Asia Grand Restaurant, Odeon Towers

The main draw of this place as some may already be aware of, is the $28 Peking duck which is pretty much a steal considering how much most other Chinese restaurants are charging for them. I'm also fairly sure that there isn't any other place in town that can match in price for that. That being said, one also must realistically expect based on how much is being paid for, that this would not be something that will be considered top notch in terms of taste. I've definitely had better Peking ducks elsewhere, but in the same vein, I've also never paid this little for one.

Peking duck aside, Asia Grand Restaurant (331 North Bridge Road #01-02 & #01-05/08 Odeon Towers) is a pretty decent restaurant with adequately tasty food and a fairly warm and efficient service to match. The variety on the menu is suitably sufficient if not too extensive. Noteable mentions from dinner included the bamboo clams with garlic, apple soup with fresh water fish and a certain lup mei fan which consisted of claypot rice with a variety of waxed meats which turned out to be quite heart clogging in the after effect of consuming.

We were informed that this dish (which isn't on the menu) is not available all the time. Additionally to the claypot rice, was the use of stock to wash the remaining charred rice from the bottome of the pot resulting in a porridge of sorts in a salty broth. I thought that was quite well done if not for the fact that there was coriander in the broth which really just killed it for me. The rest of the items sat on the average side. From the desserts, the yam paste (orh nee) was surprisingly enjoyable, considering that I don't normally like them.

I missed out the photos of the soup and the Peking duck skin in egg rolls, so there...

meat from peking duck

The Peking duck as mentioned was decent. We opted for the meat to be cut up and served instead of the usual options of having them stir fried with rice or noodles or having them minced into some mash and served on lettuce. My personal preference is to have them in cut form since I like the meat. This also reminds me of how little remnants of duck meat was actually available form the one I had, back at Golden Peony in comparison to a large plate like this one or even Hai Tian Lo. Seriously, I have doubts about having had the whole duck at that place. Even though the standards of the Peking duck itself wasn't comparable to the former place, this one actually felt more satisfying.

some vegetable with roasted garlic and dried scallops

I'm not sure what these vegetables are called, but they're thick leafed and crunchy. This was a pretty light dish and the garlic turned out to be a bit more pungent than I expected. It's a good thing I didn't pop too many cloves into my mouth at a time.

bamboo clams with garlic and golden mushroom

These steamed bamboo clams were great, full of chewy texture along with the golden mushrooms. The soy based sauce and minced garlic made a common but very tasty pairing of flavors onto the meat of the clams. I can imagine polishing of quite a few of these yummy shellfish at a go.

salt and pepper pork ribs

The pork ribs are unfortunately not too good. It also could be because I found them to be excessively fatty. We opted for the salt and pepper option as the sweet and sour rendition sounded really quite boring and coffee sauces isn't usually my thing. None of it usually taste like coffee or remotely so. I was thinking that this would probably be a good test of flavors for the ribs and really, I wasn't wrong. The flavor is simply just not outstanding.

assorted waxed meats (from the claypot rice dish)

These assorted waxed meats which is actually part of some traditional claypot rice dish tend to be quite commonly available and costly during the Chinese New Year periods. Apart from then, it's something that I haven't really taken notice of until today. The assortment here includes waxed duck, lup cheong, liver lup cheong and waxed pork belly. All of which are fatty and oily and sweet with the exception of the duck meat which was very salty. Unlike the regular claypot rice, the meats and vegetables aren't mixed with the rice and the stock is used in sparing portions in comparison with the regular claypot rice that uses a lot more of soy sauce.

claypot rice

broth from the remaining claypot rice

yam paste

red bean paste pancake

mango pudding

The desserts which were had were average on taste. So the mango pudding is really just a regular mango pudding which I didn't think much of. The red bean pancake also didn't quite rise above any of the others which I've had before, though it does have a much less chewy skin and I didn't find the paste itself excessively sweet.

The overview in retrospect is that, while definitely not the best around, Asia Grand is a decent and quite affordable location with food that's also definitely adequate. Makes a good location for family dinners. I can see myself coming back just for that duck and bamboo clams.

