Han's, Guoco Tower

Haven't eaten at Han's for a long time. I used to like their fried rice. Looking back, those felt like another place and time. Anyways this was from the outlet at Guoco Tower (#B2-25, 1 Wallich Street). What landed us here could be a few reasons. 

I would like to think it was mostly curiosity after all these years. Perhaps also lurking quietly and subconsciously, there was a looking forward to a bit of nostalgia. There's also the duck confit we saw on their menu for the Xmas season. Someone had recently also mentioned their chicken chop looked good. Reasons coalesced into intent.

So here's that duck confit in orange sauce. Nicely salted and pretty tender. Certainly wasn't the best one around but I'd eat it again. The orange sauce......wasn't great but I could tell that it was made with oranges for sure. Even thought I tasted duck fat in the mash. What I didn't see coming was that I enjoyed this more than the one at Joji's Diner.

This was likely my first chicken chop at Han's. Pretty tasty actually. There's some nice browning on the skin and the meat was moist for sure. Too bad the retro flavoured black pepper sauce was mediocre since that could have seriously elevated the plate. Fortunately the chicken's good on its own. 

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), Great World

Our first visit to this branch of 鼎泰豐 (#01-138 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel  : +65 6737 1366).

Stuck to a couple of our favourite drinks from them - the roselle one and their lemon Earl Grey tea which have always been reliably good. Today wasn't any different.

Maybe I haven't noticed but their hot and sour soup (酸辣汤) is packed with ingredients. Black fungus, strips of tau kwa, bamboo shoots and shredded pork if my memory serves and it rocks with their tabletop chilli and vinegar.

The other item that also rocks with their vinegar is their dan dan mian (担担面). A little flat on its own in that nutty sauce after a few mouthfuls but a splash of vinegar invigorates with a tanginess that makes inhaling this a breeze.

I took a picture of their shrimp fried rice (虾仁蛋饭) years ago. I like it. Nice meaty prawns and deliciously savoury with a splash of light soya sauce. Din Tai Fung's fried rice has been established as somewhat of a standard that can be construed as fairly consistent for a restaurant across many branches. Tasted pretty much like their other fried rice which has for reasons become a benchmark for many.

These green vegetable dumplings (素菜蒸饺) have also become a pretty regular order over the recent years. Looking at the menu again, I've just realized that these things contain black fungus, mushrooms, vermicelli, beancurd cubes, xiao bai cai and turnip.

Prawn paste chicken mid wings have popped up on their menu.....I don't know when. Might be recent years. These are very competently done. There's sufficient saltiness and flavour from the fermented shrimp paste coupled with proper frying that doesn't see them grease logged.

These 菜肉包 are also great with a bit of vinegar.

Yam xiao long bao - idea sounded good.

Smooth and creamy were their stuffings. Having these invariably reminds me of orh nee which as puréed yam went are different and more delicious because the latter tends to be aromatized while these aren't.

Chocolate lava bun's on the menu at this end of year season. Pretty well done with that piping hot melted chocolate core.

Dumpling (水饺) noodle from Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted

Was curious about the sui gao/shui jiao/水饺 from Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted. They're not bad tasting, filled with minced pork, shrimp and water chestnuts. Those however aren't at the level of Xiang Jiang or Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle Rice at Beauty World for sure. Chilli's great and noodles are decent. Speaking of which. I do like the texture of the noodles at Zhong Yu Yuan Wei better. 

I wouldn't have gotten away without at least getting at least one of their roasts since I've invested time in the queue. Duck drumstick and some tau kwa on the side. I'll come back for their roast pork another day.

Lucca's Trattoria, Tiong Bahru

We ate at Lucca's Trattoria once years ago back when they were located at Robertson Quay. Wasn't impressed. They've shifted to Tiong Bahru (Lvl 1 Nostalgia Hotel, 77 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6223 2301) a while ago and we wanted to see if how the food has changed, or hopefully improved over those years we decided to forget about them.

We ordered their fritto misto because there were fried mussels. It was okay - not the most promising seafood quality there but it wasn't bad. Batter needed more salt so they weren't that good on their own. I suppose a lot more of that shaven cheese would have helped too. Most of what kept us going was the Calabrian chilli sauce.

