Da Xi (大喜), Guoco Tower

Couldn't find any info on Da Xi's (B2-33 Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6231 1590) origins so I'm going to assume that these guys aren't from Taiwan, just Taiwanese themed. Food appeared to be a little sweet as a whole.

These are prawn cakes with mango puree. Competently fried with a crunch on the surface and innards of minced prawn and prawn paste. Not bad tasting if I might say so. Reminded me of Thai prawn cakes. Mango puree tasted fresh and not artificially sweetened.

Got ourselves an egg roll with pork floss and cheese (肉松起司蛋饼!). Not bad tasting as well.

Was for some reason intrigued by the Da Xi stir fried noodle. Noodles were chewier than it looked and that's a good thing if you're wondering because I was half worried that they'd be soggy like they looked. Flavour's savoury sweet with bits of saltiness from the fried anchovies. Also not bad tasting.

Smoked duck dumplings (锅贴) -  I know right? Since when have smoked duck been used for these things around here. It's definitely smokey and the texture was very similar to minced pork in pork dumplings. It was also oddly a little sweet. I wouldn't say that I disliked it but I would have much preferred if it was just salty/savoury. Look at that smudge of chilli they gave...what were they even thinking?

That's taro milk with grass jelly. Also sweet. Not unpleasant though. It didn't remind me of taro. Tasted like sweet potato latte.

Waterfall Ristorante Italiano, Shangri-La Singapore

Nice setup. I never knew that this waterfall place (Shangri-La Singapore, 22 Orange Grove Road, Level One, Garden Wing) was a ristorante Italiano.

So breadsticks and focaccia. Liked the chilled tomato dip.

Had some fried seafood. Cuttlefish, prawns and octopus. Not bad. Octopus was tender and prawns were good quality.

White truffle is in season so we ended up with the butter sauce tagliolini. Nice.

This was braised pork cheeks on polenta. Pork cheeks were dense, tender but and not as much as I imagined. What was I imagining? Something similar to those braised beef cheeks at Suju. The flavour was reminiscent of tau you bak. Polenta was delicious.

The sous vide grilled lamb rack in "natural jus" and blueberries sounded good.

 

Texture's kinda...oddly tender most likely because of the sous vide. Grill didn't leave as much of the char aroma as I had hoped. Sauce didn't taste specifically like blueberry. Actually, I probably would have identified it as a prune sauce in a blind tasting.

Didn't realised that the mashed potato has saffron until I looked it up in the menu again.

Did not think much of the cannoli at all. The ricotta tasted odd. Not like ricotta. Surprisingly not getting any pistachio flavour in spite of appearances. Other than the odd tasting ricotta, a bit of citrus and the chocolate balls, this didn't amount to much. The shell was pretty hard too.

Coffee's okay.

Christmas salmon and coleslaw at Han's

Saw this on their menu and thought they had gotten their act together by actually coming up with something that looked like it was worth a try. They did put on an act instead of getting it together. Getting professional product shots of products that actually don't look like the pictures. I should have known, right?

Didn't taste anything remotely honey garlic in it. I don't think it was a sour cream sauce either. A sour cream smudge on the salmon sounded more accurate. That cranberry almond "crust" - I saw them carefully pour out dried cranberries and almond flakes onto that smudge of sour cream. That was the "crust". Fish was dry. Carrots and broccoli were unsalted and hard but I think we all know that's just their signature. Hard and bland broccoli and baby carrots.

I'm not sure why the coleslaw is on the Xmas menu. Should be a mainstay and half of what they were charging because it was actually decent.

Ru Ji Kitchen (如記小厨), Redhill Food Centre

I got a bowl from Ru Ji Kitchen (#01-25, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) today mostly because the queue was short(er). These guys here were pretty generous with their chilli and it resulted in a different experience from the stall at Holland Drive. I wouldn't say that it tasted bad but it was definitely excessive. I have a distinct impression that I like the bowl from Holland Drive better. 

Fifty Yong Tau Foo (五十年釀豆腐), Holland Drive Food Centre

Tried Fifty Yong Tau Foo (#02-37 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, 44 Holland Drive) because they looked pretty good. Queue was almost as daunting as Ru Ji Kitchen but I've to admit that it was worth the wait. A certain elderly gentleman commented that back in the 50s, there weren't fried stuff to be had with yong tau foo. We both agreed that the name took certain liberties but it didn't change the fact that this was a good eat. I like the noodles here better than Hakka Noodle.

Pretty happy with those meatballs, stuffed bean curd and dumplings. There's a bunch of stuff they sprinkled over the noodles which had texture like minced meat but flavour like fried shallots. What are those? 

A re-revisit to MTR 1924 that's been a long time coming

It's been some years since we've eaten at MTR 1924 (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六). The last time was back in 2017. Menu's changed a little so that presented a tiny problem. We'd be overwhelmed by the choices again since there's new stuff to explore and old stuff in the background beckons. 

The strategy was to get a bunch of stuff we haven't had before and also not to neglect the oldies.

Oldies like their delicious and hearty bisibele bath which was in no way diminished compared to what we had in the past. I've just learnt that there is nutmeg in this. Still satisfying like how we remembered it. 

The same could be said for their competent masala dosa.

Getting their rava idly still makes me a little skittish because of the chopped bits of coriander in the steamed rice cake. Today's look greener and fresher than usual. 😅

Thankfully as with previous experiences, the coriander flavour was mild to non-existent. Especially true when it's eaten with chutney and those wonderful drizzles of ghee.

This is where the stuff that we haven't had before begins - the shavige bath. Yes it's vermicelli and looks like bee hoon. There're bits of bell peppers, long beans, mustard seed, cashew, lemon and shredded coconut. And probably a couple of other stuff I've overlooked. Flavour's mild in spite of the colour intensity but that being said, it was delicious.

This was their rasam vada. Pretty sure it's been around on the menu for forever because it's just a vada in rasam. Great flavouring from the tangy broth. Was surprised that a large part of the dense fluffy insides of the vada wasn't soaked through.

Pudi idly - I'm guessing that's another way to call podi. A salty spice powder packed with heat mixed with ghee I think, coats these mini idlys. This was the spiciest item we've had here so far and I love it for the buttery heat on the rice cakes.

Interesting, this was call 'buns'. Looked like a non-oily poori...or hum chim pang. Skin's thicker than both of those and was a little sweet. We ordered this because the ingredient listed bananas and it did have a faint banana taste. Served with coconut chutney. Nice.

That's a kashaya - a drink that was said to be spicy and bitter when we ordered it. Tried it out of curiosity. From what the menu described, it's a milk based drink with ginger, pepper, cumin and coriander seeds. The flavour reminded me of Po Chai pills (保濟丸) or guilin gao (龜苓膏). Took a while for me to reconcile that Chinese herbal flavour with the colour and that it was a spiced drink from an Indian restaurant.