Covent Garden Prawn Noodle has changed

I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost....for none now...oops. Not that one.

Anyways, some things are definitely different. Like their red bowls. This was a $5 bowl. I asked for pig's skin and it's still $5, so does that mean that there was no charge? Mee kia clumped. What did that mean you might wonder? It meant that the noodles weren't tossed and as generous as they were with fried pork lard (猪油渣), there was barely any rendered lard (猪油) in the noodles to keep them from sticking to one another. Next was the alkali taste in those noodles - never remembered them being there.

Soup also tasted less rounded. The lady that used to take orders and peel prawns is now cooking!

Sinpopo, Tangs

We came across Sinpopo some time ago at Joo Chiat. They're no longer there and have shifted to Tangs (#02-22/27/29 Tang Plaza, 310 Orchard Road, tel : +65 9785 1749), taking over the spot vacated by Providore and beyond. The place/service feels more posh than the impression we had from seeing them previously. The kind that will attract tai tais and Peranakan aunties.

Menu looked like it was worth a try.

This coffee - fresh pressed kopi-o with sweet milk foam made from a local roast. Not nice. Not for me at least. They said it would taste like kopi as we know it but it didn't. Anyways, coffee's weak and the milk did not taste like condensed or evaporated ones. Their regular latte is much nicer.

Pretty enjoyable calamari and you tiao rojak. Punchy hae ko. Would have been even better if they were more generous with the crushed peanuts. I'm not complaining here.

Crayfish curry pho - it's more like laksa than pho. Reminded me a little bit of the crayfish laksa that used to be at Island Cafe upstairs years ago. I liked everything about it. From the lemak curry to the smokey grilled crayfish or the crispy lady's fingers and tender aubergine. The only thing pho about it was the rice noodles. Delicious and pretty small portions.

Yeap, thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of their well received dish was their baked miso cod hor fun. We tried and thought it wasn't bad. Couldn't make much out of the salty black cod broth but it was nice altogether with the wok hei from the hor fun. Portions pretty small.

After the crayfish and the hor fun, this was the next, coincidentally maybe, smokey tasting dish - their smokey savoy cabbage. The portions of fish maw and black fungus were a little sad but the smokey braised cabbage made up for it. Not sure what the superior stock in there was about but it was deliciously salty.

Got a bingka ubi for dessert. These were served warm. The local kuehs here give off the same kind of vibes as those from Chalk Farm if you catch my drift.

Sinpopo also has a delicious durian (mao shan wang/猫山王) sticky rice. I love this. Lashes of gula melaka over durian pulp on top of warm glutinous rice soaking in the coconut milk thingy.

The Little Red Hen, Amoy Street Food Centre

Heard/read about The Little Red Hen (#01-66 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) doing nasi ulam. Ordered the ayam percik version which came with grilled chicken, half an egg and some urap. 

Most of the flavour from the nasi ulam was laksa leaves and lemongrass - not getting much of what else was inside. Liked that the bean sprouts from the urap were cooked. I had been imagining the gravy on the chicken to be coconut-y but it turned out to be tangy - almost fruit like. Nice. 👍🏼

The description of nasi ulam mentioned about hand sliced herbs which were massaged into the rice. I got a fresh batch from my order and 'massaged' wasn't exactly the word I would use. Stirred and mixed in sounds about right.

Ah Yat Kitchen (阿一厨坊), Far East Plaza

I remember Ah Yat Kitchen (#05-36 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6235 2988) from back in the day they were operating at the Food Republic at Capitol Piazza. Didn't realize that they've relocated themselves next door to Nanbantei until very recently. Food here is serviceable and pretty affordable - this isn't the kind of place for exquisite.

Milk tea's okay.

I kinda liked their century and salted egg congee. This had the creamy texture of well boiled rice. There're also tender shreds of pork in it.

Spinach dumpling with shrimp tasted pretty good. If spinach and shrimps are your kind of thing. To be a little less ambiguous, I definitely don't mind eating this again.

French toast was forgettable.

Didn't help that the syrup was very sweet and single dimensional. Look at how little of the toast was soaked through with the egg.

Har gow skin was a little thick. Didn't taste bad though.

Pretty decent pan fried radish cake. 

Also pretty decent char siew bao. Stuff that I wouldn't mind coming back for.

Siew mai was chunky with a porcine and mushroom-y flavour. Again, very serviceable standards. There's definitely better out there but the same can be said for the other end of the spectrum.

A few more stuff from Legendary Hong Kong

A few quick notes from over a few visits to Legendary Hong Kong.

Pretty good luncheon meat and egg sandwich they do. I believe the picture has spoken for itself.

Yes, I like their rendition of chow meen.

Like the fried cod which we had previously, I had initially thought the fried tofu cubes to be uninteresting. Ended up enjoying them much more than I expected. Perhaps it was the appropriately savoury batter on them.

Not a fan of their ma lai ko. Even though these were also freshly steamed, the flavour wasn't quite what I was looking for. Lacked the brown sugar fragrance.

While red bean and milk tea are both not unusual, we've never had them together before. Tasted like milk tea and red bean. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Okay-ish prawn toast. They weren't bad. Just didn't have much else to say about them.

Enjoyed their roast pork rice. The roast pork was cut thick and chunky. Meat was relatively tender coupled with a good bite while the crackling was crispy. They were pretty good eating with the accompanying mustard on the side. I was surprised by how tender the vegetable was.

Some year end seasonals from Sushiro

This was from a recent visit to Sushiro with their Hokkaido Winter Fiesta seasonals.

There's stuff like torched mentaiko from that.

Kazunoko's not from the Fiesta. It's usually on menu. I liked the slightly squeaky texture of the roe paired with vinegary tanginess and the bit of smokiness from bonito.

These are Hokkaido chika tempura - delicious fried little white fish good enough that we ordered seconds of.

Big chunky Hokkaido scallops that were also "tempura-ed". Beneath that greasy batter were large and moist scallops. More than a mouthful kind of large if anyone was wondering.

Broiled sardines from Hokkaido as well. Flavourful from the rendered oils through the torching.

Aburi tako was not good. Not enough torching and not much of an aroma.

Aburi nodoguro was not from the Fiesta. This was one of the nicer nigiri Sushiro has from time to time.

The other gem from them is aburi engawa. Also not from the Fiesta. Have only encountered them once previously and worth getting when they're around. This one was shoyu glazed.

Hokkaido melon catalana. Sweet and very creamy.

Hojicha parfait was nice. For some reasons, there was also a scoop of matcha ice cream in there as well.