Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

The truth be told, this is one of those Japanese places (83 Circular Road, tel : 6438 0820) that I would normally avoid. But since a couple of other locations we were originally intended upon were packed to the brim and we had to get a quick dinner, having empty seats wins you customers sometimes. On hindsight, Shah Alam just across the road would have cost less and have been more satisfying. Lesson learnt.


I was initially wondering at the taco chahan which I've had my encounter with initially back in Mimigar as one of the identifying items of Okinawan cuisine in the strange hybrid of Japanese and Mexican styles. I ordered it despite a strong apprehension about what it would turn out to be and this would be one of those times when you feel like shooting yourself for not trusting your instincts. Lo and behold, ground beef fried rice at an amazing value of $8.50! I would have been a lot happier paying slightly more than double for twice the portions and a generous portion of crab meat. The strange salvation of the taco cha.......ground beef fried rice came in the from innocuous small bottle of fragrant and spicy La-Yu on the condiment tray which really upped the taste of the miserably portioned rice to lip smacking levels. Sometimes, the it's the small things that we overlook that make a difference. After all, the fate of Middle Earth once rested precariously upon the shoulders of a certain hobbit. I'll probably not return to this place, but I'll definitely stock up on that La-Yu.

The hotate mentaiko ($11.80) didn't really come across to me or anyone at dinner to be filled with mentaiko on the creamy top neither. And honestly, while palatable, I've had much better.

Dropped by at Eden Cafe for some sweets again, so that means more of the ostrich egg creme brulee and hibiscus cheese filo. But I'll not ramble on them anymore since I've already bored you once with them and here's a look at the balsamic mousse cake. Despite the nondescript appearances as a cake this is interestingly quite pleasant with an above subtle aroma of balsamic vinegar in the light creamy mousse that wells up in your tastebuds as you wedge it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. The chocolate sauce tasted like those from Hershey's squeeze bottles.

Clinging to the dawn of dusk(wtf! lol) at slightly past seven on a Thursday evening, this place (New Harbour Cafe & Bar, 114 Tanjong Pagar Rd, tel : 6226 2657) is brimming with people for drinks and dinner. I'm glad reservations were made. I first took note of this place some time back on a couple of occasions when I visited Chen Li Yuan and Buko Nero along the same row of shophouses at Duxton and realised that this wasn't the just the regular watering hole that serves merely un-nutritious and greasy bar snacks. They too have un-nutritious and greasy meals served. There's a full menu of food to be had and despite the grazing mention regarding nutrition, it's decent chow and a stop worth a second look for dinner and some booze along the way.

The edibles served here are a mixture of local western (read Hainanese originated western), bar food and with a bit of local-ish fare thrown into the mix. Hell there's even sashimi, though I admit to being extremely apprehensive at ordering those in a place like this. I generally do not walk into such an establishment looking for food that requires finesse to prepare. Ahem!




The food here is generally slightly saltish, greasy and makes you want to drink. I thought the crispy pork belly wasn't too bad. I had expected more generous portions and it really isn't that much despite appearances. It does come with a very crispy skin and wasn't ladened with too much blood curdling fats. I would definitely have appreciated a more generous helping of that apple sauce (probably jarred variety) which we had to request for extras as it was merely a small dollop for all that pork belly. The monster burger wasn't close to anywhere as impressive as the name might imply. It's basically one of the regular burgers topped with some ham, cheese, sliced sauteed mushrooms and an egg. There was definitely too much noticeable fillers for the patty which I didn't like. For the price of $18.50, one would definitely start to make comparisons at price points. In the leagues of extraordinary fillings, I'd pick the epicurious one instead. Squid is just acceptable. I definitely expected more char out of them being grilled instead of being limp, however the genuinely "kick in the face" spicy sambal paste and sweet sauce did help it noticeably. Seriously, watch out for the sambal.

Apparently, there is also the ring version from the same place!

...as uttered in good humored jest by the enterprising and loquacious Clement Ronald Ng, chef and owner of Eden Cafe (54 Club Street, S069431, tel : 6536 1181). It's been quite some time since I've last had his desserts which was back at Helio. Having made aware that he had made a batch of creme brulee with ostrich eggs, I decided to drop by for dinner with all the intentions to have a go at the delicious desserts that Clement crafts.



