Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

I don't really remember how I came to learn of this inconspicuous place (New 7th Storey Hotel, 228/229 Rochor Road, S188451) down in the vicinity of Bugis, but I'm guessing that I must have read it off somewhere that there's chicken rice to be had at the restaurant and that it was suppose to be good or at least better than the usual. I recall having had a disappointing steamboat at the back of the building once a long time back, but little did I realise that there was actually a restaurant apart from the backyard. Does anyone know why is there the mention of Honjin on the paper sheaths on their chopsticks here?

There is only the steamed variety of chicken to be had as well as a bunch of other dishes that can be ordered from the menu. We got a small portion of the chicken, sambal kangkong and marmite pork ribs, along with the chicken rice.


The chicken that is served here in honesty, isn't really special compared to other stalls which I've had. Sure the dense flesh was tender, slightly chilled and had a nice thin skin that didn't contain excessive fats. It was in the end something that I probably will not return for in favor of other stalls that I've had. Quite a few of which I think are equally tasty, if not better. The steaming hot rice was more heavily accented in ginger than garlic which isn't exactly something that I'm fond of. The same is said for the chilli which was just moderately spicy, but just a tad too much ginger for me to really get into. The sambal kangkong came freshly crunchy and is otherwise quite unremarkable. I had expected the marmite chicken to taste of marmite, but it was just some sweetish pork ribs and was definitely far from the best of these stir fried pork ribs which I've eaten, flavoring aside. I guess this is one place I won't be re-visiting anytime soon if ever.

Eclectic would be the very word to describe the setting of this little restaurant (971 Upper Changi North Road, Changi Garden, tel : 65453108) with a somewhat bohemian charm, located at a rather remote spot beside a coffeeshop just across the road from Changi Prison. Homely would probably be the the best word to describe the food served. The dishes as I was served was in summary, tasty and as unostentatious they can come. If you're looking for Italian food with minimal to no frills involved, Porta Porta would probably be a very good bet.


I wasn't sure what was good from the menu at this place, so we opted for what was describe as the "faite" set at $48 which consisted of what the chef could bring out from the kitchen for the day. The set which looked like a sampler of various dishes consisted of a four course of which the first was starters and and soup, followed by a tasting of two pastas. The third course would be the meats along with calamari and prawns and then two desserts. The variety that this set offer looked pretty astounding as the dishes were brought out from the kitchen in quick order.



Apart from the bread basket that featured a hard, olive oil flavored and dense crusty loaf; there was a wooden platter of marinated vegetable anitpasto; caprese with some smoked cheese instead of the usual mozzarella; some cold unexciting pizza; marinated eggplant; freshly toasted bruchetta; deep fried risotto balls with cheese centers; some fresh tasting plump mussels cooked in a spicy tomato and garlic broth and a rich savory fish bisque.

I hardly know how to begin with this list, but the soup and mussels which arrived steaming stood out pretty well in terms of flavor. The shellfish on the first serving had a weird smell so we requested for a change. A new bowl of freshly cooked mussels was brought back and was soft yet firm with bite. The densely flavored brown bisque has got to be one of the better fish soups I've ever tasted. I didn't even mind the mild coriander taste in it.



So here we have a pesto ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach and a very tasty tagliatelle with prawn cream sauce. Both pastas were decently al dente though I would say that they probably weren't the best I've had for doneness. The savory prawn cream sauce turned out very rich in taste and again, was good that I didn't mind the coriander flavor in them. It's something I'll be looking forward to if I ever return to Porta.



The meats was for me, the least interesting unfortunately. We get a braised beef (no beefiness) that was sweet with the onions it was cooked with and a stringy piece of chicken in some cream sauce akin to carbonara. That's really all there is to them.

The calamari was however something I felt worth mentioning. The batter on the squids were so tissue paper thin that they almost weren't there. It was like a light dusting of batter all over and the squids which too arrived piping hot definitely tasted fresh. Despite appearances, the prawns were also in the same league of freshness. They were unseasoned and came like the steamed variety from Chinese restaurants with sweetness in the crunchy flesh. The shells were a tad difficult to remove though as they were a slightly stuck to the meat.



Dessert come in the form of a regular lemon sorbet and a rather good rendition of tiramisu. With the myriads of standards in tiramisus these days, I generally take them expecting the worse. This one served in a chinese tea cup turned out very robust in the expresso and atop, very light and well beaten mascapone cream.

On the whole, I thought that the seafood scored better than the meats. The bill includes just a service charge, no GST. I'm thinking that this place is definitely worth re-visiting and I'll probably head for the one at Stanley Street the next time to see what's up in that outlet.

