lunch today was at a new place across the road, a self-titled "xiao long bao zhuan mai dian". given the number of places in singapore where you can get very decent xiao long bao/shui jiao/guo tie, it's difficult to expect anything too much from new restaurants of this ilk; if not for its proximity to outram i wouldn't have thought twice about ever eating there. complaints first: the food came in portions so miniscule that i ended up spending much more on lunch that i normally would because of the amount i had to order. that grouse aside, i would recommend the zha jiang mian, as well as the gui hua tang yuan, which was a bit like drinking a garden (literally - my soup came with numerous bits of flower floating in it. didn't gerald durell describe something similar?). nothing was over-salted/sugared, and well, i would have been quite happy if i hadn't been so hungry after the meal. unfortunate. perhaps i'll give it one more chance in a few weeks.