Sakutto Tempura & Oyster (サクット), Orchard Plaza

Meanwhile, behind the facade of the stoic grey and calm...

...lies Sakutto Tempura & Oyster (#03-33 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road, tel : +65 9888 1510). When you hear words like "authentic hidden gems" and "hands down the best tempura in town" you know you should probably read them with a pinch of salt since the people who would know better will probably not be writing their opinions in English. Even if they did, they'd probably be kind enough not to make us endure such verbiage. Anyways...

We waited pretty long for the food. I nursed a beer to death at that and it was 45 minutes before the first item was served. Through that, there were miscommunications and wrong orders taken. Not gonna go into those details.

This was supposed to be hamaguri chawanmushi with uni. We were told they had run out of hamaguri and asked if we would mind if they replaced it with crab and scallop. We didn't. But when it arrived, there was also no uni. In the bill, they charged us for the hamaguri chawanmushi with uni which was $29. Things to look out for when you pay.

It was another half of a grapefruit sour before the tempura started rolling in.

The first tempura we got was their sakutto ebi tempura. The not overly thick batter was firmly clad on the faintly sweet meaty prawn. The fried head was.......well, sakutto! 😬

Next came gyutan - thick, chewy and tender. Chewing gets more flavour out. Nice this one.

Expensive piece of crispy skinned and moist amadai (tilefish). Also sakutto. Lots of crunch from this one.

Maitake.

Because we've never had ankimo tempura-ed before, we wanted to try.

While ankimo sometimes referred to as the foie gras of the sea, the texture of the liver isn't as rich or melty as foie gras. It's much more tender compared to those chilled ones served with ponzu.

Shirako tempura was wet-tish. Not so much texture contrast coming from the batter. Pretty creamy/milky though.

Tried their A5 Miyazaki wagyu. Not bad but I didn't think it was impressive.

Scallops were nice. Not fully cooked on the inside and still has the natural sweetness that paired harmoniously with the caviar.

Mr Doner Kebab, Fortune Centre

We noticed that this shop (#01-10, Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road, tel  : +65 8138 6491) used to be known as Atas Kebab. You could say that we remembered them because they were atas. 😏 😂

We got ourselves a mixed kebab with butter rice. Pretty much like most of the generic fast food kebab stalls. Not bad tasting but nothing in particular stood out. Wouldn't mind picking a few other things from their menu if we're in the vicinity for sure.

True Breakfast (初早餐), Capitol Piazza

Heard about True Breakfast and their long queues when they first opened up at Cuppage. In retrospect, I couldn't understand why anyone would wait an hour or two in line for the food here. We came by the newer outpost at Capitol Piazza (#01-21 Capitol Piazza, 13 Stamford Road) for breakfast.

Milk tea's weak. Not worth paying even half of what they were charging for this.

Omelette pancakes (蛋餅) weren't bad. Got this with pork floss and hash brown.

There's a signature sandwich that featured luncheon meat, pork chop, omelette, pork floss and peanut butter. Not bad tasting. 

In my opinion, these guys have better food than Breakfast Hola. That being said, I also wouldn't exactly consider food here memorable as well. 

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.