Alimama Green Chilli Chicken Rice & Prawn Noodle, Maxwell Food Centre

Been wanting to try this green chilli chicken rice from Alimama (#01-09 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, tel : +65 8484 3944) for a while. I enjoyed it. The chicken was freshly put to the grilled on order which resulted in a crisp exterior and meat that was tender. It wasn't as spicy as I had imagined but there's a nice flavour to that green chilli salsa. Red sambal on the side was also unexpectedly fruity tasting amid the heat. While it was called green chilli chicken rice, it wasn't actually 'chicken rice' per se.

Lunch @ Ko Ryo Jeong

Rained again so we ended up at Ko Ryo Jeong for lunch instead of heading towards Maxwell Food Centre like we originally intended. Actually, it was a good thing that we came here instead because we had previously wanted to explore their menu and that didn't happen then because...ganjang gejang.

While looking through the the menu, we found cheonggukjang jjigae - something we've never seen in our limited ventures into local Korean restaurants and it sounded good. In English, it's an extra-strong fermented soybean paste stew. The proprietress looked concerned when we ordered but we knew it wouldn't bother us.

Hell yeah this was good! The cloudy stew/soup/broth had a flavour profile similar an intense dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱) / miso; plus a tiny bit of funk that might be construed as natto-ish. The pot was mostly vegetables with sparing bits of fatty pork inside. I'd eat this again.

That's gul jeon - oyster pancakes. Ate them with kimchi from the banchan which was great pairing because that kimchi was well aged and hence, pretty tangy. Natural pairing here to the greasy omelette oysters.

Kimchi fried rice was not bad too. Not as intensely flavoured as I was hoping for but maybe it was a good thing today. There's one item from the banchan I liked (apart from the kimchi and the sweet fish cake slices). Those chives in some fish sauce/sugar marinate. Looking forward to coming back.

An Ippudo kind of rainy evening with yuzu tonkotsu ramen, small plates and shio pudding

I like Ippudo's yuzu tonkotsu ramen. Since it's on a limited run, makes sense that we get it whenever we can before we can't anymore. This one was from the shop at Tanjong Pagar outside Guoco Tower - we had some noodles, beer and small plates.

Got some gyozas while at it. The mentai mayo ones were not bad because mentai mayo. I didn't dislike the spicy sui gyoza but the chilli needed more aroma and flavour. La Yu (辣油) has much more fragrance than this chilli.

Beef tataki was unexpectedly better than I remembered because we weren't impressed when we had it previously. Meat had a smoky char on the surface while chewing it brought out the beefy flavour from the fat laced slices. That and the negi, goma + ponzu.

Shio pudding. Creamy custard with salt. Tasted like a very light creamy cheesecake. Nice.

Re-visiting Kiwami

Finally came back to Kiwami after the kinda disappointing first visit. While this might not be news to everyone, I just found out that they're under the EN Group - which also runs a couple of places we've been to like Aburi-EN next door, Monster Curry and Tempura Makino. The intent was to get some fried rice and gyoza but they were having some supplies issues with the dumplings and hence, no gyozas! 😭

Tried their buta hoho red mazesoba - with grilled Iberico pork jowl. Came with a little dish of their oddly tangy tonkotsu soup on the side which one was suppose to pour into the bowl.

Doesn't feel/taste/look like mazesoba. But I also realized that I could get around preconcept by not regarding the bowl as such. We re-conceptualized what we had after tossing as a bowl of pork jowl mee kia tah. Not bad. Nice smoky flavour from the powdered bonito and a bit of heat from their chilli paste. I could eat more of this.

Hokkaido snow crab fried rice with tonkotsu gravy. Not even close to the top drawer fried rice we've had but it was very edible. Even had that scorched smokiness that many wok hei whores out there love telling people they're getting some. There's a Chinese profile to the flavour - like Hokkien fried rice which was reminiscent of the plate from Tian Tian Seafood or a less intense version of the one from Ting Heng Seafood.

Their fried oysters are also pretty decent. Didn't look like much but I kinda liked them. Not so much for their tartare sauce though.

Seng Heng Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice (成興海南起骨雞飯), Bukit Timah Food Centre

So I decided to try Seng Heng (#02-77 Bukit Timah Food Centre, 51 Upper Bukit Timah Road) even though I said I needed to get the chicken rice at Fu Ji again. Both stalls are apparently the chicken rice stalls to go to...... according to the internet.

Got the roasted ji wei (鸡尾), fried to be more accurate, because they were out of of the poached one. I'm not sure I would take a chicken rice stall running out of chickens at 1.30 in the afternoon seriously. The chicken was...ordinary tasting as roasted chickens went.

Rice was light flavoured and a little dryer than what I prefer. Not outstanding. That could easily be overcome by dousing it with more chilli/dark soy sauce. My verdict between the these couple of chicken rice stalls is that I liked the Fu Ji experience better even though it's not an apple to apple comparison. I don't owe them one.

No. 1 Adam's Nasi Lemak, Adam Road Food Centre

No. 1 Adam's Nasi Lemak (#01-01 Adam Road Food Centre, 2 Adam Road) was the other popular nasi lemak stall right beside their competitor Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak. I ordered the Adam's Special because of the mutton rendang that came with it.

To get my thoughts of their rice out of the way - it was delicious. I thought so. Nice coconut milk infused basmati rice that was sufficiently salted for flavour. Portions of the rice was a little small considering the amount of other ingredients they gave.

I didn't think that the other ingredients were exceptional. Mutton rendang was tender but ultimately also stringy. Wasn't bad but I would have been impressed if the meat were moist. Eggs were just that, no molten yolk for anyone to fawn over. Fried chicken wings had the hardest batter out there. Not much flavour with that batter and the chicken just tasted chicken-y. I liked that they toasted their peanuts. Not a fan of their ikan bilis. Begedil was so so and was also cold. 

So what I could establish was that both Adam's and Selera Rasa make good "fat" rice and they were served with a bunch of pedestrian dishes which were nothing I would look forward to. The question of whether is No.1 actually No.1 or No.2 the No.1; or if No.1 is No.2 is one that I cannot answer.