$7 at Yuan Chun Famous Lor Mee (源春驰名卤面)

The price of the large bowl from Yuan Chun has gone up by a dollar since the last time but the bowl's still good and the toppings are still generous. For someone who's not exactly a fan of lor mee, I'm really digging this.

Omoté Cosmo, Raffles City

Decided to check out Omoté in town (#B1-44C Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, tel +65 9899 3670). The menu's much smaller than their main outlet in Thomson and there appears to be "Korean" items on menu.

What have we here?

Just ikura chawanmushi. Not bad tasting.

Black truffle tako karaage was expensive and drenched in mediocrity. Batter was soggy from all the sweet sauce which I didn't expect to be all over the karaage. On top of that (the bottom actually), there's a pool of something that tasted like goma dressing at the bottom of the plate. Truffle flavour was faint at best. Wouldn't recommend it.

Tried their truffle roasted garlic chirashi - barely tasted any truffle and there was a sweet sauce (tasted like goma dressing as well) in it. If I had to describe this in a word, it would be 'edible'.

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!