Re-visiting 藝 yì by Jereme Leung

We came back to 藝 yì for some of the food we liked from the previous visit and to try some of the hairy crab dishes that they're doing for the season. Also, this was a lunch to commemorate.

Some fried dumpling they gave on the house. I actually couldn't tell what it was inside but it didn't taste bad. The skin was softer than it looked and the sharpness of those onions cut through as a complement.

$18 purple sugarcane juice. Expensive but nice.

What we liked from the last time included this luffa and pig's stomach soup with peppercorns. Creamy smooth peppery broth swimming with "juicy" strips of luffa and pig's stomach. A pot was good for four small bowls. So delicious.

There's Parmesan cheese custard buns with crab meat and roe.

The flavour from the roe reminded me of 流沙包, which this was a crab rendition of if you thought about it. Rich and creamy salty sweetness with bits of crab meat. I thought it might have been more impressive there were more crab meat for the texture.

Menu described this as Hangzhou styled hairy crab meat and roe stuffed in baked orange. Nice. Imagine hot orange puree with minced hairy crab meat and roe in them. Wished this was bigger.

Another dish we liked from the last round was their steamed chicken claws (凤爪) in a sweet fermented bean sauce. Like I mentioned previously, these were slurp off the bone tender.

Claypot kailan with prawn paste and Shaoxin - also something we caught on from the last visit. These were well done.

Back to the crab dishes, there's la mian with Japanese snow crab, beancurd (豆花), chilli oil and the works. 

The chilli was much more subdued that the appearances belied. There was barely heat and wasn't as aromatic (or toasty) as I had been expecting them to be. Which was kinda odd. The noodles were quite nice still after it was all tossed up though.

The last of the hairy crab food we had was their freshly baked custard soufflé. I was curious because it had hairy crab meat and roe. The melted roe ended up tasting like sweetened salted egg yolk similar to those black buns above. The minced bits of crab meat weren't so out of place with the hot eggy custard. Think chawanmushi. Sweet chawanmushi. Sweet and fluffier chawanmushi. Too bad these are seasonal and the season's ended because I'd come back just for them. Next year perhaps.

Yuzu tonkotsu ramen from Ippudo

Ippudo has this on a limited run. A flavour infusion of yuzu in their tonkotsu broth which I found pretty good. The result was pleasant fruity tanginess that accompanied velvet smoothness. And because Ippudo's broth had always been clear, it also felt right textually. Not so different from the lime infused bushi tonkotsu and lemon tori paitan bowls from the defunct Uma Uma Ramen. I chose the "very hard" doneness for the noodles today and I liked it.

Of rice and dumplings and not rice dumplings

This will be the last time I'll be talking about the dumplings/水饺 at Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice (香港玫瑰油鸡麵饭). At least for a while because...well, I've said what I've wanted to already. But I figured a nice combination to order from the stall.

Just the chicken rice without chicken. Or perhaps we could just call it chicken rice kosong. Plus eggs. The lard, you'll have to help yourself to it. Good eating with their chilli sauce.

Nothing much more for me to say about their delicious 水饺 and broth. Except that....they really stuffed in a lot of shrimps. Like maybe four of them.

Did I mention four shrimps? I think I did. Now where else in the world does one find 水饺 like this? I might have gotten lucky today but still. Be prepared to wait for your order though.

Leek Hainanese Chicken Rice (力海南雞飯), Beo Crescent Food Centre

This might be the first time I've eaten at Leek at the food centre. It tasted a bit better than I remember even though there was this light gingery flavour that I'm usually not a fan of. Otherwise, they're a run of the mill chicken rice which wasn't exceptionally good or bad like what I've previously pointed out. That as they may be, I think I'll still pick them over the other stall just a block away.

More breakfast from Hajjah R.S.A

I might have overdid it a bit today at Hajjah R.S.A. because I was hungry. If anyone's wondering, it's two thosais - one with egg and the other with just ghee. Both are slathered with the sambar and coconut chutney. The fritter on top was a masala vadai which was pretty good - came with a bit of heat in the crumbly crunchiness of the fried lentil patty flavoured with aroma from green chilli. I have got to remember for the next time that getting one thosai would be good enough. That one with ghee was really nice though with all the buttery flavour.

Imma katsu

Haven't eaten at Imakatsu for a while so I ordered a cheese tonkatsu which I hadn't seen on their menu before since the rosu katsu with garlic seemed to be no longer available. Felt disappointing as a whole because it wasn't so cheesy and the tonkatsu was kinda small. Even the one from Tonkichi was nicer. I recall remarking on their slipping standards as a tonkatsu shop a few years back and this one didn't change my mind on it.

Their seafood katsu curry rice featured a couple of oysters, some dry salmon and a prawn. Not a fan of the boring salmon but the other fried items were passable. Am pretty sure that the panko breading is heavier these days than in the past. Curry was disappointing though. Lacked body and wasn't particularly aromatic. Keria as an all rounder made much better curry katsu. Imma stick to Tonkatsu by Ma Maison for the katsu fixes yet I wonder how the shop at Star Vista fares.