Santi's, Telok Ayer

Santi's (138 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 8405 6112) is by the folks running Sarnies right around the corner. Food's Australian-sy by my measure with their brand of combinations featuring ingredients from the east and west.

Nicely done sea bream crudo. The collective of smoked feta, trout roe and EVOO was an effective flavour bomb of richness that paired with the fish. I thought it was a great combination of tangy and umami that was relatively clean.

Picked a pizza call Marge Simpson. Basically their variant of a pizza Margherita using yellow Datterini tomatoes instead of San Marzano. There's also Scamorza for the smokiness. Flavours from the toppings were not bad. What wasn't so great was the crust which was quite heavy and dense at the cornicione. We've been spoilt by the airy puffy ones at Zazz Pizza. 

We ordered their octopus and bean ragù pici thinking that we probably understood the flavour profile and knew what we were getting. We were so wrong. 😂

The base flavour tasted like savoury Chinese glutinous rice with boiled beans. For some reasons the diced bits of guanciale added to that. 

While I understood that pici was a thick noodle (I imagine udon-ish), these were thick like pig's intestines. 😂 Cooked "al dente", they were also heavy and tasted like a dense mee hoon kueh (面粉粿). Lots of textures going on with the ingredients including some spicy fried shallots that had mala flavour. Then there's hazelnuts.

Don't know if we'll be back. Have mixed feelings. Having Brooklyn Larger is nice but not opening during weekends automatically relegates them to the bottom of my list.

Wolf Burgers, Funan

S'been a long while since my last Wolf Burger which was back at their stall at the defunct PasarBella at Suntec. This was from their location at Funan (#01-05 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road) which I've never eaten at until now. I was debating if I should try their wagyu burger but the Alpha which costed the same tipped the scales with volume. 

Not a bad burger. Good searing and relatively hefty meat with creamy cheese. I looked back and remember not liking the onions but I found myself enjoying how it cut through the meat and cheese this time. What I would have chosen to omit on hindsight would be the sauce.

Finally some duck at Shun Feng Roasted Delights (顺沣港式烧腊)

So, I've been waiting for the opportunity to get myself some of the dang gui (当归) roasted duck from Shun Feng after overlooking them in the previous two times I ate here. This was a plate of glistening duck drumstick with char siew and and egg. Nice. Duck was suitably tender, moist and had a layer of rendered fat beneath the skin which brought flavour. Didn't expect that they would debone the leg and I'm not complaining. Char siew was delicious as ever. These guys are just competent as a whole for the 烧腊 that they do.

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...