There are probably a couple of kinds of mixed feelings that I get about visiting an eating place as an after impression. Sometimes, I leave without really knowing what's my final verdict on it and usually, it gets ignored and forgotten. Sometimes, I am clear about exactly what goes into the mix of that feeling. Mango Tree (Marine Cove B23, 1000 East Coast Parkway, S449876, tel : 64428655) is one such place and I've decided that even though I enjoyed some of the food and appreciated the genteel service of the restaurant to some extents, the chances of revisiting would probably be minimal. I have to disclaim that apart from the initial impressions of the dishes which consisted of both hits and misses, the location and cost of eating here is also taken into consideration.

I came to know about this place by the way of a heads up from Camemberu, whom has mentioned about this place which also serves coastal Indian cuisine from Goa and Kerala. I thought that it would probably be a good opportunity to check out what the seafood was about since I had missed the chance back in Spice Junction.





I'm taking a shot in the dark here by saying this, but I am presuming that the murg makhani (or butter chicken) was less creamy because this is essentially a southern Indian place or at least serves food done in their style. The thick gravy held a sharper tang since it wasn't masked by so much cream, but I think I generally enjoy the northern versions better. The green mango curry was something we decided to try out of the spirit of adventure and turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. The taste of the curry was generally quite mild and tangy with a hint of mango citrus while preserving it's creamy texture. There were pieces of the fruit in the curry which turned out soft (not mushy) like boiled potatoes. The whole dish was generally enjoyable since it was appetizing.

I thought that the green mango garlic prawns looked like a Chinese dish. The initial impression upon serving was disappointment. These prawns aren't large for tiger prawns and didn't look too vibrant. Fortunately, the taste was pretty awesome. Belying the dull steamed prawn look was flesh that was surprisingly firm and crunchy in texture soaked in a buttery sauce loaded with minced garlic. For $27, it was certainly quite pricey considering that it was just three prawns that were quite small in size.

The naans here are good because they were really light and fluffy. I really do mean freshly made, light and fluffy here. In fact it was so light and fluffy that we had to order a portion of basmati rice (pretty costly at $3.80 and didn't exude much fragrance) after two naans. The downside to these breads were the purported flavors. Apart from tasting slightly sweetish, the mango naan didn't taste like it had mango. At all. And I ate the most of it without any gravy so I'm quite positive of the taste. Likewise, the cheese naan didn't taste like it had any cheese baked into them. At all. This was seriously a bummer. The restaurant was kind enough to offer replacements, but we didn't pursue that since they were insistent that it did contain cheese.

I hadn't been in this area for so long that I had forgotten that restaurants here could be pricier like it is in town. I had ordered a glass of lassi without looking from the menu and it turned out to be a little smaller than the usual I've had before and it set my wallet back 7 bucks for it.

This is pretty interesting as Herbs & Spices (207 Upper Thomson Road, Yew Lian Park, tel: 6252 9038), which is just a unit down from Miss Clarity at Upper Thomson is the first Euradian restaurant I've come across. Euradian as one of the owners explained, refers to the blend of European and Indian. One of the chefs in the kitchen apparently has experience in doing Italian food. So right in this unit, you get a pretty good selection of Indian and Italian food. The options for both cuisines put together was quite overwhelming. As a matter of fact, the selection of Italian food alone, in this place outdoes quite a few other Italian restaurants which I've been. I went for some safe bets of the common items which I thought I liked in Indian food, cliche it may be. It's the usual palek paneer, butter chicken, butter and kashmiri naan, lassi, buttermilk (ice blended??) and along the way of orders tried the deep fried fish roe, chicken pakora (I hope I got this right), gobi manchurian and *drumroll* mushroom risotto with goat cheese.


The palek paneer here is quite enjoyable. The spinach puree wasn't flat in taste as I thought it might have been. Which is a good thing. My only gripe here is that the cottage cheese portions here could do with a bit more generosity.


The butter chicken here was quite like the one down at Jaggi's, meaning that it was rich and creamy while lacking the edges of spiciness as compared to the ones that are served elsewhere. I found this to be quite enjoyable, especially with the fact that they were served piping hot and the combination of the gravy with naan or rice is almost peerless comfort satisfaction for the stomach. Almost.


Fried fish eggs. Who doesn't like these? Freshly fried and still retentive of a bit of the juices, I really don't need to say much more about them.


I must say that these fried pieces of chicken with herb and batter are quite tasty and would probably make very good beer snacks. The first time I've had these here, they came in much smaller minced portions. This time round, they were larger chunks and much more tender.