La Cantina in Venezia, Changi Village Hotel

I'm thinking that this place could probably be just the poorer cousin to San Marco if not for the fact that Cantina (#08/09-02, Changi Village Hotel, 1 Netheravon Road ) dwells in one of the most remote of locations and the service here is quite spotty. I'm honestly quite taken in by how the restaurant has made it's physical placement at the roof top of a surprisingly pleasant Changi Village hotel and despite that being just on the 8th storey, it's one of the tallest spots in the vicinity which grants a nice, if not so scenic view of the beach. The night ambience in the al fresco areas with the roof top pool makes it a quiet and very pleasant place. One could always reduce the value of an al fresco dining appeal since the weather is virtually humid all year round, however this is located just beside the sea and well, there are occasional sea breezes just to up the ambience by a few small notches. Truely, it might have been a splendid location and one could argue that it just probably is, since it is this very location that makes it very suitable for a quiet tealight dinner. Did I mention having also to look past the tacky wooden bars and retro styled crystal lamps on the walls?

If you haven't yet been sufficiently distracted by the description of the location, you might still recall that I have just mentioned that the service is rather spotty. I usually do not walk into restaurants expecting top notch and wisely discretionary attention unless top dollar is paid for such service. These to me are appreciatively nice touches most of the time. Also, I'm more interested in what I get to my stomach then any other superficial flair that an eatery might practice, but I'm sure that it is agreeable that there are minimal expectations that one would have. The restaurant was slightly over half filled on a Friday night with no service staff bothering to even bring a menu to the table until we requested for one from the crew of waitresses that looked that they didn't have the time to even glance to a table of 3 that is just seated and without a menu. To be fair, the service which leans towards an old world charm was quite friendly when it arrived.

The prices here are what I consider to be quite regular of the less expensive Italian places. That means that while it isn't really cheap, the cost of eating here doesn't come across anywhere close to exorbitant. Portions do look quite generous and the food is in a nutshell, pretty ok. That means that while it doesn't fall into the category of being mediocre, there are easily many other places that do better. Which also means to me that I'll probably have a difficult time justifying coming back again to this place.

I managed to break the common routine of just getting pasta in an Italian and since this is my first visit, and I hadn't any idea if there was anything that was great about theirs. The availability on the briefly described menu didn't look too interesting, so apart from an antipasto platter, I grabbed the Saltimbocca alla Romana.


This is a very regular olive oil drenched antipasto platter with the exception of the vegetables that came chilled and marinated. That was something that I didn't expect. I was thinking that they'd be grilled instead and also weirdly, the button mushrooms were so soft that they almost disintegrated in the mouth without having to chew on them. The ham and salami are really, just ham and salami and apart from the enjoyable hard and crumbly parmiggiano reggiano (one of the cheeses), I don't really have much comments here.


From what have gathered, the Saltimbocca is a meat dish lined with proscuitto and it's pretty much the thing that I got. Here its done with pieces of chewy pork meat wrapped in parma ham, seasoned in sage and sitting atop pan fried potatoes and some vegetables. Hearty would be the good word for this dish and I quite enjoyed the slightly charred potatoes. I couldn't quite make out what the sauce was however. The taste was a little buttery and saltish.

A million deths?

We interrupt this gastro diary with "Long live Dave Mustaine!". It definitely rocked ass last night!

Yakitori obento set lunch @ Kushigin

Kushigin at Cuppage Plaza now does lunch on Sundays too. I'm not sure for how long has this option been going on, but I remember it being only available for Mondays thru Saturdays. I've been told about their yakitori bento sets which is suppose to be great value at $12.50. The bento comes with 5 grilled items along with the rice that is topped with seaweed, sauteed mushrooms and ground meat (I can't really tell what this is but I suspect it is chicken). On top of it, is a miso soup and a dessert (I got a red bean dessert with mochi). The grill on sticks are pretty good since I see them freshly made on order for the bento. We get a chicken with leek, chicken balls, quail eggs, asparagus wrapped in pork belly and some mint in chicken things. I thought it was pretty decent and rather affordable.

