Sheng Li Nasi Lemak, Beauty World Food Centre

We were here early in the morning and this stall (#04-63 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road) selling nasi lemak was opened when most of the rest weren't. Rustic, if it would appropriately describe, would be what it was. No frills and generic ingredients that had home made appearances and taste. Otah wasn't spicy and was a little stiff while that hot dog was room temperature. Did the job as fuel for the day. At least the rice was salted enough that the brought out the flavour of the coconut in it. Unlike some others. Like what a particular vlogger might ask, would I travel across Singapore for this? That would be an unequivocal no.

Another round at Hui Ji Fishball Noodles (輝記魚圓麵) on their turf

I thought I would have another go at Hui Ji's noodles since it wasn't a good gauge the last time as I had packed them home. Without need for further elaboration, most of us would know that noodles in general don't survive take away very well. I wanted to see how it would be if I ordered and ate almost immediately after.

The verdict was that the noodles were much better but they were still not the doneness that I usually prefer. Would have liked more bite on them. What bothered me a little was that in spite of the chillis and whatnots, there was still that bit of sweetness in them from the dressing. Wasn't as savoury as I prefer. Sugars hidden somewhere that I could detect. Maybe it's their chilli sauce. It's a decent bowl of noodles for sure. I'm just not a fan.

The purple uni soba incident at Healthy Soba IKI

This happened at an event by Healthy Soba IKI where they brought in purple uni for their soba and a bunch of wines to pair their food with. If anyone was wondering, only the spines of the sea urchin are purple. The gonads are still yellow.

The event also included a bunch of normally off the menu items like duck rillette......

......and burrata with toasted buckwheat and Kampot pepper. There only other toppings on this besides those were some thinly sliced negi, salt and EVOO. The nutty toasted buckwheat were very good pairing with the burrata. 

We tried some creamy slices of chilled foie gras with balsamic vinegar glaze.

The main event was the chilled purple uni soba. Soba was topped with lemon zest, EVOO, strips of nori and shirasu. So the flavours were umami and refreshing at the same time. Because of the zest, the flavour had more intensity than their regular lemon soba.

We ordered some cheeses. Again, something that's not on the regular menu. There's Comte and....I don't know what's the other two but they were creamy and stinky so I liked them.

White radish cake with chilli from Heng Heng Cooked Food

White radish cake with extra eggs and chilli from Heng Heng. Their queue seems to be much longer at 7+ in the morning than I remember.

Qin Ji Rougamo (秦記肉夹馍), One Raffles Place

I seen this shop (#B1-28/29 One Raffles Place, 1 Raffles Place) a number of times and curiosity had finally gotten the better of us. While the name of the shop was Qin Ji Rougamo, what they were selling is known as rou jia mo (肉夹馍), something quite commonly referred to as Chinese hamburgers. The ones that I've had previously at Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights (黄土地西安小吃) and the already closed Xun Qin Ji (寻秦记) had pita like bread. These here were much like flaky pastry.

The stuffings of minced pork and sauce were savoury and delicious. The top one was the original flavour (秦记肉夹馍). The other was cumin pork (孜然肉夹馍). Can't say which one was better because I liked them both. That flaky pastry crust was also kinda nice and held up well with all the stuffings. Gonna come back again and try these with another filling. 

Kanada-Ya, Paragon

Kanada-Ya opened a year plus back. I had gotten the impression from misleading headlines that they were from London but their site states that the ramen-ya started in Yukuhashi in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. They've built themselves credentials and are known for their truffle tonkotsu ramen - something I had been curious about and wanted to try. We had a bowl at their shop in Paragon (#04-09 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6962 0505).

This wasn't a shabby bowl. I chose the extreme hardness for their noodles which was probably the proper harigane. Besides the truffle flavour which obviously came from the puree/paste/oil, there was an obvious porcine depth in the tonkotsu broth. Not as refined as Ippudo which has a cleaner taste but I don't mind them again. Will probably not get this truffle one again though.

I kinda enjoyed their charshu which was fat laced and sliced so thin that dissolved into rivulets of porkiness once I popped them into my mouth. 

I liked the broth enough to finish it. Might come back again someday to do another bowl.