Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...





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.

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.


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.




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.


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 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.

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.

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.

I don't remember the last time I've had yong tau foo at $2.50, but then again, it's not something that I specifically look out for usually at hawker centres. I thought that this stall (#01-01, Tampines Round Market and Food Centre) tasted pretty good with the regular combination of both sweet and chilli sauce. There was a queue forming at the front of the store and the main reason for it apart from the fact the tasty yong tau foo is that the owners didn't seem to make it a priority to work extra fast. This certainly helps keep the queue lingering for impressions. For their price, it is certainly a noticeably cheaper than having them at food courts which doesn't taste as good.

Here're a bunch of stuff I picked up from the Hokkaido & Mochinoku fair. Expectedly like the norm of such events, the crowd thickens from the early afternoon and doesn't really subside till the end of the day. This time round there was also a counter that was vending camembert cheese which I did not notice before in the previous fairs. I hear that there is more to come later in the week.

ramen

cheese cake sticks

a sac of mentaiko

chocolate cheese cake

creamy cheese cake in a box

fuji apple juice

rice condiments

assorted preserved seafood

not forgetting the candied scallops

This is really not a perspective shot. That roll is as big as you think it is. I was watching the chef at the fair make rolls of them when the stacked sushis were rolled into that one huge roll that you see. I took out the camera to take a shot, the chef took the huge roll out from behind his glass enclosure to pose for this. If I do not remember wrongly, there's uni, sake, tamago, ikura, hotate, those slim japanese cucumbers, more unidentified bars of fish roe in there. Certainly made me wonder how much it cost and how is one suppose to eat them.

Elbow jousting in the rough seas of middle aged ladies (sometimes using kids as their shields) can be a tiring affair, so inevitably, one has to stop to refuel on some energy sources to keep on going. Here're some sushis (salmon with assorted roes and otoro) that we managed to grab at Isetan in the duration there (lunch/snack break) and I'm not sure if it's because of the ongoing fair, the offerings seemed a tad better than the usual. For one, there's otoro to be had. I would recommend to get them early in the day when they're closer to freshly made. The otoro sushis here are surprisingly pretty good and relatively inexpensive for fatty tuna belly. The strawberry and cream sandwich doesn't come from the fair, but I thought it was pretty good so you get to see them too. They're actually available almost all of the time I pass by at Sun Moulin and curiosity finally got to me. It's essentially a simple strawberry halves with cream between two slices of bread which I found quite tasty.

Stay tuned for my loots from the fair.

Here's one of the bento box which I picked up from the fair at Isetan Scotts in the afternoon. It comes accompanied with a kawaii chick in singlet and short pink skirt that feeds you with attentive care. Nah...just kidding about the part on the kawaii chick. So it's back and the fair started on Staturday 19/1/08. I was told it ends at the end of the month, so go go go!! Stay tuned for the picturesque tales of my loot after I jostle the endless tides of insane aunties. Lol!

The food at this rather pleasant little place (Stardus Clubhouse #01-04, 277 River Valley Road S238318, tel:3336612) turned out to be pretty good despite the mild feeling of apprehension when I first arrived. The clean and modern looking decor somehow gave me the impression that there is more polish than substance, but clearly, this restaurant was a lot better in the whole execution than what my preemptive judgment had initially passed. Having said there, the only gripes that I had were that some of the portions of the servings came out a little too small and the disorganized looking service staff reeks with an air of arrogance. I wonder if I'm the only person that felt that way about some of those waiting people at the place.


The food here as you can see is probably best described as modern European. Surprisingly tasty for me was the layered salad of deconstructed apple, walnuts, brie cheese drizzled with an apple balsamic dressing which was very clean and refreshing for taste and much more enjoyable than I had thought. I had the impression that these modern "deconstructed" tend to be more of a gimmick but this one turned out simple and delicious. I guess the choice of ingredients here struck a good balance and being deconstructed here also meant that there was no mess for flavors that will overwhelm one another. The foie gras was quite decent, done with a nice char surface and comes in more generous portions than something else that I had recently which was rather expensive and what I felt to be a waste of money. The oils that settled at the bottom of the plate made a great sauce to mop up with bread. It probably would have been better for me if the piece of liver weren't so artfully sliced up.


