Makan Sutera Nasi Lemak Pandan Rice, Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

I was at Tanjong Pagar Market in the morning looking for breakfast. For some reasons, nasi lemak was the thing in my mind. Seeing that the Pandan Leaf Nasi Lemak stall was closed till the next year, I went for the only other option which was Makan Sutera (#02-39 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza). It was okay. For what they charged, I couldn't complain about the ingredients. They do need to get themselves a better otah supplier. 

I did feel that their rice had enough aroma and salt that I didn't even need the sambal though. I'm normally not a fan of ikan bilis with this dish and strangely, they also didn't give me any today.

Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine, Tanjong Pagar Centre

Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine has caused some stir in recent times. The original premise at Takashimaya has shifted to ION Orchard while in the recent year, they've rubbed off some glimmer from a French tyre company. Quietly and not quite under the radar, they've also set up a branch at Tanjong Pagar Centre (#02-01 & #03-01, 7 Wallich Street, tel : +65 6384 2722).

We ordered a combination of their marinated meats because it seemed that these were something they were good at or known for. At least that's the impression that I have. Here's duck tongue, sliced duck and pig intestines. Hmm...more offal than meat. The braising sauce was flavourful. Not very good at describing how that was but it was a lot more spiced than what I'm used to experiencing - in a good way that is. The meat was tender with just that little bit of bite except for the tongue which are by nature chewy. Not bad. 

The menu described this as a Teochew styled stewed mee pok with mince pork and pork liver. There's some mushrooms and bean sprouts in there as well. The first thought I had was that this was a glorified and expensive ba chor mee - which wasn't very far from the truth. Hear me out. This was a very nice glorified ba chor mee. 

In retrospect, they nailed a couple of things well which made this plate of noodles lip smacking. The stewing liquid which coated the noodles was savoury and mildly sweet kind of delicious. Second, the texture of the mee pok was superb. Thin and springy with bite all the way till the last bits. I would order it again.

This wasn't so much fulfilling the greens quota than because I generally kinda enjoy mustard greens. And oh yes, chestnuts too. They managed to make the vegetable so tender here.

We made it to desserts which generally meant that everything else we had early made us feel good enough to spend more money on sweets. But that orh nee was quite nice. The piping hot yam paste was smooth and refined, fragrant with the scent of the cooked tuber. A teaspoon of lard or shallot oil would have seriously up the ante on this, but it's merely wishful fantasy on my part.

Sri Rajya Lakshmi Narasimhan, Serangoon Road

I've been meaning to come down to this place (436 Serangoon Road) since that time I was recommended to their food court stall down at Changi Business Park. This was where things got a little confusing. That food court stall was Sri Lukshmi Naarashimhan which was exactly what the decal spelt here. But the sign for the shop said Sri Rajya Lakshmi Narasimhan. I'm assuming it's probably just a little change in the name and how things are spelled.

But there's more. Google lists their contact as 9051 6326 while Happy Cow has both 6292 7740 and 6292 2434. Meanwhile the sign on the shop goes 6299 1424. Not that I tried calling any of them.

I was looking forward to giving their Andhra meal another go today but apparently they didn't have it. The proprietress simply said that it would be available next month. I ended up with a South Indian meal instead. The question I have is - is there a time of the year when such meals are available or am I just unlucky?

Anyway, the meal was quite delicious. They spooned some ghee onto the rice after it was served and also gave a little dollop of some pickled thing which was pretty sour. There's the usual sambar, rasam, yoghurt and a spiced yoghurt. The latter I've not seen served around before. That ghee definitely added an additional delicious depth to the rice. I'm pretty sure I'm coming back again.

A rice plate from the Indian stall at IMM's cafeteria

That's the small cafeteria on the 4th floor at IMM (2 Jurong East Street 21). I've eaten at this stall more than a few times. The food's fairly decent. Curry's a little thin. Cabbage needs a little more flavour. But very edible stuff. I like their fried fish for some reason. It has a thin and bread-y spiced batter that's sometimes still crisp on the edges. 

Mrs Pho, Beach Road

I've been wanting to come down to this place (349 Beach Road, tel : +65 6292 0018) for quite a while now but due to the location, it's always been out of sight and out of mind for us. We'd happen by once in a while and then exclaim that we pho-got about this little shop *insert cringe*. But today's finally happened and I'm glad we made it.

We liked what we had. Like their packed goi cuon which were fatter and one up from the ones at O Banh Mi...

...and also the goi du du. A crunchy and tangy papaya salad not unlike som tam with some sliced boiled pork and shrimp with tasty bits of fried shallots and basil.

A pleasant find was their banh canh cua. Rat tail noodles it appeared with shrimp, minced bits of crab and what tasted like pork balls with something. Not sure what's that something. This bowl tasted like a Vietnamese rendition of our local prawn noodles with a crustacean sweet broth.

Pho bo tai was pretty good too. I thought the broth was a good balance between the beefy savoury and sweetness and what I especially enjoyed was that the cinnamon that was pretty pronounced.

Khin Kee Handmade Fishball Kway Teow, Havelock Road Food Centre

My attention was initially was drawn to this stall (#01-06 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A/B Havelock Road) because of the queue I've noticed in the various times I've been to the 38 Curry Rice stall. Yeah, they're just next to each other. And that it mentioned handmade fish balls so I thought it would be worth a try.

How was it? It's not bad. Their mee pok was pretty generic. I couldn't say that their chilli or their vinegar that they used on the noodles were anything out of the ordinary either. But their fried fish cakes were delicious. Reminded me of those from River South Prawn Noodles. Fishballs were indeed the hand made variety. That's quite the rarity these days. Those were not bad as well but it's not Li Xin.