Lo Chan Kee Cantonese Wanton Noodles (老陳記廣東雲吞麵), Holland Drive Food Centre

I've been wanting to try this Lo Chan Kee (#02-23 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, 44 Holland Drive) for a while because I've been recommended. Now that I have, I thought their sui gao noodles (水饺面) was a let down because eating that came with the inevitable comparison with Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice (香港玫瑰油鸡麵饭) and Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken (香江豉油鸡).

The skin of the dumplings weren't as smooth and the stuffings didn't feel as bountiful if you catch my drift. There's only minced meat, no shrimps and wood ear fungus. These ones were 80 cents a piece so it just made more sense to pay $1.20 for that superior one at Beauty World. Also - clumpy dry noodles.

Guan's Mee Pok (阿源麵薄), Capitol Piazza

Have been wanting to come over to Guan's Mee Pok since they've setup an entire space of their own (#B1-55 Capitol Piazza, 3 Stamford Road). Previously they used to be a stall in the Food Republic a stone's throw away. The menu has gotten bigger so we tried some of the stuff that they didn't have in the past. Or at least we didn't recall them having. 

Like the mee pok with prawn paste balls. Loved the clean heat and tanginess from their chilli and vinegar. Texture of the noodles also held up well too. Those prawn paste balls were not bad tasting but they were also nothing we'd be looking forward to coming back for either.

There's crispy eel mee pok which looked good on the menu.

The actual fried eels had a thicker and crustier breading. Eels also tasted a little fishy. We got the sensing that they aren't great with fried stuff and we're definitely going to avoid them in the future. Does that mean that we'll be coming back?  Sure. For the mee pok and none of the fried things.

Tasted like how I remembered it from the last time we had them. Nice.

Some crunchy nai bai with chilli and fried lard? Yes please.

They were giving away a couple of fried prawn paste wings for some of the noodles we ordered. Edible. On hindsight, I wouldn't have paid for these knowing how they tasted. Ponggol Nasi Lemak just a few steps away makes much better regular ones.

More food from So Good Char Chan Tang at Capitol Piazza

These were from a couple of visits at the So Good at City Hall. The dark drink on the left was luo han guo (罗汉果) tea. Also known as monk fruit. I thought it was pretty good flavour but I've been spoilt by an old experience at the defunct Bon Bon Cafe in Hong Kong that very little if any could match that.

I've been curious about their char siew for a while. It's not so much like the local variety in flavour and doesn't have the caramelized shell on the exterior that is favoured by many. Myself included. The meat was tender without the crust but also much sweeter than I remember of many char siew experiences in Hong Kong. There seemed to be something like fermented bean flavour. Not bad tasting but also usually not my preferred style.

Beef brisket passed muster as these dishes go. Their curry has a different taste from the one at Tsui Wah. Briskets weren't as fall apart fatty as I was hoping for. For some reasons, we never get those quality of briskets here. Loved the chunks of tendon in the curry. 

This was braised fish head rice which I had ordered out of curiosity. In my head, I was imagining a whole fish's head but it was merely chopped up pieces. While the fish looked chunky like 鱼鸡, they weren't. Most of it were bones. There were also a few strips of braised pork belly in there. Didn't taste bad but I don't think I'll be getting this again because there was little meat from the fish and I didn't think much of their oyster sauce gravy. 

Corned beef and egg sandwich was good. Seemed better than the last time we had it.

Prefer Tsui Wah's condense milk buns over this because those tasted more buttery and "juicy", not to mention also with a lighter crisp. This one wasn't bad but the buns were dry-ish and crustier.

Kin Kao Young, 313 Somerset

This restaurant (B2-01/02/03, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road) for some reasons reminded me of a localized and less polished version of Kub Kao' Kub Pla. Looking back in retrospect, I couldn't even pinpoint why was that so. Some of the food was a little sweet here.

