Hock Hai (Hong Lim) Chicken Curry Noodle, Bedok Interchange

Despite being a Singaporean, I have never had curry noodles. What a travesty huh? I guess there is something about the richness of the dish that didn't really appeal to me - till recently. A friend and I popped over to Bedok Interchange for lunch and I thought, after travelling this far, I shouldn't get the usual boring ol' fishball mee pok.

I gamely joined the short queue at Hock Hai (Hong Lim) Chicken Curry Noodles and subsequently had my mind blown.

The kicker was the thickish curry gravy which I lapped up till every last drop. There is a decent amount of steamed chicken under that blanket of tau pok. I loved how the gravy coats the yellow noodles and vermicelli, with little room for a breather. This was a real sensory treat on every front.

Dotty for Dinosaurs

Hope you are having a good long weekend so far. Isn't it swell that we get the day off on Monday as well? Big love. 

Russell had a school assignment to complete over the long weekend. It was simple enough - create an artwork using dots. Yes, very Yayoi. And because the boys are really into dinosaurs these days, we printed out some dinosaur outlines and got some circle stickers to fill up the dinosaurs.

Hey, presto! An activity that occupied the boys for close to an hour. It's really easy to create an home, why didn't we think of this activity sooner?

 

Idaten Udon, Changi City Point

When the colleague suggested udon for lunch, I mumbled something along the lines of "It's just carbs... blah blah blah." But I went along - it wasn't like I had more exciting plans in line.

Part of the Ichiban group, Idaten focuses on the humble udon. Perhaps in this present moment where people love to complicate things and create bastardised fusion food, I appreciate Idaten's mission to keep things the way they were.

The steps to getting a hot piping bowl of simplicity is well, simple enough:
Step 1: Choose your udon: Soup or dry, and plain, matcha, yuzu or pumpkin.
Step 2: Pick your sides from a wide variety of tempura, including mixed vegetables, pumpkin, squid, crab stick, chicken and crab croquette
Step 3: Grab garnishes such as seaweed, spring onion, tempura flakes, chilli padi and tempura sauce from a nearby bar

Though the meal looked uninspiring. it was surprisingly very tasty. I stuck with the basic udon soup that was filled with al dente toothsome noodles. I would love to try the matcha noodles next. A fried salmon belly filled with omega-3 goodness brought things home. To top it off, a generous confetti of seaweed and fiery chili padi sealed the deal.

And it's Father's Day

H A P P Y F A T H E R S D A Y 

to the man who works tirelessly to make 

parenthood a wee bit easier for the both of us

A weekend summed up with food photos

What a title. Zero points for creativity. But hey, we ate well and we spent great time catching up with friends and family.

 

On Saturday, we prepared a belated birthday lunch for my mother-in-law. Slow roasted lamb shanks with garlic and anchovies. I love love love anchovies and these shanks were tender and toothsome.

Kw recently came back from a business trip to St Petersburg and he brought back a small (and ridiculously expensive) can of sturgeon caviar. My MIL loves angel hair pasta so I made a creamy angel hair pasta with caviar and shrimp. Got to admit, I don't really care much for burn-a-hole-in-your-wallet caviar.

An apricot almond Caesar salad balanced out the meal. I found fresh apricots from Turkey in the supermarket and this is the first time I have having apricots that didn't come out of a bag. 

On Saturday night, we attended a friend's birthday party and we lapped up some seriously good homemade lamb biryani and fried chicken. Might not look pretty or Instagram-worthy but I felt super lucky to be able to partake in such a meal.

The birthday carrot cake was super moist, and stuffed with shredded carrots and walnuts. A worthy contender for best carrot cake in town. Ain't the cake pretty too?

I don't normally rave about brownies but these were amazeballs. I had two, then I stopped counting.

Come Sunday, we had friends over for lunch. It's been ghastly hot these days so we kept things simple. Lemon panko thyme salmon - ah so good! I am really glad I love something that is good for me. 

Soba salad, inspired by Wheat Bamkuchen. A keeper. Definitely a great dish for the hot summer days.

Hope your weekend was just as good too!

Atmastel, South Beach Avenue

My in-laws chanced upon Atmastel by accident and recommend the place to us after they had a good first meal. In the day, the restaurant is bathed in natural light and an open kitchen piques diners' curiosity. Prices here though are admittedly on the high side with pizzas averaging $30++, no doubt to the fact that the culinary team is led by Andrea Tarini, an Italian chef with a "3-Michelin-star background." 

Now we all know pizzas don't need to come with any stars to taste good. Which was why we were slightly disappointed by the pizzas that visit. The pizzas were on the dry side. Kind of hard to imagine there's ever such a thing as a dry pizza but it happened.

The others dishes, though, restored our confidence. The Country Salad was stacked tall, fresh and full of pesto goodness. Addictive would be the only way to describe the Calamari and Zucchini Fritters. We happily tucked into Duck Ragout Bigoli, where the bigloli pasta provided a lesson on sensation and textures.

Hyang-To-Gol Korean Restaurant, Raffles City.

The evening before the Firstborn told me, he wanted to eat at a place where he can "wrap meat in lettuce." I took that to mean Korean food. We didn't want to risk the Friday crowds without any reservations and the rain eliminated several options, so we found ourselves at at Raffles City. Some of you would find the name familiar. This is an offshoot from the Amara Hotel branch. A casual, more accessible outlet.

We ordered a selection of familiar favorites - BBQ Seasoned Pork Belly, Beef Short Ribs, Kimchi Jigae and Korean Rampyeon. I really enjoyed the meal - perhaps the sight of the Firstborn tucking vivaciously into galbi wrapped in lettuce and Korean ramyeon made my heart sing.