Mixed grill from Tsui Wah (翠華)

I kinda got what I expected from this mixed grill from Tsui Wah. Cheap tasty hot dog, a small strip of bacon, some lean bone in pork chop and a marinated beef "steak" which tasted like meat but not exactly identifiable as beef or what I would call steak. What I was pleasantly surprised with was the chicken. Nicely browned skin and thick tender meat. I'm gonna get the chicken the next time I feel like hot plate western food here.

Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee, Clarke Quay Central

We've heard of this restaurant (#02-72/75/77 Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, tel : +65 6339 7508) for a long time. Really long time. Have seen it numerous times when we're in the vicinity but it had never occured to us to eat here until recently.

I don't think there is a finger to be put on the labelling of the food here. One could see influences of Malay, Chinese and Peranakan in the dishes which kinda makes it pretty local. While they're serving nasi padang, they're not exactly Padang styled. But let's not get technical.

The menu's up front so you know what you're getting and at how much. Assuming that one already is familiar with what they were serving. We ordered quite a bit and ended up close to a post lunch stupor. You know, curries and rice tends to do that.

That's their mutton rendang. Not bad. Some parts of the meat were tender and some less so. Altogether pretty well done with the nutty mutton-y gravy which went so well with rice.

Hard boiled eggs with sambal. Always good for me.

These were my second curry fish ball experience. The first time was in Hong Kong and I never liked those there because of the gummy texture. These ones were pretty regular fishball textured. Gravy had a bit of heat and if your palate hasn't been confused or overwhelmed yet, the flavour of the fishball can be detected in them.

Chicken rendang also pretty good. It's another dish with great gravy to go with rice.

Sayur lodeh I think. Or maybe just sayur. Or curry vegetable. I ordered by pointing. I'm not sure what they call it but it's vegetables (mostly cabbage) in a thin coconut gravy. Still savoury and lemak but I generally prefer the gravy thicker and the vegetables less crunchy. 

They have chicken begedil. Basically larger than usual begedil with minced chicken in the potatoes. Peppery and not bad methinks. The flavour's different from the regular Malay renditions of the dish but not different enough to be unrecognizeable as good old begedil.

More curry for the rice. 

And a refreshing lemon or lime infused cucumber salad as a counter to all the rich gravies.

All these dishes were made to be paired with steamed rice.

Chendol's okay. While we wouldn't slap a mediocre label on it, there's better. Out there. What I couldn't understand was why they had to serve this in a glass like this, fill it to the brim and make it so difficult to stir.

Coffee's no good here. For Hainanese styled coffee, one can get better at The Ship. Or even Han's. Note to self : go at 12-12.30pm the next time for the other items that aren't ready at the opening hour.

Tokyo Sundubu, Raffles City

I gathered that Tokyo Sundubu (#B1-16 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6252 2425) is Japanese Korean. Meaning that they're a Japanese chain doing sundubu jjigae which is Korean. They have a number of toppings for their soft tofu stew here. We ordered the one with oysters and another with mentaiko cheese. They were both pretty good.

I liked that the pot with the oyster had oyster flavour infused in the spicy broth. There were like five oysters in there, pretty fat ones and also had a pretty hefty price tag for the bowl. Between that and the other, I liked the mentaiko cheese better because of how much more savoury it was. 

There's namuru on the side - a vegetable side dish. Made an almost passable bibimbap with the bowl of rice. Almost. They also gave a pittance of gochujang when I asked for some so the better way is to dump the vegetables and rice into the jjigae when you're ready and eat.

More food from Xi'an Famous Food (西安名吃)

We're back at Xi'an Famous Food (西安名吃). I ordered their pao mo thinking that I'd be getting 羊肉泡馍. It was indeed a 泡馍 but not specifically the 羊肉 rendition because the menu indicated one could choose between beef or lamb. So what they were serving was a generic 泡馍 where the broth didn't have any distinct flavour from the meat that was in it. Didn't taste bad but I'm probably not getting it again. The pickled garlic and fermented bean chilli on the side were awesome though.

This was their carb-y Xinjiang chicken noodle (大盘鸡拌面) - possibly spun off from the 新疆大盘鸡 dish with the same flat noodles as their biang biang mian. With potatoes, chicken and what I thought was a more moreish sauce than their biang biang mian. The potatoes and chicken were fried before they were stewed in that mildly spicy sauce. I could see myself coming back for this again.

A Suju lunch before the lunar new year

(一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五)

Our peaceful lunch at Suju before this Chinese New Year. The restaurant was opened till 3.30pm on the CNY's eve. So there's a head's up on where else one could eat out on that particular holiday's eve.

Got a couple of their ooebi tempura.

Sake harasu was a special on their lunch menu. Don't recall ever seeing them on their menu before. The fat laced belly meat nicely done without being excessively sweet with the teriyaki glaze. Now that I'm thinking of it again, was that miso or teriyaki...

Their Iberico pork misozuke was on the lunch special as well - this dish as I recall is normally available during dinner only.

Did not get the nama tamago today. Next time.

Kotobuki, One Raffles Place

These guys are just next door to Healthy Soba IKI. We've seen them for a while and well, we're here. Getting to the point, I thought this place is overpriced and wouldn't recommend it. That deluxe bakumori don up there didn't feel very deluxe for $40. It was small. Didn't have the minced toro the menu mentioned. The yellowtail (buri or hamachi I don't know) was omitted and they quietly replaced with mekajiki. Uni was so so. Kinda mediocre there without quantity nor quality.

Their aburi sake bakumori don was not bad. For some cubed salmon and mentai mayo over rice, $28 was expensive. To add on, the rice from both bakumori dons were stiff and dry. I get the feeling that these guys simply didn't give a flying f......

Unagi shirayaki was no good. The eel was dry-ish and burnt. While some may think it unfair to compare with shops like say Man Man, I'm pretty sure one can find better than this place. Will not be back.