Takeaway from Shen Ji Chicken Rice

Have been meaning to come back to Shen Ji for their chicken rice but it never happened. Fortunately, chicken rice survives travel pretty well so not being able to eat at the stall is not necessarily a problem. Liked it as much as I did the last time we ate at the stall. I also liked that they deboned the drumstick. Anyways with the additional livers and hard boiled egg, it was a reasonable $5.

Keria Japanese Restaurant - before dining out is out.......again!

It has been a while since we were last at Keria and since we have somehow gotten ourselves into an impending lockdown again, this was a last dinner eat out. We've eaten here a number of times (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一 十二 十三 十四) and it's always been a little pricey but we've always left happy. Speaking of lockdown, how in the world did we get to where we are? KTV activities that were previously so hidden in the shadows that no one knew it was happening?

Today's otoshi was spinach with tofu and some strips of salmon with ikura. Looked very put together in short notice compared to some of the previous ones. But then again, there's no need to prepare them since we won't be able to eat in the restaurant anymore for a while.

Nursing some Kirin while waiting for the orders to be processed.

While browsing the menu, we found something we were definitely gonna order. Lumb ruck!

We didn't forget our favourite mentaiko cabbage. Today's cabbage looked like it trapped a lot of the mentaiko. It was also a little less smoky than usual.

We've seen the natto omelette on the menu for some time but had never ordered until today. This was very loaded with natto and their nutty/coffee-ish flavour. Nice.

Here be the lumb ruck! They were a little small but it was $12 for two ribs so we couldn't complain. But while the ribs were small, they were tender and appropriately greasy with some good flavour. Just salt and pepper with a light hint of rosemary.

Stir fried gyutan from Keria has always been pretty dependable.

Who can begrudge uni ikura don eh? We didn't.

Because the lumb rucks were tasty, we had seconds as a pre-dessert.

And finally the coffee jelly. Till the third week of August then.

Café Ma Maison, Mandarin Gallery

Café Ma Maison (#02-33/34 Mandarin Gallery333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 6411) opened a while ago taking over the unit that was previously occupied by Antoinette. As the name implies, this was a cafe outfit from the Ma Maison group so it doesn't have the same range of food as their other restaurants.

I was curious about their truffle katsu sando so we got some while wondering if these were really gotten from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison just next door. One could choose between rosu or hire. This was the former with the tell tale strip of fat. The katsu had been brushed with tonkatsu sauce, a smidgen of mustard and a bit of the fine strips of cabbage - but the truffle flavour was barely discernible. Meat was a little hard. Maybe hire minus the tonkatsu sauce would be a better configuration.

Fruit sando was awesome. There was a lot of cream though.

Gotta remember that Ma Maison's Americano isn't the run of the mill diluted brew. This was stronger and more fragrant. With a couple of spoonfuls of the excess cream from the fruit sando, this was reminiscent of the Café Antoinette Crème that Antoinette used to serve here. A ghost of the past.

As mundane as their root beer float looked, it was actually pretty nice. As nice as root beer floats could get that is.

The aji katsu is back at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Was looking forward to the seasonal return of their aji katsu. One of the better fried fish I remember having that didn't need sauce while the rosu katsu was good with mustard and a bit of salt. 

Pumpkin and sweet corn paste from 一一五糖水 (Yi Yi Wu Tang Shui)

More dessert from 一一五糖水. We came on a Sunday to try their pumpkin and sweet corn paste because it's only available on limited specific days of the week. I thought it was quite nice. The main flavours were coconut and pumpkin with corn. Wasn't too sweet which was how we liked it.

Old Master Roasted Grill 老师傅烧腊, Chinatown Food Centre

I noticed this stall (#02-119 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) a stone's throw from Chang Ji Gourmet the last few times I was here and noted that they had good looking char siew so here's a plate with char siew and roasted duck drumstick. Both roasts were pretty good. Char siew had a nice caramelized exterior and fat laced meat while the duck was tender and flavourful from the roasted skin/fat. Would come back again.