Re-visiting Claypot & Cooked Food Kitchen (砂煲小厨)

Claypot & Cooked Food Kitchen hasn't been opened for some time a while back - I know because I came by and was disappointed. Kinda held my breath a little there. What I gathered from a friendly source online was that the auntie from the stall had gotten some injury and that the reason they haven't been operating. Glad they're opened again. 😬 

Ordered the tofu and roast meat. It's egg tofu they're using. Some were sliced thinner and were nicely browned and others weren't. This claypot was pretty generous with the roasted pork belly there but there were much less tofu than I was hoping to get. Wouldn't have known it was a tofu dish from the variety of ingredients they put in there.

This one was claypot sea cucumber......which also came with pretty generous portions of roasted pork belly. Both claypots so far tasted like they came with the same brown gravy. The sambal belachan rocks with the pork belly by the way. I know I can't complain at this price point but I wished there were more sea cucumber in it.

Gotta declare this the awesome-est kung bao chicken (宫保鸡丁) I've had in recent years. The thick sauce was pronounced medley of sweetness, tanginess and heat underneath a layer of oil. The chicken which appeared to be all thigh meat was chunky. I liked it so much that I was slurping the sauce off the dried chillis when the meat was done. Ended up with a burning tongue but it was worth it.

Stir fried (清炒) kailan was okay. I would have much preferred if they had used garlic instead of ginger as the aromatic.

Here be the sauce catcher.

Festive menu ribs from Morganfield's

Been wondering about the chestnut and cranberry glazed ribs from Morganfield's for a few years now. We've always somehow managed to miss them when they're available through the end of the year. So we've finally come to try them this year.

There's Connor and Kronenbourg on tap and it's $13 for the whole day on Sundays.

Mushroom soup's decent. The texture felt like something that came out of a blender.

The description for the chestnut sticky bones on the menu was 'chestnut roasted to amplify its nutty flavour, then blended into an earthy basting sauce to give our ribs a subtle sweetness in every bite'. I didn't think there was anything subtle about the sweetness. Nothing about the chestnut came through. Tasted like generic barbecue flavour.

Cranberry sauce on the baby back ribs tasted much like the chestnut sauce. If not for the cranberries on them, I wouldn't have known. While the ribs didn't taste bad as a whole, the flavour was underwhelming from expectations they have etched with their description. But now we know.

Yaowarat Thai Kway Chap, Tiong Bahru Plaza

I never understood why Yaowarat Thai Kway Chap closed at Holland Village. Always had the impression that they were doing well. Anyways, they've opened up at the basement of Tiong Bahru Plaza (B1-135 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road). And yes, the herbal peppery and salty broth was still as delicious with those penne-like scrolls of kuey. Or kway. Today we also discovered their chilli sauce (that one reminded me of chicken rice chilli actually) which was spicy and lime-y and made a great dip for the meats. Those fried chicken mid wings were also pretty good eating too. 

Confounding mala mazesobas from Menya Kokoro

So there're a couple of "mala mazesoba" at Menya Kokoro. We've tried the both of them and one of them appears to be the real McCoy while the other which bears the name is likely not.

The Kiwami tantan mazesoba is described as having a spicy and numb flavour. What baffled me was, why is there a mala flavour in it and how come this didn't taste like dan dan mian as its name suggested? Charshu was thick and a little hard. 

Then there was their spicy mala mazesoba - I once ordered it minus the mala and they obliged. I wanted to try it with the mala this time round.

The sauce was gritty, spicy and nutty. But I couldn't detect any mala. I also don't recall it tasting like the previous spicy mazesoba as well. Pretty delicious but the name of the bowl doesn't go with the flavour. Something doesn't add up with these two bowls.

Did anyone notice that the rice is getting smaller? It taking two portions these days to properly soak up the leftover gravy from the mazesoba.

Grandfather Food Empire Bak Chor Mee (爺爺香菇肉碎面), Queen Street

Decent bowl of bak chor mee from Grandfather Food Empire Bak Chor Mee (3838 Eating Place, 269B Queen Street). The stall is located at the same coffeeshop as Tai Loke Chicken Rice. I was a little concerned by the smudge of ketchup at the edge of my bowl but I guess it was an accident and the bowl didn't come with any. At least I didn't taste any.

This $7 bowl was loaded with ingredients. Sliced pork, minced pork, pork balls, stewed mushrooms and thin sliced pig livers topped with what appeared to be fried garlic bits. Not getting much flavour from the fried pork lard. Saucing was not bad but it's not as punchy as I normally prefer and the chilli is weak. 

I'm ranking this below Tai Hwa, Tai Wah at Holland Drive and Lai Heng. Wouldn't mind getting a bowl if I'm in the vicinity but wouldn't go out of the way for it.

Tong Kee Chicken Rice (東記雞飯), Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

Tong Kee Chicken Rice has relocated from their previous premise at Tanglin Halt to the new Margaret Drive Hawker Centre (#01-36, 38A Margaret Drive). I guess it's their coming to the full circle, at least for location, since they started off at the old Margaret Drive Hawker Centre originally. Notice that they have poached chicken these days.

Queue was pretty long, was in line for about 25 minutes or so.

I was curious about the poached chicken since they've never had it. Not bad, pretty tender but it's not the poached chicken standards that Sin Kee has. The dark meat portions were tender and slurp off the bone tender but the breast meat while respectably moist wasn't as impressive.

We ordered a portion of roast pork. These guys don't do the rendition with crunchy skin and melty fat layers. These are hardier and more chewy. Best to be eaten with the brown sauce that they serve with their eggs.

This brown sauce.

A light cabbage soup which accompanies each order that is better than many.

Guess it was good enough that I got a second bowl of rice.