Old Chengdu Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant 老成都川菜馆

There were a couple of Sichuan restaurants near the office that I had wanted to try, and thanks to some very adventurous colleagues, I managed to score a lunch at one of them. The 2 restaurants are right outside the Chinatown MRT entrance at Pagoda St, and we chose the less upmarking-looking one of the two, on the right hand side facing the MRT Entrance.

We started the meal with an order of 凉粉, which came in full spicy glory. I thought this was pretty good, although a bit too spicy for my colleagues.
One of my favourite dishes - 土豆丝 which was supposed to be mildly spicy, but rated as extremely spicy by another colleague. There was also 花椒, in addition to the dried chillies, which was a pleasant surprise. Another winner, although I felt the potato shreds were sligtly overcooked.

We also had a salted egg tofu, which appeared rather soup-like. This was great on top of steamed rice.

Their 辣子鸡 was another winning dish - the little pieces of chicken deep fried to perfection.

We had yet another vegetable dish which I can't recall the name of, with lotus root, potato slices and mushrooms stir fried in a chilli paste.

The meal came up to around $20-25 per head. An excellent lunch to spice up the workday.

80/82 Pagoda St, 62226858

Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice at Serangoon Gardens

Ah Seng Braised Duck gets my vote for best braised duck in Singapore. I've never really been a fan of braised duck, but this one I could eat everyday. There's a super long queue during peak hours that starts about 1130, and they normally sell out in the afternoon.
This was a quarter duck, mostly breast meat. The duck meat is tender and moist, and the braising sauce goes really well on top of hot steamed rice.
Even their chilli sauce is fantastic.
Their duck wings are amazing as well - try to make the order in advance because these get sold out early.

49A Serangoon Garden Way#01-44 Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre

Aoki - Possibly the best meal ever in Singapore

Someone very nice took us out to dinner at Aoki recently - and this gets my vote for my best meal ever, in Singapore. It was an amazing meal, and looking at the photos (which I do often) always makes me hungry.

We started with edamame

Which was great with sake - the first of 2 bottles. I have no idea what we drank but it was GOOD.
Gingko nuts in a seaweed basket that was edibleIka shiokara, or fermented squid. This was very strong tasting - nice in small quantities, but it wasn't something that I would order again.

This had to be the sweetest, juiciest, tastiest, freshest tomato on the entire island. Amazing dipped in a bit of salt.
Shiro ebi - white shrimp mixed with uni and caviar. DIVINE.
We got one sea urchin for each of us. To be eaten with a teaspoon. Died and went to heaven, and came straight back for the next course.When this plate was set in front of us, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Beautiful, beautiful black truffles shavings. Over a lot of white fish sashimi.
This was glorious - the truffles were very delicate in flavour, and I loved the truffle infused oil- not quite the standard truffle oil, I have no idea what it was. Then a serve of sashimi. We enjoyed the otoro and hotate. The ebi was super fresh and sweet as well.
View from my seatA fresh oyster with ponzu sauce - I had to pass this to the husband given my new-found allergy to raw oysters *sobs*
Grilled fish - I believe this was bream
Anago sushi - absolutely beautiful
The ikura was as good as ever, flavoured delicately with little specks of some leaf or fruit peel...some say it's yuzu but it looked to me like some shiso leaf thing.
This was the dish that made me weep with joy. I really didn't want to blog about this - after all, some special experiences must be kept private. This dish was so good I wanted to post a photo on facebook immediately, and yet was torn, since mass knowledge would cheapen the experience. Anyway - here it is. A grilled beef bowl, with truffles and a lightly poached egg on top of wonderfully sticky warm rice.

The beef wasn't even wagyu - it came from some less well-known prefecture, and was seared to medium perfection. It would have been brilliant even without the truffles.

After digging down a bit more, we found the poached egg. The combination of half-cooked egg, succulent beef and truffle on rice was unbelievable. I'm hungry just writing this out.

The trio of pineapple sorbet, green tea ice cream and I can't recall what the last one was - sesame? But the best was yet to come.

