Morinaga Izakaya Restaurant, Midpoint Orchard

Noticed this place (#B1-08 Midpoint Orchard, 220 Orchard Road) a couple of times previously and the promptly went out of mind after going out of sight.

Drinks were poor quality. Calpis sour didn't taste like it had alcohol. Even the Calpis tasted diluted. Very watered down stuff.

Marinated chicken liver. Okay tasting. Pretty creamy with a soy sweetness.

Miso marinated grilled pork with cheese. Okay tasting.

Shirako ponzu. Bowl was mostly ponzu. Not much shirako. Least enjoyable rendition we've had.

Stir fried chicken hearts and garlic shoots were not bad.

Some truffle somen. Decent.

Wagyu yukke was very watery. Their seasoning was pretty sweet and masked the flavour of the meat. Assuming there was enough to begin with.

Smoked takuan with cream cheese was not bad. Very little cream cheese though.

Omelette with mentaiko and cheese was okay tasting.

Not getting the return vibes from this joint.

Qi Ji, Funan

Haven't eaten at Qi Ji for ages. I vaguely recall not disliking their food and there were some things that I might have actually enjoyed. For some reason I felt like reliving them and headed to the branch that was the most convenient at Funan (#B2-12 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road).

Nasi lemak wasn't great. Not enough salt to bring out the flavour in the rice in my opinion but that kinda made it pair well with the sambal which tasted of hae bee hiam. Fried chicken and otah were pedestrian.

Poh piah wasn't bad. These guys were generous with the sweet sauce. Will skip the premium rolls and just get the regular ones since the additional ingredients (prawn and chicken) were barely discernible and definitely not worth the extra that you're paying for. 

Sweet Sixteen in cheddar & jalapeño bagel from Two Men Bagel House

Two Men Bagel House ( 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, 二十二, 二十三, 二十四) recently refreshed their menu. Sweet Sixteen is part of the line up in the current outlet signatures. Speaking of which, shouldn't those be more appropriately called outlet exclusives? Signatures should be a permanent thing by virtue of being a signature item. The classics then ought to be the signatures. Anyways, the word has been wildly abused in the past decade. A signature is, at least in the context of menus, mostly meaningless.

Alrighty, back to the bagel. This one was slow roasted pork, Cheddar, Emmental with greens, fried egg and jalapeño. What got me curious was the lychee & longan tartar which was kinda lost in all the flavour. Sadly.

Paik’s Noodle, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Finally visited Paik’s Noodle (#02-136 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) after telling ourselves "maybe next time" on multiple occasions.

Pickles and a dollop of fermented bean sauce?

Got the jjajang bap instead of jjajangmyeon. Jjajang sauce was smoky with a sweetness from onions. Strips of pork in it. Not bad.

Jjajang bap came with a spicy soup on the side which was...

...the same broth as the one for their jjamppong.

I also kinda dug this. Broth was savoury spicy and the mussels were delicious. Now I have an alternative hot & spicy soup noodle to Gong Yuan Ma La Tang in this vicinity on the days I want one.

Apple cheesecake from Queic by Olivia

This apple cheesecake from Queic was much lighter and less sweet than the look suggested. Love the tart from the apple layering over the lightweight but still rich tasting cream cheese.

La Pizzaiola, Bukit Timah

Have heard of these guys for a while but for some reasons they've always fallen off the radar. This was the branch at Bukit Timah (881 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 9176 8180).

One of the current specials was their zucca prosciutto pizza. Pumpkin puree, Gorgonzola and prosciutto. Would have rated this higher if they were more generous with those prosciutto. Couldn't really taste the pumpkin so that's one out of three of the featured toppings that's non existent for me. Not a bad tasting pizza but I was really looking forward to tasting pumpkin.

Greenland fried prawns - another item from their specials. When we asked about them, we were told that their prawns were from Greenland. No shit Sherlock. I am enlightened much. These were actually pretty good eating. Nice flavour and the shells weren't hard or chewy. The tartar sauce felt like a half hearted effort because it was just mayo with some diced dill pickles. Very sparse quantities of diced dill pickles.

Orecchiette with swordfish and white wine sauce. Flavour came from the capers, olives, basil and fish.

Tiramisu was pleasant and pretty safe tasting. The mascarpone cream tasted like there was more cream than mascarpone.

Decent affogato. Coffee's thick and bitter though not as aromatic as I would have preferred.