Braised pig's trotters and intestines from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh (豐香肉骨茶)

Not bad tasting pig's trotters from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh. The meat might not have been those super tender renditions like a melting khao kha moo that got scraped off the bone or those from Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh, but it also wasn't hard so I easily finished it. What I found impressive though was the dark soya sauce it was braised in that was packed with flavour. It had a deep intensity which tasted like what my mother's mother used to make.

We tried the fried intestines the last time so got the braised ones today. The braising sauce which was good with the rice (not as good as the dark soya sauce from the trotters though! 😬) had a offal-y flavour - which was not necessarily a bad thing.

I also noticed that these guys used short grained rice.

 

Tiann's (甜), Seng Poh Road

The Chinese character for Tiann's (#01-35, 71 Seng Poh Road, tel : +65 6222 1369) is 甜 which means sweet. These guys are one of those gluten free and sugar conscious shops. I'm ambivalent towards gluten free but I think better in general of a place that avoids refined sugar. Not that I'm totally against refined sugar but....it's not a conversation I want to have. 

Tried a slice of their banana bread. Kinda dense, dry-ish but not hard. I was hoping for more banana flavour. The butter saved it. 😬

Thought their tea cakes looked good so we got a slice of their orange marmalade to see if they tasted like how they looked. Not bad. Moist, dense and had a good flavour of oranges from the bits of peel in the cake. 

Simply Bread, Guthrie House

Haven't eaten at Simply Bread since they were at Robertson Quay. This was breakfast at their shop at Guthrie House (#01-03 Guthrie House, 1 Fifth Avenue, tel : +65 6466 7767). Munched on their orange fantan, which was some sort pastry flavoured with orange zest, while waiting for the food. Apparently the sticky buns weren't available that early.

Halloumi sandwich was not bad. Milky and deliciously salty cheese in between their ciabatta cut through with purple onions and sliced tomatoes. 

Their breakfast plate of yore is still around. Would have been great if there were more eggs than those portions.

Ikkousha's God Fire Level 4

My way of the hot and spicy meanders into Hakata Ikkousha Ramen. I haven't thought much of their tonkotsu bowls since their days at Ramen Champion. There are better players these days in my opinion. But I've had their God Fire bowl years back. Since I've this spicy thing going on lately, I thought I'd revisit that bowl. Sweating in the warm haze already?

I didn't remember the bowl having different levels of spiciness in the past but there apparently is - 4 levels of them. This was the Level 4 bowl with extra hard noodles, extra charshu and ajitama. Savoury and pretty spicy but manageably so by my standards. I had thought that this would do me in but I guess the heat wasn't as intimidating. I may have found a reason to come back to Ikkousha after all.

Spicies at SBCD Korean Tofu House

It's been a while since our last eat at SBCD Korean Tofu House. Looking back, there was some sort of love/hate relationship we had going on with this place because there were times the food was agreeable and in others, they were disappointing. Today seemed to be one of those good ones. It was our first time with their combo meals which featured a sundubu and a main meat dish.

That's me and the mandu sundubu at Crazy Hot spicy. Notice the glossy and almost electrifying red bubbling in the pot. The fourth chilli. 

It was spicy but nothing near crazy in my opinion. I liked it.

There were at least a couple of mandu, bits of pork and a lot more tofu than I remember having ever gotten from here before. Also noticed some some chilli padi. Thoroughly enjoyed this spicy savoury stew.

One of the meat dishes we picked was their spicy BBQ pork. It looked like a pork bulgogi but there was some smokiness that indicated that the meat had been grilled. Tasted better and also a lot less spicy than the look suggested.

The other meat we got from their combo was their spicy octopus. In spite of the spicy appearances, it was mostly nutty and sweet. Almost reminiscent of satay gravy which are in general more nutty and sweet than spicy. The hot plate toasted vegetables were also much nicer eating with the sauce than I had imagined.

Employees Only, Amoy Street

I've been wanting to come to Employees Only (112 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6221 7357) even before getting their smash burgers on delivery a couple of years back.

Drinks are expensive here. No cocktails for me.

Did not expect them to serve bread and steaming hot ones at that. 

Maguro kueh pie tee was not bad. Couldn't tell what the tuna was marinated with but this was a delicious mouthful of great munching texture with the crispy pie tee shells.

There's steak tartare on the menu. The tartare was mixed table side - but it wasn't as elaborate/complete as the ones from say L'Angelus or Claudine or db Bistro...hahaha. Of course it wasn't. The only condiment that was added table side were the Worcestershire and hot sauce. Not a bad tasting one but also not memorable.

Their spicy smothered shrimp was disappointing. Not even a quarter as spicy as it looked or sounded. Not getting the Sriracha that was supposed to be in it was well. Those shrimps had a battered skin which reminded me of wasabi prawns from Chinese restaurants. If you removed them from their batter/skin, those shrimps were actually pretty puny. #disappointment

I had to get the smash burger again. It was the primary objective of this visit. This was so good.

I've already said all I wanted to about the EO Smash Burger the last time and almost nothing has changed. This burger was still awesome. What was different this time were the buns which weren't squashed or soggy from delivery. They were pillowy tender - somewhat akin to the steamed buns for McD's Filet O Fish. Probably a bit fluffier. This smash burger alone was worth the trip.