Generic food court beef noodles

The so dubbed Hainanese beef noodle has become ubiquitous everywhere here. That means almost every food court sees a store that sells them and I'm sure most people don't really think of them as a Hainanese dish anymore. It's just generic food court beef noodles which uses mass produced ingredients and can be whipped up to serve the masses in short order with relatively little sophistication in the course of preparation. For $4.50 as a set, this beef noodle from the food court at Century Square (2 Tampines Central 5, S529509) is actually something with little complains apart from the fact that the sauce is uninspiringly flat and the beef balls taste of flour fillers. Still, it beats numerous other food court options of a similar kind and the noteable thing of this dry beef noodle is that the gravy is actually mixed pretty well without the starchy lumps that are commonly present from those in other unnamed places.

Some pizzas from Mondo Mio

Mondo Mio (Riverside View #01-02A, 30 Robertson Quay, S238251, tel:67362503), an Italian place just out of the courtyard at Robertson Quay across the street from Harry's which does a very regular array of the usual Italian stuff actually provides delivery of their pizzas down to Wine Connection. One can actually request for a menu from the latter location as a drinking customer with a phone number to reach the former restaurant to make orders. Speaking of which, the pizzas are decent if not extraordinary. The parma ham and rocket variety is reasonably tasty and their Mondo Mio flavor which features prosciutto, mushroom and a very nicely done egg with a still runny yolk is pretty awesome though. The awesome part comes mostly from the runny egg. Still, the restaurant looks fairly respectable and I may just drop by some time for the pastas.I spy gnocchi on their menu and their prices are pretty affordable as Italian places go.

Kazu Sumiyaki 2008

One of the main reasons for this visit to Kazu (5 Koek Road, #04-05 Cuppage Plaza, tel: 6734 2492) apart from the great grills is the attempt to get some more of the seasonal items from their menu for the winter harvest before it goes away soon. Namely, it would be their creamy anko kimo (angler fish liver) which I rather enjoy. I'm sure a lot been said here about most of the regular items that I tend to order from my previous visits, so the pictures will be doing the majority of the telling. Despite that, I find myself discovering new things from each visit. One of which is that the owner and chef is apparently a star of a certain Japanese drama serial before turning his chef skills of 13 years into use in this restaurant. Of note from the regular items, the fatty pork with apple have gotten larger pieces of apple in the skewer and a more flavorful apple sauce over the top which is a good thing. The lamb chops are still as tender, oily and full of flavor from the charcoal grill. Chicken hearts are as chewy and well salted as I remember them and the hot, soft foie gras sticks are still as dripping with heart clogging oil. Oh, and did I mention too that these place has oysters and they're still filled with juices in each bite, sweet potato's as sweet and fragrant and I remember them with that awesome butter melt and the crunchy prawn and scallops in pork belly that hasn't disappointed yet even once.

uni tofu with ikura

anko kimo

asparagus in pork belly

kurobuta pork

avocado in pork belly

halibut

chicken with mentaiko

chicken hearts

chicken skins

foie gras

fatty pork with apple

shishamo tempura

oysters in bacon

cheese hotate

lamb chop

sweet potato

australian wagyu tongue

scallop and prawn in bacon

...and finally, the score cup

Some items are apparently new on the menu and the choices are still dizzying. Previously a salmon tofu with ikura has become a uni tofu with ikura. I thought that the salmon rendition was more flavorful on the tofu in comparison with the current uni version which didn't quite carry the flavor of the sea urchin across, especially when paired up with those ikuras that are firm and bursting with flavor. We also see a tasty avocado wrapped in pork belly that held up pretty good on it's own, some pretty good grilled halibut and chicken skewers with a generous portion of mentaiko. The cheese hotate didn't turn up as cheesy as much as it was creamy and it probably would have been great if it was served hot rather than lukewarm. Despite their fairly hefty prices, this joint still places the smile of satisfaction on my lips when I leave and that's a good thing too.

