A Noodle Story, Guoco Tower

A Noodle Story has a stall now at the basement of Guoco Tower (#B2-32 Guoco Tower, 1 Wallich Street). The Amoy Food Centre stall is still undergoing renovations I hear. I wanted to eat this again to see if my views of them had changed. This was the medium sized bowl - I don't remember what size it was that I had previously. The first thing that I missed was those fried prawns wound in potato strips. It was replaced with a regular battered prawn. 😢

The bowl is built for maximizing umami. The thing that had gotten to me a little was the sweetness in the sauce of the noodles that I wished wasn't there. But it's their sauce. Otherwise I think I'm understanding it a little better. Not much has changed - their noodle texture was still wiry as I liked them. Those delicious wantons in soup were packed with meat and shrimp - flavoured with sesame oil and I thought I detected a hint of ginger. Soup was also not bad tasting.

More mazesoba-ing at Menya Kokoro

Has been a while since we last ate at Menya Kokoro.

Don't bother with the curry croquette. It was sweet and tasted more like pumpkin than curry. The order came with two croquette but we only had one which was curry. The other was the regular croquette. Probably a mistake but we didn't really like it and it wasn't worth the feedback.

Triple cheese mazesoba was good. Pretty cheesy. I'd eat this again.

Truffle mazesoba had ramen for noodles. The truffle flavour came from truffle puree and with that expectation set, it's also not bad tasting. I liked how the sharpness from negi kept it from being monotonous.

Since we had leftover sauce from both bowls, we folded in the rice together. Truffle triple cheese rice! Umai! Gotta try it to know it.

Mee pok 白 from Ah Seng Teo Chew Minced Meat Noodle (亞誠潮州肉脞面)

This was a bowl of 白 mee pok with vinegar. I wanted to see if it's good with just the slice red chilli but those chilli weren't marinated in the light soy sauce like the last time. They were cut and stored separately so that's another different taste. Anyways, this wasn't as outstanding as the regular bowl with chilli sauce that I had previously so I'm gonna stick with that configuration in the future. Perhaps will try the mee kia next.

Viet9 Baguette, Toa Payoh Central

I was introduced to this bánh mì stall (#01-280, 183 Toa Payoh Central) recently. Looked promising.

Not much beyond bánh mì on the menu but that suited me fine because I was only interested the bánh mì.

Got their special which basically meant every meat they had to offer. Sans coriander/cilantro. I liked that they toasted the baguette after they assembled so that it was light, crisp and airy. Didn't look like much on the surface.

There's a bunch of meats/cold cuts hidden inside that's spiced up and packed some heat from their chilli sauce. Pretty damn tasty. I'm gonna come back again.

More pasta and pizza from Zazz Pizza

We're back at Zazz Pizza.

That's their grilled Brie with prosciutto. I felt compelled to order it for some reason but it's probably because of the Brie and prosciutto. It looked generic as a starter but there was more to it than meets the eye.

There's pear. Not in skinny slivers or thin slices mind you. Each roll of the prosciutto had a meaty slice of the grilled fruit which were warm and roast-y. Great flavour pairing with the cheese and ham. Oh, there's house made fig jam and balsamic glaze too.

Fettuccine bolognese was nicely done. I liked that the meaty ragu wasn't too tart from the tomato and had a solid savoury base for flavour. Texture of the pasta had a nice bite.

We had their meat lover pizza today. Not bad but also not as memorable as the previous ones we had. Not complaining here.

Affogato to finish.

Unagi Tei - formerly known as Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant

Yes they are that unagi shop known as Man Man which has been rebranded into Unagi Tei because according to them, they also bring in nodoguro now other than just unagi. I don't understand why but it is what it is. We've eaten at their other outlets at Duo Galleria and Clarke Quay over the years so here's a jump pad to their unagi-verse. (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七)

But first a Suntory kuro.

Man Man had gotten progressively less appealing throughout the years. They used to be more impressive at their start when there was just the regular unagi don and later the hitsumabushi. When the combo hitsumabishi came into the picture, the value of those bowls I felt dropped considerably because it no longer represented good value.

I get suckered in once in a while with those combo hitsumabushi bowls. The only one that I have thought worth the trip was probably the bowl with hotaru ika. I got suckered in this time by the one with kinmedai. The fish didn't have the flavour or texture as what I was expecting. It didn't taste bad. It just didn't give me that kinmedai experience.

This kimo don was probably one of those that was still satisfying because it was to the point. Just grilled kabayaki and eel liver in the sweet glaze with tamago.