Hao Xiang Ju Cooked Food (好香居熟食), Chinatown Food Centre

This vegetarian bee hoon from Hao Xiang Ju Cooked Food (#02-122 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) was a kinda random pick. Not bad tasting. Those fried tofu skin 斋鹅 stuff were nice and crispy and the highlight of it. I wonder if they have any other carbs besides this brown bee hoon. 

Quan Xiang Prawn Noodle Laksa (全香虾面叻沙), Toa Payoh Vista

I could describe Quan Xiang (New Century Food House coffee shop, 66 Toa Payoh Lorong 4) as nondescript. They look that way - just like another undistinguished face in the crowd or stall in a coffee shop if you would. But their prawn noodles are not bad.

Picture on top is their dry mee pok with additional pig skin. I enjoyed it - pretty zingy with their marinated sliced red chilli. There're slices of fish cake and pork. One can also help themselves with their fried lard and I like how they halved and shelled most of the prawns. It's not so much a bowl to bowl another over (pun intended) with than one that you could fall back on or come back for repeated visits. I would.

Kuey teow soup's decent too. Broth has that crustacean flavour though it's nowhere in the same league as say Da Dong. Still very drinkable stuff.

Foie gras, garbure, lamb saddle and coconut souffle at Le Bistrot du Sommelier

It's been more than four years since we were last at Le Bistrot. Egads! 😮 But maybe it's two plus years if we subtract the Covid years which I'm not counting. Prices have gone up for the steaks! 😱 But we've confidence the food should still be enjoyable because we've had quite a bit of good eating here previously (un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze).

Bread's a smaller portion these days. They didn't even bring it out until we asked. In the past, it would have arrived pretty quickly after we've made our orders.

We were upsold their last potion of foie gras for the evening which they said was for sharing. Was kinda small for sharing when it arrived and I guess it was our fault that we didn't ask about how much it was before realizing that it was $48 when we got the bill. Overpriced? We thought so. The saving grace was that it was delicious, especially so with the heavily buttered toast and that rich......demi-glace?

Their garbure is an old favourite.

Dill scented vegetable soup with duck stock, bacon, croutons and our favourite rendition - the one with chicken dumpling.

We came for the lamb saddle today. Nicely done, full of meatiness and larger portioned than I imagined. That saltiness from anchoïade was just good pairing for the meat.

Side of crushed potatoes with olive oil and parsley. Nicely salted.

There's a coconut soufflé which we haven't seen on the menu before. I liked it. Especially so when it's piping hot with that browny nut butter thingy in the middle that added a richness into the coconut egginess. On the side was caramel butter cookie ice cream.

Jing Mei Big Prawn Noodle (晶美大虾面), Chinatown Food Centre

Not bad bowl of prawn noodles (#02-121 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street). We noticed the stall from the last time we were in the food centre. This was kuey teow soup. Those pork ribs that came with it were slurp off the bone tender while the prawns were firm and full of bite. As much as I felt that they didn't have one of the more crustacean-y broth, that broth was still decent and not in the least lacking in flavour. Admittedly, I also liked it a lot better after adding the marinated sliced red chilli and light soya sauce. Will come back and try the dry bowl another time.

非同小可 (Really Something), Chinatown Food Centre

Wanted to try 非同小可 (#02-207 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) for a while. Here's a bowl of their Chiayi chicken rice - presumably Taiwanese chicken rice. Nothing like the local rendition which is flavoured with chicken fat. This one has a sweet savoury sauce and sesame oil with fried shallots. The only chicken component were the shredded bits on top. Not bad tasting.

Re-visiting Ayam Penyet President

It's been a few years since we were last here at Ayam Penyet President.

We ordered beef rendang today. It's not bad - tender for most of the parts and a little stringy for the larger pieces. The sweet savoury coconut infused gravy was good with rice.

Had ourselves a serving of lotek - another dish we're getting for the first time. The steamed vegetables drenched in a creamy sweet peanut sauce was delicious.

Couldn't resist not getting the ikan bilis sambal ijo. Savoury and mildly spicy green chilli sambal that was additionally flavoured and textured by the umami saltiness from the crispy fried whitebait. This stuff makes one a rice monster. 

Tender fried chicken thighs from their ayam sambal ijo.

And chunky grilled chicken satay draped in their thick and peanut sauce. These were bigger/meatier than the local renditions and the chicken didn't taste marinated. Still rocked with that sauce though.

Of course we had rice with those dishes.