Eywa Natural Blue Carbonara ($14) is served in what reminds me of a black flying saucer 👽 At @bluewillowsg blue pasta fills the centre of the plate, and is garnished with a sous vide egg, thin slices of red radish, rocket leaves, and a tuile. Thick cream clings to the thin strands as you twirl up a forkful of pasta, releasing a delicious scent of sauteed bacon. It’s savoury without being cloying, with slices of button mushrooms adding texture and taste. The egg yolk breaks and mixes into the noodles, adding richness, while the rocket leaves lifts its flavour. As eager as I was to scarf down this carbonara, I felt myself sink into its flavours which made me enjoy it nice and slow.

@timeforthaisg is a halal-certified Thai restaurant with Dough Fritters with Sangkaya ($4.90) for a sweet end to your meal. That's a plate of butterfly fritters with a side of delicious coconut-egg custard.
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Let your fingers tear apart a pair of deep-fried dough. Each piece is thoroughly crunchy but a tad bland, so be generous with the dip that’s sprinkled with sesame seeds. The sangkaya is pasty thick and as you scoop up a generous wallop, smooth green creaminess mixes in with a white swirl of coconut milk. The dip clings on like thick paint and tastes like kaya with a addictively pronounced scent of pandan.
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It’s really sweet, but the dough fritters balanced it out, so I gleefully made sure to scrape on as much of that dip as I could anyway.

From @santoukasg is Spicy Shio Ramen ($16.50) which is minimally adorned with fried and spring onions, and comes with two slices of pork belly freckled with sesame seeds.
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Your first spoonful of soup burns the back of your throat before heat slowly rises up to your tongue. Pulling up your ramen mingles it with the garnishing and reveals a small amount of chopped chilli that clings onto the tangled strands. Give this bowl a mix to allow the aromatics to highlight the light shio broth, giving it more depth. The noodles are cooked till just firm enough with two slices of chewy pork belly to pair with the mild and saltish flavour. It'd be better for me if the meat was cooked till tender for a melty satisfaction 😝 and if there was more, for heartier balance 😛

@santoukasg puts a spin on soupless cold noodles with their Kaisen-Hiyashi Maze-Soba ($16++) that's decorated with halved prawns, sashimi slices, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and sprouts. With it, you choose one of three meat options, and two toppings from a variety of seven. My favourites are unagi, cheese, and mixed veggies.
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This large dish is suffused in sesame sauce which lends your noodles sandiness. Add a hit of fish sauce to give it more body, then mix well before taking in a tangle of strands. The seafood gives you just enough meatiness and the veggies lend some balance. Their add-on unagi is soft and well-coated in sweet glaze but try their juicy roast beef if you prefer more chewiness. The cheese topping makes extra savouriness while our side of lightly blanched veg — cabbage, baby corn, and broccoli — cut through the richness of this dish. There's very mildly spicy chilli oil to pour in too to lift the heavy flavours because without, this large meal that's best shared can defeat even the most robust eaters — in a good way.
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Read more: https://herecomesgin.wixsite.com/ginwashere/single-post/Santouka

I'm loving my break while figuring out the whole job and career thing but my unstructured life gives me some cranky mornings 😅 A perk-me-up that sets me right is always caffeinated tea 🍵
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@teabirds.sg makes their own blends, and The Flower Girl ($10 for 10 teabags) has Iranian french rose buds 🌹 with pu-erh tea leaves. Breathe it in before steeping for five. Its strong floral scents soothes my edginess. Slurp the tea across your palate. This cuppa pu-erh is woody. The roses add a light nuance, and this finishes with a hint of lavender that's minty on the tongue.
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I like my teas hot, though cold would be fine, but be sure to brew it multiple times! This quality of pu-erh doesn't turn bitter. @teabirds.sg has new teas every few months and shipping is free if you try them out.
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Thank you @teabirds.sg for sending this my way! 😊

When it comes to clubbing, two things come to mind. How much vodka do I have left to bring, and where should I suggest we dine. Nosh from @foodsmithsg at Liang Court's Let's Eat was quite a wait, but the night was young, so no mind.
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This Truffle Mushroom Beef Burger ($10.90) is a ground patty topped with chunky shrooms that are cooked in generous drizzles of truffle oil. An appetising scent wafts up as you tuck into the medium-well beef, seasoned with pepper and onions. It oozes with juiciness and not grease. Take in the robust and heavy flavours between the lightly toasted buns 🍔
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@foodsmithsg is open all day and night (save Sundays). With a budget under ten, their Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Burger ($8.90) is a filling one. It's a hunka crispy battered chicken spread with SEY sauce that carries curry flavour and mild spice. Cash only though!

