E-Sarn Thai Corner, Pasir Panjang Road

E-Sarn (130 Pasir Panjang Road, tel : +65 6473 3716) is yet another one of those eateries we've passed by on countless occasions and haven't had the chance to eat at. Until now. Food was pretty darned good and I liked what we had more than I imagined I would.

Pomelo salad's nice. Love the toasted coconut sprinkled over. Will get the larger portion the next time.

Som tam mamuang enjoyable also. It's a little more refine that what I recall from some of those the street stalls in Bangkok. Didn't mean it wasn't any good. There was a crisp crunch from the shredded green mango with sweetness from the lime/sugar that's further aromatized by dried shrimp and peanuts. Will get the larger portion the next time as well.

This was steamed olive rice with minced pork. Olive's chopped up with the minced pork. It's a layer of texturized umami saltiness over the rice which made it so delicious.

Their tom kha talay was a little redder than what I'm used to seeing. It's also a little thinner but still within my boundary of delicious. Pieces of squid in it were tender like fish cakes. Good for returns.

Enjoyed their cha om omelette as well. That accompanying sambal on the side was shrimpy and had a good kick to it.

Also had one of the more memorable salted baked sea bass I can recall. Underneath that dried skin was moist fish meat. Nice.

Steamed tapioca was good. Sweet but not excessively so and paired nicely with that bit of saltiness the creamy coconut sauce.

Love those mangoes they used with their glutinous rice. This was a good one. Why haven't we discovered this place earlier?!

L'Atelier Tiramisu, Clarke Quay Central

We've seen this shop (B1-08/09 Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street) around for years. Logic would suggest that they're doing something right because rental at this part of the island isn't cheap. So we tried out of curiosity. A classico and a matcha.

Classico was...not what I had in mind for a few reasons. Didn't taste like they used cocoa (quite sure of it) so the missing bitterness places it off from the pedestal where traditional tiramisu stands. Mascarpone wasn't as pronounced and the sponge fingers were dryer than I normally like. Couldn't taste coffee. That's sad. From what I could discern, non-alcoholic though I really don't know. Matcha was frustrating. It left an aftertaste which I could only describe as fruitiness and the first fruit that came to mind was lychee which I'm pretty sure wasn't in it. Flavour from the green tea was a little weak. There's definitely better out there.

老菜市肉脞麵, Tanglin Halt Market

The name of the stall translates to Old Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle (Stall #11 Tanglin Halt Market, 48A Tanglin Halt Road). I don't know anything about them but I've heard the English name before and that wasn't on their signboard. I'm reading it as these guys aren't related. This $5 bowl of Teochew mee came with one prawn - one that wasn't good...texture was a little powdery. But otherwise it's generic and edible. Nothing I would spend more than a couple of minutes in line for if I'm in the vicinity. 

Sardine prata from Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada

So Google's listing them as Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada now. Seems like Jom Makan's part of the name. Anyways, this was a sardine prata, not to be confused with sardine murtabak even though the only difference is that the latter has onions. Still a difference there. Had this on two occasions so far.

Presumably because of the sardines, there's plenty of moisture. Only the edges of the prata had a slight crisp while the rest of it was turning soggy. Which I didn't mind and I had kinda expected it. There's more sardines in it than I imagined; chunky and weren't drenched in tomato sauce from whichever can they came from. Both prata and fish were served piping hot. I liked this with a moderate application of the sambal and didn't think the dalcha was that great with it. Just saying so that I remember.

May try the sardine murtabak some day and if it's the same tomato-less sardines, chances are I'd consider this one leap ahead of what Zam Zam makes.

Getting cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I had this impression that I've had the cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison before. Since it's not in this blog, so it must not have happened before. 😂

Today's roasted barley tea was nice. Thick.

Exactly like how I imagined it would be with mozzarella cheese in the rolled up layers of thin sliced pork.

Nice cheese stretch which left behind a "cheese intestine".

Today's rice also looked better than the previous occasion. More multigrain-y.

It's a different from the rendition at Tonkichi because of the cheese even though both were mille feuille katsu. Pretty happy with it. 

Here's another way with the rice and the tonjiru. Am gonna stick with this for a bit.

Tsui Wah (翠華), Clarke Quay Central

It's been maybe a couple of years since we last ate at Tsui Wah. They're currently located at Clarke Quay Central (#01-08, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, tel : +65 6978 9274). The old place at Clarke Quay is no longer around. We came by for......stuff.

Their condensed milk toast are still awesome. Look at the milky glaze over the yellow of butteriness in those buns.

There's tang yuan in almond milk which is something under their Mother's Day Special.

Those glutinous rice balls were tender and chewy. Nice black sesame paste inside.

A few days later......

Fate bequeathed us this lunch.

Haven't had Holicks for...a long time and since we saw it on the menu, why not? If you've had it, you'd understand the gently sweet milky maltiness that comes with it. They didn't stinge on the powder and no additional sweetening was added. 👍🏻

Sweet and sour prawns were as delicious as the previous time we had them.

Ordered the fish maw red date wellness chicken soup which was also part of the Mother's Day Special.

Soup was delicious. Loved how it was both savoury in a chicken-y and seafood-y manner and also sufficiently salted. Chicken was fall off the bone tender. Fish maw was entry level quality - expectedly so because they didn't charge a premium for the soup. Would have been great if there were more goji berries and red dates for that layer of fruity sweetness but I'm not complaining. 😬

I'm generally not a baked rice person and will be skeptical of them. The one instance I recall agreeing with was the one from So Good. This will be the second. It's actually a baked fried rice with pork chop and tomato puree. Pleasantly surprised by how tender the pork chop was in contrast to the imagery in my head of something leathery and stringy. Like the sweet mellowed tomato sauce and their discreet application of mozzarella cheese.

Wiped the casserole dish clean.

This might be my first egg tarts from Tsui Wah. Crust was the pastry kind and tasted quite similar to those from Tong Heng. Egg custard wasn't excessively sweet.

We've always enjoyed the almond milk/cream with egg white at Tsui Wah - from Hong Kong to Singapore. 😅