A recent bowl of Janggut laksa

Haven't had one of these in a while. They looked a little less curdled today. Which worried me a little.

Fortunately the taste stood up. Still delicious. Makes me want to get another bowl as I'm typing this.

Back at Ricciotti

I ate at Ricciotti an age ago. Yup, that's right. All the way back when this blog began. Never been back since and it's different from what I remember. The grocer section is gone and there's a bar at the front now. The seats indoors were nice and shady. The place was quiet on a weekend afternoon.

The menu described the Polpo to be octopus braised in red wine with confit tomatoes and pine nuts. This tasted like tomato and cream, not red wine. Didn't detect any pine nuts. Octopus was not bad tasting. Kinda overpriced for the tiny portions and ingredients but since it's in that part of town, I shouldn't expect otherwise.

Tagliatelle alla norcina was nice. This rendition was creamless compared to the creamy one from Etna. Sausage was chunky and the quality of the house made tagliatelle was great. One could just tell from those firm textures. Nice one.

Got ourselves pizza with Paleta Iberica de Bellota. The draw to this one was actually Gorgonzola and pear. The jamon tasted stale. Ironic since the process of making the ham required air drying and aging for at least 18 months. Just one step from turning bad. Which I thought was sad because I kinda liked the whole pizza with the Gorgonzola and pear.

The walnuts were definitely expired. We told them. The wait staff looked like she didn't know how to react to the feedback. 😔 This restaurant has obvious quality issues. Maybe that's why they're quiet on a weekend afternoon.

Chicken rice from Seng Kee Chicken Rice (新奇鸡饭)

I mentioned I'd be back to try the chicken rice at Seng Kee Chicken Rice so here's it. 白鸡尾 with roast pork and egg. Pretty decent. Chicken thigh was quite meaty. Rice was flavoured lightly but sufficiently so and was good pairing with the garlicky chilli sauce; works with or without the chilli if you asked me. Roast pork was also decent - just don't expect melty fat and crunchy crackling here. These guys are old school and competent. Not S ranked but definitely something one could go to with regularity. This stall good for both this and their laksa.

Toasts and coffee from Great Nanyang Heritage Cafe (大南洋)

Tea break at Great Nanyang Heritage Cafe. The hot hor ka sai (gao and less sweet) here was thick and pretty good drinking.

I learnt today that the coconut in their coconut coffee included the the fruit's milk and juice. Might be my first and it's actually pretty good - a much lighter tasting alternative to regular milk. 

Sugar butter toast was disappointing. The peanut butter from the peanut butter toast at Oriental Kopi was more buttery than this. That said, I'm also over 99% sure this pitiable yellow stain wasn't butter. Sure did not taste like it. 👎🏼

Peanut butter toast here was passable though it's a pale shadow of the one we had at Oriental Kopi.

Noodle Doodle, Tanjong Pagar Plaza

Heard about this ban mian stall (#02-04, Tanjong Pagar Plaza). Here's a bowl of dry and spicy mee hoon kueh. Sambal was pretty good tasting and packed a nice heat. Not bad tasting bowl as a whole except for a couple of things. The sweetness to heat ratio in the sambal bugged me and it was a little more sweet than I generally prefer. Prawns were also a little mushy and I did not like that.  

Jungle, Ann Siang Hill

New contemporary Thai food (10 Ann Siang Hill, tel : +65 8389 2258) just across the street from The Corner Grill.

Great medley of flavours and textures going on from their rendition of yum som o; pomelo, candied coconut, toasted cashews, slices of green chilli, kaffir lime leaves, mint, sugar and dried shrimps tossed together. They were all rounded up with a refreshingly sweet lime-y dressing. Nice. 👍🏼

Menu described this as lamb breast skewer. We didn't actually know which cut of lamb was used but it was meat that was layered with fat and it was tender and...just fucking good. The meat was topped with a spicy nutty sauce, pickled onions and mint which lent their dimensions to the already delicious meat. We had seconds after the first skewer disappeared in short order. 👍🏼

Crab yellow curry pretty nice. Gravy was creamy and redolent with coconut milk. Plenty of shredded crab in it.

Also loved their grilled barramundi with something described as laksa nam jim; the latter a base of sweetness and lime with fish sauce and heat layered with mint, onions and other stuff. I didn't taste anything that reminded me of laksa leaf though. Fish was of good quality and tender. Nice. 👍🏼

Some rice to go with all those delicious flavours.

Grilled banana cake and caramel with a scoop of pretty kickass coconut ice cream. Liked the lightly crisp surface on the cake. Yummy.