Tonshou, Tras Street

The talk of the town tonkatsu lately is Tonshou (51 Tras Street). They're Korean. You read that right. They do tonkatsu and not donggasu/donkkaseu. I didn't stutter. Also a claimant to the world's first charcoal grilled tonkatu restaurant. What? I know right? Tonkatsus are fried. What charcoal grill is this? 🤔

Well, they're fried like regular tonkatsu and then charcoal grilled.

Place is small. Seats about 20-23.

Chilled corn soup was creamy and sweet. Nice. Think everyone gets one.

I tasted this first so in retrospect, it established both the bar and a bias in me for their tonkatsu. 'This' being their Hokkaido kurobuta special rosu katsu. 30% fat. There's a non-special cut which is 10% fat. Meat's nicely flavoured from the fat and pretty tender. But the fat does get to you towards the end. 

I enjoyed most of it with grain mustard and wasabi which helps cut though some of the richness. As does their not so vinegary tonkatsu sauce and kimchi. As much as these helped set a taste equilibrium by offsetting some of that richness, what they did in equal capacity was mask the natural flavouring.

The combo katsu featured regular hire and rosu cuts along with a fried prawn. While they paled in comparison from the Hokkaido kurobuta, these were also pretty good tasting.

I was quite impressed that the smokiness from the charcoal grill lingered in the fried meat.

Some light and creamy yuzu dressing for their salad.

Char siew rice from Fatty Cheong (肥仔祥)

This was ordered without any specifics or requests at Fatty Cheong. Just 叉烧饭. Char siew's pretty chunky and tender. Sauce was deep and sweet. Am quite impressed. Gotta do this again another time.

Zhen Wei Kitchen (珍味小厨), Bukit Timah Interim Food Centre

Zhen Wei Kitchen (#01-008 Bukit Timah Interim Food Centre, Jalan Jurong Kechil) is apparently another "ex Din Tai Fung story". These shops that are set up by ex DTF chefs always have standards that are close but never the same. Decent fried rice with luncheon meat there. Don't mind coming back if I'm in the vicinity.

Revisiting Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant

Back for another breakfast at Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant. Seems like they're flavouring up the traditional varieties of rice flour cakes at the restaurant which weren't available in the past.

The vaunted addictively tasty ghee podi idli has a new variety called... *Junna drumroll*......ghee garlic podi idli. Nice this one. 👍🏼 It's reminiscent of garlic bread. Garlicky and buttery with warm spices.

Ghee uttapam - possibly my first plain uttapam. With ghee 😬. Nice buttery saltiness in this one.

This was a ghee mudakkathan podi dosai. Mudakkathan is balloon vine or cardiospermum halicacabum, a plant/herb used as remedy for various ailments. In this case, the herb was dried, powdered and added into the batter of the dosai. Since there was already the spicy salty podi and delicious ghee, I couldn't tell if the mudakkathan had any particular flavour. Pretty sure I'm not getting measurable health benefits from this one dosai.

First time getting coffee here. Not the deep and robust kind I normally prefer. This one's pretty milky.

Maggie goreng extra mutton from Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani

Back at Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani and having another go at their maggi goreng. This time with extra mutton like I said I wanted to. The obvious difference for this plate today was the fried egg - this wasn't the same fried egg as the last time. This one was better. And the extra mutton did make significant difference in the flavour. This will be the way when I get noodles goreng here the next time.

Caffe Italia, UE Square

New-ish Italian bar/restaurant (#01-15/16 UE Square, 81 Clemenceau Avenue, tel : +65 9895 6857) which took over the spot where District 10 used to be at for the longest time. The unique value proposition here (😂) was conveyor belt tapas - something some people have breathed that could be a first in the world. 

Not that it mattered. Don't expect variety that people are used to expecting in conveyor belt sushi. Nothing in particular looked good enough that we wanted to reach out to grab a plate anyways.

Loads of tanginess from the mustard and capers in their beef tartare. It's their rendition and admittedly not a bad one.

I ordered their pizza pineapple to spite all the people in the world who thinks that pineapple on pizza is wrong. Just kidding. I just wanted some hot pineapple on pizza. 😏

These things cool pretty fast and the mozzarella hardens when that happens. Flavour on the pizza was citrus sweetness from the pineapple, milkiness from the mozzarella and some bit of smokiness from the Scamorza. Decent crust.

These was supposed to be cacio e pepe with mushrooms. Did not look or taste like cacio e pepe. Tasted like pasta with a cream of mushroom sauce that was Campbell-esque. That being said, it did not taste bad. But it's not cacio e pepe.