Borigulbi from SBCD Tofu House

I was craving fish for lunch today, with dried fish in particular sounding particularly nice. So I went over to SBCD Tofu House because they had this barley-aged yellow croaker available. And I loved it.

It was a lot like Japanese himono in the sense that it's salted and dried, making it deliciously savory and mildly jerky-like. But apparently this is dried over barley rather than being air-dried, thus giving it a mild barley aroma. Either way, it was awesome, with nearly all parts of the fish including most of the head being edible.

One has to chew slowly though, which would probably make it go great with soju, and is something that I'll have to pair with next time. Either way, that was one of the best things I've eaten in a while.

GU:UM Contemporary Grill in Singapore

That colon in the name may look weird, but this shop is related to NAE:UM, a Michelin-starred Korean restaurant that looks a bit too fancy for me. Fortunately, they have a spinoff in Chinatown (29 Keong Saik Road) that is a little more downscale...ever so slightly, at least. It still isn't cheap.

But it is a nice place for special occasions, with grilled meat as a central feature. And that's grilled by the kitchen staff in the open kitchen, not grilled at one's table like a typical Korean barbecue. The food is very contemporary, with things like that yukhwae jeon above being a signature starter.

Yes, the quality of the ingredients was very good, as was the kitchen's skilled techniques. But I had trouble getting excited about the food because a lot of what we ordered was rather sweet and tangy, even if it comes with the territory. At least the grilled meat wasn't sweet if one specified salt marination like we did.

MiniRice Sushi at Sushiro Singapore

I am not sure how obvious it is in that photo, but the rice underneath that sushi is like half the size of the normal sushi at Sushiro. I guess they recently started offering reduced carb options or something. I liked it because I am not that big on rice anyway, and instead let me appreciate the rich taste of those thin slices of engawa. Only afterwards did I realize that it was the same price as the normal sushi though. So I guess I'm the one that got played a fool for getting half of the rice at full-sized prices.

Mensho X at Raffles Place in Singapore

It was just the other day when I was complaining about how expensive Mensho Tokyo was. Little did I know that they were opening up a lower-cost version just one train stop away (6 Battery Road #01-02). They do slightly different broth and noodle types here, including one that mixed in a bit of mochi rice flour for texture purposes, but it was available today.

So I went for this spicy bowl above and I regretted it. It was their standard toripaitan but was bombarded with so much seasoning on top that I couldn't taste anything. Granted, it was my fault for opting for the extra spicy option, and I shouldn't have added the brown pickled garlic from the tabletop tub either. Now I have the pleasure of going back to the office with some lovely dragon breath.

That said, they do some things right here, especially in keeping the noodles nice and firm. And as much as I hated how overseasoned that bowl was, the michelada-like chili powder rimming on that bowl was admittedly amusing. By the way, if you're wondering why there are two eggs in that bowl, it's because I accidentally paid for an egg on top of their current free egg giveaway. I didn't need two.

Putien Mama in Singapore

I'm a big fan of Putien, but the full-service format isn't very conducive for a quick single meal. Thankfully, they've now created a more fast casual chain called Mama featuring cheaper and simpler items as well as a "free flow station" featuring their signature Spice Mum chili sauce as well as bowls of seaweed soup.

I grabbed a couple of things, with that fried oyster above being the most memorable, but not really in a good way as it was overly battered and greasy without much of a savory taste from the oysters to bind it together (it really could've used a good spike of fish sauce).

I also had a claypot yellow croaker rice that was not well integrated either; it was as if they just scooped rice into a heated clay pot and then garnished it with a piece of fish. At least it cheap and fast. I won't bother with these again, but I do want to try their Hing Hwa bee hoon and hongzao chicken.

The Udang Kering Vongole from Tenderbest

I ordered this largely because I wasn't sure what udang kering was. It turned out to be Malay for xiami dried shrimp, and here at Tenderbest (the halal arm of Tenderfresh) they minced it and tossed it with noodles, garlic, chili, and clams to create a deliciously savory bowl. Yep, I liked it, although the portion was pretty small. I could have ordered a separate plate of chicken to go with it.

People's Park Roasted Delights in Singapore

This place has multiple names. Its signboard says People's Park Roasted Delights, its Chinese name says Zhen Zhu Fang, and its Michelin listing says People's Park Hainanese Chicken Rice. Either way, it's stall #01-1098 at People Park Food Centre (32 New Market Road), and yes, the Michelin signage is what caught my eye.