One gripe on the bento lunch is that the rice which is really, not the regular Japanese rice that one would expect. It wasn't very sticky all in the first place and the minced meat and mushroom toppings had sauce that seeped into the rice, breaking it into a soft mash which was simply a trial to eat with chopsticks. Since they weren't sticky at all, it was akin to eating regular rice from a box like that which was really just a hassle. I wonder how this fares against the bento at Nanbantei.

L'angelus, 85 Club Street

This quiet and pleasant dinner was otherwise perfect if it wasn't so visibly marred by a particular waiting staff that confused himself with the order, gotten the wrong starters and gave a subtle to blatant display of displeasure by his attitude at the prospect of having to get the wrong orders corrected. That particular moment reeked strongly of chi-chi pretentiousness which I have yet to really encounter in other French places which I've visited so far. Yeap, that means even Raffles Grill. Frankly the encounter was quite the lowlight of the evening when everthing else was pretty good. I would really have liked to avoid any negative comments because L'Angelus is honestly a rather nice restaurant for a bistro styled French dinner and looks to be a place ideal for dates. Again I am reminded of the one waiter whenever I want to talk about the merits of the ambience and the satisfying dinner that left me quite stuffed.


The pan fried foie gras comes in quite a generous portion which I found to be rather enjoyable. I'm not too sure what has gone into the sauce but it seems to be a balsamic glace of sorts resulting in a robust flavor of vinegar over a mildly crisp skin liver and soft quivery insides that breaks apart and dissolves onto your tongue. As it's intended purpose, the vinegar sauce balances the rich oily liver with a tangy blanket creating a savory and appetizing coupling.


I'm quite pleased with the ribeye and it turned up a bit larger than I had expected since I've always had the impression that portions tend to be more dainty in French places. The steak was served quite plainly with just the meat, a grilled tomato and a side of gratinated potatoes which arrived separately on a hot plate and was scooped onto the main plate after being served. You also get the option of either a pepper or blue cheese sauce. Needless to say, I picked the blue cheese which was actually quite robust and definitely not of the commonly used light variety. While it didn't score right at the top in the department of juiciness, the meat was distinctively intact of beefiness with it's soft manageable fat along the sides. The meat texture and firmness retained a measure of tenderness, and yet still came across as firm. I thought that the fat wasn't excessive and that's a good thing. Not to mention that this was a properly done medium rare which I liked. It cost about as much as the tenderloin from Brasserie Wolf, but this was a noticeably much more enjoyable piece of steak and definitely better value for the money. That's just my take.

Alaturka Turkish & Mediterranean Restaurant, 16 Bussorah Street

Had a little difficulty finding Bussorah street and well... I almost didn't find it until I stumbled upon the sign at the back alley door of the restaurant while wondering what in the world happened to Samar which seems to be relocated. The fairly cosy restaurant adorned with mosaic tiles, decorated plates hanging on the wall, colored glass lamps on the ceiling and little tea lights secluded into small alcoves of the brick walls exudes a feel of the middle eastern kind (if that's how it truly is over there) which is somewhat jarred by the fact that there is a multi media kiosk at the front of the restaurant rotating between images of the food from the menu.

We picked up the karisik kebab (mixed grill) along with an iskender lamb kebab (which I didn't get to find out about from Sultan Kebab) and a couple of sides of hummus and babakanoosh (roasted eggplant & garlic dip) accompanied by their olive oil garlic bread. On hindsight, it was quite a lot of food for two.

babakanoosh

hummus

karisik kebab

iskender lamb kebab

olive oil garlic bread

On the whole the food here is quite expected of the grilled meats with a couple of exceptions which was noted. The iskender kebab came with something that tasted like lamb ham. I was really expecting real grilled lamb rather than a sliced ham like substance and that was more than a little disappointing. The mixed grill of kebabs also came with strangely a chicken drumlet and mid wing apart from the regular shish kebabs of chicken and beef and the lamb koobidehs. Are these part of the usual array in kebabs? In terms of prices, I thought that it was pretty reasonable. All these totalled to about $50.

