Boon Keng New Taste (文庆新食代), Havelock Road

I've noticed this restaurant (719 Havelock Road, tel : +65 6966 6987) for a while before they opened up. Always had the idea that they were a local cze char (煮炒) kind of place because of their name. Turns out that they're serving Chinese food. As in Chinese food from China with some 东北-ish vibes and possibly Malaysian influences.

Never been much for fried rice in these kind of Chinese restaurants but the seafood fried rice here was good. Not gonna compare with that famous Taiwanese chain that people tend to. The flavour reminded me of Chinatown Fried Rice back in the day when they were still in People's Park Food Centre. Nice.

We had grilled skewers. Note to self : the memorable ones were the pig intestines, lamb ribs and pork belly. Tender and flavourful meaty bites with a healthy dash of cumin. The others weren't bad. They just weren't outstanding.

Here's their pork knuckle soup with not much meat in those knuckles. There were a bit of skin and some wobbly cartilage-ous parts but it wasn't much for eating. Soup reminded me of seolleongtang for some reasons.

Lots of soy beans in there.

We wanted more food so we topped up with chicken mid wings, crab sticks and toast. Those grilled mid wings were nice - meaty, salty and cumin-y just like how I like them.

The toast didn't look like much at all. I thought it was awesome because it was grilled with some butter and a moderated sprinkle of sugar. Pretty taken in by the texture of the bread which was a mix of some crisp parts and some moist (oily) ones. I'm gonna find it difficult not to order this again the next time.

One week later......

Ordered the bunch of stuff we liked from the skewers during the revisit. They were still good.

This was what turned up when we ordered yang zhou fried rice (扬州炒饭). The golden yellow was nothing like what we've ever seen with yang zhou fried rice before. The restaurant did confirm that turmeric was one of their ingredients when we asked. Like I said, nothing like what we've ever experienced with 扬州炒饭. No char siew or shrimp or even crab sticks. Was kinda tasty though.

Some Yunan styled claypot fish soup according to the menu. I'm not an expert on this but the soup didn't look/taste Yunan-ish or local. Plenty of slices of what might be the cheap dory/sutchi with black fungus, loads of bean sprouts, cucumber and carrot in a broth with sliced chilli for heat. 

I don't think these guys are great with soup.

Roberta's Pizza, Marina Bay Sands

Newly opened pizzeria hailing from Brooklyn that's taken over the space left by Pizzeria Mozza (#B1-45/46, The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands, 2 Bayfront Avenue).

Menu's pretty straight forward. It's mostly pizza with a small handful of salads.

The Cheesus Christ pie was not bad. Just cheese and pepper. We asked for some honey and it definitely extended the flavour by introducing sweetness to the savoury pepperiness.

On hindsight, we preferred the Spring Of Doom which included toppings like broccolini, some fennel-y pork sausage, garlic, chilli and lemon on top of the cheeses. This one had a more complex savouriness with more varied texture compared to the previous pie. 

Hock Prawn Mee (福蝦麵), Jalan Besar

Came across this 24hr prawn noodle stall (43 Jalan Besar) in the coffeeshop at the junction of Dickson Road and Jalan Besar. Yes, it's the same one that used to house the Hainanese chicken rice ball stall but they don't seem to be around anymore. Anyways, here's a dry bowl with prawns and pig intestines.

There was a lot more chilli saucing than I imagined and fortunately, their concoction was also delicious with a flavour which was intense. What made this more agreeable was that the noodles and a good bite to them. Soup was a little oily but definitely had a solid pre-requisite crustacean sweetness and a healthy dose of pepper. Noticed some bitterness coming from those intestines.

More food from ABC Food Corner

Let's admit it, these guys aren't good at everything they have on menu. This chicken hariyali briyani was one of them. For something that was flavoured with coriander, mint and yoghurt, it was just salty and smoky. The latter not in a way I might have enjoyed because it was burnt and if you could believe it, had parts that were almost leathery. A far cry from their chicken tikka briyani I had previously.

The mutton kothu prata was on the other hand pretty good though. The prata was chopped up into small bits and I liked that they didn't over do the onions. We specifically request for mutton keema so that we wouldn't get mutton chunks from their mutton masala but I think we ended up with the minced mutton they used for their murtabak anyway. They weren't very generous with them but it was enough that one could tell and ultimately, we kinda liked it.

Ordered their banana salt lassi out of curiosity. Not very salty or even yoghurt-y for a lassi. Flavour was a little thin. Won't be getting this again.

Sakunthala's Restaurant, Dunlop Street

I've heard about the pepper mutton from Sakunthala's Restaurant (151 Dunlop Street, te; : +65 6293 4431) being a signature dish but haven't tried it until today. This came as part of the pepper mutton meal which was served with vegetables and rice. Man this was good. Salty, spicy and rendang-esque with a sharp infusion of pepper. Great with both the rice and the papadam. 

Siti Rodiah Nasi Padang, Tekka Food Centre

Needed a quick lunch in the vicinity and thought I'd try something other than briyani. Pretty good nasi padang from Siti Rodiah Nasi Padang (#01-261 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). I went for some predictable options; paru goreng, sayur lodeh, sambal goreng with some serunding and sambal belacan on the side. A pretty failsafe combination of savoury, sweet and spiciness. There was actually something I didn't like about this. Those flimsy plastic utensils.