NUSS Peranakan Buffet

We hadn't been to NUSS Guild House in a while since the teochew porridge buffet a couple of years ago, and there wasn't any real compelling reason to head there without the weeknight buffet deals until they had a Peranakan buffet for about $12(?) per person. The variety was pretty good and given the price, it was difficult to complain even though the food wasn't all that amazing.

Penang Laksa - this was a bit thin on fish.

The popiah was decent, like any other hawker stallI liked the okra with sambal but this is a dish that's not too difficult to do well
I thought the itek tim was quite good - a good balance of salty vs sour, and I had a few bowls
The rojak was normal - standard hawker fare
The other things available were dry meesiam, grilled sotong, grilled taupok and petai. I love petai, the smellier the better.
Freshly grilled taupok is hard to beat

Not the best Peranakan food around for sure, but the value for money factor is hard to beat.

JB Beef Noodles version B

On another of our foodie trips to JB, our friend brought us to try a beef noodle stall located in Taman Maju Jaya. It was apparently from Permas Jaya, and despite calling itself Tangkak Beef Noodles, didn't taste quite like what we had at Tangkak last December. But it was good nonetheless.
The friendly stall owner posing for the photo

We ordered a char kuey teow to entertain ourselves. Not bad, but we've had better.
Squeezing chilli in anticipation
It looked similar to the version we had in the stall near the checkpoint last year - the Tangkak beef noodles shop doesn't actually serve the dry version.

It was pretty good - the beef stock was quite flavourful, but the other stall was still better. Pity that it closed down due to the owner's son passing away and him being affected by that :(

We didn't think the beefballs were great either. Better to stick to the noodles.

The other good thing about the coffeeshop is the buah dong dong juice, which was very refreshing.

MIL's Hakka YTF again

The MIL made Hakka yong tau foo again recently, and it was fantastic as usual.

Stuffed mushrooms
Bittergourd
Dried oysters with the fish paste wrapped around

Tau pok

And the noodles with minced beef. Happiness : )

Aoki - Counter seats this time

After my virgin experience in 2010, I've somehow ended up going to Aoki quite a number of times over the past 2 months for various reasons - farewell lunches, welcome back lunches, and a couple of need-to-get-away-from-the-office lunches. The first time I had a counter seat was earlier this year, and I think a counter seat at Aoki is pretty different from other sushi counters where you can actually see what is going on instead of staring at a display case.
The entree was lotus root this time.
And we didn't get to see this in the private room. I wonder how they refrigerate this box.
Where all the treasures are kept.

The little bits of fish all being sliced up.
It was interesting to see that perfectly good pieces of fish, instead of the offcuts, were used for the mazechirashi, when other places might have kept their best for sashimi. I'm sure we were given the uglier bits but they weren't that ugly to begin with.
The salad looking colourful and pretty in a blue ceramic bowl
PicklesThe mazechirashi again. I've learnt to appreciate the slices of what I think are ginger flower, and I've also learnt the right way of using the soy sauce on the fish since coming back from Tokyo! (I didn't know then, for this Aoki lunch, and would have looked rather suaku at the counter :-O).
I had to take a photo of these very fatty looking otoro pieces - this is the sort of good stuff that goes into the bowl. Somehow it's a lovely combination of everything, with the cucumbers giving the crunch, the ikura giving that amazingly salty bubble-like-liquid-oozing-out texture and the tamago also helping to offset the salty flavours with the sweetness and springyness.
Dessert was sorbet, melt-in-your-mouth mochi and melt-in-your-mouth umeshu jelly.
It gets my vote for the best $45 that anyone could spend on lunch in Singapore.

Restaurant Week at Oso 2012

After last year's very pleasant RW lunch at Oso, we decided to head back there again for lunch this year. It was a pretty rushed weekday lunch but we managed to pull it off.

I love the look of their bread platter, and they serve pretty good EVO and balsamic vinegar. But it can't match Otto's bread platter.
The starter comprised of a mixture of 3 different items - buffalo mozzarella tartare with basil pesto and tomato sabayon, slowly cooked pork belly with honey served cold and thinly sliced porchetta, and marinated tuna loin and mixed vegetables.
The mozzarella was ok but I think having it done tartare style affected the flavour of the cheese - a small ball might have worked better.
I liked the pork - it was tender and flavourful and sweet.
The tuna looked and tasted a lot like salmon - a bit of a slightly schizophrenic dish, actually.