The gobi manchurian turned out to be visually, different from what I thought it might have looked like since I've just tried them out at Spice Junction quite recently. The ones here appeared like a sweet and sour cauliflower dish, tasted spicy to some extents, but didn't match the ones down at the former location.


To be honest, I had expected more out of the risotto. There were certainly no complains about the generosity of the mushrooms in the rice, but the flavor wasn't as fragrant or pervasive on the tongue as I had hoped it could be. Maybe it lacks a bit of porcini? Certainly, I've had much better for risottos and the goat cheese barely registered in taste. The restaurant had mentioned that it had been adjusted to a mild level since not everyone is agreeable to the pungent taste, but I thought it could have done with more of that which would have made it something to remember. The quality of the risotto is apparently not of the enjoyable that I've had, but certainly it was at least on par with the ones that I've tried at Miss Clarity, which is to say that it's still decent. There's definitely room for improvement.

I think on the overall, I quite like this place and the proximity is somewhat of a bonus now that I know that there is an alternative to Race Course Road for me. The cost for this meal at $66 for 5 persons seems very reasonable to me for the tasty food, especially considering the fact that the risotto was already $24. I'm actually looking forward to going back to try more of their stuff someday.

I've actually not much tasting experience with pho bo with the exception of a store down in some old blocks at Novena which I cannot recall the name and Va Va Vroom down at Seah Street which serves a rendition that is full of green herbs that drowned out the beef flavor of the soup. I really didn't enjoy that one. What I've heard from someone who's had them in Vietnam is that the broth was more oily and served very hot so as to help soften or blanch the vegetables and herbs that are served alongside to be added into the soup. Pho24 (215M Upper Thomson Road, tel:6451-6811) which is a fairly new establishment does a pretty tasty soup beef rice noodle. Now I'm not able to comment on the authenticity of the cooking, but it does taste pretty good to me and the broth is actually beefy to taste from the Pho24 Combo which I tried. The combo is essentially just the regular beef noodle with the assortment of innards like brisket, tripe and tendon added, apart from the regular sliced beef fillet or flank. Added with sliced chilli and onions, it turned out to be quite satisfying. Though I must add that the lime which was provided came in really stingy portions. I question the thinking behind a restaurant that actually hails from Vietnam and is successful enough to open two outlets, one in Upper Thomson and the other in Millenia Walk to sting on limes. At $12.90, it's definitely not cheap considering that the ingredients are far from being exotic, but it was enjoyable.

I've always wondered at the advertising slogan of 'Eat Fresh' at Subway. What do the two words really mean and what are the layers of meaning behind the the thoughts of the people who came out with that tagline and the ones also, who approved it for the marketing of the brand. Does it just mean that it's just freshly made? If so, many fast food places could "Eat Fresh" themselves too. The ingredients are are anything but fresh. This 6 inch, double meat-ed cold cut trio is just basically ham which is essentially salted and preserved meat. What's so fresh about ham? The roast beef on the counter would probably appear fresh to a blind man. Cheese options isn't exactly top notch for even sandwiches. The vegetables aren't too bad, but I really don't know about having to label them as fresh. Sure their sandwiches are probably healthier than the whole slew of other fast food joints, but a double meat-ed sandwich comes reaching for your pockets at least around the region of $7, which isn't exactly cheap for food like this. Anything without double meat is simply sandwich fillings travesty because the default fillings are just pathetic in portions. With the cookies and chips and sugar laden drinks, I suppose "Eat Healthy" is not an option for advertisement. Still they are tasty enough with the bread options that I would have them once in a while.

Eat fresh everyone!

I've had some cravings for Indian food these couple of weeks. After the recent trips to Race Course Road, the options available at Muthu's Curry (#B1-056, Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel: 68357707) doesn't look as attractive as before. Despite some comments I've heard about this restaurant being commercialized, I still think that the food here is really not too far off from what cooking down in Little India. Am I wrong about that? I think I found myself enjoying both the spicier butter chicken here and the subdued and creamier version down at Jaggi's. The marsala prawns slathered in the thick spicy and nutty gravy are still crunchy, though they appear to be a little smaller than I remember them. I had the navratan korma for the first time and it 's a mixed vegetable dish in a cashew and cream gravy. While the gravy was pretty decent, I couldn't taste any elements of cashew or even nuttiness in the flavor and I thought that the scent of the cloves was rather strong. And now, I too recognize that the lassi over at Delhi Restaurant and Spice Junction are way better than the ones served here.

Considering the cost at this place, I think the restaurants down at Race Course Road or anywhere else in Little India presents a more interesting and favorable options.

Both these Kyoho grape and the apple flavors in the chocolate wafers were very superficial and definitely pales in fruity flavored comparison with the rock melon rendition. I was thinking that since these are Japanese, they might actually be good. Apparently, not everything Japanese tastes fabulous. Ahem!