Was looking towards their chicken liver crostinis. Not bad also. I shouldn't compare but I couldn't help but to reminisce.

Cacio e pepe was kinda disappointing. It was more creamy than cheesy and it didn't look or taste like it had that much pepper.

Fortunately the rabbit pappardelle fared better. Dried pasta and al dente with a bite like fresh ones cannot achieve. Not complaining here. Broth tasted nothing like the red wine sauce they mentioned on the menu at all but it did taste pretty good. Also very Asian. Specifically quite similar to lor bak so I'm guessing the spices used were similar. Even the borlotti bean reminded me of braised peanuts. Hmmm......

Tiramisu was nicely done and moist like I enjoy it. My only gripe - there was a lot more cream than mascarpone in it. While that made the dessert airier, it also tasted noticeably less mascarpone-y. I also gave them a few points for having Maraschino cherry.

3 course Christmas menu at Les Bouchons

This happened at the Ann Siang branch of Les Bouchons. Our first time trying their Christmas menu.

Their bread has been kinda the same over the years. Much better eating than the one that Ginett serves. At this point I'd like to point out that it would have been great if they used salted butter but since there's that salt mill on the side readily available...

Foie gras poêlé was nice - unctuous richness paired perfectly with salt crystals on toast. This was pretty much the same thing as the one we had at Rochester on a different plate.

Very happy with their house made chicken liver mousse. Aside from the livery flavoured velvet texture, I tasted cream, garlic and a sweetness in it - reminded me of the one we had previously at the defunct Lokal. So good with the fig jam on bread.

So one of the mains was a 300g MBS 6/7 wagyu oyster blade. It was nice and impressively tender  - the only thing that kinda marred it was the sliver skin lining in the meat which wasn't trimmed away.  

There's also a magret de canard with shallot butter which is normally not on their menu. This one was a little dry and needed much jaw work. I had imagined/hoped that it would be more tender.

Good thing we got their blue cheese sauce on the side. This made everything dipped in it so heart clogging-ly delicious.

Had a dessert call My Christmas Tree... if I remembered correctly. There's some mousse-y coconut with mint and lime gel thingy within the crimson tree with a chocolate cake base.

First time getting their truffled Brie for dessert. I think this would be good with a drizzle of honey.

Some drink which was basically Milo with Bailey's and marshmallow called Let It Snow. Yeah, we could have made this ourselves at home and made a better one that that. Now we know. Let it go.

LINO Pizza & Pasta Bar, Shaw Centre

The restaurant used to be just LINO Pasta Bar. They've expanded and taken over the unit next door and have also included pizzas on the menu so it's both an pizza and pasta bar now. Did Les Amis Group failed to identify that pizza need while cranking up the old pasta bar or was that evolution that came about after they've taken over the neighbour? That was rhetorical.

LPPB's Margherita which differs from the standard issue Margherita by having smoked burrata and pesto and cherry tomatoes. Personally, the smoked burrata and pesto worked and I enjoyed this on their Neapolitan styled crust. That being said, the crust from these guys aren't at the same level as Zazz or Luka.

Hmmm....creamed spinach tart topped with thin bacon petals, confit egg and parmigiano. Tasted as good as it sounded and I shall leave it as that.

King prawn risotto was a dish of the month. Didn't taste so much like risotto, more like just wet rice with a light dashi and nori flavour with prawn oil. Seafood quality was pretty good,

Nicely done aglio olio with squid and prawns. My only gripe was the menu mentioning bird's eye chilli and I didn't get them in the pasta. Just a small dried chilli and not enough heat to temper my expectations after reading bird's eye chilli. Otherwise it was delicious with a couple of twists of salt from the mill.

Tiramisu was cocoa heavy and pretty dry. To read that alternatively, there's either too little mascarpone or cream or both. To the point that the heavy dusting of cocoa overwhelmed the other parts of the dessert. Did not taste bad but nothing about it would elevate it beyond a passable rendition. Kinda surprised encountering the low pedestrian standards for this one.