Soon Lee Fish Soup in Singapore

I'm not sure if this small chain of stalls is related to Soon Lee Pig Organ Soup or even Soon Lee at Makansutra Gluttons Bay, but I assume not. Anyway, this was just a random place on my way home tonight, and the good thing was that it had some pretty generous chunks of fish in there without being expensive. The broth was reasonably savory, and I liked how he had some of that Teochew chili sauce with brown beans. He even had an option for luroufan, which I ate quickly even though it couldn't compare to stuff in Taiwan.

R Slice by Roberta's in Singapore

So it turns out that Roberta's has an offshoot in New York selling pizza by the slice, and now there is an outlet at Paragon Shopping Centre (290 Orchard Road #B1-32). I was quite happy with that "Fire and Ice" slice above, as they topped it with some cold stracciatella cheese that went nicely with the spicy and salty nduja sausage. The crust was still a bit on the dry side, but at least it was hot and crispy after having been thrown back into the oven for a few minutes. Yes, I'll come back for more, even if the upscale mall setting wasn't as cool as Bad Habits Provision.

Wewa at Orchard Gateway in Singapore

A small Middle Eastern pita shop has opened up at Orchard Gateway (277 Orchard Road #01-17). And I liked it, as I gobbled up that falafel pita above pretty quickly; thankfully the bread wasn't dense nor dried out like I had feared. To be sure, it certainly wasn't as refined, bold, nor playful as Miznon, but I'm pretty sure that's by design, as this was built up like a fast food chain with more outlets on the way. I was particuarly happy with the fact that they had smaller "junior" sizes available starting at an ultra affordable S$6 (US$4.70) price.

Sanpoutei Paragon's Kombu-Infused Tsukemen

Sanpoutei is getting into the kombusui tsukemen game too, featuring it as an exclusive item at their new Paragon outlet (290 Orchard Road #B1-47). As pretty as it was though, I didn't care much for their skinny noodles nor the kombusui that it sat in. The thin salty dipping broth seemed promising given that it was garnished with chopped onions and ginger, but the cuts of chashu inside were dry. I'd rather get their other bowls.

Sam Leong St Chicken Rice in Singapore

This is a chicken rice place across the street from Mustafa that has apparently been around for a long time (12 Verdun Road). When the owner wanted to retire, the Putien guy from around the corner took it over and modernized it. Now it is pimped up with ordering kiosks, large digital signage, and even a self-serve soup and chill station like at Putien Mama.

Yeah, the food wasn't bad, as the chicken was moist, the rice was firm, and the chili was potent. And my smaller "budget meal" portion was a steal at just S$3.50 (US$2.70). But there was a slightly sweet sauce on it, and the soup was slightly sweet too. Their otah add-on was steamed rather than grilled, which made it piping hot but less satisfying.

Gully Restaurant and Garden in Little India

I'll admit; I suggested this place for lunch today because I saw their ads down at the train station (10 Farrer Park Road). There were some concerns about whether the food would be watered down given that it was in front of the Holiday Inn's pool and naturally had to appeal to a range of tourists. But I was happy with what they brought out today, be it the chaat, kebabs, or curry. Granted, none of it was anything special either, but I liked that they had an option for "tossed rice": it was like jeera rice but configurable with ghee and podi instead.

Scarpetta's Charred Bone Marrow Schiacciata Toast

Here's the bone marrow toast from Scarpetta. They were quite generous with the marrow, if skimpy on the bread. Still, they provided extra bread for their namesake post-pasta sauce mopping. My noodle selection today was their aglio e olio special, which came with some crispy guanciale on top.

I liked how they kept the noodles firm, but like before, it was a bit heavy on the salt and oil. They also could have browned the garlic a little more. Now I am going back to the office with some hefty garlic breath for my teammates' enjoyment.

Chanke Meishi Huainan Beef Soup in Singapore

Not to be confused with Hainan nor Hunan, Huainan is a city in Anhui province in China and this stall at Lau Pa Sat serves beef noodle in that style (18 Raffles Quay #01-33). It was a bit like Lanzhou beef noodles with a clear broth, but was less earthy and instead with a clean salty flavor cutting through it. That brown toothpaste-like chili sauce on the side was nice and smoky, and the beef was sliced thinly. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, even if the noodles were overcooked. Next time I should ask her for a fresh shaobing, as she gave me one that had been sitting around for a while despite her making another batch in front of my eyes.

The Chicken Chop at Seng Huat Western Food

It's interesting that Seng Huat is only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. What strange timing! Anyway, I happened to be at Zion Riverside Food Centre on a Tuesday night so I stopped in for a quick plate. I went for a white meat option with that chicken chop above. To my surprise, the meat was rather thin. I prefer their beef burger rice over this, but I still happily ate this piping hot and crispy thing.

Laksa Labo's Classic Laksa at Wild Coco

I've been going back to Wild Coco quite a bit to try their other items. That included a giant but expensive otah at S$14.90 (US$11.60), as well as a chao ta chee cheong fun, which was a long way of describing chow fun, as the cheong fun was cut up and thrown around in a wok. They even had a bulletproof coffee that I suspected might have been kopi gu you, but I think I actually tasted some MCT oil in there too.