Moondarra's honey and pistachio cream cheese

I bought these sweet cheese from Marketplace some time back and had almost forgotten about them after putting them in the fridge. These are flavored cream cheese and this one is flavored with, as the packaging says, pistachio and honey. The cream cheese in this doesn't taste as rich as some others which I've had before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The flavor is sweetish because of the honey, however there is very little of the pistachio. It's mostly bits of them at the base of the cheese. While you could actually tell that there are bits of the nuts in the cheese, there isn't really much of a pistachio flavor, so I guess it might not have made much of a difference if it were another nut. The overall flavor is pretty straight forward, honey scented sweetish cream cheese with soft bits of nuts.

More eats from Isetan....and a crab

Ok, I've been guilty of lurking around Orchard on Saturday again because of the Japanese fair and some other appointments that I have in that area. It's the last weekend of the fair and I really don't need excuses to drop by Isetan for some of the winter goodies before it's all gone. Mostly, it's just things which I had there and the only thing I bought home was more of the shio based ramen. It's good to go at the end of the fair because that's when stocks have to be cleared for this round and offers get better. The ramen which I had purchased are going at 1 free packet for every 3 that you buy. Here's lunch and some pre-dinner snacking. Also, I saw a very big crab there. It looks cold, angry and lonely....

Lunch...




After having tasted the umaki tamago from Botan, I decided to grab these chilled and takeaway version from the supermarket in Isetan. These are cut in really big pieces. The topping which is teriyaki unagi encased in tamago is much larger than the vinegared rice base. That makes it a challenge to pick them up with chopsticks. Being chilled, the flavor of the egg and eel is much less pervasive on the tongue compared to the warm and freshly made ones.

You might also have noticed that I liked the otoro sushi quite a bit to be eating them again. The batch from today looked fattier and indeed tasted more flavorful of the oily fatty flavor than the ones which I had last week. In fact, I enjoyed them so much that I got a second round of them later in the day. The swordfish sashimi wasn't too bad as well.

Before dinner...

pumpkin croquette

This ice cream is strangely shaped like a jester's cap. The light pinkish side is actually sakuramochi flavor. There're some chewy bits in there which is the mochi part and according to the person at the booth selling, there's also the taste of sakura which I didn't quite detect. The yellow side of the jester's cap is pumpkin flavor. The flavor leans towards being light rather than rich for the pumpkin. The summary of it is that they were reasonably ok ice cream and not really exceptional.

Botan, Far East Square

Until the time that I had discovered that Botan (36 Pekin Street, #01-01 Far East Square, tel:6536 4404) is located at this place, I had never really taken much note of what location was I passing through everytime I happened by this specific unit in Far East Square. So in essense, I have no idea for how long has this Japanese restaurant been around. Or if it was another establishment in the prior times I had walked past. Rather innocuous looking as a Japanese restaurant that's wedged between the more conspicuous Harry's Mirchi and Shin Kushiya, this place is easily overlooked since there is very little apart from a menu stand that reaches the pedestrian path. Since I have discovered it's presence, I've been telling myself to drop by one day to check out the food. Now that I've actually tried it, the next thing I'll be wondering to myself would be, when will I come back? Because I'm quite sure I will. Pretty verbose way of saying that I discovered a place and that I liked it eh?

The interior of the restaurant appears as simply furnished dining hall with little frills. I would say that this is one of those places where there is a greater emphasis on the food that is served rather than upkeeping veneers which is something that I don't really put so much value in since it just means that the cost is usually passed on to us. Appreciated, but unnecessary. Speaking of cost, prices here are by no means cheap. However, this is far from being up there in the realms of pricey restaurants. In fact, I would say that it's quite affordable for what they serve.

anko kimo ($7)

The anko kimo (angler fish liver) here is pretty good. It wasn't as creamy nor as chilled as the ones that they serve at Kazu, still it was very decent in terms of taste and portions.

mentaiko chazuke ($6)

