Revisiting Hakumai

Here's the sushi platter from the Hakumai Sushi Gozen teishoku. Which comes with soup, a truffle sauce chawanmushi and fruit. I suppose I could consider this middling standards as far as local sushi goes and I did enjoy it. I'm quite certain their omakase offers better but until then...

PerBacco Enoteca con Cucina, Craig Road

We must have passed by this restaurant numerous times thinking from the facade that it was probably one of those bars that had appeared and will soon make way for another better player in a proverbial blink of an eye. Little did we know until recently that PerBacco (20 Craig Road, #01-03 Craig Place, tel : +65 6635 7130) was actually a proper Italian restaurant and one which had left us impressed at that.

Curry chicken and toasted bread from Killiney Kopitiam at Purvis Street

It's been a very long time since I've last stepped into a Killiney Kopitiam. Was pleasantly surprised after I did this one (30 Purvis Street) to break fast with their curry chicken. It wasn't bad at all; I enjoyed it and there was something about their toasted bread that made them special. In an aromatic way that is.

Sushiro, Thomson Plaza

This was a small local Japanese shop (#01-113F Thomson Plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Road). Very small space that doesn't seat many people but apparently accept reservations. They looked family run. Sushi there doesn't look very enticing as they appear to be the same quality as the mass market variety. So we haven't really tried anything else except their donburi which were pretty good.

Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House, Amoy Street

Some of the older folks will know this restaurant as Ka Soh (96 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6224 9920). An institution with a claim to fame for their fish soup noodles. I recall only one prior visit to them before today and that was just early this year if my memory serves.

The food was not bad, but places like this tends to get expectations up because of reputation. I thought their sum lou hor fun was a decent stir fry of flat rice noodles, bean sprouts and sliced fish; but nothing particularly memorable. I liked this dish in the first place so I suppose I'm generally not hard on them as long as it's competent. But there was really little that would make me think that this was better than another decent rendition.

I generally like kung bao frogs. The ones here were a little unexpected because they frogs had been deep fried to a crusty exterior before the stir fry. The result was tougher meat which was less succulent than I had been hoping for. With the kung bao gravy being forgettable and a rather expensive charge per frog, I'd have to be paid to eat this again. The last part was a joke. Haha. But I wouldn't order them again.

We had their stir fried kailan the last time I was here. The vegetables were fresh and sweet. Better quality than many a same dish that one can get in a nicer Chinese restaurant. It's what many people would classify as a "must try".

This was bean sprouts stir fried with fish liver and stomach or intestine. We've definitely had better and I guess I was kinda disappointed since not many people do this particular dish much these days.

Har cheong kai. Competent too. Greasy enough without being excessively so and had sufficient flavour from the prawn paste.

Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant, Purvis Street.

Clinton Street Baking Company (31 Purvis Street, tel : +65 6684 4845). From Manhattan's Lower East Side to Southern Singapore. We were definitely intrigued. Breakfast styled food has a certain inexplicable appeal anywhere in the world.

Here's their Southern Breakfast. Eggs, fried green tomatoes, sugar bacon and cheese grits. We liked this. Everything about it I guess. Those sugar bacons were literally sin incarnate. Sugar to make you fat, burnt ends to infuse you with carcinogens, both to feed cancer cells and the hardness to wreck your teeth. But sin was delicious.

We got pancakes because CSBC was known for them. We liked them too. I'm going to save myself the archetypal descriptions of nicely done pancakes because I'm sure we know what they're like. And they're like that. These lemon curd and coconut pancakes do have curd that's a little sweeter and eggier than it was citrusy sharp. But still very enjoyable. 

And sides of ham steaks (seriously steaks?) and rosemary maple sausages.

We had ran out of space but their apple pie and bourbon shakes looked and sounded good. With what we've ingested in a single seating, it's already enough calories that'll last an Ethiopian for a couple of weeks as all those richness crept back up our throats to settle into our double chins. So I guess we'll have to come back another time for those.