Lay's Roasted Cumin Lamb Skewer Flavor from Scarlett Supermarket

I was apprehensive but curious at the same time when I saw these on the shelves. Turned out to be much better than I had imagined. Was surprised by how they managed to capture those 羊肉串 flavours in the chips.

More stuff from Happy Lamb Hotpot (快乐小羊)

Here's a few items from Happy Lamb Hotpot we haven't tried previously. Like the beef book tripe which was served cooked. The reason you'd swish them in the hotpot is to get them nice and warm. Nice beefy flavour with a tender but chewy texture. 

Beef short rib was not bad. Nice texture from the slightly thicker sliced meat but the flavour had less intensity than I was hoping for.

What I liked much better was their premium marble lamb which was tender and filled with all that wonderful lamb flavour. Note to self : get this again!

Re-revisiting Gaston

Our third time eating at Gaston.

Kronenbourg is a great easy drinking beer just like Hoegaarden with it's floral citrus-y flavour.

Looked like we ordered a lot but we didn't.

Confit trout with the smoked potato salad was delicious. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Meat was about medium doneness and nicely charred on the outside. Those trout skin crackers on the side needed a bit more salt.

Together with the trout was an creamy onion tart with blue cheese and figs that kept our mouths busy while waiting for the main courses. Also delicious.

We had braised lamb with roasted pumpkin which was... ordinary if not for the bursts of citrus from the pomegranate.

The pièce de résistance tonight was their Ris de Veau Sauce Forestière - fried veal sweetbread with forest mushroom sauce. This was so good. They mentioned 140 grams and that it was considered a sizeable piece. Pretty impressed by the sauce which had good salting and an intense flavour from the mushrooms. At this time, I would be hard pressed to recall another mushroom sauce which packed as much flavour as this did. Wished the portions of the sweetbread were bigger for what they charged though.

Tried their Les Crêpes Gaston which was done with banana rum compote, hazelnuts and some sour cream. Said banana rum compote had probably been prepared and refrigerated because unlike the warm crepe, it was chilled. Not bad. The dessert would be more awesome if it was done à la minute table side but I understand that they probably can't with the limited space. 

Lau Wang Claypot Delights, Bugis+

Came across Lau Wang Claypot Delights (#04-13 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street, tel : +65 9135 3392) the last time we were here, made a mental note to check them out and now we're here.

Decent sambal kang kong with shrimpy heat from the sambal. It's a little more saucy than I was expecting.

Their herbal sliced fish soup came with six thick slices of snakehead. Pretty herbal and sweet - that's as much as I can describe it. I felt it was a little too sweet at the start but I kinda got used to the flavour as I drank it. Wouldn't say I'm a fan of the soup but I didn't dislike it and I loved the fish.

Ngoh hiong passed muster. What got my attention about these was the lack of excessive use of five spice powder. The skin was crispy and the stuffings were minced pork and water chestnut. Not bad tasting and pretty good eat with the chilli sauce they included on the side.

This was their spicy frog claypot - perhaps their rendition of 宫保田鸡 with heat that progressively caught on. Definitely not the standards of kung bao frog I had in mind. Again I didn't dislike them but I was bothered with how small the frogs were. We ordered the pot with three frogs and there was too little meat methinks. 

To catch all the sauces.

Revisiting Legendary Hong Kong

We scored a seat in the air conditioned balcony at Legendary Hong Kong today.

They have one of the better gong zai meen (公仔面) I've tasted in my limited experience with them in cha chan tang sort of places. Why? They've thought though enough of this simple dish to not overcook the noodle. Pretty good texture for instant noodles. I'm speaking from the experience of having this the second time here.

Stewed tripe. An order had pretty generous portions. Flavour was nice but this was something one would want to eat while it's hot because it hardens as it cools.

Pretty surprised by their hot Ribena. If my memory didn't fail me, this was almost as good as the one we had at Aberdeen. 

Seafood hor fun was blandish. But there's chilli on the side and sliced chilli one could request for. Those and with a splash of light soya sauce, this turned out pretty darn good. Some of the smokiness came through after that.

Nice prawn paste mid wings.

Was surprised that I enjoyed the boiled lettuce with oyster sauce as much as I did. I must be getting old.

These were prawn dumplings stuffed with whole shrimp in them along with minced meat. Not bad tasting but I do have a couple of thoughts on how they could be improved. Involves more lard and thinner skins.

Coffee's okay. I kinda know what to expect out of them so the bar is never set high for them.

Heh.......

Joji's Diner, Stanley Street

Mixed feelings about the food at Joji's Diner (3 Stanley Street, tel : +65 6993 7890).

Coffee's okay, that's a double shot so it's not exactly coffee flavoured milk they're serving. What might not be apparent is that this was a cappuccino. Don't think anyone would be faulted for thinking that this was a latte.

What I was interested in was their smash burger. According to them, it's 70% beef and 30% lamb. Happy to report that I could taste the lamb. What needed work was the salt. Salting was uneven so some of the bites were bland-ish. Pity cuz that burger was otherwise pretty decent.  

Duck was not worth the money. Meat was hard. I read somewhere that it was slow cooked for 9 hours. If that had been so, this would be somewhat of a spectacular failure. For something that was supposedly confit, there was also little intensity in the flavour and a conspicuous lack of salt. 

We asked about the orange marmalade sauce because what we mostly tasted was a brown sauce flavoured with rosemary. Someone from the kitchen came over to explain that they used fresh orange juice for the sauce. Well none of that came through. Nothing was mentioned about the marmalade. Where's my bits of peel? 

We had blueberry pancakes.

There's more than just blueberries in the sauce. I think red current and cranberries too if I'm not mistaken. Not a fan of it because something about it tasted artificial to me. Pancakes were okay but don't come expecting the same standards as Clinton Street Baking Company.