88 Hong Kong Roast Meat Specialist (88 香港燒臘), Far East Square

We've heard about 88 Hong Kong Roast Meat Specialist for some time now and have never gotten to try their roasts until today. The media, relatives and friends. Have not yet heard a bad thing about them. This was their relatively new branch at Far East Square (19 China Street, tel : +65 8225 2495). 

Pretty impressed with their fatty char siew and tender roast pork with the crunchy crackling. It's as good as what people are claiming. Duck's decent but not outstanding compared to their pork roasts. Egg's okay. Haven't tried their original stall at Tyrwhitt Road to be able to determine if there are differing standards but perhaps it's not going to matter for now. This location was much more accessible 

Wanton's decent too. Again, nothing outstanding but I wouldn't mind having them again. Check out those pieces of fried lard in the soup.

The gravy was delicious. Sweet and full bodied without being starchy. Each mouthful of rice was a decision between gravy, roasted chilli or both. Will definitely be back.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Seventeen

Year XVII. 23.M2. It's been 17 years of small potato-ing. Some months back, a comment was left on the blog about....well, blogs such as this having fallen out of trend. Guess I'm one of the outcast dead. But I'm also pretty sure this will outlast The Horus Heresy.

Teochew Beef Kway Teow (潮洲牛肉粿條), Amoy Street Food Centre

I've been wanting to try Teochew Beef Kway Teow (#01-23 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road) for a while now. Hasn't been easy since these guys are only open in the weekdays from 9am to about 2pm. Since they were pretty much the only Teochew beef noodle stall left that I'm aware of, I wanted to know if they were as good as the word on them was.

Got myself a bowl of sliced beef and tendon dry kuey teow. This was the spicy bowl. In retrospect, I'll get the non spicy version the next time.

The meat toppings were generous. What convinced me that this will not be my last time here were the dried fermented black bean you could help yourself to at the front of the stall. Never had that as an option and it's kickass awesome as an additional nuanced layer of saltiness introduced into the kuey teow. Loved it.

Dapur Penyet, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Dapur Penyet has opened at Tiong Bahru Plaza (#02-137 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road).

Bandung grass jelly.

Tried a couple of their grilled stuff. I guess they were okay. Half of the meat from the beef rib was dry and stringy. Pomfret was so so. Everything tasted mostly of kecap manis.

Chicken satay was large and meaty but these are nowhere close to the ones from Cumi Bali.

Eggs belado. Their belado tasted similar to the ones from Sari Ratu but packed substantially more heat.

This was called sayur asam - vegetable soup with assam. It's sour but also sweet so it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Aside from the sparse vegetables, there's soy beans it it. Me no like.

Revisiting Sakari Sushi

It's been almost a decade since we were first/last at Sakari Sushi. This was again lunch.

Ordered the green tea iced because the weather was blistering. These tasted more diluted than they looked. $3 a cup lightly murky green iced water?

Lunch came with salad with goma dressing. I kinda liked this for some reasons. Maybe it's because it's well tossed and chilled.

Chawanmushi was like half filled. Or half empty depending on your perspective. Only kamaboko and some mushrooms. Dashi was weak.

I have the impression that their barachirashi felt more premium in the past. That's just an impression. Still tasted nice though with the finely diced seafood. Portion felt small.

Another option for lunch was their mini donburi which included both aburi engawa don and a kaisen don. I thought this felt more satisfying compared to the barachirashi this time round.

The aburi engawa bowl was sublime. Didn't expect to find bits of chopped squid in it. This was smokey, melty with the fat of the fin over the rice and well salted. Nice. 👍🏼

The other mini bowl was a small kaisen don. Wasabi's grated. Not bad - had a cleaner taste compared to the engawa.

Xiang Ji Hainanese Chicken Rice, Porridge and Noodle (香記海南雞飯, 粥, 面), Holland Village Food Centre

I'm not sure if I've had chicken rice at Xiang Ji Hainanese Chicken Rice (#01-22 Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong) before but they do look familiar. Anyways, here's a plate of roast 鸡尾 with roast pork and egg. Not a bad plate. A little greasy though. Their roast pork was surprisingly better than the generic run of the mill variety by being relatively moist and not half desiccated. Chilli has a burn.

It's one of those that I don't mind having if I'm in the vicinity but won't go out of the way for kind of stall.