Friday, July 09, 2021

Bak kut teh "ramen" from Sushiro...and other stuff

Sushiro, bak kut teh ramen

The uni ramen and their hae mee has been rotated off menu at Sushiro. I will miss the latter. But they've a bak kut teh ramen. Now one must take the moniker 'ramen' with a pinch of proverbial salt. It's not really much of ramen as many of us might know it. Just noodles in broth. I don't know how Sushiro does theirs but it did taste like bak kut teh with a light pepperiness and garlic in the flavour. The rib was marinated and pretty tender. Better than I had imagined.

Sushiro, aji katsu nigiri

In other news, aji seems to be in season and they have thrown together a aji katsu nigiri. We got some freshly fried fish but don't expect these to taste as good as the proper ones. At least now we know.

Sushiro, aji katsu nigiri

Revisiting the spicy dry Megamen from Brothers Ramen

Brothers Ramen, dry spicy megamen

I've been resisting doing a take out of this dry megamen from Brothers Ramen during the HA period since noodles generally don't travel well. Even though they will likely pack the noodles separately from the broth, nothing beats eating ramen freshly served. I missed this.

Brothers Ramen, International Plaza

Thursday, July 08, 2021

Istimewa Nasi Padang, Hoy Fatt Road

Istimewa Nasi Padang, Hoy Fatt Road

This nasi padang (28 Hoy Fatt Road) was not bad at all. At least it wasn't from what I've gotten. The paru goreng was well spiced, had a nice chewy texture and more tender than they dry look suggested. Very decent sambal goreng on the side and also got myself some nice sotong masak hitam stuffed with squid roe. Not forgetting that zesty sambal belachan on the side packed some heat that I enjoyed.

Istimewa Nasi Padang, Hoy Fatt Road

Putian Delights (莆田美食), Alexandra Village Food Centre

Putian Delights (莆田美食), Alexandra Village Food Centre

I've noticed this stall (#01-88, Alexandra Village Food Centre, Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1) for some time now. Have been wondering how the "street level" Putian food compares with what we have always been getting from Putien. So we tried a couple of items we liked - like their Xinghua bee hoon and the stir fried yam.

Putian Delights (莆田美食), xing hua bee hoon

The obvious visual cue was that the bee hoon used here were the regular variety - meaning that it wasn't as fine as the ones that one gets from Putien. The ingredients were more sparse and the flavour in the noodles were very much lighter as well. This large portion came with a few clams, shrimps and so little bits of pork and seaweed that it wasn't even worth mentioning. Chilli sauce was spicy and sour, not as vibrantly lime-y like Putien.

It was also much cheaper than eating than at Putien. If one didn't make comparisons, it was a pretty light flavoured yet fairly tasty plate of bee hoon which one could inhale with ease.  

Putian Delights (莆田美食), stir fried yam

Again to compare, these stir fried yam didn't have the crust nor the flavouring from the fish sauce that those from Putien do. Putien's yams all come in blocks while this one has the "edges" of the cut yam as well. Not a biggie. It was still sweet with a coating of sugar and one could still taste the yam. Not bad methinks.

Putian Delights (莆田美食), Alexandra Village Food Centre

Wednesday, July 07, 2021

Truffled dumpings and steamed rice from Victor's Kitchen

Victor's Kitchen, Chinatown Point

Victor's Kitchen has some truffled dim sum so we came over to try. By 'truffled', it was black truffle puree over their steamed dumplings, not sliced summer black truffles.

Victor's Kitchen, truffle siew mai

As mundane as the dumplings looked, I enjoyed the black truffle siew mai. According to them, the puree was made with Grade A Italian black truffles. While I personally couldn't tell, I liked that the truffle flavour complemented rather than overwhelmed the stuffings of the siew mai.

Victor's Kitchen, truffle har gow cordyceps

These were black truffle cordyceps har gow - different looking from their regular variety har gow. Pretty good tasting too with the cordyceps.

Victor's Kitchen, steamed chicken rice
Victor's Kitchen, steamed pork ribs rice

I liked their steamed chicken rice. Have been wanting to come back to get a bowl of this since that CNY rendition with lup cheong some years ago. We also had the pork rib steamed rice with fermented black beans. The meat here was a little tougher so I like the chicken one better. Rice was delicious with the sliced chilli padi.

Victor's Kitchen, milk tea

Re-visiting So Good Char Chan Tang

So Good Char Chan Tang, baked tomato pork chop rice

We've noticed a number of people ordering their tomato baked pork chop rice so we decided to get one to understand for ourselves. While I'm usually not so big on tomato based sauces, I think I kinda liked this because I was shovelling spoonful after another in my face. That sauce wasn't overly tangy and had a creaminess that wasn't overwhelming. Unexpectedly moreish.

The rice beneath was a lightweight egg fried rice. Pork chop underneath the tomato was okay-ish. This is normally not my kind of dish but I don't think I would mind eating it again.

So Good Char Chan Tang, pig trotter noodles

Pork trotter noodles weren't that impressive. Noodles had a nice texture but also a more obvious alkali flavour this time round. While those pork trotters were tender, they were also pretty bony. They were also served cold. 

So Good Char Chan Tang, corned beef egg sandwich

Not a bad corned beef and egg sandwich. Would be nicer if the corned beef were more well distributed though.

So Good Char Chan Tang, steamed milk

There's steamed milk under desserts. Wasn't very milky. Portion was tiny and the standards weren't anywhere close to even chains in Hong Kong like Yee Shun Milk Company. Now that we're comparing, Honeymoon Dessert makes much better steamed milk as well. So did Ji De Chi.