Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original (东陵酥皮咖喱角正宗老店), Hong Lim Food Centre

Previously we tried a couple of curry puffs from Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (东陵酥皮咖喱角). We picked up a couple of the same puff types from the competitor Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original (东陵酥皮咖喱角正宗老店) (#02-36 Hong Lim Food Center, 531A Upper Cross Street). So it's the smiley paper bags versus the plastic bag puffs.

We were thinking of comparisons so we got ourselves their chicken/potato and otah puffs. The chicken & potato puff like the other stall doesn't have much chicken. It's mostly curried potatoes and didn't pack much heat.

The flavours for both stalls were pretty similar. The only thing I could discern was perhaps Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original (these ones with the smiley paper bag if you had gotten confused) was less spicy than Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (previous one with plastic bags). Both were pretty competent in their own rights.

Never getting past the capped short loin of lamb at iSteaks

Yes I'm probably never getting past the capped short loin of lamb.

We were offered eggnog on the house because Christmas spirit. Don't think I tasted alcohol in it. Just a faint nutmeg in background.

First time trying the carbonara at iSteaks. It......wasn't what I expected. There's no cream nor did it taste eggy. I'm not sure what it was besides the cheese but it wasn't a bad tasting pasta. 

Like I said, couldn't get past this. So good.

Fried chicken was an add on. Wouldn't get it again. A bit too much batter which was overly grease logged.

May Pho Culture, Fook Hai Building

Heard a bit of mentions about May Pho Culture (#01-16 Fook Hai Building, 150 South Bridge Road, tel : +65 9646 2589) recently so decided to check them out.

Tried a couple of bowls their rice noodles that they were supposed to be known for - phở tài nam gan and phở gầu. The latter has beef brisket and the former beef tendons.

Broth was full flavoured and beefy. Brisket was the non fatty cut so there wasn't anything noteworthy about it.

Not a fan of their gỏi cuốn because of the sawtooth coriander flavour in it.

Pretty impressed with their chả giò though. The rolls were crispy and the fillings had a pretty distinctive aroma of mushrooms which I enjoyed. This was worth coming back for.

Drip coffee's not bad. Thick, sweet and pretty aromatic.

Joséphine, Amoy Street

Mixed feelings about Joséphine (97 Amoy Street, tel : +65 9642 4901). Great service crew with food that were hits and misses. Got the sensing that the balance of their setup leaned a little bit more towards style over substance. 

Not that the food was bad but I had this feeling that they're were trying to impress rather than feed you.

Bread - first round's on the house and any extras are chargeable. I'll understand if a place like Belon charges for bread. Even Claudine or perhaps Gaston. Because they have bread that's above the run of the mill or even exceptional. But this?

Portion of the sea bass ceviche was small. Not bad tasting but not getting much for $24. Fish was so cured that it looked cooked.

Pan fried foie gras on toasted sourdough was delicious. Menu mentioned honey sauce but that sauce tasted like caramel. Nice.

Here's when they brought out the more serious knives. Joséphine knives.

We had pork tenderloin with what was described as foie gras and morel sauce. Said sauce was not bad tasting but not outstanding or memorable. For something that was described to be made with foie gras and morel, I tasted neither the liver nor mushroom in it. Otherwise, it's a not bad tasting dish which I will never order again.

I liked how the flavour of the fish was in the sauce of the monkfish blanquette. Love the buttered bread that came with it. But for $36, that was pretty much all the monkfish there was.

Lamb was marinated and processed to subdue the natural flavour of the meat so I'm sinning it. Kinda defeated the reason why I ordered it. There was a caramelized sweetness on the meat which I didn't expect. 

The only silver lining that came out of how they treated the meat was that I could use the blue cheese sauce without feeling guilty about drowning out the natural lamb-y flavour because there was little to drown in the first place.

Dessert was riz au lait. Nicely done with a creamy vanilla richness in the rice and crispy caramelized fragrance from the sliced almonds. Pleasantly surprised.

Revisiting Un-Yang-Kor-Dai

S'been a while since our last and first time at Un-Yang-Kor-Dai. The restaurant has expanded with larger seating capacity. The vibe here for Thai food feels somewhat like how Tambuah Mas is to Indonesian food.

Cha ron was thick, creamy and not excessively sweet. Nice.

These were deep fried prawn and scallop cakes. Underneath the crispy surface was fluffy and tender almost like crushed tofu or egg white. Couldn't definitively discern prawn or scallops in it but it was seafood-y and pretty tasty.

Pretty impressed by their rich red curry with grilled chicken. Think sweet, fruity, spicy and creamy altogether. Pretty lemak stuff. Menu mentioned lychee and tomatoes but there's also mango and pineapple. This one has just stepped up to replace the panaeng roast duck curry from Sawadee Thai as my favourite fruity roast bird curry. 👍🏼

Omelette with minced pork not bad. 

What was kickass with rice was the stir fried morning glory with chilli and garlic. I think I tasted fish sauce and oyster sauce in it too.

Did not expect the tom yum mama noodles with prawns and minced pork to be in so large portion. Broth was sweet, tangy and spicy while those large prawns were fresh and sweet. A little refined but not bad.

Part of their festive menu included a sea bass tom yum coconut soup. From the picture, we were given the impression that it would be like tom kha gai but the real thing didn't have coconut milk. The broth was made with coconut juice. Slightly disappointed but the tangy spicy soup was delicious and the thick slices of fish were fresh and good quality.

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. 👍🏼