Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee, Clarke Quay Central

We've heard of this restaurant (#02-72/75/77 Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, tel : +65 6339 7508) for a long time. Really long time. Have seen it numerous times when we're in the vicinity but it had never occured to us to eat here until recently.

I don't think there is a finger to be put on the labelling of the food here. One could see influences of Malay, Chinese and Peranakan in the dishes which kinda makes it pretty local. While they're serving nasi padang, they're not exactly Padang styled. But let's not get technical.

The menu's up front so you know what you're getting and at how much. Assuming that one already is familiar with what they were serving. We ordered quite a bit and ended up close to a post lunch stupor. You know, curries and rice tends to do that.

That's their mutton rendang. Not bad. Some parts of the meat were tender and some less so. Altogether pretty well done with the nutty mutton-y gravy which went so well with rice.

Hard boiled eggs with sambal. Always good for me.

These were my second curry fish ball experience. The first time was in Hong Kong and I never liked those there because of the gummy texture. These ones were pretty regular fishball textured. Gravy had a bit of heat and if your palate hasn't been confused or overwhelmed yet, the flavour of the fishball can be detected in them.

Chicken rendang also pretty good. It's another dish with great gravy to go with rice.

Sayur lodeh I think. Or maybe just sayur. Or curry vegetable. I ordered by pointing. I'm not sure what they call it but it's vegetables (mostly cabbage) in a thin coconut gravy. Still savoury and lemak but I generally prefer the gravy thicker and the vegetables less crunchy. 

They have chicken begedil. Basically larger than usual begedil with minced chicken in the potatoes. Peppery and not bad methinks. The flavour's different from the regular Malay renditions of the dish but not different enough to be unrecognizeable as good old begedil.

More curry for the rice. 

And a refreshing lemon or lime infused cucumber salad as a counter to all the rich gravies.

All these dishes were made to be paired with steamed rice.

Chendol's okay. While we wouldn't slap a mediocre label on it, there's better. Out there. What I couldn't understand was why they had to serve this in a glass like this, fill it to the brim and make it so difficult to stir.

Coffee's no good here. For Hainanese styled coffee, one can get better at The Ship. Or even Han's. Note to self : go at 12-12.30pm the next time for the other items that aren't ready at the opening hour.

Cumi Bali, Tanjong Pagar Road

I've walked by this shop a number of times and wondered throughout all those times if they were good. Yes, it's one of those things and we finally dropped by to find out. According to their website, Cumi Bali (66 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6220 6619) has been around for 21 years. From when those 21 years came about I don't know but by my deduction, it's probably been a while since that claim was made. 

Don't think these fellas are very much into updates or the internet. The site is still saying things like 'Best viewed on Internet Explorer 8 and above' so I gather that it could have been 6-7 years back since the last time they updated and apparently they don't know that these days Chrome's the boss.

Sayur lodeh (coconut curried vegetables) was quite nice. I think there was quite a bit of shredded coconut sediments in the gravy - the flavours of which were quite dangerously addictive over white rice. Vegetables were stewed till soft.

I've had countless fried potato balls and these ones are possibly the largest and freshest tasting ones I've come across. They're known as perkedel on the menu, which is pretty much the same thing as the local bergedil - the eggwashed deep fried potato patty. These ones tasted like they were made to order; had a faint crisp on the exterior and didn't feel overly greasy for something that had just gone off the deep fryer. Nice.

One of the items that Cumi Bali is known for are their sate madura. As the name implies, it's satay which is done in the style similar to how it is done in the Javanese island of Madura. These are made with chicken. Definitely the largest satays I've had - ever. I'm pretty sure these are the largest satay in the country. Look at how these big ass skewers are relative to the fork! And because these were glazed with plenty of kecap manis, it was sweet, smokey and caramelized with burnt ends. Damn these were good.

There was some sambal belachan was served in a little stone bowl. This thing made the addictive gravy from the sayur lodeh even more addictive.

Cumi Bali is also apparently known for their cumi bali - a namesake dish of barbecued squid with a nutty rempah which tasted like satay gravy. It was also the most expensive item we had for the night. The tentacles of the squid are chopped up and stuffed in the body. While it was relatively tender, I thought more char would have really up the ante on this dish.

Sama Sama by Tok Tok, Jewel Changi Airport

This marks our first foray into Jewel. As we had suspected, it's a mall better suited for travellers and people on stop overs. Nothing much new to see for the locals apart from the pretty green heart of it. Since we were here, we had lunch at Sama Sama by Tok Tok (#03-225/226 Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard, tel : +65 6904 3971) which is an upmarket Indonesian restaurant.

