Ivan's Porridge's bee hoon has changed

The bee hoon from Ivan's seems to have lost their magic. No more smokiness that used to mark their flavour. Not that they're bad. They're not. But for some reasons the noodles doesn't taste as good these days. I still enjoy it though. Nowadays, it's that roasted chilli that's getting me through when the bee hoon alone in the past would have.

The double boiled black chicken coconut soup from Soup Restaurant (三盅两件)

This was our first time eating at Soup Restaurant at Paragon (#B1-07 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6333 6228).

I mentioned the black chicken coconut soup previously very briefly. Something about it being not bad. Let's do it a little more justice. The soup's clear and sweet from the juices of the coconut paired with light savoury and herbal taste from whatever else was put into it for the double boiling. Deliciously moreish if I had to superficially summarise. There's a thin layer of coconut meat which you could scrape off to eat after drinking. Maybe next time we'll try the one with black chicken and scallop.

Didn't just get soup. There was a bunch of their other stuff - like their chicken lettuce tacos, slightly fibrous grandfatherly sweet potato leaves in sambal and an oddly sweet claypot egg tofu. Nothing we haven't had before.

Kim Fa Fish Ball Minced Meat Noodle, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

This was a little different from the usual minced meat noodle because it looked like Kim Fa (#02-32 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) is essentially a fishball noodle shop. Notice that the toppings are the standard fishball noodle stuff - not those of minced pork noodles like stewed mushrooms, pork liver and whathaveyous. And then there's also minced pork.

Not a bad bowl of fishball minced meat noodle but like the neighbouring Yuan Ji, it didn't taste particularly outstanding. I liked that the noodles were well tossed with the sauces and chilli. The toppings were decent - almost run of the mill so. The fishballs though had a nice fishy salty taste and were tender.

 

Filet of salmon from Les Bouchons

It's been about 15 years since the first time I was here at the Ann Siang branch of Les Bouchons till today.

That had also been the only time that I've actually taken a picture of their salad.  Things have changed a little. The pictures are better now. 

Grain mustard, dijon mustard, mayo and Béarnaise. Not exactly the best selection for seafood which we were having tonight.

Tried their salmon for the first time today. The passionfruit butter that accompanied it sounded intriguing. There was option for medium doneness for the fish so I was willing to give it a go. There restaurant added that since it wasn't sashimi grade fish, they wouldn't go for any doneness less than medium. Hmmm...

The kitchen came through with medium doneness. I would have loved a little more char flavouring on the surface but I am not complaining. The passionfruit butter was unfortunately little to talk about. It was neither passionfruit-y nor buttery. But thankfully the salmon held its own with just salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

Affogato's not bad here with their creamy vanilla ice cream and bitter espresso.

Mrs Pho House, why Takashimaya?

The addresses for Mrs Pho House all over point to Takashimaya. How is that? Isn't this spot (#B2-36A, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 9666 1357) part of Ngee Ann City instead? Anyways this new outfit by Mrs Pho unlike their other shops, serves also hotpot.

Pomelo salad looked small compared to the pictures in the menu. Yes it's pictures, not just one picture. But it's refreshingly lime-y with sweet citrus flavour from the fruit. There was some mint and a herb that tasted like laksa leaf.

Their grill section featured something known as mountain styled chicken skewers - boneless pieces of chicken dry rubbed with something and grilled. The "mountain style" in the name brought to mind earth moving doton styled jutsu; but that's just me and too much Naruto. 

Couldn't identify the spices but I'm getting something that reminded me a bit of cumin. Don't think it's cumin but I'm not sure. These skewers were moist and delicious.

The same couldn't be said for the five spice butter quail. There was five spice for sure, couldn't taste any butter and while the meat was pretty tender, the quails were too skinny.

Second time ordering tonkin jasmine flowers in a Vietnamese restaurant. The last was Red Sparrow - not to be confused with anything to do with Jennifer Lawrence. Am pretty sure at this point that these are the same as cowslip creeper flowers.

We went with the crab bisque soup base. A breath of fresh air from all the other templated broths out there. We were offered a taste before any cooking started. I recommend the tasting because it's the most unadulterated flavour of the broth one would get before the essences of the other ingredients muddled it and before the heat separated the milk. Think crab bisque minus the creaminess. Awesome soup.

The green dip on the top left is green chilli. The texture was oddly starchy. Sweet and spicy. Bottom right was spicy fermented bean curd - basically chilli oil on fermented bean curd. The latter packed a very respectable heat and flavour from the bean curd but doesn't work with hotpot ingredients which are delicate in flavour. Like the lamb shoulder which we wanted to taste and probably fish.

Speaking of fish, we had fish. No dip required.

Pig's stomach. Something that was good with the spicy fermented beancurd dip.

We had vegetables and sliced lamb shoulder. Frozen meat.

Porcini. Also frozen. The texture can be inconsistent even in a single piece. Added these into the crab bisque soup close to the end because the flavour does get into the soup and we wanted minimal additional flavours.

Hajah Maimunah at City Square Mall

Hajah Maimunah has a stall opened in the Food Republic of City Square Mall (L4 City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road) a couple of years ago. I think it was a couple of years ago. Anyways, I read that the food (I don't know if all of it) comes from a central kitchen in an attempt to ensure that the same quality is present across this, the flagship at Jalan Pinang and their Joo Chiat outpost. Here's a look.

Got ourselves a serving of their nasi padang with paru belado, kang kong, sayur lodeh and begedil. Sambal and serunding on the side. I can't compare to eating at the flagship because it's been a while but the food's good here. Flavours from the spices of the cooked food paired with a lemak gravy, some savoury heat from the sambal and spiced sweetness from the serunding.

Ordered a portion of their siput sedut and got messy sucking the meat out of the snails. 

There's nobody home now.