Jia Li Seafood Soup (佳丽), Holland Village

I've been seeing the mention of Jia Li Seafood Soup quite a bit of late so we checked out the branch at Holland Village which was located in the same coffeeshop as Pepper Castle (33 Lorong Liput).

It's okay. I wasn't sure what to expect but I didn't think it was impressive. This was the sliced red grouper soup. I wouldn't classify the flavour of the soup as great. Just passable. Measly quantity of slice red grouper and the texture was suspect. They're normally pretty firm and these were falling apart when I picked them up with my chopsticks. Meat patties were not bad tasting though. Should I have ordered the seafood soup that they're supposedly known for instead of fish soup?

Revisiting Pavilion Banana Leaf

Back at Pavilion Banana Leaf. Mango lassi's nice in a way where the flavours of both the mango and curd were balanced with each other. Delicious but not a lot of volume though and it did look very yellow.

We've seen a number of people ordering the lamb shank briyani. It wasn't bad tasting. Lamb was tender and the rich masala was spicy and nutty. But for at about $40, the portions of both the shank and the rice were pretty small.

This was masala chilli prawn. From the name, it sounded red or brown and smothered in a thick gravy. The dish turned out in an off-white (albeit very) and spicy coconut gravy.

The coconut-y gravy was infused with sweetness from onions, the crustacean flavours from the prawns and heat from chillis. 3 large meaty prawns with head fat. This was more delicious than I had imagined.

Some butter naan to soak up the masala chilli prawn's milky richness.

Lontong with paru and begedil for breakfast at Nusa & Tara

This lontong from Nusa & Tara was so satisfying. Savoury lemak from the coconut-y gravy, saltiness from the paru goreng and some spiced sweetness from the serunding.

Surprise update 5/5/2024...

No begedil or extra serunding today. Just paru goreng. Another satisfying lontong breakfast. 

Kuey teow dry from Ethan My Prawn Noodles

Came back to try the dry kuey teow from Ethan My Prawn Noodles. This was their classic bowl that includes sliced pork.

It's very light on the salt. Even so after I've emptied the soya sauce into the bowl. What really added salt for me though was their sliced chilli. Their version of dry kuey teow also came with some dark soya sauce. Hmmm...

Soup's like the last time but I thought it was better drinking today.

Re-revisiting Ramen Hitoyoshi (ラーメン人吉)

Ramen Hitoyoshi's spicy tonkotsu isn't very spicy. It is however savoury in a different way from their regular tonkotsu bowl from the spicy meat paste. Can't put a finger on exactly what brand of umami that added. Haven't quite identified it.

Todays special charshu bowl had smokey melty charshu unlike the bacon they gave us the last time. It was also significantly thicker than the ones we had in the first visit. Now we know this is inconsistent.

More food at The Hainan Story Chapter One

It's been a while since the last time we were at The Hainan Story Chapter One. There're some limited time Milo themed stuff on their menu.

Like their Hainanese Three Treasures drink which is iced yuan yang + Milo. Pretty impressed that this drink succeeded in balancing the coffee, the tea and the Milo flavours.

Hmmm......fried chicken with Milo. A familiar combination. Methinks the Milo chicken cutlet needs more Milo powder for a more robust malty chocolate taste. That tangy/sweet/slightly spicy bbq sauce on the side paired pretty well with Milo chicken cutlet. If I were to venture a guess, I'd think it was spicy ketchup with Worcestershire sauce. Fried chicken was passable but not impressive. Fries were forgettable.

I like the light tomato flavour in the local Hainanese borscht profile of the beefy oxtail stew. Paired nicely with the buttery mash. Pity the dish failed with the tenderness of the oxtail. It's a pain in the ass dealing with meat you can't easily remove on such bony cuts.