Food at Eden is unsophisticated. Most of the dishes here are of simple design and leans towards being light in flavor. Like the mushroom black pasta. In most cases, black pasta brings forth imageries of squid ink black. Down at this place, the pasta (fettucine) is made in house with toasted black sesame which results in an interestingly textured grey-ish noodle speckled with black bits. Despite the use of toasted black sesame, I found the taste to be quite bland. The pasta is tossed with some fresh sliced button mushrooms and flavored with merely some bits of olives, capers and some sparing sprinkle of powdered parmesan cheese. I honestly think that this dish would be bettered by the use of shaven parmesan. Being a beef kind of guy, I tend to be more discerning when it comes to the associated meat. The brown sauce beef which is of a ribeye cut was a decently medium rare done piece of beef, but definitely wasn't what I would look for in a steak. A marinated beef stew was likewise subdued in flavor, but it being piping hot turned out to be quite the trick for a rainy evening. There was an earl grey milk coffee which was subtly accented by the fragrance of the tea. I personally found the coffee a tad mellow. It's usually thick and milky, or just strong black for me. But let's get to the desserts instead. It's really what I came here for.


Clement has managed to obtain an ostrich egg and has used it to make a small batch of creme brulee. Previously the best that I've had was the one at Lawry's. But that was quite some time back and as I will again regurgitate, memory can be a fickle mistress. Lol. Well, this may just be my new favourite. Almost ethereally light and still creamily smooth, this creme brulee doesn't have as eggy a custard as the regular ones. And yes, the flavor of the custard is from vanilla beans, not artificial flavorings. The sweetness of the custard as explained is from corn extract. Oh, there is usually never added sugar for the desserts. It's all either natural sugars from the ingredients, or already available in them. So I guess in some strange irony, this would be the one naturally sweetened dessert with added sugar for the crispy glazed top.


Undoubtedly, another brilliant star of the night arrived in the form of the hibiscus cheese filo which Clement exclaims has put him up on his minutes of fame on a couple of occasion on television. Back in Helio, I devoured the predecessor which was a strawberry cheese filo. The dessert has apparently transcended from fruit to flower based and it's so good it puts a smile on your face. The fillings of the buttery tasting layered filo pastry are basically a mix of beaten mascarpone cheese and hibiscus. This is something that one has to eat to understand.


The molten chocolate cake here doesn't come hot. In fact it was barely lukewarm, but the cake comes in the form akin to the other molten chocolate cakes. It's soft and lava like. The chocolate wasn't excessively sweet as some which was a good thing for me. However the flavor could have been more robust. As with the previous rendition which was actually a white cake instead of a brown one, these are topped with rum marinated apricots.


These are yoghurt parfaits. I hope I got the name right and I don't remember seeing them on the menu. They tasted like the ice cream yoghurt filled with bits of blueberry and raisins and topped with a dollop of strawberry jam. There was another that had apricots in them which I thought was more agreeable to my palate and might make it's appearance somewhere in the west side in a month or so.

In honesty, how many times do you actually see me take on so much desserts at a go? It's usually not something that most of us are inclined to do from the overload of sugar. I'm hence reminded of how the late Macaron failed spectacularly at attempting to "degust" us all with a multi course dessert array which I had the foresight to augur its demise using mere logic from the not so common sense. One can only take so much sugar high before it no longer gives you that rush. So remember, no added sugar at Eden Cafe.

Just a quick note on the tasty beef kebab sandwich ($7.50) from Sultan Kebab (1 Sophia Road, #01-15 Peace Centre, tel : 6338 8750). The beef kebabs are often sold out pretty quickly and by a late lunchtime, most of that huge skewer is gone. Encased in a freshly toasted bread, this stuff can be great beefy comfort which is good for dispelling hunger. The prices seems to have risen by a little. I only wished that the portions were a bit larger since I still felt like eating after that.

Brought to us all by the same management that did the vegetarian place, Raj down at Syed Alwi (which I happened to have dinner at just the day before by the purest coincidence), Jade of India (172 Race Course Road, #01-01/05 Soho@Farrer, tel : 6341 7656) is the one of several "chindian" restaurants that have been making appearances in the recent years.









TBC

I had tried looking up this place sometime late last year when I visited Alaturka, and saw that the older premise at Kandahar Street had closed. Stuck upon the doors, was a crude paper sign which read that they have moved to somewhere in the east side. So I was actually taking a stroll down to Cafe Le Caire and was surprised to come across the current location for Samar (17 Bali Lane, tel : 6398 0530). Yours truly decided to give these guys a try instead and pend the former location for another time.


