Of yellow croakers, Duotou clams and others at Putien

The Yellow Croaker Festival is not yet over but the Duotou clams are already in season. Hence both items have their seasonal dishes on their menu. What are Doutou claims you might wonder? they're succulent meaty clams which are harvested in and named after the village of Dou Tou in Putien.

Here're some of those clams in chilled in fermented wine. The dominant flavour here was the wine. I thought that the clams packed more flavour in previous cooked noodle dishes we've had.

The clams were also available steamed with garlic puree. What worked here was the garlic that they used weren't overpowering and had a sweetness with paired with the meat from the clams.

Fried yellow croaker from their regular menu.

Yellow croaker steamed with chopped chillis. Not as spicy as it was salty from the fermented black beans that were used in those chilli. Delicious with rice. The meat from the fish was tender.

Tried their spinach in supreme stock - a stock that oddly reminded me of the smoky gravy from hor fun that I had when I was a kid. This was good. Garlic cloves in the dish were fragrant, tender and sweet.

Gotta have rice for the chopped chilli from the steamed yellow croaker and that supreme stock from the spinach.

We had room for desserts so this was their double boiled pear with osmanthus and aged mandarin peel. The flavour from the mandarin peel came through in the soup and the pear.

And some very tender white fungus that was sweet and soothing.

Super Shiok Nasi Lemak, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Was introduced to this stall (#02-38 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) recently. No idea how long they've been around but they did Chinese styled nasi lemak. There was definitely coconut flavour going on with their grainy textured rice - which might have been a mixture of jasmine and longer grained basmati. Not outright impressive but very edible. 

Sambal tasted of anchovy and onions. Wasn't too sweet and had a nice flavour. Thought it was not bad but this always puts me in a dilemma because they become dominant flavour when eaten with the rice - which robs the rice of most of the coconut taste.

Ingredients were so so. Chicken wing had a bit of bite to the meat - did not have the slurp off the bone tenderness which I preferred. Omelette was old school thin which was nostalgic. Didn't like the chicken luncheon meat much and otah wasn't spicy. Not bad a nasi lemak but I wouldn't call it super shiok.

Shake Shack, Great World

Shake Shack has a new branch, a sixth one in Singapore out at Great World (#01-101, 1 Kim Seng Promenade). With that, there was also a limited time Jalapeño Ranch burger and fries on menu. Not impressed by the fries since ranch sauces have never been my thing. Should've listened to my inner voice and given it a pass for the regular cheese fries instead. 

The burger tasted like their ShackBurger with bacon and tomatoes even though it was Pepper Jack cheese they used. House pickled jalapeño (I know it doesn't look pickled but it was) provided the bit of acid (and no discernible heat) cutting into the rich cheese and meat.

If there was anything that I've discovered today about them, it was that their organic brewed ice tea can be ordered without ice. It's thick, astringently bitter and pretty aromatic. Best way to drink it methinks.

 

Pin Sheng Teochew Bak Chor Mee (品盛潮州肉脞面) re-visited

I must have subconsciously enjoyed the tom yam ba chor mee at Pin Sheng more than I had registered because I came back for the tom yam mee pok. Because texture. Had the same lip burning lime-y heat that got me the last time round. Liked the flavours from fish/meat paste balls and the fish dumplings - those things don't taste mass produced.

The regular bak chor mee 白的 wasn't so impressive because it was a little too dry and needed more flavour. More shallot oil or lard with proper tossing would have up the ante for this bowl.

Kopi di lo (shouldn't it be tid lo?) from here was unexpectedly decent. Reasonably strong local brew with a clean flavour that wasn't "cloudy" if you catch my drift.

Soya sauce stewed pig trotters with rice at Broadway

I've previously mentioned a mix pig's innards (猪什汤) at the Broadway coffeeshop at Toh Guan. The folks manning that stall seemed to have changed so I'm not sure if it's still the same but they are still selling the same stuff. Here's stewed pig trotters from them. Not bad. The skin and other gelatinous parts were expectedly tender and pretty slurpy. Meat was a little harder than I preferred but it's not a biggie. It's not the standards of what I've previously eaten at Joo Siah (which has since relocated) but still very edible. This one just needs more intensity with/from the stewing liquid.

See Sean Rice Stall (时鲜饭店), People's Park Complex Food Centre

If anyone was wondering what was remarkable about this particular plate of Yang Zhou fried rice, here's a clue in to the obvious. They use real char siew instead of crab sticks or the gooey matter that's pretending to be crab sticks which are in turn pretending to be char siew. The other thing would be those golden brown nuggets in the fried rice - those were fried lard, not salted fish. Coupled with some smoky scorching on the rice, it made a pretty good eating with their cut chillis.

While waiting for the rice to be fried, I went through a duck drumstick which I had added on to the order fried rice. Meat was reasonably tender with full flavoured skin and some bits of fat. Yes, these guys (#01-1026 People's Park Complex Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) indeed do both roast meats (烧腊) and cze char.