Kabayan Filipino Restaurant, Lucky Plaza

We were in the vicinity and had lunch at Kabayan Filipino Restaurant (#03-25 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road). I've heard of them for some time and have been wanting to check out their food. Which is done cafeteria styled like Sari Ratu or Minang House where one picks dishes of their choice to go with rice.

Food's not bad. The options were a little overwhelming so in the short moments of agonizing over what to pick, I ended up with a plate with longanisa (sweet sausage), lechon kawali (roasted pork belly) and some long beans in a vinegar sauce. The latter was dangerously appetizing while that longanisa reminded me of 台湾香肠. Pork belly wasn't so crispy but I didn't quite mind that.

Also liked also their peanut-ty kare kare with tripe that came with a side of bagoong which was pretty awesome with either the stew or on rice with everything else. Gotta come back another time to see what else is good.

Todamgol Todamgol to buy a fat pig...

We've gotten a little bit wiser with the ordering at Korean restaurants. But wiser still we must be. Here's some recent eats from Todamgol.

We've tried their bossam previously, liked it but we were also curious about their jokbal. A combo platter resolved it by giving us both. Both the boiled belly and knuckle were pretty good especially paired with their nutty ssamjang and salty saeujeot. The portions were huge.

There was an option to top up $10 for oyster kimchi. We thought that it would replace the regular kimchi but these came in a separate serving. Not bad. Between the banchan, the bossam/jokbal platter and this, we had a lot of kimchi.

Tried chueo tang for the first time. It's boiled loach soup. The method of preparation resulted in the fish being pretty much disintegrated from all the boiling. All that was of it was just a gritty texture in the soup. Which became a bit tastier after we've put in some of the saeujeot.

Non-fried fish soup noodles from The Ship

It does exist. Most people who end up with an order of their fish soup noodles at The Ship get the fried fish option. Which is a good eat. This non-fried option came with what looked to be thicker and firm slices of boiled snakehead that was equally delicious in its own ways. One can up the ante with a spicy warmth by introducing a few slices of the chilli padi they provide on the side into the milk infused broth. 

Li Bai, Sheraton Towers

I've been wanting to come to Li Bai (Level 1 Sheraton Towers, 39 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6839 5623) for a long time. The restaurant is located at the basement of Sheraton Towers even though the address puts them on the first level. To the food...

This was a dim sum lunch. Had their century egg and pork porridge. Pretty good. I did not expect to like their crunchy fried crullers (油条) as I generally don't enjoy crunchy fried crullers.

The menu described their har gow to include bamboo shoots. Couldn't taste any of those. The prawn stuffing was springy and full of bite but was also absent of sweetness.

Their scallop and white asparagus dumplings were pretty good though. I thought they managed to achieve a balance of two delicate flavours pretty well with these.

Siew mai was delicious. The flavours of the ingredients were defined in a way that each of the ingredients were individually identifiable, enjoyable and came together nicely.

Chicken claws were slurp off the bone tender. I was surprised that the flavour from the skin was lacking though.

I ordered this because it was called Californian orange chicken. Or something like that. It's fried chicken that stir fried with a sweet and sour sauce that's presumably made with oranges. It's actually kinda nice in the same way sweet and sour pork are.

Deep fried pig intestines had light and crispy skin. Not bad tasting these were.

These crystal dumplings with mixed vegetables (碧绿水晶饺) were outstanding. I'm guessing that the vegetables were stir fried before being stuffed into those crystal skins and subsequently steamed. So filled with flavour. Smoky and savoury would be good words to describe them. I'd come back just for these.

In Li Bai, I have found the fish paste noodles that I've been searching for a long time. Fish paste noodles that were made on order, scorched in the wok before being tossed in the stock with the other ingredients. In this case, the other ingredients were some plump prawns and mushrooms.

Flavour and texture was pretty much what I had been looking for. They've outdone Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine. I'd come back here for these too.

Stuffed as we were, we managed some black sesame dumplings coated in peanut powder.

Dinner at La Strada

Our first dinner at La Strada after they were reborn. The server had brought out a tray of specials plentiful enough that it would have formed the entire menu of small restaurants. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed. Most of them sounded good like the Culatello ham which I would love to have again. And expensive.

Started with burrata accompanied by prosciutto, bird's eye peas and a hint of mint. Creamy and refreshing start punctuated by the aroma of their olive oil. 

There's no bread gratis at La Strada. It has to be ordered. This olive and tomato focaccia tasted like it was made after we ordered it. Tasted like freshness from the oven with juicy tomatoes, olive oil, olives and fragrant bits of crusty cheese.

Parmigiano Reggiano risotto with morels. The morels had less flavour than I was hoping for but the risotto was rich from the cheese and lashings of olive oil.

We yielded to the specials and got a tagliolini with shaven black truffles. The pasta was done with a chicken stock and butter reduction. Fucking awesome. The flavour of the chicken from the stock paired so nicely with the earthy truffles.  

Their lamb with pistachio crust didn't look like what I had imagined. The server convinced us that there was nothing but the pistachio crust and probably some salt and pepper that flavoured the meat. I'm sure there were other flavour components in it. It's not bad, but not outstanding. 

I like their "juicy" limoncello tiramisu. But then I've already mentioned that previously.

Affogato's pretty good as well. The espresso was a doppio with hazelnut gelato. Now that Senso's no longer around, this could be the next best one until someplace else convinces us otherwise.

Not by the hair of my chinny Chin Chin

I haven't eaten at Chin Chin Eating House (19 Purvis Street) much. The first time was about 12 years ago and in between - probably only once. The last visit wasn't such a good experience. It was only on retrospect that I've realized that I had ordered their roasted chicken again like the first time I ate here. So here's change.

Boiled chicken this time round. It's not bad chicken. Pretty tender bird doused in the usual sesame oil/soy sauce combination. Not the top of my list or close to riveling the outstanding ones like Hua Kee or Sin Kee but very edible stuff. Chin Chin's rice is a little dry and a little clumpy with a light flavour. Not quite good enough to eat on its own for me but their chilli with a light burn helps.

On the side, we ordered omelette stir fried with bitter gourd. This was quite nice.

We had another go at their Hainanese pork chop. Eating this was kinda pleasant this time round. It tasted freshly made unlike the previous occasion and they had the sauce served on the side rather than doused over everything. This pork chop was better than most "pork chop" served in most curry rice shops all over the island. To my surprise, I didn't dislike the tangy tomato sauce. In fact, I was dangerously close to liking it. *gasp*