Podi & Poriyal, Serangoon Road

I've been wanting to come to Podi & Poriyal (486 Serangoon Road, tel  : +65 9711 2400) for some time. They're a contemporary South Indian vegetarian restaurant. Got their Podi's Signature Lunch which involves what one normally gets in a thali with dishes that get rotated weekly. Why did I mention 'normally'? Because they don't serve it in a thali here. Food from the lunch set was refillable.

Kinda like the upmarket take on Komala Vilas.

A paanagam to sooth the afternoon heat while waiting for the food. It's ginger, lime, jaggery and cardamom. Nice.

Instead of papadum, we get...rice crisp I guess. Flavoured with jeera/cumin.

This was the first part of the lunch set - the appetizers which consisted of a spinach vadai, some really delicious gobi/cauliflower which I cannot be sure is a pakora or a 65. Possibly a 65. On the side were pickled garlic, some powder which I couldn't identify and coconut chutney. Great munching.

The mains were some vegetable dishes that accompanied the starch of either ghee infused rice or millet of your choice. Today's were curried potatoes, snake gourd poriyal and some salad thingy that had starfruit. Actually with the sambar ladled over, it didn't make much of difference if it was the ghee rice or millet. 

Cup o rasam accompanied the food. Their's was nice and sour from the tamarind.

Add on order of cabbage poriyal. Not bad tasting with lots of shredded coconut. The odd thing was the lack of coconut flavour in it.

Another add on order of their edamame sundal. Loads of coconut flavour in this one with cashews and shredded coconut as well. This was outstanding. 👍🏼

A third add on of their podi idly. Podi was salty and nutty and fragrant but hadn't much heat with the spices they used. I liked this. It's a signature dish of theirs and apparently the podi changes weekly.

Payasam was part of the lunch. This one tasted like it was made with millet or oats. Yummy.

Not part of the lunch set but we wanted so masala chai to end. Spice infusion was not one of the stronger ones around but the tea was smooth and pretty enjoyable.

Hi Noodle (嗨一碗), 313 Somerset

We've been wanting to check out the noodles at Hi Noodle (#B3-19/20, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road) by Haidilao for a while but they inadvertently ended up being one of those eateries tucked into a corner where when they fall out of sight, they go out of mind. We happened to be in the vicinity and decided that we're getting something here this time.

Not a bad bowl of 酸菜 broth and beef shank noodles. Not memorable as 酸菜 broths go but I wouldn't complain. Nice beefy flavour coming from those slices of shank.

One could choose between three noodle types. These were the Korean noodles which were pretty much instant noodles. The texture was a little softer with less bite than what I normally prefer.

The spicy crayfish bowl packed substantial heat. It was that mala-esque sauce that was potent, not so much those chillis which looked dangerous but didn't appear to be spicy much. Then again, it was all tossed together so I also couldn't tell accurately. While the bowl was called spicy crayfish noodles, those bugs in there were actually Chinese crawfish (小龙虾), not the slipper lobster/crayfish as known in these parts.

Braised pig intestines were not bad. Pretty tender and well flavoured from the braise.

Red chilli sauce was sweet, spicy and tangy - very similar to those from Putien. The pickled sliced green chilli were pretty sour and that was actually a good thing to cut through the heat and oils from the spicy crayfish noodles.

Cempedak appam from Mr. Appam

Haven't gotten an appam from Mr Appam in a while. This was their cempedak appam, the fruit in strips laid over the middle. Tasted exactly like how cempedak is supposed to - which I haven't figured out how to describe yet but if you know it you'll know. What's different today from their appam servings is the bowl of coconut milk. Thick, sweet and delicious accompaniment on top of the sugar and grated coconut. Also noticed that I couldn't taste the fermentation in the dough which led me to more questions.

Siang Kee Fishball Minced Pork Noodles (祥記), Telok Blangah Food Centre

Old school fishball and minced meat noodle stall (#01-06 Telok Blangah Food Centre, 79 Telok Blangah Drive) just next door to Sabeen Sara Prata & Briyani Stall.

Ingredients appear to be generic and factory sourced. As a bowl of fishball minced meat noodle, it was pretty decent. Both the sambal and the sliced red chilli helped me inhale the bowl.

The only thing I had gripes about were the texture of the noodles. The mee pok was softer than what I normally like. If only those had better bite to them.

Tar powing whole roasted chicken from Golden Rooster

First time getting the roasted chicken from Golden Rooster to go. Finished the whole chicken myself I did. I think it's a bit better tasting when it's eaten at their shop but this survives tar pow-ing pretty well.

More aji katsu at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Headed down to the Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Mandarin Gallery after getting word that their aji katsu is back. It's never around for long so we needed to get some before they disappear from the menu.

They appear to be larger than how I remember them. Panko breading had a good dry crunch and the meat from the horse mackerel was flavourful, flakey and moist. Getting these reminded me of that one time sanma katsu they offered and never did again.

Tip : sprinkle crushed sesame and a bit of salt on rice. That's pretty good eating also.