Revisiting Mrs Pho House

This revisit to Mrs Pho House was to hit up some of their barbeque/grill items and also take advantage of the half price promotion for their hotpot broth which has been extended till the end of the month. It was specifically the crab bisque broth for the hotpot that we came back for.

So before the food arrived, a glass of Phoever Young. Tacky sounding drink made with pennywort, coconut water and green bean. Supposedly good for health but I'll never drink enough to find out. Tasted like it was made with pennywort, coconut water and green bean. A pretty green-y flavour which wasn't very sweet.

Grilled mussels were not bad. Not the plumpest but still meaty resting in their juices on the shell. Would have been nicer if the crushed peanuts weren't just a token sprinkling. 

Marinated pork belly on skewer were not bad too. These were single long strips of pork belly folded in the the skewer so it was a pretty large mouthful. 

Nice tender lady's fingers made more delicious with their fermented beancurd sauce.

Got ourselves their mountain styled chicken again. Looked different from the last time but still delicious.

Another mountain styled item, this time it was zucchini slices which were tender and pleasantly sweet, paired with the salty "mountain spice".

Their stuffed squid sounded interesting. Not bad also. Squid was stuffed with minced meat and had a nice char at the tentacles. It was mentioned on the menu to be "Mrs Pho's childhood favourite". Who the hell is Mrs Pho? I thought it was just a name. 😱 Anyway, they did this with a pineapple sauce which had a good flavour from the fruit without being overly sweet.

Here begins the hotpot stuff. We had some fish maw. Not the better ones we've had but I think I was forgiving because the idea was for these to soak up the crab bisque.

More pig's stomach which was good with their spicy fermented beancurd dip.

Their house made prawn paste which I didn't get to show the last time. These were pretty well done with chunks of shrimp in the paste. Loved how the dill integrated with them. Works with their sweet calamansi dip.

Beef balls. Decent but nothing special. Great with the spicy fermented beancurd dip.

Frozen pork belly which were oddly folded. We had initially thought that they were thick slices but that was because each piece was folded in half. Pretty good stand alone or with both dips that they provided. 

Frozen beef slices which were also pretty good on their own. I don't know if the salt came from a marinate or the crab bisque. Hmmm......

Some watercress for fibre. These were pretty stem-my and those fibrous stems took a long time to soften.

There - the sweet and fruity calamansi dip with a hint of garlic which I had been mentioning. And also that delicious spicy fermented beancurd dip.

Tried their avocado coffee. I liked that the coffee itself was strong. I'm not assuming that all Vietnamese restaurants makes nice strong coffee.

Hui Mama Kitchen @ Eatbox

The last time I stepped into Eatbox (#01-55 to 59 Tekka Place, 2 Serangoon Road) was quite a while ago. The foodcourt looked a little forlorn and I didn't eat anything then. We were in the vicinity today and ended up there for lunch. Bustling wouldn't be the word I would use to describe the food court. The stalls also have changed vendors from the last time. Got some Vietnamese food from Hui Mama Kitchen this time.

This was their sticky rice special which was basically a little meat from each of the sticky rice plates that they were serving. Stuff like pork ribs, chicken, meat floss, some sauce that tasted like pate which was delicious, pickles, fried shallots and curiously....half a quail's egg. What's with that half of a tiny egg? Anyways, it was edible but I didn't think so much of it. Meats were a little tough and the sticky rice was dry-ish.

What actually got my attention at the stall was their súp cua óc heo - a soup of minced crab and pig's brain. I didn't realize it was a sticky soup. Didn't have much flavour except from the fish sauce and chilli which they added to it. Too little crab meat to make an impression but they gave a whole pig's brain.

Warm Up Cafe, MacKenzie Road

I wouldn't say that this spot is obscure (110 Mackenzie Road, tel : +65 8723 2332). It's not. It's just off the main road. Sequestered among a few other equally off the main road condominiums close to the back of the Istana. And also a few minutes walk from one of the entrances to Little India MRT. A single Thai eatery in a location that one might not generally expect.

We had iced Thai green milk tea. And also cha yen later on. Having Thai tea here is akin to getting Hong Kong milk tea. While the standards may be better these days from some restaurants, it's never really going to taste like the real stuff where it came from. Tea here is a little thinner than what would garner a thumbs up.

Wanted some vegetable so their cabbage stir fried in fish sauce sounded good. Cabbage was very crunchy and thankfully cooked enough without any residual rawness. Pretty tasty but not exactly how I imagined it.

We noticed Thai river prawns on the menu and wanted to get a couple to see if they do nice Thai river prawns. Did not see any indication that they were grilled even though they were supposed to be. Didn't recall any smokiness or char but the prawns were pretty tasty and not dried out. Pretty good with the accompanying nam jim. Just not as large as I was hoping them to be.

That's shrimp paste fried rice. Loads of flavour and texture from the vegetables. The chilli burnt my lips.

There's crab bah mee which wasn't a quarter as spicy as its dark reddish looks suggested. There was a dark sauce with a gentle sweetness coupled with flavour from garlic. Wasn't expecting that dark sauce though. Quite a bit of crab meat in the noodles. Not bad tasting.

LINO, Forum The Shopping Mall

Lino by the Les Amis Group has been expanding. They started out as a more or less traditional-ish Italian restaurant at Binjai Park. That was followed by their pasta bar at Shaw. This new outpost (#01-01/04 Forum The Shopping Mall, 583 Orchard Road) took over the space left behind by Jamie Oliver's restaurant at Forum The Shopping Mall. Felt more like a mall restaurant than an Italian one though.

Managed to be upsold by one of their wait staff to buy an expensive bottled serious beer for not so serious people. This was malty, chocolate-y with a sweet aftertaste. Not spicy even though the label indicated that it was made with chili.

I was quite convinced that these were potatoes even though I knew I ordered smoked scamorza - right till the moment I put them into my mouth because they looked so much like them. Even the texture had just the slightest mealiness like potato. But they were scarmoza, albeit unlike those we've had previously. Not bad tasting though. A little smoky and not overly salty, paired with prosciutto and rocket drizzled generously with balsamic glaze.

Liked the trofie though the basil pesto seemed to lack cheese and garlic so the punch and umami was kinda lost. Pine nuts would have benefited from a bit of toasting. Otherwise not bad tasting. 

The ingredients of their foie gras pizza were set up not to fail - bacon, caramelized onion, sweet slices of peaches with the foie. That was multi layered sweetness and savoury saltiness with slices of buttery liver on melted cheese bread. I liked it.

Was expecting them to heat up their pecan tart but it was served chilled. Not bad though not one of the better pecan tart things I've had.

Espresso was sour. No more getting coffee if we come back.

Fried Carrot Cake (菜头粿), Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

Random radish cake trying. This stall was simply named Fried Carrot Cake (#02-48 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza). Didn't taste bad but I also didn't think there was anything about them I liked in particular. Flavours were kinda light. I guess this was just ordinary.

Carrot cake from Ikea

It's a Saturday breakfast item. While their radish cake were not so much like the local hawker renditions, the tender chunks of the kuey were egg coated with bits of garlic and chai por and were not bad tasting. The chilli paste was unexpectedly fragrant. I wonder where they got those from.