Moo Moo Burger from Vittles

For $10.90, this burger was pretty decent. Was surprised by size and it's not often that this happens. Vittles at Sembawang Cottage across the road from Khatib Camp is a relatively new diner for western food. Prices look affordable and there's not GST and service charge. The place works like Cafe Cartel where one writes their orders on a chit and brings the chit to the counter for payment. Then you wait for your orders and help yourself with free popcorn.

Back to the burger, I think is worth checking. Big hand chopped patty meat (250g) with onions, sautéed mushrooms, real bacon, cheese and lettuce between an oat bun. Said bun probably uses the oatss for decorations than anything else. Patty was beefy and better than the quality from Botak Jones. Not a big fan of the barbeque sauce though. With an egg, it'll give the Epicurious burger a run for their money. This burger's pretty. Try not to dislodge your jaws if you're eating with your hands.

Watershed Wine Dinner @ Senso

Watershed as I've learnt is one of the vineyards that resides in the region of Margaret River down in Australia. This wine dinner - a collaboration of WineBOS and Senso. As one may have surmised from the name, the dinner was accompanied by various wine from Watershed. I'm not knowledgeable about wines but I do drink it and preferences at this point of time is purely dictated by the tongue. I know what I like or not base on taste. I know very little else despite having attended wine appreciation. The differences between the new and the old world hasn't settled in me and I haven't gotten the grasp of the varietal of grapes that are used. So I'm not engaging in the subtleties of the drink. But for those that might be interested, I do have the listed course and accompaniment of this 5 course dinner.

Poached crabmeat salad with avocado, orange and green apple with Sambuca dressing served with
Watershed Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon, 2006

Rigatoni pasta with braised rabbit in tomato sauce with Taggiasche black olives and fresh thyme served with
Watershed unoaked Chardonnay, 2005

Traditional Carnaroli risotto with braised duck and Italian porcini mushrooms served with Watershed Shades, 2004

Braised veal shank "Ossobuco" served with mashed potatoes, rosemary and lemon Gremolata served with
Watershed Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot, 2004

Chef's selection of cheese served with
Watershed Shiraz, 2003

The food was more or less as I had expected. Not so much on satisfaction. It was uninteresting without any highlights that the cheese was actually a highlight of the 5 courses. Those cheeses were quite good and to think that it required the least preparation.

There were a few items that I thought could have been improved. The rabbit in the rigatoni tasted much like fish and the braised shredded duck meat of the risotto tasted boringly flat. And had too little meat, rendering it almost unidentifiable as duck. This poached crabmeat salad seemed quite overdone and brought up more than a faint reminder of a unremarkable trout and crab roll from Bontá. Tthe osso buco was fine. I guess. It only had a small part of the meat from the shank. If I had to call it, the justification to the price tag of the dinner were the generous pours of wine.

A Superfamous wagyu burger

There's a place down at Chulia Street just beside the OCBC building near Raffles Place. It's a cafe in a tiny park called Superfamous. The cuisine reads like fusion/Australian but then I'm not sure of the actual differences between the two. Perhaps it can just be described as largely European with some Asian influences. Anyway, I dropped by for lunch prior to an appointment and decided to try out their Wagyu burger. I'm just wondering since Wagyu is merely a term for a breed of cattle, does it mean that there are those that do not go through the fattening treatment process or is something like Grade 1 really affordable? This one was priced at about $24 dollars and after seeing how places like One Ninety or the defunct überburger charges for a Wagyu between bread, this does smell like a different beast. Pun intended.


I've definitely had better. Better and less costly with the Garageburger from Wine Garage coming on top of that list of cheaper and better. There's also the Wild Rocket Burger. Sure, those aren't wagyu but they were certainly much more enjoyable than this one which featured meat that was marinated to death resulting in a sweetish herby flavour. That to me wasn't enjoyable for beef. I'm missing that beefiness. So the end product had a slightly peppery/sweetish taste that reminded me of cheap black pepper sauces.


The upside of the lunch was their seared tuna salad which came with delicious seared tuna slices and a generous helping of salad with olives and quail eggs. The portions of the salad was bigger than I had expected. I'm not too sure what was the dressing but I thought I detected sesame sauce and some sort of vinaigrette.

Burritos, enchiladas and magaritas...

These Tex Mex stuff seem to be my recent craze lately, so you people have little choice but to bear with it since this is my blog. Hahaha! Funny how little of them I've had until recently, which pretty much started from that night at Cha Cha Cha. Now that I'm hung up with Café Iguana, I've decided that doing a late Sunday lunch at this place might be in order since it would be probably the only time I get to look at everything that I'm eating in clear daylight. Back to topic, it's a lunch that I'm doing with my brother, so we wisely stuck to a single order of a starters of an ancho dusted calamari, along with a shredded steak burrito and tuna enchiladas.

calamari

These are fried calamari, generally good for keeping the mouth busy while waiting for the rest of the food to arrive. But these were served just shortly before the rest of the mains did. The calamari here have a soft/soggy batter coating. The ancho dusting was like a dusting of the spice but I didn't quite discern the flavour. The plate came with a salty and garlicky sauce of sorts which turned out to be quite good.

