Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodle, Seng Poh Road

Christmas breakfast! 🎍

I never realized that Li Xin has presence at Tiong Bahru until recently. The stall's sequestered in Today Restaurant (71 Seng Poh Road). This site previously housed Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh. 

The name/branding has changed a little here. The stall is simply called Lixin Fishball but we know who they are. This outpost is manned by a lady who looked irritated that she had been interrupted from whatever reverie she was in.  

Prices have gone up over the years. I recall the basic bowl to be $5.50 back in the day.

Got a bowl of their fishball minced meat kuey teow dry and 白. I'm gonna go with it being pretty expensive at $7.50 for a basic bowl like this but it was delicious.

There's apparently a signature noodle which I never knew about until today. Instead of just fishballs, there's also a couple of fish dumplings and sliced fishcakes. Not a fan of their mee kia but otherwise the noodles tasted much like how I remembered them. The spring onions and sliced chilli made the noodles look....Christmas-y. 

The soup though was mediocre. Tasted like fishball flavoured hot water.

Steak, eggs and cakes at Ma Maison Kitchen

Christmas eve dinner. 🎄

This sirloin was from the Christmas special menu at Ma Maison Kitchen. Tamari sauce and pink peppercorn. Fruitiness from the latter was apparent. Not a bad flavour profile for their steak but needed a bit more salt. Meat's ok. I mean...it's Ma Maison, not Wolfgang's or Wooloomooloo. 

Trying their scotch eggs for the first time. The casing around the egg is more minced meat than sausage so it's lighter and less salty compared to the one from Lad & Co.

Chocolate strawberry shortcake - strawberries were sour and the milky chocolate cream was delicious. I like it.

Matcha warabimochi parfait from Nana's Green Tea

Hmmm...nice one from Nana's Green Tea - like a lux version of the one we've been getting from Sushiro. Apart from the larger size, there's also better layering to get ingredients like the cream spread out and there's some tea jelly inside as well. That's a matcha soda at the back there...refreshing for the hot weather that came with a bonus razor burn down the throat. 😬

Celebrities Big Prawn Noodles (明星大虾面), Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

Not bad tasting basic bowl of big prawn noodles (大虾面) from Celebrities Big Prawn Noodles (#02-30 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza). Kuey teow soup this was. The stall is next door to Blue Star Fish Ball Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles.

The only thing that bothered me was the sweetness in the broth which I thought was a little bit unnatural excessive. But that was easily rectified by the sliced chilli light soya sauce which adjusted the savoury to sweet ratio to a spectrum I much prefer and added a light spiky heat to the broth. Don't mind coming back.

Lobster broth ramen & mentai gyoza from Ramen Hitoyoshi

Saw this at Ramen Hitoyoshi and got a bowl thinking that we'd be getting something similar to Keisuke's lobster broth ramen. We were sadly mistaken. While we didn't expect an actual lobster bisque, this was just a tonkotsu broth accented with some prawny flavour. Which would have been fine if described as such. Sticking a 'lobster broth' to the name raises expectations and this one hadn't the depth that Keisuke's has for sure. Quite disappointing.

Due to some cosmic oddity, their mentai gyoza which looked like it had pretty generous portions of mentaiko did not taste much of mentaiko at all. 🤔 It was salty, sure. Not flavoured anywhere close to what the strip of red roe suggested. Also disappointing.

Lad & Co, Tanglin Singpost

This fish & chips shop originated from Lad & Dad which started off at Maxwell Food Centre. They've subsequently moved out of Maxwell, set up shop at Tanjong Pagar and later expanded with this outpost Lad & Co (B1-02, 56 Tanglin Road) at Tanglin Singpost. We haven't eaten any of their stuff since the Maxwell days.

Had a beer battered haddock & chips. Not a bad tasting crispy crust but this was nothing like the one we liked back in Maxwell with a batter that clung to the fish. The current version was too much fried flour for our liking. Don't think we'll get their fish & chips again. Ever.

Their oyster nuggets was covered with a similar if not the same fried surface. No beef with the oysters inside but at this point, there was way too much batter and surfeit had definitely planted its flag.

Posh slaw's not bad. Just slaw with raisins.

Love their scotch eggs. Tasted hearty with the sausage shell. Expensive but pretty tasty.