Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh (豐香肉骨茶), Beauty World Food Centre

I was drawn in by the fried porridge from Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh (#04-65 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road), not so much their bak kut teh. This was a claypot of said porridge with sliced fish - thick chunky slices of some freshwater fish (obviously underneath) and additional bak chor (also not visible). Porridge's flavour was umami and a little smoky with shreds of dried cuttlefish. While the taste was not as intense as the one from Old World Bakuteh, it was also less oily. The generous chopped spring onions were a nice touch.

Got a plate of deep fried intestines as well. They're okay, slightly offal-y in taste and some parts were more chewy than crispy. Nice with their sweet/spicy/sour chilli & garlic dip though. I spy soy sauce braised pork trotters on their menu and wonder if those are good.

Siti Nur Liyana Nasi Lemak, Adam Road Food Centre

I noticed Siti Nur Liyana Nasi Lemak (#01-14 Adam Road Food Centre, 2 Adam Road) the last time we were here. They don't use basmati rice like the No.1 Adam's and Selera Rasa but that ultimately is more of a textural thing since it was nasi lemak and all these stalls did a good coconut milk infusion and salt to bring out the flavours. What attracted me to them was also that they have paru - not the better ones I've had but it didn't suck by the way.

Chicken wing's a lot better here - there's more flavour and the batter wasn't hard. Fried egg had a softer yolk. Sambal was a little sweet (and a bit of heat) which one had to use sparingly to avoid masking the coconut flavour in the rice. Oh yeah, I like the ikan bilis here - crispy and not hard. While this stall in my experience isn't usually mentioned in the same breath as the other two, I'm thinking that they've got to have their own fans too right?

Revisiting Ko Ryo Jeong Korean Restaurant (고려정)

Seems like we've been having a bit of Korean food lately. The last time we were here which was not a few days back, we had the cheonggukjang jjigae. Today we got the ugeoji galbitang. Among a couple of other things.

Today's banchan was almost entirely different from the last time; which was also different from the first time. Except for the kimchi. Rotation's good because there's something hopefully good to look forward to. Well, it's been good here so far.

When they refilled the banchan, we even had something new. I'm gonna take a stab at it and call it spring onion pancake. That was what it tasted like.

Ordered a bibimbap with pork. Portions were huge. Could feed two.

I think this was gosari namul - fiddlehead ferns hidden beneath the other vegetables. They're apparently a classic ingredient in bibimbap but I've never noticed them till now.

They gave us a small bowl of soup (maybe sundubu jjigae) and a dish of gochujang for the bibimbap. Look at the ingredients that made the multitudes of different textures. This was so good.

Kimchi jeon - the crusty exterior tasted a little cheesy. Not bad but a little greasy.

Their ugeoji galbitang was delicious. The ugeoji part refers to the cabbage leaves. Lots of them inside together with leeks and onions and whathaveyous along with tender fatty short rib pieces. Love the beefy flavour of the broth.

Bigmama Korean Restaurant, Kim Tian Road

Bigmama Korean Restaurant (2 Kim Tian Road, tel +65 6270 7704) has been around for a decade maybe. They're a small restaurant that has a vibe like a small family restaurant that one sees in movies/series in Korea run by busy looking ajummas. I remember there used to be some buzz on their dak galbi some years ago.

I was looking them them up before coming down. It seems like their banchan have been mostly the same for the past decade so that's probably not going to change. Which means there's not much to look forward to for the banchan because I didn't think much of them. Kimchi's a little to underdeveloped for my liking.

There's this jelly which I couldn't identify though.

Tried their samgyetang.

Broth was bland. This might be my first time having one so I didn't know what to expect. The was a little bit of natural sweetness to it but as a whole, it's chicken soup sans salt.

Meat was very tender though. Came with a salt and pepper dip for flavour. Not something I'll be looking forward to.

Galbi gui - or grilled yellow corvina. Like what SBCD Tofu House serves with each meal but much bigger. This fish was generously salted. Quite a bit of fine bones.

Their buchujeon was delicious, tastiest dish we ordered tonight. Those browned bits were crispy and fragrant the pancake was filled will little shrimps and bits of squid.

Alimama Green Chilli Chicken Rice & Prawn Noodle, Maxwell Food Centre

Been wanting to try this green chilli chicken rice from Alimama (#01-09 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, tel : +65 8484 3944) for a while. I enjoyed it. The chicken was freshly put to the grilled on order which resulted in a crisp exterior and meat that was tender. It wasn't as spicy as I had imagined but there's a nice flavour to that green chilli salsa. Red sambal on the side was also unexpectedly fruity tasting amid the heat. While it was called green chilli chicken rice, it wasn't actually 'chicken rice' per se.

Lunch @ Ko Ryo Jeong

Rained again so we ended up at Ko Ryo Jeong for lunch instead of heading towards Maxwell Food Centre like we originally intended. Actually, it was a good thing that we came here instead because we had previously wanted to explore their menu and that didn't happen then because...ganjang gejang.

While looking through the the menu, we found cheonggukjang jjigae - something we've never seen in our limited ventures into local Korean restaurants and it sounded good. In English, it's an extra-strong fermented soybean paste stew. The proprietress looked concerned when we ordered but we knew it wouldn't bother us.

Hell yeah this was good! The cloudy stew/soup/broth had a flavour profile similar an intense dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱) / miso; plus a tiny bit of funk that might be construed as natto-ish. The pot was mostly vegetables with sparing bits of fatty pork inside. I'd eat this again.

That's gul jeon - oyster pancakes. Ate them with kimchi from the banchan which was great pairing because that kimchi was well aged and hence, pretty tangy. Natural pairing here to the greasy omelette oysters.

Kimchi fried rice was not bad too. Not as intensely flavoured as I was hoping for but maybe it was a good thing today. There's one item from the banchan I liked (apart from the kimchi and the sweet fish cake slices). Those chives in some fish sauce/sugar marinate. Looking forward to coming back.