Làng Nướng Việt Nam (Lang Nuong Vietnam), Foch Road

Heard about Làng Nướng Việt Nam just off Jalan Besar (18 Foch Road, tel : +65 9632 6039) a while back so I was intrigued. We tried some stuff that weren't so commonly found in most of the Vietnamese restaurants here.

Dồi sụn chiên giòn - described as crispy fried hog's pudding on the menu. I dug around and learnt that it was some sort of cartilage sausage that might be made with various pig parts.The serving lady appeared concerned that we were trying to order it. The sausage was deep fried in a crisp casing with a filling texture that was pretty gristly. Every bite was filled with crunch from the bits of chopped up cartilage. I was getting star anise, black pepper and a bunch of other spices which I knew was in there but couldn't put a finger to.

This was described as sautéed squid teeth with butter and baguette. It's actually squid beak - the area which their teeth is located. These needed a lot of jaw work. Much more chewy than those I had previously. The 'butter' was a rich creamy sauce flavoured with coconut...and butter with some spiciness. What surprised us was that there were bits of fried pork lard in it too. Hell yeah it was good. Almost mopped the plate clean.  

I ordered stir fried phở with beef and had imagined that it would look similar to Penang char kuey teow. But instead, those rice noodles were pressed into cakes, seared and sliced into pie shaped wedges. Lots of vegetable in there with the beef and also gravy. Tasted very much like a local hor fun with less salt.

Teochew Fish Porridge Da Pai Dang (潮州鱼粥大排档), Toa Payoh Central

Here's a bowl of twin fish (双鱼) soup with fish roe from Teochew Fish Porridge Da Pai Dang (#01-316, 183 Toa Payoh Central). This one had milk. Yes, this guys are just next door to Great Wall Chicken Rice. Couldn't be closer to each other. I remember seeing another stall at Seah Imm that looked similar so I'm wondering if they are different branches of the same stall.

I liked it. Pretty flavourful broth that came with thick slices of batang. Surprisingly, I kinda like the bits of fried egg floss they added in there. Will come back another time.

Claudine, Dempsey Hill

Chef Julien Royer of the 3 Michelin starred Odette opens Claudine (39C Harding Road, tel : +65 6265 2966) and the world (maybe just this tiny part of the world) gravitates. What began as the journey for reservation started sometime middle of last November ended today. The wait was finally over. 

This spot is at the restored Ebenezer Chapel - or where many locals would remember as the church where White Rabbit used to be. Somewhere across the road from Atout.

It's a pretty place. You know - stained glass windows, dried flowers along the walls, nice tilings and all through abundant natural light. Lots of people taking photos like tourists.

They serve pretty good sourdough. The warm bread exuded a mild tanginess to the nose coupled with a light grainy smokiness along the crust. Crusty and tender in each slice. Reminded me of the bread at Belon. What further impressed was their Ibérico butter on the side - whipped into airiness, also lightly smoky, gently salted and very savoury. No one would be blamed for asking for seconds.

Got a couple of plates from their Prelude. Like this croquette of Saint Nectaire cheese with a dollop of vin jaune gel. Summary of the flavours could be a pungent creaminess from the cheese pairing with the fruity sweetness from the yellow wine in the gel.

That's their nougat de foie gras - a foie gras terrine studded with nuts and dried fruits. Though the menu mentioned just almond, cranberry and apricot, there was also pistachio and what I thought might be peanuts as well. Salt and pepper provided a finish which fused with the savoury sweetness of the creamy liver terrine.

Believe it or not, that nougat de foie gras was even more enjoyable generously slathered across some of their airy buttery brioche.

What have we here? Salade et frites.

Steak tartare à la Parisienne is done à la minute - completed table-side with Argentinian grass fed beef.

This was our third table-side steak tartare. The previous ones were from db Bistro and L'Angelus.

Not bad. No waxing lyrical here.

The dish I was looking forward to most in this visit was their vol-au-vent. Reason being that the fillings included morel, sweetbread and cockscomb. There's chicken quenelle in it as well. All held together in the buttery pastry with their superb morel cream sauce. Costed a pretty penny but it was so good. I wished there was more sweetbread.