Despite being tempted by the wagyu burger which was rather pricey, I ended up going with the tenderloin with cheese spinach ravioli, roasted baby carrots and blueberry infused jus which turned out to be a very good choice. The meat, although small was really done a very good medium rare and filled with juices. The only other flavors apart from the almost subtle tasting blueberry infused jus was just pepper. Which was a good thing since that allowed the taste of the tenderloin to still be in each bite, which is the way I like steak. The accompanying vegetables (including a couple of garlic segments) turned out to be very lightly roasted and I actually liked the crunchy carrot. Another deserving mention goes to the pan roasted cod with squid ink pasta tossed with baby clams, asparagus and tomato beurre blanc. The fish came in surprisingly generous portions, half cooked, firm and filled with it's oily flavor. I'm not sure what's a beurre blanc, but it tasted like a creamy tomato sauce with a subdued tang which I found really quite likeable. Note that I generally think little of tomato based soups and sauces. The squid ink pasta below was quite pedestrian, but is indeed resting above a small bed of little clams.


Brown Sugar doesn't fare too badly in the department of desserts from what I've had. The ubiquitous chocolate fondant cake turned out pretty decent and rich while the butter bread pudding in butterscotch was actually pretty good with a nice crispy top. If only it were served hot rather than lukewarm.

I wouldn't mind returning to this place, given the opportunity.

Have I mentioned that I've mixed feelings about Modesto's (1 Tanglin Road #01-09/10 Orchard Parade Hotel S247905, tel:62357808)? For one, the diverse crowd's pretty strong and has been that way for a long time. The service is something that I consider to be a notch up from the run of the mill restaurants in town. If one doesn't get too picky, the food here is actually pretty decent. They've brought wood fired pizza to the general public for the longest time before the rise of the other seemingly authentic Italian places that are popping up like mushrooms these days. Still there's this element of them trying a bit to hard to stay relevant in the cuisine they do. Like claiming to serve pasta only al dente which I think is really out of point. If it's really Italian, there is no other way of doing it except mistakes. Also, the strange thing about them in less busy times is the speed at which food is served. I had barely started on my first piece of bread before the starter of the parma ham and melon arrived. Granted that I hadn't reached out for the ham as soon as the plate sat on the table, I was midway through my first piece and the pastas arrived. If you're still missing the point here, it feels pre-prepared.

I've had this thought in my head for a while now regarding gnocchis. I've heard people on some basis to use the blatantly and overly whored "melt in your mouth" expression to describe it. I've had ones that I thought were good and ones that pretty much made me decide never to ever order again them again from that particular restaurant. None of them actually qualified as something that actually come close to melting in the mouth. Am I missing something here? By the way, I thoroughly detest that phrase simply because of the countless times been abused by those that don't know any better, or are trying in some odd sense to show off that they're actually eating something that has a goodness in that attribute.

Speaking of which, Modesto's actually has pretty decent gnocchis in gorgonzola sauce. They're served hot, soft and slightly chewy which is the way I think they ought to taste in terms of texture for these dumplings. The portions are also rather generous, to the point where there's probably more than a handful of people that I know which cannot finish a plate of those by themselves. These definitely do not melt in your mouth.

The squid ink tagliatelle wasn't really anything impressive. The overall taste struck me as pretty flat and ordinary despite the shrimp bisque sauce, which turned out to be basically the taste of everything else on the plate. Like the gnocchis which were pretty much mostly the light creamy gorgonzola (at least they were statisfying to some extent), the tagliatelle was mostly the taste of the bisque with very unremarkable shrimps and pan fried scallops that doesn't look nor taste pan fried to me. I had imagined it to be much better.

3 days of chicken rice in a row. I can feel the DNA of the chickens melding into mine and I think wattles are growing. This one which comes from Tampines Round Market food centre (Rong Sheng Roasted Chicken Rice Noodles, #01-43) was not bad. The rice was decently flavored, and the meat wasn't tough or dry. I requested for an addition roast pork which turned out pretty tasty too. Notice the clean cuts of the firm meat on the pork belly strips. The portions here are pretty good as well. The plate with also an egg cost $4.00. Which makes it much better value for money in comparison with the previous chicken rice I had at Nan Xiang.

