Bar.B.Q. Tonight, Roberts Lane

Finally got ourselves down to Bar.B.Q. Tonight (10 Roberts Lane, tel  : +65 6299 5210) after wanting to try their food for so long.

Lassi was creamy and not diluted.

Loved their savoury raita that's infused with much cumin. Great with the meats, rice and bread.

We had lamb ribs. To cut to the chase, it was delicious.

Meat was flavourful, tender and easily slid off the bone. I'd come back for this again.

The Afghani pulao was...not what we expected because the menu mentioned orange peel, carrots, almond and raisins. Sounded real good. This was just rice and chicken buried beneath.

We asked them about it and they brought our half eaten plate back to the kitchen and....yeah, raisins and carrots. Still the same half plate and it was reheated as well. Still no almond and orange peel. I felt lied to but this was delicious and we soon forgot about the missing ingredients. The sweetness from the plump raisins paired well with the flavour infused into the rice while the chicken was slurp off the bone tender. Would not mind getting this again.

Great toasty sesame flavour from their double sesame naan. Though the menu mentions "brushed with butter", there wasn't any butter flavour. Was good enough to eat on its own though.

Tried their chicken haleem. Chicken flavour intensity in this one was a far cry from the mutton flavour intensity in the haleem we had at Bismillah. Wasn't bad tasting though. There was plenty of shredded chicken meat in it.

Grilled prawns had a nice smokey spice rub on the shell. So I ate a couple of them with the shells before I decided that it was too much chewing. Meat beneath the shells weren't as well flavoured, a little tough for prawns and pretty dry without the matching flavour on the outside. Will not get these again.

Kunefe was not bad but I didn't think it was memorable compared to the ones we might have had previously. Some parts of the pastry was burnt and the richness got to us before we finished it. While it might have been a long time back, I recalled that the very first one we had at the defunct Deli Turk at Suntec was much better.

Don't bother with their masala tea...flavour's not great and the cup's small.

Banana appam with butter from Mr Appam

Back at Mr Appam with their banana appam. I asked for additional butter. Watched the proprietress scrape "butter" from a can - I'm not sure if it was butter or even margarine. It was yellow. She carefully melted those down the crisp sides and made sure the middle had extras. She said it would be delicious with brown sugar and then proceeded to sprinkle them over the appam.

I enjoyed it mostly because of the melted bananas. But I couldn't taste any butter or margarine so I'm not sure what she put in there.

Nanu, Chinatown Food Centre

I thought it was somewhat unusual for a fish soup stall (#02-122 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) to also sell curry chicken and laksa. Nanu looked like one of those under the radar eatery. Maybe it's because their broth didn't particularly pack that fishy (in a good way) flavour and hence the essence of their bowl wasn't something many people might be searching for.

Wasn't bad though. This was the 双鱼 bowl with the toasted crispy noodle (生面), After the ikan bilis, sang meen and fried egg had been soaked in, the flavour from the broth developed. To add further zing, there's light soya sauce/sliced chilli. Decent quality fish slices and I liked the cube of tofu in there. While I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind if I had to eat here again, there's simply too much other greater distractions in Chinatown Food Centre.

Chirashi King Kong, Tanjong Pagar Plaza

Local kaisen don shop (#02-06, 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, tel : +65 8551 1544). The seafood on rice bowls aren't exactly traditional Japanese as the word traditional could describe these things. Won't exactly be the sort that one typically sees in a Japanese fish market.

Tried one of their bowls with aburi otoro and foie gras. Not bad. Pretty big piece of foie there. But I'm not a fan of the synthetic tasting truffle flavour in their rice.

The scallop saikyoyaki sounded good with their house made sweet miso sauce and the torching. If only the scallops were more substantial than those thin slices.

Amoy Street Fried Oyster (維通廈門街蠔煎), People's Park Food Centre

This (#01-1136 People's Park Complex Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) looked like a regular stall selling oyster omelette and fried kuey teow. Upon closer inspection of the menu, there's also oyster kuey teow. We ordered one. Flavour's kinda light and more like the Penang style than the local rendition. The oysters were half cooked...or less. I guess they were in place of what were usually cockles. I'm not a fan of how in your tongue face oyster-ly those tasted.

Because we had the pan fried oyster hor fun at Poh recently, I just had to compare. Poh blows this out of the water at exactly the same price.

Revisiting Blanco Court Beef Noodles

This was the dry bowl with everything in it from Blanco Court Beef Noodles. Sliced beef, beef balls, tripe, shank and tendon. That gloopy sauce had a nicer flavour that I imagined and I kinda liked it. Great texture from the shank and flavour from the tender chewy tripe. I got pretty thirsty after that so my thoughts were just wandering along the lines of heavy handed MSG. I actually don't know if there was.