Ssada Gimbab (싸다김밥), Great World

From what I've read described of Ssada Gimbab (#01-109/110 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 8267 3730), they appear to be to Korea what cha chaan teng are to Kong Kong. Their food a recognizeable array of ubiquitous fare with minimal frills.

This was their fire tonkatsu - the one with buldak sauce. On the side - mayo-ed salad, spicy bean sprouts, a mound of rice, kimchi and takuan.

Meat's a little dry and not the most tender around. Something I managed to easily looked past because of the hot sauce.

Gimbap's were...well, the restaurant's named after them. The ones here were pretty big and well stuffed. This has aged kimchi and tuna. Not bad. Will not mind coming back to try others.

Appreciated the free coffee. It's not great but it's sweet and hot.

One week later......

Ssada Gimbab also has an unexpectedly moreish kimchi jjigae. I liked that there was enough spicy sour from the kimchi with flavour of anchovy in the stew. Such good pairing with the rice. The slices of pork in there were relatively tender.

Ippudo's yuzu tonkotsu ramen this year

Ippudo's yuzu tonkotsu ramen is back on a limited run this year. It was unexpectedly disappointing even though it looked exactly the same as the ones they did in the past. Couldn't put a finger to what precisely had changed in the broth. Maybe it was less fruity and more salty. I definitely did not enjoy this like I did the previous time.

EatAlley, Orchard Gateway

I've been wanting to come to EatAlley (#B2-12 Orchard Gateway, 277 Orchard Road) at Orchard Gateway for some time. Finally did and also at an off peak hour.

This was called a bento on the menu if I remember correctly. Char siew bento with added roast duck. Pretty decent. Was expecting more out of the char siew because while it was better than run of the mill but it's not up there. Their wanton mee looked pretty good so maybe I'll try that the next time.

The other stall I was curious about was Uncle Beh Pork Noodle which features their 猪肉粉. Basically pork soup and noodles. Got ours with bee tai bak. Pretty good quality meat/offal here. The sweet intestine (粉肠) was outstanding and the pork soup, deliciously garlicky. It's kinda pricey though and I'm guessing that such quality wouldn't be that difficult a find at a lower cost in Malaysia.

Back at Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles (舌尖尖兰州牛肉面)

It's been a while since the last time we ate at Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles. We noticed that there're updates to their menu.

There's beef tendon noodles available dry or soup - a viable option, at least for me, compared to the past where one could only have them in their not so interesting slices of beef. Tendons were a little chewy, not so tender and had a nice beefy stew-y taste.

Side order of sauerkraut...or more accurately, 酸菜. Love how these added a nice acidity to the noodles and dumplings. What dumplings? See below.

Didn't expect them to have lamb skewers (羊肉串) on menu. It's nicely grilled but ultimately a failure because it's not identifiable as lamb. Not cheap at $2.50 a skewer. Will not be getting them again for sure.

An order of their prawn dumplings/虾仁水饺 again to ascertain if the last time we had them wasn't a fluke. These are still good. Skin's a bit thick but the prawn stuffings are legit. Pretty good eating if you soaked them in the 酸菜 broth too.

Breakfast at Royal Spicy Dosa

The menu at Royal Spicy Dosa might be staggering and they're open early for breakfast, but all that stagger doesn't exist in the morning because most of those items aren't available. So we found out the hard way.

Pongal here was dryish, with texture like dry mashed potatoes. Yellow lentils and rice weren't as integrated. Also no ghee flavour. It's like an entirely different dish from the porridge-y kind that's more common around. Almost stodgy but pretty good tasting with their sambar and/or coconut chutney.

Ghee roast was thin, crisp and buttery. 

Both the pongal and dosa came with some kesari on the side. Unlike the common variety, their kesari wasn't yellow or orange. Flavour's the same though and I liked that they weren't overly sweet.

Passable masala tea. Pretty milky.

Hannah Mayham in cheddar & jalapeño bagel from Two Men Bagel House

Hannah Mayham falls under the Classics at 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, 二十五, 二十六). Odd because I've never noticed it it until their recent menu revamp.

It's not exciting a bagel as some of their others but I don't think this one was meant to be. Smoked chicken and turkey ham, Biscoff bechamel (which I cannot identify), Emmental, honey mustard, Lao Gan Ma chilli and pickled jalapeño. One could construe it as a glorified spicy ham and cheese sandwich. I thought it was not bad mostly because of the chillis which packed it a punch.