We headed next door for a cheese platter - this was the entire selection on the trolley and I did not recognise a single name. What eventually ended up on our tableWith Les Amis chocs to end the meal
And the most amazing madeline and chocolate coated frozen bananaPlus port and reisling.

Bak Kut Teh: Song Fa vs Heng Heng vs Ng Ah Sio

We live close to the bak kut teh capital of Singapore, and in our 5 years of staying here, have grown to love and appreciate the beauty of a hot hearty bak kut teh brunch on weekends. It's not a super cheap meal, but it's a small price to pay for the time well spent with equally greedy friends. We're aware that there are other bak kut teh places out there that are enjoyable, so we'll be continuing to try them out and blog about them as we go along, but it's hard not to go back to old favourites every now and then. In no particular order, here goes:

1. Song Fa Bak Kut Teh at Upper Circular Rd
Leslie Tay has a great write up here that explains the evolution of how the food at this stall has evolved. This place is a bit of a challenge to get to (especially in finding parking), but we found it was well worth our effort.We ordered the premium pork ribs soup for $8.50 per bowl, which we found substantial, meaty and tender. The meat was a bit fatty but that was easily removed. The soup was less peppery than expected, and very sweet. Loved it.
Tang oh to make us feel slightly less guilty.
Beancurd skin.

2. Heng Heng Bak Kut Teh at Owen Rd

We love the fish that they serve as well - we've never tried the steamed fish because I'm not a steamed fish fan (well I'm not a fish fan in the first place), but the or he (black fish) is pretty good.

Their tur kah is excellent - boiled till soft, with lots of tasty soy gravy.

The bak kut teh here isn't as tasty as the other 2, but I like to think it's healthier, ie. less salt or msg.
The meat isn't all that tender, but it's passable. Definitely less fatty as well.
The real winner here is the or he - soft, tasty meat that goes so well with fresh lime squeezed over it, and vinegared tau cheo sauce.

3. Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh at Rangoon Rd

This place has to be most well-known for having Thaksin Shinawatra as a loyal customer, ahd having created a diplomatic fiasco for having turned Donald Tsang away (I privately think that the MFA NEA Desk could have called ahead, but that's a story for another day). We love having freshly brewed tea from the small teacups, and we've never understood why the cups need to be so small.

Pure pleasure in a teapot

We really like the soup here - only thing is that the first bowl is always the best, and the top-ups are never as tasty.
The husband likes the stewed peanuts here
Tang oh is always good
Their pig trotter is also really yummy - soft and gelatinous and tasty, and amazing with their vinegared chilli sauce. Song Fa @ 11 New Bridge Road, Tel: 6533 6128; Heng Heng Bak Kut Teh @ 107 Owen Road, Tel: 62924913. Closed Tuesdays; and Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh @ 208 Rangoon Road, Tel: 6291 4537. Closed Mondays.

Shanghai Renjia

It was Leslie Tay's post that made us come here to try the xiaolongbaos, and we weren't disappointed. Thankfully we were already warned that it was going to take some time getting a table and our food, so the wait wasn't too upsetting.

My favourite dish of the evening was the shallot-oiled noodles, with pork chops that came in a zhajiangmian-style sauce that wasn't really necessary. I'd order the noodles again in a flash with just the shallot oil.

The shen jian bao was not bad - I'm not a fan of too much pastry, but the husband loved it.

The xiaolongbaos were good - none of them burst, although we had to order another serve (and wait for it) after we were done. Great flavour, lots of soup and on the whole one of the better xiaolongbaos in Singapore.
Dinner for the 2 of us, which included a serve of vegetables, came up to around $45 for the 2 of us. So it's not that cheap, and while the quality is pretty good, it's not really a place that we would drive across the island for. But we really enjoyed the food, so if we were in the area and didn't have to wait, we'd definitely come back again.

Shanghai Renjia
Blk 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5#01-3046
Singapore 560151
11am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm
Closed on Mondays
Tel: 63686927