I don't know how long has the establishment been located at the current premise in Bali Lane, but the feeling I got was that they hadn't been here for too long. They seem to be out of several of the items on the menu and the place was quiet. Which made it a rather pleasant sanctum to hide from the bustle of being at the outskirts of the city area. In fact, the second storey of the restaurant was a rug strewn area with low coffee tables that one had to enter without footwear. Throw in a couple of shishar smoking customers around and the covered up windows, it did look like some sort of a Middle Eastern opium den. It was such a nice quiet seclusion that I lingered around for more than two hours, rooted to the peacefully atmospheric......albeit slightly musty smelling sanctuary.


The food in this place revolves around the usual styled grilled meats, Arabic flat breads, dips and various caffeine and milk based beverages. They were out of saffron and couscous for today which was a bummer for me. So we ended up having a serving of the hummus and a grilled meat platter which I had originally thought to be a large serving meant for two. It turned out that it's probably just good for one very hungry person. The hummus had more lemon juice than most and was otherwise quite the norm for these pureed chick pea dips, but it came with freshly hot bread which was pretty good. The pleasant surprise here was actually the lamb from the meat platter which was tender that when I tried to pick a rib up, the meat simply slide off the bone. There was also a small potato which seemed to be infused with spices before it got baked making the root a dull shade of orangy brown rather than the usual yellow. I'll be back for these lamb someday.

I'm quite taken in with their honey milk drinks. Since they were out of saffron, we grabbed the almond and rose flavors. The former is simply honey and milk blended with almond nuts. So you get a sweet milk which is lightly accented with almond flavor and many sediments for you to chew on at the bottom of the drink. I don't know how these guys do their rose milk, but it didn't look or taste much like bandungs. The milk was actually snow white and the rose flavor was definitely much more aromatic then the usual overly sweet and flatter tasting pink syrup.

Service was slow but very polite. These people apparently take their time to prepare the food, but it did feel worthwhile on the whole if you're not in a hurry to eat and leave.

Their ubiquity. Their abundance in food centres everywhere and more than a handful of them despite the common availability are actually pretty good. That however, doesn't quite distinguish many vendors from each other. I often think many comparisons are quite senseless by virtue of enormity of options. It should be simply just, good enough to come back for more...or not. But I guess sometimes things aren't so simple.

I came across Tuck Kee Roasted Meat (#08-17, Golden Mile Food Centre, 4679 Beach Road) store by chance of being in the vicinity. This combination of meats is a particular favourite of my brother and myself. So there's the roast duck, char siew and roast pork. Each of them to speak of on taste, would constitute a dissertation. I'll just settle for, it's not bad. I'd come back again. The distinguishing factor for this store comes from their interesting plum flavored gravy which adds an appetizing glaze in comparison to the regular brown ones. The tender char siew did taste a bit sweeter than I'm used to and there wasn't excessive fat under the skin of the roasted duck breast as well.

I was looking at the options for a very late breakfast and made an interesting find of a durian chee cheong fan (rice rolls) down at Beach Road in the Golden Mile Food Centre (#01-86). I've read about them sometime back in the past before and it was some store that was mentioned down in Geylang. The chee cheong fans from the store are all made as you order them, so there aren't any pre-fabricated ones lying dry in some heating mediums waiting to be bought. I thought this durian rendition was pretty good with a rather generous filling of durian puree. It wasn't the most fragrant of durian flesh that I've had, but it was decent. It would have been great if the ground peanuts had been more fragrant rather then tasting flat and lacking of any toasted aroma. On the other hand, the shrimp fillings of the second one which I've gotten weren't anything special at all.

This is some place that I probably wouldn't visit if not for a fact that a co-worker lives there. Lisboa (Blk 642 Bukit Batok Central, #01-150, tel: 6563 5423) is a bakery selling Portuguese-styled confectionery and naturally, egg tarts come to mind.

I picked this one up from Tampopo Deli (#B1-16, Liang Court Shopping Centre, 177 River Valley Road, tel : 6338 7386) thinking that it might just really taste of milk tea. I was wrong. The little container of milk turned out to be just as it is. A little container of milk. There wasn't any enchantment in them to magically unlock any hidden flavors in the pudding. Nada.

Funny thing how sometimes, the firsts are quickly succeeded by seconds and before you realise it, the third arrives and then it becomes what we term as a habit. It was just about a week back that I was mentioning about the rarity of myself doing breakfast and what do you know? I'm up for another one again. Since I'm actually enjoying this, I'll probably consider it again in the next weekend. By the way, that's a very expensive sandwich that you see up there. It actually cost me more than $20. If you haven't yet penetrated the disguise, it's the roast beef sandwich from Simply Bread with 2 sunny side ups, 2 strips of bacon and aged cheddar slices. Apart from the fact that I was overcharged by about $4.50 already for the sandwich before the add ons, the eggs actually cost $6! The best part of this is, Simply Bread simply doesn't have a contactable email address from their website and their staff are apparently unaware at all of any feedback avenue for the company.