Wasabi Butter Beef from @kyodaisg was chow at $9.90 during opening promo. It's a blanket of thin beef slices over Japanese rice, plus an onsen egg, pickles, sesame seeds, and fried and spring onions. A pale green knob of wasabi butter makes this decidedly not #basic Curious, you carve out corner to try and it turns into a smooth melt on your tongue. The butter mellows out the heat of wasabi, leaving just its flavour.
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Puncturing the yolk might not trigger a yellow stream for #eggporn with the many ingredients cradling it in. Pick up a beef slice to taste with a dip into the yolk, and press another into the green butter. The scrumptious sukiyaki marinade of the meat adds bold, hearty flavour. Give the bowl a mix so the creaminess of the egg binds with the moist grains, with the garnish lending some contrasting crunch to the deep flavours.
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Their updated menu lets you BYO Butter Bowl from $10, choosing from their line-up of seven flavoured butters and four meats with rice or dry udon.

@freshfruitslab and @platform1094 has a sister cafe in the West known as @bluewillowsg which serves food that's naturally coloured a shade of blue. With weekends brunches till 3pm, they switch up your quintessential breakfast food.
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Neytiri’s Blue Pancake Stack ($14) settles a sleep-in Sunday with three thick and blue pancakes. Dyed with butterfly pea 🦋, they're pan-fried till brown and fluffy, and the batter is served syrup-soaked. The stack doesn't taste particularly striking with homey flavour, but it is studded with blue maple sago, blueberries, strawberries 🍓, and crumbles that taste like sweet cookies ☺️

@ginsen can conjure comfort for long, rainy days with their Thai Beef Soup Noodle ($5.50/$7). It's a bowl of warm broth and plenty of bobbing beef with lean cubes, fatty chunks, and tendon best paired with kway teow.
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Peppery and light broth washes down your throat with lingering umami. I personally prefer a heavier infusion of beef, however, the meat is such a highlight that the soup base makes a balanced contrast. They are simmered with pandan leaves till the tendons are soft like jellies that you hardly have to chew. They are usually my favourite part of the brisket but the fatty chunks of beef outdid them; the layers of meat and fats melt away easily with a savoury fragrance. There were only a couple of lean beef cubes which was just enough to add some meaty chewiness to my lunch.

$10 for Bara Chirashi Don is understandably the crowd favourite with raw salmon and tuna cubes, diced octopus 🐙 and prawn 🦐, plus ikura. Arranged on a base of rice and seaweed shreds, spring onions and white sesame seeds garnish it with a dollop of wasabi on the side. A poached prawn decorates it like a star on a Christmas tree 🎄 @district.sushi is but a short walk away from Bencoolen MRT Station but if raw food is not what gets you going, there's Salmon Mentaiyaki ($10) and Aburi Duck Teriyaki with Onsen Egg ($10) too. There's a perpetual line outside exepct for Mondays when they're closed!

Thai Bak Mee Dry ($4/$5) is a bcm and phad Thai fusion with sugar, chilli flakes, ground peanuts, and small dried shrimps, giving it colourful garnishing.
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Pull up a textured tangle and take in your first mouthful. It's not greasy and a scent of fish sauce gives it savoury depth without fishy pungence. The noodles, flecked with chilli and coarse peanuts, are slightly spicy with an occasional crunch. Salty dried shrimps balance the sugar and the egg noodles mellow them out.
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Order this with soup or dry like typical bcm or consider their Tom Yum Bak Mee ($4/$5) too.

Conveyer belt hotpot @upotsingapore from $0.99 is aka 好客火锅 🍲 from Taiwan. Their first sg branch is in the new @singpostcentre just outside Paya Lebar MRT Station. Choose from seven soup bases which come with a side of veggies. There's green ($0.99), orange ($1.99), blue ($2.99), and red ($3.99) plates with about 280 ingredients. About 98 are on display at a time but no worries, you can always order a la carte.
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Their Xiaolongkan Old Hotpot ($9.80) 🌶 is soupy mala with numbing Sichuan spices swimmin innit. Shabu shabu red plates of beef, pork, and mutton slices 🤤 but don't let the spices overboil cos the soup will turn bitter! There's salmon roe balls and black squid ink balls to try. They rec looking out their fish noodles on an orange plate. My grabby hands got the mussels and clams too 😅