Remnants of mycelium routers on a scorched civilization of bacteria and more scrumptiocity at Zazz Pizza

This was another satisfying meal at Zazz Pizza. One shielded from the blistering heat of this recent super hot weather. This was our 4th visit at this Cross Street Exchange restaurant.

So, the calamari. I'm normally not big on them because they're usually....well, calamari. They're everywhere. Often relegated into menus as an afterthought amongst appetizers because they're for some reasons obligatory or maybe simply because they're popular and they sell. Many are terrible. Zazz's has a dry crunchy batter without excess grease - which was a good thing if you're wondering.

Mixed mushroom pizza this time - this one had a lot of mushrooms. Chanterelles, portobello, porcini mushrooms and even wood ear fungus. Perfumed with thyme and truffle cream and then richened with pecorino cheese. We added ham for good measure. 

There's a pappardelle (made in house) with braised veal cheek. Steaming hot and delicious. Those cheeks were fall apart tender in a richly flavoured meaty sauce with mushrooms. Pasta was superb. This was as good as if not better than their braised lamb fettuccine.

The affogato felt like a good way to end this.

Chui Xiang Kitchen (醉香小厨), Casuarina Road

Not bad cze char food at Chui Xiang Kitchen (126 Casuarina Road, tel  : +65 6458 4567).

That's a braised chicken and chestnuts wrapped in cabbage in a claypot dish - a signature of Chui Xiang Kitchen. Great flavours from the savoury braising sauce which has infused the contents of the claypot and subtle sweetness from the cabbage and goji berries. Chicken was slurp off the bone tender. One should preferably do this dish with rice on the side.

Omelette with chai por was competently fried but I didn't taste much chai por in it.

We had stir fried kailan with garlic for enjoyable obligatory fibres in the meal.

There's a stir fried bee hoon with seafood which was also a signature dish of theirs. Nicely done with a wok hei along with browned caramelized edges and a solid stock flavour that was infused in the noodles. 

Sweet and sour pork was okay.

Haven't had these crispy baby squids for ages. These were smoky, sweet and...crispy as the name implied. Nicely done as well.

Couldn't pass on trying their stir fried French beans with minced pork. Saltiness coming from said minced pork which also added to the texture of the crunchy beans were great pairing with steamed rice.

This steamed rice.

My last bowl from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke......

Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke is ceasing business in a few days so we came by for our last taste of their delicious duck broth before it's all over. I'm going to miss it when it's gone. We were told that they weren't able to import ducks in anymore for some reasons so that ends that. And I thought we only had fresh chicken problems...

Nasi lemak with plant based chicken from Ikea

It has been quite a while since I last had nasi lemak from Ikea. Prices appeared to have gone up with this plate that included plant based chicken at $5.50. What's plant based chicken? I'm not sure. But they go with the generic claims to make healthy and sustainable food more affordable and desirable. That these plant based foods require less resources to make on top of reducing individual's carbon footprint blah blah blah...

These looked like little chicken nuggets and actually tasted like them. Albeit one that was a little dry and a bit stringy. If I didn't know what I was ordering, I might not have noticed.

Xian Ji Porridge, Eng Hoon Street

I've been asked by a few people over more than a few years if I've tried that shop with watercress porridge (#01-72, 57 Eng Hoon Street) at Tiong Bahru. I gathered that they had eaten there and they liked it to some extent. The shop has for some reasons always slipped my mind until recently. Not bad tasting porridge. Didn't understand the watercress which I felt added nothing but vegetables stuck between the teeth.

What I didn't like was the rest of the experience. $9 for mixed pork porridge with dough fritters wasn't cheap. I asked for century eggs for the porridge to which the proprietress acknowledged but I didn't get any at all. No idea how much a bowl typically costed. While I enjoyed it somewhat and hadn't any complains about the ingredients, am probably not coming back. Ah Chiang or Old Shifu, both in the vicinity, were equally enjoyable and less expensive.

A couple of bowls and gyoza from Kanada-Ya

Some quick notes on the recent visit to Kanada-Ya.

That's the black garlic ramen - something that I've never quite understood. There's a toasty garlic flavour that gradually diminished as we went through the bowl. It's not a bad layer on top of the tonkotsu but it seemed a flavour that didn't endure. One had to eat something else and go back to rekindle the garlic taste.

Nice heat from the spiciness gekikara bowl which was a concocted with mixture of miso and tonkotsu. In the end, the mixture was its own thing which didn't have a strong characteristic from the component broths. Not a bad tasting one but not something I'd think I'll look forward to the next time.

Wasabi mayo gyozas - There's a light smoky taste but I couldn't tell if it came from the sauce or the gyoza skin. Not bad though. Could eat this again.