burritos

I didn't realize that their burritos were so large. The word I would used to describe this would be hearty. They were filled with the choice of meat, black beans and cilantro rice. I'm thinking that this may just be the beginnings of me not rejecting cilantro/coriander since the flavour of the in the food here were fairly mild and bearable. In fact, I'm starting to find them quite pleasant. All in all, it was good and as I mentioned earlier, hearty.

tuna enchiladas

The last time I had enchiladas, the skin was softer. This time round, there was more crisp and it did look a little like prata. So more black beans and rice which I'm not complaining about. There's the salty fried black tuna wrapped in the tortilla skins and topped with melted cheese and the tomato/onion things. Pretty damn good and I must say. I enjoyed this.

Crab tang hoon @ Geylang Lorong 37

Heads up here, this was pretty good stuff. This stall, Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong, is located right at the entrance of Geylang Lor 37 in a coffeeshop. We had some pretty damn tasty tang hoon stir fried with their mix of sauces and stock which was flavourful to say the least, accentuated with the flavour of crab. The tang hoon had a springy consistency and was a bit thicker than the usual ones. It was fun slurping them and having them slither down the throat. The stall also sold some pretty good looking kuey chup at the front. So the kitchen at the back is where seafood dishes are done. That crab tang hoon was just one of it. Since we were already there, we decided to try the steamed fish head in bean sauce they recommended and also the kuey chup.

The steamed fish head wasn't too bad. The flavour came mostly from the bean sauce which was delicious. Meat tasted fresh but it was just a regular steamed fish head. Not exactly a huge fan unless they're exceptional.


The kuey chup was enjoyable. The mixed stewed dish we ordered came with braised duck, some pork (might have been trotters), braised egg, tau kua, braised pig intestines, preserved/salted mustard greens and fish cakes. I can see myself ordering this again.

New York in Mexican

I've been having a bit of fun exploring Tex Mex food lately. This was something called a New York Steak ($21.99) from Café Iguana. It's from a section which is labelled Tequila Grill which featured lime marinated meats that is finished with a spicy tequila glaze. The steak sat on top of a stick of grilled vegetables that's lying on some sweet poblano scalloped potatoes. It turned out that this steak was the medium rare that I requested. The lime marinate did come through in terms of flavour but I couldn't quite make out what the tequila glaze was. I was pretty glad that those marinades weren't too strong which still allowed the flavour of the beef to come through. There was also a decent char on the surface of the meat to ramp up the flavour. Thumbs up here. The faith that I have in this place is growing so that means that I will likely come back again.

Café Iguana, Riverside Point

I'm beginning to understand why this place (30 Merchant Road, #01-03 Riverside Point) is often crowded. Just like Brewerks down the river, the food was fairly affordable and margaritas are at half price up to 9pm and after 12am. Reservations can only be made up to 7 in the evening. It definitely took me a while to start coming by to this place, but I do see myself returning. In conversation with a new Korean acquaintance, it seemed that the standards of the Mexican Food at Cafe Iguana were quite similar to that in Texas. Albeit with less grease. It was also much cheaper over there of course with their proximity to Mexico. Like in Italian food in Italy, Mexico has cuisine that tends to vary in style depending on which part of the country it comes from. Not being the expert, I can't really pinpoint anything. I guess it's probably enough to be generic of Mexican food. Are there any good or better ones around here?

quesadillas ($2.99)

These quesadillas were pretty cheap and freshly baked. There was a crisp on the tortilla skins which were filled with cheese and mushrooms. This made a good drinking snack.

shredded beef mini chimichangas ($7.99)

The mini chimichangas here come with either shredded chicken or beef for the fillings. The initial impression of them were that they look like cut up Old Chang Kee curry puffs with guacamole and sour cream dips. They also reminded me of the kolkatta shingara which I've had at Mustard down in Little India. Thick crispy and fried skins of flour with fillings. They're not too bad and quite filling.

camarones al diablo ($14.99)

Babelfish told me that the name of this camarones al diablo translates to "shrimps to the devil". The devil in the name I presume, came from the sweet spicy sauce. The sauce which the shrimps were sautéed in was supposed to include habanero chile, capsicum, ginger, cumin and lime. Said sauce had a pretty good balance between being sweet and spicy at the same time. Didn't pack a strong heat if you're wondering. On the sides are more...quesadillas. This kinda made the dinner pretty filling with all the flour and cheeses at this point.

green chile stew ($12.99)

For $13, this was pretty good main course. I was initially quite skeptical of the coriander that I remember being mentioned in the rice, but it turns out to be alright. Found this nutty tasting stewed pork with rice and beans (which tasted better than they look) to be pretty good and the portions were actually hefty.

