Myung Ga (맛집) III, Beauty World

We had lunch here (#04-04 Beauty World, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 6835 0877) today. Presumably, this is a sibling stall to Myung Ga II. Banchan's not memorable here. The only item worth getting refills was the kimchi. 

Tried their chadol sukju - thin sliced beef brisket stir fried with bean sprouts. Not good. The bean sprouts were fine but the beef was dry and a little tough with minimal flavour. Not worth half of what they were charging.

My first doganitang I think. It was unspectacular as there wasn't anything I could identify with the broth except pepper. Was much more drinkable after squeezing some lemon into it. There weren't much tendons in there unlike the picture in the menu. 

The godeungeo gui was nice. I liked that the grilled mackerel was firm yet tender on top of being flaky. The flavour of the meat was rich without being excessively fishy. Most impressive item we've had today.

Chère Claudine...

We made this reservation from the last visit with their chou farci in our crosshairs.

Great tangy aroma from the sourdough which was smelling fresh from the kitchen. Today's textures were more telling with the light chewy tenderness of the inside and a crunchy crisp from the crust. I had seconds with the Ibérico butter.

Had a glass of Trouble Brewing's Summer Ale to go with the bread while waiting for the orders. One of the nicer brews I've noticed for the weather with an faint underlying sweetness and pleasant hoppy finish. 

Pretty pricy Hokkaido uni pasta. There seemed to be a few things going on - kombu, smoked egg yolk and the herbs. Something else tangy in there which I couldn't put my finger to. Uni was nice and I also liked how the dill freshened the flavours. Portion was small.

Tried their sardine toast. I liked these from the smoky saltiness of the fish and I think that paired with some butteriness from the toast. Delicately countered with dill, onion and aioli that kept it from being monotonous.

Here be the chou farci.

The menu described a few things and the ingredient which I was surprised I couldn't quite detect were the prunes. I liked the burnt exterior of the cabbage which paired with the tender cooked portions inside. Nice foie gras and great bovine-y sauce/jus. The rest of the ingredients had a lot going on so it was a mixture of textures and flavours. If anyone was wondering, I liked it.

These are called pariteroles. Claudine's take on profiteroles with pecan pralines. I think they're nice. Texturally different from regular profiteroles probably from the crusty praline with a pleasant nutty flavour from the pecans. I know it's a kinda obvious description but that was what it was.

I remember that their coffee was decent but hadn't the fortitude I generally look for. Still was nice for a bitter brew after the dessert.

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.