又来莆田

The Eel Festival is happening at Putien again. We didn't come here specifically for that though. It was coincidence that we happened to be here for dinner when it started. Eels are flown in from farms in Guangdong, China live and showcased in the form of dishes for the run of the festival.

So we tried something called crispy eel in red wine sauce - what I gathered to be a traditional Fujian dish cooked by coating fried eel fillets with red rice wine from Fujian. The deep fried eel that wasn't very crispy though. For some reasons, the aroma from the red wine sauce reminded me of 排骨王. Lightly sweet, slightly tangy and savoury like a subdued rendition of sweet and sour pork with the earthy flavour from the meat of the eel. Served with a generous portion of kailan. Nice.

I thought the small portion of the red mushroom seafood lor mee was a little small the last time so we upgraded it to the medium sized portion today.

This deep fried yam stuffed with duck has been on Putien's menu for the longest time but we've never had it till today. We thought it was more delicious than it looked. This dish was a showcase of how a proper deep frying should be done - creating sufficient crisp without trapping excessive grease. There was a crunchy exterior layered underneath by piping hot creamy yam and chunks of duck meat stuffings that were more tender than they looked. So good with their chilli sauce.

The milkfish from Milkfish. And other stuff....

We came back to Milkfish and ordered one of their sets which featured the eponymous dish - grilled belly of milkfish. From what I gathered, it's the same as the Filipino bangus. Tender, somewhat flaky but not so firm in texture. Cooked with a glaze which might have been sweet/dark soya sauce with some garlic. Pretty delicious but doesn't have the intensity of say a well done gindara teriyaki. 

Deep fried prawn rolls/hae cho were pretty good with their light crispy skin and was packed with moist pork/prawn stuffings. No unpleasant bits of herb/vegetable that I didn't like hiding inside and ruining the taste.

Chilled tofu, century egg and pork floss...tasted like they looked. These are pretty common these days and this was just another one of those.

Springleaf Prata Place, The Rail Mall

Service was slow. With the restaurant half filled during off peak, it took them a half hour to get a couple of pratas and some tea/coffee to us. Didn't think that their coffee halia was very gingery so here's a note to myself never to get it again. Guess which one was that coffee halia.

This was the Praclette - their Ultimate Hawkerfest prata for 2021. I've previously had their Prata Blaster (2015), Murtaburger (2013) and Ultimate Murtabak (2012). The ideas that they've thrown out for each year gets progressively humdrum-ish. It feels like each year's entry is done for the sake of doing. 

The Praclette was kinda small. For almost 10 bucks, it felt like a light snack. Onions, olives, shiitake mushrooms, turkey ham and truffle oil I couldn't even tell if I had tasted or imagined. What else is new? Oh - raclette cheese. Not bad but not worth my dollars for the portion.

Even the portobello mozzarella prata looked kinda small. For that price, one might have scored a murtabak which would likely be more satisfying. Again, it didn't taste bad.

Hong Li Mei Wei Xiao Chi (鴻利美味小吃), Holland Village Food Centre

Pretty decent local fried rice from this stall (#01-17, Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong). They even have char siew in there, tiny as they were along with a couple of prawns for just $3. As opposed to say a $5 plate which one can easily find that's too cheap to even use real crab sticks. Without comparing, the fried rice was serviceable and not fancy. Forget wok hei or even egg coatings on individual grains. It tasted simple and homely. Pickled green chilli's great for breaking the monotony. That chai por omelette on top is another dollar by the way.

Barakhath, Dalhousie Lane

Came to know of this eatery recently (11 Dalhousie Lane) and came by for lunch. These guys serve Indian rice meals. There's a menu with a bunch of dishes one could order and then there are specific items that are available on each day of the week. I got their fish kurma which was a Wednesday dish.

I liked it. The fish they used was Spanish mackerel - or commonly also known locally as batang. The meat was more moist than I had expected. Loved those pickled green chilli and onions that they added in the kurma. 

This rice meal came with regular rice because their basmati wasn't ready. It was pretty good with the kurma, the tangy sambal from the hard boiled eggs along with the pickles they served on the side.

粉肠虾面 from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle

I've been meaning to try this for a while from Covent Garden Prawn Noodle. The last time I was here, they were midway through the cooking of those 粉肠 (fen chang) so they weren't ready for serving yet. 粉肠 are small/sweet pork intestines if you don't know what those are.

The flavour of the 粉肠 was kinda crustacean-y/prawn-y. Could it be because it was cooked in the prawn broth?