Cumi Bali, Tras Street

Bali Cumi has moved from their previous location at Tanjong Pagar Road to Tras Street (50 Tras Street, tel : +65 6220 6619) a couple of years back. The current location appears to be...more atmospheric compared to the old place. Here's a bunch of stuff we had. 

My opinion is that while their recipe for sambal petai passes muster, the execution was not ideal. Some of the petai tasted undercooked and green-y. Makes me miss the superior renditions from places like Tian Tian Seafood and Sin Hoi Sai.

Am pretty sure the texture and size of their perkedel are different. These were softer and smaller than the ones we've had previously at their old location.

Trying their ikan bakar for the first time. I couldn't reconcile the name because ikan bakar is grilled fish.

This fish was obviously steamed. A spiced paste over leather jacket. Fish tasted like it was previously frozen. Have had leather jackets a number of times and the texture of this one just didn't feel "correct". It's also bland - needed more salt to bring the flavours out. And expensive.

The sate madura was still pretty good even though we were quite sure the marinate or glaze has changed. I remember them being mostly kecap manis previously. There seemed to be more spices in it today. Not that it was bad, just different.

Not the better rendition of nasi kuning around in my opinion. Portions were also puny for what they charged. While it came through with the spices, it was still bland. Apparently, these guys are really worried about salt in their food. Off hand, I can name places like Nusa or the defunct Dancing Fish Signature which had much better tasting nasi kuning.

For prices we were paying, the least we expected was delicious. That's not a tall order considering the options for Indonesian food here. This was kinda disappointing.

Garang Grill Express, City Gate

Garang Grill Express (#02-29 City Gate, 371 Beach Road, tel : +65 9740 6870) is by New Ubin Seafood. Local western food, burgers and pastas is their game.

And also the most competent lamb chops for local western we've come across. Wasn't overcooked into dry stringy leather clinging onto bones. This one was moist and fatty with those fatty bits an awesome pairing with the buttery mash in each mouthful. What made those chops also outstanding was also the flavoring. No rosemary - just salt and pepper. Black pepper sauce on the side tasted like the less spicy version of the ones used for Prosperity Burger. Liked the chilled coleslaw too.

We were also drawn in by their burgers - burgers with smoked beef patties. Got the regular cheese burger minus the exotic toppings. They're nothing to scoff at. Tender beef patties done medium with properly melted cheese, sweated onions, pickles and some sauce for acid between soft squarish buns. Would have been great if they rested the patty a little more but I'm not complaining. Fries were addictive. Will come back. 

McD's sausage breakfast bagel

The sausage breakfast bagel is kinda similar to the previous one - except that it has chicken sausage instead of ham. I like this better. Their order kiosk is still not allowing customization of this one.

The jumbo bowl from Wen Kang Ji (文康記)

One more time at Wen Kang Ji before they move out of Golden Mile Food Centre to Joo Chiat. With this second round, I'm getting a bit more clarity with what I like about them. Or not as much. Egg noodles were competent and the char siew puts them on the map. Shui gao fillings were decent (there's wood ear fungus strips!) but the skin for all their dumplings weren't smooth and a little thicker than I like.

While it's a personal preference, the bowl was lacking in lard (猪油) flavour and that lacking could not have been adequately compensated by their fried lard (猪油渣) as well because as nicely golden brown those fried lard looked, it tasted hollow.

Haidilao (海底捞)

So we've finally tried Haidilao. Visited the branches at Plaza Singapura (#04-01 20 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6250 0330) and 313 Somerset (#04 -23/24 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6835 7227) in the past month. 

Let's start with the broths. Mala milk was good drinking, both fish and collagen broths great as a neutral base for cooking and the tomato broth on thickness overdrive was nice. Curry's okay but it's kinda thin like those from instant noodles.

I like the century egg porridge at the condiments bar. One can basically zhng their concoction with what's available.

There's a variety of munchies to keep mouths busy before the broth and food arrives - which didn't take very long actually.

Yeah but we still loaded up on those munchies which appear to have different varieties at different Haidilao branches.

The options for the concoct yourself sauces were minimally on par with all of the other hot pot experiences we've had. In fact, there seems to be more condiments here.

Between their own branded brews, Haidilao's weissbeir was our favourite. There's only one other which is a lager. Just don't expect Hoegaarden/Kronenbourg Blanc.

The hot pot ingredients on the whole were pretty good quality. One can easily appreciate their appeal based on the food that's also paired with a well thought out service which their wait staff are often ready to respond to.

Tried some beef balls. They were large and denser than I had imagined. Pretty beefy. Not bad tasting.

Sliced beef for the hot pot were pretty decent but we haven't tried their expensive cuts yet.

The shabu sliced pork like what I surmised was likely the best meat for dips because of the neutral flavour.

Half portion of cod was four slices so I'm assuming that the full portion is 8. Kinda pricey but this tasted pretty good.

Frozen tofu (冻豆腐) was a pretty smooth sponge. 

Too much hot pot food so I'm just gonna stop here.

Found guava at the branch at 313. These weren't the hard ones. Nice.

Dessert hack : tau huay and the sesame sauce from the condiments bar together is delicious.

Revisiting Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒蝦麵)

I don't think the stall does the $4 plate anymore. Still haven't changed my mind about the $5 plate being a little small. While people tend to compare them with YouFu, I'm not going to because they're not the same and both fry up their own renditions of competent plates of Hokkien mee.