Of stuffed & truffled mushrooms and rare salmon katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Special of the month I believe from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison. It's truffled mushrooms on daikon oroshi on hire and on the left, mushrooms stuffed with prawn paste that's katsu-ed.

This rare salmon katsu reminded us of the one from Ippudo so we had to get it. It's tasted as good as it looked. With or without the tartare sauce.

Curry chicken noodle from Cantonese Delights

It's been a long while since the last time so that's my justification for the 40 minutes spent in the queue.

Got a bowl of their curry chicken noodle today. Chicken thigh was pretty big and meaty.

I personally prefer mee kia over the regular yellow noodle. Was it worth the queue? I would prefer to spend a lot less time in the queue if that were possible. But I enjoyed this.

Topped up the order with some of their fried chicken cutlet.

Burgs, 313 Somerset

I've heard about Burgs (#05-01/02/03, Stall 25, Food Republic, 313@somerset, 313 Orchard Road) for some time and haven't managed to try their burgers until now.

It wasn't bad per se but it was definitely underwhelming.

The mushroom burger had a couple of different mushrooms. One tasted like it came from a can. The other had texture of dried mushroom that wasn't hydrated sufficiently so it was a little chewy. Looked little like what the menu depicted.

There's nothing classic about their classic cheeseburger. It's their rendition that threw in pickled green chilli and fried shallots. Fried shallots that tasted/looked like it came from a plastic bag. Flavour's messy.

Beef patties were decent. Likeable chunky texture in my opinion and there's definitely the beefy flavour going on there. Buns were soft. Fries were surprisingly addictive. 

323 椰浆饭 Nasi Lemak, Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

It happened that I came to another stall with nasi lemak on their name (#01-48 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) and didn't get nasi lemak. I was looking for bee hoon and it was either this or the stall at the other end with an even longer queue.

Taste was okay. It's not the hell yeah I'm definitely coming back for the bee hoon kind of quality but it's edible. Not a fan of their chilli which probably works better on nasi lemak. Maybe I will try their nasi lemak the next time. 😅

Update 13/01/2024

So I did try the nasi lemak. Rice was decently flavoured and a little grainy textured. Fried tau kwa was unexpectedly tasty. The rest of the toppings on this plate weren't worth mentioning. I don't think their chilli is my thing.

More Nanjing Impressions (南京大牌檔)

Been a while since we were last here at Nanjing Impressions. Do I sense some of the enthusiasm from their staff ebbing?

That's bitter gourd lime tea. Couldn't taste any bitter gourd in it.

Salted duck porridge with baby fennel. I loved how the dill-ish fennel leaves and vinegar paired with the appropriately salted porridge. This has got to be the most delicious duck porridge I've had.

One of the oldies is their tofu with shrimp sauce (虾酱豆腐). Didn't taste like those we've had previously. This was was less shrimpy and more garlicky. A little disappointing.

Another oldie was their julienned bean curd (麻油素干丝) which was as good as we remembered them.

Madam Chiang's Beauty Porridge (民国美龄粥) is understatedly good like a non-complicated sweet oatmeal. Tasted like that as well. At least for us it was and did. I don't think we've ever not ordered it.

Trying their Jiangnan Seafood Bucket for the first time. The fishballs in it were intriguing with their super soft texture. Prawns were fresh and in general, seafood quality was good. Broth needs a bit more salt methinks.

Sautéed beef tendons (京葱爆牛筋) which we've had previously. Good with rice but we didn't get any rice today.

We got these lamb and fish dumplings because it sounded like it might be good. While it didn't taste bad, one also couldn't get much lamb or fish out of the meat paste stuffings in them.

First time getting their Jingling roast duck (金陵烤鸭). Meat was more tender than it looked and there was a think layer of fat beneath the skin for flavour. Not bad.

Trying their Huaiyang sweet strata cake (淮扬千层油糕) for the first time also. Texture's like bao or hua juan (花卷). Know what's crazy about this? There's a layer of oil in the middle of the cake that tasted like it came from lup cheong. Hell yeah! 👍🏼

Black sesame coffee from Coffee Break

This from the shop at Hong Lim. Notice the mottle surface on the coffee and the black specks along the rim of the cup. Instructions from them were to stir before drinking. Yes it does have black sesame flavour. Did not taste bad. Seems like there's toast on the menu these days.