I've noticed that the prawns in the Fish & Co here (290 Orchard Rd, #B1-35/36 Paragon, S238859, tel: 6733 0938) are meatier and the seafood platter for two comes with scallops instead of mussels. The portions have fortunately remained as large as I remember them to be and most of the time, I find it quite difficult to want to order anything else than this. The wok is laden with the usual suspects of the grilled prawns, very generous portions of salty peppered grilled squid, four scallops, a very forgettable fish fillet, the delicious orange raisin rice and fries. All good to go into the gut with the sourish spicy chilli and dragon breath inducing chopped garlic. However, prices seem to have gone up from what I recall last by about $7 or so. I'm not sure if it's just this particular outlet or has it gone up across the board for all the other outlets as well.


Another regular item on their menu which I've only started ordering quite recently are the mussels in garlic butter. More than a half dozen mussels swimming in a garlicky butter broth which makes good dips for bread. Yep, even the uninteresting foccacia at this place become tasty after a couple of dunks in that creamy and heart clogging broth which happens to be excellent when slathered over the rice in the seafood platter too. It's been around for ages and I've only started realizing them last year.

I've been contemplating this restaurant (100 Orchard Road, #03-25 Lobby Level, Le Meridien, tel:6732 2911) for a while now wondering about how much it might cost to eat here since this place is associated with the now defunct Akane, which is something of a bastion of authentic and quality Japanese cuisine. That translates into expensive. Fortunately, lunch is still a viable option. While one cannot reasonably expect to eat a low cost here, there is still an element of value for money as the restaurant does appear fairly affordable if you pick certain correct options.


The food here is pretty good (fresh) and there isn't much in the room for complains at all. So I guess what I have is comparisons between other places that do offer similar fares and the conclusion is, it's quite the same if one were to give and take the availability and absences of each. Chiraishi ($35 with chawanmushi) here looks visually slightly less impressive than say Sushi Yoshida, Botan or the mazechiraishi from Aoki, but the taste is by no means inferior. Let's just say that frills are minimal, but the quality remains unquestioned.


The order of otoro ($24 for 2) and uni ($20 for 2) came out exquisite as I had anticipated and I must say that they were very enjoyable. The well marbled otoro had arrived with the requisite smooth fattiness and I thought that it was almost buttery to taste as the tuna belly fell apart in the mouth. The uni was very well chilled and creamy and is definitely one of the better ones I've had. I'd eat loads of them if they weren't so costly.


Here's the straight forward chiraishi set with the sashimi served in a separate container. The sashimi box includes sake, maguro, chutoro, ama ebi, some white hued fish which I couldn't identify and something which appears to be a cross section of a thick sliced squid tentacle. On the main box with the rice are some boiled vegetables (root and green), tamago, ikura, shredded egg, nora and the sweet pink fish floss which I rather like. Like I mentioned about having no frills, the chiraishi is seemingly just the essence, compared to Botan which features also ebiko and sesame seeds over the rice. Ultimately that turned out to be more tasty, but I'm not complaining about this. The steaming chawanmushi comes with a single fat shrimp and a chunk of chicken. Miso soup is likewise, just a plain miso soup with the usual tofu cubes and seaweed. It would seem as they claim, that their focus is on the freshness of the ingredients, not embellishments. Accompanying fruit dish comes with a surprisingly, very fragrant and sweet slice of rock melon.

This restaurant (126 Race Course Road, S218585, tel:63417980) apparently serves cuisine from the coastal Indian states of Goa and Kerala. Which probably means that seafood is a specialty. Unfortunately, we had somehow overlooked all that seafood stuff and picked a bunch of other dishes like the coconut mutton fry, some mutton with tapioca dish which was a serious carbs overload, an interesting and pretty tasty stir fried cauliflower and spices dish called gobi manchurian. Of the three mentioned dishes, the coconut mutton fry and the gobi manchurian turned out pretty good with the former fried meat being surprisingly fragrant on the exterior and being quite spicy. The slivers of coconut turned out crunchy and quite tasteless though. These things gave me the prickly sensation up my scalp, so that says something about the level of spiciness. Topped onto the orders were a puttu, kashmiri naan (again!! this will be the last time) and of course, lassi. The attentive service that is rendered at the restaurant is excellent and very polite. Many others could learn a thing or four from them.


I think we ordered a little too much for two persons. The steaming hot puttu came in a size that looked like it could almost feed three persons and it was way too much fillers for a meal, considering that there was a large quantity of starchy tapioca and then, there was still naan. I think we might have gotten a little too greedy and overestimated here, but we'll learn from this (again!) the next time round. One of the specialties of the restaurant seem to be the Malabar briyani. That might be perhaps, for another time.

