Oriental Desserts (东方糖水), Temple Street

Came across this stall (59 Temple Street) which was literally a stone's toss away and yet under the shadow of the always popular Mei Heong Yuen. In retrospect, I kinda understood why these guys are under the shadow.

We were intrigued by some of the stuff they were serving. One of them was their steamed egg with liquor. Said liquor tasted like cheap Chivas Regal which overwhelmed the flavour from the steamed egg. To be precise, the steamed egg wasn't even as eggy as I expected in the first place. So here's a novelty crossed off the list.

Their black sesame paste wasn't of the same league as the ones from Mei Heong Yuen for sure. These were just not as fragrant.

That's almond tea with peach gum, red date and white fungus. Not bad tasting but I don't think we're gonna be heading back just for this now that we know their standards in general. Pretty sure we can find better dessert shops in the Chinatown vicinity.

Rasapura Masters, Marina Bay Sands

I've been curious about Rasapura Masters (B2-50 Marina Bay Sands, 2 Bayfront Avenue) for a long time but the queue and crowd had always been a deterrent. From appearances, I had thought that they might have been another branding by BreadTalk but they're not. The name behind them is actually Koufu. Must be their most impressive branding. Anyways, we got something from their herbal soup stall. 

There's pig's stomach, fish maw and some chicken in it. Meats were all tender and the flavour of the soup was not bad. Similar tasting as 鱼鳔猪肚鸡 at Chinatown Food Centre. They're nice but I'm pretty sure there're also better tasting soup stalls around.

Ordered this bowl because they're apparently by Li Xin and I've never had a 月光 mee pok before. Also couldn't reconcile how The Folks' Favourite translated into 月光宝盒. 😅

Not bad at all. Crispy pork lard with half boiled egg and cut chillis marinated in light soya sauce - this bowl was set up not to fail. Pretty good noodle texture there and the minced pork was tender.

Kopi di lo was pretty decent so there's decent cheaper kopi to be had in this place other than ToastBox. 

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.