Seaweed shio pan from BreadTalk

Regular shio pans (salted and buttered rolls) can be found in a number of bakeries here. Came across these seaweed ones from the BreadTalk at ION Orchard. That "special-er" one that has stuff most of the other outlets don't. This was actually pretty good. Buttery, salty and at the risk of being Captain Obvious, seaweed-y. Yeap, the seaweed flavour came through. I like this. 👍🏼

Truffle Fried Rice/Udon Max from Wok Hey

I've gotten fried rice from Wok Hey a number of times. They're generally okay (from my experience at least) for something that's a quick hot meal. Because each time is probably a different person cooking, the standards tend to fluctuate. Somewhat. This Christmas special from them is Truffle Fried Rice Max. There's a cheesy chicken snail sausage, macadamia nuts and cranberries. Not bad tasting. Savoury and occasional pops of citrus sweet from the cranberries. Pretty flavourful from the truffle paste they put in it.

A few days later......

So I wanted to try the udon just to see what was the difference. There's macadamia and cranberries along with the cheese chicken snail sausage like the fried rice. What's apparent was that this tasted sweeter compared to the rice which was more savoury. Was also less truffle-y. The texture and sweetness kinda reminded me of char kuey teow. Pretty sure there's a generous amount of oil in there for that smooth slurpability. Between the two, I like the rice better.

Shake Shack's Black Truffle Burger

Okay, this tasted like how I imagined it - a little less cheesy because it was Swiss cheese instead of American, a bit more creamy, truffled from the black truffle mayo and shot through with the bite from arugula. Much of the fried onions were lost among everything else but no complains from me. Happily washed this down with the Shackmeister which an ale as golden as the brass emblems on their marble walls.

Yu Zhong Bu Tong (鱼众不同), Food Republic @ Wisma Atria

I hear words like farm-to-table associated with Yu Zhong Bu Tong (#04-02 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road) which makes me slightly wary. It shows that they have some marketing savvy but often those are in place to make up for the lack of actual quality. Then there's also because 'farm-to-table' in my view is this era's literary prostitute. But we took the bait to find out for ourselves.

This was the zesty winter melon - winter melon in some orange-y sauce. Awesome. Lived up to its namesake by the sweetness that paired with a vibrant citrus. Refreshing is the appropriate word.

Tried a couple of broths for their fish. We ordered grouper in sauerkraut and sea bass in tomato. Latter's sweet and maybe because of the real melted tomatoes, reminded me of 番茄蛋. Not a bad one, couldn't hate it but I wouldn't get it again. Much prefer the sauerkraut (酸菜) broth which naturally appealed with the light heat, tanginess and salt. Very drinkable stuff.

The gripe I had was with how they prepared fish. As much 'farm-to-table'-ism they'd like us to buy into, it's not relevant to the execution which was far from satisfying. Fish was sliced too thin so it's kinda hard to tell that the grouper was grouper since the texture was kinda similar. Said thin slices fell apart easily. Mouthfeel differentiation was also lost. So, no need to pay more for the grouper.

Topped one of the bowls with fish stomach. Pretty sure I've had them before and these weren't like those. This was tough. Tougher than pig's stomach kind of tough. If these were sliced into strips, it's still be generally too tough kind of tough. Couldn't eat most of them. Note to self : never get fish stomach here agin.

Parmesan Truffle Chicken and Zhng Zinger from KFC

Those who never learn history are condemned to repeat it. I felt like I wanted to check these out from KFC hoping that maybe, just maybe, things have gotten better. 

When I get Jollibee, the first elicited response when I take a bite of their chicken is usually a silent 'yummy!'. KFC usually gets me to 'fuck, this tasted unhealthy!' There's a bit of truffle flavour and it was pretty cheesy in a cheap cheesy way for the parts with the cheese powder. The crusty bits got to me after a while because the parts that didn't have cheese were bland. Meat's a bit dry.

Despite apprehension, I got the Zhng Zinger anyway. Since I've already transgressed, might as well poke around. Apparently this was inspired by some TikTok dude. Chicken was pretty tender. With the hot sauce and the pickles, it was actually not bad. Until the pickles ran out in a few bites. That's when it regressed back into a regular Zinger with dry buns. Couldn't taste the onion rings in it all. Cheese? Do you even see it? Will take Popeyes' chicken sandwich over this any day.

It might have been psychological at this point but eating the cheese fries felt like a coat in the arteries minus the satisfaction. The best part of this visit was probably gulping down the Coke Zero to wash away all the grease.

Renewal at Nakajima Suisan

It's been at least a couple of years since we ate at Nakajima Suisan. Definitely missed them. (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六) The global pandemic had been in part, one of the reasons why we haven't been eating here. The other reason was of course, the usual relentless queue the shop has which can sometimes be deterring.

That being said, they have upgraded the premise. Seating capacity is about double what they once were and there seems to be minor changes to their teishoku. Apart from the old shredded cabbage salad with sesame dressing which doesn't seem to have seaweed anymore and the takuan, they've now also, if you would believe it, a little dish of chuka wakame with mala flavour.

There's also options to top up the rice with mentaiko or negitoro. We got the latter.

Fell back to some stuff which we thought was reliable. This akauo hiraki teishoku was satisfying. Fish was clean tasting, flaky and meaty at the same time with that faint prawny aroma.

On the other end was their buttery mero teriyaki which was flaky and rich. The crisped up skin was so good.