Cô Chung, Boat Quay

We've noticed Cô Chung at Plaza Singapura. Have seen the queues and wondered about them. This was their branch behind Boat Quay (4-5 Lorong Telok, tel : +65 8876 8137).

Iced coffee was not bad. Strong and milky, sweet without being excessively so.

Egg bánh mì with added on pate. I didn't it was cool that I have to top up an additional $5.90 for pate in a $11.90 bánh mì that I could barely taste.

Disclaiming that pictures are for illustration purposes only doesn't cut it for me. That in my opinion is a deliberate lie. Intended misinformation. This was how it looked ☝🏽 on the menu.

Anyway, it didn't taste good. Baguette was a bit hard instead of crisp and airy. Even NamNam's textbook rendition beats this. Bánh Mì Saigon kicks its ass hard. The defunct Viet9 at Toa Payoh central was a better eat. 123 ZÔ would rip this to shreds. And......I think I've made my point.

Bún with sautéed beef. Expected the sauce to be fishy and limey but it wasn't. I'm not even sure what we tasted. Beef was decent...but I was kinda hoping it would be shabu thin.

Gỏi cuốn tasted pretty carb-y. Prawns were small and the wrap was damp. What's that peanut sauce they were using? 

More cai png at Jing Shu Shi (京熟食)

End of day selections from Jing Shu Shi. Stewed cabbage, tau kwa with bean sprouts, hard boiled egg and surprisingly tender black pepper sauced pork. I asked for the assam fish curry today which wasn't particularly assam-y but I like it better than their regular curry. Pretty pleased with this.

An update on Suju at Mandarin Gallery

This was our first time back at Suju ( 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) at Mandarin Gallery since we've started going to the one at Takashimaya. It appears that Mandarin Gallery runs their own menu which includes a few stuff that the one at Taka doesn't have and the reverse is also true.

Dashi tamagoyaki.

The main reason why we came back to this Mandarin Gallery's was their miso red wine beef cheek. Not available at Taka. First time we've had it was back in 2019. The last might have been the end of 2020. It was taken off the menu for some time until I noticed it back again. Presentation's changed, portions have shrunk a bit, prices have gone up and there was less miso red wine sauce compared to the past. 😔 Still delicious though.

Suju's gohan set remains respectable. Moist and freshly cooked rice, delicious crisp house made pickled daikon and a solid miso soup.

And the nama tamago is back.

For my anticipated tamago kake gohan.

This doesn't seem to be available at Taka too.

Revisiting Wild Coco

Back at Wild Coco.

Chrysanthemum tasted like it was made from granules and not brewed from the flower. Not nice.

Tried their chao ta chee cheong fun. Most of the rice rolls were unrolled so it felt like eating fried kuey teow. Sadly, they're mostly not chao ta as well. The saving grace of this plate were the prawns which were meaty and had a bit of char flavour coming through. 

What bothered me most was that it was way too oily.

More food from Du Du Dumplings (嘟嘟饺子)

Trying a few more stuff at Du Du Dumplings. That above was their stem lettuce salad or in Chinese, 凉拌莴笋 - what I found online to be either lettuce stem or celtuce. Flavour was a hint of saltiness, pretty refreshing and the texture crisp with vegetal crunch. 

Lu rou fan. Haven't much to measure this against but it's not a bad tasting bowl. Different spice profile in the 卤 compared to the neighbouring Lee Lai Jiak. This one seems to have more star anise...I taste a pattern here.

Green been soup for dessert. Light sweetness, larger than usual variety of green beans used and I thought I tasted something herbal which I couldn't identify. Pleasant.

Indomie goreng with ayam geprek from Dapur Penyet

Hmmm...pretty nice fried smashed chicken which was both tender and crispy. I like this as much as the sate version.