Brotherbird Bakehouse at Raffles City Shopping Centre.

I have a guilty pleasure, and it's this shop. Every time I walk down this hallway, I stop to get one of these mochi doughnuts. Sure, I like Mister Donut's pon de rings too, but these are denser and thus chewier, and I get so much pleasure from eating one of these guys. Keep me away from this place!!

Scrambled Egg Rice Keisuke in Singapore

I'm a bit baffled by what Keisuke was thinking with this place. Sure, he has a thing for eggs, and this is a reincarnation of this short-lived omurice shop. But this is not the rice, egg, nor sauce used in omurice. The plain white rice suggests that it's meant to be more like Hong Kong scrambled egg rice or a variation of tenshinhan, but menu just starts with "Plain Egg Rice," or egguraisu. One then proceeds to select their rice portion and protein topping, which in my case was thick-cut ham above. The watery dark sauce wasn't particularly inspiring enough for me to even want to finish my rice. But one still gets that free bucket of bean sprouts.

Hiroshima's Toripaitan Ramen Torinosuke in Singapore

This chain from Japan has opened an outlet at Millennia Walk (9 Raffles Boulevard #01-106). As the name suggests, they serve toripaitan, but the broth was surprisingly tame. It tasted more like a chintan than a paitan, and was lacking in salt too. The quality of the ingredients, including chicken, noodles, and garnishes, were all fine. But it was a bore without a solid broth to pull it together. Apparently these guys are related to the Bari Uma folks?

Klang Bak Kut Teh from Malaysia Boleh!

I've only had Klang bak kut teh a few times at the most (and not always the dry version either), so I don't know this dish too well. But I was quite happy with what the Malaysia Boleh! food courts in Singapore did above, as the meat was tender and fatty, and sat in a thick and savory dark sauce inclusive of dried chili peppers that was fun to eat with rice. The sweetness and herbal notes were very subtle and didn't overpower it. My only wish was that they gave me more.

Shoyu Udon with Tempura from Udon Shin Singapore

Here is set R05 from Udon Shin Singapore, with the noodles still being super chewy. But I was surprised to find this shoyu udon rather underseasoned. I'm not sure if they were catering to the local palate or if this is the way that they do it back in Japan too, but I really wish that they had added more soy sauce in there. One pleasant surprise was that had they provided included a chunk of "cheese" tempura on the side. The specific type was unnamed, but it was so savory that I think it was Parmesan. Either way, I liked it better than the noodles.

A Loose Collection of Items from Beijing

Here are a few loose ends from Beijing that I didn't get to post on their own. The first one is a dish called jingjiang rousi, which was served on more than one occasion this past week. It might hard to make out in the photo above, but in the background lies a plate of sliced pork tossed in a dark bean paste sauce close to what one finds in zhajiangmian. One takes that, along with julienned white scallions, and wraps them in those tofu sheets above. It's nothing that I'd flip out about, but it's notable in that it's literally named after Beijing and thus is very local.



Separately, I was surprised to find lots of street stalls in the Olympic Park area open well into the evening. Yangrouchuanr was available at many of them; this one used a vertically-oriented rotating grill that wasn't really as effective as the traditional flat ones that others were using. But I was still happy to get it, especially since there was a carousel of self-service beer taps next door, including lychee and hawthorn flavored ones. Next time I need to get some zhajiangmian as well as the "Old Beijing Quick Scalded Tripe" that I saw at various stalls.



Finally, I was rather surprised by what Air China served in flight. That Chinese braised beef above, for instance, didn't look that appetizing when they served it. But it was so incredibly tender that I inhaled it in seconds, despite the mushy rice. There was a thinly sliced beef that I got on the way back that I rather enjoyed too. Too bad that a rather old plane (or at least, older seats and IFE) was deployed on one of my legs. But the staff was still very fast at encouraging you to take off your shoes and put on slippers!

Wangshunge Fish Head Paobing in Beijing

This nationwide chain from Beijing specializes in braised fish heads. And it's a gigantic fish head at that; it's literally called a bighead carp. It's a bottom-feeding freshwater fish, so the point isn't to eat the meaty flesh, but the gelatinous collagen around the cheek and eye.

It requires a bit of work (and even if one eats the flesh, it's rather bony and thus also requires some effort). But there is an easy escape hatch, as they also throw in greasy carbs to soak up the sauce. That included not just plain laobing pancakes cut into squares, but also a big youtiao that they cut up like at Shan Jiu Ye.

Old Beijing Yogurt and Douzhir

Those white ceramic pots of drinkable yogurt on the right are common on the streets of Beijing, with patrons leaving lots of consumed jars in front of each stall for recycling purposes. But the clear green douzhir things on the left were something that I had never heard of before, so I decided to try one.

It turns out that it was a fermented byproduct of making mung bean starch for glass noodles. It was a "juice" that was surprisingly thin and sour. More notably, it had a funky decomposing taste that took some getting used to, a bit like stinky tofu.

I only found out afterwards it is supposed to be consumed as a hot beverage. But I took one from the fridge given the blazing hot weather this week, and apparently the cold temperature amplified that taste. Hopefully I got some good probiotics into my belly in the process at least.

Gastro Esthetics DaDong in Beijing, China

I went to an outlet of Da Dong many years ago, but that was not their main Nanxingcang location, and it was before it got a Michelin star (22A Dongsi 10th Alley). It has since been upgraded with an odd-sounding name and tacky decor, but the food was slam-your-fist-on-the-table delicious.

Indeed, I don't remember liking the Peking Duck so much last time, but the specimen tonight was amazing. It was leaner than most other shops and thus less soggy, yet with enough fat to make it velvety rich and crispy too. Granulated sugar seemed weird as a condiment, but it worked, as did some very finely pureed garlic.

Everything else that we had was good, with a seasonal shanshu fern from Taiwan being particularly memorable, as well as sliced ham stuffed with sticky rice, boneless duck feet in Chinese mustard, and baked croaker with green peppercorns. I left here very happy and was hoping for more of that duck.

Danjiang Fishing Village in Beijing, China

This small chain of seafood restaurants in Beijing was quaint with its wooden courtyard decor, and the food was enjoyable too. I liked it better than last night, with pretty much everything they served tonight being good. There were some rice and lotus root cakes that I kept reaching for, as well as some tender and thin slices of beef. That poached chicken above was delicately handled too. The service tonight was a bit unpolished, but I was happy with the food.

Chef MA's Master Studio @ DI Chinese Restaurant in Beijing

That's a rather long and confusing name above, but it is a posh restaurant inside the Intercontinental Beichen Hotel in Beijing, China (8 Beichen West Road). The food in our banquet was pretty good, including that spiced tofu above, not to mention some deliciously fatty lamb ribs as well as deep-fried yet tender tofu. The service was attentive too.

OMMA Korean Charcoal BBQ in Singapore

When this place first opened a number of years ago, its main selling point was that they had different types of wood for you to select to create more aroma. When we went to its second outlet today (126 Telok Ayer Street), they didn't even ask us which one we wanted. They admitted that it would have been just a few bits of wood anyway, whereas the bulk of the heat came from standard charcoal.

The good thing though is that it didn't really matter, as the food was decent and wasn't as commercialized as I had feared. We had a beef set that came with a number of different cuts, including kalbi, chadolbaegi, and that yukhoe above. The banchan was passable too, even if it couldn't compare to places like Um Yong Baek and Joong San. They even had a range of different salts for you to choose from.