Lunch with fatpig. Finally got down to this place (6 Upper East Coast Road #01-01/02/03 S455220, tel:6442 3897) to try the fried pork knuckles which seems to be something that people around have been saying as good. Turns out that there was a bit of a disappointment on my part and it really wasn't really much of a big deal. The crispy crackling was decently fragrant and the size of the knuckle was certainly pretty big, but the meat was filled with a large amount of fats that at the end of it all, felt overwhelming. I much rather prefer the ones down at Brotzeit and Paulaners which were cleaner in taste, a bit more costly and also strangely, had better separation between the fat and the meat in the pork knuckle. I think this has given me a week's worth of cholesterol if not more. I'll be laying off these things for some time and definitely in no hurry to come back here if ever.

I found that this place Jaggi's, that is located at the fringe of Little India (34 Race Course Road, S218553, tel:6296-6141) which serves Punjabi/North Indian food to be pretty good. I meant that, I like what I had to the point where I'm quite sure I'll re-visit for the food. Prices here are affordable and frills are minimal. One orders at the food counter like a cafeteria and carries back to the table what they can and the rest (like naans which require some preparation time) will be brought to you when they are ready. The selection of food is pretty decent if not extensive.


Notable mentions for me were the butter chicken, which while was lacking in much of the edge of spices as compared to others which I've had before, was rich creamy and delectable. Filled with chunks of smoky tasting chicken it sure makes one want to consume them in copious amounts with rice. The kashmiri naan here was also rather unique. I've had them with a mixture of candied fruit and dried fruits, fully candy fruited and also wholly with dried fruits. This one here had finely minced candied fruit with cheese and I found myself really liking this rendition, authentic or not. The cheese naan which is served here is loaded with generous amounts of cheese in the naan which was quite different from the regular ones which generally just have them sprinkled over the top of the bread as it is baked. There is no charred cheese thus, in this version, but as I said, the portions of the cheese are pretty generous.

There was a pretty tasty curried mutton simmered with some unidentified greens, a mild and rather delicious lentil stew and some potato filled with cottage cheese which didn't turn out as I imagined it to be and in the end, thought little of. Lassi is of course one of the drinks that you can expect and I grabbed the mango flavored version which turned out to be much more of mango than the yoghurt flavor. Not to mention that it looked excessively yellow. The taste wasn't really what I had expected at all for the drink from previous experiences. Maybe I'll just go for the regular version the next time I'm here.

The total cost for this dinner for 2 came up to $33 which I thought was pretty good a deal.

I'm pretty disappointed with the chicken rice at this place (201 Upper Thomson Road, S574343, tel:6253 4502). Having passed by this area on various occasions, I've noted the crowd to be more than healthy and had assumed that the chicken rice in this place ought to be pretty tasty. Instead, what was delivered through the form of the half steamed chicken ($12) was reasonably tender breast meat and soggy everything else. There wasn't much in the flavor of the meat itself which was quite drowned in the soy/sesame sauce and there was quite a bit of fat scrapping which I had to do to eat this thing. With a soft and limp looking skin and what I thought to be excessive fat, the plate didn't look quite impressive in serving when it was reduced to just meat. Rice was just passable which didn't really make me want to go beyond the first plate and the chilli sauce while decent, tasted too much of ginger for me to really enjoy them. I've definitely had better, and easily at that. There was salad prawns on the menu which didn't look nor taste too impressive neither. I guess this can be one chicken rice stop that I can cross out for the future.

Repeated entries in this blog usually mean that there is something that I like about a particular place and that it is worth some effort getting another entry up and talking about the visit and importantly the food that I had there. Sage (11 Unity Street, #02 -12 Robertson Walk, S237995, tel:6333 8726) is one of the places which I've eaten in a couple of previous occasions and by far, the restaurant has always had something up their menu that has impressed me to a point whereby I can just say to myself, I'd like to come back. So I'm back here today also partially because, I said "I'd like to come back" the last time I came here for dinner.

That being said, I'd like to venture a little bit into consistency in a restaurant. That is something Anthony Bourdain has said to be an important trait (I personally feel it is under rated) that should be ironclad because that will be what customers return for. A remembered experience that they would like to re-live again through revisiting. Needless to say, we're not talking about the bad experiences unless one has fetish for such.