Modestos, Orchard Parade Hotel

I have mixed feelings about this place and after eating here, I'm too sure whether it's a place which I liked or not. I'm probably going to have to come back again since the selection on the menu is rather large and I must admit that there are some items which I find compelling. The summary hindsight left me with the impression that the food here wasn't that great in terms of quality. I was thinking that certain things could have been done better. The service however was friendly and great despite the bustling tables and agonizing waiting time. Over the course of an hour of wait for the food, the waiting staff had, without prompt walked over to reassure that the food is in order and that they're doing their best for a busy Friday evening.

For a start the bread served is rather bad. It tasted very much like a dry and mildly herbed foccacia which definitely didn't feel fresh. To emphasize, I needed generous dips of the olive oil and vinegar despite being hungry and having to go through a rather long wait for the food to arrive.


The starter of the antipasto italiano wasn't quite up to what I had expected. The food while decently acceptable, felt limp. The grilled vegetables was a tad too cold, cheese felt crumbly from the caprese and there was noticeably too little parma ham that draped on the rock melons. The calamari fritti made it into the second starter option despite it being one of the most common options available everywhere else. As a person who enjoys soggy fries, I certainly had no issues with the soft batter that coated the squids which was actually quite enjoyable on the chew factor. I was debating over the option of a few of the pastas and eventually ended up with the ravioloni di pesce al pomodoro. The pasta turned out to be quite disappointing with it's fillings of supposed minced prawn and crab meat. There was some creamy things with the filling and that was pretty much what could be tasted despite my efforts at attempting to feel for the minced meat. Neither the prawn nor crab were existent in taste and whatever little of it was pretty much drowned out in the tomato sauce which isn't a particular preference of mine. The portions and doneness of the ravioli was actually good and if the stuffings were better, it might have actually been a lot more enjoyable.

Anatolia Turkish Restaurant, Far East Plaza

Another place that has been steadily operating in their current location (Far East Plaza #02-58/59) for a long time and which I've on fairly frequent basis passed by, thought of dropping in and never really did until now. This place does look to be another eatery which I would frequent for their kebabs (which features shish, iskender and koobidehs) which are pretty much, most of what is attractive to me about Turkish food. Apart from the vertical rotating spits where the meats are carved, the place also features a small and single helping salad bar and a corner in which they sell Turkish ice cream. The menu features a list of kebabs, wraps, a small selection of sides and salad. This place works by having your orders taken over at the counter and making the payment before heading to the seating area to wait for your orders to be served in the opposing unit facing the stall.


Dinner was a mixed kebab option which features grilled chicken, lamb and beef heaped over some token salad, a portion of tasty rice (anyone knows what's in this rice?) and accompanied by a couple of grilled green chillis and tomatoes. It is described on the menu to be a combo of sorts for sharing, however the portion looks to be just generous for a hungry person with a healthy appetite. One notable thing about the lamb koobidehs from the platter is the extra dose of chilli which ups the spiciness level by a notch, in comparison to Banoo or Persepolis which doesn't seem to do theirs with chilli. The egg omelette which we got to go along is really just a regular pan fried omelette with paprika over the top. From recommendation, I tried the apple tea which I had originally assumed to be a freshly brewed beverage, but it actually comes in a teabag and suprisingly it wasn't too bad with a rather healthy dosage of apple flavor.

Ox liver and pork cutlet from Colbar

I've been curious about this ox liver after hearing about it from the hungry cow that took a bite out of the liver of his own kin. So I just knew that I had to order this and see what it's really about now that I've managed to head down to Colbar again. Truthfully, I wasn't too sure if I could eat so much liver at a go since this is the first time I'm having them in such quantities. Now on hindsight, this stuff is pretty good. What I thought was great is that the livers aren't sliced too thickly and it was probably cooked in a very hot pan fry, evidented from the char marks on the exterior and the little bloodiness in the middle of the livers. This turned out more enjoyable than I had expected with less livery taste than the usual overly well cooked chicken/pork livers. The pork cutlet on the other hand was much less remarkable coming across as pretty normal. The meat leans on the dry and chewy side and really, I can't think of anything of note to speak of.