Khao kha moo was not bad. Not one of the better we've had but still pretty competent. Can't compare the standards here to the ones in Bangkok of course. Which are cheaper and features better stewing. Enough of this already.

I kinda enjoyed their tom kha gai with the mild heat and tanginess but towards the end, the sweetness got to me. Broth was creamy, coconut-y and filled with mushrooms and chunks of chicken thigh.

We had a bowl of pork rib rice noodles. Didn't expect to get so much pork ribs and ones at these sizes. Nice. These tender slide off the bone ribs were delicious with the garlic chilli dip. They costed about the same as a bowl of prime rib bak kut teh.

Halibut steamed with lime, sugar, garlic and coriander. Fish was okay-ish. We ordered this because Thai steamed fish generally do not use halibut and we wanted to try it. Pretty good flavouring there from the tangy lime and garlic. Loved the heat but I thought there was a bit too much sweetness in their concoction.

Keef the Beef, The Grandstand

Keef the Beef (#01-12 The Grandstand, 200 Turf Club Road, tel : +65 6972 1582) is a local grown steakhouse. They've relocated from their previous business location not long ago to this current space which used to house Yoyogi. From what I've read, this steakhouse spawned from a trigger during the owner's trip to an iconic 150 year old steakhouse in New York City in 2015. The signature cow dish from said 150 year old steakhouse had left such an impression that Keef the Beef replicated it here. 

Suntory's kuro is available on tap here. An excellent choice if I might add but at $20 a pint, it was pretty pricey.

Foie gras was quite nice. Those spiced apples on the side were good - wished there was more of it.

There's hand cut fries - okay tasting.

I like their option of kimchi as a side. These were well fermented with a respectable sourness which served as a foil to cut through the richness from the meats.

We had an order of The PL - the replicated steak from the iconic 150 year old steakhouse in New York City. With USDA Prime beef. Hawr hawr...yes PL is obviously supposed to abbreviate Peter Luger. This steak was a ribeye, not a porterhouse though. I've never been to Peter Luger so I have no frame of comparison; but this was good.

The knife slide through the tender meat with relative ease. Tender yet with bite. Not the melt in your mouth shit that poseurs out there often yap about. Well to be fair, the fat in the meat was sufficiently softened that it was actually kinda melt in your mouth. Not exactly medium rare I was imagining but I enjoyed it. Drizzled and dipped it in the melted butter I did.

Lunch at Hana Hana (華花)

We haven't eaten at Hana Hana since the first time we were here. Non omakase ranchi was walk in only so we tried our luck today with lunch.

Think that's their otoshi. A strip of salmon in a bowlful of daikon soaked in a sweet broth. I kinda liked this.

They had grilled oysters on menu. Tasted nice but they were very small and pricey at $8 a pop.

The cheese omelette was also a bit of a let down in spite of appearances. Couldn't taste much of the cheese.

But I was here to try their A4 wagyu aburi don that I saw on their poster outside the restaurant. The image of that donburi conjured memories of the aburi wagyu meshi I had previously at Kuro Maguro. Hence I was excited and therefore expecting better from Hana Hana.

This was the reality. WTF?! More like sukiyaki beef with all that sweetness than the torched thin slices of wagyu I had imagined. It didn't taste bad but the flavour from the meat wasn't telling at all. I did enjoy the bowl in spite of the sweetness and light gingery notes - thanks also to those bits of fried garlic that perfumed it. Just not worth the 30 bucks and I felt misled. 

Today's lunch included their Bara + beef stew. Their marinated cubes of fish still holds up today even though not much has changed. That beef stew though - it's gyu suji to be more accurate. No extra flavouring in there to mess with the flavour of those chunks of tender beef cushioned with bits of fat and tendon. This was so good.

If you're wondering whether regular rice or shari - it doesn't make a difference to me. Regular is logical because of the flavour bomb you already have from the toppings but if you feel like the sushi rice with those - who's to say it cannot happen?