Keat Lim Vegetarian Food (吉林(齋)素食), Whampoa Makan Place

There were two Chinese vegetarian stalls along this stretch at Whampoa food centre. We went for Keat Lim (#01-48 Whampoa Drive Makan Place, 91 Whampoa Drive), the one with a much shorter queue. It was okay as Chinese vegetarian noodles go. Wasn't bad but we've had better tasting ones. Like Seng Kee which was also much oilier or Ding Shan at Tiong Bahru FC. Maybe I'll try the other stall the next time which looked like they have nicer looking vegetarian goose.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), Upper Cross Street

Have seen Dong Bei Xiao Chu (12 Upper Cross Street, tel : +65 6220 6876) a number of times while passing Upper Cross Street. Finally got curious enough to come by to try their food. Not to be confused with the popular Dong Bei Ren Jia (东北人家) less than a minute's walk away.

I think this might have been my first Xue Hua (雪花). It's a light lager for easy drinking which works for the food that we were going to have. Not as light as a particular Yanjing beer I've had previously though.

Nice sour and spicy potato strips (尖椒土豆丝). Had a good heat (more than the one from Tian Fu I have easier access too), prerequisite crunch and tanginess to make the dish.

Their skewered grills were competent as well. These platter had quail eggs, lamb and chicken hearts. Will come back for them because they were delicious.

There's cold noodles (冷面) on the menu. These were buckwheat noodles which looked and tasted like the Korean naengmyeon - broth was sweet/tangy and the noodles were slurpiliciously smooth.  

Corn kernels with savoury and sweet salted yolk. Each order needs to be shared with a few people or will be surfeited easily. Otherwise quite addictive.

That's their home made pig skin jelly. Their rendition of pork aspic in a mildly spicy, tangy and garlic-ky sauce. Nice.

This was called egg tofu in English on the menu. Chinese name's 风味鸡蛋干. Tasted like tau kwa with a firmer and smoother texture.  

We had 东北拉皮 - a chilled noodle salad with black fungus and julienned cucumbers. Don't know if these flat transparent noodles were made with mung beans or potatoes. Flavour was mildly spicy, sweet, nutty and tangy at the same time.

Mutton and winter melon soup. They managed to coax the mutton flavour into the soup. Also the clearest mutton soup I've had that hasn't been heavily spiced or herbed. Not bad.

Stir fried pickled cabbage with pig intestines (酸菜炒肥肠). Tangly, slightly spicy, savoury and offal-ly. We couldn't finish this and packed the remainder home. Mixed those with some of the leftover cubes of mutton from the soup above and scissored up cumin-ed grilled squids from them - made a super good dinner with instant noodles. The best you've never eaten!

Love their grilled shishamo too. An order of eight for $8.

Will definitely come back.

Loy Kee Chicken Rice & Porridge (黎记雞飯粥品), Whampoa Makan Place

I've eaten at Loy Kee at Balestier many years ago but don't remember if I've had their chicken rice at the food centre (#01-49/50 Whampoa Drive Makan Place, 91 Whampoa Drive). 

Ordered boiled chicken drumstick (鸡腿) with liver and egg.

The food had the hallmarks of a competent/experienced chicken rice stall. What am I saying? These guys are pretty well known. Chicken was smooth and relatively tender with liver that wasn't overcooked. In my head, the old Sin Kee still beats this. But I'll get over them.

Rice had a mild hint of ginger in it but not so much that it put me off. In fact, I liked Loy Kee's rice. Their chilli sauce was salty and garlic-ky without lime. Wouldn't mind eating from them again.

More food from Miznon

Revisiting Miznon. Seems that they've run out of cauliflowers.

Artichokes appear to be in season though. We ordered one.

There's roasted chilli with their free pita & tahini. Nice.

The artichoke was okay-ish. Was drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice and some salt. Yellow puddle on the side was lemon aioli. It was more satisfying eating those large ones at Le Bistrot du Sommelier.

This was their 'pita candy brisket'. Was from the specials section of their menu featuring seared beef brisket that was well caramelized on the pan - plus onions, tahini, pickles and chilli.  Pretty good. Brisket was crispy on the outside and tender underneath that crisp.

Very nice roasted sweet potato. Sweet and very tender. I thought it worked very well with the sour cream and dill with salt.

Uncle Sim Traditional Lor Mee, Whampoa Makan Place

We gave this stall (#01-63 Whampoa Makan Place, 90 Whampoa Drive) a try because we had good memories of Uncle Sim for their cai png and curry chicken; and also in the faith that the branding of the business would imply quality. Both the cooked food and curry chicken have disappeared from this food centre and we didn't even know if those Uncle Sim stalls were even related to this one. We did think that it was odd that they would fold up the other two to go sell lor mee.

The toppings were strips of pork belly, fried chicken and bits of fried fish. A couple of things bothered me. Toppings were pretty miserable for $5. Tiong Bahru Lor Mee and Xiang Ji from Old Airport Road would blow this out of the water. Flavour was okay but most things become okay with enough chilli, vinegar and garlic. The other thing was that the gloopy gravy remained gloopy throughout. Most of the time, the stirring and the vinegar would "de-starch" the gravy. I don't understand it. Wouldn't come back again.

Etna, March 2021

While the prices have gone up and portions have somewhat gotten smaller, Etna does reel us back once in a while with their specials for the weekend. This weekend was their lamb.

Since we were here for the specials, we tried one from their starters. Tuna tartare with artichokes and mango. Artichokes might have been marinated in olive oil, was salted and I tasted pepper. The yellow pool at the bottom was a mango sauce that didn't have enough mango that the salt from the tartare and the artichokes pretty much overwhelmed the fruit flavour. Not enough strips of mango as well. This could have done a lot better with more mango.

We came here tonight for the lamb with coffee and star anise sauce. That above was the picture they put up. Looked properly grilled with a pretty pink shade of medium inside.

This was how it looked like. The cook, yes I said cook and not chef, seared the sides. Because the meat from each rib wasn't thick cut, the meat ended up more medium well than medium. Why sear the sides? We overlooked it because the lamb was still delicious. 

Not getting the coffee but definitely tasted star anise. Reminded me a little of the dark soya sauce from Chinese braised pork. I wished someone would do the lamb + coffee that Mietta's once did. Hey, didn't the product shot feature more sauce?

Most defining quality of their artichoke and scallop risotto was the anchovy flavour. Nice. Also a special for this weekend.

I mentioned that their food portions were getting smaller these years. We needed more so we gave their lobster ravioli in butter pistachio cream sauce a go. 

One of the ang moh staff commented that it was good choice and waxed lyrical over the crunch of the pistachio that he felt defined the dish. He's obviously getting better ravioli than we are or I'm smelling bullshit. I shall not judge but did anyone think for a moment from the picture above that there was actually enough pistachio for that to happen?

Taste was not bad. Sauce was nice but there was nothing pistachio-y about it. Also, six pieces for $36. 

Pistachio tiramisu again. Haven't tried anything else from them for a long time because I was afraid that it would be disappointing. This one remains nice but seemed to be smaller than I remember.