I came by this chicken rice place at Novena (#01-156/159, Square 2, 10 Sinaran Drive S307506) by way of recommendation from a friend and it did look like there wasn't a need to queue or wait since we were looking to grab a quick dinner. It usually raises questions in me when a place is fairly spacious and the establishment is mostly empty but I've been having some strange cravings for chicken rice of late and the did look fairly decent if unspectacular. From the menu, it looks like the chicken rice is sold in combo sets, but it is actually possible to order them regularly like how it is done in hawker stores with just the chicken and rice minus the extras. One of the rice options here comes in the form of balls. I'm not sure how these are done, but each of these chicken rice ball appear in wrappers when served and I don't know how they stack against the original ones from Malacca or even the Goodyear store at Toa Payoh. But these pretty much break apart when you shove a fork into them and the taste of the rice itself was quite the norm, without being excessively oily or dry.

The chicken comes in the usual steamed or roasted (fried if you will) variety and the meat is rather ordinary if a little on the dry side. It comes drizzled with some unidentifiable and forgettable brown gravy instead of the usual soy sauce and sesame oil sauce combination which does little to help with the dryness of the meat. One of the important elements to me which is the chilli wasn't too spicy nor noteable. It's an acceptably ordinary chicken rice which comes in ball options with one gripe. It's $4.50 and that makes it a bit costly for something that doesn't quite stand out.

Yep, that's the Mud Ooze from Miss Clarity (Talib Court, 5 Purvis Street, #01-04, S188584, tel:63394803). This is what I felt to be one of the good recommendations for chocolate desserts because it's pretty damn good and it's fairly inexpensive at that. There is actually nothing novel about this dessert as it is essentially one of the numerous lava cakes or molten chocolate cakes if you will, that are fairly common in cafes and restaurants. What made this a great recommendation is that it costs noticeably less ($4.50) and tastes really almost as good if not better. Here's what I think it is. A nice hot lava cake, sans the gimmicks. No Grand Marnier flourish. No flames. And no vanilla bean in the ice cream too....hey! Oh well..... the flambe really does nothing for me since this is probably microwaved and hasn't much discernible differences. I believe that the molten chocolate here was more robust than another place which cost more.

This chicken rice store at Yishun 81 Food Court (Blk 925 Yishun Central 1, #01-249, S760925) is often crowded. That means that if you turn up for late dinners, the stall is probably closed already. I've eaten here on several occasions, but lately the rice seems to have gone through some change. Previously when I had them, they were the soft fluffy types which was pretty good. Apparently the rice now has become something which is less fluffy, oiler and heavier. I thought that the rice was something that was good on its own in that previous incarnation and now, the chilli sauce and soy sauce are actually put in to good use since I don't like it as much. Also, I recall some vegetable options which does not seem to be available anymore. I wonder if any of the regular customers noticed the change since business at this place still looks as good. There was actually a waiting time of 10 minutes at lunch hour. The one that hasn't changed would be the portions. They are still as small as ever. The tender chickens (only steamed ones here) at least are still pretty decent for a saving grace.

I've been hearing about La Braceria (70 Greenleaf Road, Ban Guan Park, S279356, tel:64655918) for some time now and it's been on my list of places to check out for while. Located in a very old shophouse block at Ban Guan Park on Greenleaf which is just off 6th Avenue, the location is can be considered to be secluded, if not remote. It also meant that being around that area felt like stepping into a capsule of another era. But that's for another day. Maybe. The food here's fairly straight forward with minimal frills. The options on menu is decent and definitely looks more appealing than the recent disappointment at Trattoria Lafiandra.

To start, I opted for the trippa alla Fiorentina which is essentially tripe in a light tomato broth with cheese. The tripe turned out to be pretty good. The taste of the meat was beefy, soft and slightly chewy. Having soaked up the tomato broth, each bite is somewhat "juicy". This turned out to be a rather pleasant warm starter of meat and broth.


