Queic by Olivia, Scotts Square

A new outpost of Queic by Olivia has opened in town (#B1-25, 6 Scotts Road, tel : +65 8068 5545). I remember getting their smaller sized signature Basque cheese cake from the original stall at Kreta Ayer previously and learnt that the cheese to crust ratio weren't ideal. So we wanted to get a slice here at the original size we had first experienced at Olivia.

Hell yeah it was as good as we remembered it. Though I noticed that the menu now states the ingredient to include goat's cheese rather than blue cheese. Not that it mattered. 😬

Their Stilton cheese cake beckoned with its blurry blue lattices.

Love it. Notice that it was a slice of Stilton over the interior of whipped Stilton creameux that's layered with a brown hazelnut...I don't know what to call that. Skin? Those and some sable cookies with their home made jam. Nice! 👍🏼

Mui Kee (妹記) at their new spot in Shaw Centre

Mui Kee has relocated from their original location facing Pacific Plaza to the inside of the building (#03-09/10/11 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road,  tel : +65 8940 3924). In the spot where Koal/Lemak Boys used to be.

Never noticed this before but there is a snow chrysanthemum red date tea which was pretty good.

Got ourselves a couple of things we liked from the previous visits like their kanpachi yu sheng.

And delicious pan fried bean curd skin.

Tried the dry threadfin belly noodle. One can choose the sauce so I got the beef brisket gravy - which disappointingly didn't flavour the bowl much. Fish was tender, crumbly and filled with a number of sharp bones I wasn't expecting. Liked that the texture of their noodles were thin and pretty wiry; unfortunately it also had the lye water flavour. I didn't dislike as a whole. It just wasn't as enjoyable as I was imagining.

Pig's trotter noodles from (New) MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles (麦波申肉脞麵)

Back to try the pig's trotter noodles from (New) MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles we noticed from the last times. Those trotters were pretty decent with relatively tender slip off the bone meat. Tenderness varied on different parts but I thought in general, more tender would have made them more impressive. It's too bad the braising flavour didn't permeate the meat as much or otherwise this would have been awesome.

A dinner at Ananda Bhavan

Getting dinner at Ananda Bhavan. Snacks, chaat and thosai.

I've been wanting to try banana baji for a while and haven't been successful. For one, I don't know much places to get them and the other reason would be that they don't seem to be available all the time. Finally got some here. These weren't so much bananas than they were plantains coated in gram flour and deep fried. There's no sweetness and the texture was like potato or yam. So not something like goreng pisang like I imagined.

Got a serving of podi idly. These rice cakes were freshly steamed. Piping hot and you could taste that they had just gotten off the steamer just recently. The podi wasn't as aromatic nor as exciting in flavour as those we've had in Podi & Poriyal, Komala Vilas, Murugan Idli Shop or MTR. Probably not the fairest of comparisons but it was what it was. 

Rava ghee masala thosai - yummy this one. Thanks to the ghee, the pancake was both crisp and buttery. Not to mention also the delicious array of chutneys on the side. Left one has mint and I think ginger. Love the orange one.

The dahi puri made it to our table last because of a couple of screw ups. They gave us a samosa chaat the first time which we had returned. The follow up was a dahi puri that had coriander which I had been explicit on their omission. Third time was fortunately a charm for them. Anyways, I love these things.

The avocado cream and the cheese donuts from J.Co

These couple of donuts caught our attention at the J.Co in City Square (Level 1, Lot J1-07 & 08 Johor Bahru City Square, 106 - 108 Jalan Wong Ah Fook, 80000 Johor Bahru). Never seen these ones before so we got them

The one with cheese was savoury. Even the cream inside was so. Not bad this one.

Avocado Dicaprio was sadly not avocado-y in any way. I wouldn't have been able to identify anything about it apart from the chocolate. It didn't taste bad though.

Hai Kah Lang (海脚人), Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru

Came to know of Hai Kah Lang (173 Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-1651 9813) by way of recommendation. They're a predominantly seafood soup kind of place with other small plates that one can also supplement on the side.

Had a couple of drinks while waiting for the food. This one was called I'm Not a Fool - there's lemon and cucumber and green tea in it. Pretty refreshing.

This other one was a sea bird nest jelly drink. I couldn't reconcile what I saw and tasted with the name so I'm not going to try. And yes, it's a baby blue drink. Tasted like coconut milk. A pretty delicious coconut milk if I might add plus some agar agar stuff in it.

Their mixed seafood soup was not bad tasting. Clear and oil free with a clean oceanic sweetness if you catch my drift. Seafood quality was pretty decent.

Noodles were nice. Texture was great and the flavour was just dark soya sauce. It was awesome with their sambal.

The sambal. A little sweet, lime-y and packed with invigorating heat.

What's impressive was their leopard coral grouper soup. We added milk. The fish was decent if unexceptional but that broth was outstanding with 花雕酒 flavour coupled with creaminess from the milk and a nice tanginess from pickled mustard and possibly tomatoes. Those and an added aroma/flavour from fried shallots. So good.

There was a stall at the entrance of the restaurant that sold durian ice cream of the premium variety - e.g. mao shan wang, wang zhong wang, blackthorn and I forgot what else.

We got the cheapest one which was mao shan wang. Not bad tasting.