年年有鱼 at Etna

Our 年年有鱼 at Etna. Looking back (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十), the most memorable item I've ordered from them came from the first visit.

We got those triangular slices of garlic bread today. Those were nice. The focaccia were good for soaking up olive oil or sauces.

Red snapper carpaccio with fennel was a special from their board. Didn't think much of it. If one stacked the thin slices of fish, it wouldn't be enough to make even a slice of sashimi. $26? Hmmm......

Picture of the beetroot tagliatelle looked pink but this was what we got. There's chunks of seabass and some bits of crab it it. The creamy sauce was not bad tasting at all but I couldn't identify the mascarpone or whisky that's supposed to be in it.

Salt baked sea bass was the most exciting.

For some reasons, I thought of the dying embers from the flames at Etna as the burning salt crust was cracked open.

Nice quality fish. This manager-guy-dude didn't look like he was very proficient with deboning and plating it. He attempted to "olive oil-Bae" it though, through an amusingly jaded look. Anyways...olive oil, salt, garlic and a bit of rosemary - that's all there was to it and it was delicious.

Grilled vegetables on the side for the fish.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, Da Paolo's Gastronomia has nicer pistachio gelato than Etna. Sounds sad but that's what it was.

Hapiha, Beauty World Food Centre

Hapiha (#04-55 Beauty World Center, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 9236 2430) describe themselves to be mediterranean fast food which I guess is kinda accurate. The menu feels Greek to me. Anyways that's their pork souvlaki on pita.

I enjoyed the freshness of the food. Loved the hot pita, crisp vegetables and the refreshing tzatziki. But the pork was tougher than I liked - would have been great if they had used tenderloin instead of loin because the former probably the only cut of pork where those wooden fork/knife they provided could be useful. 🙃 Don't mind coming back though.

Chirashizushi Shou, Bukit Timah Plaza

Local joint that's known for raw fish rice bowls. The folks behind Chirashizushi Shou (#B1-55A Bukit Timah Plaza, 1 Jalan Anak Bukit, tel : +65 8810 4190) are same as the ones that previously used to run the currently defunct Sumo-Ya. Shop is right next door to Myung Ga II.

From what I understood, the rice in chirashi uses sumeshi which is the vinegared rice that is used for shari in sushi. Kaisendon uses regular rice. Everything here uses sumeshi so I don't know what is the difference between their chirashi and kaisendon. They don't even differentiate between chirashi and barachirashi.

That's their kaki chirashi don. Technically a kaki barachirashi but let's not go further down that road. The quality of the cubed sashimi was meh. 😒 Oysters were awesome though. 😬 Three fat, creamy and briny ones which were pretty much the stars of the bowl.

Their premium aburi don featured scallops, unagi, anago, ikura and three thick slices of fish - salmon, hamachi and what I believe to be tuna. I wasn't sure. 😂 Yeah, it's like that. Aside from the eels, the rest of the fishes were strangely muted in flavour and also lacking much smokiness from the aburi. Even the scallops didn't have much taste.😳

Grilled prawns with mentai mayo were not bad tasting though. 

There's sanma shioyaki. Enjoyed it. Fish was small but it also wasn't expensive.

Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice, Food Opera @ ION Orchard

I've had chicken rice from Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice previously. Like 10 years ago. This was exactly the same order and it's $2 more these days. Still delicious with that pandan infused aromatic rice.

M.M.H Tiffin Centre, ABC Brickworks Food Centre

I remember M.M.H Tiffin Centre (#01-15 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah) from the last times we were here because I noticed that they had pongal on their menu. Am pretty sure they are the only Indian stall here that has pongal.

It did not turn out to be what I expected. Their rendition was much more wet and loose...somewhat akin to risotto or porridge. Couldn't discern any ghee. 😞 The nuts were sparse and chopped up into little bits. Cumin flavour was at least there. What I didn't like about it were the bits of ginger strewn in it. Well, at least now I know. 

Lau Jiang Fishball Minced Meat Noodle Laksa, Jalan Membina

I've been asked if I had tried the laksa from this stall (18 Jalan Membina) at least a couple of times from different people recently. That and we've noticed an increase in their mentioned online. Also recently. Haven't heard of them until recently so we got curious.

They're apparently known for their laksa. Not a bad rendition. What I liked was that their gravy was sufficiently lemak and the bowl even came with shredded chicken. The fried dumplings which seemed to be what got people excited about were not bad tasting once they've soaked up all that gravy.

There's also fishball bak chor mee. Pretty decent bowl if not entirely outstanding. What was prominent was the strength of the vinegar in the minced pork that was the dominant flavour.

 The fish stuff with the accompany soup was decent.

The laksa which is talked about made by the proprietors that are in the stall from 5am to 1pm and I think they don't do Sundays. There's a change of people in the afternoon who sells the same stuff. 

The laksa from those afternoon folks was also decent but there's no fried dumpling or shredded chicken. Ah ha! Different tenants then. There's an additional half an egg and more tau pok though. The latter was of a different quality that didn't absorb the gravy as well as those from the morning folks.