Trying the strong dashi broth at Enishi

Enishi has changed. Shaken up a little. Seems that they're doing 100 bowls a day now. I wanted to try the stronger dashi broth from them because we picked the regular option previously and thought a bit more intensity in the flavour would be great. This stronger broth was not bad. But that's not all to the story. Enishi has really changed. The knee jerk was to attribute it to the fact that the Japanese chef wasn't/is no longer around and the current person just did things differently. 

How exactly was it different you might wonder? Different enough that I regretted ordering the 'special' bowl for the extra ingredients.

Charshu was disappointing. I upsized my bowl to the 'special' imagining that the charshu would be as I recalled, the tender and crumbing in your mouth experience. This was thick sliced and hard. Wasn't sure if the long torching session had anything to do with it. I tried to finish it but in the end, I had to leave that bit behind because it simply wasn't worth it. Duck was tender and chewy. The rest of the bowl was fine. Today's dan dan noodles has crushed peanuts in it which I didn't recall from our last bowl. Seemed that they've decided to go crunchy instead of just smooth - like peanut butter.

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.