Mushroom murtabak from Victory Restaurant

Whispers speak of the mushroom murtabak at Victory and I was curious, hoping against hope that they were going to be cutting a swathe through the neighbouring competition by using portobello mushrooms. Even fresh brown/white ones would have made a distinction.

Alas, as the voice deep within had warned, it was canned button mushroom. Not much flavour coming from those mushrooms as well. Then again with the dalcha and fish curry, it's all the same. Seems like the mutton murtabak is still king. But curiosity has been satiated.

Gong Yuan Ma La Tang (宫源麻辣烫), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Gong Yuan Ma La Tang opened up at Tiong Bahru Plaza (#02-113 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) pretty recently. Our also recent kindled interest in mala tang steered us forth so these were a few of the bowls we've had over a couple of visits.

Mala soup's not the same as the one from Zhang Liang. This one didn't look/taste as milky. The flavour was cleaner but a little less smooth if you catch my drift. If I had to choose, I prefer the broth at Zhang Liang. They have a larger variety of ingredients to choose from as well. This one wasn't bad though. 

There's a dry rendition with sesame/peanut sauce which we got in 小辣. Pretty good nutty sauce. Would come back for this again. 👍🏼

Suan cai (酸菜) broth was sour but not so intense compared to the 酸菜鱼 around the corner. Maybe that was the point since this was meant to be eaten with everything else that you could pile into the bowl. That being said, those cubes of 酸菜 were more sour than the broth. Can see myself getting this again.

A couple of other noodles from Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (樑成香菇肉脞麵)

So I came back a couple of times more to Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle. Mee kia's nice and wiry. I'd rank it the same as their mee pok for enjoyable texture.

Here's another bowl from another visit with regular yellow noodles that brought back memories of another era. No kee taste and that's good. As yellow noodle bak chor mee goes, I like the one at Lai Heng better.

More 双鱼-ism and crème brulée at The Ship

More fish soup bee hoon at The Ship. Here's the boiled fish bowl...

...with added on fried fish. 😬

We were given a choice for crème brulée as dessert today. Never knew that they had it. It was unexpectedly delicious. Thin sugar shell and creamy custard beneath. I hope this stays because it's so much better than the mango pudding.

Shi Nian (石年), Maxwell Food Centre

So, apparently what happened the last time I ordered pig trotter rice at Shi Nian at Amoy was that I ended up with literally the pig's feet, or 猪蹄 rather than what most people would assume to be 猪脚 or something khao kha moo-ish.

Which I had gotten today at this branch (#01-64 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street). Deliciously tender and slurpy and full of flavour from the braising sauce. This was a lot more satisfying than the last one and the young chap manning the stall was also much amicable compared to the couple of guys at Amoy with half scowls.

Got an order of their chewy textured swirly intestines which were quite similar to the more refined renditions that one can find at Putien. Not bad.

Nummun Thai Kitchen, Upper Thomson Road

We came here wanting to try the chunky crab omelette which people were talking about at Nummun Thai Kitchen (#01-03 Thomson Imperial Court, 200 Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 8886 8699) but they happened to be out of crab. Bummer! Anyways, their cha yen was pretty decent and definitely a reprieve in the scorching afternoon. But that Fanta Green just resurfaced bad memories of childhood so - no more of those.

Thai style stir fried kang kong packed less heat than I was expecting. Main gripe was that they were too stemmy.

Non spicy clear tomyum talay was outstanding. At $14, I wished there was more seafood in it. 

Som tam mamuang was pretty bare bones. I had to request for the peanuts. I suspect every other condiment that I was expecting had to be requested for separately. The mango was refreshing with the sugar/lime but I didn't think I tasted any fish sauce. And more finely sliced onions would have been great. 😅

That som tam mamuang was pretty good with the sticky rice though.

Not bad tasting pineapple fried rice. Came with a couple of sizeable good quality prawns and cashews.

Ice coffee's decent.