Darkness Dessert (甜品屋), Tanjong Pagar Road

Have been curious about Darkness Dessert (100 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 8842 1263) since I heard about them while back. These guys do traditional Chinese desserts - most of which are pastes. While the menu looked interesting, I didn't like them much. The pastes were starchy. I like them thick but not starchy/gloopy. 

The flavours from the red bean, black sesame and yam weren't as fragrant as we were hoping for. Am also not understanding where they were going with the yam paste with durian. It's not mao shan wang so these were already one down against competition like Ah Chew. Yat Ka Yan's D24 also tasted better. But I'm not faulting that they didn't use mao shan wang. Durian's frozen. Which did nothing but cool and harden the yam paste which hadn't been hot enough to thaw the frozen durian puree.

2ThumbsUp Hainanese Curry Rice, Anchorpoint

Was recommended this (B1‬-47 Anchorpoint, 70 Alexandra Road, ‎tel  : +65 8852 2898) Hainanese curry rice stall. Apparently the brand also includes a cai png stall a Clementi too. Might pay that a visit some day.

I liked it. The braising sauce for the pork belly was intensely flavoured. No gloopy shit. Belly was tender. Fried meatballs were delicious and surprisingly moist under the surface. 

Luncheon meat tasted freshly fried. Chap chye was stewed to tenderness. Each portion had enough curry/lor chup to drench all the rice in warm gravy. Will come back again

Revisiting The Gogijip (고깃집)

Lunch at The Gogijip. Have been wanting to come back to try a couple of stuff on their menu that I don't think is available at the other Korean restaurant here.

Like their minari jeon. Water dropwort pancake. Picture above's from the menu. Looked like it was packed with the minari.

This was what we got. Looked like it had about a third of the minari that the menu conveyed. There's chilli and strips of carrot fillers. The plant tasted similar to green capsicum. Hmm.....for $28? Never again.

The Gogijip might possibly be the only restaurant that has a yukhoe bibimpbap. I think. Are they? The raw beef was marinated with something that was sweet and maybe sesame oil. Not flavourless and it tasted not bad actually on its own.

I topped it up with kimchi and pickled seaweed from the banchan because this bibimbap included vegetables that didn't have much flavour. Which might not have been the best of ideas because I was adding even more texture into an already textured rice salad.

Took a bit of effort to mix. Yukhoe mostly got lost in all those vegetables. Other than the sour from the kimchi and pickled seaweed I added, the only flavour was gochujang. Don't think there was even sesame oil so it's not that great tasting. 

Ethan My Prawn Noodles (壹等蝦麵), Amoy Street Food Centre

Noticed Ethan My Prawn Noodles (#02-106 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) the last time I was here. They're literally next door to Mad Roaster. This was their all prawn bowl which didn't have sliced pork. Okay tasting. Pork lard's crunchy and nice. There appears to be some MSG-ish aftertaste and I'm not sure if that's coming from the chilli sauce. Not an outstanding chilli sauce by the way. 

So the broth. I'm getting crustacean flavour. Though the first couple of words that came to mind were flat and salty.

Lobster broth ramen from Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo

I've finally tried the lobster broth bowl from Keisuke. Strong, normal, hard. Didn't get to when Lobster King was around but they're apparently keeping it on menu at Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo. 

There's a moderated crustacean flavour in the creamy broth - meaning that it's there but not overwhelmingly so. Detected a little bit of heat. Tasted fried shallots too and that's kinda local isn't it. Not bad. Menma here is sweet and the thin sliced charshu was melty. 

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.