Johor Road Boon Kee Pork Porridge, Veerasamy Road

This was the another popular stall located at the same coffeeshop as Mui Xiong. They sold porridge and like Mui Xiong, one ordered and then waited patiently for the order to be processed. These guys had a order chit and a number panel to let you know if it was your turn to collect. 

So don't mistaken the lack of a queue for a short wait time. There was only one person in front of me ordering and it took about 45 minutes to get our porridge. Ours were pork and cuttlefish. Chock full of ingredients and wasn't bad tasting. I didn't like that they added ginger and there was an odd sweetness to the porridge I couldn't identify. I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to wait but there's little chance of that happening - it's not good enough to be worth so much wait time.

Char siew noodles from Malaysia Chiak at Great World

This was from the KL char siew stall at Malaysia Chiak which had char siew rice and noodles. I had originally intended to get the rice after looking at the picture they had at the stall because it looked like chicken rice but after inquiring, they confirmed it was just regular rice so hence the noodles. 

It wasn't bad. Had some bite. I would have preferred more intensity from the dark soya sauce. The noodles ended up tasting better with their chilli (either the pickled green or red sauce or both) added. But char siew was disappointingly dry and boring. Not what I expected when they advertised themselves as KL styled char siew.

Back at Murugan Idli Shop

It's been a while since we were last here. We were actually intending to stop for some masala tea but ended up with a second breakfast. Murugan Idli Shop doesn't serve masala tea by the way. So it was meduvadai, dosai and idli. Now I remembered why I loved those ghee podi idli - the podi along with the buttery ghee made it taste almost cheesy. A little pricey but delicious.

We had butter dosai too. Nice tangy batter with crisp sides that was so good with the chutney. Speaking of which, I need to come here more often to try more things. But it's gonna be hard passing up on those ghee podi idli.

Jin Xi Lai (Mui Siong) Minced Meat Noodle/金喜来(梅松)肉脞面, Veerasamy Road

We've been hearing quite a bit about Jin Xi Lai (Mui Siong) Minced Meat Noodle (Yi He Eating House, 638 Veerasamy Road). Or simply just Mui Siong. From online and even from friends. I admit that I was a little skeptical at the start but the minced meat noodles made me a believer. 

The mee pok's kinda good with a likeable springy texture that had bite. This was with chilli and it wasn't very spicy. But what people talk about are their thick slices of pig liver which was the source of my initial skepticism. I was afraid that it wouldn't be well cooked or that it would have a texture that didn't agree with me. It was good. I loved the texture from the well timed doneness - not chewy of powdery nor crunchy because it was undercooked. I'd go for just the livers and minced meat the next time. Nothing special about the fishball and fish cakes.

Assam laksa from Malaysia Chiak at Great World

I've been wanting to try the assam laksa from this Penang stall at Malaysia Chiak. Out of curiosity, also because I like assam in general and I thought it might be a good time to get re-acquainted with Penang styled laksa which I haven't had for a long time.

I liked it. I don't know how it compared to a regular bowl in Penang but I enjoyed both the savoury tanginess of the broth and the chewy noodles that they used. Wished that there was more of the hae ko (shrimp paste) and fish in there though. Now I just need to discover the other shops out there that make good renditions of it.

White asparaguses, lamb rump and scallops at Bistro Du Vin

Another lunch at Bistro Du Vin.

Bread's no longer in baskets but paper bags. What we didn't understand was that butter's on every table and those were somehow excused from hygiene requirements in this social distancing era?

I seem to recall having onion soup here and being not impressed with them but cannot be sure if I remembered correctly. We enjoyed the onion soup today. I imagined what made this work was a good balance between the wine, beef stock and spices.

White asparagus was on the specials board. Wasn't impressive because it wasn't as juicy off the grill. White asparaguses don't have much complexity so if they don't deliver whatever little they have, they don't deliver much. Also, if the restaurant hadn't mentioned that the orange bits on the plate were Mimolette, I wouldn't have known either. I expected better of this restaurant than this weak posturing.

The St Jacques scallops weren't bad but were also not impressive either. These were thoroughly cooked instead of having a sear on the exterior with the inside still rare. Don't think I'll get them again. Would rather spend the money on those Georges Bank ones at Luke's. 

They did handle the lamb rump well. Was another special from the board. The meat was tender, chewy and layered with a good bit of flavour from the jus. The jus was described to be lamb and truffle but I couldn't get the least bit of truffle from the flavour. Also pretty expensive for the pretty small portions at $52. 

By the way, those aren't regular peas, carrots and corn at the bottom of the plate. The green and yellow thingy were balls of green and yellow zucchini. The orange balls were still carrots.