There is this salsicci de maiale al finocchietto which is their famous home made pork sausages which I thought could be interesting. The sausages here are densely packed in their cases, served with a small side of salad and pan roasted potatoes. Hearty would definitely be the word for them and I thought there were not bad at all except for the use of fennel seeds which I guess are part of the seasoning. I don't really enjoy them normally as they remind me too much of licorice.


This molten chocolate cake turned out to be similar to the lava cake from Borgo. From the menu, I had expected the ubiquitous chocolate cake with a hot melting centre, but here's one where again, the server poured Grand Marnier into the cup and flamed the cake on serving. This one, is actually noticeably better than the one I had back at Borgo which didn't have a taste as rich of chocolate.

I didn't find this place (36 Duxton Hill, S089614, tel:63250188) too agreeable with me. Firstly, half an afternoon of various repeated phone calls failed to get through to the restaurant which resulted in my attempt to do a reservation via their website. The web reservation had no acknowledgement and by the time I managed to get through sometime in the evening, it was quite apparent that the web attempt didn't register with anyone in the establishment. An email which I had sent regarding the menu didn't get any replies by the time I was seated in the restaurant, I found that most of the items on their website is no longer being served. Can you spell bummer?

Admittedly, I did find certain of the dishes appealing by description from their web menu which is what made me decide on dinner here in the first place. The current menu from the very recent change (why is everyone using the same excuses?) didn't quite seem as interesting. At this point, there wasn't much other options and I wasn't about to adjourn to another location. I didn't feel that these guys were really worth my money and ended up with pastas for mains.


The impression from the dinner stuck me with them trying and not quite getting there. Service was very polite if somewhat sculpted and lacking of human warmth. The opening amuse bouche of a pan fried scallop and parma ham on a cheese cracker did look quite promising, but the promise pretty much stopped at that point. A cappucino of mushroom, thyme infused milk and white truffle oil tasted just like a plain, albeit decent mushroom soup with none of the other mentioned ingredients detected. This paled very much in comparison with a cappucino of cauliflower veloute which I've had some time back. The very modestly sized pan fried foie gras with duck breast, caramelized banana with rum and port reduction at $36 turned out to be too mushy for my likings and the first resonating thought that came to mind when I placed the first piece into my mouth was, "I've definitely had better". Better and less expensive ones too. And in more generous portions. It has almost none of the crispy exterior to speak of to contrast with the soft insides. Duck breast's so ordinary, I can hardly find words to describe them. Help me out here.


I found the spinach gnocchi with home made tomato sauce and smoked scarmoza cheese to be quite unimpressive. For one, the sauce tastes anything but home made. It was tangy, but not in a refreshing way that perks the taste buds. I have my suspicious feelings that it was probably mixed from something that came in a can or a jar. And positively, I can say that I know my cheeses well enough to not detect any scarmoza. Parmesan, yes. Scarmoza, definitely not in there. Visually, it looked a mess with bits of unidentifiable vegetable bits in the sauce and topped with what tasted like salted and fried tapioca chips. Also, from the way the melted cheese appeared, it frankly looked like it had been heated in the oven. I was again, shoved another mouthful of disappointment when informed that their wild mushroom risotto with octopus perfumed with truffle oil that features that same tapioca chips again would be served with mussels instead of octopus because they are out of octopus. The claim was that there was no delivery for the weekend. On a Friday night. After I had made the order. Despite the risotto being rather decent, I was pretty much miffed at the missing octopus from the dish. This restaurant has serious communication issues with their customers.

Or maybe, they just don't like me.

There is a fairly popular store that sells wanton noodles at the Tampines Round Market and apparently, they have those Sarawak Kuching Kolo mee now too. I have no idea what is the name of this stall (Blk 137 Tampines Street 11, #01-45, S521137) despite having had the wanton noodes here before, but it apparently seems to attract a queue during the lunch hours and part of the reason for that queue as I've found out today, is the fairly leisurely pace at which the owners prepare their noodles.