Apparently the roasted meats were thing to get here. The char siew was fine while the roast pork was crispy and salty, but weren't anything to get excited about. Instead, it was the firm and eggy noodles that I liked more. In retrospect, I should have tried the duck and the chicken rice too; I only realized afterwards that the latter was what the Michelin folks were talking up.

The Morning Shift at Lau Jiang in Tiong Bahru

The first time I went to Lau Jiang, I wasn't that impressed. It was only afterwards did I realize that that was because a different proprietor takes over at 1PM, serving the same menu but done differently. And that was why my previous experience didn't include the fried dumpling that people seemed to get so happy about.

This time I got the fried dumpling, but it was just a slightly burned piece of dough that didn't excite me. What I *did* like though was how darned spicy the broth was. It wasn't very rich, but it packed more heat than other laksa. And biting into some super fresh cockles in there helped too. Good stuff.

Tsukimi Hamburg x Omurice Kichi Kichi

Some famous omurice guy up in Kyoto is doing a collaboration with the Tsukimi Hamburg folks. The egg on top was better than the rice underneath it, as the former had a creamy texture and rich taste, whereas the rice was rather boring and even jarring with an errant edamame bean popping up from time to time.

No, I won't make an effort to get it again. Only afterwards did I finally watch some videos of him and I realized that the appeal was more about his theatrics in flipping or slicing open the omelette. Scaling that to a chain like this though meant that he had to create this simpler "tornado" version.

Wild Coco in Singapore

This chain of relatively upscale nasi lemak restaurants has a couple of outlets in the city now, which made it a convenient stop for me today. They actually had quite a few things on the menu that I was interested in, but they made their name on nasi lemak, so I went for that leg above with an optional green sambal. Yes, it was of decent quality, even if I had a more favorable impression of the rice and chicken at Coconut Club. I'll definitely go back to try their other items either way. Thanks for the tip!

Mensho Tokyo SG at Raffles City

When this chain opened its Singapore outlet last year (252 North Bridge Road #03-43), I quickly dismissed it as I had already been to the San Francisco location where the Michelin listing originated. But I passed by these guys yesterday on the way to The Food Place, and YouTube has incidentally been feeding me some videos about their Tokyo outlets recently. So I went to see if there was anything worthwhile.

Admittedly, I struggled to find something to order. They had their usual toripaitan, which I kinda already had, even if it was the San Francisco version with kale. They had a wagyu aburasoba available, but it was rather expensive. They also had some others like a chili crab version that didn't particularly appeal to me. The only one that I could land on was this matcha version, and it turned out to be pretty good. It was a chicken-based broth that was very savory and featured some nice garnishes like charred leaks and thin slices of tender duck. The best thing about it was the wiggly and firm (almost crunchy!) noodles. That was better than I was expecting.

But you really paid a price here. This place was even more expensive than IPPUDO. I guess it suits the surroundings, being in the center of town and right next door to Surrey Hills Grocer, MoVida from Melbourne, and even Andre Chiang's new hot pot place. It was quality food in an upscale place, so I see why they charged a premium. But no, I don't want to pay that much money for ramen again.

The Food Place By Food Republic

They finally finished renovating that food court up at Raffles City, and there were a few stalls that looked promising (252 North Bridge Road #03-15). This suancaiyu stall was first on my list, as it is an offshoot of a Michelin Bib Gourmand from Hong Kong called Ju Xing Home. I didn't like this bowl at all though. I think they intentionally didn't want to make it oily, but that was precisely the problem, as the beauty of this dish is the velvety fragrance that comes from the oil. Tai Er has mastered that, but this just became a sour soup with oddly placed cabbage inside.



That wasn't the only shop from Hong Kong here. There is also some cha chaan teng called Mon Kee Cafe that has a stall doing bolo buns, macaroni soup, and scrambled egg rice. I didn't particularly care for my char siew scrambled egg rice above though, as the meat was lean while the egg and soy sauce really didn't contribute much to pull this together. This shop was so backlogged tonight that it took quite a while for it to come out, and certainly wasn't worth the wait.



At least I was able to grab a quick single from BurgerLabo, which has a stall here too. It still reminded me of McDonald's, especially with the taste and texture and taste of the bun. The sauce and onions (which covered up the taste of the beef by the way) further drove that point home. OK, it was a more upscale version of McDonald's at least, and was the best thing that I had today. Note that Lixin and Piao Xiang also have outlets at this food court.