Legend Wanton Mee (传奇雲吞麵), Bukit Merah Central

Legend tells a tale of the owner of Legend Wanton Mee (Maddox Canteen Bar, 3752 Bukit Merah Central) being an ex MasterChef finalist.

I like it. The noodles were firm with a nice bite and a discernible lard-y flavour. Good quality sprig of kailan, a solid dried fish flavour in the wanton stuffings and their well marinated fatty char siew was pretty yummy. I'd say Wen Keng Ji's char siew could be a bit more impressive sometimes but Legend Wanton Mee beats them in pretty much everything else.

Gripe? Portions were kinda small. This plate with extra char siew was $7.50.

Soup's got flavour - savoury with a background sweetness and peppery. I can't tell what was in it specifically but I think I detected dried scallop flavour. Definitely much more drinkable than the run of the mill stuff.

Wonderful Bapsang, Thomson Plaza

훌륭한! This (#01-112/113/114 Thomson Plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 6908 1345) was a more wonderful bapsang than the previous Wonderful Bapsang.

Of their banchan, the seaweed with gochujang and the kimchi were outstanding. The latter was nicely aged with a pronounced tanginess.

I like their kimchi jjigae donkkaseu. The broth was robust with flavour from the kimchi. We found a few pieces of pork belly fat in it so that might have contributed to the flavour.

Donkkasu was relative thin unlike Japanese tonkatsu. Meat texture was still discernable and the breading helped soak up the kimchi-ness from the broth. Nice.

I remember the last time I had jjajangmyeon. That's all the way back in Hyang To Gol. It's been that long. That one didn't leave us wanting to have more. This bowl was a much nicer eat. There appeared to be much more complexity in the bean sauce that had a flavour which reminded me a lot of lor bak. I'm gonna pay a bit more attention to jjajangmyeon after this.

Check out the picture of the shaven truffles for their truffles yukhoe salad. It looked too good to be true considering how much they were charging.

The actual truffles were finely shaven bits rather than slices. This actually made more sense if you needed to spread the flavour across. Underneath the marinated beef were diced avocado and some fruit. May be pear, I couldn't tell with the sauce and condiments but this was pretty nice tasting. Refreshing even.

Yeap, there's an egg inside.

Lontong from Siti Nur Liyana Nasi Lemak

This lontong from Siti Nur Liyana Nasi Lemak was pretty good. I'm of the opinion that it was just slightly less rich compared to Queenstown Lontong or Lontong Sedap. Perhaps the gravy was just a little bit less lemak and a serunding which wasn't as heavily spiced but I'd categorize them within the same band of coconut-y deliciousness.

Kung bao chicken (宫保鸡丁) from Tian Fu Ren Jia (天府人家)

The food seems to be a little different from Tian Fu Ren Jia. While admittedly it's been a while since we've had them, we were pretty sure that some of the dishes we've had at least a few times before tasted different. Small but discernible differences which one could tell with familiarity but couldn't put a finger to. This was especially so for their mala xiang guo.

Anyways, I kinda enjoyed their kung bao chicken. Nice sweet sauce with toasted peanuts. There's diced cucumbers as well which I've never seen in the local renditions of the dish. Gotta remember to get them to omit the onions the next time. Fillers I don't need.

Strawberry shaved ice at Isetan

Not cheap at $12 a pop but those thin shavings of frozen strawberries were invigoratingly refreshing even in that luxuriously rich cream and condense milk. Loved how it melted and trickled down the throat. 👍🏼

Mao shan wang obanyaki from Mr Obanyaki

It's been a while since I've gotten the pancakes from Mr Obanyaki. Came across one with mao shan wang recently. Decent durian custard with adequate flavour but definitely doesn't compare to mao shan wang puree that are mostly pulp. It was also one of the more, if not the most expensive pancake they have at the stall.