Kotuwa, Wanderlust

Kotuwa (Level 1 Wanderlust Hotel, 2 Dickson Road, tel : +65 6970 7838) of Unlisted Collection is by Rishi Naleendra of the former Cheek By Jowl. They're Sri Lankan - or rather a modern interpretation of it.

A shout out here to the bespectacled Chinese dude/wait staff who was with us and explaining the food. Thank you for the patience, for being discreetly observant and brimming with enthusiasm. We were here for lunch on 15th April.

This drink was Sozo - green orange with sea salt. Tasted like 酸梅.

First item up was their mutton rolls - panko-ed, fried served with tamarind ketchup on the side.

Spiced, packed a bit of heat yet balanced enough that it did not mute the flavours of the minced mutton in them. Delicious with and without the tamarind ketchup.

Rice of the day was with ghee, cashews and fried onions. I liked this one much.

That's the egg hopper - hopper being what locals would call appam. How this differs from the street variety appear to be less fermentation in the rice flour used to make the pancake. Hence it was noticeably less tangy. Edges were crispy and the non crispy parts were...actually kinda small. The egg covered most of it. 

The menu described this as Jaffna duck curry which was cooked in a light coconut gravy. More accurately, according to me that is, it's a duck confit in a pretty intense gravy that reminded me of a complex and intensely flavoured black pepper sauce. Wouldn't think of it as light coconut gravy for sure. Nice. Those crispy leaves were also spiced.

Pol sambol - tangy and savoury shredded coconut. Reminded me of the sambol at Rasa Raja Bojun. 

The lychees pickled in mustard and apple cider were delicious. Tangy, sweet and spicy at the same time. 👍🏼

Hell these were great together with the ghee rice.

Tried their watalappam tart. I tasted coconut, jaggery and spices amid the strips of orange zest in there. The green stuff were bits of pistachio and the cream on top was had a sweet milky cardamom flavour which reminded me of kheer/payasam.

The menu described this as buffalo curd parfait. I kept thinking cheese curds for some reason, totally forgetting that the word 'curd' in Indian food refers to yoghurt. So after the first mouthful I remembered. I'd call it yoghurt kulfi - with crushed cashews and a very understated Kithul caramel.

Ended with a cold coffee - Sri Lankan styled according to the menu. Pretty thick, spiced, sweet and milky. I think this needs less ice. A lot less ice.

"Very Hot" dan dan noodle from Enishi

In spite of appearances and the "very hot" option on their spicy-meter, this dan dan noodle from Enishi wasn't very spicy at all. I thought it was mild. The difference between this and "medium hot"...barely registered. Still delicious though. I've figured out a combination which worked today with this bowl. A few scoops of the house made chilli, some pepper from their mill and a few swirls of their orange vinegar made a rockin' bowl. For me it did. 

To frame a reference - even with that extra heat, it was nowhere close to Ikkousha's God Fire Level 4.

More hot pottery at Shi Li Fang (食立方)

More hot potting at Shi Li Fang. I've never been big on hot pots/steamboats for a large part of my life until this place and Happy Lamb Hotpot (快乐小羊). What likely made me reevaluate them was probably seeded by the surreal experience at Fong Wing Kee Hot Pot years ago. These places have changed my view slowly but surely in the past decade and so now I'll probably need to try Hai Di Lao someday since I haven't already. Hah! 😬

We've kinda stuck to the chicken collagen broth mostly. Savoury yet neutral the same.

I love these concoct your own sauces stations.

Noticed that they have a chilli sauce that I've never seen before. The type that tastes refreshingly spicy/sweet/tangy like those kickass ones that Putien has.

Their thin sliced pork is probably the best meat for the sauces we had.

Unlike lamb which I usually try not to get too much sauce on.

I'm not going to describe everything else because.

The experience here so far has always been pretty good.

It's a place I look forward to for something that is frills free.

Until the day comes when I try Hai Di Lao. I hear they're good.

Gotta get the vegetable game up here.

Frozen scallops are actually quite nice.

You tiao is great for dipping into the broth.

Man we had 15 quail eggs in this seating.

One last Bari-Uma Ramen at Tanglin

Ten years ago, we tried Bari-Uma for the first time at the basement of Tanglin Shopping Centre. I remember being impressed with their blend of tonkotsu shoyu which was new thing for us then. These guys have kind of become a fixture in the in the building for the past decade. They'll also be closed by the time of this posting. From what we heard from them, the building has been sold so the existing tenants had to move out.

We were attended to by a chirpy server Aoi who lamented over the stoppage of their cheese gyozas on the menu when we asked about them. Anyways, our last bowls here before this place is gone for good.

It was a good time for me to quell the curiosity over their kara tama uma bowl - yeah, that spicy bowl with agi tama. The broth which I'm guessing was a spice blend infused into their tonkotsu shoyu was spicy and creamy - it even had a particular taste that came from dried chilli which I normally don't detect in spicy ramens. I liked it. Heat's manageable. Not as spicy as Ikkousha's God Fire Level 4. 

Gyoza's okay. Had a cabbage-y/chives-y classic taste which reminded me of the first times I've had gyoza.

I'm surprised that their tori karaage were small. Kinda like large chicken popcorns. Hot, juicy and had a light gingery flavour.

Till the next time Bari-Uma.

Boomarang, The Quayside

Have finally gotten over my curiosity about Boomarang (#01-15 The Quayside, 60 Robertson Quay, tel  : +65 6738 1077) today. Part of the reason why the curiosity was because, I've never been able to definitively describe what's Australian about Australian food due to the cultural confluence that has been part of their cuisine.

I won't pretend that Boomerang is a definitive of that because it won't be and cannot be. But it is still a casual representative? Superficially?

There's Suntory Black on tap. Did not expect this.

These are known as prawn cutlets on the menu. Deep fried coconut crumbed prawns is what they were. No coconut taste so it was pretty meh. Overpriced for it's portion but I won't complain because I came here of my own accord and didn't have a gun over my head to order them.

Kangaroo burger was....kinda boring. I've had kangaroo before and have enjoyed it. This one wasn't delicious. At least I didn't think it was. Won't find excuses for it. I'm not sure what to make out of that patty but it didn't taste satisfying. For some reasons, they didn't salt the meat much.

Pizza's called Far North Queensland. Prawns, salmon, calamari and spinach on a mango chutney base. Did not expect the crust to be so biscuit thin. It was okay. Okay meaning that if I ever came back I won't be ordering it again. The accompanying yoghurt on the side was nice though.

The closest place I could relate to in Melbourne was The General Assembly and those guys were way better for what we ate.

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee (香港街珍記), Bukit Merah Lane

Haven't eaten at Hong Kong Street Chun Kee (125 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-190, tel : +65 6271 8484) for a long time.

Yu gai mai fan (鱼鸡米粉) was disappointing. I normally wouldn't complain about hua diao wine in the broth but today's was excessive to cover up the lack of proper flavour in it. The chunks of yu gai were also smaller than what we had been expecting. With a reputation like theirs, I hadn't expected this particular dish to be sub par.

Cereal fried rice was competent though. Looked like yang zhou fried rice (扬州炒饭) heaped over with cereal. There's real char siew in it. No excessive grease and it was a good mix of savoury sweetness.

This was a claypot of fish maw, prawns and scallops. Pretty good quality seafood there. Loved those old school firm and crunchy prawns.