The sandwich was verifiably, great. Why wouldn't it be considering that it gets stuffed with a generous portion of roast beef topped with eggs dripping with runny yolk/sliced cheddar/bacon and then, slathered across with whole grain mustard. I could barely open my jaw wide enough to take a large bite. I'm definitely hard pressed to find a better sandwich else where, but then again, I'll be hard pressed to find a more expensive sandwich elsewhere. The cost of it did leave a bitter aftertaste despite the enjoyable heartiness.

The sausage brunch platter which was a varietal of the ham steak version that I had previously was pretty good as well. I didn't expect these meaty sausages to be packed so taut in their snappy cases that the first couple of bites were literally bursting with juices. The style of the eggs on the side can be chosen and in the case of the choice of omelet, there is also the option for fillings as well, of which which I picked the mushroom. The filled rolls with bacon and scrambled eggs which they have over at the counter wasn't as good since it was pre-made on display for anyone to pick. It was already cool and orders were not heated before serving. But they did account for some of the visual appeal to customers in the queue.

Yes, I am back at this place again. I couldn't resist the noodles and I found myself seated just in front of the store, chowing down my lunch happily. I couldn't help but notice the stall next to Yu Xing(Blk 91, Whampoa Drive, #01-28 Whampoa Food Centre). The stall owner of Granny's Pancake seemed busy preparing peanut pancakes and pancakes with coconut and red bean filling. Although there was no queue, people are ordering 10 pancakes at a go. Business was brisk.

Eventually I found myself in front of the stall and ordering the pancakes. I like the corners of the pancakes because of the crispy thin sides. The peanut mixture contains finely ground peanuts and finer granules of sugar which made the pancake a delight to chew!

This pancake is the kind with thick skin with a generous serving of the peanut filling. As it was piping hot when I sank in my teeth to the thick skin of the pancake, you only need to chew it a couple of times before it slides in your throat and goes straight to the tummy.

How convenient to have both stalls that sells the kind of comfort food that I crave side by side. The kind that I like. Yummy...

Donut innards!

I like them. There are so many flavours out there these days that I have grown to appreciate these plain sugar donuts. What I like about this particular sugar donut stick from Gin Thye Cake Maker (Blk 152 Bukit Batok St 11, #01-264, S650152) is that it has an "old school" fried donut taste. The texture is not bread-like or too dense. Tastewise, the light sugar coating provides a crunchy crust, revealing a light and fluffy inside of the donut balls. I could finish 2 sticks of these and not feel guilty.

They have been around since I was young and now that donuts are being repackaged, all these marketing fluff has made them too commercialised making it difficult to find no frills sugar donuts. I would love to know if there are any other places still selling these kind of donuts which are not located too far in the west. Now, on to the second stick...

Nothing beats a good serving of minced meat noodles on a rainy afternoon. After a not so good lunch experience the previous time, I went back to the vicinity in search for better tasting food for my lunch. The reason why I chose this stall (Blk 91, Whampoa Drive, #01-29 Whampoa Food Centre) was because it was lunch time, crowds were forming everywhere else and because I wanted to have my noodles. They do serve other alternatives like fishball noodles, fish dumplings and laksa. The order of "Mee pok dry with chilli" came out like a chant. Lol. It was my usual order whenever I have noodles with the exception of prawn noodles.

Minced meat noodles

At $2.50 a bowl, this place serves a pretty good version as the mee pok was topped with loads of minced meat, pork slices, liver slices, fried wanton, 1 meatball (my favourite!), 1 fish ball, lots of mushrooms and no vinegar. I wonder why did they give only 1 meatball per bowl. The juicy mushrooms were thickly sliced. They were braised in a dark based sauce and were bursting with flavour with every bite. The meat and liver slices were on a slight chewy side.

Fishball noodles

This is the classic fishball noodles. Although this one has no vinegar added to it, it was just as tasty. There is no ketchup or oily chilli sauce base to these so you can easily finish the whole bowl without feeling jaded. The mee pok was not sticky, and has a crunchy and springy texture. Despite the fact that there was no queue, the food here tastes great, if not better than some other stalls. This is one of the better places that I have eaten for minced meat noodles. I wonder if their laksa tastes as good.

