Chocolate banana cake from Secret Recipe

I remember having this from Secret Recipe years ago. Remembered not disliking it but it's been easily way over a decade since. Got a slice of it recently and...not superb in any sense of the word but it's also not bad tasting. I didn't dislike it. 😬

Revisiting Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken (香江豉油鸡) and the conclusion is......

I've been doing a bit of sui gao comparisons against Xiang Jiang and Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice because these were a cut above most of what one can get out there. I wanted to decide which was the one I preferred more. So this was the one more visit to Xiang Jiang because it's been a while and in that while, I've been eating at Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice a few times. 

The sui gao is impressively sized. 90 cents here versus $1.20 from Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice. Loaded with minced pork, shrimp, black fungus and diced water chestnut. I remember ranking this one a bit higher previously because of the water chestnuts. I got regular egg noodles today. 

The texture seemed a bit loose with the minced stuffings from today - definitely not as packed as the other sui gao. I'd say they're still very good but I think I prefer the firmer stuffings from Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice. Not dissing this one at all and I'll be happy to eat them when I'm in the vicinity.

The tender herbal-ish soya sauce chicken is delicious. Back to topic, I have decided that the stall at Beauty World won this round for the dumplings.

More fishball noodles and chicken rice from Malaysia Chiak

Pretty sure that the chilli sauce that they used was different somehow from the one I had the last time. This bowl didn't taste as good as then because I'm not feeling that nostalgia from the flavour. Not a deal breaker but...

In other news, I found out that the chicken rice stall has an option without the bean sprouts. I happened to get the ji wei (鸡尾) by chance without specifying because it was the remaining section of the last chicken they had.

Fermented Hokkaido butter soft serve with financier from Chateraise Premium Yatsudoki

Chateraise Premium Yatsudoki (#01-05 Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6980 7120) took over the spot that Hattendo used to be at. From what I gathered, they're a premium offshoot bakery by Chateraise which looks to be more pricey than Chateraise. They have a bunch of pastries/pies which I've been curious about. One of which, the apple pie is available at the regular Chateraise - I tried that and it wasn't impressive at all. Just wondering if it will be any different here.

Anyway, here's a look at their fermented Hokkaido butter soft serve - impressively smooth and creamy. Yes, having one with the financier is nicer than without if you asked me.

Back at Kim Dae Mun

It's been years since we last ate at Kim Dae Mun (100 Orchard Rd, #01-03D Concorde Shopping Mall). The location looked different from what I remembered of the eatery.

We ordered their kimchi jjigae. I liked the invigorating sour imparted from the aged kimchi they used for their broth. Even their cucumber banchan on the side was pretty sour.

And we also had their steamed saba. I know, what's steamed saba - never heard of such a dish, not in Korean food here anyways right? Maybe it's boiled saba or stewed saba. I cannot be certain. It's nice though. Chunky sections of the boned in fish in a fish flavoured spicy broth that came with a whole potato. I liked this. The red bean rice on the side which they called brown rice tasted similar to pulut hitam. Better on its own than with soup/sauce.

Passable potato-y jeon with garlic chives. Did not taste bad but don't expect the standards from restaurants.

I like Calpis better than Milkis.

Ji Ji Noodle House (基記麵家), Hong Lim Food Centre

I've only taken notice of this stall (#02-48/49 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) recently. They're located along the interior facing units just to the left of Lee Kheong Roasted Delicacy (李强烧臘) or three units to the right of Eddy's (艾迪1号). The thing that most people seem to be eating from them are their wanton noodle. Which I didn't get because the curry chicken cutlet noodle looked/sounded more appealing.

Those things on the top right are not tissue paper - I added boiled wanton. I like this bowl. Curry was comparable to the one from Cantonese Delights so it's creamy and deliciously savoury with a mild heat. Kind hard to tell which stall has the better curry noodle at this point but I definitely preferred getting these two compared to the soup-y poached chicken ones from Heng Kee and Ah Heng.

A pleasant surprise was the couple of stalks of non-fibrous kailan - what a gem! If it wasn't so visible from the picture, portions of the chicken chop were pretty generous and it even came with crispy chicken skin. I guess what also ultimately help tip the scales for me was the noodles that weren't soggy.

They have a machine for payment which dispenses change. Not something one normally sees in hawker food stalls.