Being well liked (by me at least) doesn't spare a restaurant from the ever present challenge of providing consistency to the table. Service would be the least I figure, of the consistency issue since it's technical cost is nothing beyond effort and some orientation by the wait staff. Speaking of which, service at Sage is very pleasant and still teems with what I define as a human touch. The friendliness was never mechanical or cold. Culinary standards do have by far, a larger variable factor for which an experience of a restaurant is measured. These are affected by things like availability of ingredients, the skills of the cooks, discipline of the kitchen and numerous strings of chaos theory which sometimes cannot be foreseen. The food is also the one of the more memorable faces since it is essentially, the core of a restaurant's business. I'm quite glad that the variables here do not stray far.


Compounded with increasing expectations, subjective individual tastes and the rants on the web, the much of the sense from all the previous rationale above is lost. But I digress...

...on with the dinner and the poor pictures my phone cam can manage in subdued lightings.

The Appetizers


The parsley foam looked subdued and it makes me assume that the kitchen either took too long to take this out to the table or that the foam wasn't done the way it should have been on an ideal attempt. Otherwise, the risotto which was filled with bits of prawn, snails and noticeably, bits of parsley was quite the fragrant kick off for dinner. I remember the foie gras being creamier and of a more crispy shell than this time round. The char seal of the surface was done better than this time which felt more flakey. I rather enjoyed the accompliment of the apple puree to this apple mille-feuille and the former pistachio crust was also decidedly more fragrant. Still it was a pretty decent foie gras.

The Soups


I feel the compelling need to do some justice to the soups here by extolling the sublime virtues of their taste. Lol. First with the oxtail consomme, which was interesting pairing of the crystal clear savoury piquancy of the broth topped with it's foam and a sprinkle of fragrant pepper... with a rich sweet creaminess of the chestnut mousseline in a good way. The oxtail consomme reminded me in taste like chicken essense with it's thick flavor while the puree like chestnut was simply luxuriant and not overly sweet. The butternut veloute's piping hot and likewise, a cup of sweet richness in flavor as the oxtail consomme. I certainly can imagine myself coming here just for the soups.

The experience of the soups here cannot be recreated by words alone. One has to experience it.

The Mains


In honesty here, I was slightly disappointed with the mains. It doesn't have much in the way of complains and the doneness couldn't be faulted at all, but I thought it could have been better on the overall. The lamb could have tasted stronger and I've decided that sirloin isn't my cut. I'll take a tenderloin and ribeye anytime. Still there were winners in the form of the crispy salty Parmigiano Reggiano and the potato gratin topped with charred cheese.

I didn't think much of this place (Blk 25A , #01-01 Dempsey Road, tel:64750500) at all. I didn't leave the place after dinner with any fond memories and that's a good indicator that I'm not likely to come back. That's because, apart from being pricey, they really don't have much going for them except that they brew their own beer and are selling pints cheaper than almost everywhere else. Not that I'm very impressed after trying a couple of their brews. Being a fairly new establishment, they certainly have a long way to go before they're anywhere close to the likes of Paulaners or Brewerkz.

Marbled beef
Here's a puny bland tasting $29 piece of sirloin. I'm not too sure why this was called the marbled beef because it definitely wasn't well marbled. Hell, they didn't even get medium rare right and I can offhand and easily bring into count, cheaper and more satisfying alternatives to steaks which will beat this hands down. 1, 2, 3, 4.... I think you get the point of my opinion of this. The fancy presentation didn't make up for the quality of the meat nor the diluted cheese sauce they attempted to pass off as gorgonzola which they had drizzled over the top. There's definitely too much gloss for the too little substance in this. I consider this a waste of money.


RedDot beef and mushroom burger
This burger had a thick patty which is much smaller in diameter than the bread, which was not toasted. The menu describes it to be accompanied by healthy greens and yummy chips. The greens were so healthy that it came with not a drop of dressing. There wasn't any vinaigrette. Not even olive oil. Nada! In my mind, the word 'chips' had registered as chunks of cut and fried potatoes. I would think that Calbee BBQ flavored potato chips would be a more appropriate labeling for the chips rather than yummy chips because that's what they are and I didn't find anything yummy about them. This is a burger that lacks even the decency of having fries. While the patty was acceptably decent, it came a little too charred and didn't taste beefy enough. I'd gladly top up a couple of dollars more for something more satisfying.

Squid ink ice cream
Interesting as it sounds, this was just a chalky tasting vanilla ice-cream. The ice cream comes in the color of ash grey (not black as I had imagined) and I'm sure I've seen goma puddings/ice cream in more robust shades than this here. There wasn't anything in the flavor that was readily identifiable as squid ink. I do think it speaks volumes about the amount of actual squid ink that was mixed in to the ice cream and the fact that the looks nor taste didn't quite make the point that the name implied.