Voila! A magic mushroom house with fairies on the mushroom cap (roof). It was a friend's birthday and for this special occasion, her godfather ordered this cute looking cake (http://www.coffeebean.com.sg/coffeebean/) online. When the cake was delivered, it came in a huge box that looks like it could fit a microwave oven. Weighing at a hefty 3.2kg, it was the heaviest cake that I've carried in my entire life. Cutting the cake proved to be a challenge as it looked too pretty for the birthday gal to even slice it. In the end, it took 3 people to help cut the cake into odd sizes because they were trying to avoid the icing "fairies" on the mushroom cap.

It turned out to be a fruit cake on the inside. Not being a fan of dried fruits, I was literally picking on the raisins and jellies. Everyone was on a sugar high because of the icing layer.

I think I would prefer a normal & yummy looking cake for my birthday instead of a pretty looking one.

When I read about this place (Blk 91, Whampoa Drive, #01-26 Whampoa Food Centre) on the papers, I was thinking how can a simple dish of instant noodles manage to garner a growing popularity amongst those who bothers to wait. I had high hopes when I was queueing up because usually when the food tastes good, the queue will follow. After 5 minutes of queueing, I realised that no one at the stall are taking any orders. Someone actually cut my queue to shout out an order to the elderly lady tending the stall. I decided to do the same and went ahead with the order. They told me I had to wait for 30 minutes.

Like any tze char stall, this is the usual setting that one would find on their table. It reminds them that the food is coming anytime soon.

I don't usually drink during my meals. But after waiting for 40mins, I felt the need to drink. I was thirsty.

To my worst fear, they actually forgot my order! I only realised that when everyone around me had gotten their food. The friendly senior couple seated on the next table to mine actually reminded them to give me my food.

When it finally came after nearly an hour, it was just, simply put, instant noodles with dark soya sauce. Lucky for me to find prawn shells and a thick slice of pork in the whole plate of noodles. No charred taste as described in the papers. While it took me a long wait to get my noodles, I took a mere 5 minutes to chow down this simple dish of instant noodles.

I would definitely not be in any hurry to return for something that I can easily whip up at home.

My first impression of this place (391 Orchard Road,Takashimaya Level 2, S238872, tel: 6735 6833) was that of a "tai-tai" cafe. Images of well dressed middle aged ladies sipping tea and having their scones immediately came to mind. Tucked at a quiet corner of the ladies' handbag section, the tea lounge looked like a perfect place for my coffee fix as it was not too packed. With the welcoming cake display fronting the lounge, I was tempted to order more than I could finish.

Here we have the warm scones with the accompaniment of butter, jam and whipped cream. Apart from being warm and crumbly, the scones were just plain by itself. I'd prefer if the scones came with raisins or flavoured with cheese. Its a personal preference. Having said that, the pastry was pretty tasty when butter and jam were spreaded on them. I was hoping that clotted cream was used instead of the weak whipped cream.

The cake of the month, as I was informed, was banana cheesecake with white chocolate. The name was interesting enough to make me find out more. The cake was not as dense as I half expected it to be. The texture was rather light and airy with just a hint of cheese as most of the cake is artificially flavoured by banana essence. I cringed a little when I took the first bite. Only the white chocolate ball tasted decent.

Next up was the Royal Copahagen brew. I like my coffees to be strong and aromatic. Brews are usually not that strong but I will give thumbs up for this one as it because it was much thicker and stronger than expected. It is not the best but definitely one of the better ones that I have tasted so far.

It was an affordable and cosy place that would make me want to come back for more cakes and perhaps tea the next time.

I've been wanting to visit this place (33 Scotts Road, tel: 6836 0055) for a while already and it turned out to be quite the idyllic sanctuary for lunch on a Saturday. Located just at the fringes of the town area in an old bungalow, stepping into this place felt like a reprieve from the urban hubbub. The interior on this quiet Saturday bespoke tranquility which is really also brought onto emphasis by the new aged Middle Eastern/Indian ambient music piping gently in the background (think a less sophisticated Delerium!).


I haven't really heard very much about this place apart from some reviews and the ancient history of the former chef of Rang Mahal, Milind Sovani being the man to helm the kitchen of this place on the mission to showcase modern, yet heritage bound Indian cuisine in an elegant light. The chef was kind enough to accommodate a degustation for lunch even though it's normally available only for dinner. Service in the restaurant was polite and I'm quite glad that the service staff here actually knows about the food that the restaurant serves. I'll skip the rest of the gloss and go straight to the food...




