La Porpo, Jalan Besar

I read about La Porpo (29/31 Jalan Besar) some time ago. Said to be endorsed by a local chef of a restaurant named after the edible flower buds of a type of thistle. I was curious and ordered their sambal geprek - basically ayam geprek slather with both their sambal merah and sambal ijo which featured respectably tender fried chicken on a plate with green pandan rice, some fried triangles of tofu and crispy bits of stuff.

I liked it. The heat was perspiration inducing yet got me spooning mouthful after mouthful. Now I'm curious about their nasi kerabu.

&Joy-ing more ramen & pizza

It's been a while since we've gotten food at &Joy. I've always wanted to try the cheese-less tomato broth ramen from Ramen Kiou and now that I'm ready, it's no longer on the menu. That had always been on the menu for the longest time and I never expected that it would get "rotated out".

Anyways there was a green chilli tonkotsu bowl. Didn't see this coming and it was actually kinda good. The heat from the sliced green chilli seeped into the broth after a while and also added spikes of heat. That green chilli sauce at the corner contributed more flavour than heat. All in all, I enjoyed it.

The snow crab ramen sounded like it might be good. It was...unsettling and disjointed. The tonkotsu broth had obviously been flavoured with a crustacean flavour which in no way paired well with those paltry minced crab meat. Not to mention those small candied crabs they threw in. Those were awkward and added sweetness to the broth. Not in a way I liked. Didn't understand how the strips of carrots made this bowl any better.

In other news, there was a seasonal shirasu & sakura ebi pizza at Pittarino. Nice garlicky and umami flavours on this one. 👍🏼

More McRambles

That's the original Angus cheeseburger from McD. Got that sans ketchup. It's actually kinda nice - at almost double the price of their double cheeseburger. Pretty sure McD would get a lot more respect if the regular cheeseburger tasted like this. I liked how the slight sweetness from brioche-y bun worked with the rest of the ingredients in the sandwich.

Years ago they used to have a matcha latte with espresso at McCafe. It only remained on the menu for a while before they took it off and subsequently, I continued to get the drink by just ordering a regular matcha latte with additional couple of shots of espresso. Same drink. 

Today, a McCafe lady told me that I would have to order it through the kiosk and only when we confronted her about the lack of options in the kiosk that she admitted that she also didn't know how to process the order. Now why would she have attempted that feeble misdirection? We were subsequently directed to another staff who told us that such an order was not possible. She lied. McDonald's must have taught her to lie. Because another someone else that looked like she was in charge came by to help us process this.

Supreme Prawn Noodle from Hock Prawn Mee (福蝦麵)

That's the name of this configuration from Hock Prawn Mee which included the works - prawns, pork ribs, intestines, pig's skin, sliced pork and pig's tail. It's a $10 bowl. The noodles were different today in way that they didn't have the same texture as the previous time. They were noticeably softer which in my opinion was not a good thing. So we have inconsistency. Not much complains about the rest of the ingredients except for the prawns which I've just noticed were not de-veined.

Ah Ma Chi Mian (阿嬤吃麵), Plaza Singapura

I got wind of this brand which was supposedly a "heritage brand inspired by the founder’s grandmother" a while ago. They've a few branches around so as with such branding, there's always a caveat lector behind it. Had never gotten a chance to try their noodles until today at the Kopitiam food court at Plaza Singapura (#06-15/16/17/18/1920 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road). The guy that was preparing my bowl looked like he wasn't sure around the kitchen. Hmmmm......

I got the bowl with meatballs. Meatballs were nice. Nice dried sole flavour that added loads of umami. Soup was also pretty good with the flavour coming off the fatty bits of minced pork inside. I'm gonna say that the noodles were okay - not exactly impressive like how I had in mind based on what I've heard about them. I think there was some sweetness in the chilli that bugged me. Wouldn't mind eating this again but I wouldn't go out of the way for it. 

WOW Bistro (威旺美食酒馆), Bencooolen Street

Read about WOW Bistro (#01-02/03, 47 Bencoonlen Street, tel : +65 9654 7947) and got curious because of some of their featured dishes. They're located at the side of the lobby of Hotel Bencoolen. We tried a walk in one Saturday and were turned away because they were filled up. So we made reservations for the next one and it was mostly empty when we were there. Hmmm......

Kwirk Belgian White on tap for $11. Pretty good deal in town. Note to self : can come for beer.

We ordered radish cake. Black one. I expected it to come with cheese but it didn't. Instead there was a lot of coriander on it. Who the hell puts coriander on radish cake? Anyways the wait staff tried to explain that only the white radish cake had cheese.

Really? I wouldn't have known. No one told us. 

The black radish cake was actually pretty good. House made fried onions, a hae bee infused sambal, loads of egg and not excessively greasy. I wouldn't mind coming here for these.

The dish I was curious about was their durian curry fish. I know right? Durian curry sounds kinda out there. But it was also kinda good with a lot of richness, some heat and spices. First in the world they said. I detected curry leaves, laksa leaves, black peppercorn and chilli padi in the creamy durian infused curry. The portions were huge.

While it tasted unusual, I thought it kinda worked. There was sufficient flavour from durian and we even found a couple of seeds of those D24 that they used. Which was awesome while the dish was still hot. 

The pan fried sea bass felt left sidelined even though it was a huge piece. Not bad tasting but my mind was still trying to reconcile the savoury fish with the sweet-ish spicy durian curry.

The other dish that got my attention was their lamb kut teh. Basically lamb rendition of bak kut teh which was something I had over a few occasions in the past wondered if they existed. Now I know it does. There's a rich herbal broth infused with lamb flavour and a herb infused rack of lamb. That fork tender rack of lamb had at some point been on some grill because we could taste the caramelized parts which were delicious.

I prefer the broth to be more savoury rather than the dominant herbal sweetness that this had.

The dish had a couple of cloves of garlic on the side which were....melt in your mouth? These definitely qualified that description. To think of it, they were already borderline melting before they were in our mouths.