn't taste bad. Just a lot of bones in the chicken.

Tried their steamed scallops and tofu. We've had something similar at Yuet Lai Shun in Hong Kong a couple years back. Yuet Lai Shun did it better. The scallops here were sweet and the tofu was quite nice but the sauce that made the dish had ginger which marred the experience for me. I only wanted the black bean sauce experience.

The one item I really liked this time was their Hokkien fried rice. It's similar to the one we've previously had at Tian Tian Seafood. This one had fish and kailan which the rendition at Tian Tian didn't. The sauce was much lesser but it had a more intense flavour. Gripe? This was a serving for two persons. Supposedly. $15. Kinda pricey and portions were kinda small for two.

The Hokkien fried rice was good with their cut chilli's though.

Revisiting Jing Hua Xiao Chi (京华小吃)

It's been years since we were last here at Jing Hua Xiao Chi (京华小吃). We're glad to find out that their 锅贴 were still delicious and of a standard above many.

They've introduced cheese and rosemary 锅贴 into the menu. These were actually quite nice. One can definitely taste both the ingredients in the pot stickers which didn't overshadow the stuffings. I'll put these under the same class as their regular 锅贴.

I remember liking their blanched bean sprouts in minced meat sauce. While I'm sure the taste hasn't changed, they didn't seem to be as good anymore. It's me, not them

They have an edible fried rice. Not something they're good or even decent at. While the they have ingredients like lup cheong/or was it bak kwa and edamame which many fried rice don't, the flavour was unimpressively bland. Didn't even look forward to finishing it.

Tried their spicy and sour noodles which was their soup thrown together with noodles. It's neither very spicy nor sour until one has zhng-ed it up with extra chilli oil, vinegar and pepper. Then the soup becomes delicious. Not a fan of their soft noodles.

Personal Best in jalapeno cheese bagel from Two Men Bagel House

Did not realize until writing this that it's been almost a year since I was last at this Icon Village outpost of Two Men Bagel House. Menu has gotten a bit of a revamp if my memory serves. This was their Personal Best - featuring spam, crunchy peanut butter, sunny side up and hash brown on jalapeno cheese bagel. I added cheese.

Here I was thinking that their bagels have been shrinking from the past couple of visits. This bagel was hefty and pretty filling. A mess to eat because the fillings were sliding out halfway but a delicious mess nonetheless. Previous delicious messes here (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一).

Nasi padang from the Malay stall at Foodclique @ Jurong East

Local nasi padang lunch from the Malay stall at Foodclique at Jurong East (132 Jurong Gateway Road). Not bad. Their paru was in smaller bits compared to the larger pieces commonly served which gave it lots more flavour from the spices used to cook them. There was much delicious spicy savoury on my rice from the combination of the gravy from their ayam lemak, sambal belachan and the sweet chilli from the sambal telur.  

75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup, Chinatown Food Centre

This (#02-113 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) was a branch of the stall at Golden Mile Food Centre. We got the almond soup today with their peanut filled glutinous rice balls. Didn't think there was much of a difference between the Golden Mile stall and this one. Both seemed to be equally good.

Disappointing iSteaks at Suntec

We've had iSteaks' capped loin of lamb a couple of times at Star Vista. They've so far never disappointed. Tried them at Suntec for the first time. The minimal doneness they do is medium. This was much less than medium. Quality control as one can see, is poor. What with only four outlets to manage? No, we did not complain or ask for a refund or even waste our time on a replacement. Won't be coming back.

Previously we've tried their NZ Silver Fern ribeye at Star Vista as well. Today we ordered the Reserve cut which presumably is of a better quality somehow. Look at the medium rare they did. Serious problem with the cooking because this looked like medium raw to me. Only the exterior was cooked so the logical deduction would be that they threw frozen meat into the grill that wasn't properly thawed and wouldn't cook on the inside while the exterior charred. I wouldn't waste more money on this place.

The nicest thing we had was their tea with milk. Look, kaleidoscopic froth!