This was certainly a differently interpreted foie gras from the usual grilled or pan fried rendition that I had expected. I didn't really expect them to be served in an Indian place but I guess since we're looking at a modern fine dining restaurant here, it's inclusion shouldn't be too much of a surprise. The entire foie gras tasted saltish like a pate and was very, very soft. In fact, I was wondering how it got onto the glass plate as I didn't think that anyone could have moved it without destroying the shape. The piece of liver was as soft as paste. There was the expected rich livery taste, but in terms of texture, I think I would have much preferred the commonly available pan fried variety with a crisp exterior. The accompanying warm salad was pretty good though.


The name of this soup caused me to chuckle inwardly initially. The name does sound pretty expensive, but the mushrooms themselves apparently have nothing to do with a similar sounding brand that is often associated with handbags. I'm having some difficulty describing the flavor of the soup here, but it was very good.


These Awadhi lamb kebabs are suppose to be a form of delicacy, but they didn't quite grow onto me. As kebabs, the portions were quite petite. The slightly crisp shell gave way to a lamb paste which I thought was too soft for my liking. It wasn't the grounded meat that I thought would have been more satisfying. The fragrant tandoor vegetables were certainly much more interesting, as was the bean salad on the side. I must comment that this place seems to do very tasty bean salads.


Unexpectedly, this sorbet with cumin was very good. I had initially thought that the taste would be strange to the tongue, but it turned out to be very refreshing as it was suppose to be. The added spice seemed to have created a new airy dimension to the sorbet. I think I should try doing this at home.


I had gathered that this was suppose to be a signature dish here from their a la carte menu which also indicated them at $55 for a portion. The lobster wasn't quite as juicy or sweet as one would normally expected of a fresh one. The baked meat was actually dry inside and noticeably so despite it being blanketed in the tasty Moily sauce which was thick with coconut flavor. These are the kind of sauces that make you want to eat a lot of naan or rice. Or to mask seafood should they be no so ideal in natural quality taste. But since this was the makeup of the dish, I don't think the intention was the latter. Otherwise, it was quite unimpressive and I found myself liking the stir fried edamame beans and asparagus more than the meat of the lobster. One very noteable item I feel the need to mention is the semolina cake with mustard seeds on the side. It was a slightly sweetish patty with the texture of couscous cooked in soy milk and tasted freshly made like a warm and light moist cake of sorts. Now that was very good. I detect the trend of the sides being much more pleasing to the palate for me than the main focus of the dishes.

The naans are light and quite fluffy but otherwise quite ordinary. Those sesame and saffron flavored ones appeared quite lacking in the taste of saffron, but the sesame seeds did carry through. I would say that they are enjoyable as naans go, but unexceptional otherwise.



The choco chikki torte was essentially a sweet and thick chocolate mousse with a praline like base. As with most Indian desserts, this was a tad too sweet and despite the portions, was quite the sugar overload for me. At this point of time, I was actually looking at something along the sides to intrigue me and I found the plain vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of fine cracked pepper to be quite interestingly good. The fragrance of the pepper is something that one would normally not associate with ice creams, but it turned out to be quite a pleasing pairing which gave the dessert a nice aroma.

This degustation by the Song of India didn't turn out to be as impressive as I had expected. As I had mentioned, the supporting sides did outshine the main for me. Still, it wasn't unenjoyable as a whole and the a la carte menu does contain a few interesting dishes which I've noticed which would probably be unavailable in places like Little India. I could be back just for those.

This is one of the rare occasions that I get up early in the weekends to actually go out for breakfast. I've been telling myself on countless occassions that I should be doing this more often since getting up and out early means that I actually have more time of the day to be doing something. And every time that I do so, the day does feels longer. However, the reason that it doesn't happen often is because while most of the time the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

Simply Bread (60 robertson quay, #01-15 the quayside, tel : 6732 2966) makes a very nice location for breakfast. There are several reasons for me saying this. Firstly, you get al fresco with the shade. It's tends not overly crowded despite the fact that there are quite a bit of people that head down in the morning for their first meal of the day. The open seating areas do not feel cluttered and there are newspapers and magazines which one can borrow from the confectionery to accompany the breakfast, allowing for a leisurely meal with reading to be enjoyed with your coffee. The selection for breakfast is ample as well and prices aren't unkind to the wallet. All of it along a laid back glorified canal riverside.

There were a few things that I've had among the varied selection that I thought were pretty good. The roast beef sandwich ($6), amongst a selection of quite a few different sandwiches that are available would be something that I think is quite a delectable choice. It's getting a simple sandwich correct in it's simplicity which this place does and many places fail miserably at. That means filling up a roast beef sandwich with beef instead of padding them with other unwanted things. Here, they do not sting and as you can see, there's only tomatoes and mustard that's in the sandwich. There is also a choice from a variety of bread to be used for your sandwich.


