The return of McD's breakfast bagel

These are back. It's been a couple of years since McD started these limited run bagels here and in all that 17,000 hours or so since, they've never bothered to allow add on customizations in the order kiosk which I'm sure somebodies out there would want. Like me.

Revisiting Lee Lai Jiak

Finally tried the lu rou fan from Lee Lai Jiak. Decent tasting but not something that'll get me looking forward to coming back for. I liked the tofu and salted vegetables more than the minced pork. 😬

Tried their zha jiang mian (炸酱面).

Noodles were thick and sauce had what appeared to be cubes of tofu puffs. Lots of them.

Beef shank was less dry and more tender than I imagined. Did not like the sweet sauce though.

Nana's Green Tea, Guoco Tower

Intrigued by the green tea stuff at Nana's Green Tea (#01-07 Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6517 9971).

The Swiss roll was the least memorable of what we had. It was just green tea chiffon with a green tea core in the middle of the cream.

Shiratama zenzai with matcha espresso - mochi balls in red bean soup and matcha in English. Think bitterness from the green tea pairing with the sweetness from the red bean soup. Not bad.

This was a matcha soda float; tasted like how it sounded. Fizzy green tea with green tea ice cream. Nice.

Suju in November

Back at Suju ( 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) getting some stuff we like. And a few other things.

Tai kabura ni - turnip strips simmered in sea bream broth wrapped in soy marinated sea bream sashimi. Thought I tasted yuzu in it. Nice.

Miso marinated cream cheese with grilled white corn, some pickled daikon and soba chips. Also nice. Love the miso flavour in the cream cheese. Saved some for the Hayashi rice.

The cream was kinda measly here and it was definitely a discernible mellowness it brought to the meat/sauce. So the miso cream cheese we saved from the earlier dish accomplished the same. But did better.

Got the herring himono teishoku like the last time because I couldn't get past the roe in the fish. Today serving was outstanding like then. Seems like the roe might not be just chance and that they use pregnant herring here.

Their black sesame cheese cake was surprisingly light. So light I wouldn't have been surprised if they had said it was made with tofu. I don't know if it was but I don't think so since they'll probably mention if it was. This was loaded with ample black sesame flavour though from both the cream cheese and the very kurogoma-y base.

Revisiting A2B Veg Restaurant

Here for dinner this time round. This place was bustling.

Got ourselves some nice warm idlis with delicious chutneys. Noticed that the coconut one was faintly sweet.

Ghee pongal and vadai. The pongal was definitely less viscous than the last round. Flavour's still as good.

Came across carrot uttapam on the menu, something we've never seen/had before. Tasted more or less like how it looked with the shredded carrot which came across slightly sweet. Nice. Also, the coriander which I've forgotten to ask them to omit had no taste so yay! 🙌🏼

They have hot badam milk too. Not bad.

Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant (天府川菜), Grantral Mall @ Clementi

Trying another Chinese shop (#01-17/18 Grantral Mall, 3151 Commonwealth Avenue West, tel : +65 6777 1866) with a pretty extensive menu. Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant is located at the other end of Grantral Mall from where Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights used to be.

Their mapo tofu is one of the better ones we've had. Which isn't much actually. 😂 The memorable ones that comes to mind from before were from Chen's Mapo Tofu and Keisuke's Gyoza King. What ticked the boxes here were the flavour from the Sichuan peppercorn and their prominent presence of fermented black beans. Nice bit of heat too. I could definitely come back for this. 

Love the sour from the broth in their spicy and sour beef (酸汤肥牛). Thought I detected ginger in it. Red chilli's spicy and the green ones aren't much. I'd rank Qing Hua Jiao X Jing Yue Rong a bit higher in terms of preferences but I'll be happy to have both.

Competently done stir fried cabbage with dried chilli. There're also some Sichuan peppercorns in it in case anyone wants to know and wish to avoid biting into them. What I liked about this dish was also how they had gotten the timing of the vegetables just right that they were properly cooked and yet retained a nice crunch.

This was called home style fried rice; or 农家炒饭. The names do not translate into each other. We liked it. It's much better in terms of composite and flavour than the vegetarian fried rice from 鼎泰豐. Lots of chopped greens, egg and adequate salt.