The Kolo mee at this place comes at a much lower price of $2.50 with a $3.00 happy meal set option. I wonder where they got that from. It involves a slightly larger portion which comes with a rather skinny braised pork ribs. It would seem that this would be a great deal for the price of a bowl of noodles which comes with a little bowl of soup with wanton and shrimp dumpling, however these are just not as good as the original chain of stores that sells them for almost 6 bucks with more measly portions. Yes, this is one of those instances where a chain of store (think mass produced and applied formulas) outdoes a individual outlet. The noodles in this store are a bit more cooked than is desirable, resulting in a less firm consistency which is present in from the original stores. The slightly sweetish and viscous gravy here was also not something I thought was superior over the fragrance of the oil of fried shallots. The chilli in this case helped with the noodles whereas the original ones didn't need much of other extras for the noodles to be good. And the included fried wanton in the bowl is actually just a fried wanton skin. I guess these are where the differences in price comes in.

I'm back in Shinryoku (8 Purvis Street, #01-01, S188587, tel:63388472) again and quite predictably, the orders were pretty much what I liked from the previous visit with the exceptions of a few of the items that I either didn't take note of previously or were not on the menu. These guys apparently make changes to what they have now and then and one of the bummers of this visit was that there was no more oysters. Yep, ditto that for Miss Clarity just around the corner too and I heard it was because of a recent spate of food poisoning that caused the shortage?

The new items that I have not had before included a gravy drenched grilled chicken liver which I was kinda hoping would be akin to the ones at Hamoru, but these are apparently more cooked and thus, less soft. Making the debuts on the table were also a pretty decent grilled garlic pork with leeks, agedashi tofu, chicken skins, grilled cherry tomatoes, chicken meat balls, shishamo, chawanmushi and a very unexpected deep fried garlic. The garlic which was initially more of a curiosity turned out to be pretty good. The whole garlic is apparently deep fried with the skin intact, which turns the exterior into something tough but easily broken into revealing soft and fragrant garlic cloves.

This little store down at Bugis, just across the road from Swenson's at Bugis Junction (520 North Bridge Road, #01-01 Wisma Alsagoff, S188742) sells Taiwanese food and is actually operated by Chinese nationals. I was expecting the staff to be either locals or Taiwanese. Digression aside, I had taken note of this place previously and had made note to drop by when the opportunity arose. And I've learnt that apparently, there is another outlet at Joo Chiat as well.





The gravy for the lu rou fan at this place tastes notably different from the one at Lai Lai. This one comes more savoury or umami while the one at the latter location has a sweetish element inside. Strangely, the rice with minced pork tasted much more like the lu rou fan from Lai Lai. That also means that both meats are drenched in a different gravy. In any case both were good enough for me that I could wolf them down in short minutes. The deep fried chitterling (pig intestines) which were resting on a shallow bed of bean sprouts and soy sauce are averagely palatable and strangely lacked much of the flavor that is present in the braised version. The fried surface on the exterior was fairly thin which did not deliver the same amount of crisp as what I've had previously. The chilli however provided much of the added flavor and actually had a moderate kick. Those egg rolls with pork floss could have been much better with more floss though.

I had actually walked into this place (619 Bukit Timah Road S269720, tel:64635296) by happenstance while in the vicinity looking for lunch. The original intention was to check out either a rustic looking location by the name of Karma Kettle and Rhapsody or the recently opened gourmet burger outlet Relish down in Cluny Court, but the former location didn't feel quite like what I wanted to have and the latter was fully occupied and I didn't feel like waiting neither. Walking down the stretch at Bt Timah just past Culina, I noticed the Cellar Door and it wasn't until I had entered and sat down that I remembered that Bottomless Pit had made mention of this place before about their burger. I don't particularly remember seeing a burger on the menu, but there was a lamb burger that was listed under their Specials on the blackboard. That alone was good enough to pique my interest as lamb burgers aren't exactly something that many people are doing. Happenstance decided that I would have my burger after all.


I found this place to be quite likeable. For one, the interior is fairly cosy and armed with a crew of polite staff that apart from being a friendly bunch, actually knows enough of the menu to answer some of the questions on things I didn't quite fathom of what they where offering. Also, the small space and effective waiting staff also reminded of Wine Garage along with the bottles of wines that line the wall and the brunch menu that they had. I had also decided on a cheese board on both of these places. Speaking of cheeses, the portions here are more generous and unexpectedly more foreign for my palate. This will probably be my first and hopefully last lesson and encounter with Iron Gate. Lol.


