Monday, April 30, 2018

Round 2 at The Public Izakaya

The Public Izakaya, 100AM

We thought the last visit showed some promise so we came back to try more of their food. To be honest, these guys look like the part of an izakaya and didn't quite feel like one. The word 'contrived' comes to mind. But I would not begrudge the food on that.

The Public Izakaya, moyashi itame

First to arrive was their moyashi itame. Boiled bean sprouts with a pretty tasty, nutty minced meat sauce. 

The Public Izakaya, baigai

Followed up by some delicious shoyu flavoured baigai. I found these snails pretty addictive and even saved the broth for later.

The Public Izakaya, maguro yukke

The only disappointing item we had was their maguro yukke. There was some Korean-ish tasting sweet and spicy sauce that kinda ruined it. The only marinade we expected was shoyu and maybe sesame oil.

The Public Izakaya, crab

There was kani miso, baked I believe in the oven, served in the shell with crackers. One can imagine these to be excellent drinking food.

The Public Izakaya, kushiyaki

The Public Izakaya, kushiyaki

More of those bacon hotate and hatsu which we liked from the previous visit.

The Public Izakaya, tori karaage

We saw these big assed tori karaage the last time on the neighbouring tables and decided to try them. These were actually pretty well fried. Their crusty skin had sealed in all the juices and heat in the meat. This was what I had saved my baigai broth for, but they're easily as good with mayo or on their own.

The Public Izakaya, raclette potatoes

And some cheesy raclette potatoes to end.

The Public Izakaya, suntory black

Accept no substitutes. Just kidding....but this was definitely a good drink to throw back in our warm evenings.

The Public Izakaya, 100AM

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Chicken dumplings and stuffed guinea fowl at Le Bistrot du Sommelier

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, garbure

The chicken dumplings are back in the garbure at Le Bistrot du Sommelier! We've been waiting for those dumplings to be rotated back in since they've been replaced with garlic pork sausages. Not that the sausages were bad but we liked this better.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, garbure

These dumplings were precious. Only a pair in a pot and they're really good in a tender chicken-y manner.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, guinea fowl

I think it's the spring menu currently, hence the sugar snap peas, asparaguses and green peas. That's a half guinea fowl stuffed with mushroom paste on creamy rice. Enjoyed the bird. The meat was tender and had a gamier profile than chicken. Those creamy rice weren't very creamy though. The only thing that flavoured them was the sauce for the fowl and they tasted like they were a little undercooked.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, Armenian Street

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Ye Shang Hai Teochew Porridge (夜上海潮洲粥), Lengkok Bahru


This was a lot of food and rather inexpensive for both the quality and quantity that we had at Ye Shang Hai (55 Lengkok Bahru, #01-387). Clearly, there are corners in the vicinity of places I pass by with some frequency that I haven't discovered. In case you were wondering, the spread fed five.

Note to self - the curry was watery and beware the shreds of ginger in the minced pork.

minced pork with fermented black beans

stewed cabbage

stewed pig intestines

eggplant

some steamed fish

fried chicken

hae bi hiam (spicy minced dried  shrimp)

stewed hairy gourd

meatball

luncheon meat

braised/stewed pig skin

fried egg

tau kee (stewed dried beancurd skin)

tau kwa (stewed beancurd)

tau pok (stewed dried beancurd)

Friday, April 27, 2018

Uruguay Black Angus ribeye from Astons

Astons, Uruguay Black Angus ribeye

So Astons (#04-03 The Cathay, 2 Handy Road, tel : +65 6887 5889) has Uruguayan Black Angus ribeye on the menu. Grass fed meat and apparently a premium export from the country that accounts for more than a billion dollars of bovine meat sales per year. It was a seasonal item and I was curious enough to try it. 

Warning bells should have gone off when it arrived with that chunk of rosemary butter. The reason that extra fat and flavour was needed was because the meat didn't have much of those. It tasted bland compared to their regular ribeye and wasn't as tender. Well, now I know for sure these aren't my thing.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

A tai shioyaki teishoku and shishamo from Nakajima Suisan

Nakajima Suisan, tai shioyaki teishoku

If my memory serves, there was some 25th anniversary thing going on and Nakajima Suisan was offering grilled sea bream because of it. It was the most expensive set they had on the non-regular menu and also the largest whole grilled fish they've ever had on teishoku. It's not bad if one didn't mind the bones and tasty slimy bits.

