Cherki, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Cherki's (#01-02 Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, 1 Straits Boulevard, tel : +65 6514 8345) got this Violet Oon Satay Bar and Island Cafe vibes. Local yet atas and alcohol is a thing.

There's Guinness on tap.

Foie gras duck confit fried rice. The duck, if anyone was wondering was in shredded bits in the rice. I was wondering about the fried rice part since it just looked blue from the butterfly pea flower. To their credit, it tasted like fried rice while my brain caught up with reconciliation between my two senses. Pretty competent achar on the side there. Just wished that the foie gras was bigger.

Some seared scallops and Nonya fish maw dish. The fresh scallops had their natural sweetness and a nice flavour from the caramelization; notice that there are also dried ones in there as well. Don't know what made the miserable portions of fish maw Nonya but their quality was mediocre. One could taste the beginnings of the oil in them getting stale. 

Tried the yuzu seafood kueh pie tee. The difference from the regular ones and these were the scallops and yuzu flavour. Not bad.

Unexpectedly moreish coconut prawn linguine which I felt was the performing underdog today. Pasta was nicely done, prawns tasted good and it was all brought together by the savoury sweet coconut cream that glazed the seafood and noodles. I'd eat this again.

Ngoh hiang wasn't impressive for me. Couldn't taste the foie fat and duck pate that was listed as ingredients. Bamboo shoots are a poor substitute for water chestnuts. Also, there's five spice powder. I've always felt that good ngoh hiangs never needed them.

(O_o + 😒) Their kaya & gula melaka tiramisu was a disappointment compared to my mental imagery of a luscious moist cream cake. I had the idea that since this wasn't a run of the mill tiramisu, they'd make something out of the ordinary. Impressive even. This looked like it came from a cake factory. Couldn't taste the kaya at all and here's where I melodramatically lament (in the literal sense of course!) over the injustice done by a Peranakan restaurant to a Peranakan ingredient.

It's also pretty dry. If I hadn't ordered it as one, I wouldn't have recognized it as tiramisu. 

Burrata, pork, pineapples and other things at Zazz Pizza

S'been a quarter since we last crushed the remnants of mycelium routers on a scorched civilization of bacteria at Zazz Pizza. We were back for more.

I know right? Deep fried chicken wings. But they weren't bad. The meat was literally still steaming when it was exposed. We were just curious how these ones from Zazz tasted so beside their blend of herbs from the flour, they were pretty much like most competent fried chicken wings. 

Their braised pork pappardelle was introduced not too long back. Pasta was served piping hot with pretty generous chunks of fork tender pork and the meaty savoury sauce was flavoured with star anise. 👍🏼 We have yet to be disappointed with what we've had from their house special pastas so far.

Pizza burrata with added on pineapples today. Those pineapples were excellent pairing with the oozy stracciatella/cream in the burrata. Think citrus sweet creamy richness. You heard it here first.

Ended it with how we have been ending it for the past few visits. Affogato.

And Limoncello to finish.

Tanjong Rhu Wanton Noodle (丹戎禺云吞面), Yishun

Came across this stall (654 Yishun Avenue 4). I might have heard of Tanjong Rhu Wanton Noodle mentioned before but I know next to nothing about the franchise. I presume they're a local brand of small fame. Didn't have much expectations even though I was told that they were not bad. 

Noodle texture's okay but not exactly the type that'll make me raise an eyebrow.

水饺/sui gao was not bad. Well packed with marinated pork and shrimp. After one has had these and these or perhaps even these, most other dumplings would be just begrudgingly not bad.

The chilli was pretty good with the flavour of dried shrimp and they weren't very spicy in spite of appearances. Helped with those noodles.

Crystal Jade Hong Kong Kitchen, Great World

It's been a while since we were last at a regular Crystal Jade. The Golden Palace doesn't count because. Branding of the outlets have evolved through the years so this one was a Hong Kong Kitchen (1 Kim Seng Promenade, #03-127 Great World, tel : +65 6738 2911).

We were offered some sour plum marinated daikon. I think it's on the menu but we didn't order it. It was "otoshi"? Anyways we didn't refuse because it sounded good and it was. Loved that sour plum infusion in to the crisp and crunch. The Chinese term for it is 开胃. Haha...