The selection of the day featured a few cheeses which I've never heard of nor tried before so feeling adventurous, we picked five of the stronger sounding options out of six, leaving out the Brie. The platter of cheese arrive with dried apricots, some fresh and firm black seedless grapes, some walnuts, rice or wheat crackers and two items which I still wasn't too sure of. One of them would be the Rutherford & Meyer quince paste which I am assuming to be the reddish jelly-like cube and the other is the Kato roasted peach chutney which rests in the other small bowl. The confusion pretty much arises from the fact that the paste didn't quite look like a paste to me but a sweet and very fruity tasting jelly and that what I thought to be the peach chutney tasted fairly of ginger. On the whole, the cheeses were quite enjoyable apart from the Te Mata Iron Gate which is the one with shrivelled looking sides just beside the walnuts. The pungence of ammonia could almost be described as out of this world and I had thought myself to be fairly capable of meeting almost any challenge of the fromage kind. One rather noteable mention comes in the form of the Awa Blue which was quite different from other blue cheeses which I've had. This one is infused with a spicy and heady aroma of an almost ethereal quality that swirls up from the tongue into the nasal area and I was more than a little surprised at spicy blue cheese. I'm pretty sure I'll be remembering this one.


I have mostly praises for this lamb burger which is one of the better burgers that I've had around. The texture and make up of the heavyweight patty is uncannily similar to the Ultimate Beef Burger from Marmalade Pantry with two main differences. This is lamb and the taste of the marinate and herbs is definitely Middle Eastern in style which makes it really a rather unique beast in the form of a regular looking burger. Topped onto the juicy lamb patty is a cucumber relish which adds a lighter dimension to the noticeable lamb flavor. The meat is enclosed in a buttered and toasted bun that is packed with sesame seeds and the result turns out to be expectedly, fragant. The fries on the side with a nice salty seasoning are also not overfried which is something I generally tend to pick on for crinkle cuts. This is definitely something I wouldn't mind returning for again.


The turkey and cranberry pie was something also on the Specials list and pies are usually something that I wouldn't order unless it is recommended. Generally most of them are just stuffings of root vegetables soaked in a unidentifiable, yet generic starchy gravy which I find quite unappealing unless I'm at the point where hunger supersedes reason. From memory, the exceptions are the chicken pies from M Hotel (a great chunky chicken filled potato-less pie here!!) and Don's Pies. Here we get a pretty decent pie filled with chunky pieces of turkey and some carrots without potatoes and swimming in a hot and light creamy sauce accented with a noticeable cranberry flavor which really keeps the taste buds on the go. It seems that the pies on the specials list are changed daily and having to wait 20 minutes for them probably meant that they are made as you order. Despite my fairly favorable reaction to this, I thought it was quite pricey for a pie.


The green apple sorbet didn't come as clean as I was hoping them to be as these are the sticky ones which despite the lack of cream, didn't taste as refreshing and was a tad sweet for my taste.

I'm fairly sure I'll be back again someday for more of the menu.

Sun Moulin (350 Orchard Road, Isetan Scotts Basement, Shaw House S238868, tel:67341915) makes these rather cute looking and tasty deep dish egg tarts ($1.80 e.a.) which are a little different from the regular egg tarts that are sold elsewhere locally. For one, they are deep dished which makes them taller. The actual tart which holds the egg custard are cake-like and crumbly in comparison to a pastry shell which is more common. I'm guessing that the main reasons for that is that these tarts would be more appropriate for holding the extra volume of egg custard which the standard pastry shells probably cannot because of the increased weight. The fillings do not taste as eggy in comparison to the Portugese renditions or from the ones in Chinatown. But I thought that these are really quite enjoyable. Do remember to remove the little plastic sheets on top of the fillings before you take your big bite.