The ham steak with eggs breakfast plate arrived quite the regular looking platter with two eggs and a couple of slices of toasts. These thicker slices of honey baked ham are actually quite tasty. I don't remember the last time I tasted the honey in honey baked ham. There is a choice for how you want the eggs to be done. There is also a sticky bun ($1.20) which is essentially a cinnamon caramel coated bun which tasted a lot better than it looked or sounded. The only gripe I had was the coffee which despite having the benefit of an additional shot of espresso, didn't quite pack the oomph that I was hoping to kickstart my morning heart.

I've happened by this kare udon specialist restaurant Wakashachiya (#03-92 The Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, S059817, tel : 6534 9984) which hails from Nagoya, the capital of the Aichi Prefecture in Japan on a couple of occasions previously down at Central and haven't really taken much of an interest apart from a cursory glance at the menu outside the restaurant since I'm not an udon person. After having read some reviews and hearing some feedback, I decided to give it a go. It seems that this place has 63 outlets altogether in Japan currently and they're on the way to opening the 64th down in Yokohama. The presence of the restaurant extends to Osaka and Tokyo. What does these information which can be gleaned from looking around in the place all mean for me and you? Probably nothing but marketing fluff.


It turned out that this udon experience was much better than I've had previously. Which isn't really all that much to speak of actually, since I often found them far too chewy for my liking. This one had a consistency that I liked. The springy smooth udon which you should slurp carefully came with enough bite and without the associated chewiness, lying in the piping hot curry which was a noticeable notch up in terms of spiciness in comparison with many other Japanese curries. The top up option for cheese ($3) came with a rather generous heap of shredded mozzarella which melted nicely above the hot curry creating a sticky but tasty goo which tends to coat the udon as you pick up them with the chopsticks. Apart from a couple of both the sliced pink fishcake things and some triangular pieces of bean curd, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the crunchy leeks which were hidden in the bowl of curry.

Apart from the cheese, there was a slew of other add ons like nasu, katsu, ebi fry and tempuras and others which I cannot recall offhand. I was silently making very unfair comparisons of the dense piece of breaded fried pork (Tonkichi!) and prawn tempuras even though I knew that those here were of a different league altogether. It just happened and really, it shouldn't even be brought up side by side. I was indeed hoping that the portions of the katsu were bigger and more tender, but in the end it was just a $4 piece and the prawn beneath the freshly fried tempura batter was hot and crunchy as well.


I really ordered the umaki just to convince myself that this place doesn't have what I am looking for in them and that I would have a piece of mind about knowing that for sure. The eggs here are a crude interpretation of the more exquisite version from Botan which were in my books, superior in many ways, and that so for a similar cost. The tamago there was definitely by far silkier and more smoothly layered. There is also more generous portions of that unagi with bones soft like they almost weren't there. This one did taste a little bit of the char from a pan fry and it did taste decent with the accompanying spring onions and daikon. It wasn't bad on the whole, it's just a little expensive for the quality and definitely not what I'm looking for.

...as a particular lady calls them. I'm normally not big on chicken wings and I usually like my meat without bones. But these ones from cafeteria at Ikea (Level 2F, 317 Alexandra Road S159965, tel : 63781604) which goes at $7.50 for 6 (the first number of the beast!) are pretty good and are one of the exceptions with regards to how I generally view them. What I like about them is the lack of batter and the nice browning of the crispy skin. They're also not too tiny that there is barely any meat on the bones. Of course they are juicy and laden with grease and padded with some fat beneath the skin. Which self respecting delectable doesn't kill you in small delicious steps. Fried devil's horns does.

I found out about this place (Blk 127, Bukit Merah Lane 1 # 01-230, Alexandra Village, tel: 6270 5464) from the papers which featured the store and the chef owner, Peter Bontoi whom has served a couple of "tour of duties" in some other restaurants before finally opening up Funny Lasagna down in a quiet coffeeshop away from the main pedestrian sight. There was a squid ink lasagna that this place does that seemed interesting and described by our 141st(?) media to possess "homemade sheets of inky black pasta are layered with remarkably unchewy pieces of squid"......whatever that means, and a sauce that is intense, savory and "dark as night". Well, fool me twice and shame on me. I must be in possession of terrible luck for the store to perhaps run out of those home made sheets of inky black pasta and a sauce that didn't quite come out as dark as night. In fact, dark brown wouldn't be too far off a description.


