Sliced fish and fish roe soup from Yu Mei Mei Shi

Here's giving Yu Mei Mei Shi another go. $6 fish soup with $4 of fish roe. I could tell that the roe was just done from the tender texture. Soup had a light flavour from dried sole which wasn't even enough to threaten the sweetness. If one is looking for intense deep flavour, this is simply not how they roll.  Didn't taste bad but I wouldn't call it satisfying. Also pretty pricey. 

Miso rosu katsu from Tonkichi

Had the miso hire katsu years ago at Tonkichi so I wanted to experience the rosu today. I had the impression that the miso at Tonkichi was sweeter than what I tasted today. Did I remember wrong? I'll never know.

Duck bak kwa fried rice from London Fat Duck

Never realized that London Fat Duck has achar. Not something to be ordered - something they'd charge you for if you didn't refuse it. I didn't because I wanted to try it. Didn't taste bad. But like many achar out there, it needed crushed peanuts. Lots of them.

We were here for their duck bak kwa fried rice after experiencing the standards of their fried rice the last time round. Loved it. The duck bak kwa tasted like the regular ones so I wouldn't know if they used regular ones. If I had to compare between this and the bak kwa fried rice from Din Tai Fung, I'd say this one was better.

Sweets at Whampoa Market

 

Didn't realize that there was a Nyonya Chendol stall (#01-17 Whampoa Makan Place, 90 Whampoa Drive) at Whampoa until recently. If anyone was wondering, their chendol/cendol tasted pretty much the same as the one at Redhill Food Centre. This one used D24 durian and I thought it was as good.

This bean curd was from the Whampoa Soya Bean & Grass Jelly Drinks stall. Goji berries were one of the options for topping. While I've had them countless times, it was only this time that I thought they reminded me of some kind of raisins.

Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights (黄土地西安小吃), Clementi

I've been wanting to try the food at 黄土地西安小吃 (#01-13/14 Grantral Mall, 3151 Commonwealth Avenue West, tel : +65 6902 5480) for a while. This has finally happened. Food was not bad - I was just slightly disappointed thinking that they'd be another place I would look forward to returning soon. There were some items from the bunch of dishes we ordered where I could find better renditions.

From what I've read, the owner is from Xi'An.

We had chilled pig's ears (凉拌猪耳). Savoury and tangy and made pretty good munching.

Some tofu strips and pickles (素菜拼盘) which were also pretty good munching. They weren't bad but also not exceptional.

We were curious about their 牛羊肉泡馍. The 泡馍s we've had previously were 羊肉泡馍. Mutton based with the memorable one being the rendition from the defunct 羊贵妃. This one had both beef and mutton in the broth and the flavour spoke for itself. Prefer the ones that has just mutton. Didn't dislike this but I don't think I enjoyed it enough to come back for them. There was a lot of bread in it.

Liked their 肉夹馍. The stuffings had a good flavour and the bread wasn't hard or stiff. Don't mind coming back for this.

Tried their liang pi (凉皮), which was 西安凉皮 on the menu. Don't know if the Xi'An rendition was any different from the others. Felt that the flavour could have benefitted with a bit more intensity but I'm not complaining. Texture of the 凉皮 from Xun Qin Ji (寻秦记) were springier. 

Bubur terigu (大麦) from Xi Le Ting (喜樂亭)

The Malay name I'm more familiar with is bubur terigu which translates to wheat porridge. The Chinese refer to it as da mai (大麦). It's a sweet porridge made from wheat with sugar (rock or brown) and coconut milk. From Xi Le Ting (喜樂亭). Sweet but not cloyingly so with the fragrance of coconut milk. The top left was red bean soup from them. Also good. Xi Le Ting only serves for Chinese desserts. These two, green bean soup and cheng tng. They're all delicious. We had all four this time round and never felt the surfeit from sweetness.