Hairy crab stuff at Putien

I don't remember Putien (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三) serving hairy crabs in the past but they did this year and we came to see the touches they had on these seasonal crustaceans.

Warm corn juice.

While it wasn't visually apparent, there's crab roe in this bee hoon. This plate was pretty much their Heng Hwa bee hoon stir fried with just enough crab roe to get a discernible flavour. Flavour of the roe was not 'in your face' though. Not that I would mind but it would presumably make this plate cost a lot more.

Tried the male crab that's marinated in Chinese wine. Don't know what went into the wine but I tasted preserved fruits and something that reminded me of brown sugar.

We had the female crab steamed plain (清蒸).

Don't think we're great working on these small crabs and today was a reminder of that. 😅 The draw for these were the tomalley and roe which there wasn't a great deal of. There's a nice flavour from the meat but it was a lot of effort for little returns. My take is anything smaller than a decent sized mud/mangrove crab isn't worth the effort working for the meat.

Surprised to find theatrics involved in the serving of their deep fried yam with duck dish (芋泥香酥鸭). I'm hoping that the showiness is not a mask to distract from decline. Anyways, this dish was still good; the creamy yam and the braised savouriness from the duck transcended the effects of dry ice.

We were served some ginger tea which comes from...ordering those hairy crabs?

Revisiting Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant

Back at Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant.

We had an order of their keema briyani. The keema component of the name refers to the mutton kola urundai - fried mutton balls which are also available a la carte from their menu. Keema means differently here compared to the local definition. It refers to minced meat, but not the chopped up kind of mince like those used in murtabak | keema.

More like a meat paste here. A deeply spiced mutton paste. Sadly for this rendition, the natural flavour of the meat was mostly lost in the spices. Will not get this again. Rice was deliciously savoury though.

That's the tawa meen roast - breaded fillet of some fish, most likely dory based on the flavour and soft texture. Breading was spiced, crunchy and packed a bit of heat. Wasn't as bad as I imagined for dory. In fact, the piping heat and spices made the fish kinda pleasant. But I'm not likely to get it again. The dip on the side tasted like garlic mayo.

Masala tea here is good. The dominant spice was cardamon; came in a pretty strong hit in the suitably sweet and creamy tea. We enjoyed their composite.

Chicken briyani from Santapan Padang by Tina Indulgence

Saw that Santapan Padang had chicken briyani today and it's apparently a Friday only special. Came with two fried chicken drumsticks that's drizzled with gravy that looked very much like satay sauce. But said sauce was sour which implied that tamarind's involved. Meat from those well fried drumsticks were a little hard and dry. I'm not sure how the rice tasted since it was drenched in that lentil curry - which wasn't bad tasting. Will not be getting this again though.

Treasure Toast (吃到宝), Purvis Street

Treasure Toast (#01-01, 23 Purvis Street, tel : +65 8817 0865) is by the talked about Bao Er Cafe which in turn, stemmed from Prawnography.

Kopi was thick, bitter and slightly sour with little body and aroma. 勉强 can drink 😬. I don't think it's great as local coffees go. I'll take Toast Box over it anytime. 

People talk about their kaya toast. Not bad. Nice pandan flavour going on with kaya but the consistency was kinda thin. Also not difficult to find ones of similar standards around.

Hokkien mee has no wok hei like Prawnography but did have decent stock flavour which was pretty robust, a little sweet and did not exactly come across as crustacean-y. See the 3 small scallops? Extra $2.50 for those which I wouldn't recommend. Fried lard (猪油渣) was not the freshest. What carried this through was the sambal belachan which I thought was pretty good. 

Bee hoon had a smoky flavour which I like but it was also pretty greasy.

Otah's flat and lacking of any nuances. I don't think it was good. While they look similar, Janggut Laksa's otah is much better tasting.

友全 (You Quan), Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

友全 (#03-35 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive) is one of the "half of the stalls" that's still open in the evenings at the food centre. The other half possibly thinks that their rental is a negligible concern or they're doing well enough that they don't need the support of the residents in that estate.

This was 米粉面. 米粉's pretty edible. 面's thinner than the regular yellow noodle variety but tasted exactly the same. Those tired looking meat patties were actually not bad.

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.