The House Chungdam, Duxton Road

Noticed The House Chungdam (#01-01, 72 Duxton Road, tel : +65 8336 2068) only recently. Place looks pretty and the menu offers premium looking cuts of meat for barbeque along with jeons and jjigaes. This was lunch.

There's a lager on tap going at an attractive $10 at happy hour. Taste reminded me of Tiger which meant more tang, rougher with the fizz and less character compared to the likes of Suntory or Asahi. A lesson was learnt here and won't be getting this again. 😬

Appetizer came with lunch. From the left, cheese kimchi jeon, a skewer of sweet stewed mushroom & quails egg and some japchae. Kimchi jeon's pretty good...will a la carte it the next time.

Quite impressed with their kimchi jjigae bansang. Why? The jjigae had a nice balanced flavour of fermentation rather than just coming on with a strong sour. Said flavour got more apparent once the stew has cooled a little. Rice was moist and tender...the ultimate pairing one could have with the jjigae. What the picture doesn't show, were the strips of "disintegrate in your mouth" pork belly in the stew. 😏

Banchan on the side were mostly tangy and competent. Notable were the kimchi which packed some heat and the ojingeojeot (pickled squid); both of which would either enhance the intensity of the jjigae or just good eating as topping on that delicious rice.

There was a yukke bibimbap. Not the typical looking bibimbap I'd admit. This one appeared to be more refined. Was served with the same banchans as the kimchi jjigae.

Flavour's also not typical. Not in your face here with the sesame oil and also no gochujang. There's a sweetness to it which I couldn't put a finger to but it was on the whole delicious.

We were curious about the cheese potato jeon which quietly incorporated bits of bacon for salt and smokiness. The menu mentioned that they used fluffy textured potatoes from the mountains of Gangwon - the location being the birthplace of potato jeon. Cool trivia which I hadn't any means to verify and the jeon wasn't exactly fluffy. This was Korean rosti and there's no way one could construe it otherwise. And hell yeah it was delicious. 

Du Du Dumplings (嘟嘟饺子), Tiong Bahru Plaza

We've noticed Du Du Dumplings (#02-111 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) for a while. They've taken over the space that used to be Nana Curry. Like Paik's Noodle, it was another one of those eateries where we told ourselves repeatedly "the next time" and it didn't smell like that next time would come. Until it finally happened. Damn glad we did try.

This was their 凉拌小菜 which was essentially tofu strips with some julienned carrots. Sans coriander here. Nothing about the look gave clue to its deliciousness. The proprietress mentioned that it was tossed in an oil of their concoction and that's all we knew. Man this was good.

They've three styles of freshly made dumplings which one could choose with a selection of stuffings of choice. This was the boiled one (水饺) with minced beef. Delicious. Could taste something which I'm pretty sure is star anise flavouring the meat. Also juicy.

There's roasted chilli oil similar to the one that Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles uses. Looks dangerously red, packs aroma and only has a little heat.

Pork & prawn fried dumpling (极品三鲜煎饺). A little greasy but still enjoyable. Love the prawn flavour in the stuffings.

Got their steamed dumplings with pork and cabbage (白菜猪肉蒸饺). Same star anise flavour in the meat as the beef dumplings. These were also juicy.

Interesting carbs named Dudu pasta (嘟嘟面耳). As the Chinese name may infer, these were kinda like orecchiette. Texture's doughy with a bit of chew compared to orecchiette. The tomato broth was sweet. Not bad.

Will come back.

Ube & sweet corn shake from Shake Shack

Flavour of the month from Shake Shack. Tasted like ube with coconut. Not tasting the sweet corn in this one.

Beef char kuey teow from Maddie's Kitchen

This beef char kuey teow must have been added to the menu after the last time we were at Maddie's Kitchen. Not bad. Some smokiness, a bit of sweet from the dark soy sauce and they used the same tenderloin from their hor fun. It's a tad greasy though.

Etna, first quarter 2025

It's been a couple of years since we were last here at Etna (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一).

Their Angus beef carpaccio was moreish - salted umami and earthiness coming from thin slices of brown mushroom and shaven Parmigiano Reggiano. Layered on, were some shaven black truffle. The majority of the truffle flavour came from the oil though. There's something crunchy in there...maybe salt flakes. One of the more memorable carpaccio we've had in a while.

Pizza umbricella - topped with mozzarella, stracciatella, prosciutto cotto and shaven black truffle.

The pie was loaded with ingredients. Plenty of ham and milky richness from the cheeses. Crust couldn't hold up with the weight of toppings. Cornicione was a bit dense. But otherwise, not bad.

Special of the week was a blueberry risotto; with a light Gorgonzola sauce, marinated shallots and breadcrumbs. Love how much blueberry was infused into the rice with just a mild sweetness and a bit of berry tanginess while keeping it savoury as well. 👍🏼

Pistachio tiramisu to end.

Kheng Nam Lee Teochew Porridge, Havelock Road

Just for posterity I suppose, a post on Kheng Nam Lee Teochew Porridge (715 Havelock Road). By the time this is published, the would have had wounded up their business for at least a couple of weeks.

Will not be going into specifics of the food except for a couple of dishes. Like this fermented bean minced pork, which was memorably creamy and salty and awesome pairing with white rice. I guess I will miss this from them.

We have only eaten here maybe 3-4 times in the past decade. The food's been enjoyable. Never blogged it. What didn't sit well were the prices. There's no visibility to how the dishes were charged and it appeared to be pretty random.

It's usually pretty pricey for Teochew porridge and it's not difficult to get something similar with decent to good quality around the vicinity that is less expensive.

But since they've ended the business, this post would be a record that we once ate here, did not think badly of the food but balked at their prices.

The other thing we liked and found exceptional was their cai por (pickled radish) omelette.

Today was $19. Cheaper than how much we normally pay for a meal here. Don't know why was that so. Don't really care.