I'm having these chazuke for the first time and despite the taste being quite different from what I had expected from a tea based porridge, I found myself quite enjoying this. I'm not sure if the mentaiko or the nori had that much to do with the resultant flavor of the broth, but it tasted quite like fish soup rather than any tea and the heap of toasted sesame seeds added a depth to the fragrance of the porridge. Try to imagine teochew fish porridge, without fish slices nor the hint of ginger in the broth.

uni gunkan maki ($12 for 2)

I like the uni sushi here. The portions of the sea urchins toppings are quite generous. These things really fill up your mouth and for $6 a pop, it is certainly much more affordable than many of the other Japanese places that serves at least decent ones. I'll be sure to get more of these the next time I'm back here.

umaki tamago ($8)

These umaki tamago are quite good. Despite the slightly dry appearances, they are actually oozing with juices when I tried to pick them up with chopsticks and they are served hot. The sweetish egg was soft and really just slides down your throat in a comforting manner. Packed in the tamago are also almost equally tender pieces of teriyaki marinated eel which doesn't seem to have any bone at all. I've been avoiding unagi for ages because the generally don't taste very good to me. These are one of the exceptions. Another something which I am sure go for again.

chirashi bento ($30)

Chirashi bentos are the way to go for bentos for me. Apart from their own brand of aesthetics which I find quite pleasing, the contents are something that I enjoy about Japanese food. I am thinking that for $30, Botan delivers a rather generous serving of the bento with the usual slices of raw fish and tamago, a dry smoked mackerel, simmered vegetables (a couple of pieces are wrapped in egg yolk!), teriyaki chicken, potato salad ball, 3 pieces of tempura, more unidentified mix of root vegetables/green battered crabsticks/fungus like things, chawanmushi, miso soup and watermelon. The quality of the raw fish slices are actually not bad and there is certainly no complains about the portions of those at all. The rice below is interesting because of what's on the top. A medley of sweet from the pink fish floss, saltiness from the ebiko, seaweedy-ness from shredded nori and fragrance from sesame seeds that are scattered over the rice.

Pancakes from Mr Obanyaki

These Japanese pancakes have been around in some form or another for as long as I can recall. I remember eating them as a kid back in the days when it was Daimaru in Liang Court and a Yaohan in Plaza Singapura. Throughout these years, there has been relatively little changes to these pancakes apart from the fillings. It used to be just red bean paste back in the old days. As the years went by, the fillings have gotten more variety. The same can be said for the standards of the pancakes. Mr Obanyaki, which I thought does pretty decent ones is located at the basement level of Takashimaya. I've been meaning to try their pancakes for some time and finally got to do it. I was also fortunate to get the cheese with kaya and the cheese with blueberry ones while they were still warm.

I guess the pictures themselves will do their own talking and I'll save myself the trouble. They're as good as they look.

1st attempt at mentaiko pasta

As you can probaby see, there isn't really much mentaiko on the pasta. That is because I have never had the experience in making them and grossly underestimate the amount of roe needed. Not to mention, I didn't think that I'll be cooking for 4. Scrapping the eggs out of the sac for the first time turned out to be a messy affair too. The result did turn out to be pretty tasty, but I wouldn't call it a success since the main element for the sauce which is the spicy roe could barely be tasted. The ingredients used were modified from a relatively well known blog. The main reason for the deviation is because, I couldn't get my hands on some of the items on time and other recipes do suggest other viable alternatives which was obtainable at the said time of cooking. The steps for making the sauce stays pretty much like the original recipe which I had derived from. Basically, it's a sautee-ing of the onions in butter, addition of soy sauce and sake for the reduction before adding the cream and then, the mentaiko.



The ingredients if anyone is interested are

• 250g angelhair pasta
• a chunk of butter (I used SCS)
• one whole yellow onion, diced
• 10 soup spoonful of sake
• 5 soup spoonful of cream (mine was President)
• 1 sac of mentaiko (I think 3 would have been better)
• shredded nori

There wasn't any chicken stock readily available so I had substituted that with Japanese soy sauce. It was the closest thing to chicken stock that I could find at home. Seriously. If anyone has a good method of removing the roe from the sac, please let me know how. Comments and suggestions are welcomed as well.