Xiao Mu Deng (小木凳), Grantral Mall @ MacPherson

Mala tang/xiang guo stall at the food court in Grantral Mall (601 MacPherson Road). Decent quality ingredients, not bad tasting 小辣 and a little pricey. This single serving portion was $18+. I'll attribute the cost to the octopus tentacle which was one of the main reasons I decided to give them a go. Don't recall having seen octopus in the mala stalls I've seen. Anyways, that tentacle was disappointingly rubbery. Reminder to self: air conditioning is pretty poor at this mall so think again if the 麻辣香锅 calls out.

Suspicious Hiro

Sushiro (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九,十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六) is a pretty good place for fries and beer. #notjustsaying. Their fries are pretty decent IMNSHO and their mugs of Suntory have consistently been served satisfyingly chilled. Anywaysss...another compilation of eats. Some new, some old...some kokumi, some cold. 🤔 What's that last one again?

Shake and ikura gunkan. Nice with those pink fatty slivers of salmon and bursty briny roe.

Guilty pleasure of mentaiko and mayo gunkan.

Sujiko is apparently in season.

What's better than a sujiko wrap is a sujiko wrap with aburi-ed shirako! This one was both briny and creamy.

Uni croquette. The inside was hot, smooth and creamy. This was nice but I'm not sure what to make of the inside because I'm not sure if I tasted uni or not. But it's nice.

We've never gotten the corn mayo gunkan before so here's a first. Those firm corn kernels were not bad tasting. 

Houbou nigiri. Red gunnard. Fish was freshly fried and pretty good eating. Crispy tail's edible.

The uni season brings their uni butter dry ramen. Noodle texture aside, this wasn't bad with the uni and uni cream sauce and butter. There's onions and shiso to cut through the creaminess.

Tuna toro with lumpfish caviar. Needs more caviar.

Matsukasa cut squid aburi-ed and glazed with shoyu. Quite nice. Better than the generic raw variety because the torching imparts the squid-y flavour.

Uni & avocado with lumpfish caviar wrap. I liked this. Ordered it with low expectations and it turned out pretty good and creamy. Pretty sure there was something citrus like yuzu in it. Have had this a few times. Nice.

Miso soup with seaweed and okra.

Strawberry panna cotta's not great. The pudding tasted like a thin strawberry milk. Most of the strawberry flavour came from the sauce and those seriously chilled diced bits of fruit.

Edamame tempura. Think the bean clusters were held together with mashed potato.

Salmon with Hokkaido cream cheese and basil pesto. Nice. Cream cheese added an enjoyable creamy richness to this.

Salmon with Camembert. Not as tasty as the one with cream cheese. Camembert was muted in flavour.

Shiojime cod tempura. Looked nothing like their product shot. Fish was a lot smaller. This tasted like fish and chips on rice. Did not taste bad at all but I expected a much bigger piece of fried fish.

Not feeling much with the shiojime cod. Yes this was the raw version of the previous fish. Meat was firm but didn't have much identity.

This was puchi puchi tobiko mozuku gunkan. Gemini tells me that puchi puchi is an onomatopoeic word that sounds like the popping or bursting of bubbles. In other words, bursty. I get it. Tobiko is flying fish roe and mozuku is a type of seaweed. Flavour's vinegary.

Chicken meatball gunkan.

Sesame marinated Japanese sardine. Not fond of this one. The marinate stripped most of the natural character, both flavour and texture, from the fish. There's some yuzu flavour in it which wasn't enough to win me over.

Marinated hotaru ika in squid ink. Strong briny and squid-y flavour. No squid ink taste. Pretty salty. Wouldn't eat it again.

A guilty pleasure of shredded crabsticks and mayo.

Menu called this aglio olio. It's kinda it. Japanese udon aglio olio I suppose. Garlicky and spicy with loads of small meaty clams. This was delicious with a few squeezes of shoyu. Nice! 👍🏼

Current seasonal dessert is cheese datemaki melba. I'm not sure where the 'cheese' part came in but I like the eggy datemaki. Soft serve on the side has a nice vanilla taste.

Even more food from Umar Ali Cafe

Part 3 of the compilation of eats from Umar Ali Cafe.

I had the idea that Horlicks dinosaur came with Milo powder. Apparently not. Not a bad rendition if you like Horlicks.

What innocuous looking newfangled prata might that be?

This was one up from a previous honey mushroom prata at Al Mubin - a banana honey mushroom prata. I know right? The mushrooms were quite tasteless and the honey was subtle. Most of the flavour came from the bananas which actually paired pretty well with their fish curry.

Maggi goreng popcorn chicken combo. Added keema to the Maggi goreng and that was nicely goreng-ed. Dry, no excessive oil and deliciously salty. More generously salted than the kuey teow goreng previously, possibly because of the instant noodle seasoning.

Tried their egg kothu prata. It's a torn/chopped up prata stir fried with loads of onions, curry leaves and other spices. Not bad tasting, a little heavy with the grease and also pretty good eating with their dalcha and fish curry.

Teh tarik's decent if unexceptional. Flavour from the tea felt muted compared to their teh halia cino. Don't know if it's a one off.

On the morning of Hari Raya Puasa......

Poori masala. Bread was thin and less greasy than the one at Al Mubin. Masala potatoes tasted starchy. The dal that came with this was different. This was beany unlike their usual dalcha which was laced with the flavour from mutton fat.

We got a fried chicken thigh freshly fried in the morning. Bird was moist, greasy and warm; with a nicely spiced and salted batter. Nice.

Kopi tarik's not bad. Coffee has got a bit of strength and pleasantly sweet. YMMV on the sweetness.

A few weeks later......

 

Mee hokkien...their rendition of Hokkien mee. 😅 Here's where we're in slightly unfamiliar territory because we've never ordered something like this from a mamak. There's obviously no lard involved. The flavour of the braised noodles tasted like it was just salt and pepper compared to a prawn based stock. Did not taste bad actually. The prawns...meat was slightly stuck to the shell. Meat stuck to shell is usually is an indicator of freshness - or rather the lack of. The meat was firm and actually sweet. Sweet! 🦐

Love their nasi goreng merah...with mutton keema. The keema part was something we asked for. Apparently the regular rendition here doesn't use keema. Noticed that the rice grains were short and small and not starchy. This plate was savoury and spicy with some heat. Would come back for it again.

Al Heera Restaurant, Sembawang Road

Got me some maggie goreng and fried chicken at Al Heera Restaurant (343 Sembawang Road, tel  : +65 6756 0323). Okay tasting with the regular instant noodle seasoning and MSG plus some heat but I would have preferred for the noodles to be more dry. This one was a little wet and I don't think it's a one off. It's how they roll at this place.

Fried chicken's okay too. They were refried on order and hence, served hot. Standard issue turmeric and garlick saltiness on the skin. Not awesome but also not a bad rendition. 

Tuna bibimbap from Ssada Gimbab (싸다김밥)

My first tuna bibimbap. From Ssada Gimbab. I wanted to keep it simple but ended up adding mozzarella cheese which on hindsight might not be the best idea since the warmth from the rice could only do so much before the cheese hardened again. What would seriously elevate this is a drizzle of good sesame oil. Definitely serviceable still.