Brownie with cheese

Wow, this stuff isn't too bad and a surprising one at that, courtesy of an introduction. I must say that the chocolate and cheese combo does feel wholesomely heart clogging coupled with a healthy dose of sugar rush. The saltish cheese sauce on this thing tastes pretty much like Cheez Whiz in jars which I cannot seem to find anymore in supermarkets. Despite the differences of the taste spectrum, it's really not bad with the brownie that's loaded with bits of macademia nuts. It actually feels like something I would throw together at home rather than appear on the menu of some eating place. This does needs to stay in the oven longer before being served because a hot brownie tastes better than a lukewarm one. And if you're wondering, it's from Breeks (#05-29, Ngee Ann City).

Stiff Chilli, Jalan Besar

"when a chilli is stiff, its dead" ~ Ah Teo

I had a bit of difficulty trying to locate this place at 279 Jalan Besar from the map from Streetdirectory.com and it's actually 2 or 3 bus stops from Sim Lim Square in the direction away from town. The restaurant is an oldish and modern/quaint decored little place nested in a row of dilapidated looking shophouse with crumbling whitewash and incidentily, it is just across the road from Pu Tien (Pu Xin). Apparently from what I've read, this place is run by an Italian-Australian chef Rodney Holt who has opened four other Stiff Chilli outlets in Bali. From the way things are looking at the moment, this place looks like it's going to do itself pretty good. It is one of those times I walked out of the place feeling that dinner was good. The question is of course if it were to be successful as an eatery, would it be able to gracefully meet the challenge of compromise and now bow to mediocrity as many others have.


One of the signature dishes here is apparently something call Burrata which is essentially a smooth ball of mozzarella cheese heaped over with rockets and parma ham with some cherry tomatoes and then drizzled generously with olive oil and vinegar. The mozzarella cheese is of a soft and smooth texture, light on taste and has the consistency akin to a slightly chewy and soft portabello mushroom cap. Despite it being a rather sizeable ball of cheese, the whole doesn't come across as something heavy and really works quite marvelously with both the drenched rockets and salty parma ham. This stuff is definitely worth a try. This dish apparently comes in two options of either parma ham ($22) or grilled vegetables ($18).


The bruchetta options here are limited to two or three different types, but I thought that their mozzarella e rucola ($6) which features tomato, basil, little pieces of bocconcini cheese and roasted garlic (what a pleasant surprise!) was a pretty good starter for the evening. For me, the best part of the ordinary, but rather well made bruchetta was the addition of the soft roasted garlic and I definitely wished that there was more of it on the toast. That would have, in my books made it great!


The speck pizza ($18) which features, according to the menu, double smoked mountain ham (what's this?!) and blue cheese was something that I thought I shouldn't pass up on. Apart from the common and classic quattro formaggi (which is also by the way, available here), I haven't actually recalled having pizza that uses the more robust (or pungent) flavored blue cheese and this turns out to be something that I found myself liking quite a bit. Again, I thought that a little more generosity of the blue cheese is in order and I'm not sure what's the deal which that salty double smoked mountain ham which is pretty much like parma ham. The saltiness however contends with the blue cheese so in retrospect, neither of which should be used excessively. This is one of those places where you too get your pizza in an excellent thin crust that's truly crispy at the sides and a bottom that does not turn soggy because of a topping that's far too moist or heavy.


In the department of pastas, we see a small but decent range of certain common items like spaghettis, liguines, lasagnes and raviolis. There was a canneloni which I spied on the menu, but I have unfortunately limited space in my stomach. Still we managed to decide on the ravioli di zucca ($8.50) which was pumpkin filled raviolis cooked in butter and sage. The ravioli was pretty decent in a light buttery broth which I would have preferred to have, more buttery. The only thing the sage did for me was to provide more dimension to the taste of the overall dish which I'm quite sure you can imagine with the sweetish pumpkin fillings in the pasta.


Interesting thing about this chocolate ice cream is that there are actually flecks of chilli inside. The effect of which is a subtle chilli flavor which doesn't really does much to change the chocolate ice cream, but rather sits above it. There is only a very mild spiciness that can be tasted and leaves a ticklish sensation in the throat. The taste is frankly, not bizzare or weird. Just interestingly different.

On afterthought, I would probably want to come back again to check out other offerings on the menu. I like this place enough with first impressions.