Next up was a thick and creamy potato soup with white truffle flavour - in other words, truffle oil. The soup was thick enough for us to taste the creamed potato, but I think it lacked just a bit more flavour which could have been due to a lack of other vegetables in the stock. It came with a side plate holding an egg shell with the same soup, but cold.
I wasn't expecting this, but it certainly was an interesting touch.
The soup did live up to its description - rich and creamy potato soup. The amount of truffle oil was just right, so that the aroma was minimal.
The mains came - this was my colleague's stewed sea bass fillet with mushrooms and spinach cake. I must have tried some but I can't remember what it tasted like.
I had the braised and deboned duck leg served in timbale with mashed potato and orange gremolata. I don't know what a timbale is, and have no clue what a gremolata is either. But I really enjoyed the duck - the flavours were reminiscent of a rilette, and the duck had been cooked for a sufficiently long time to be tender and soft.
There were 2 dessert options - a double cream flan panna cotta, and a chocolate soup. I thought the panna cotta was excellent. It was melt-in-your-mouth creamy and had a very subtle vanilla flavour.
I had the 70% dark chocolate soup, which was a very filling end to the meal.

Again, another very happyfying lunch and I would be keen to go there again during the next Restaurant Week. Not as good value for money as Brasserie Wolf, but then again, they give an extra course and the food is always pretty good.

Oso Ristorante

46 Bukit Pasoh Road
6327 8378

Jaggi's Northern Indian Cuisine

We discovered Jaggi's a couple of years ago when the husband was doing a posting around the area. It's been one of our favourite Northern Indian restaurants since, and it's a great place for a quick Indian meal when we're craving it in a hurry. It's not that cheap though - this meal for the 2 of us cost about $30.

We had 2 naans, 2 lassis, a palek paneer, probably a quarter tandoori chicken and a butter chicken masala.
The tandoori chicken is flavourful without being too salty, and comes grilled with a slight crust on the outside but perfectly cooked and moist on the inside.

The butter chicken masala is creamy without being too rich, and fabulous with the freshly baked naan.

Parking's a bit of a pain, but we've found the HDB MSCP near Foochow Methodist Church usually has ample parking lots.

Address: 34 Race Course Road, #03-05

Tel: +65 6296 6141

Website: http://www.jaggis.com/

Mellben Seafood

We were first introduced to Uncle Leong at Ang Mo Kio by one of our most reliable foodie friends, and after Uncle Leong moved to Punggol, we decided to give Melben - just across the car park - a try. We had heard that they performed an additional value-added service of having someone with a loudhailer screaming MATA LAI LIAU each time a parking warden appeared, and witnessed first hand the mass migration of men (note: not women) running to their cars, wiping their hands on their pants en route.

Melben consistently has a a very long queue and they don't take reservations. But because the crabs are so good, we've been quite happy to brave the process and suffer those inconveniences in exchange for heartwarming satifsaction and a much lighter wallet.

I was there about 2 months ago with 2 friends and the husband, which meant we could order double what we normally order. Heh. The mantou came first.

The dou miau was to assuage some guilt.

My husband's favourite dish at Melben is the butter crab. The sauce is rich, sweet and creamy, and goes beautifully with the mantou.
Another look at the crab - the sauce is really a winner. It's worth getting a spoon and licking up every drop.
Before we could tuck into the butter crab, the crab with vermicelli arrived.
The vermicelli was very nicely done - it wasn't soggy and was extremely tasty after having soaked up the crab juices.
Before we could start eating, the XO crab bee hoon soup arrived.
This is my favourite Melben dish. The soup is very rich, and goes extremely well with the thick bee hoon. I think we ordered an extra portion of soup that night.
All the crabs were solid, full of meat and very fresh. The meal cost about $50-odd per head, but it was worth the money spent.


Address: Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 (enter via St 22) #01-1222

Tel: +65 6285 6762

Open 5-11pm daily.