Lontong Sedap, Tanglin Halt Food Centre

Noticed another lontong stall (#01-38 Tanglin Halt Food Centre, 3A Commonwealth Drive) so we gave Queenstown Lontong a pass this time round to give them a try. Aside from the begedil (which I added on), I didn't detect so much difference in the lontong between the two stalls Both were equally delicious in their savoury sweetness from the gravy and had pretty standard ingredients. I topped my bowl with paru if you hadn't noticed that.

Revisiting Ka-Soh at Outram

This visit to Ka-Soh was triggered by their pork lard fried rice. Supposedly an outlet exclusive dish by them.

But we had to have an order of their san lau her fen/sum lou hor fun (三捞河粉). Pretty decent rendition of this dish they do with some scorched smokiness on the rice noodles.

The pork lard fried rice came with deep fried pork belly which I didn't expect. Those deep fried strips of pork belly were crispy and tasty as one can imagine but the lard was oddly lacking in flavour while fried rice was a disappointment. For whatever reasons, it ended up being excessively greasy and the flavour from the rice was bland-ish + forgettable. What a combo for a dish from a supposed institution eh? It happens.

Kang kong stir fried with shrimp paste was not bad tasting though. Would have been nice if it were a little less oily.

Never knew that Ka-Soh has deep fried orh nee on the menu. You heard that right - it's orh nee and not regular yam or mashed yam. These were drizzled sparingly with something that might have been honey but I couldn't tell. Not bad tasting and I would give them higher scores if they could just make the fried skins thinner and lighter. But they won't because these stubborn old institutions never change the way they do things thinking that they've done it right because they've survived this long. Not gonna argue with that.

16 minutes at Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

I was here at Tai Hwa a little earlier than the regular lunch time. Quarter to noon perhaps and was quite surprised that there wasn't a crazy queue going on. The queue was 16 minutes which could have been about the same duration or slightly faster than the days before they had gotten their Michelin star.

The bowl felt lacklustre. The vinegar was there but their vinegary punch was missing. The noodles were also softer that what I remember. Which is kinda disappointing because the firm textures and that punchy sharpness was what I was anticipating. So I guess my fall back option is probably just as good since it's also a much more convenient location for me.

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.