Nabe hotpots are commonly found in cold regions such as Hokkaido, naturally this izakaya have a couple of Hokkaido exclusive recipes of nabes. I love the creamy texture of the miso milk soup that's boiling hot from the fuel piece below the bowl. Even gf who doesn't like creamy stuff had to agree that a pipping hot soup like this is nice to indulge in. Having this dish really brings back the winter mood, like putting a hot piece of meat or cabbage into your mouth and puffing out the heat. 🤤

One of the dishes that caught gf's eye again. While hot soba is slowly picking up in singapore, places that sells them have to be really good to set a standard among singaporeans and this is probably one of those places. Their Buckwheat soba made fresh daily, the soba was silky and soft when served. The enormous piece of kakiage was left hanging there covering a third of the bowl. The waiter serving the dish told us to break half and soak one in the soyu broth. I find myself extremely tempted to just dunk all of it into the soup, which I did in the end. Well about 90% of the crispy kakiage anyway. 😛 It's quite value for money as well at around $12, so it's pretty safe on the wallet if you are craving for something delicious and comforting to your stomach.

One of the noticeable starters that my gf happens to like. The salmon was marinated with lemon vinaigrette with a layer of chives, fennel and kombu flakes with a spread of apple sauce over it. The salmon retained its sashimi-like texture while the sweet and sour combination of the condiments above it just makes it so easy to eat.

I'm beginning to love angel hair pasta because of this. This damn-worth-it light bowl of pasta is just sufficient to fill your carbs requirement for the meal. With the fragrant sauce and the sakura ebi bits at an affordable price of $4.90, it's hard to find fault with this tasty pasta.

** There is an existing promo for this pasta @ $1 until 26 Feb, which is tml. 😰

Saw this impressive YTF at golden mile and it's one of the few long queue ones that I have yet to try. Wasn't having thoughts of YTF that day, but after wondering a while, I came back to this place.
At minimum of $4 per order, it's practically taking one of each YTF pieces from the display stand. The queue was fairly long and with a number system, it actually was much longer with the people 'queueing' to collect.
I went with the dry option, a typical habit of mine, and it was quite tasty. The chee chiong fun sauce and chilli reminded me of the times back in school. Their YTF pieces were fresh and cooked evenly. Surprisingly, out of the stuff I took from the table, I really liked the blanched kang kong in this sauce combination. Lastly the small bowl of soup which kinda ruins my choice for dry. The soup was the best thing about the Yong Tau Foo and it's a clear reason why it's being featured. Perhaps next time when I'm back here again, the soup option will be one of the reasons to queue again.

Back again for this bang for the buck mala hotpot with the right level of spiciness and flavour. Shared this $24 with 3 mala fans and still we couldn't finish it 🤣

Maxwell Food Centre is one stall overshadowed by the celebrated hawkers surrounding it being the new sibling of the block. If you have thought that the usual traditional beancurd made from yellow soya beancurd or the once trendy Lao Ban beancurd was smooth, then you have to try this for yourself. It is amazingly smooth and silky, you will feel its like a drinkable beancurd.
The black beancurd comes in 3 syrups - gula melaka, the normal sugar, and ginger soup. I went with the ginger soup because I somewhat have a special liking for ginger flavor dessert and it really feels refreshing with that little sweet & spicy touch after slurpping the beancurd. Sadly, I did not opt to 'zhng' the bowl with more 'liao'. At $2.50 for ginger soup option, its a little pricer than the traditional soya beancurd that we are so accustomed to, but for the novelty and the silky smooth experience, worthed it.
Should you wish to explore further, Woong Kee also sells black soya milk ($2.20) which looks a bit greenish but containing all the healthy benefits of black soya. Definitely coming back here again after gym session for a protein dessert. =P

Having tried Kohaku's tendon last year, I think there are some ups and downs about this tendon compared to Kohaku's. What I liked about this is the portion. For $13.90, it comes with a set of chawamushi and miso soup on top of the bowl of tendon. The variety of tendon is fairly similar so at this price range, it is definitely more bang for the buck. The sauce is quite debatable. I personally prefer it less sweet and between Kohaku's and Ginza's, I find Ginza's sauce less sweet and at the same time, it was not added much to the bowl at first to allow us to customise how much more sauce to add with a bottle of tendon sauce in front of us. What I noticed is that the batter for the tempura was a little thicker than Kohaku's. It wasn't much a difference but it did masked the taste of the ingredient a little. Other than that I still find Ginza's more worth while if you have to choose to visit only one. Both of them have long queues, so be prepared to wait for an hour or more especially on dinner timings.

Black soya beancurd with Ginko nuts ($2.70)

Having learnt that this was made from black soya beans unlike the usual traditional beancurd (yes I'm a sucker for novelty), I knew I had to try this.
The first bite I had was pretty underwhelming. Sure it was so incredibly smooth, but... it wasn't sweet at all and I missed the stronger soybean fragrance found in other beancurds.
But, something interesting happened. I took it home and the tossing and turning must have given my container of beancurd a good stir. Now this, this was when the magic started. The silky beancurd intergrated almost seamlessly with the sweet syrup and it was so smooth, it practically glided down my throat. Taste wise, it was milder than the usual beancurd. Paired with the slightly bitter ginko nuts, this humble dessert brought my meal to a (not cloyingly) sweet end.
With such good taste & texture, the supposed benefits of black soyabeans, and being taught that in life, good things come to those who wait, I think the price premium over the conventional beancurd is pretty reasonable.

**they serve the original conventional beancurds here too, so be sure to ask for the black soyabeancurd if you're also there to try it!**

Themed as torche au marron, the pear dish highlights the poached pear in white wine with a combination of chestnut cream as base, pear puree and yuzu sorbet to add some sour kicks. I am thankful that this dish wasn’t too overly sweet with a good amount of zest to end the course.

Part of the Grand Course.

After having an impressive range of dishes, I was pretty much at the limits. The lamb with torched honey sobrasada was roasted nicely with a pinkish inner tone. Similar to the style of previous dishes, the small pieces of potato fondant with black garlic puree was savoury and strong, packing a punch with each mouthful.

Part of the Grand Course.

This dish is an interesting combination. Warmed beef tongue salad tasted like uber tender beef and had I not clarified with Chef, I would not have known beef tongue tasted this good. Beneath it lies a steak of butter roasted Chilean seabass with a classic french sauce choron that yields a buttery taste with tomatoes. What makes it interesting is that the choron sauce goes hand in hand with both choices of meat, allowing me to take alternate servings without being overwhelmed by the distinct flavour of the meat.

Part of the Grand Course, not available in Petite Course.