This place does not serve warm water. This place does not serve iced water. This place also does not serve bread before dinner. One of the service staff doesn't like the Italian beer in this restaurant that he recommended me against it for Tiger instead. The price of beer is not on the menu so if you need to know, it's $14.50 for that Tiger. And apparently, the waiters open up bottled water so quickly, you do not even have the time to mouth the words 'Panna' or 'Pelligrino' before they choose it for you. Now that I've gotten those out of the way, I must say that I'm quite disappointed with the recently opened outlet of Trattoria Lafiandra (71 Bras Basah Road, #01-02 Singapore Art Museum,tel:68844035) down at the Art Museum. Personal preferences aside (I personally think the pastas are pretty uninteresting), the food wasn't something I could get into simply because it was unexceptional. I hadn't the intentions to order pizza for dinner, but ended up eating mostly that because nothing else looked particularly appealing to me.

The starter of the buffalo mozzarella and parma ham ($25) was decent but otherwise, not really much to speak of. I personally felt that I've had it better down at Stiff Chilli which uses rockets instead of a few token pieces of lettuce which hides underneath the cheese. The general feel of the pizzas is that the toppings needs a lot of work. The word that comes to mind is threadbare. The pizza con porcini here had so little porcinis on the top, I was thinking that a slice of something similar and in smaller proportions from Da Paolo Gastronomia contains more mushrooms. I shit you not. The diavola was quite ordinary featuring salami and was mildly spicey, prosciutto e fungi ordinary too with again - pathetic portions of ham and I couldn't really get into the appeal of the prosciutto crudo which was recommended. I had the feeling that everyone was expecting to see some rucola on top of that too, which wasn't the case. Despite the fact that all of the pizzas featured the regular thin crust, they were pretty tough to cut (some were not portioned and some were which makes me wonder why) and not so crispy to boot.






There was some sharing going around dinner and I managed to get some of what the others were having. The ossobuco at this place was an odd curiosity, appearing like a stumpy phallic tower of undulating sedimentary build up of something that looked like chai por (Chinese pickled radish). The meat was very tender. Very. At certain points, I wasn't sure if I was chewing on the meat or the mash on top of it and this one definitely didn't have the marrow which I was hoping for. The saffron risotto turned out fine and did come with the saffron flavor which puts the rice here up above Prego which was mostly cheesy.

The recommended seafood soup turned out to be quite unpleasant to the palate. Honestly, I'm not trying at all to pick on the food, but the smell was weird and rather off putting. It arrived with a fairly generous portion of seafood which includes clams, mussels, squid and prawn and the taste spoke rather boldly of unfresh ingredients. One seafood soup and eight people at the table, it was left mostly unfinished. I think you get the point.


This salad looking thing covered in rocket is actually a sliced ribeye steak and is probably the most tasteless ribeye I've ever tasted. In fact, it might have been a very bland cut of tenderloin since the meat was rather soft, but I wouldn't know better since I only had a bite and the menu did say ribeye. If anyone should consider their iced lemon tea in Lafiandra for $3.50, consider yourselves informed of what you are getting. This one's for you Pet, if you're reading.

Having been in operation for some time down in Princep and also the capability to be in the business in the Art Museum, I had certainly thought better of Trattoria Lafiandra. I'm pretty sure I can take this out of my list now since I'm never returning after this dinner.

Here's a mentaiko spaghetti that's comes tossed with bits of onions, mushrooms and prawn and topped with shredded dried seaweed from Ma Maison (#03-96 Central, 6 Eu Tong Seng Street, tel: 6327-8122). What I like about it is that it's relatively uncomplicated and yet tasty from the blended flavors of the spicy roe and seaweed. There's also the fact that these Japanese styled western places like Pasta De Waraku are quite capable of doing a proper al dente pasta, which is something that cannot be said for some other places. I must admit that I would be very intrigued if they were to bring the spiciness level of this up a couple of notches, but I suppose I could always try something like that some day back at home. If anyone has any good mentaiko pasta to recommend, please do let me know.

This is fried camembert cheese which turned out to be pretty unexpected from the unassuming light crispy batter and gooey soft insides. I definitely liked it much better than I had thought. The sauce that accompanies these cheese fritters are actually lemon honey with a sprinkle of coarse grain pepper. I thought that it works with the cheese on some level but on the other hand, I could just eat them fritters just by themselves.