Dessert was a baked Alaska.

Claudine's had chestnut, pear and ginger; flavoured with Poire Williams. Tasted okay. We ordered it because we were intrigued by the combination of ingredients.

Coffee's decent but not so strong. Was looking forward to something with a bit more kick after the rich meal.

Even more pasta and pizza from Zazz Pizza

Back at Zazz Pizza much faster than I thought we would. We were offered a couple of shots of grappa on the house at the end of the meal. I wonder if they remembered our faces. 😱

Pleasantly surprised by their pomodoro sauce for their meatballs. There's cheese and garlic flavour in it that mellowed the sour from the tomatoes. Meatballs also had a molten cheesy centre. The meat was marinated for flavour and while it wasn't bad, I'm usually more of a more is less kind of person when it comes to beef.

Pretty good seafood linguine aglio olio there. I'm getting a bit of garlic and something that might have been a savoury seafood stock - I cannot be sure. But we liked it enough to lament that there wasn't enough noodles. Prawns were sweet and mussels were plump. I think the point has been made.

I've been wanting to try their Parma pizza because of those pomegranates that they sprinkled on top. Added some tanginess in that which doesn't happen in most Parma ham pizzas. The crust was exceptional today. I liked how chewy it was beneath the crusty surface. Pizza where I'd gladly finish the cornicione. That's why we keep coming back for their pizzas. 

Chocolate sorbet to finish (and affogato too!). The texture was just a little bit creamy and didn't feel so sorbet to me though. 

Xi'an Famous Food (西安名吃), Toa Payoh Central

Not to be confused with Xi'an Famous Foods. This one (#01-518, 190 Toa Payoh Lorong 6, tel : +65 8693 8921) is singular. 😂 We've known of their existence for a while and I have been wanting to give them a try since.

We had pumpkin millet porridge. Gruel-like consistency with a light pumpkin and grain sweetness. Not bad if you're looking for something less intensely flavoured or if one is under the weather.

One of the things I wanted to try from them was their rou jia mo (肉夹馍). This one was stuffed with pork stir fried with cumin and onions. The bun had a dense and dry 包 like texture similar to those from Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights (黄土地西安小吃) and the defunct Xun Qin Ji (寻秦记) than the pastry types at Qin Ji Rougamo (秦記肉夹馍). Loved the cumin-y meaty bite in the strips of pork. I'd eat this again.

The other dish I was curious about was their biang biang mian. The flat noodles looked like they were made from one single long strip. Noodle texture was a little chewy.

The tomato sauce made it tangy and the chilli didn't add much heat. Not even after I put in a couple more spoons of them but those had a nice nutty aroma. Wouldn't mind eating this again but I'll be looking forward to try something else first the next time.

Revisiting Old House (老屋)

It's been like half a decade since we've last/first visited Old House. We've always wanted to come back for another bowl of their white lor mee but look at what we ended up with now that we are. 煮炒. The vibe of the restaurant seemed to be different from what we remembered as well.

Ordered coffee. Drinkable stuff if you want local coffee here.

Their stir fried eggs and garlic chives were nice. I meant it was one of those 'I could eat just this with steamed rice' kind of nice.

Don't really know what's the proper name for this dish but their menu calls it creamy pork chop. Or 奶香豬扒 if you're reading it in Chinese. It's not creamy and I think milk powder might have been used. Kinda like the buttery pork ribs that a lot of people tend to order at a particular stall run by two chefs. Haha. This one was not bad tasting.

There's charcoal tofu in oyster sauce - black on the outside, grey on the inside. Menu mentions that the tofu is made in house. Not a bad tofu dish.

We were surprised to see truffle roast duck on the menu like what a number of the atas Chinese restaurants are doing in recent years. This one was just a little bit truffle-y. Meat was relatively tender and the roast was pretty decent considering that these guys aren't roast specialists. It's one of those dishes which was mai hiam buay pai.

Those sweet curried crumbles from the pork chops above were pretty damn addictive with rice. Gotta have rice with all these dishes.