To further 开 our 胃, a hot golden kumquat and lime juice. This stuff was concentrated and potent with the preserved citrus flavour and sweetness. Best drunk hot.

Fatty char siew is not bad. Delicious sweet glaze and pork with requisite fattiness. But I was hoping that since they're Crystal Jade, they would be above "not bad".

Sautéed French beans with Tai O shrimp paste. Those beans still had a nice crunch as compared to some renditions that are limper. Together with the salty bits of minced pork this was one good with white rice.

Menu mentioned organic homemade tofu with preserved vegetables and prawn. The preserved vegetable here is chai poh - specifically preserved radish. Not bad.

I've been eyeing this pork lardon rice. Disappointing. The fried lard wasn't crisp and warm so it wasn't freshly fried as far as the word fresh can be stretched. They're also not fragrant. Dark soya sauce wasn't aromatic. At all. Many non-restaurant eateries use better tasting ones. So this would be a first and a last.

I've had these stir fried egg noodles a few times. At the street level, I enjoyed the ones that Sai Kee Congee and the defunct Wai Kee. In my limited experience of Hong Kong styled 炒面, none of them I've had actually has ginger like this rendition at Crystal Jade.

Noodles were not as firm and were also much oiler. Not impressed.

 

Soba Kappo Reiwa (蕎麦割烹令和), Trengganu Street

Soba Kappo Reiwa (#01-12, 25 Trengganu Street, tel : +65 9355 1618) is by a Shinji Matsudaira and his wife Ayana Matsudaira that began their business with Reiwa Soba here - a hawker soba shop. This one is purportedly an izakaya-esque kappo soba joint. 

Their homemade honey ume soda is made on order - couldn't get enough of a glass.

Menu describes this as fried oyster with fermented butter. Oyster didn't taste fried but it was delicious in a buttery broth. Saved the broth for later.

The tempura batter at Soba Kappo Reiwa is made with buckwheat flour. Texture is more dense compared regular tempura and I didn't detect much crunch. But here's some pretty tasty wakasagi tempura. 

We ordered a seafood plate which had prawns, garfish and anago. Our first time eating garfish and they tasted like...*Nick Menza drumroll*...... regular white fish. 

Wanted to see if their sudachi soba was good. It wasn't as impressive as the bowl from Keria. While not a precise type comparison, it was also not as satisfying as the chilled lemon soba from Healthy Soba IKI. 

It's not a bad bowl at all. Just didn't think I'd rank it above the other two.

Was curious about their tai kake soba. The fish was thinner and lesser than I imagined and was half cooked by the time we ate them. They were also falling apart and looked like discarded cuts from sashimi. Soba was chopped up so a spoon worked as well as chopsticks. The texture felt right on the slurp but as we were chewing them they felt gummy. I had the impression that this was a soba rendition of local fish porridge.

Couldn't tell how the tai broth was different from regular ones but it became better after I poured in the oyster butter broth I saved earlier.  

Menya Kokoro in August

Woohoo! Those "muscular" tori karaage are still on the menu at Menya Kokoro. For a moment or two, I could have sworn that they had been swapped out of the menu for good. Pretty sure that these are my favourite tori kaarage at this point of time.

There's a uma kara laksa mazesoba on the menu - one of the limited time bowls they made for National Day. Got this bowl at 30% off the regular price during that period. I admit to being slightly skeptical when I was pondering over whether to order it. Available till the end of September.

Damn it's nice. While it cannot be compared to a good bowl of laksa out there, there's definitely enough of laksa flavour to qualify as a decent mazesoba rendition. Shredded cucumber and minced pork added appreciable texture. What pleasantly surprised me were the strips of sweet abura age that were supposed to represent tau pok. I thought the conspicuous sweetness fit right into the bowl of flavours.

Here's the mentai tsukesoba I've been eyeing for a while. Because mentaiko.

It's the smokey bonito-y dipping broth. With butter. And another dollop of mentaiko. The dipping broth was obviously not as solid as the better tsukemen bowls but it got by. There's a way to eat this without mixing the mentaiko into the broth since that would just take away most of the flavour from the roe. Not gonna be talking about it though.