Restaurant Aisyah (西北香), Telok Ayer Street

I was keen to try Restaurant Aisyah (176 Telok Ayer Steet, tel : +65 9372 4321) when I read about them opening earlier in the year. The reason was because they were suppose to be a showcase of cuisine from the region of Xinjiang which is uncommon on this island and exploring some of these Chinese Muslim food from that region has been a thing of mine. We managed to come down for lunch recently. Pity - I wanted to like them.

Tried their cumin mutton dry noodles. Reminded me instantly of the Tohu Goshi langmeni at the Dolan Uyghur Restaurant because of the similar type of noodles and sauce - with some differences. The portions here were puny. The amount of cumin flavour for a dish with cumin in its name was....let's say puny. The minced mutton had a very good amount of natural meat flavour going on but I wished there were more of it. Not a bad plate of noodles but I can imagine this being much better.

Not much mutton in the cumin mutton fried rice as well. Ditto for the cumin flavour. Not much ingredients in it for what it's worth. As a fried rice, it was not bad. As a cumin mutton fried rice, it was mediocre. I'd pay no more than $2 for it if I had a choice.

The menu mentioned stir fried kailan and beef. Unless it was stir fried in water, I'd say that the vegetables and beef were likely boiled. Not a bad dish but wasn't what I had expected from a stir fry. Not much beef flavour coming from the meat too.

The skewers were a last attempt to validate the restaurant. We wanted this to be good so that we could at least have a reason to come back. Left two were lamb and right three were chicken hearts. Latter was not bad. A little dry compared with those from izakaya/kushiyaki joints but I could go along. Mutton was $3 a skewer, double the dollar cost at Manchurian Restaurant and only half as good so that would make them four times as expensive. I wouldn't say that the taste was bad but we've had better.

It's a little difficult to justify $3 for these things when it's not so difficult to find street level quality for about a dollar each. What bothered me also was that these guys for some reason are holding back on the cumin which I think is self defeating.

Yan Kee Noodle House (炎记), Circular Road

I first/last ate at Yan Kee about a decade ago. Back then, they were a stall in the coffee shop across the road from where they are now (9 Circular Road). Today they're a shop of their own, selling pretty much the same stuff.

Was there any difference between then a now? I didn't think so. While I did seem to remember the noodles being a little more vinegar-y, I cannot be sure. Love the garlic and heat from their chilli sauce. Still a solid bowl I wouldn't mind getting when I'm in the vicinity though.

Arare soba from Healthy Soba IKI

This arare soba is the current special at Healthy Soba IKI. It's a hot bowl with little scallops perched on a sheet of seaweed on top of the soba. Doesn't come with the abura age, those were added on. Scallops which were still partially rare were nice with their own scallop-y sweetness but you'd have to eat them fast or they'll continue to cook in the hot broth.

Tracy Juice Culture, International Plaza

Tracy Juice Culture has set up a new shop at International Plaza (#01-54 International Plaza, 10 Anson Rd, tel : +65 9046 3318) and they're open on Saturdays. I suppose it was about time since they've never lacked customers and the shop at Fortune Centre is kinda small. Pretty much everything that's available from there (including the mushroom udon) is available here from what I could tell. Except the lei cha fan which I hope will be around someday.

Tried the fruit juice curry because I've never had it before. It's a bowl of udon with fruits and tofu.  I liked the broth for the fruity spicy flavours which reminded me of the assam/tamarind in Penang laksa. Beside the visible slices of dragon fruit and grapes, there were also cherry tomatoes and chunks of pineapple in the bowl. The small patch of shrubbery was laksa leaves. 

That's the peach gum cheng tng. Now that the weather has started getting warmer again, this was refreshing. Just some dates, dried longan, white fungus and peach gum in clear sweet soup.

Preserved veg and braised pork (梅菜扣肉) rice from Li Li Kway Chap

Again, I did not manage to get the kuey chap from Li Li Kway Chap. Ended up with their rice with preserved veg and braised pork rice which was also described as 梅菜扣肉. That preserved vegetable tasted more like 咸菜 than than 梅菜 to me. 扣肉 wasn't as tender as how I imagined it but it wasn't bad. Just not what I had in mind. I suppose this was their rendition which is arguably a different thing from the traditional dish. I added pig's skin and boiled egg. Not a bad eat but I didn't like their gloopy sauce. Gotta remember to get this without that gloopy sauce the next time.

Jia Wang Cafe (佳旺), Bukit Ho Swee

We learnt about Jia Wang Cafe (4 Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, tel : +65 9362 6359) recently and wanted to see if we liked them enough to make them a go to for cze char. They're located at the ground floor of an old HDB block at Bukit Ho Swee. Has it's unique charm. The weather was cool and breezy when we were there twice, but what do you care about that.

The bunch of food below were the outcome of the two visits.

Very competent stir fried sambal kang kong they did. I liked that the vegetables were stir fried with lard. So the main flavours came from both the lard and the dried shrimps. Good for returns.

Assam fish head served on opeh leaf - apparently a signature dish from them. Again, very competently executed. There was a nice heat to the tamarind sauce - I thought I tasted ginger flower but I'm not sure. The lady's fingers were well cooked in spite of the colours and didn't have any of the slime. Fish was fresh, firm and tender. I don't know what fish this was but it's not the freshwater variety - meaning that it won't have any muddy taste that repels many people.

This garlic pork dish is also another signature of theirs. While the name simply mentions garlic and pork, there's more to it. The meat which we think is sliced pork belly has been marinated in nam yu (南乳) - fermented bean curd for those of you who don't know what they are. It's deep fried with garlic and then drizzled with the sweet sauce that is normally the dip for hae cho (虾枣). 

So if you've skipped the previous paragraph, the flavour was a mixture from the nam yu, garlic and the sweetness of the hae cho sauce along with the fat from the pork belly. Sound good? You betcha. 

Two days later...

This dish was called 'special beans'. I feel that the world special has many bad connotations but let's not go there. The Chinese name is 虾米小毛豆 which translates to French beans with dried shrimps - which is a much more accurate name as they mention the two main ingredients. This was nicely done. Liked the slighty sweet savouriness and umami from the dried shrimp bits/hae bee.

Sweet and sour pork was okay. The fried meat were shaped like balls and didn't have a crusty exterior. Found the sauce addictive.

Tried their kung bao prawns (宫保虾球). Pretty decent cze char standard for kung bao and the prawns had a nice fresh crunchiness. It's a little pricey at $20 for a few prawns.