Nakajima Suisan, shishamo

I've been curious about some of the additional grilled items they have started offering in recent times. One of those were the shishamo and while it might not have been visually apparent, they were filled with roe unlike many cheaper places that served barren fishes out of season. Smoky and even juicy these things were. 

Nakajima Suisan, tai shioyaki

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Omakase Burger @ Picnic

Omakase Burger, double cheese

We hadn't had Omakase Burger (#03-15 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road) in a while and I thought it would be a good idea to re-visit our local artisanal-bunned-smash-grilled-secret-blended-burger with American cheese for comparison since the memory from the joints in the US of A were still fresh. Somewhat. 

It's still as tasty as I remember. The short of it was that Omakase Burger would be a legit competitor as far as the burger went in terms of flavour. The buns were still not holding up very well with the juices though. By the way, did their burgers become bigger?

What's not to be overlooked was that they were noticeably more expensive. This double cheese burger was already $22.85 before tax.

Omakase Burger, cheese fries

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

A taste of home

Beo Crescent curry rice

I was looking forward to Hainanese curry rice so one of the first things I got myself after returning was a packet from the stall at Beo Crescent. Such a specific craving it was amongst so many things I could have missed. Braised cabbage, fried egg, pork chops and curried squid ladled over with their curry concoction and dark soy sauce. Yummy!

Monday, April 23, 2018

The Stinking Rose, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose

Faced with the prospect of seeking alternative dinner plans, The Stinking Rose (55 North La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, tel : +310 652 7673), a garlic themed restaurant came up as a suggestion. As it turned out, all of us liked garlic. What coincidence! 

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, bread

While waiting, we filled up on bread and beer with their garlic rose relish - the latter a pretty darned good concoction of chopped garlic and parsley with salt and vinegar in olive oil.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, garlic rose relish

Since we were prepared to be garlick-ed up for the night, we got ourselves a portion of their bagna cauda - roasted garlic in extra virgin olive oil and anchovies. Those garlic were sweet and just slightly pungent. Made an excellent spread since they were also pretty soft after all that roasting.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, bread relish

Made also good eating with even more bread along with the garlic rose relish.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, asparagus blue cheese

Almost everything on menu was supposed to be flavoured with garlic. I couldn't taste any of it from their chilled asparagus with blue cheese bits. But I liked them because they were tender without being fibrous and of course, those blue cheese. 

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, fried calamari

More munching came in the form of fried calamari. These were crispy and had a good squid-y chew.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, garlic prime rib

Here's a garlic prime rib which featured some of the roasted garlic cloves on top of the meat. That prime rib wasn't too bad. Probably not as tender as Lawry's across the road but I couldn't complain.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, garlic ice cream

We couldn't leave the restaurant without giving their garlic ice cream a go even though we were stuffed. The topping if you were wondering wasn't some roasted/burnt garlic sauce of some sort. It's salted caramel. The garlic came from the ice cream and the flavour came through without being excessive or weird. It's actually kinda nice.

Los Angeles, The Stinking Rose, Count Vladimir

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Philippe the Original, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, counter lady

I normally keep faces out of the pictures but we had such a friendly and chirpy counter lady today at Philippe the Original (1001 North Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 9001, tel : +213 628 3781) that I thought she deserved to be featured in recognition for it. Here's her getting us some pickled eggs.

Anyways, Philippe's is an institution in these parts and has been opened since 1908. That would make them a century and a decade old. They've been said to be the inventor of the French dip sandwich and those were what we were here for.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, double dipped lamb blue cheese

I got the double dipped lamb and bleu cheese - with meat that was sliced off the leg of the lamb on order and assembled right in front of us. Unpretentiously hearty and delicious it was that the sandwich went down easy peasy lemon squeezy. I liked this.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, chilli peppers

Some potato salad on the side and pickled yellow hot chilli peppers that had a bit of bite. Awesome with those French dips.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, pink eggs

These pink eggs have been pickled in beet juice, red wine and vinegar. Hence the colour. They were just sour hard boiled eggs if you were still wondering what they tasted like.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, chocolate cream pie

We had an order of their chocolate cream pie which was chocolate cream piled with even more cream. It's kinda nice though.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original, baked apple

The counter lady told us that their baked apples used to be bigger. Not that we could tell since we've never been here. This was like an apple pie without the pie. Apple, sugar and cinnamon. It's not bad.

Los Angeles, Philippe the Original