Banana Zabaglione
I was quite surprised that these sliced bananas came at room temperature. For a dessert, I was expecting them bananas to be hot, but then again, the menu never mentioned anything about them being grilled or baked. It comes topped with zabaglione (or sabayon, the egg, custard and marsala wine mix) some berries and basil ice cream which tasted like a vanilla ice cream (again!) mixed with powdered basil leaves. A bit of banana, some custard with marsala wine and a scoop of gimmicky ice cream for $15?

Al-Ameen Eating House (2, 3, 4 Cheong Chin Nam Road, tel: 64621996), located just across the road from Beauty World at Bukit Timah is probably a very recognizable landmark for food for many people here. I know it is for me since the time I was a student and till today, it's an attraction to people who live in the vicinity (or even those who stay farther) for dinner, supper and after drinking chow. Operating 24 hours a day also means that those fellas are dependently available for hunger (or oil and carbo) fixes no matter what time of the day. Prices are very affordable to everyone across a range of very recognizable local Indian and Thai Muslim favorites. All to be readily washed down by our favourite teh tariks or any of the variable sweet milk and caffeine drinks.

I've been curious about the bunch of conspicuously colored grilled meats at the front for quite a long time already and haven't had the opportunity to see what they're about. So chance brought me to the vicinity of this end of Bukit Timah and dinner it was here.



To be honest, I got a little greedy and ordered a tad too much food for two persons. There was a mixed kebab which features chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, reshmi kebab (grilled chicken again, marinated in yoghurt), hariyali kebab (those green looking, mint marinated grilled chicken). Accompanied by a small dish of mint and coriander dip which I didn't quite touch beyond an experimental dip just to check. Coriander isn't my friend. The chicken was lukewarm instead of hot which I would have preferred. Also, these colorful bunch of meats didn't quite taste as boldly as they looked with each variable marinate flavorful enough just to be identified and nothing more. There was also a tasty and spicy bee hoon goreng which I thought was really wonderful. Not many places make a good old spicy bee hoon or mee goreng these days. Fried till the noodles are dry, coupled with chilli and cabbage bits and ground mutton. Then, there was also a deliciously rich paneer butter marsala with cubes of tau kwa textured cottage cheese and some cheese naan to dip into the cholesterol laden gravy.


And as I said, all washed down with a nice milky mug of teh tarik.

There's a new western food place down at Ang Mo Kio (Blk 608, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5) run by an Australian guy where Botak Jones used to be and it seems to be a place for roasted chicken, chicken burgers, ribs, kebabs and salad. The place reminds me of the food at Nando's and Kenny Rogers, coffeeshop styled. The joint looks to be still at the early stages of getting used to the business with spotty service, wrong orders and a noticeable wait time for the food to arrive. I ordered a quarter Hawaiian chicken ($6.50) since this was basically as roast chicken joint and this was the first visit. For a dollar top up, you get to have Portugese chicken instead of the regular Charco's chicken. The main difference being that the Portugese chicken is spiced while the latter is plain. So that's a Hawaiian Portugese chicken?! The chicken, to it's Hawaiian namesake comes with two slices of pineapple fritters which were not too bad actually when you ate them hot. The chicken itself was a little dry on the meat and didn't taste like anything that was exceptional. It was just regular roasted chicken and the spices on the Portugese variants aren't much to speak about. What was noteable though was a sourish, smoky and spicy bbq sauce of sorts on the side that came with the dish. This sauce is so smoky in flavor, it tasted carcinogenic. Seriously, but it was pretty good as well.

Aside from being the name of the restaurant which serves Okinawan cuisine, Mimigar (1 Nanson Road, #01-08 Gallery Hotel, tel:6235 1511) also refers to pig's ears which happens to be one of the specialty of the restaurant. Okinawan cuisine as I have learnt lately appears to share similarity in style or influence to Chinese/Taiwanese food. There seems quite a bit of stir frying involved in the dishes. Pork apparently is widely used and considered to be an important ingredient. Interestingly, seafood seemed to be much less visible then in other Japanese restaurants. More interestingly, Okinawan cuisine also features a taco rice which is something that is identifiable as Mexican and also probably as most would guess what it might be. Tomato salsa, melted cheese and shredded lettuce over rice. The ones here comes in the regular variety and also a chef's special which includes curry.


The pleasant ambience of this place, along with it's location seems to suggest that the restaurant would be rather pricey, but that is apparently far from the case. That being said, the bill does add up since the portions here works pretty much like Chinese food and comes in small portioned dishes. Also not to neglect the mentioning of the fact that this place charges for their otoshi which consists of some simmered vegetable, pickled vegetables and a fried potato ball without any indication of so by the serving staff nor the menu. Considering that most of the dishes are priced less than the otoshi itself, I thought it was quite expensive at $10 per person.


