Pandan durian roll from Chalk Farm

We've gotten cakes from Chalk Farm (#B1-K5/6 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 2872) on multiple occasions. Pretty pricy but admittedly pretty good quality as well. Love their kueh salat and durian salat. Picked up this pandan durian roll recently. Pretty big assed Swiss roll. Not bad tasting as well. If you ate the individual component of the cake, you'd get a nice pandan flavour from the cake and durian infusion in the middle cream. The outer layer cream with the coconut doesn't have durian flavour.

Shakey's Pizza, Lucky Plaza

I remember Shakey's vaguely from many years ago. I don't recall if I've ever had them and I was curious. There's just one setup at the Asian Food Mall at Lucky Plaza (B1-38 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road). Prices are a bit high methinks. That's their Friday Special featuring shrimps, anchovies and mushrooms on a thin crust. It tasted like how it looked. Not bad actually and it was light. I didn't feel like paying more than a few bucks extra for the "hand tossed" crust.

They do fried chicken too. Without deep diving into details, I think these gives Jollibee next door a run for their money with the flavourful crisp skin and moist tenderness. But I'd still eat at Jollibee for their spicy chickens. There's these stuff call mojos here - sliced fried potatoes which were surprisingly tender that I wondered if it was reconstituted.

Zhong Ji Dang Gui HK Roasted Delight (忠記當歸港式燒臘), Toa Payoh Vista

Not bad wanton noodles from Zhong Ji Dang Gui HK Roasted Delight (New Century Food House coffee shop, 66 Toa Payoh Lorong 4). This stall is located a literal stone's toss from Quan Xiang Prawn Noodle Laksa. Neighbours within the same coffee shop. Seems that there are gems to be found for wanton noodles at Toa Payoh. Remember Shun Feng Roasted Delights and Deng Wen Ji?

Upon closer scrutiny, one would notice that the char siew they're using were the fatty variety that's sliced thin. An alternative texture which admittedly was also enjoyable compared to the usually thicker sliced ones for such cuts. Wantons were sizeable and pretty good eating. 

I thought the noodle texture were decent - wasn't soggy and had a good bite. Not so much a fan of their dark sauce in there but their dried shrimp infused chilli paste made me inhale this quickly. I should come back to try their roasts someday.

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.