A beef stew with rice from Pecori

I think these guys are either still fiddling with their menu or are rotating some of their non core dishes for variety. I remember seeing seafood and curry pilaf on menu and today (yet again after another grocery spree), we got ourselves something described as brown beef sauce with beef gristles. Which was essentially their beef stew from more sinewy cuts.

I actually liked it. It was simple and comforting with sufficient beefy flavour infused into the broth. An appropriate amount of time was apparently spent simmering the seemingly random cuts of meat that in spite of the gristles, it was all acceptably tender and tasty. Altogether a very pleasant change from the heavier omu rice options that they normally have and definitely an alternative to the declining mentaiko cream rice which of late seems more cream than mentaiko.

Fu Xiang Chicken Rice : Single Serving Edition

So here's it. Chicken rice with the works crammed into a single serving plate. Looks good there, hell yes? I ought to give their boiled chicken a go the next time.

Ebi katsu season is back in Saboten again

Those panko crusted deep fried chunky shrimp cakes are back on limited time at Saboten. Get them before they're gone. 

Beng Kee Wanton Noodle, Whampoa Drive Makan Place

With another dash of oblivious-ity, I had never taken note of this particular wanton noodle stall (#01-22, Whampoa Drive Makan Place Block 91, 91 Whampoa Drive) even though it was strategically located between a couple of my favourite stalls down at Whampoa Food Centre. Speaking of which, I've just discovered that it has been renamed to Whampoa Drive Makan Place. Seriously?

This was a spinach noodle option with deep fried dumplings. What I liked about it was that the dumplings were fried upon order, allowing it to remain freshly crisp. On top of that, there wasn't any excessive oil that was soaked onto the skin which was stuffed generously with lean minced pork and some shrimp.  Not so big on flavour there but it was satisfyingly meaty and crispy. The noodles were well timed in the boiler, tossed in their light sauce with chilli, didn't clump and had a decent bite. Nothing mind blowing to be found here but a decent plate good for everyday (even though the portions were a little small). Which is actually not as easy a thing to find as it sounds these days.

RedRing Wanton Mee, Holland Drive

There's a bit of an unusual story behind this stall (46 Holland Drive). 

Apparently, it's run by a couple who has done some R&D with their son, who's incidentally someone bound for a Ph.D. in Stanford University in Chemistry after graduating from the local university. The components of the wanton noodles, a result of their year of research, are a product of part machine automation and part measured scientific calibration.

There's a noodle boiling machine that cooks their egg noodles in batches at precise temperatures under a fixed duration in water that's constantly and automatically changed so that none of that residual starch or alkali accumulates and clings onto the noodles. Char siew is done using a Weber smoker without artificial coloring and the sauce is an alchemy of their own design. The rest of the details can be Googled.

What's the verdict of this unusual wanton mee stall? I think I rather liked it. The noodles, which was my favourite part were chewy and eggy flavored; and there was just enough of their sauce to coat them all. The lightly smokey tasting char siew was fairly tasty even though the style is not of my preferred type and the pieces are much too chopped up enjoy much of any texture. The chilli sauce itself was a little tame and I couldn't really tell what was special about it. But I wouldn't mind eating this again.

A Noodle Story, Amoy Street Food Centre

Credit where it's due, it takes some balls to introduce a thermal immersion circulator for your charshu in an institutionalized food centre amidst a small sea of traditional hawkers.

A Noodle Story (Amoy Street Food Centre #01-39, 7 Maxwell Road) styles itself as a take on Singapore ramen, doing what could be considered a updated take on wanton mee. A wanton mee that comes with 36 hour sou vide charshu from Spanish pork belly, a molten yolked ajitama and topped off with a little heap of chopped negi. Which were really all about it that resembled regular Japanese ramen. And then a tasty crispy fritter of potato strips clad prawn plus a few sizeable meaty wantons thrown in as well. I thought the toppings were pretty well done there.

The noodles seemed local/of Hong Kong styled, thin and wiry with some chew. But the flavors were nothing familiar that I could relate to. Mixed with their home made flavorful sambal, it felt like there was much too much going on for my taste buds. I'm not sure I liked that.