Steamed kaya butter bread from Tong Ah Eating House (東亞餐室)

What I found odd about this steamed bread from Tong Ah was that it wasn't particularly hot or even very warm. Unlike those piping hot ones from Yat Kun where the butter had mostly melted through and soaked in to the bread. What their steaming managed successfully was to get the plate hot. Maybe the bread was just slightly warm. It was still nice being fluffy and all with the kaya and butter though.

Ann Chin Popiah (安珍), Chinatown Food Centre

Not bad tasting poh piah from Ann Chin (#02-112 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street). Stuffings were strewn with fried crispy bits and this was one of those rolls that wasn't heavy on the garlic.

Brunch at Bar Milano

Brunch at Bar Milano.

The sea bass was nice - light crisp on the skin with tender flaky meat. Served on a creamy orange butter sauce with thin slices of cooked peel-on oranges hidden under the fish with fennel. That orange butter sauce inherited a hint of bitterness from the orange peel. Liked the sauce enough that I mopped the plate clean with the ricotta pancakes. Speaking of ricotta pancakes......

......we liked that we could taste the cheese in them. These were served piping hot with steam wafting as the knife went through them. That's macerated strawberries and strawberry mascarpone on them.

To round up the brunch with some weight, some savoury pork and fennel sausages. 

くろ in Healthy Soba IKI

Healthy Soba IKI has some new black stuff on their menu. If you hadn't realized, we've been having soba here a number of times in the past year. Here're the links to our previous visits. (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八)

There's squid in squid ink as a starter/side dish. This was very good. The sauce had the rich sweetness/umami of the ink while the rings of squid were very tender. Tender like those we had at Ink-redible Calamari.

This month's soba was in a kurogoma and kurozu broth. The broth had a creaminess like a less viscous black sesame paste paired with an appetizing tanginess from the black vinegar.

There were some shredded chicken an artichokes in the bowl as well. I liked the broth enough that I drank it all up after the soba.

Didn't want to let the squid ink gravy go to waste because it had so much delicious-ness so we used it as a dip for the salmon/tuna in their mini kaisen don.

Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master (元朗油鸡博士), Chinatown Food Centre

This was much like the Hong Kong styled chicken rice, not the local Hainanese variety which most of us are used to. The bird was less meaty/fat and wasn't slurp off the bone tender. The meat was firmer and the skin was much more yellow and dimply. In this part of the world, it's usually referred to kampong chicken rice. 

I didn't dislike it as I did enjoy how the chicken was salted and that it had a natural chicken-y flavour. Rice was sufficiently flavoured, beady and dry-ish but were also where I thought it differed from the Hong Kong rendition I've had which uses regular steamed rice. But I haven't eaten much chicken rice in Hong Kong so I'm not authority on that. Like I said, I didn't dislike them (#02-041 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) but I don't think they would be a go to for me like say 169 Hainanese Chicken Rice just around the corner.

Dong Fang Hong Sotong Ball Seafood Soup (东方红墨鱼丸什锦汤), Hong Lim Food Centre

Stall faces the market at the back of Hong Lim Food Centre on the ground floor (#01-47 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street). I was curious because I've heard/read things about their sotong ball seafood soup. Tony Boey has done a pretty good job in his blog so I won't parrot it here.

The soup had a gentle savoury sweetness with a hit of fried garlic and some flavour from the seaweed - nothing like the powerful yet moreish seafood-y flavour that I incorrectly imagined. What I liked though were the sotong balls and meat balls. The latter was flavourful from the dried sole they mixed into the paste that made them.