Grilled sea bass teishoku from Nakajima Suisan

Came across the grilled sea bass at Nakajima Suisan (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一) recently. I believe this might be my first time having grilled sea bass. Or at least the shioyaki version of them

There's a mix of lean and fatty parts on the fish. Salting wasn't uniform so some parts were bland-ish. Not bad tasting as a whole and lots of meat but what bothered me a little was the amount of bones I had to navigate.

Teo Heng Porridge Stall, Hong Lim Food Centre

Teo Heng Porridge Stall (#01-56 Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) faces inward to the market in the same quadrant where Generation Coffee Roaster and Heng Kee Curry Chicken Noodle are located. Not very visible and not accessible to people who don't work or live here because they only do weekdays from the early morning and close early in the afternoon.

They are an old school Teochew porridge stall that has been around for ages. I don't know how this information might be useful to anyone but the proprietor running operations in the stall - that man has uncannily sharp hearing. 

There's stuff like stewed pig's skin.

Pretty delicious stewed cabbage which has more flavour that those pale colours may suggest.

Their signature fish cakes which were delicious. These were the boiled ones with texture that was both tender and jiggly. Teo Heng also does the fried rendition which....will turn up in a while.

Got a mixed platter of stuff like tau kwa, eggs, intestines and sliced duck - very kuey chap-y if you catch my drift. Gonna blanket them all as delicious.

Threadfin that's cooked in the salted vegetable broth. Most of the salt has been boiled out of the pickled mustard and is essentially flavouring the broth leaving the vegetables not very salty. Fish was fresh, evidenced by its texture and tenderness. 👍🏼

Extra eggs and fried fish cakes which I've mentioned earlier. Both the boiled and fried renditions of these fish cakes were nice in their own ways.

Fermented bean sauce pork trotters & dried scallop glutinous rice dumpling from Treasures Yi Dian Xin (一点心)

A couple of mention worthy items we had recently from Yi Dian Xin. Pork trotters stewed in fermented bean sauce was delicious. Mostly skin and collagen-y bits which were seeped in thick fermented bean flavour.

Tried their glutinous rice dumpling with dried scallops/conpoy/干贝. This was much larger than the regular pork glutinous rice dumplings we've had previously.

Aside from the dried scallops, there's salted egg, mung beans and pork belly inside. Rice was sticky and tender. We were told that having them with some sugar was the traditional way of eating them but I don't know any better. We tried that and I kinda liked it.

Ebisu Sando Kyoto, Takashimaya

Noticed this sando stall at Takashimaya (B2 Takashimaya, 391 Orchard Road) a while back. There were a number of savoury options but what caught our attention today were their fruit sando - specifically the one with what the stall claimed were honey mangoes from Thailand. Hell yeah these were good. I've had nothing but good experiences with mangoes in Thailand so far and this continues that trend. Sweet and suitably citrus-y paired with the light cream and soft white bread. 👍🏼

Cenzo, Club Street

Cenzo (81 Club Street, tel : +65 9155 8374) opened a couple of years back and is helmed a Drew Nocente, the force previously behind the kitchen at the defunct Salted & Hung. I was given the impression that there was a nose to tail representation they were cultivating back then but I'm not seeing that here in Cenzo. Anywayysss......

This was their vitello tonnato. The dish is traditionally Piedmontese and uses thinly sliced veal covered in tuna sauce. Cenzo's rendition uses grilled veal tongue. Damn. Fricking. Good. Nice sear going on the outside and tender on the inside.

That's lardo tigelle with truffle honey. Bread tasted freshly made and much lighter than appearances suggested. Delicious porcine meltiness with the sweetness of honey cut through with pickled fennel I think. Will be hard pressed not to want to get this again.

Pastrami sandwich's pretty good. Meat's made in house and thinly sliced - more SweetSpot. than Katz's. Layered with slaw, pickles and in between some brioche-y bread. While I understand the acid, I prefer less of it. 

Awesome pappardelle white ragu. It's a rich cream version of a pasta Bolognese minus tomato, addition of guanciale among the minced veal along with liquorice notes from fennel seeds. Served piping hot. Nice. 👍🏼

Love the prawn risotto too. Stock infusion was thick with a rich crustacean sweetness coupled with some spiciness. Luxuriant is the appropriate word here. And charred prawns. 

Hmmm....charred prawns.

So we decided that it would be tiramisu.

Not bad. 

Coffee's decent.

Would love to come back again.

Red bean paste and butter toast from Toast Box

Red bean paste and butter toast from Toast Box. Limited time thingy. Tasted much like how I thought it would but for one thing - that butter flavour was dominant compared to the red bean. Maybe more red bean paste would "correct the balance".