Back in Kazu

I'm not sure why some of the photos that I take from Kazu tend look worse than usual. Not that it's a deterrence for me from coming back to visit again and again. The menu seen minor changes since the previous visits. No, I'm not referring to the seasonal items that rotate throughout the year. Some of the regular items that are being offered now comes in differently sized portions - which was not available previously. The old prices for those said items are now tagged onto the smaller potions. Some of which, are smaller than the original ones (single size portion available only) that they previously had. That means that while you get to choose larger portions of your favourite items, prices also have gone up. Now that was a bit confusing.

short neck clams cooked in butter

These clams aren't as buttery as those from Sushi Yoshida, but are pretty tasty along with the salty broth filled with golden mushrooms. The portions I felt are a little small.

salmon milt (sperm)

This item seemed to be seasonal on the menu and taste like something I've had before in Chinese mixed fish soups. The pinkish appearance on the exposed sections indicated that it was not fully cooked. The texture of the salmon milt is akin to a harder tofu. I couldn't taste much of it when eaten with the ponzu sauce and spicy grated radish.

foie gras

fatty pork with apple

I'm not sure if there is a change in the preparation of this pork with apple but I they did come with some apple sauce the first couple of times I had them here. Those were definitely much better than these ones without.

prawn and scallop wrapped with bacon strips

shimeji mushroom in pork belly

chicken hearts

lamb chops

beef and cheese roll

squid ink rice

The squid ink rice was quite heftily priced at $20 for a small pot. A pot of it has enough to fill 2 bowls so you can do the math on how much it costed per bowl. The squid ink flavour was very apparent in the rice which also had some mushrooms, vegetables and bits of squid. It wasn't bad, just another one of those items that wasn't spectacular.

grilled whale tongue

This grilled whale tongue was from the seasonal menu. Womething I probably will not be ordering again. The taste was not bad. Just unremarkable. The meat has a fatty texture much like satay but the fatty portions was tough and chewy instead of soft. In fact, it was chewier than the beef tongue.

japanese sweet potato

These Japanese sweet potato takes time to grill, so it's good to have them ordered early. Hot and buttered, these will make you hot and bothered. Lol.

grilled beef tongue

Kazu's tiramisu

Cha Cha Cha, Holland Village

I've been hearing good things from various friends about this Mexican restaurant located just across the road from Wala Wala and next door to competitor El Patio. Cha Cha Cha (32 Lorong Mambong) did have a healthy crowd going for it even on weeknights. Thought the food was not bad. The portions were a bit small for the price they charged. One main course isn't going to do the job. Even for this combinados (if I remember correctly) item which allowed you to pick a duo of either a enchilada, taco (soft or hard) and a fajita. I found the ground beef for the soft taco to be quite measly. The rest of the fillings were just a bit of cheese and vegetables. Still the food went down pretty fast and it was satisfying to say the least. I'm still getting the hang of the names of Mexican food here. Think I'd probably be an enchilada person. 

Z'en, UE Square

I thought that this place (UE Square #01-75) has potential,  like its sister establishment En just around the block. The biggest gripe I had was the air conditioning. Lol. It needs to be turned up. That aside, this modern Japanese bar and restaurant was better than I had imagined. That came from their surprisingly firm and fresh swordfish and yellowtail sashimi which turned out better than I thought. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of those. The service staff were observant and courteous.

pumpkin cooked in butter ($8)

This was just described as pumpkin that is cooked in butter on the menu. They tasted like they were steamed before frying lightly. There was a hint of butter on the surface of the pumpkin, but I thought it would have been much better if there were a lot more butter. Reminded me of the sweet potato with butter from Kazu. Almost.

grilled asparagus in bleu cheese dressing ($12)

The grilled asparagus were just regular grilled asparagus. The bleu cheese dressing was what made me decide to try this. Came with of bread which one can use mop up the excess blue cheese sauce. The sauce didn't taste as strong as the actual cheese, so I think it might be palatable for people who don't do blue cheese. YMMV though.

maguro carpaccio ($16)

The presentation looked quite fancy for tuna carpaccio. Like En's maguro tataki salad, the carpaccios here were sliced thicker than I expected. Probably the way Japanese interpret theirs. It's the same way at Ma Maison with their scallop version. This carpaccio was served a little over cooked. On top of that (pun intended), the baked garlic chips contended with the puny slices of fish in the ponzu resulting in a flavour and texture that wasn't quite carpaccio like. I wouldn't say that this tasted bad, it's probably overdone in some areas.

grilled squid ($11)

Decent grilled squid here, however was lacking in the char which I enjoy. The only charred parts were the tentacles which made them the tastiest parts.

unagi chahan ($15)

This unagi fried rice was served in ia bamboo "trough" container. There was little salt in the rice. Did not look like it had much ingredients beside the unagi that were already prepared in teriyaki sauce. Despite how it looked, the portions weren't huge and can be easily finished by a single person.

sirloin steak seared rare in ponzu sauce ($30)

The need for something meaty prompted me to order this and at $30, it wasn't cheap. I wasn't expecting much gor the sliced steaks, but it turned out pretty damned good. There was proper searing done on the surface leaving the inside succulent medium rare. The ponzu sauce didn't overpower the flavour of the beef which was filled with yummy fats. This was quite a pleasant surprise. Would order again if I came back.

On the whole, this was a pretty good experience at Z'en. A re-visit in the future would not be out of the question.