The mimigar is something that would probably be of an acquired taste. The dish is essentially the skin from the pig's ears along with cartilage. So as you can imagine, the texture of the dish is both chewy and crunchy and thinking of pig's ears as you eat them probably doesn't really help you enjoy it much if you're having them for the first time like I am. Apart from the texture, there is very little to be said of the taste beyond the creamy peanut paste which coats the shredded pig ear skins. I would say that as interesting as it might be (it doesn't taste too bad), I'm probably in no hurry to order these again.


These umi budou are also known as sea grapes. I hadn't the faintest idea what sea grapes where until the lady chef explained that they looked and tasted like tobiko in texture, but was actually a sea based plant lifeform. As you can see from the picture, these pretty looking jade colored tiny globules that come in long bunches do appear very much like flying fish roe. The taste is however akin to a very, and I mean very, mild flavored seaweed. Texture wise, it comes across like roe with the same burst in your mouth effect. They were served with a dish of ponzu which really makes them very appetizing.


I'm quite impressed with the rafute which is basically very tender simmered pork belly. These are served hot with a sweetish sauce and fat that disintegrates in your mouth. The great thing about the pork belly is that it stayed soft even after the dish got cold and tasted still as good. I'll be sure to get more of these if I come back to this place.


The rayu-ae is actually an appetizer, the first of it's kind I've had and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot. There's cubes of maguro, cream cheese, shredded leek and all of that tossed in what is described on the menu as Ishigaki Island special chilli oil that is surprisingly very fragrant stuff. What impressed me about this dish is that the curry-like chilli oil blended really harmoniously in terms of flavor with the tuna and cream cheese, creating a very mouth watering effect.


These hirayahcis are some sort of Japanese pancakes. The curry and cheese flavor didn't quite turn out the way I imagined it to be as there was really little cheese in the pancake. The curry had the spice, but not the edge, but that wasn't something I wasn't prepared for in Japanese food. What I didn't expect was that the menu mentioned daikon which I could neither see or taste and a citrus based sauce which I suspect to be ponzu which also didn't arrive with the dish. Instead, there were bits of minced meat (I think it was beef) and the whole thing reminded me in a good way of murtabak. This was actually quite good and comforting to the point that I was happily downing the slices almost non-stop.


The pork innards soup is something that most of us here would be quite accustomed to in the Chinese form of the dish. The main difference of this nakam-jiru is that the taste of the soup is surprisingly, more strongly of mushroom than the other pork innards. I was tempted to ask for pepper for this one, but it's not because that it tasted bad. It's merely because this was pretty much like having the regular pork innards soup which I normally have with a healthy dose of pepper.


I was initially a little apprehensive of this dessert. The original intention was to try an Earl Grey cheesecake from the menu which wasn't available, so this was one of the other 2 or 3 options remaining which I had picked. The apprehension comes from the fact that green tea and macha based desserts are everywhere and the taste has become a diluted fad that everyone else is trying to replicate for the lack of originality on their part. Fortunately for Mimigar, this green tea mousse of theirs was retentive of the green tea fragrance instead of just the ubiquitous tea and sugar. I enjoyed this one.

On the overall, the food at Mimigar was quite unexpected in many ways, but also in pleasant manners. I like this place enough to think of returning to try more of their offerings some time in the future.

Dr Oekter has been providing me some moments of fun with making pizza since those frozen pizzas provide a pretty good base for anything else that one can do to them. What I found good about their crusts are that they aren't too thick and also not really thin like Italian pizzas. This means that we do not have to deal with excessive flour fillers and still have a base which is firm enough to heap a bunch of toppings without having to worry if the crust is able to hold the weight. I happened upon some sliced strawberries in Cold Storage going for $2 a pack. That pack contains enough cut strawberries to quite generously top 2 regular sized pizzas so I grabbed one with some shaven breakfast ham, scrounged my supply of shredded mozzarella and parmesan......and this was the result.

The good flavors to use are the mozzarella and the quad formaggi since they contain mostly only cheese which are essentially the backbone of pizza toppings apart from tomato sauces. This one is made from a mozzarella sprinkled with some of the above mentioned shredded cheese, carpeted with sliced breakfast ham and then laid over with the strawberries. Scatter more cheese over the top and it's ready to go into the over.

The lesson learnt from this time round is that, the strawberries lose their moisture by oozing out their juices, so it's a good idea to keep them closer to the centre or otherwise, they'll drip over the edges of the crust. They also function in a similar manner in taste like the Hawaiian variety, adding some sweetness and tangy flavor to the salty cheese and ham.