Numazu Uogashizushi, 100AM

Another sushi shop has opened up and this time at 100AM under the new Itadakimasu cluster of restaurants by the Parco Group. According to Parco, Numazu Uogashizushi (#03-K1, 100AM, 100 Tras Street) is one of the few sushi restaurants to have coveted auction rights in Numazu fish market located at Numazu Port for premium quality seafood that will be flown to Singapore directly from the market. Hmmm....really? This place looks middling level for sushi. I'm not quite feeling the premium quality.

Here's a maguro set and some random aburi items which we got. The tuna based set wasn't as expensive as the one we previously had from Tsukiji Sushi Takewaka; featured more generous portions of fish, knife work with little finesse and what appeared to be quite amateurish sushi making. I thought the chutoro nigiri that came in the set were barely not-akami. The accompanying chawanmushi was quite nice, but the kanijiru was actually pretty bad. The crab added nothing to the flavour of the soup and the meat was mushy and fishy in a bad way.

Those aburi nigiri items were decent. Actually, those ebi and hotate were pretty good. I suppose this shop looks like it would be fine for some not so serious/traditionalist kind of sushi. For some reasons, this place reminded me of Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru.

Som Tam, Orchard Central

I've noticed this place (#08-13 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6238 6872) for a while but for some reasons didn't pay attention to them probably because of that generic sounding name. As it turns out, Som Tam is managed by the Jus Delish Group who happens to run Gin Khao as well as a few other places.

I wanted to try their som tam because it was their namesake. The papaya salad arrived in a jar and came with what tasted like a Chinese plum sauce. The som tam sucked. There wasn't much of the fish sauce or citrus going on. For some reasons, it was really garlicky as well which threw us off. This was definitely the worst one we've had.  

Their tom yum "Black" was kinda nice. The colour came from squid ink that was added. The broth had some sweetness from the onions and seafood, was a little tangy and also had spikes of heat from the chilli. Those prawns were deliciously sweet.

This was their satay gai. Chicken satay with a sweet glaze that tasted like it could have come from Tori-Q. I'm not seeing the Thai fusion element here because this appeared to be simply pseudo Japanese. There's even some Japanese sesame dressing to go along with them which would have resulted in a flavour overkill with the already sweet glaze on the chicken.

What unexpectedly turned out pretty good was their sautéed beef pad thai with truffle oil. Yes, truffle oil. This era's most overused ingredient which likely does not even contain actual truffle. This plate of fried rice noodles however, was actually quite enjoyable. The truffle aroma never took main stage. In fact, it was just hovering in the background throughout the dish - even after the crushed peanuts, dried chilli and lime. Liked it better than I thought I would.

Here's some grilled yellowtail collar. The menu called it kama shio so I expected some salt. That salt was virtually non existent but the Thai shrimp chilli (tasted quite like our local sambal belachan) that accompanied it paired off pretty well. Actually, the other thing that complemented this grilled fish was that sauce that came with the som tam.

Dessert was a chocolate chip basil gelato with D24 durian paste. Don't knock it till you've tried it because it's actually pretty good.

Hungry Bazterdz, The Arcade @ Collyer Quay

One cannot help but notice the Tarantino-esque slant to the name. This was a halal coffee and sandwich shop down at The Arcade (#01-06 The Arcade, 11 Collyer Quay, tel : +65 6816 3213) not ten seconds away from Good Old Taste. I had meant, a serious sandwich shop - the kind that have been popping up in recent years properly educating the blessed how hearty sandwiches should be.

I had a Mighty Cheese Steak. Their four cheese sauce was cheesy in a Cheez Whiz manner. Kinda similar to the one at Park Bench Deli with a couple of differences. Their hoagie option comes in toasted baguette with a nice light crisp instead of the seemingly softer bun from PBD. Where PBD was ahead of the game came from their thinly sliced beef which wasn't the case here. These here weren't so thinly sliced nor were they sufficiently tender that each bite involved pulling at the meat and trying not to spill them all over. I might come back another time seeing there's a couple of other sandwiches which looked like they were worth trying.

A semla from Konditori

We made the trip down to Konditori (33 Bussorah Street, tel : +65 209 8580) because we knew that they had semla - possibly the only place in this country that has semla since Ikea doesn't seem to have that anymore. In the end, we were kinda disappointed that the bread wasn't flavoured with cardamom like how it should have been. The cream didn't taste quite like how I imagined it and the only other flavouring that was involved was some almond paste in the bun. That one from Ikea was actually better tasting. What a bummer!

Capitol Bak Chor Mee, Food Republic @ Capitol Piazza

We noticed the ba chor mee stall (B1-20/27 Capitol Piazza, 13 Stamford Road) the last time we were here and thought it looked good enough that we came back to try it.

I'm inclined to believe that their bowl is setup to be similar with the ones from Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. Yes, that Michelin starred one. And possibly also to Tai Wah Pork Noodle at Hong Lim. The wonton, the piece of ti poh, sliced pork with minced pork and meatballs, no stewed mushrooms and that cloudy bowl of broth on the side. This was what it reminded me of and the similarities end there.

My appraisal would be that this was a pretty decent bowl that I wouldn't say no to. Price aside, it beats the hell out of the majority of the generic stalls; but it is not Tai Hwa as much as it looks like theirs. For a start, my piece of dried sole wasn't fragrant and was inedibly chewy, the wonton skins are a little too thick and the zing from vinegar just didn't come through. And this was supposed to be the larger bowl going for $6. I could eat two of these in a seating if I was starving so yeah, decent but a little expensive.  

Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee, Queen Street

I read that these guys (#01-236 QS269 Food House, 269B Queen Street) are the original branch of the Ah Heng curry noodle stalls so the other one at Hong Lim is an offshoot of this. While I have never eaten enough at both shops to make a proper comparison, the thing that that stood out for me was the same kind of tau pok that they used. That and the line that tends to form at the stall every now and then. This $6 bowl didn't quite feel as hefty as the one that I had Hong Lim though.

I suppose I feel the same way about this stall as the other. A decent eat which I would have no qualms going for if I didn't have to deal with a long queue.