We were served keropok with kecap manis and sliced chilli.

The food's different even though some of the names were familiar. I'm guessing that some of the dishes here evolved into a local rendition of what might have come from Indonesia.

Like this mildly spicy sambal goreng kentang. The dish was pasty from either some sort of rempah or crushed chicken liver or both that they used. Not much in terms of flavour or appearances like the local sambal goreng. The menu listed chicken gizzards and heart but we got a lot of liver and gizzards. Along with potatoes, tempe and petai. It's not bad if one enjoys liver. Good with rice.

That's their rendition of urap. A salad of sorts. The vegetables were cold and the bean sprouts were thankfully cooked. Compared to the local renditions of the dish I've tried, this appeared to be more bland. What I prefer much from the local urap is that there is more aroma and sweetness from serunding/serundeng (sweet toasted shredded coconut). The coconut used in this registered little flavour.

We ordered their sayur lodeh thinking that it might have been like a local rendition with a little bit of difference. We didn't recognize it when it arrived and even clarified if we had been served something else. The sayur selection was much different from the local variety - all of which were in a light and savoury coconut milk broth. There were pieces of jackfruit, strips of chilli, petai and tempe. I liked it quite a bit because it had warmth from the spices and an almost velvet comforting quality. Don't know how this rendition came about though.

That's sate kambing. Lamb satay Indonesian style. Very nice. Possibly one of the rare instances where there was little lamb flavour in the meat where I didn't feel like picking on. The meat was tender, had a smoky flavour from the grill and a sweet glaze. I'd eat this again.

Pretty decent nasi kuning they have there. Not as flavourful as the one from Dancing Fish Signature but decent nonetheless.

I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind coming back.

Gurih Restaurant, Arab Street

ayam lado hijau

sotong hitam

sambal paru

begedil & sambal telur

sayur lodeh

Pretty decent nasi pandang from this shop (150 Arab Street, tel  : +65 6299 1643) located at the junction of Arab Street and Victoria Street. The proprietor claimed that the food is Padang styled and that we should expect their sayur lodeh to taste different from the local variety. Since I don't really have any frame of reference for actual Padang styled food, I don't know any better. In retrospect, perhaps the gravy was less rich than some local renditions, but the savoury depth was impressive. Their sotong hitam had an unexpected but welcomed hit of heat and I rather liked the ayam lado hijau too. 

This looked to be a fairly dependable frills free comfort food place I could come back to again.

Saayang Sayang Indonesian Nasi Padang, Kopitiam @ Changi Airport Terminal 3

Nasi padang at the food court (B2-03 Terminal 3 Singapore Changi Airport, 65 Airport Boulevard) in T3. Got me some sayur lodeh, sambal goreng and paru belado. Paru was chunky and meaty while the gravy from the sayur lodeh had the pre-requisite lemak-ness. Kicked ass with the sambal. I enjoyed this.

Hajah Maimunah this year

sayur lodeh

sambal goreng

gulai nangka

siput sedut

paru balado

This was a pretty good lunch down at Hajah Maimunah except for one little thing. The rice was kinda dry in spite of appearances and couldn't even quite absorb the curries or sauces well. But the paru belado was tender, sambal goreng was surprisingly creamy and the siput sedut was kinda fun to suck out of their shells up to the point that the lemak gravy was burning my lips. Those begedil were delicious too.

Home delivery from Hajah Maimunah

Been a while since we've had food from Hajah Maimunah so we decided to get them on delivery. There was a minimum order so we kinda topped up with items on the side just to qualify for delivery. We ended up with more food than we could eat at a go so these actually gave us two good meals.

By the way, this was also from Oddle and there was a dispatch notification for the delivery.

They do boxed sets like many of the delivery options these days. This was the fried chicken set that came with crispy batter bits from the chicken, a sambal telur and sambal goreng on the side. Chicken was okay.

One of the items we topped up our delivery with was their sambal goreng. Creamy and delicious with rice,

The sayur lodeh was a little disappointing. Was hoping for the vegetables to be more thoroughly stewed like how they normally are. These WERE still a little crunchy.

We got an order of their lemak babat - tripe in a mildly spicy and rich coconut gravy. Tender and chewy these were.

The gem for me in this order was their fried fish roe. I never knew they had these. The roe were pretty large and chunky. Also crisp on the outside. Will definitely get these again.

I wanted serunding, checked them in the order and they came in a tub full. Enough for me to save them in the fridge for multiple meals.