And today I finally tried their laksa above, which was made by a sister company called Laksa Labo with staff T-shirts that proudly bragged about excluding cockles in their bowls. I was a bit concerned at first, but it turned out to be so good that I drank it down to the last drop. The broth was rich, savory, and spicy, and toppings like that firm tiger prawn sealed the deal. I liked it better than their nasi lemak.

WowFish (Wao Suancaiyu) in Singapore

I didn't realize until recently that there's another suancaiyu chain in Singapore. It looked like it was from China, and they even bragged about a long-standing pickle producer from China being one of their suppliers. But a search online suggests that it only has outlets here in Singapore.

It's quite similar to Xiaoyuhao, both in terms of the shallow plastic serving vessel, and also in that the broth had only a limited amount of oil. That's why I didn't like this place either, as it just wasn't fragrant. I'm getting tired of places that are basically just serving a sour fish soup rather than something truly aromatic like Tai Er.

Borigulbi from SBCD Tofu House

I was craving fish for lunch today, with dried fish in particular sounding rather 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 rather formal. 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 techniques. I had trouble getting excited about the food though 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 requested a salt marinade 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 it let me appreciate the rich taste of those thin slices of engawa. Only afterwards did I realize though that it was the same price as the normal sushi. 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 unavailable today.

So I went for this spicy "firebird" bowl above and I regretted it. It was based on 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, whereas 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.

Carnaby at the Quayside in Singapore

Somehow I never realized this until today, but the Three Buns folks converted their Robertson Quay outlet to a place serving British food (60 Robertson Quay #01-01). That Sunday roast above was comforting and fun to mop up with Yorkshire pudding. But the beef on one of the plates in our party was oddly tough, and this place wasn't cheap either. Well, I suppose that comes with the neighborhood, and at least one gets very good service for that price.

Pang's Hakka Yong Tau Foo in Singapore

Oh so that Pang guy *does* do leichafan! It was buried on the menu at his yong tau foo stalls. And it was good, as he didn't hold back on the salt. That meant that it wasn't just the green broth that was crisp and salty, but also the crispy and punchy ikan bilis. It all made it much edger than competing renditions. Yes, it was very good and is one of my favorites.

Shin Katsu in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore

The team behind Fortuna opened up this tonkatsu shop with a former Ma Maison chef at the helm (84 Tanjong Pagar Road). They offered several types of pork, including Hungarian and American ones, but my cheapest Canadian version above suited me just fine.

It's unfortunate though that the underside of one of my pieces was soggy despite it being cooked to order and resting on a metal grill. Well, I still ate it all.

I'm not sure if they picked this location to catch the spillover crowd from Tonshou one street over, but Tonshou is definitely my preference. Indeed, if I get another soggy underside here, then I'd rather just go to a Maruhachi koptiam stall and pay a much lower price.

Champion Bolo Bun in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore

This shop has been around for a few years and oftentimes commands long lines (92 Tanjong Pagar Road). Hong Kong-style bolo buns usually aren't my thing though, so I never really gave it much thought. Still, I needed a bit of food after that ramen and it was just a couple doors down with only a few minutes wait for curry buns coming out of the oven, so I gave it a try.

I'm really glad I did, because this thing was awesome. It was piping hot from the oven and the texture was perfect with a crispy crust yet soft interior. It was seasoned just right too with a pleasantly salty and spicy curry inside and yet a very mildly sweet dough without being annoying. Plus, they have a really nice seating area upstairs. That means that I might actually come back for this.

Ramen Toratake from Tokyo's Toranomon District

Toratake is a Tokyo-based shop known for doing a shellfish-based broth, and it was deliciously crisp and savory. The diced onion garnish and yuzu kosho paste provided an edge to go with the chewy noodles, and I liked it. Yes, I'd go back for it, although interestingly I'm not in Tokyo right now.

This was from Iguchi in Singapore (96 Tanjong Pagar Road, 6235-9110), which is offering it for lunch. I'm not sure if the ramen was from a boxed kit, but this place is actually from the Himonoya folks after they left Robertson Quay. The service was pretty bad today BTW, and the exterior decor is discouragingly tacky.

Wang Fu Dim Sum in SIngapore

I don't know the backstory behind this chain, but they focus on some simple noodle dishes as well as shengjianbao in particular. I ate my noodles with ease, followed by a plate of dumplings that featured a firmly grilled bottom. The broth inside was a bit sweet, but I didn't mind it too much as long as I had access to the chili oil, ginger, and vinegar.

The Original Vadai in Singapore

This chain has quite a few outlets around the island. Their vadai were awesome, especially these prawn ones with not just the crispy and savory prawn in the middle, but also the greased up dough and with raw chili padi on the side for some added kick. What scares me now is that there is an outlet near the office, which means that I'm going to eat way more of these things than I should.