A2B Veg Restaurant, Serangoon Road

Trying a Indian vegetarian restaurant (276-278 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6299 2786) which we've noticed the previous times we've passed by when in the vicinity. Just to get this out of the way, the masala chai was smooth like the ones from Komala Vilas. A little light with the spices, but smooth.

Their ghee pongal was delicious - ghee flavoured obviously and moist with notes from the peppercorn and fennel seeds. That white coconut chutney on the side was deceptively spicy.

Got ourselves a mini meal to try their flavoured rice. Curd rice (left) was milky and nothing like the other curd rice which we've had before which were yoghurt-y. The sliced green chillis in there were a pleasant surprise. Sambar rice (middle) was tasty - I'm not sure if it's the same stuff as bisibele bath. The one on the right was pepper rice. Tastiest of the lot if not for the bits of coriander. This was flavoured with pepper, curry leaves, mustard seeds and a bunch of other spices.

Hidden beneath the chapati was a kesari bath. Nice. Unfortunately, the chapati was a little dried out - might have been left out there for a while.

Their rava onion masala dosa had bits of crispy toasted onion in them. Dosa as a whole did not taste bad but I think we've had better ones around. 

Stinky Bombs from 99 Old Trees

Tried these stinky bombs from 99 Old Trees.

Durian custard filled crusty choux pastry if that hadn't been obvious enough. I kinda like them but between that and the stinky bowls, I'd prefer the latter for a durian dessert fix.

Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (东陵酥皮咖喱角), Hong Lim Food Centre

I've noticed the curry puff stall at Hong Lim. It's only recently that I've realized that there were actually two curry puff stalls and there were just one stall apart from each other. And they're related. Mitosis apparently took place from sibling rivalry. So this was Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (#02-34 Hong Lim Food Center, 531A Upper Cross Street) and the other which I hadn't tried was Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original.

The one above has otah fillings. I thought the otah was good tasting. The skin of the puffs were crisp and flaky as we got them pretty freshly fried.

Below's the potato and chicken puff. Quite nice as well but there wasn't much chicken in there. 

Hanare by Takayama, Ngee Ann City

I was mostly drawn to Hanare by Takayama (#03-07, Takashimaya Shopping Centre Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road, tel  : +65 8298 9369) from the pictures of their kamameshi I've seen online. Knew next to nothing about the original Takayama by the chef Taro Takayama. Except that it's kinda expensive and Hanare instead would possibly be an introduction to his food.

Their house made ginger ale is not bad. Fruity and while I wished it had a bit more spice from the ginger, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wagyu dashimaki tamago. Could taste the beef in it.

Ordered the fish cartilage because it sounded interesting and we've never had it before. Texture was kinda cartilage-y. 😂 There's a lot of crunch if you hadn't had them before. The umeboshi and shiso flavours packed a perky punch. I can see this going superbly with white rice. *brain cues flashbacks of Suju* 

Food took a while to arrive so a glass of Suntory to help with the wait.

Sakura ebi pasta was part of the warm appetizer menu. There's little bits of kombu in there as well so the flavour was expectedly seafood-y and umami.

That's the awabi kamameshi. I think the flavour in the rice came mostly from dashi and the abalone liver sauce. Maybe there was also a little bit from the mushrooms and hijiki as well. Noticed that the menu had options for additional liver sauce. Could understand why that. Will remember to do that if I ever come back to eat this again. Anyways, I liked it. The flavour not as intense as I had imagined though.

There's more texture and taste from the kinmedai kamameshi. Probably because of the vegetables and tsukemono in it. Flavour profile is more tangy because of the latter but substantially, it still fell on the kinmedai, mushrooms and dashi.

Got their matcha financier to end. These took a while to be served and I'm pretty sure they were baked to order. The exterior was light and crusty while the insides were dense, moist and filled with a buttery matcha bitter. So good this one. Would love to eat this again.

Ramen Champion in the last quarter of 2022

Ramen Champion appears to be a shadow of its former self. What used to be individual stalls look like they're operating a centralized kitchen with a common collection point - unlike the past where each had their own space with their identity. I don't even know from which some of the ramen are from. 

Updates on their sites are inconsistent and often inadequate. Their social media looks sad. You know it's sad when it's largely filled with influencer posts. 

Is it even still a championship of any sort anymore or are they just a ramen food court these days? 

Anyways, came to try the tsukemen from Taishoken. Not bad. The broth wasn't as thick as I had imagined but it was filled with bonito smokiness and the noodles were respectably chewy. No overpowering flavour from the menma and sadly no molten yolk in the ajitama as well. I recall thinking better of Tetsu from the past though.

Tried a pork fat stamina ramen. Liked this. Garlicky, salty and full of textures from the cabbage, bean sprouts and the chewy noodles. I think I like the Megamen from Brothers Ramen a bit more. Not to mention that Brothers Ramen has superior pork belly which was importantly more tender. No molten yolk from this ajitama as well. Now which one was this supposed to be from?

 Mentai-mayo gyozas were okay tasting. 

Revisiting Xing Hua (兴化) at Chinatown Point

More food from this branch of Xing Hua. The more we eat here, the more we notice how these guys fall short compared to Putien. 😬

This was described as stir fried long beans (四季豆) with XO sauce. Not sure if this was with any XO sauce at all. Those bits were kinda like spicy dried shrimp/hae bee hiam. Lightly spicy, salted with a light sweetness. Nice. I thought this was a pretty competent rendition of the dish. 

We ordered the salted egg Duotou clams because we hadn't had them in this style before. I wouldn't recommend these. These weren't worth half of what they charged. Most of the plate were shells and batter for the salted egg. Those clams were also small and pretty tasteless. Nothing like the quality one gets at Putien.

Ordered their claypot seafood tofu. Tofu's not bad. There's a couple of slices of fish in there that's pretty muddy tasting and also a couple of sad looking scallops besides those prawns. The dish looked and felt like a obligatory item that was on the menu because someone felt that it needed to be there. Nothing outstanding about this.

Tried their claypot drunken duck because we've never had drunken duck before. Remember those boiled to death chicken in chicken soup where the meat has become hard and/or stringy and tasteless. That's what these duck tasted like. Not like duck. The braising soup/broth thingy was delicious though.

The chicken from this double boiled red mushroom chicken soup was actually pretty good eating. Tender, salted and easily slurped off the bone. Not dry and stringy like the duck. Not a bad one.