Jibes aside, there was a gaping lack of squid ink flavor in the lasagna and I'm not sure why the layers in between the pasta saw the need for more tomato sauce which made the flavor a tad much too tart for my liking. I would have gotten the regular lasagna if I had wanted tomatoes in there. Seriously, why bother with the squid ink option if it tastes like tomato in the first place? The gnocchis were on the whole decent, quite soft and comes with a very expected taste of tomato cream sauce. For $7 the portions were pretty generous, but the accompanying asparagus did look and taste a tad wilted.


To call the cake what it is, this shouldn't be called a tiramisu. A rip off, perhaps. An attempt, maybe. But that's what it is from the store and I'm willing to bet more than some fleshy anatomy of mine that I can make them better myself. And so can my mother in all seriousness. This one comes with visibly dry sponge fingers and only a top layer that tasted like mascarpone, albeit one with a lumpy texture. The middle layer of cream was definitely not mascapone and tasted like some hard and dried custard.

The food on the whole from what I've tried does deserve some notice for the offered affordability, but for the price point, I'd have to say that you do get what you pay for. So while I could come back here again for something else, I'm probably not going to be doing that in a hurry.

I must say that Tenshin (The Regent Singapore Hotel #03-01, 1 Cuscaden Road, S249715, tel : 67354588) serves tempura with the thinnest and lightest tasting batter I've ever had. Being the only tempura bar and specialist around from what I've gathered, these guys ought to probably be one of the best, if not indeed number one at what they do in the art of deep frying battered food. I suspect that it would probably the latter in the context of this country, but since taste can be quite subjective, I would leave it at the fact that these guys are doubtlessly experts and do a damn good job.


Lunch was a $30 tempura set which consists of an appetizer, salad, pickles, miso soup, the tempura of a couple of prawns, a couple of pumpkin slices, asparagus, some mushroom and fish with rice. The wrap up was a lime (I think) sorbet dessert. I was urged before by a friend to try the tempura uni which was something I obviously wouldn't pass on despite the rather hefty tag of $25 for a single portion. A seat at the counter at this place is almost akin to the counter seat at the sushi bar of any other Japanese restaurant. You get up close to watch the chefs prepare what is about to be served to you. In the case at Tenshin it also means the preparation of the batter for each batch that is about to be served. Yes, these guys mix the batter upon order and each type of tempura is served individually as it would be for sushis in sushi bars. Each piece is then individually dusted in the flour before taking a batter dip and then into the oil.

Of the condiments placed to accompany the dishes, there was also a generous bowl of grated daikon and a selection of salts of various flavors. They were green tea, regular sea salt, chilli salt and a curry flavor. I did sample them based on the recommendation of the chef and found that they were quite flavorful of their own. The curry salt in particular went pretty well with the plain rice. Despite that, one can simply just eat the tempura without them as they tasted good on their own.


The funny thing about this place is that you made more noise eating vegetables rather than the tempura. All the vegetables served at the start are either so crisp or crunchy, they made loud crunchy noises in the quiet restaurant. The paper thin crispy lotus root slices definitely helped to all that. Speaking of which, the salad came pretty tasty dressing of sesame flavor, with a slight hint of mustard and course grain pepper.


Apart from being airily thin, crispy and not heavy with the oil retention in the fried batter, the amazing thing about the tempura at Tenshin is that the vegetables don't taste fried at all. The juices and crunch stay with the vegetable and if not for the batter, they could pass of as something that was steamed. The flavor here was all sealed in and it's been a while since I've noted how crunchy an asparagus could be or that the pumpkin was actually that sweet and fragrant. I couldn't identify the mushroom which was used, but it had a nuttish taste which was quite pleasant. The fish and prawn are quite good as well.


I'm putting the uni tempura under special mention because I enjoyed it a lot and I would have ordered one or two or even three more if it wasn't so costly a piece. What you get is a generous portion of the sea urchin that was wrapped in a seaweed package like a pillow bundle. The whole is then dipped into their batter and then sent into the wok of oil for deep fry for a few seconds. The result was a tight retangular sac of seaweed containing the warm and moist uni on the insides which spill out as you bite into them. Now I don't know if it was because of the heat from the deep fry, but the uni tasted especially fragrant here. The bouquet of the sea urchin was definitely much more accentuated than the chilled ones and it was just very enjoyable.

Because of the light batter, lunch turned out on hindsight to be quite a light affair. There was no weight of grease in the vegetables and seafood and a little over and hour after that, I felt like I wanted to eat something again. And I'm also thinking that I would definitely like to be back to try something else from that small lunch menu too.