The beef stroganoff here is something I'll place up in the list of top comfort food to go for if you're craving for some carbs and warm ones at that in the stomach. The scrambled eggs over the buttered rice really does the trick at that. Note that the bits of beef in the stew comes quite well cooked and I'm not sure if this place does accommodate requests of having them in lesser doneness than what they usually do. Also, being no experts in stroganoffs here, I'm not sure if it's anything close to original Russian versions. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's another Japanese interpretation of the dish.

This place at Central (The Central, #03-85 /102/108/109, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, S059817, tel:65348066) seems to sell itself as a place of contemporary Japanese fine dining. I would definitely agree with the contemporary assessment, but it's really nothing about fine dining unless fine refers to the minute portions that is served. The minimalist decor of the interior from the plush red entrance leads into two separate dining areas which are done in black and white. The visual style element makes a noticeable impact and a positive side to this place is the attentive service from the friendly waiting staff. I didn't think quite so well of the food, especially when these guys are pretty expensive.


I must admit that a number of the items from the menu do sound appealing on the side of contemporary creativity with Japanese food, which was what prompted me to walk in. The actual delivery however, didn't leave a similar impression.


I decided on this mame soup because it was described to be a creamy soup made from edamame and I thought that it might be something akin to chilled green pea soups that has been done elsewhere. The actual soup as you can see isn't quite like what I had in mind and apart from being cloudy green, I wouldn't attribute the word cream to the taste. At all. It tasted more like a shio broth with only a slight hint of edamame and this is something that you can actually finish in 2-3 big mouthfuls. The photo probably doesn't show that, but the bowl is actually thick and quite shallow.


As intriguing as it appeared on the menu, the uni avocado tempura didn't quite do it for me. Granted, it was sea urchin and avocado encased in a very light batter and lightly fried as well, the dish arrived lukewarm and the both the uni and avocado actually turned up pretty dry. The green powder on the side as informed by the server was green tea salt. I couldn't really taste any of it. The tempura came in 3 bite size pieces and there's probably enough uni to make one good uni sushi in there.


This squid tempura filled with egg was probably the best thing that was served. The server had said that they eggs are half boiled so I was thinking that they would be still somewhat runny, but the yokes as can be seen are actually almost solid. Despite that, these are actually quite tasty, if pricey.



The foie gras brown rice is actually pretty tasty, but for $22, I would pick on the foie gras being thin and in small pieces. And what's more, they're overcooked so it didn't come like the usual ones with creamy insides that dissolve in your mouth. The brown rice is actually pretty fragrant and the a bowl of brown sauce which I couldn't identify was poured into the stone bowl of rice before it is tossed and ready to eat. The portion is enough to fill up two small bowls which makes it ideal for a single hungry person.

There's no doubt that effort has been put into the dishes in Sho-U and that the quality of the dishes are far from mediocre, but for the prices and pathetic portions, I rather positive that I will not be returning. I didn't even feel like dessert after the insubstantial food.

It seemed that my last dinner for the year of 2007 came in the form of a North Alantic Cod fish and chips down at Fisherman's Wharf just across the road from Central (27 New Bridge Road, S59391, tel:6532-6468). It was quite some time ago since the last time I have visited this place and things doesn't seem to have changed much apart from having a wider selection of fishes to be had. Now I do not really remember the last time or if I've had battered and fried cod, but the meat turned out a little dry. It was still enjoyable though and apart from a couple of places like Molly Malone's and maybe Fish and Co, I generally do not think much of most of fish and chips. Half the fish and chips sold anywhere in this country have eliminated themselves off my list of food to be eaten simply by being breaded. I don't know which came first but it's just a preference of mine to have them in batter. The remaining majority have really unpleasant thick or overfried batter and the freshness of the fish is mostly, questionable.

Having tried the Halibut and the snow fish, the reasonable conclusion for the night is that apart from textural differences, shape of the cuts and the use of pepper, I'm really not good at telling most of the fried fishes apart from each other at this place. And something unexpected came in the form of the mashed peas which was surprisingly, very dry, nutty and enjoyable.